How fit are your teeth? Are you lazy about brushing them? Never fear: An inventor is on the case. An electric toothbrush senses how long and how well you brush, and it lets you track your performance on your phone.

    The Kolibree toothbrush was exhibited at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. It senses how it is moved and can send the information to an Android phone or iPhone via a Bluetooth wireless connection.

    The toothbrush will be able to teach you to brush right (don't forget the insides of the teeth!) and make sure you're brushing long enough. “It's kind of like having a dentist actually watch your brushing on a day-to-day basis,” says Thomas Serval, the French inventor.

    The toothbrush will also be able to talk to other applications on your phone, so developers could, for instance, create a game controlled by your toothbrush. You could score points for beating monsters among your teeth. “We try to make it smart but also fun,” Several says.

    Serval says he was inspired by his experience as a father. He would come home from work and ask his kids if they had brushed their teeth. They said “yes,” but Serval would find their toothbrush heads dry. He decided he needed a brush that really told him how well his children brushed.

    The company says the Kolibree will go on sale this summer, for $99 to $199, developing on features. The U.S. is the first target market.

    Serval says that one day, it'll be possible to replace the brush on the handle with a brushing unit that also has a camera. The camera can even examine holes in your teeth while you brush.

    By trying to tickle(挠痒痒) rats and recording how their nerve cells respond, Shimpei Ishiyama and his adviser are discovering a mystery that has puzzled thinkers since Aristotle expected that humans, given their thin skin and unique ability to laugh, were the only ticklish animals.

    It turns out that Aristotle was wrong. In their study published on Thursday, Ishiyama and his adviser Michael Brecht found that rats squeaked and jumped with pleasure when tickled on their backs and bellies. These signs of joy changed according to their moods. And for the first time, they discovered a special group of nerve cells. These nerve cells made this feeling so powerful that it causes an individual being tickled to lose control.

    To make sure that he had indeed found a place in the brain where tickling was processed, Ishiyama then stimulated that area with electrical currents. The rats began to jump like rabbits and sing like birds.

    “It's truly ground-breaking,” said Jeffrey Burgdorf, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University who reviewed the paper. “It takes the study of emotion to a new level.”

    Burgdorf has played a central role in our understanding of animal tickling. He was part of a team that first noticed, in the late 1990s, that rats made special noises when they were experiencing social pleasure. Others had already noted that rats repeatedly made short and high sounds during meals. But the lab where Burgdorf worked noticed that they emitted similar sounds while playing. And so one day, the senior scientist in the lab said, “Let's go and tickle some rats.” They quickly found that those cries of pleasure doubled.

    “The authors have been very adventurous,” said Daniel O'Connor, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University who studies touch. To him, that finding was very surprising.

    “Why does the world literally feel different when you are stressed out?” he said. “This is the first step towards answering that question. It gives us a way to approach it with experimental rigor(严谨).”

    Antarctica's ice white environment is going green and facing other unexpected threats. Scientists say that as temperatures go up in the polar area, invading (入侵) plants and insects, including the flies, cause a major threat.

More and more of these invaders, in the form of larvae(幼虫) or seeds, are surviving in coastal areas around the South Pole, where the temperature has risen by more than 3℃ over the past three decades. Glaciers have melted, exposing more land which has been occupied by mosses that have been found to be growing more quickly and thickly than ever before—providing potential green homes for invaders.

    “The common house flies are a perfect example of the problem the Antarctic now faces from invading species,” said Dominic Hodgson of the British Antarctic Survey. “It comes in on ships, where it exists in kitchens and then at bases on the continent. It now has an increasing chance of surviving in the Antarctic as it warms up, and that is a worry. Insects like the house flies carry bacteria that could have a deadly effect on native lifeforms.”

    The Antarctic has several native species of insects. Together with its native mosses these are now coming under increased threat from three major sources: visiting scientists increasing numbers of tourists and global warming. However, it is global warming that is the main driver of the greening of Antarctica.

