1 . People whose brains are high in vitamin D are less forgetful in old age, a new study suggests.Scientists in America examined samples of brain tissue from 209 older adults who had died, finding for the first time that vitamin D is present in four key areas of the brain. Levels were higher in people who did not suffer dementia (痴呆) and showed less cognitive (认知) decline in the years before their death, said the research team from Tufts University in Massachusetts.

The body creates vitamin D from direct sunlight on the skin, and it is also found in foods including oily fish and red meat. Besides, milk and orange juice contain vitamin D, which helps to boost the body’s immune response and to maintain healthy bones.

The study looked at vitamin D in four regions of the brain — two associated with changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease, one associated with dementia caused by poor blood flow, and the other region which is not linked to memory loss. High vitamin D levels in all four regions of the brain are connected with better cognitive function including language skills, memory and attention duration.

However, the scientists said it was unclear exactly how vitamin D might affect brain function or whether it helps to prevent dementia. Dr Kyla Shea, the lead author of the study, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, said, “We now know that vitamin D is present in reasonable amounts in human brains, and it seems to be connected with lessdec line in cognitive function. But we need to do more research to identify the neurophysiology (神经病理学) about why vitamin D is linked to brain function before we start designing future interventions such as telling people to eat more foods with vitamin D.”

2 . Ever wondered why your partner is up with the lark (百灵鸟) while you are happily sleeping till noon? It could be thanks to Neanderthal genes, according to a new study.

Scientists comparing ancient DNA with the genetics of modern humans discovered a “striking trend”, said John Capra, an epidemiologist (流行病学家) at the University of California in San Francisco. The researchers found that the Neanderthal genes that remain affect the body clock —increasing tendency to be a morning person.

Neanderthals lived at higher latitudes (纬度) than our ancestors who migrated from Africa — further away from the equator, with the days longer in summer and shorter in winter. “The gene that makes people early risers likely enables more rapid alignment (协调一致) of the circadian clock (生物钟) with changing seasonal light patterns,” Dr Capra said, “when Neanderthals were able to make the most of daylight hours to hunt.”

Scientists have previously explored how the circadian rhythms of insects, plants, and fish have developed depending on latitude. But that hasn’t been well studied in humans. There searchers wanted to see whether there was a genetic reason for differences in circadian rhythms between Neanderthals and modern people, and found 16 variants (变异体) associated with greater “morningness”. They suspected that as Neanderthals and the ancestors of modern humans mated, people today could have followed Neanderthal “circadian variants”.

To test this, scientists analyse the genetics of several hundred thousand people from the UK Biobank and found many of the variants that affect sleep preference. “Most noticeably, they found that these variants increase morningness,” the researchers said. This is consistent with what has been found in other animals that have adapted to living at a high latitude, as Neanderthals did.

3 . If you’ve never had hot pot, you’re absolutely missing out. Not only is it delicious, but it’s also a fantastic meal to share with friends or family. But it also generates a lot of waste oil. In fact, hot pot is reportedly responsible for 12,000 tons of waste oil per month just in the Chinese city of Chengdu alone. Instead of just throwing away that oil, one company decided to turn it into jet fuel (航空燃料).

Bloomberg recently published a great article about Sichuan Jinshang Environmental Technology, a company that began exporting hot pot waste oil to be turned into biofuel that can power planes. It’s not exactly a perfect solution to the greenhouse gas emissions that the aviation (航空) industry is responsible for, but it’s a step in the right direction. “Our mission is to make waste oil fly to the sky,” Zhong Guojun, the company’s vice president, told Bloomberg.

Based in Chengdu, Sichuan Jinshang Environmental Technology takes waste oil from around the city and refines it into something called industrial mixed oil. The refined oil is then exported to be turned into jet fuel or biodiesel (生物柴) by companies such as BP or Neste Oyj, the biggest producer of sustainable jet fuel in the world. And with new requirements for airlines to use more biofuel in their planes, there’s a lot of demand despite the fact that it’s still more expensive than regular jet fuel.

“When there is a demand, the supply will catch up, and the demand is already here,” said Chong Cheng Tung, Associate Professor at the China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University told Bloomberg. “So either you switch your fuel to green fuel, like bio-jet fuel, or you have to meet additional payments for travelling.”

Last year, Neste announced plans to spend more than $2 billion expanding its capacity to produce sustainable jet fuel. By 2026, it hopes to be able to produce 1.2 million tons of the stuff. Other companies such as Chevron, BP. and Total Energies are producing it on a smaller scale (规模) but also plan to increase their output soon.

4 . My grandma passed away last week. My mum began the painful yet necessary task of sorting through her belongings.

“Is there anything you want from grandma’s flat?” Mum texted me.

“Her aloe (芦荟), please.” I required zero thinking time.

Sometime around 1975, Grandma, always believing good things would happen in the future, received this plant as a gift, which she appreciated and placed in her doorway. It came from the local butcher. Five years later, my mum married the butcher’s son and had me. Grandma revealed to me this particular plant was a living relationship between the two families. And so was I.

Recently, whenever we visited Grandma’s flat, I attempted to fix this concept in my children’s minds. “That was a gift your great-grandma bought your other great-grandma! It’s older than me!” Then my kids would nod and ask Grandma for a sweet.

