Larger brain size linked to longer life in deer. The size of a female animals' brain may determine whether they live longer and have more healthy later generations, according to new research led by the University of Cambridge.

    The study, published in the Royal Society Open Science journal, shows that female red deer with larger brains live longer and have more surviving later generations than those with smaller brains. Brain size is heritable and is passed down through the generations. This is the first extensive study of individual differences in brain size in wild mammals and draws on data comparing seven generations of deer.

    Across species of mammals, brain size varies widely. This is thought to be a consequence of specific differences in the benefits and costs of a larger brain. Mammals with larger brains may, for example, have greater abilities that enable them to adapt better to environmental changes or they may have longer lifespans. But there may also be disadvantages: for instance, larger brains require more energy, so individuals that possess them may show reduced ability to give birth to young babies.

    The researchers, based at the University of Cambridge's Zoology Department and Edinburgh University's Institute of Evolutionary Biology, wanted to test if they could find more direct genetic or non-genetic evidence of the costs and benefits of large brain size by comparing the longevity(长寿) and survival of individuals of the same species with different sized brains. Using the skulls of 1,314 wild red deer whose life histories and breeding success had been monitored in the course of a long-term study on the Isle of Rum, they found that females with larger endocranial volumes(脑腔容量) lived longer and produced more surviving offspring in the course of their lives.

    Lead author Dr Corina Logan, a Gates Cambridge Scholar, says, "The reasons for the association between brain size and longevity are not known, but other studies have suggested that larger brains are a consequence of the longer-lived species having longer developmental periods in which the brain can grow. These predictions were generated from cross-species correlations; however, testing such hypotheses requires investigations at the within-species level, which is what we did. "

    Dr Logan adds, "We found that some of the cross-species predictions about brain size held for female red deer, and that none of the predictions were supported in male red deer. This indicates that each sex likely experiences its own set of trade-offs(权衡,协调) with regard to brain size. "The study also showed that females' relative endocranial volume is smaller than that of males, despite evidence of selection for larger brains in females.

    Professor Tim Clutton Brock, who set up the Rum Red Deer study with Fiona Guinness in 1972 and started the work on brain size, points out, "The reason that this kind of study has not been conducted before is that it requires long term records of a large number of individuals across multiple generations and data of this kind are still rare in wild animals."

    It is believed that some of animals think a great deal. Many of them are like children in their sports. Some birds are very lively in their sports; and the same is true with some insects. The ants, hardworking as they are, have their times for play. They run races; they wrestle; and sometimes they have mock fights together. Very busy must be their thoughts while engaged in these sports.

    Animals think much while building their houses. The bird searches for what it can use in building its nest, and in doing this it thinks. The beavers think as they build their dams and their houses. They think in getting their materials, and also in arranging them, and in plastering them together with mud. Some spiders build houses which could scarcely have been made except by some thinking creature.

    As animals think, they learn. Some learn more than others. The parrot learns to talk, though in some other respects it is quite stupid. The mocking bird learns to imitate a great many different sounds. The shepherd dog does not know as much about most things as some other dogs, and yet he understands very well how to take care of sheep.

    Though animals think and learn, they do not make any real improvement in their ways of doing things, as men do. Each kind of bird has its own way of building a nest, and it is always the same way. They have no new fashions, and learn none from each other.

    It is plain that, while animals learn about things by their senses as we do, they do not think nearly as much about what they learn, and this is the reason why they do not improve more rapidly. Even the wisest of them, as the elephant and the dog, do not think very much about what they see and hear. Nor is this all. There are some things that we understand, but about which animals know nothing. They have no knowledge of anything that happens outside of their own observation. Their minds are so much unlike ours that they do not know the difference between right and wrong.

    Some of Australian cyclists have used "GPS art" to turn a 202 km (125 mile) ride into the outline (轮廓) of a goat, which interests many people greatly.

    The four men marked their route on an app before using it track their journey around Perth. When uploaded to the computer, it was shown as a picture. Cyclist Ben Jones said the group settled on a goat because it was an easy animal to draw. He said the ride lasted more than six hours, with the four men stopping only for food, and flat tyres. "Except for riding 202km,' it's relatively simple," Mr. Jones told the BBC. "You mainly mark your route on the app and it plans directions out."

    GPS art has also been widely used by runners and other cyclists when they travel out. Mr. Jones said his group wanted to shake up their normal weekend ride. "We all ride 10, 000km to 15, 000km a year," he said. "Mostly we just ride together as mates and have a good time—that's what this was about."

