【推荐1】A major limitation in behavioral research is that scientists can either study animals under highly-controlled, yet often unrealistically simplified and small, environments in the lab, or in largely uncontrolled conditions in the wild. This has limited our ability to study many aspects of behavior, including collective behavior—the movements and interactions among animals that underlie their complex social lives. What is needed to address this?

To do so in a multidimensional way, researchers have developed a tool called SMART-BARN. “It’s a new tool that allows studying complex behavior characteristics of an individual or interactions between groups of animals like insects, birds, or mammals (哺乳动物),” says Hemal Naik. Together with Máté Nagy, co-speaker of the Cluster, Iain Couzin, and colleagues developed SMART-BARN. Biologists, physicists, engineers and computer scientists developed it together.

“SMART-BARN is designed to enhance the scale of typical indoor behavioral experiments in terms of experimental volume and measured behavior characteristics and group sizes,” computer scientist Hemal Naik says. The facility can—depending on the size of the animals—host hundreds of animals simultaneously and extend the possibility of experiments to novel species typically not studied in indoor environments. “In fact, we have now scaled this to work with many thousands of animals,” adds Couzin. “We recently conducted a study in the Imaging Hangar where we tracked 10,000 plague locusts. This would have been impossible without our SMART-BARN technology. ”

So far, SMART-BARN has been used within different experimental use cases involving subjects as diverse as pigeons, moths, bats, and humans. Naik says, “SMART-BARN offers the ability to track 3D stare and posture of birds in a group of ten or more while maintaining their identity. This technique is being used by researchers to explore the role of stare in decision making.”

The team imagines the facility to be a cooperative space where researchers from all over the globe can contribute to the exploration of behavioral questions. Therefore, the team invites researchers across the world to connect with them and plan experiments.

【推荐3】Wildlife conservation is the practice of protecting animal species and their habitats. It is achieved partially through legislation. For example, the Endangered Species Act, the establishment and protection of public lands, and responsible public practices that conserve wild animal populations.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA)of 1973 is our nation’s strongest law protecting wild plants and animals. It is enforced by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Under the act, a species can be designated as “threatened” or “endangered”. Threatened and endangered species are protected under the provisions of the ESA, which restricts human activities that may harm these species and their habitats. Due in part to protections under the ESA, many species have been brought back from the edge of extinction.

In order to survive, a species requires enough food, water, shelter, space, and opportunities to reproduce. In the United States, as elsewhere in the world—habitat destruction is a primary threat to the continued survival of species. Without the existence of suitable habitat, a species will eventually face extinction. Public lands include parks managed by The National Park Service and national wildlife refuges operated by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These lands are set aside to be protected for animal and plant species, as well as future generations.

The introduction of invasive species from far away continents introduced by humans can bring havoc to native plant and animal species. The proliferation(激增)of chemicals in the environment including pesticides, PCBs, and oil spills, has the potential to poison wild animals and reduce their reproductive capacities. Wild animal populations can also be threatened by overhunting, wildlife trafficking(非法交易)，and military weapons testing.

【推荐1】You’re often served by young people at restaurants. But Forget Me Not Cafe in Shanghai is different.

The cafe has eight elderly employees with cognitive impairments (认知障碍) who take turns working with other waiters to help customers. They often provide basic services for guests, such as pouring water, serving and taking orders.

“The guests are also very tolerant of us, because sometimes we make mistakes,” said Zhu Caiping, one of the elderly employees at the cafe. Sometimes, they are also invited to take part in welfare activities organized by volunteers, such as baking, dancing and learning English.

“These activities are essential for me. They reactivate my brain,” the 73-year-old said. “What old people like us worry about most is that our brain stagnates (停滞) due to being inactive.”

Because of memory loss, Zhu writes down all the information she wants to remember on sticky notes, such as the names of the volunteers and the teacher as well as English words. “But I really became happy and confident because of being here,” she said.

In addition to the job opportunities for the elderly, information about cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease is posted on a board outside the restaurant to help people recognize symptoms and seek treatment as soon as possible.

Zeng Rong, a co-founder of the restaurant, said the cafe has had a great impact on elderly people with cognitive impairment.

A 58-year-old woman from Jiangsu province, whose husband brings her to the restaurant, is an example. “When she came here for the first time, she barely said a word and was indifferent. I told her that she must communicate and gave her homework every time with rewards,” Zhu said. The woman has since come to the restaurant every Friday, and after several months, her condition has improved.

“She started to comment that the food was ‘delicious’ and speak with others. Moreover, she began to hug me every time,” Zhu said.

Inspired by their kindness, many young people like to come and enjoy the warm atmosphere of the shop.

【推荐2】“The Friendship Files” is my series of interviews about friendships. When this project began, I wrote, “People are at their most generous, their funniest, and their most fascinating when talking with and about their friends.” The interviews only strengthened that belief.     1    

Build-up

    2     Sometimes that increases slowly, as it did for two neighbors who have lived across the hall for 20 years. They’ve checked in on each other when they were sick, and split the bill of a magazine. Those moments finally added up to a friendship during the pandemic (流行病), when they opened doors to talk across the hallway and felt less alone.

Attention

Making friends can be hard, but there are more opportunities than we think. A new friend could be waiting in the comments section of an article you’re reading, or on the other side of a Google Doc.     3     As much as we may feel like our social networks are settled, it’s never too late to meet someone who will be important to you for the rest of your life.

Intention

Attention only gets you so far without action. When opportunity arises, put yourself out there. That requires courage to let things be awkward, which is the hardest part of friendship.     4     But this does not mean making friends is labor. It takes effort, but it should be a joy.

Tradition

One thing that seems to make keeping up with friends easier is tradition, like organizing a book club, a monthly hike, or a regular Dungeons & Dragons campaign.     5     The Dungeons & Dragons group has a shorthand (速记法) dating back 30 years ago.