【推荐1】Scientists have long sought to prevent sharp memories from dulling with age, but the problem is hard to solve. New research suggests Virtual Reality (VR) might help older people recall facts and events based on specific details.

The study involved 42 healthy older adults from the San Francisco Bay Area. Half spent a dozen hours over four weeks playing a virtual-reality game called Labyrinth. They wore headsets and walked in place, wandering virtual neighborhoods while completing missions. The other half, in the control group, used computers to play games that did not require navigationg (导航) or recalling details. After 15 sessions, the latter performed much the same as before on a long-term memory test based on picking out objects they had seen about an hour earlier. But the Labyrinth players’ scores rose, and they were less frequently tricked by objects that were similar to ones they had viewed.

“The improvement brought them back up to the level of another group of younger adults who did the same memory tests,” said cognitive neuroscientist Peter Wais of the University of California, San Francisco. He and his colleagues designed the VR game, which they say likely stimulates (刺激) the hippocampus—— a brain area that is important for long-term memory. The team did not observe improvement on two other tests, which measured autobiographical memory (自传体记忆) and spatial memory capability.

“It would be great to actually follow people over time and see what this type of game does for long-term memory,” said Meredith Thompson, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology education researcher. Daniel Simons, a cognitive psychologist, said that testing three measures, instead of just one, would increase the possibility of finding an improvement. And it remains unclear how test performance in a laboratory setting might translate to real-world situations. Simons notes, “The outcome needs to be repeated, ideally with a much larger group, before it is treated as a strong finding.”

Wais’s team is now investigating how long the observed effects last and which elements of the training have the most impact.

【推荐1】Texting while walking is something that most of us are guilty of. We can’t help replying to that message we just received. However, while it’s fun to keep up with the latest gossip, we may actually be putting ourselves in danger.

A team of researchers from two UK universities recently found that people who use their phones while on the move walk differently than usual.

“Recently, a person in front of me was walking very slowly and weaving (迂回行进), and I thought, ‘Is this person drunk?’” Matthew Timmis, co-author of the study, told the Guardian.

It turned out that the person was just texting. Inspired by this, Timmis and his team set out to discover the effects of phone use on how we navigate streets.

A group of 21 volunteers were asked to walk around a simulated (模拟的) street, complete with obstacles such as a step. The participants traveled the course a total of 12 times each, either writing or reading a message, making a call, or with no phone at all.

It took the volunteers 118 percent longer to complete the course when using a phone. They also focused on the step obstacle 60 percent more and paid attention to the travel path 51 percent more when they weren’t using a phone.

Although there were no accidents, Timmis believes we should still be aware of what’s going on around us.

“The big risk here is suddenly-appearing hazards (危险), like a pedestrian (行人) suddenly walking in front of you,” he told the Guardian. “You are not going to be able to respond to that as efficiently, which increases the risk of injury.”

To bring attention to the dangers of “text walking”, a temporary “texting lane” was set up in Antwerp, Belgium in 2015. And earlier this year, a special crosswalk featuring flashing red lights on the ground to get the attention of texters was set up in Wuhan, Hubei province.

“Texting while walking can lead to collisions with poles or other pedestrians. You could even be endangering your own life when you cross the street without looking up,” a spokesperson for the company that made the Antwerp texting lane told Yahoo News.

【推荐2】Businesses are now in cost-cutting mode. Title inflation (头衔通胀) has crept into the workplace. Layoffs, hiring freezes and concerns about a recession (经济衰退) are plaguing employers.

To balance this unique economic environment, employers have figured out a way to comfort employees and job applicants without spending more money. They are offering impressive titles to soften the blow of not providing a raise to internal employees or big compensation to job candidates.

An employee’s title is their identity. It gives them credibility in the office and makes them feel more powerful. In this sense, the policy is a sensible way to help keep staff and attract top candidates.

But if you don’t really deserve the new title, it could come back and trouble you. Recruiters will be pleased to find a candidate who is a pe rfect fit for a significant, well-paying position in terms of skills, background, and previous experience. However, a stumbling block arises when they notice the candidate has a higher title than the client offers. Since a recruiter wants to make a placement and earn a fee, they won’t waste time and will seek out other candidates who are a better fit.

Even if the recruiters decide to contact the candidate, there’s a good chance the candidate won’t accept. Because most people aren’t aware that their title was inflated and believe it was a reward for their outstanding performance. Understandably, they would be offended if they received a lower-level post. Now that you are at a certain level, you don’t want to go backward.

What’s more, if your current title is too high, it raises red flags. For example, when searching for a new job, if your title is “director,” but the new role is under that level, the interviewer will curiously inquire, “why do you want to go down in title?” There will be an assumption from the hiring manager that something isn’t right. They may feel that the job seeker is leaving before being fired and willing to downgrade. Rather than trying to figure out the motivations of the candidate, they’ll move on to others who have a cleaner story without any baggage.

【推荐3】Like many people, in terms of socializing, I prioritize (优先考虑) making time for my closest friends and family. When it comes to reaching out to people, I don’t know as well I often find myself unwilling to engage. This could be a big mistake, though, according to a new study. Having different types of social interactions seems to be central to our happiness —something many of us may think little of.

In a series of surveys, researchers looked at how having a socially diverse network related to people’s well-being. In one survey, 578 Americans reported on what activities they had been engaged in, with whom and for how long over the past 24 hours, while also saying how happy with life they were. The researchers found that people with more diverse social networks were happier and more satisfied with life than those with less diverse networks — regardless of how much time they had spent socializing overall.

