Will you be playing some music at work?

    Music is particularly popular in the medical profession, especially among surgeons（外科医生）. A recent survey shows that 90% of surgeons in the UK put music on the sound system in the theatre during operations. Plastic surgeons（整形外科医生）play the most music; it appears that ear, nose, and throat specialists the least.

    But it isn't only in surgeries(外科手术) where music is popular. In another recent survey, one-third of the 1,613 people said they listen to music while working. And 79% of them said that humming（哼歌）along improves their job satisfaction or productivity.

    Is listening to music at work a good idea? Yes, say the experts. Many surgeons say that music helps to create a “calm atmosphere”, and a third of them added that it avoids getting bored! Also, listening to music raises the levels of a brain chemical that can help people focus. Office workers say it improves job satisfaction. Several studies suggest that it's also good for hospital patients. Those listening to music through headphones during surgery require less anesthetic（麻醉剂）, up to 50% less in some cases, and recover more quickly afterwards. “Sure, music reduces anxiety before surgery,” says Zeev Kain, an anesthetist at Yale University.

    So, what type of music should we be listening to? Surgeons from the previous survey preferred rock, pop music and classical. And hip-hop is popular too. However, whatever the kind, it appears that self-selected music is the best choice. Pennsylvania State University research showed that when people chose their own music there was more stress reduction(下降). And other researchers found that when listening to self-selected music, surgeons did the maths faster and more accurately than when they were listening to music chosen for them.

Decision-making under Stress

    A new review based on a research shows that acute stress affects the way the brain considers the advantages and disadvantages, causing it to focus on pleasure and ignore the possible negative (负面的) consequences of a decision.

     The research suggests that stress may change the way people make choices in predictable ways.

    “Stress affects how people learn,” says Professor Mara Mather. “People learn better about positive than negative outcomes under stress.”

    For example, two recent studies looked at how people learned to connect images(影像) with either rewards or punishments. In one experiment, some of the participants were first stressed by having to give a speech and do difficult math problems in front of an audience; in the other, some were stressed by having to keep their hands in ice water. In both cases, the stressed participants remembered the rewarded material more accurately and the punished material less accurately than those who hadn't gone through the stress.

    This phenomenon is likely not surprising to anyone who has tried to resist eating cookies or smoking a cigarette while under stress –at those moments, only the pleasure associated with such activities comes to mind. But the findings further suggest that stress may bring about a double effect. Not only are rewarding experiences remembered better, but negative consequences are also easily recalled.

    The research also found that stress appears to affect decision-making differently in men and women. While both men and women tend to focus on rewards and less on consequences under stress, their responses to risk turn out to be different.

    Men who had been stressed by the cold-water task tended to take more risks in the experiment while women responded in the opposite way. In stressful situations in which risk-taking can pay off big, men may tend to do better, when caution weighs more, however, women will win.

    This tendency to slow down and become more cautious when decisions are risky might also help explain why women are less likely to become addicted than men: they may more often avoid making the risky choices that eventually harden into addiction.

    I now work 40 hours a week at a weather company and I love it Compared to when I became a mom, I don't feel bad about being away from my three kids. When I had my first child, I was a busy manager. My husband had a part-time job and cared for her the rest of the time. Once I became pregnant with my second kid, I quit my job to focus fully on writing.

    At first I felt like I was living the dream. I was a work-from-home mom who never had to be away from my children. But working from home can end up being more stressful than working full-time or being a stay-at-home mom.because you're frequently exhausted between work, keeping house and telling sweet faces you don't have time to play. Ever tried writing an article with a baby screaming? It was awful.

    I was so stressed that I eventually started taking my kids to 8 day care center a couple of days a week. The whole reason I worked so hard to be able to write for a living was to be at home with my kids and here I was taking them to a day care center.I thought I was a failure then.

    Over the past five years of being a freelancer(自由作家), I've realized a couple of things. As I wrote six months  ago, "I though I felt bad leaving my daughter for ten hours a day but now she is old enough to ask me to read her a story .Try telling your kid no, 20 times a day. It's cruel. You end up feeling worse for having to ignore them." I also realize not socializing with people weren't good for my mental well-being.

    Not only that, but I can now show my kids that Mom is important and has a job at a flashy office building, something they didn't realize when1 sat around in yoga pants typing on my computer all day long.

    A so-called “smart drug” intended to improve people's cognitive (认知的) function to protect the brain from altitude sickness.

    Visiting high-altitude sites for work, spot, religious pilgrimages and military can result in cognitive effects, including memory loss and attention difficulties. There's little you can do to prevent these symptoms except acclimatize -but this takes time and doesn't always work. A drug called oxiracetam might be the answer.

    ShengLi Hu at the Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China and her colleagues studied the performance of male military personnel at altitude. All lived in towns around 1,800 meters above sea level, During the study, they spent eight days at this altitude and then climbed for three days to reach 4,000 meters, where they stayed for up to a month.

    Twenty participants took oxriacetam three times a day for the first 15 days of the study, while another 20 received no intervention. The man did tests of attention and memory at the start and end of the study and 20 days in, by which time they had been at 4,000 meters for nine days.

