The “babies” tend to be on or near me, or crying, or both. I spend a fair amount of time trying to get William to sleep, to get Elliott to get involved in something that will actually keep him happy for a little while, or to get William to play on the floor for 10 minutes straight so that I can get something done. But, a lot of days, it seems like I'm not succeeding in any of those efforts.

    So, yesterday, a friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook. This particular friend has a baby who is about a month younger than William. The picture was of the baby, who had made his way across the floor to the toys housed along the side of the room. I just kept looking at that picture and thinking that if only William had some different toys to play with, perhaps he would stay occupied a bit longer at a stretch. But William seems so bored with all of his toys! And I am so ready for him to be ready to play. In order to find a way to make him playing longer, I kept looking at that picture. Suddenly, I realized my sons need to play closer to me.

    So I cleared off the cubby(围起来的)shelves in the playroom, and my husband and I moved it to the living room. We found all of the toys that would be safe for William and put them in the cubbies. Then, we pulled the play kitchen in.

    William was so interested in what I was doing that he sat there and played and chewed on his toys while we moved furniture. When we were done, I moved him over closer to the cubbies and he got so excited that he didn't disturb for an hour, while I made dinner and cleaned up! Even Elliott played happily for a few hours. It was a dream come true! And I got to know that my lack of happy children was because of my desire for a toy—free living room.

    Many of us remember being in awe(敬畏) when we saw cloned dinosaurs running wild in the film Jurassic Park. And the idea of using technology to revive(恢复) extinct species has long fascinated not only writers and directors, but scientists as well.

    According to The Telegraph, woolly mammoths(长毛猛犸象), which featured in the popular Ice Age animated movie series, “may walk the earth once more” now that scientists have taken another step toward realizing a long-held dream—recreating their DNA.

    Mammoths became extinct around 10,000 years ago. However, since the discovery of near-perfect preserved remains in Arctic permafrost(北极冻土带) in May 2013, a variety of research studies have been carried out since.

    Geneticists from Harvard University analyzed DNA from the remains, looking for genes which separated mammoths from elephants, such as hairiness and ear size. They then used the results to reproduce exact copies of 14 mammoth genes. “It is the first time that mammoth genes have been alive—although so far it has only been done in the lab,” George Church, lead researcher of the project, told the Sunday Times.

    Church then used a new technique which allows scientists to edit DNA carefully, replacing sections of elephant DNA with the mammoth genes. So “we now have functioning elephant cells with mammoth DNA in them,” he said.

    However, Church ruled out the possibility of bringing the mammoths back to life via cloning from frozen remains. He said he “preferred to focus on rebuilding the full mammoth genome(基因组) by analyzing DNA from preserved remains and putting it into the cells of its closest living relative – the Asian elephant,” reported The Telegraph.

    Church argued that the return of the woolly mammoth—or rather, the return of something very similar—could help bring back fragile(脆弱的) ecosystems. However, some scientists believe that bringing back the mammoth would be unethical.

    Professor Alex Greenwood, an expert on ancient DNA, said: “We may face the extinction of African and Asian elephants. Why bring back another elephant from extinction when we cannot even keep the ones that are not extinct around?” he told the Sunday Times. “What is the message? We can be as irresponsible with the environment as we want. Then we'll just clone things back?”

    “Money would be better spent focusing on conserving what we do have than spending it on an animal that has been extinct for thousands of years,” he said.

The idea of being able to walk on water has long interested humans greatly. Sadly, biological facts prevent us ever accomplishing such a thing without artificial aid—we simply weigh too much, and all our mass pushes down through our relatively small feet, resulting in a lot of pressure that makes us sink.

    However, several types of animals can walk on water. One of the most interesting is the common basilisk Basilicus basilicus, a lizard (蜥蜴)native to Central and South America. It can run across water for a distance of several meters, avoiding getting wet by rapidly hitting the water's surface with its feet. The lizard will take as many as 20 steps per second to keep moving forward. For humans to do this, we，d need huge feet that we could bring up to our ears in order to create adequate w hitting.

    But fortunately there is an alternative : cornflour. By adding enough of this common thickening agent to water (and it does take a lot), you can create a “non-Newtonian” liquid that doesn't behave like normal water. Now, if the surface of the water is hit hard enough, particles(粒子）in the water group together for a moment to make the surface hard. Move quickly enough and put enough force into each step, and you really can walk across the surface of an adequately thick Liquid of cornflour.

    Fun though all this may sound, it's still rather messy and better read about in theory than carried out in practice. If you must do it, then keep the water wings handy in case you start to sink--and take a shower afterward!

    Basketball Statistician Help Wanted

    The Athletic Department is looking for students to assist staff during the Fall 2016, Winter 2016-17 and Spring 2017 semesters. Students in this position will be keeping live statistics during basketball games. Students must meet all of the following requirements:

    Good computer skills

    Available evenings and weekends

    Knowing basketball rules and statistics

    Students interested in working for the Athletic Department should contact the Athletic Coordinator at their respective(各自的) campuses.

    TP/SS Athletic Coordinator, Michael Simone,240-567-1308

    Rockville Athletic Coordinator, Jorge Zuniga,240-567-7589

    Springfield Athletic coordinator, Gary Miller,240-567-2273

    Germantown Athletic Coordinator, GavriChavan, 240-567-6915

    One day, I received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physical problem， while the student claimed a perfect score. I was elected as their arbiter. I read the examination problem: “Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer(气压计).” The student had answered: “Take the barometer to the top of the building，attach a long rope to it，lower it to the street， and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of it is the height of the building. ”

    The student had really answered the question completely, but the answer didn't confirm his competence in physics. I suggested the student try again. I gave him six minutes to answer the question, warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics. Five minutes later, he said he had many answers and clashed off one, which read： “Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, use the physical formula (公式）to calculate the height of the building. ”

    At this point, my colleague had to accept it, and then the student made almost full marks. I couldn't help asking the student what the other answers were. He listed many others ，and then added “Probably the best is to take the barometer to the administrator and said to him，' Sir, here is a fine barometer. If you tell me the height of the building, I will give it to you.，”

    Then, I asked the student if he really did not know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think.

    The name of the student was Bohr who later was famous all over the world. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922.

There are thousands of puzzles to choose from for you, such as jigsaw puzzles, puzzle books and more. They all have something in common: they test your skills or knowledge. Here are four of the most common:

Word puzzles

One of the most popular word puzzles — the crossword. It can be done with paper and pencil or online. Sometimes word puzzles involve finding new words within a large group of letters. This type of word puzzle is called a word search.

Word puzzles usually test your vocabulary. Knowing the language that the game is designed in is required for success, however.

Mechanical puzzles

Mechanical puzzles have pieces that must be arranged in some way. The world's best-selling puzzle, the Rubik's Cube, is a mechanical puzzle. As of 2020, over 450 million Rubik's Cubes had been sold.

Jigsaw puzzles also fall into this category. They typically involve putting pieces in the right place to form a picture. Jigsaw puzzles have from two to over 550,000 pieces — the largest one on record.

Logic puzzles

Figuring out the solution to a logic puzzle requires careful thought rather than guessing. Sudoku and Mine Finder are examples of logic puzzles. In Mine Finder players must determine where the mines are hidden in a grid.

Math puzzles

Math puzzles involve numbers, words or objects and the use of math. Surprisingly, the ever-popular Candy Crush is classified as a math puzzle. Math skills are required for players to successfully move and match colored candies.

There are many other kinds of puzzles. But no matter which you prefer, puzzles are a great way to entertain.