Numerous times, Grandma gave me cuttings or clippings of the plant, hoping I might raise my own and continue the legend. Yet, every time, my new branch died with my awful gardening skills. But that didn’t used to matter, because I could turn to Grandma, who would wait and accept my disturbance without becoming upset. Then I got another clipping and tried again. But now I can’t. So, I decided that the plant will go and live with Ann, my mother-in-law, who is a genius with a greenhouse.

The plan is for Ann to keep hold of the original plant. In time, she can teach me how to deal with its cuttings properly, and then maybe one day I can settle the plant in my place.

In the meantime, Ann will allocate (分配) clippings among my relatives, as Grandma used to do. My wife’s two sisters, for example, are both better at tending plants than I am, so it is quite imaginable they, too, will offer cuttings of the plant to their partners, spreading this loving plant across my entire extended family.

5 . The growth mindset is the belief that intellectual abilities can be developed and are not fixed, which have received a great deal of attention in schools and among researchers.

According to a study, a teacher’s growth mindset acts as a “support” that can draw out a student's growth mindset at the very beginning and make it maintainable and actionable in the classroom. These teachers may convey how, in their classes, mistakes are learning opportunities, not signs of low ability, and back up this view with assignments and evaluations that reward continual improvement. This could encourage a student to continue acting on their growth mindset.

The study analyzed data from the National Study of Learning Mindset, which was an intervention experiment conducted with a sample of ninth-grade students’ math grades. The present focus on math grades is motivated by the fact that students tend to find math challenging and anxiety inducing, and therefore, a growth mindset might help students face those challenges productively.

In the study, researchers show that the positive effect of a short growth-mindset intervention on ninth-grade students’ math grades was concentrated among students whose teachers themselves had growth mindset. They also found that baseline students — serve as a benchmark (基准点) for comparing and evaluating the progress of other students — who reported more fixed mindset in classrooms showed a significantly positive effect on math grades.

Successfully teaching a growth mindset to students lifted math grades overall, but this was not enough for all students to reap the benefits of a growth-mindset intervention. Supportive classroom contexts also mattered.Students who were in classrooms with teachers who approved of more of a fixed mindset did not show gains in their math grades over ninth grade, whereas the same kind of students in classrooms with more growth-mind set teachers showed meaningful gains.

In general, they view the testing and understanding of the causal effect of teacher mindset as the next step for mindset science. Such research will be challenging to carry out, however.

7 . At a conference last week, I received an interesting piece of advice: “Assume we are wrong.” When Nosek recommended that I and other scientists assume that we were wrong, he was sharing a strategy that he’s employed in his own lab—a strategy for changing the way we respond to criticism.

Assuming that we are wrong is not so foreign to science. Many of our past scientific theories have been wrong, so surely many of our current theories will turn out to be wrong, too. That doesn’t mean we haven’t made progress, but it does suggest that there is always room for improvement.

One worry about this approach is that it could discourage scientists, because trying to be less wrong might be a less effective encouragement than the promise of being right. Another concern is that a strategy that works well with scientists might not work when it comes to communicating science with the public.

Despite these worries, I still like Nosek’s suggestion because it builds in humility (谦卑) (“There are things I do not know!”) along with a sense that we can do better (“There are things I do not know yet!”). It also builds in a sense of community—we’re all in the same boat when it comes to falling short of getting things right. Perhaps the focus on a shared goal—our goal as scientists and humans of being less wrong—can help make up for the harms in scientific motivation or communication.

I also like Nosek’s advice because it isn’t limited to science. Trying to be less wrong—rather than more right—could be a beneficial way to communicate our aims across a variety of contexts, whether it’s a daily argument or a business decision. I may be wrong about who did the dishes last night, or about what is the best investment; if I begin from the assumption that I can be wrong and I’m trying to be less wrong, any challenge may not appear so threatening.

10 . Over the past few decades, technology has profoundly transformed the way we live and work. The digital revolution has brought about________ changes to industries, economies, and societies worldwide. As we continue to navigate this rapidly changing landscape, it is crucial to understand the ________ impact of technology on various aspects of our lives.

In the realm of employment, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping job markets. Routine tasks that were once carried out by humans are now________ by machines with remarkable efficiency. While this automation has increased productivity and reduced errors, it has also ________ concerns about job displacement and the need for upskilling.

The education sector has not been immune to technological advancements either. Online learning platforms and digital resources have________ traditional classroom settings. This shift offers flexibility in learning, but it also requires learners to possess strong________ skills to navigate digital environments effectively.

Communication has been revolutionized by technology as well. Social media platforms enable instantaneous global________, connecting people across borders. However, the rapid spread of information in the digital age has________ challenges related to misinformation and privacy breaches.

Healthcare has witnessed the integration of technology through telemedicine and remote monitoring. While these innovations improve access to medical services, they also raise questions about the ________ of personal health data and the potential loss of the human touch in patient care.

In the realm of creativity, technology has opened new avenues for artistic expression. Digital art, virtual reality experiences, and interactive storytelling have________ boundaries in the creative world. However, concerns linger about the ________ of originality and the potential loss of tangible artistic experiences.

The environment benefits from technology through innovations in renewable energy and resource management. Yet, the________ footprint of electronic devices and the challenge of electronic waste management underscore the ________ implications of the digital revolution.

In conclusion, technology’s far-reaching influence touches every aspect of our lives. Its ________ can be both empowering and concerning. To navigate this complex landscape, individuals, businesses, and policymakers must work together to harness the potential of technology while addressing its________ challenges.