Songs help memories

    The power of music

    Most people can remember important news stories clearly, whether it was the murder of President Kennedy in the US or 9/11.But now psychologists Martin Conway and Catriona Morrison, from the University of Leeds in the UK, are investigating how music can create “autobiographical memories” of the main events in our lives. The study is online. People have to choose a song by the Beatles and describe the memories that they have when they listen to it.

Reminiscence bump

    Morrison explained that they looked at different age groups and their memories. We often remember more from when we are teenagers and this is called “the reminiscence bump”. This is the time in your life when you form your idea of who you are. For older people who have memories related to the Beatles' music, most of those memories are from when they were teenagers. But younger people also had clear personal memories from their past.

    She loves you

    This study was different from other memory studies, because people remembered events from their past with lots more details. Morrison explained:     “It was like people had travelled back to the past, and they had very clear memories of things that had happened. When they heard a song like She Loves You by the Beatles, they could remember one night in autumn 1963.They remembered what they were wearing, what the weather was like and what their friend said to them. You get a lot more information than if you just say, ‘tell me about a night you remember'. ”

    The study has found that music could be used with people who have problems remembering the past. “You could use music to help improve people's ability to remember,” said Morrison. “In the future, we would like to do more experiments to see how useful music is in helping people to remember the past, and compare it to other things that might also help.”

    Every day there is less and less space on Earth for rubbish. Yet every day we make more and more rubbish. What can we do? We can recycle some of our rubbish. Recycling means that the rubbish will be made into something that can be used again.

    Recycling helps Earth. And it saves space in rubbish dumps. Half of everything that we put into landfills could be recycled instead. In fact, most things made of paper, metal, glass and plastic can be recycled.

    Paper can be broken into small pieces and made into new paper. Steel and aluminum cans(金属雄)can be melted down(熔化)and made into new cans. The same is true of glass bottles. This can be done over and over again. Recycling doesn't take as much energy as making these things the first time. So we can use less of Earth's fuel resources.

    Plastic can be melted down, too. Then it can be formed into park benches, playgrounds and so on. Some people call plastic the "wood" of the future. Things made of plastic will last about 400 years-even if they stay outside in the weather. No wood can do that!

    A series of Chinese landscapes (风景) created by an AI (人工智能) robot, named Gemini, is shown in London.

    It was believed to be the first AI-made ink work. Ink Now Chairman Calvin Hui sees it as the start of the tech ink times.

    It took Victor Wong, the Hong Kong artist, around three years to build and program Gemini. He has been interested in traditional art since he was young. "Few younger people nowadays care about ink, so I decided to bring technology and ink art together." says the artist, "I want to tell them that ink painting is not that hard to do."

    Each landscape painting can take around 60 hours to finish. First, the robot artist creates his own landscape in his AI mind. Then he's traveling inside his mind and picking up an angle (角度) because it's 3D. After that he uses an arm that puts the brush into ink and water before sweeping across Xuan paper to create Chinese Shuimo artwork.

    However, in some people's opinion, whether robots can create ink art like human artists is not sure because the ink lines were too, straight while works created by human hands are better. "I'm open to all comments," he said, "I'm keeping an open mind as to whether machine-made art can be seen as art. But I hope it will bring an imagination to artists on how to mix technology while painting or creating.

    Welcome to the 26^th century! Cyborg technology is a way of life. People with human brains and artificial (人造的) bodies are everywhere.

    This is the future world shown in the film Alita: Battle Angel.US director James Cameron made the film. The movie came out in the Chinese mainland theaters on Feb 22.

    The story is based on Japanese manga artist Yukito Kishiro's popular manga series of the same name. The main character, a cyborg, is a girl named Alita.

    One day, she wakes up in wreckage and finds that she has lost her memory. Luckily, a doctor saves her. As she starts her new life, Alita finds she has superhuman abilities. She decides to find the truth behind her origin. She started a journey that leads her through a dark world.

    In Cameron's own words, the movie is "not like any of the films that I've done before". Its visual effects are especially impressive. The film's actors used the latest motion-capture (动作捕捉) technology. They wore special suits that record their movements. Later, motion-capture editors use these movements to make special effects. Rosa Salaza plays Alita. She wore a suit with more than 7, 000 pieces and layers. It can capture human movement. The model that was used for her face was changed nearly 5, 000 times to make it more lifelike.

    Populations of white-tailed deer(白尾鹿) are growing rapidly in many parts of the United States. As populations grow, food becomes a problem. Many deer die of hunger. Others grow up small and unhealthy. In search of food, hungry deer move closer to where humans live. They eat farm crops, vegetables and even trees. Besides, increased numbers of deer near roads can cause traffic accidents.

    People admire the grace and fast speed of deer. Most people don't want these animals to be hungry and ill. Should people take action to control the growing deer populations?

Should People Take Direct Action?

    Many people think that hunting(打猎) is the best way to control the animal populations. Wildlife managers will see if there's enough food in an area and decide its carrying capacity(容量). Then hunters with licenses are sent to help control the number of deer. Hunting is usually not allowed in cities or suburbs, however.

    Some people have the idea to catch the deer and move them to other places. But this method is expensive and requires finding another place that can accept the deer without breaking the balance of ecosystem(生态系统).

    Scientists are also working to develop chemicals(化学药品) to control the birth rate(率) in deer populations. But this plan works for only one year at a time.

Should People Take Indirect Action?

    Some suggest bringing in natural enemies of deer, such as wolves, lions and bears, to areas with too many deer. But these animals could also hurt dogs, cats, and even humans. Other communities have built tall fences(篱笆) around areas to keep out the deer. However, this is impossible for farmers.

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    Some people are against any kind of action. They support leaving the deer alone. Animal populations in an area naturally go up and down over time. Doing nothing means that some deer will die of hunger or illness. But finally, the population will reach a size within the carrying capacity(容量) of the environment. So, let nature go its own way.