Have you ever had trouble sleeping in a new place?

    Lots of people do. And now researchers from Brown University in Rhode Island think they know why. They found that one-half of the brain "remains more awake" than the other half when people are trying to sleep in a new place.

The sleep findings were reported in Current Biology by Brown University. In their report, the researchers said many people report they have a harder time sleeping the first night at a hotel or other places outside their home. They call it "first-night influence". "In Japan they say, 'If you change your bed, you can't sleep,'" said Yuka Sasaki, one of the report's writers. "You don't sleep very well in a new place. We all know about it."

    The researchers measured brain waves (测量脑波) for 35 volunteers over two nights in a laboratory. The two nights were a week apart (间隔). They found during the first night the left half of the brain was more active than the right half. This was during the first deep-sleep period, the researchers said.

    Sasaki said a lot of questions remain.

    Researchers did not keep measuring brain waves all night long. So, they don't know if the left half keeps "watch" all night, or whether it "works in shifts (轮换) with the right half later in the night". They also do not know why the brain activity, at least during the first period of deep sleep, is always on the left half.

    For some, this research may be calming. It is good to know that our brain is "looking out for us" in a new place. But it may not help with sleep. That brain activity, at least according to this new research, makes it harder to get the sleep people need to wake up well rested in the morning.

    With the development of science and technology, our daily life is becoming more colorful and more convenient .

    3D printing is becoming more and more popular. We are now able to print things such as clothing, prosthetic limbs (假肢), musical instruments(乐器) and so on. People and businesses are able to create the things they need very quickly and easily using 3D printers.

    But can you imagine printing food? Some scientists are trying to revolutionize our eating experience by doing this. They hope that having a 3D printer in the kitchen will become as usual as the microwave or blender. Scientists say that they are easy to use: you simply have to choose a recipe and put the food "inks" into the printer. You can also change the instructions to make the food exactly how you want it. This means that it would be very quick and easy to create delicious meals.

    Using 3D printers to create your meals would also be saving the environment. There would be less need for traditional growing, transporting(运输) and packaging as food production would be quicker and easier.

    Printing food could also help people who suffer from dysphasia (吞咽障碍症). They could program (为…编程) the printer to print softer versions of their favorite foods so that they would not have trouble eating them.

    However, some people think that the future of 3D-printed food would be a disaster. It could take away many jobs, including those for growing, transporting and packaging food. Imagine a world where there was no need for farming or growing crops and the same tastes could be printed from a raw "food ink". Similarly, traditional cafes and restaurants might lose business. Also, there are worries about the printed food: is it really possible to get the nutrients (营养物) we need from food-based inks and gels?

    What's more, cooking and eating together with family and friends has long been a traditional and enjoyable activity. It is hard to imagine a world where the fun of cooking is dead and meals can be done at the touch of a button.                                                        

    Have you ever had the strange feeling that you were being watched? You tum around and, sure enough, someone was looking right at you!

Parapsychologists(R y3)say that humans have a natural ability to sense when someone is looking at them. To research whether such a "six sense" really exists, Robert Baker, a psychologist(心理学家) at the University of Kentucky, did two experiments.

    In the first one, Baker sat behind unknowing people in public places and stared at the backs of their heads for 5 to 15 minutes. The subjects(受试者)were eating, drinking, reading, studying, watching TV, or working at a computer. Baker made sure that the people could not tell that he was sitting behind them during those periods. Later when he questioned the subjects, almost all them said they had no sense that someone was staring at them.

    For the second experiment, Baker told the subjects that they would be stared at from time to time from behind in a laboratory setting. The people had to write down when they felt they being stared at and when they weren't. Baker found the subjects were no better at telling when they were stared at and when they weren't.

    Baker concludes that people do not have the ability to sense when they are being stared at. If people doubt the outcome of his two experiments, said Baker," I suggest they repeat the experiments and see for themselves

    Many people have the wrong ideas about pigs. Pigs are actually(买际上) very clean animals. On farms, they live in dirty places, so they become very dirty. But in the wild, pigs keep themselves very clean.

    They are also very smart. They may he smarter than clogs. So pigs can learn things from people.

    Pigs are very friendly animals. Some people raise (饲养) them as pets. Of course, people raise the smart kind, not the big kind. Small pigs are very cute. And they don't break things in the house. Big pigs usually live outside on the farms, not in people's houses.