As a result, songs sound like noise to an amusic. Many amuics compare the sound of music to pieces of metal hitting each other. Life can be hard for amusics. In fact, most people cannot understand what it feel like be amusic. Just going to a restaurant or a shopping center can be uncomfortable or even painful. That is why many amusics have to stay away from places where there is music. However, this can result in social loneliness. "I used to hate parties,"says Margaret, a seventy-year-old woman who only recently discovered that she was amusic. By studying people like Margaret, scientists are finally learning how to identify(辨别) this unusual condition.

  Scientists say that the brains of amusics are different for those of people who can enjoy music. The difference is complex(复杂的), and it is not connected with poor hearing. Amusics can understand other non-musical sounds well. They also have no problems understanding common speech. Scientists compare amusics to people who just can't see certain colors.

Many amusics are happy when their condition is finally diagnosed(诊断). For years, Margaret felt embarrassed about her problem music. Now she knows that she is not alone. That makes it easier for her to explain. "When people invite me to a concert, I just say "No, thanks. I'm amusic." says Margret.

    There is a popular belief that goldfish only have a three-second memory. But a 15-year-old schoolboy from Adelaide has just finished an experiment to tell us that it is not true. He shows everybody that the goldfish is smarter than we think.

    "I don't believe that they had a three-second memory because animals need their memory, so they build up over time a knowledge of where the food is," said Rory Stokes, a student at the Australian Science and Mathematics School.

    He did the experiment in a small tank(鱼缸)of goldfish. "I decided to get a bit of red Logo and just feed them next to that. Every day I'd put it in and spread food around it." He said.

    "At first they were a bit scared of it, but by the end of the three weeks, they were actually almost coming before I put the food in."

    After leaving the fish alone for a week, Rory placed the red Logo block in the tank again.

    "They remembered perfectly well," he said.

    "They actually had a time faster than the average(平均)of the three feeds before I left."

    The goldfish showed that they not only could store information, but also had the ability to get it back at a later date.

    Culum Brown, a researcher at Sydney′s Macquarie University, has studied fish behavior for more than ten years.

    He says his studies of Australian native fish show fish are smart animals that know how to avoid enemies and catch food like any other animal.

    "The thing that I really liked about Rory′s experiment is that he not only got that classical conditioning going but the fact that he could get thorn next just to that specific coloured marker. I thought it was really good." He said.

    The World Health Organization(世界卫生组织) says air pollution kills seven million people around the world each year. Even if polluted air does not kill us, it can make us very sick.

    However, breathing dirty air may do more than hurt your body. It can also affect(影响) your brain and your ability to think.

A new study shows that air pollution can cause a "huge" reduction(减少)in our intelligence(智商).The researchers reported that long-term exposure(暴露) to air pollution can affect a person's mental(智力的) abilities in two areas: language and math.

Xi Chen, the researcher of the Yale School of Public Health led the study. He and his team found that breathing polluted air can reduce a person's education level by about one year.

    Chen said that the effect(结果) generally is worse for those over 64 years of age, for men and for those with little or no education.

    "The older persons-they are more affected. And we find, quite interestingly, men are more affected than women. And people working outdoors are more affected than people working indoors.

The researchers noted that the effect of pollution on language ability is even more serious as people age, especially among men and the less educated.

    Why were language skills more affected than math? There are two main kinds of tissue(组织)in the brain: white matter and grey matter. White matter is more connected with a person's language skills, while grey matter is connected to our ability to solve math problems. Studies have shown that air pollution has a great effect on the white matter in the brain, but not the grey matter.

    Chen said that air pollution did affect the math skills, just not as much as their language skills.

    What is the best way to help control air pollution in our towns and cities? Choose public transportation instead of private cars, or reduce the total amount of cars on the street. These can be useful. But here is a more creative way—write a poem.

    "I write in praise of air. I was six or five, when a magician opened my fist(拳头), and I held in my hand the whole of the sky."

    Professor Tony Ryan (the science expert) and Professor Simon Armitage(the words expert), from the University of Sheffield, UK, came up with the idea.

    But in fact, the poem is not the key part. It is the poster that the poem was written on that plays the biggest part. The poster is 10 meters by 20 meters. It is coated with nanoparticles(纳米粒) of titanium dioxide (二氧化钛). It can absorb the waste from around 20 cars each day if you put it by a busy road. The poster is now displayed on one of the University of Sheffield's buildings.

    It doesn't get rid of all the pollutants from traffic, but it will eat up things called nitrogen oxides (氧化氮). These play a part in breathing problems, including asthma(哮喘).

    The technology is cheap. "It would add less than £100 to the cost of a poster and would turn advertisements into catalysts(催化剂) in more ways than one," Ryan told the BBC.

    He's also working on another idea, which is to add the nanoparticles to washing powder, so that your clothes soak up these poisons while you walk along. And you wouldn't be able to see or feel anything different.