Lockheed Martin, American space system company (空间系统公司) has found a really cool way to inspire the young minds of today to the research fields in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).

    It may look like a normal yellow bus, but all the magic happens once you get inside. Meet the “Mars (火星) Experience Bus,” part of Lockheed Martin's new “Generation Beyond” national education program to get the kids joining in studying what goes on outside of our home planet. The bus offers a virtual reality (VR, 虚拟现实) experience making the teenagers feel like they are driving on Mars.

    The VR experience was developed by taking advantage of software (软件) created for today's best video games, so you can imagine the picture shown is top level. The kids do seem really excited to see the bus take a virtual trip on the red planet and search unknown places. It's certainly a great way of learning about the universe by virtual reality working on a common bus.

    The Lockheed Martin's bus will start a tour in the United States to allow kids from different parts of the country to take a ride in it. The Generation Beyond project also includes an iPhone app for iOS providing real-time information about weather reports for Mars, and there's also a free deep space course for middle school teachers and students.

    Some primary schoolchildren have been raised in homes with more green space around. They are likely to come with larger volumes of white and grey matter in certain areas of the brain. These differences are associated(关联) with beneficial effects on cognitive function (认知功能). This is the main conclusion of a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.

    The study was performed among 253 schoolchildren in Spain .Lifelong exposure(接触) to green space in the living places was recorded—using the information on the children's addresses from birth up through to the time of the study. Brain structure was studied using 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Working memory and inattentiveness(注意力不集中)were graded with computers.

    “This is the first study that shows the association between long-term exposure to green space and brain structure.” Says Dr. Payam Dadvand, the leading researcher of the study, “Our findings suggest that exposure to green space early in life could result in beneficial structural changes in the brain.”

    The findings show that long-term exposure to greenness is positively associated with white and grey matter volumes in several parts of the brain. Some of them are related to higher scores on cognitive tests. Moreover, larger volumes of white and grey matter in those parts might lead to better working memory and less inattentiveness.

    Exposure to nature has been thought to be necessary for brain development in children. Another study of 2,593 children shows that children in school with more green space have a greater increase in working memory and a greater decrease in inattentiveness.

    Humans are believed to be tied to nature.  Playing in greener areas offers children opportunities to search and learn. Accordingly, green space is thought to prompt important exercises in discovery, creativity and risk taking. These exercises in turn positively influence brain development.

    Dr. Dadvand's study suggests how such structural changes could bring about the beneficial effects of green spaces on cognitive development, it also adds to the proof that suggests the lasting effects of early life exposure to greenness on our health and the benefits of increasing greenness in cities.

    Further studies are needed to prove the findings in other populations, settings and climates. And researchers need to examine differences according to the nature and quality of green space.

    Man has a big brain（大脑）. He can think, learn and speak. Scientist once thought that men are different from animals because they could think and learn. They know now that dogs, rats, birds can learn too. They are beginning to understand that men are different from animals because they can speak.

    Animals cannot speak. They make noises when they are afraid, or angry or happy. Apes（类人猿）can understand some things more quickly than men. One or two of them have learnt a few words. But they cannot put words together to make sentences. They cannot think as we do because they have no languages. The language is a wonderful thing. Man is able to build a modern world because he has language.

    Each child can speak his own language very well when he is four or five, but no animal learns to speak. How do children learn it? Scientists don't know. They only know that man can speak because he has the brain.

    People don't like trash. Trash is smelly, dirty, ugly, broken and useless. That's why we throw it out. But everyone knows that trash influences our environment. It can pollute our land, water and air. So it's important to recycle our trash as much as possible.

    Some Americans were very interested in recycling and they were curious about what really happened to their trash. So, what did they do? They became detectives and decided to "Follow that trash!"

    They took some items out of their recycling bin and put electronic tags (标签) on them. The tags sent signals to a computer so people could follow their trash on its journey. They found that some trash only travelled a few kilometers but much of it went into landfills.

    Waste management companies in America think this detective work will be helpful to them. Dealing with waste is very expensive and this u trash tracking" will help them to become more useful. It will save their time and money.

    However, the trash detectives say it's also important to reduce the amount of trash we produce. After all, if we produce less waste, we won't have to worry about where it goes.

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