4 . It is a question people have been asking for ages. Is there a way to turn back the aging process?

For centuries, people have been looking for a “fountain of youth”. The idea is that if you find a magical fountain, and drink from its waters, you will not age.

Researchers in New York did not find an actual fountain of youth, but they may have found a way to turn back the aging process. It appears the answer may be hidden right between your eyes, in an area called the hypothalamus (下丘脑). The hypothalamus is part of your brain. It controls important activities within the body.

Researchers at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that hypothalamus neural (神经的) stem cells also influence how fast aging takes place in the body.

What are stem cells(干细胞)? They are simple cells that can develop into specialized cells, like blood or skin cells. Stem cells can also repair damaged tissues and organs.

Dongsheng Cai is a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He was the lead researcher in a study on aging in mice. He and his team reported their findings in the journal Nature, Cai explained when hypothalamus function is in decline, particularly the loss of hypothalamus stem cells, and this protection against the aging development is lost. it eventually leads to aging.

Using this information, the researchers began trying to activate, or energize, the hypothalamus laboratory mice. They did this by injecting the animals with stem cells, Later, the researchers examined tissues and tested for changes in behavior. They looked for changes in the strength and coordination (协调) of the animals muscles. They also studied the social behavior and cognitive ability of the mice. The researchers say the results show that the treatment slowed aging in the animals, Cai says injecting middle-aged mice with stem cells from younger mice helped the older animals live longer.

But these results were just from studying mice in a laboratory. If the mice can live longer, does that mean people could have longer lives? The next step is to see if the anti-aging effects also work in.

5 . It's easy to understand why early humans domesticated (驯养)dogs as their new best friends, domesticated dogs can guard against fierce animals and provide warmth during cold nights. But those benefits only come following domestication. Despite more than a century of study, scientists have struggled to understand what caused the domestication process in the first place.

A new theory given by Maria Lahtinen, a senior researcher, might be able to explain this puzzle. She made this theory when studying die diet of late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in Arctic and sub — Arctic. At that time, around 20,000 to 15,000 years ago, the world was buried in the coldest period of the last ice age. In cold environments then, as today, humans tended to gain the majority of their food from animals. Nutritional deficiencies (缺失) came from the absence of fat and carbohydrates (碳水化合物), not necessarily protein. Indeed, if humans cat too much meat, they can develop protein poisoning and even die. "Because we humans are not fully adapted to an all-meat diet, we simply cannot digest protein very well," Lahtinen says.

During the coldest years of the last ice age — and especially in lough Arctic and sub-Arctic winters — reindeer, wild horses and other animals that humans killed for food would have been struggling to live. Using previously published early fossil records, Lahtinen and her colleagues calculated that the game captured by people in the Arctic and sub-Arctic during this time would have provided much more protein than they could have safely consumed.

6 . When British musician Paul Barton performs in central Thailand lately, the listeners react wildly. Some pull his hair or jump on his piano. Others steal his music. The behavior is normal, however, because these crowds are truly wild—wild monkeys to be exact.

Barton plays often to the animals in Lopburi, an area known for its populations of wild monkeys. The pianist hopes the music shows bring calm to the animals during the corona virus(COVID-19) crisis.

The disease has caused problems for the monkeys, too. They are hungry. The restrictions on tourism mean fewer people come to see the monkeys and feed them.

The monkeys quickly surround Barton when he plays Greensleeves, Beethoven's Fur Elise and Michael Nyman's Diary of Love. Some of the creatures sit on his chair, while others climb up his body and touch his head. But, Barton keeps his attention on his performance, even as a small monkey runs over his hands on the instrument. Other monkeys take control of his music papers. “I was glad and surprised to find that they were actually eating the music as I was playing it.”

The monkeys are Barton's latest animal fans. Past wildlife audience included elephants living in special protected areas. Barton hopes to raise people's awareness of the monkeys' hunger. At the same time, he hopes to study their behavior as they react to classical music.

“Come together and don't let the pandemic stop the wild monkeys getting good nutritious food. We need to make an effort to make sure that they eat properly. And when they eat properly they will be calmer,” said 59 -year-old Barton.

7 . Field Trips Your Students Actually Want to Go On

Some of the best memories from grade school are made at field trips. Field trips offer students something they can’t get from lectures or textbook pages — hands -on fun! Here are some metro Detroit attractions to visit with your students. They're great places to make memories and, of course, learn something too!

Availability: Wednesday, Thursday or Friday at 10:30 a. m. , 11 :30 a. m. or 12:30 p. m.

Admission : Free

Enjoy both indoor and outdoor animal exhibits. Programs include a deer feeding, a hands - on activity and discovery time.

Availability: Wednesday-Friday （ hours vary, also Tuesdays from Oct. 8, 2021, to Jan. 7,2022）

Admission : Varies by experience you select

Interact with more than 250 hands -on exhibits that explore space, health, physical science, engineering and more.

Availability: Monday - Friday, May 1 to Oct. 31,at 9 :30 a. m. , 10:30 a. m. , 11 :30 a. m. or 12:30 p. m.

Admission : $ 9/person

Sec 16 miles of the U. S. and Canada Detroit River shoreline, ocean-going and Great Lakes ships, a light house, die fire boat, parks, ship terminals, a mail boat and much more.

Availability: Monday, Wednesday or Friday

Admission : Varies by age and number in group

Let your students' imaginations run wild. They'll think, create and learn while re-imagining recycled industrial materials. You can create a customized topic.

8 . Dogs and horses may not be the closest teammates, but the two animals can have their fair share of fun — at times even playing together and mimicking(模仿)each other's facial expressions, new research suggests. These findings, published in the journal Behavioural Processes, mark the first example of so-called rapid facial mimicry occurring between play partners of different species, and suggest the existence of a universal language of play.

Though the purpose behind play remains unclear, scientists suspect the behavior is to help animals develop hunting and social skills, relieve stress or promote relationships with each other. Learning more about the contexts in which different animals play together could tell researchers a lot about play's origins and development. But apart from a handful of studies featuring humans and their pets, scientists haven't had many chances to analyze examples of interspecies' plays.

In 2018, when someone sent Palagi, an animal behaviorist, a video where a dog and horse play together, interacting with each other fluently, she took the chance to investigate further. The two species were good choices for study, because they both could recognize facial expressions in other animals. Gathering a team, Palagi began to collect and analyze hundreds of other videos where canines(犬类)and equids (马科动物) played together.

At last, 20 videos were picked out: showing animals freely playing on their own, for at least 30 seconds, without human involvement. In the videos, dogs and horses often mimicked each other's moves, jumping, pushing and even biting slightly and naughtily at each other. They also put themselves in weak and easily attacked positions, such as rolling on their backs, displaying their throats and stomachs — a strong sign that they were at ease and even showing their friendliness.

The two creatures also frequently mimicked each other's facial expressions, both adopting the relaxed, open mouths — a behavior that's been noted in wild, social primates(灵长类动物)，but never between a pair of animals of different species.