“The more you can broaden your social circle and reach out to people you talk to less frequently —like an acquaintance, a friend, a coworker, or even a stranger —the more it could have positive benefits for your well-being,” said the lead researcher Hanne Collins of Harvard Business School.

To further test this idea, she and her colleagues looked at large data sets from the American Time Use Survey and the World Health Organization’s Study on Global Aging and Adult Health. In both cases, they found that when people had a broader range of social interactions, they experienced greater happiness and well-being.

Then Collins and her colleagues did another analysis, using data from a mobile app that 21,644 French-speaking people used to report on their daily social activities and happiness. There, they found that when someone experienced greater-than-average social diversity one week, they were happier that week and the week after.

Why is that? It could be that being with different people contributes to different kinds of emotions, which may be a driving force in our happiness, says Collins. Alternatively, it could be that having a more diverse network allows you to get various social supports when you need it. Whatever the case, Collins hopes her research will inspire people to expand their social networks when they can.

【推荐1】Plastic is piling up in ecosystems all over the world. Although its harmful impacts on both species and ecosystems have been documented, a few animals—like bowerbirds and hermit crabs—are doing what they can to recycle it. And according to a recent study, wild bees in Canada have joined the effort, which is a rare observation of behavioral flexibility in species especially insects, in increasingly plastic-rich environments.

The researchers found two species of leafcutter bees putting plastic into their nests. One of the bees they studied, the alfalfa leafcutter bee, normally bites off pieces of leaves and flowers while the second bee gathers sticky substances from trees. Leafcutter bees don't build big nests or store honey like honeybees, choosing instead small nests in underground holes, tree holes or cracks （裂缝）in buildings. But the researchers found that three of eight brood cells（育雏巢室）contained pieces of plastic bags, replacing 23 percent of the cut leaves in each cell on average.

While they don't make honey, alfalfa leafcutter bees still make money for the U. S. and Canadian farmers by pollinating（给......传授花粉）crops including alfalfa , carrots and melons. The European insects were introduced to North America in the 1930s for that purpose, and they've since become wild, joining the continent's many native species of leafcutter bees.

In a separate study conducted in Argentina between 2017 and 2018, researchers found a bee nest made entirely of plastic, which consisted of three separate cells. It's the first known example of such construction worldwide. Compared to the other nests the researchers examined, which were made of natural materials, this one had a pretty lower success rate of the bees' survival. One of the cells had a dead baby bee , another seemed to have housed an adult that had left the nest, and the third was unfinished.

【推荐2】Range anxiety, the fear of running out of power before being able to recharge an electric vehicle, may be a thing of the past, according to a team of Penn State engineers who are looking at lithium iron phosphate batteries (磷酸铁锂电池) that have a range of 250 miles with the ability to charge in 10 minutes.

“We developed a pretty clever battery for mass-market electric vehicles,” said Chao-Yang Wang, a professor and director of the Electrochemical Engine Center at Penn State. “There is no more range anxiety and this battery is affordable.” The researchers also say that the battery should be good for 2 million miles in its lifetime.

They report today in Nature Energy that the key to long-life and rapid recharging is the battery’s ability to quickly heat up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, for charge and discharge, and then cool down when the battery is not working.

The battery uses a self-heating approach previously developed in Wang’s center. The self-heating battery uses a thin nickel foil (镍箔) with one end attached to the negative terminal and the other extending outside the cell to create a third terminal. Once electrons flow, it rapidly heats up the nickel foil through resistance heating and warms the inside of the battery. Once the battery’s inner temperature is 140 degrees Fahrenheit, the switch opens and the battery is ready for rapid charge or discharge.

“This battery has reduced weight, volume and cost,” said Wang. “I am very happy that we finally found a battery that will benefit the mainstream consumer mass market.”

According to Wang, these smaller batteries can produce a large amount of power upon heating — 40 kilowatt hours and 300 kilowatts of power. An electric vehicle with this battery could go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 3 seconds and would drive like a Porsche, he said. “This is how we are going to change the environment and not contribute to just the expensive cars,” said Wang. “Let everyone afford electric vehicles.”

【推荐3】Arctic sea ice has been steadily decreasing since the beginning of satellite records in 1979, but a new study comes with a warming prediction: By the end of this century, Arctic sea ice may disappear during the summer, which could drive polar bears and other ice-dependent species extinction.

Scientists thought the “Last Ice Area”, a region containing the oldest, thickest Arctic ice, would last for decades. But now, under both the most optimistic and pessimistic scenarios (可能出现的情况) for warming linked to climate change, the sea ice will dramatically thin by 2050. The most optimistic situation, in which carbon emissions are immediately and dramatically curbed to prevent the worst warming, could result in a limited part of the ice surviving in the region. In the most pessimistic situation, in which emissions continue at their current rate of increase, the summer ice and the polar bears and seals that live on it could disappear by 2100, researchers reported in a new study.

“Unfortunately, this is a massive experiment we’re doing,” study co-author Robert Newton, a senior research scientist, said in a statement. “If the year-round ice goes away, entire ice-dependent ecosystems will collapse, and something new will begin.”

As carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases increasingly contribute to the warming of the atmosphere, the past 15 years has brought the lowest 15 sea-ice extents in the satellite record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Worse still, the NSIDC reports that the amount of older, thicker Arctic ice that has survived at least one melt season is at a record low. A more dramatic decrease in ice coverage could have a serious effect on the lives of the animals that live on, or under, the shifting ice network, including fish, seals, polar bears and so on.