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    If you want to help children develop language and speech skills, UCLA researchers say, listening to what they have to say is just as important as talking to them.

    The effect of a conversation between a child and an adult is about six times as great as the effect of adult speech input(输入)alone, the researchers found. “Adults speaking to children helps language develop, but what matters much more is the interaction, ”said the study's lead author, Frederick Zimmerman, an associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. The researchers also found that TV viewing didn't have much of an effect—positively or negatively—as long as it wasn't displacing conversations between an adult and a child.

    The UCLA study included 275 families with children between 2 months and 48 months old. They represented a variety of incomes and education. The researchers found that, in an average day, children heard about 13, 000 spoken words from adults and participated in about 400 adult-child conversations a day.

    Assessed separately, factors positively associated with language development included each additional 100 conversations a day and each 1, 000 words increase in the number of words spoken by adults and heard by children.  When looked at alone, TV was negatively associated with language development. But, when these three factors were analyzed together, the only one that stood out was conversation between adults and children.

    “The more a child speaks and interacts with an adult, the better idea a parent has about where the child is”, Zimmerman said. “Although it's mostly done unconsciously, parents will provide feedback and correct mistakes.  They'll also tailor their speech to the child.  Parents can give the children words by talking to them about what they're doing, such as, ‘I'm putting on your pajamas now'. But give your child the opportunity to talk, hopefully without the rest of the noise in the environment, ”she added. “If parents can carve out some conversation time—maybe at bath time or at dinner time—that's a wonderful thing. ”

    What if our babies could somehow tell us what they're thinking about, what they want, and what makes them unhappy? Robyn Holt, researcher for Baby Talk New Zealand, says they can. Holt heard about baby sign language through an advertisement and decided to go along to a workshop (研讨会).

    “Sign language is something that's always interested me, and I thought, it could be really cool to try this with a baby because we are always guessing all the time what they actually want.”

    Holt started using baby sign language with her baby son Benjamin, now 12, and within two weeks he started to sign the sign for milk. She has since used it with her two younger sons Dominic, 8, and Matthew, 3.

    Baby sign language is nothing new: the practice (which is based on adult sign language) has been out in America for more than 30 years. But it is enjoying a rebirth in New Zealand.

    The idea behind baby sign language is that babies do have the ability to communicate their needs if they are given the right tools to do so. Although many mothers develop an intuition (直觉) about whether their baby's crying is from hunger, tiredness, or pain, baby sign language creates a direct form of communication that unlocks the mystery.

    When babies are between 6-months and 12 to 13-months, parents can begin to teach them sign language: use the sign for milk while feeding, and also talk about milk, so that the child begins to make the link (关联) in their brain. Then they can begin to add other signs, i.e. food, sick or pain.

    “I know of one parent. Her child was signing the sign for hurt by his mouth, and she realised his first teeth were growing. It makes life so much easier,” said Holt.

    Do you jump out of bed early, wide awake and ready to start your day？ If so, you would be called an "early bird". Perhaps, you hate the sound of your alarm clock（闹钟） each morning and have little energy until afternoon. If so, you're probably a "night owl".

    Most people can be divided into such two groups, but what makes us this way？ And is one better than the other？ There are different opinions.

    Usually, early risers have been praised as hard-working while those who prefer to get up late are considered lazy. Most people believe the early bird catches the worm.

    Yet some scientists now believe "night owls" can really focus(集中) longer and produce more than early risers.

    Research has found that the early bird does not always get the worm. In a Belgian study, both "morning people" and "evening people" were watched during their normal asleep and awake routines(常规).After 10 hours of being awake, the "evening people" became more alert(思维敏捷的). However, the "morning people" became sleepy and less focused. Researchers believe the reason for this difference is that night owls receive a last-minute increase from their brains. This added energy allows them to stay alert for longer periods of time.

    Environment, lifestyle, activities and childhood routines all may have an effect on sleeping habits, yet genetics(遗传学)may play the biggest role.

    It is possible to change your sleeping habits through regular bedtimes, early exercise and by avoiding midnight snacks. But if you're happy rising early or staying up late, you're probably doing what works best for your own personal body clock.

    You've heard of the fat suit and the pregnancy suit; now meet AGNES—the old person suit.

