My 17-year-old daughter went off to college and having her away from home brought back memories of watching Peter Pan when she was little. In the classic TV production, one scene in particular impressed me: when Mrs. Darling puts her children into bed. As she turns off the last of the night light, she takes one last look at the bedroom and says, “Dear night lights, protect my sleeping children.” As a mother, I know how much she loves her children.

    It has been several weeks since we took our daughter to college and she seems to be adjusting  well after a short period of homesickness. For us, though, it's another story. Like most parents, I love checking in on my children at night. But now she's gone, and I find night times the hardest. I miss her most at night.

    In my neighborhood, most of the parents whose kids are off to college are dealing with similar melancholy. My husband is filled with anxiety. One friend talked about getting this sick feeling in her stomach as she prepared for the college drop-off. We complained that many of us were too busy to truly enjoy being with our children while we had them.

    For us moms, seeing Toy Story 3 only made the sadness worse as we watched the character Andy, who is the same age as our kids, say goodbye to his childhood as he prepares to leave for college. And it's not just “first-time” parents like me. Two moms who have kids already well into college said the separation didn't get any easier. “You feel like something has been taken away from inside you” said one of them.

    I imagine things will get easier with time, especially as I see my daughter adjust to college life. Meanwhile, as I keep my cell phone close to me in bed and text my daughter goodnight and sweet dreams every night, I like to think that messages serve as a night light that keeps her safe.

    When Shakespeare was twenty-one, he went to London, a very interesting place, to try his fortune.

    There was the famous London Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral, and palaces and markets and long streets full of shops.

    Then, too, there were the daily crowds where could be seen people from all over the world. Knights, scholars and the highwayman (拦路强盗）or thieves, who had been infamous for their clever robberies, passed by each other.

    Here, also, were noblemen dressed in gold, from Italy and Spain and France; slaves from Spanish America, sea captains and ministers, soldiers and servants—all held by chances or interests within the gray walls which circled London, and whose gates gave welcome to as strange a crowd as could be found in the world.

    Into this curious crowd came Shakespeare, quick to see and eager to learn. And before long all these strange sights were as familiar to him as the faces of his own town's residents. Each one told its story to him so plainly that, as before he had learned the secrets of the fields and woods, so now he learned men and men's interests that make up the great world.

    And he learned these lessons so well that when he came to write his plays, he made such use of them as no writer ever made before or since; for it is the use of this knowledge of the world, combined with his own genius, that makes Shakespeare the greatest dramatist that has ever lived.

    If you don't have a college degree, you're at greater risk of developing memory problems or even Alzheimer's (老年痴呆). Education plays a key role in lifelong memory performance and risk for mental disorder, and it's well documented that those with a college degree possess a cognitive（认知的） advantage over their less educated counterparts in middle and old age.

    Now, a large national study from Brandeis University published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry shows that those with less schooling can significantly make up for poorer education by frequently engaging in mental exercises such as word games, puzzles, reading, and lectures.

    “The lifelong benefits of higher education for memory in later life are quite impressive, but we do not clearly understand how and why these effects last so long,” said lead author Margie Lachman, a psychologist. She suggested that higher education may encourage lifelong interest in cognitive efforts, while those with less education may not engage as frequently in mental exercises that help keep the memory agile (敏捷地).

    But education early in adulthood does not appear to be the only route to maintain your memory. The study found that intellectual activities undertaken regularly made a difference. “Among individuals with low education, those who are engaged in reading, writing, attending lectures, doing word games or puzzles once a week or more had memory scores similar to people with more education,” said Lachman.

The study, called Midlife in the United States, assessed 3,343 men and women between the ages of 32 and 84 with a mean age of 56 years. Almost 40 percent of the participants had at least a 4-year college degree. The researchers evaluated how the participants performed in two cognitive areas, verbal memory and executive function — brain processes involved in planning, abstract thinking and cognitive flexibility. Participants were given a battery of tests, including tests of verbal fluency, word recall, and backward counting.

    As expected, those with higher education said they engaged in cognitive activities more often and also did better on the memory tests, but some with lower education also did well, explained Lachman.

    “The findings are promising because they suggest there may be ways to level the playing field for those with lower educational achievement, and protect those at greatest risk for memory declines,” said Lachman. “Although we can not rule out the possibility that those who have better memories are the ones who take on more activities, the evidence is consistent with cognitive plasticity (可塑性), and suggests some degree of personal control over cognitive functioning in adulthood by adopting an intellectually active lifestyle.”

