Harvard researchers have created a tough, low-cost, biodegradable (可生物降解的) material inspired by insects' hard outer shells. The material's inventors say it has a number of possible uses and someday could provide a more environmentally friendly alternative to plastic. The material, made from shrimp ('虾) shells and proteins produced from silk, is called "shrilk." It is thin, clear, flexible and strong.

    A major benefit of the material is its biodegradability. Plastic's toughness and flexibility represented a revolution in materials science during the 1950s and '60s. Decades later, however, plastic's very durability (耐用性) is raising questions about how appropriate it is for one-time products such as plastic bags, or short-lived consumer goods, used in the home for a few years and then cast into a landfill where they will degrade for centuries. What is the point of making something that lasts 1,000 years?

    Shrilk not only will degrade in a landfill, but its basic components are used as fertilizer(肥料), and so will enrich the soil.

    Shrilk has great potential, the inventors said. Materials from which it is made are plentiful in nature, found in everything ranging from shrimp shells, insect bodies to living plants. That makes shrilk low cost, and its mass production possible should it be used for products demanding a lot of material.

Work on shrilk is continuing in the lab. The inventors said the material becomes flexible when wet, so they're exploring ways to use it in wet environments. They're also developing simpler production processes, which could be used for non-medical products, like for computer cases and other products inside the home. They're even exploring combining it with other materials, like carbon fibers, to give it new properties.

    Dolphins, African gray parrots and some other animals understand the idea of “zero,” but researchers were surprised to find that honeybees also comprehend this abstract concept, considering the insects' tiny brains, according to a new study. Honeybees have fewer than one million neurons (神经元), compared with the 86 billion neurons in humans—and yet, they grasp a concept that humans, by some measures, don't start to understand before preschool.

    The researchers set up two cards, each of which had a set of symbols on them, like triangles or circles. Then, they trained a group of the bees to fly to the card with the lower number of symbols. The bees quickly learned what the humans wanted them to do to get their delicious, sweet rewards. The trained bees were then shown a card that was empty and one that had symbols on it. There is no need for the bees to be trained to fly more often to the empty card—thus showing that they understood that “zero” was a number less than the others.

    Although they flew more often to an empty card than to one that had one symbol on it, it became easier for them to distinguish when the symbols on the card increased in number. For example, they more often flew to the zero when the other card had four symbols than when it had one.

    Perhaps these findings will explain the brain mechanism (机制) behind what allows us to understand the concept of “nothing,” Adrian Dyer, a researcher said. This understanding, in turn, could help in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) that also understands this concept. “If bees can understand 'zero' with a brain of less than a million neurons, it suggests there are simple, efficient ways to teach AI new tricks,” Dyer said in the statement.

    Want a wonderful travel in London? Don't miss the following!

    The Guards Museum

    The Guards Museum was created as an educational tool for the newest intake of the Guards and includes exhibits of uniform for the five Roval regiments (团) dating from the Civil War, with details of the nature and origin of their ceremonial duties right up to their contemporary role. To anyone interested in these world-famous soldiers this London tourist attraction is a must-see.

    Telephone: 020 7414 3428

    Toy theatre

    Toy theatre (or paper theatre) was most popular in the 1800s, and consists of paper theatres, some with an extraordinary level of detail, allowing children to stage their own productions at home, usually with cut-out sheets of figures for the scenery, props (道具) and various characters in the play.

    Telephone: 020-7967-1066

    Charles Dickens Museum

    The Charles Dickens Museum, an author's house museum at Doughty Street, is a celebration of one of the greatest novelists in British history. The museum exhibits over 100, 000 items from personal items to artworks (艺术品) from some of his books. It is said that Dickens wrote 3 of his most famous stories while living here, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and The Pickwick Papers. The building is the writer's only surviving London house and we can get to know what life in the household would have been like.

    Telephone: 020-7405-2127

    Foundling Museum

    The Foundling Museum was originally one of the first houses in London for abandoned children and housed over 27, 000 children before its closure (关闭). Since then this London attraction has transformed (转化) itself into one special London museum with a large collection of artworks and social history relating to the children taken in and the terrible social problems that led to children being abandoned by their parents.

