1 . In the special time of fighting against COVID-19, you may want to learn more about viruses. Besides reading news, watching films and TV series may help you better understand them. Here are the three chosen for you.

A deadly virus spreads rapidly and kills people within days of showing symptoms. As the fast-moving pandemic(疫情) grows, the worldwide medical community works to find a cure.

US political website The Hill says “It makes it clear that a virus is a life form to seek out new hosts because its carriers die—as it must to survive, and it must always stay one jump ahead of death.”

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A virus sweeps through a South Korean city and the government orders a complete shutdown to separate the community. Doctor Kim and a rescue worker, Kang, want to save the infected, including Kim’s daughter. They enter the closed city and successfully develop a vaccine(疫苗).

“It conveys to its audience the importance of treating people with dignity and humanity,” movie critic Kerry wrote.

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Since the Ebola virus first broke out in the 1970s in Africa, it has become known worldwide and one of the deadliest diseases in the world. Based on the virus, a drama called The Hot Zone was created. It is set in Washington, DC, in 1989, when the virus appears in an animal research lab. A US Army scientist, Nancy Jaax, risks her life to prevent an outbreak.

“The Hot Zone shows what it takes to defeat an outbreak,” noted Variety.

Click https://www.meijui.cc/video/20991.htmI and see what Nancy Jaax will do.

8 . IQ is often considered as an important driver of success particularly in fields such as science, innovation and technology. In fact many people have endless fascination with the IQ scores of famous people. But the truth is that some of the greatest achievements by our species have primarily relied on qualities such as creativity, imagination, curiosity and empathy (同感).

Many of these characteristcs are rooted in what scientists call “cognitive (认知的) flexibility”—a skill that enables us to switch between different concepts or to adapt behavior to achieve goals in a novel or changing environment. Cognitive flexibility provides us with the ability to see that what we are doing is not leading to success and to make the appropriate changes to achieve it.

Cognitive flexibility may have affected how people coped with the pandemic lockdowns (疫情封锁) which produced new challenges around work and schooling. Some of us found it easier than others to adapt our routines to do many activities from home. Such flexible people may also have changed these routines from time to time trying to find better and more varied ways of going about their day. Others, however, struggled and ultimately became more rigid in their thinking.

Flexible thinking is key to creativity. It also supports academic and work skills such as problem solving. For example, visual artists may be of average intelligence but highly creative and have produced masterpieces. Creativity is also important in science and innovation. We have discovered that successful businessmen who have created multiple companies are more cognitively flexible than managers of a similar age and IQ.

Cognitive flexibility is also associated with high recovery from negative life events as well as higher quality of life in older individuals. It can even be beneficial in emotional and social cognition: studies have shown that cognitive flexibility has a strong link to the ability to understand the emotions, thoughts and intentions of others.

Neuroimaging studies have shown that cognitive flexibility is dependent on a network of frontal brain regions. There are a number of ways to objectively assess people’s cognitive flexibility including the Wisconsin Card Sorting test and the CANTAB Set Shift Task. And the good news is that it seems that you can train cognitive flexibility.

10 . Nearly two years after the COVID-19 outbreak, China has granted approval to its first antibody combination therapy (治疗) for COVID-19 treatment, adding a tool to the world’s fight against the disease.

A team from Tsinghua University, along with the Shenzhen People’s Hospital, has accomplished the task in 20 months. It would usually take 10 years. “It can reduce the rate of hospitalization (住院治疗) and death by 80 percent,” said Zhang Linqi, leader of the research team.

The new antibody drug is immediately effective after being used. Moreover, the therapy can protect people, especially those whose physical condition doesn’t allow vaccination (接种疫苗), from becoming infected by COVID-19 for around 9 to 12 months, said Zhang.

How does it work? When a virus infects a cell, it relies on an important type of protein: the spike proteins (棘突蛋白) on its surface. The spike proteins serve as a key to unlocking a cell. If a virus cannot enter a cell, it will disappear immediately. The job of our antibodies is to block the virus from entering cells. So its target is very precise. In addition, thanks to the coordination between the two antibodies, it is highly efficient in preventing the virus, according to Zhang. The qualities of the new drug make it especially useful for high-risk groups, such as frontline medical workers and people not suitable for vaccination due to various underlying health problems.

The new drug is expected to come to the market soon, but it’s not cheap. That’s because of limited production. Noting that China has used science and technology to fight COVID-19 since the beginning of the outbreak, Zhang said, “Science is the key to solving the issue. Science has shown its power in all sectors, from medical treatment, medicine and vaccine development to prevention and control measures.”