    In 2015, more than 38, 000 tourists visited Antarctica. “These tourists are often very careful about not leaving waste or having mud. But they could carry seeds or larvae on their boots when they set foot on the Antarctic, “ said Hodgson.

    More and more invasive insects and plants have been found on the Antarctic and have required removal. “The insects and plants that are native to Antarctica have survived there for thousands of years,” said Hodgson, “We have got to act now if we want to save the environment.”

    Charity Cycling UK recently launched a campaign to raise awareness of dooring after discovering that many people don't know what it is. Dooring is when a driver or passenger opens the door into another road user—typically cyclist—without looking for other road users.

    Cycling UK chief executive Paul Tuohy told Gloucestershire Live: “Some people seem to see car dooring as a bit of a joke, but it's not and can have serious consequences. Cycling UK wants to see great awareness made about the dangers of opening your car door carelessly, and people to be encouraged to look before they open.”

    The charity says 2,009 of the 3,000 injuries were sustained by cyclists, resulting in five fatalities but says this might not be the full extent of the danger.

    Cycling UK says not all car dooring incidents will be attended by police, so the charity has written to transport minister Jesse Norman calling for a public awareness campaign urging all car occupants, not just drivers, to look before opening vehicle doors. One of the ways the charity suggests is the “Dutch reach”, where people leaving a vehicle reach over and use the non-door side hand to open the door.

    Cycling UK also suggests harsher laws and advice on safer road positioning for people who cycle.

    Mr. Tuohy said: “In the Netherlands they are known for practicing a method, known sometimes as the 'Dutch reach', which we think could be successfully encouraged in the UK.”

    “Cycling UK has written to the Department for Transport asking them to look into this, and highlight the dangers of 'car dooring' through a public awareness THINK style campaign.”

    If you're really concerned about opening a door into the path of a cyclist coming behind you, consider using what's known as the “Dutch reach” to open the door. That will naturally turn you in your seat and give you a much better view of what's coming up alongside in the car.

    Police Officer Tidwell left the station just after 8 a.m. on Sunday June 4. He had spent a boring night on duty and was looking forward to his day of rest. By habit he took a short-cut down the path behind Dugby Hall road and after a minute or two he saw a man climbing down a drainpipe (雨水管)from an open bedroom window of Number 29. In silence, Tidwell crept into the garden. The man reached the ground and was dusting himself down when he felt his arm caught.

    "It's 8:15 on a Sunday morning," said the officer, "and this sort of thing seems an unlikely adventure at such a time. Would you mind explaining?"

The man was obviously scared but tried to keep calm. He said, "I know what you are thinking, officer, but it isn't true. This is a funny mistake."

    "It's part of my job to take an interest in unusual events. I think you've just left this house in a manner other than the customary one. That may be quite innocent, but I'd like to make sure." Tidwell took out his notebook and a pen. "Name, address and occupation and then, please, tell me your story..."

    "Charlie Crane, lorry driver, from Nottingham, 51 Breton Street. My story..."

    "Yes. What were you doing like a fly on that wall, Mr. Crane?"

    "Well, I had a breakdown yesterday and had to stay the night here. Bed and breakfast. The land-lady's name is Mrs. Fern. She gave me breakfast at seven, and I was out of he: mthe right way and down at the lorry by half past seven. Only when I felt around for a cigarette did I realize I'd left $80 in my envelope under the pillow here at number 29. I always put it under my pillow at night. It's a habit I've got into. I even do it at home...

    "I see. Why didn't you miss it when you went to pay Mrs.... What's her name?"

    "I'd paid her last night. You've got to pay when you take the room, see? So I came rushing back, but it's Sunday, and she'd gone back to bed, and could I wake her? I rang the bell and banged on the front door for ten minutes before I came round here to the back and spotted my bedroom window still open. Up I went, then, up this pipe. It's a trick I learned in the army. She didn't make the bed、and money was still there. You know the rest, I hope you believe it because... "

    "Mr. Crane, whatever are you doing here? I thought you'd gone an hour ago." It was Mrs.  Fem, speaking from the kitchen at the corner of the house.