    The group received much attention after posting their map to social media this week. Others described Mr. Jones as a goat guy in an interview on Australian television. For their next piece of GPS art, the group plans to draw a local animal such as the koala. "Certainly, there'll be something coming, for we are making our decisions to put more and more plans into practice. I'm sure of that," Mr. Jones said.

    The Great Depression that followed the stock market crash of 1929 saw hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work. In the years of great fear and depression, a lot of American citizens looked desperately to the federal government for assistance. Of all the programs designed by President Roosevelt when he took office in 1932, few were more criticized - or had more lasting impact - than the Work Projects Administration, better known as the WPA.

    The intention of the WPA, which functioned from 1935 to 1943, was to design and administer public works projects to help relieve unemployment. The majority of these projects involved historic or artistic attempts. The WPA's Writers Project, for example, was responsible not only for such practical works as state guidebooks but also for the collection of historically valuable oral histories. Over 2,900 of these records were collected in 24 states. They provide an irreplaceable firsthand account of people's diets, customs, celebrations, and political and religious beliefs at the time.

    The artworks created through the Federal Arts Project are one of the WPA's most lasting achievements. Out - of - work painters, both famous and unknown, created paintings that beautified schools, libraries, and government buildings, WPA photographers traveled across the country recording the hardships of life on small rural farms. When the United States entered World War Ⅱ in 1941, WPA artists were enlisted to produce posters supporting the war effort. Many WPA artworks, including hundreds of small drawings picturing scenes of everyday life, still exist today.

Babies made from three people approved in UK

    Babies made from two women and one man have been approved by the UK's fertility regulator. The historic and controversial move is to prevent children from being born with deadly genetic diseases.

    Doctors in Newcastle — who developed the advanced form of In Vitro Fertilization or IVF (人工授精) — are expected to be the first to offer the procedure and have already appealed for donor eggs. The first such child could be born, at the earliest, by the end of 2017.

    Some families have lost multiple children to incurable mitochondrial (线粒体的) diseases, which can leave people with insufficient energy to keep their heart beating.

    The diseases are passed down from only the mother, so a technique using a donor egg as well as the mother's egg and father's sperm has been developed.

    The resulting child has a tiny amount of their DNA from the donor, but the procedure is legal and reviews say it is ethical (伦理的) and scientifically ready.

    "It is a decision of historic importance," said Sally Cheshire, chairwoman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). "I'm sure patients will be really pleased by what we've decided today."

    But some scientists have questioned the ethics of the technique, saying it could open the door to genetically-modified(转基因) 'designer' babies.

    The HFEA must approve every clinic and every patient before the procedure can take place. Three-person babies have been allowed only in cases where the risk of a child developing mitochondrial disease is very high.

    Prof Mary Herbert, from the Newcastle Fertility Centre, said, "It is enormously pleasing that our many years of research in this area can finally be applied to help families affected by these devastating diseases".

    "Now that we are moving forward towards clinical treatments, we will also need donors to donate eggs for use in treatment to prevent affected women transmitting disease to their children."

    Prof Sir Doug Turnbull, the director of the Welcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research at Newcastle University, said, "We are delighted by today's decision. We will also provide long-term follow up of any children born."

    NHS England has agreed to fund the treatment costs of the first trial of three-person IVF for those women who meet the HFEA criteria, as long as they agree to long-term follow up of their children after they are born.

    Peter Damon produces about 30 paintings a year and sells them for between US$250 and US$1,500. That's not enough to make ends meet, but it has made him whole again. He lost both arms in an accident.

    "Having this skill that even normal people find difficult was something that really helped me and made me feel like I fit in more in the world," Damon said.

    He was a worker in a car factory. One day when he was working, there was a gas explosion (爆炸), killing one worker and injuring him.

    "I lost my right arm above the elbow, about three inches above the elbow, and my left about six inches below," he explained.

    "How am I going to make a living and take care of my family? I had always worked with my hands," he said.

    Then with a simple little drawing, a new future opened up for him.

    "I thought it was wonderful in a way," Damon said. "Something was telling me to focus on this and everything will be alright." Damon doesn't have a perfect prosthetic arm (假肢)—just a hook (钩子), which he finds works best.

He and his wife Jen run True Grit Art Gallery in Middleboro, Massachusetts, where he shows the works of local artists. With his disability check from the government, he can afford to be an artist. He is a man doing what he wants with his life, and doesn't look at his situation as a hard time.

    "I don't see it that way," Damon said. "Suffering an injury like this has a way of making you focus on what's important in life."

    He believes his best work is still ahead of him. But with his pictures of simple American scenes, Damon has already produced his best work.