    Telephone: 020-7841-3600

    Walk through the Amazon rainforest today and you will find it steamy, warm, damp and thick. But if you had been there around 15,000 years ago, during the last ice age, would it have been the same? For more than 30 years, scientists have been arguing about how rainforests might have reacted to the cold, dry climate of the ice ages, but till now, no one has reached a satisfying answer.

    Rainforests like the Amazon are important for mopping up CO2 from the atmosphere and helping to solve global warming. Currently the trees in the Amazon take in around 500 million tons of CO2 each year: equal to the total amount of CO2 given off in the UK each year. But how will the Amazon react to the future climate change? If it gets drier, will it survive and continue to draw down CO2? Scientists hope that they will be able to learn in advance how the rainforest will manage in the future by understanding how rainforests reacted to climate change in the past.

    Unfortunately, collecting information is incredibly difficult. To study the past climate, scientists need to look at fossilized pollen (花粉) kept in lake mud. Going back to the last ice age means drilling down into lake sediments (沉淀物), which requires specialized equipment and heavy machinery . There are very few roads and paths, or places to land helicopters and aeroplanes. Rivers tend to be the easiest way to enter the forest, but this still leaves vast areas between the rivers completely unsampled (未取样). So far, only a handful of cores have been drilled that go back to the last ice age and none of them provide enough information to prove how the Amazon forest reacts to climate change.

    The summer I turned 16, my father gave me his car — a gift wasted on me at that age. The important thing was that Hannah and I could drive around.

    Hannah was my best friend, a year younger but much taller, almost five foot ten. "Hannah's a knockout, "my mother always said. And that summer she signed with a modeling agency. She was already doing runway work.

    A month after my birthday, Hannah and I went to the movies. On the way home, we stopped at the McDonald's drive-through, putting the fries on the seat between us to share. "Let's ride around a while, "I said. It was a clear night, full moon slung(悬挂)low over the desert. Taking a turning too fast, I plowed (撞)through a neighbor's wall and drove into a full-grown tree.

    We were taken in separate ambulances. I'd cracked(使裂开)my cheek bone; Hannah's forehead had split wide open. End of her modeling career. What would I say to her?

    When her mother, Sharon, came into my hospital room, I started to cry. She sat beside me and took my hand. "I rear-ended(追尾) my best friend when I was your age, "she said. "I totaled her car and mine."

    "I'm so sorry," I said.

    "You're both alive," she said." The rest is window dressing. I forgive you. Hannah will too."

    Sharon's forgiveness allowed Hannah and me to stay friends throughout high school and college, to be at each other's weddings … The scars are so faded no one else would notice, but in the sunlight I can still see it just below her hairline — for me, a mark of grace(优雅).

Smart Kids Festival Events

    Smart Kids is a collection of one hundred events scheduled in October. This year, it is experimenting with Pay What You Decide (PWYD). That is, you can decide to pay what you want to or can afford, after you have attended an event. You can pre-book events without paying for a ticket in advance. Here are some of the director's picks.

    Walk on the Wild Side

    Not ticketed, Free

    Join storyteller Sarah Law to hear science stories about animals. Along the way you'll meet all sorts of beautiful creatures and discover life cycles and food chains. Best suited to children aged 5-9. Children under 8 must be accompanied by an adult.

    Introduction to Waves

    Pre-book, PWYD

    Subjects range from sound waves to gravity waves, and from waves of light to crashing waves on the ocean. Mike Goldsmith explores the fundamental features shared by all waves in the natural world.

    Science in the Field

    Not ticketed, Free

    This storytelling night features a scientist sharing his favourite memories of gathering first-hand data on various field trips. Come along for inspiring and informative stories straight from the scientist's mouth. Join Mark Samuels to find out more in this fun-filled workshop.

    Festival Dinner

    Pre-book, £25 per person

    Whether you want to explore more about food, or just fancy a talk over a meal, join us to mark the first science festival in London. Which foods should you eat to trick your brain into thinking that you are full? Find out more from Tom Crawford.