As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remember less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.

       In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood thatthe computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.

       In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called "transactive memory (交互记忆)".

       According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access it at a later date. This doesn't mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.

    You're sitting on the sofa, and there's your dog, right at your feet. You stand up? He stands up. But then you head to the bathroom, and guess who comes with? Why, your dog, of course. But why? Why does your dog follow you like a shadow, no matter where you go?

    Ever get the feeling you're being followed? As for why your companion follows you everywhere you go, read on!

    "When dogs follow their owners, there can be several scientific explanations, depending on the dog and the individual situation," according to Mary Burch, Ph.D., an animal behaviorist(行为学家).

    These explanations include:

    Positive reinforcement(正面强化): When your dog follows you, good things happen. Think dog food, a hot bath and taking a walk around the neighborhood. Your dog's no dummy. And one of his many talents is learning from experience, that is "reinforcement."

    Natural instinct(本能) to be part of a pack: In fact, a study out of Princeton University that was published in the journal, Science Advances, shows that your dog's drive (驱动力)to follow you around (as well as watch you attentively and seek physical contact (身体接触) from you) lies in his genes(基因).

    Feel good chemicals(化学物质): Your presence causes your dog's brain to release "feel good" chemicals, Dr. Primm explains, citing this study. Considering how much we as humans enjoy those feel-good chemicals, it's no surprise your dog likes them too—and will follow you around to get some!

    Sense of responsibility : As you move about your home, your dog might feel that you are patrolling your territory (巡视领地) and take on the duty to assist you.

    In our twenties, we find it funny when we can't remember our neighbor's cat's name or a handsome actor who starred in a famous movie. In our thirties, we jokingly call it "brain freeze". In our forties, we laugh it off as a" senior moment" and follow up with one of these old age jokes. But the reality is that there comes a point when being forgetful stops being funny and starts to seem a bit dreadful. You think, "Am I losing it？"Or worse, "Is this a sign of Alzheimer's disease（老年痴呆症）？"

    Well, don't worry. The fact that you recognize your own forgetfulness may be a very good sign, at least in terms of the possibility of your developing Alzheimer's disease（AD）. The researchers in a new study show that it's not forgetfulness but not being aware that we're forgetful that we should fear.

    The researchers began with the assumption that one common feature of Alzheimer's dis-ease is a damaged awareness of illness. And they wanted to prove their theory that the lack of awareness can be used to predict whether someone with" mild cognitive（认知的）damage" will progress to full-on AD. For the study, "mild cognitive damage" was defined as someone whose mental state was considered healthy but who had either complained of memory loss or had suffered objective memory loss.

    The researchers used existing data for 1, 062 people between the ages of 55 and 90 that had been recorded over a 12-year period. The data included brain scans, which the researchers used to look for visual signs of reduced glucose uptake（葡萄糖吸收）.It is an objective marker of the sort of reduced brain function that goes along with AD.As expected, glucose uptake was reduced in those with AD. What the researchers also discovered was that glucose uptake was reduced in those with mild cognitive damage who also showed evidence of reduced illness awareness. Finally, the researchers found that those who had reduced illness awareness were more likely to develop AD than those without.

    You may probably meet most of the powerful graduation speakers, here who are well-known people in their fields. I think the schools couldn't have picked better speakers than them, because they set good examples, deeply inspiring us in our daily life.

    1) Steve Jobs, Stanford University:

    "Remembering you're going to die, and the best way I know is to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose. There is no reason not to follow your heart. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice... "

    2) Oprah Winfrey, Stanford University:

    "I consider the world, this Earth, to be like a school... And the secret I've learned to get ahead is being open to the lessons from the grandest universe of all. Don't react against a bad situation. And the solution will arise from the challenge. So don't give up easily, acting with responsibility... "

    3) Bono, University of Pennsylvania:

    "For four years you've been buying, trading, and selling everything you've got in this market-place of ideas. Your pockets are full, even if your parents' are empty, and now you've got to figure out what to spend it on... The world is more flexible than you think and it's waiting for you to hammer it into shape... "

    4) Michael Dell, University of Texas at Austin:

    "Now it's time for you to move on to what's next and obtain your desire. But you must not let anything prevent you from taking those first steps. Don't spend so much time trying to choose the perfect opportunity, or sometimes you'll miss the right opportunity. Recognize that there will be failures and obstacles. But you will learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others."

    Charles Darwin lived an unusually quiet life. In 1842, Darwin and his wife Emma moved from London to Kent in southern England to have as little disturbance (烦扰) as possible. They already had two children then, and would go on to have eight more in the country.

    Darwin had very regular (有规律的) habits. He rose early and went for a walk. After breakfast he worked in his study until 9：30 am, his most productive time of the day, and then read his letters lying on the sofa before returning to work.

    At midday he would go for another walk with his dog, stopping at his greenhouse to inspect (查看) his experiments. Then he would go for another walk around an area of woodland. While walking on his "thinking path", Darwin would consider his unsolved scientific problems.

    After lunch he read the newspaper and wrote letters. His network of friends provided information from all corners of the world.

    The Darwins were not very strict parents and the children were always seen running wild. Their father worked patiently to a background of playful shouts and little footsteps walking past his study door.

After dinner Darwin played backgammon (a game for two people to play) with his wife. He once wrote, "Now the result with my wife in backgammon stands like this: she... has won only 2,490 games, while I have won, hurrah (a cheer of joy or victory), hurrah, 2,795 games!"

    Although he had poor health, Darwin continued to publish (出版)a lot of creative works until his final book in 1881. He died the following year, aged 73.

    Rather than a quiet space in the local churchyard, which he called "the sweetest place on Earth", Darwin was given a state funeral (国葬) in London's Westminster Abbey.

In the story of "The crow and the Pitcher" from Aesop's Fables, a thisty crow (乌鸦)drops stones into a narrow jar to raise the low level of water inside so he can take a drink.

Now scientists have evidence to back up that story. Crows actually do understand how to make water displacement (移位) work to their advantage, experiments show. The results suggest that the birds are, at least in some aspects, as smart as first-graders.

Researchers, led by Sarah Jelbert at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, presented six crows with tubes filled with water. Inside the tubes, a worm or piece of meat on a piece of wood was floating, just out of reach of the crow. In front of the tubes, the researchers arranged several rubber erasers that would sink, and some plastic objects that would float. The crows found out that they could drop the erasers into the tubes in order to raise the water level and get their snack.

However, the birds handled awkwardly in experiments in which they could choose to drop objects in either a wide tube or a narrow one to get a snack, the researchers said. Dropping objects into narrow tube would lift the water level by a greater amount and put the treat within reach after just two drops; while it took around seven drops to raise the snack to the same level in the wide tube. The crows obviously didn't realize this, and most of them went for the wide tube first.

Previous studies showed that chimps and human children can solve similar tasks. In a 2011 study, chimps and kids found out that they could put water into a tube to reach a peanut that was floating in a small amount of water at the bottom.