    While all the participants experienced a drop in cognitive ability at 4,00 meters, those who took oxiracetam showed a much smaller drop than the control group.

    The team found that at high altitude the brain stem, which plays a critical role in supporting basic living functions, received blood at the expense of areas responsible for more advanced cognitive functions. But in people who took oxiracetam, blood flowing throughout the brain rose, thus offering more oxygen to these areas. This may be how the drug seems to lessen cognitive problems like with low oxygen.

    It isn't yet known whether diverting blood in this way could have negative effects in the long run. "The results are striking and imply that oxiracetam may be beneficial for helping to relieve cognitive ability decline caused by altitude." says Timothy Hales at the University of Dundee, UK.

    Companion planting is the idea that some kinds of plants can help each other grow. Plants that are compatible (兼容的，能共处的) together generally have similar needs in terms of nutrients, soil and moisture levels.

    Advice about which plants are compatible is sometimes based more on tradition than proof. But experts say there is evidence to support certain combinations. These can improve harvests, reduce disease and help with pest control by attracting helpful insects.

    For example, some kinds of soil bacteria take nitrogen from the air and make it into a form that plants can use. The plants hold the nitrogen in their roots. Legumes (豆科植物) are especially good at this nitrogen (氮) fixing. Then any crops that share the same space with the legumes can get the nitrogen when the roots are broken down.

    Beans and potatoes can also share territory well because their roots reach different levels in the soil. Deep-rooted vegetables get nutrients and moisture from lower down in the soil, so they do not complete with plants with shallower roots.

    But some plants placed together may harm each other's development. For example, tomatoes do not like wet soil but watercress does, so you would probably want to keep them separated.

    Some kinds of produce should be kept apart even after being harvested. This is because of ethylene gas (乙烯气体). Ethylene is a plant hormone (激素) that can cause some foods to ripen too quickly. Apples release ethylene gas. Apricots, melons and tomatoes also release a lot of ethylene. Some vegetables are easily affected by ethylene, including asparagus, broccoli, cabbage and cucumbers.

    This risk of ripening too soon is why markets often separate high ethylene-producing foods from those that are sensitive to the gas. But if you put an apple in a bag with a green banana, the ethylene from the apple will make the banana ready to eat sooner.

    What about peaches, plums and nectarines? These kinds of fruit do not need any help from an apple—they release enough ethylene to ripen themselves. But that does not mean there is no way to get the job done faster.

    Growers suggest placing the fruit in a fruit bowl or in a paper bag with the top folded over. Keep the fruit at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. Once the fruit is soft enough, either use it or put it in the refrigerator to keep it from getting too ripe.

Benefits and Problems of Genetic Engineering

    Plant breeding is the science of changing the characteristics of plants in order to produce desired ones. Genes in a plant are what determine what type of characteristics it will have. Plant breeders try to create a specific outcome of plants and potentially new plant varieties by changing the genes of the plants through breeding, which is making new plants from parents of different varieties or species.

    Actually, plant breeding has been practiced for thousands of years, since near the beginning of human civilization. It is practiced worldwide by individuals such as gardeners and farmers and by professional plant breeders employed by organizations such as government institutions, universities, crop-specific industry associations or research centers. They have crossbred plants to create the new types of plants that are, for example, bigger, stronger, or more attractive.

    Crossbreeding can take such a long time, however, and it is inaccurate. Now, we can change exact sections of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), so the process is more accurate and faster. But people all over the world are arguing about its benefits and disadvantages. Some people use the technology to produce desired characteristics of plants and animals. Other people are concerned that the genetically engineered plants may harm the environment and worried that they may be dangerous for people to eat.

    There are many reasons for changing plants in this way. International development agencies believe that breeding new crops is important for ensuring food security by developing new varieties that are higher yielding(高产的), disease resistant, drought tolerant or regionally adapted to different environments and growing conditions. For example, some genetically engineered plants can live through frost or draught. As a result, famers can make more profit because fewer plants will die.

    Some genetically engineered plants are more nutritious. They have less fat, taste better or stay fresher than non-genetically engineered plants. This will allow people to buy better-quality fruit and vegetables.

    Some genetically engineered plants can resist natural pests such as viruses or insects. This reduces the amount of chemical needed to kill pests, which is helpful to the environment.

    However, genetically engineered plants can cause unexpected problems. Genetically engineered plants that resist pests may pass on that characteristic to a wild relative. This may cause the wild plant to spread fast, because pests are not naturally killing it.

    Genetically engineered plants can also harm animals. A type of corn has been developed which kills a species of insect that destroys it. The pollen (花粉) from this corn, however, can also kill monarch butterflies—the most beautiful of all butterflies, which do not harm the corn.

    To ensure the most adapted varieties are identified, advocates of organic breeding now promote the use of direct selection for many desired characteristics.

    Genetic engineering is a very new science and we have a lot to learn about the good it can do and the damage it can cause. The main concern is that not enough tests are being done to ensure it is safe.