    “At almost any given age, most of us are getting better at some things and worse at others, ”Joshua Hartshorne, an MIT cognitive(认知的)science researcher and the lead author of a study looking at how intelligence changes as we age, told Business Insider. His team quizzed thousands of people aged 10—90 on their ability to do things like remembering lists of words, recognizing faces, learning names, and doing math. Their results suggest that no matter your age, there's almost always a new peak on the horizon.

    The human brain has a remarkable capacity to recognize and identify faces, and scientists are just beginning to learn why. On average, we know that our ability to learn and remember new faces appears to peak shortly after our 30th birthday.

Having trouble focusing? The study suggests that our ability to maintain attention improves with age, reaching its peak around age 43.While younger adults may excel in the speed and flexibility of information processing, adults approaching their mid-years may have the greatest capacity to remain focused.

    Dating is tough. One of the reasons could be that we're generally bad at reading other people's emotions until we reach our late 40s.That's according to one component of Hartshorne's study, which involved showing thousands of people images of faces cropped tightly around the eye area. Participants were asked to describe the emotion the person in the photo was feeling. Performance peaked for people aged around 48.

    Many people believe that their math skills decline after they leave school and stop practicing arithmetic. But the next time you try to split up a check, keep this in mind: your ability to do basic subtraction and division doesn't reach its apex until your 50th birthday.

    Ever wonder why you always lose at Scrabble? Good news: Your best days may be ahead. According to people's scores on multiple—choice vocabulary tests, most of us don't reach our peak wordsmithing abilities until we're in our late 60s or early 70s.

    TESCO has announced it is banning the sale of energy drinks to teenagers, and that the big move will begin in weeks. The supermarket has joined a host of major names banning teenagers from buying high caffeine, high-sugar drinks. The government indicates that the principal question to be determined is whether the purchasing restrictions will apply at the age of 16 or 18.

    Theresa May said the consultation was linked to the government's childhood obesity (肥胖) strategy and said it was necessary to examine the consumption of energy drinks "often because they are sold at cheaper prices than soft drinks".

    The principal reason for the ban is the high level of caffeine in the energy drinks, which has been linked to a string of health problems for children, including head and stomach aches as well as sleep problems.

    Energy drinks often also have higher levels of sugar than soft drinks. According to government figures, sugared energy drinks have 60% more calories and 65% more sugar than normal soft drinks and sugar is one of the largest causes of obesity.

    Jamie Oliver said he welcomed the ban on energy drink sales because "too many children are regularly using them to replace breakfast" and "teachers from across the country have told me how their lessons are disrupted because of these drinks".

    A Downing Street source added that there is no evidence that energy drinks have any nutritional value in children's diet. That accounts for the government's action on measures to tackle childhood obesity and improve children's health.

    The move is the latest step in an approach in relation to childhood obesity and health. According to European Food Safety Authority research, two-thirds of 10 to 16-year-olds regularly consume energy drinks, along with 18% of 3 to 10-year-olds.

    Sales of Apple's new iPhone 11 in China began on Friday, but were met with a cooler welcome from customers than in previous years. Unlike in previous years, no long lines were seen outside Chinese shops on Friday for the new iPhone, and the product release (发布) only made the headlines in a few media.

    Huawei released its Mate 30 smartphone series on Thursday night. Its new devices(设备) have won consumers' hearts at home and abroad. Many compared it with Apple's new iPhone 11, saying that beats the new iPhone because of innovation and quality. One customer named Zhao Kai, an IT specialist who pre-ordered a Mate 30 Pro on Friday, said that he chose Mate 30 without hesitation. Zhao said, "It's clear that Huawei's new phone with its advanced 5G mode would lead the future global telecommunications market, too."

    In contrast with iPhone 11's poor sales, Chinese netizens (网民) have joined in discussions on Mate 30 and iPhone 11. An online poll on the Mate 30 and iPhone 11 on Weibo on Friday showed that more than 60 percent of netizens chose the Mate 30, while less than 20 percent chose the iPhone 11. Many chose Huawei as a result of its technology.

    Overseas customers also joined in the heated discussions on Huawei's new flagship devices on sites. On Twitter, many netizens said "nice", "best phone ever" and "my favorite one" on Huawei's Twitter account. Some netizens in countries like the UK, the Netherlands and Argentina asked when Huawei's new devices would be released in their countries.