    AGNES stands for “Age Gain Now Empathy(换位体验)System” and was designed by researchers at MIT's AgeLab to let you know what it feels like—physically—to be 75 years old. “The business of old age demands new tools,” said Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab. “While focus groups and observations and surveys can help you understand what the older consumer needs and wants, young marketers never get that Ah ha! moment of having difficulty opening a jar, or getting in and out of a car. That's what AGNES provides. ”

    Coughlin and his team carefully adjusted the suit to make the wearer just as uncomfortable as an old person who has spent a lifetime eating poorly and not doing much exercise. Special shoes provide a feeling of imbalance, while braces on the knees and elbows limit joint mobility. Gloves give the feeling of decreased strength and mobility in the hands and wrists, and earplugs make it difficult to hear high—pitched sounds and soft tones. A helmet with straps(带)attached to it presses the spine(脊柱), and more straps attached to the shoes decrease hamstring flexibility, and shortens the wearer's step.

    AGNES has been used most recently by a group of students working on a design of an updated walker. By wearing the suit they could see for themselves what design and materials would make the most sense for a physically limited older person. Coughlin said the suit has also been used by clothing companies, car companies and retail goods companies to help them understand the limitations of an older consumer.

    “AGNES is not the destiny of everybody,” he said. “She is a badly behaved lady who didn't eat and exercise very well. A secondary benefit we've found with AGNES is that it has become a powerful tool to get younger people to invest in their long-term health. ”

Scientists have discovered a bit of hand-made string (线绳) that's around 50,000 years old in Neanderthal remains. The first Neanderthal remains were found in the Neander Valley in Germany, which is where the name comes from. Neanderthals may have lived mainly in caves and made stone tools, but recent discoveries have given hints that Neanderthals developed some advanced skills that people used to think impossible. For example, Neanderthals knew how to make glue from the bark (树皮) of a tree.

Now, scientists report they've found a piece of string on a stone tool made by Neanderthals. Before this, the oldest known piece of string was one made by humans about 19,000 years ago. The string is about a quarter of an inch long. Almost all things made from plants during that time have broken down and disappeared, so it's very special to find this bit of string.

The scientists don't know whether the string was attached to the tool. But that doesn't interest them as much as the fact that Neanderthals knew how to make string. Bruce Hardy, the lead scientist on the project, says that knowing how to make string was meaningful for humans. "We wouldn't really be here today without that technology," he says.

Making string is a very arduous process. This string was made from the inside bark of an evergreen tree. To make string that is strong enough, the string must be made of several smaller fibers twisted (缠绕) together in a special way. For the Neanderthal string, several fibers needed to be twisted together into something like yarn. Then three pieces of yam needed to be twisted together in the opposite direction to make the final string.

The scientists aren't sure what the string was used for, but they say that string like. the bit that was found could be used to make bags, baskets, traps, or other things. The researchers also suggest that because Neanderthals needed to make pairs and count fibers to make the string, the bit of string may also tell us something about the kinds of math that Neanderthals could do.

A 15-year-old Colorado high school student and young scientist who has used artificial intelligence (AI) and created apps to address polluted drinking water, drug addiction and other social problems has been named Time Magazine's first-ever "Kid of the Year". 

Rao told The Associated Press in an interview from her home that the prize is nothing that I could have ever imagined. And I'm so grateful and just so excited that we're really taking a look at the upcoming generation and our generation, since the future is in our hands. 

Time said Rao stood out for creating a global community of young innovators and inspiring them to pursue their goals. Rao insisted that starting out small doesn't matter, as long as you're passionate about it. 

She told Time contributing editor Angelina Jolie in an interview that her science pursuits started early as a way to improve social conditions. The drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan, inspired her work to develop a way to detect pollutants and send those results to a mobile phone, she said. 

"I was like 10 when I told my parents that I wanted to research carbon nanotube sensor technology at the Denver Water quality research lab, and my mum was like, A what?" Rao told Jolie. She said that work is going to be in our generation's hands pretty soon. "So if no one else is gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. "

In a world where science is increasingly questioned or challenged, Rao insisted that its pursuit is an act of kindness, the best way that a younger generation can better the world. 

"We have science in everything we're involved in, and I think that's the biggest thing to put out there, that science is cool, innovating is cool, and anybody can be an innovator. " Rao said, "Anybody can do science. "