Today, the world's diversity (多样性) of food crops is quickly decreasing. But scientists around the world are taking action. They are building seed banks. At seed banks, scientists store the seeds of many different crops.

    There are now 1,400 seed banks around the world. However, some banks are in warm countries. If the electricity fails, the seeds will get too hot and die. Other seed banks are in countries troubled by war. Sometimes people damage the seed banks. If this happens, valuable seeds can be lost forever!

    The organization Global Crop Diversity Trust decided they wanted to deal with this problem. So, they decided to build a global seed bank. This seed bank would contain a back-up, or extra copy, of all the world's seeds. Smaller seed banks would still collect and keep local seeds. But they would also send copies of their seeds to the global bank.

    Scientists from the Global Crop Diversity Trust chose the cold, snowy mountains of Svalbard, Norway to build the global seed bank — the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (斯瓦尔巴全球种子库). Organizations, farmers, or local seed banks store their extra seeds there. And the people who place their seeds in the vault are the only people who can take them out. They pay to ship their seeds to Norway, but it does not cost them any money to store their seeds. The Global Crop Diversity Trust pays for this.

    Cary Fowler is a scientist who heads the Global Crop Diversity Trust. He said, “If the Seed Vault simply supplies seed banks with copies of seeds that those banks lost by accident, the Seed Vault will be worth more than it cost.”

    If a woman has an extra piece of cake, don't blame it on greed, blame it on her brain.

    Scientists have found that women's brains react to food very differently—and much more strongly—than men's. Academics found that decades of dieting pressure on women and advertising have programmed certain parts of the female brain to react strongly when faced with any kind of food. Men, on the other hand, are not usually as obsessive (着迷的) about what they eat.

    Dr. Rudolf Uher and his colleagues at the Institute of Psychiatry in King's College London used brain scanning technology, known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI), to look at the brains of eighteen men and women.

The volunteers were given images of food to look at, as well as food to taste. Their brain reactions were observed by the scientists.

    They found that the female brains reacted much more strongly than those of males.

    The same reaction did not happen when they were shown non-food images. The team believe this means women think more about food than men tend to do.

    Dr. Uher said, “This could be related to biological differences between men and women. But the more likely explanation is that women have a more complicated reaction to food because of social pressure.

    Professor Carey Cooper, psychology and health professor at Lancaster University, said, “For centuries women have had a providing role — preparing and cooking food for their families. And it is part of that rule to make sure the food is safe. They will therefore be much more sensitive to food than men are, and I would not be surprised if that was now built into their DNA. If the female brain reacts to food because it historically has developed neural (神经的) pathways to do this, then food will be the way they express their stress. Food actually, is a comfort for women.”

    But other experts have said that more research must be done before the results can be proved. American scientist Angelo del Parigi of the John B. Pierce Laboratory in New Haven, Connecticut, said, “Looking at an FMRI alone cannot make sure whether the stronger reaction in women is due to innate (天生的) differences or a learned process.

    As any parent knows too well, sometimes a little white lie is the only way to make a naughty child quiet. Indeed, parents have shared the top white lies they've told their children. While some of them are amusing, others are somewhat cruel.

    “Father Christmas is watching you,” “Carrots will make you see in the dark” and “Your pet has gone to live on a farm” are among the top white lies parents tell their children. The top 20 list of little lies that adults use shows that four in five parents have told their children something that isn't true. The threat of Father Christmas is on the top, with 62 percent of parents employing St. Nick to keep their kids under control. The second on the list is: “We'll see”, which any little one knows really means “no”.

    The majority of British people say that they lie to their children to protect their innocence, to save them from being upset or to stop them behaving badly. The top white lie told to kids about their pets is “your pet has to live on a farm in the countryside”, which is employed after one dies or has gone missing. On average, parents think that children are ready to start learning about death at the age of seven and a half.

    One 62-year-old recalled that when he was four, his cat ran away, because it kept having its tail pulled. It was 53 years later that it was revealed that the cat had actually been given away to stop it from scratching the furniture. One respondent (应答者) said that he still remembered that when he was young, he believed his father's statement that the entire world used to be in black and white before colour photography came along.

    Forty percent of parents say that they would definitely lie to their children to keep up their belief in Father Christmas, and over all say they'd certainly tell the truth about a pet dying. However, one in ten parents say they've replaced their children's dead pet with a one looking the same to cheat their children into believing it was still alive and well, found the study by Blue Cross pet charity.

    Try this: For an entire day, forget about the clock. Eat when you're hungry and sleep when you're tired. What do you think will happen?

    You may be surprised to find that your day is much like most other days. You'll probably get hungry when you normally eat and tired when you normally sleep. Even though you don't know what time it is, your body does. These patterns of daily life are called circadian rhythms(生理节奏), and they are more than just habits. Inside our bodies are several clocklike systems that follow a roughly 24-hour cycle. Throughout the day and night, our inner clocks direct changes in temperature, body chemicals, hunger, sleepiness and more.

    Everyone's rhythms are different, which is why you might like to stay up late while your sister always wants to go to bed early. But on the whole, everyone is programmed to feel tired at night and energetic during the day. Learning about our body clocks may help scientists understand why problems arise when we act out of step with our circadian rhythms. For example, traveling across time zones can make people wake up in the middle of the night. Regularly staying up late can make kids do worse in tests.

    "There is a growing sense that when we eat and when we sleep are important parts of how healthy we are," says Steven Shea, director of the Sleep Disorders Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

    One way to learn about how our body clocks tick is to mess them up and see what happens. That's what neurologist(神经病学家)Frank Scheer and his workmates did in a recent study. Staying up night after night, their studies suggest, could make kids extra hungry and more likely to gain weight. And regularly sleeping too little, Scheer says, may be one cause of the recent increase in childhood obesity.

    There have always been a lot of commonly believed but false ideas about being fat and doing exercise. Some people believe that they can't help putting on weight as they get older, while others hold that if they stop exercising, their muscles will turn into fat. Here are some more myths:

I'll never lose weight — I come from a fat family.

Wrong! While we can't change the body type we are born with, we can't blame our genes for making us fat. There's plenty of evidence that fatness runs in families, and the main reason is that they share the same habits of eating too much and exercise too little.

    I am fat because I burn calories slowly.

Wrong! Fatness is not caused by a slow metabolism (新陈代谢). If fact, although fat people consume more energy that slim people, they also fail to realize how much they eat! Keeping a diary can help you work out your daily food intake more accurately.

    Exercise is boring.

    Wrong! Anything will become boring if you do it many times. The key is to develop a balanced and varied program that's fun as well as progressive. If you enjoy a Sunday walk, take a different route. If you do Yoga, try a tai chi class. If you like swimming, set yourself a distance or time challenge.

    No pain, no gain.

    Wrong! Exercise is not meant to hurt. Indeed, pain is your body telling you something's wrong, and continuing to exercise could lead to serious injury. You may experience mild discomfort as you begin to exercise regularly, but this your body adapting to the positive changes in your lifestyle and the aches should disappear relatively quickly. If you don't, rest and seek medical advice.

    NYRR is celebrating 20 years of free youth running in Central Park at the NYRR Summer Community Run. This event is perfect for all ages, with waves for runners, walkers, and families with strollers(婴儿车), to encourage participation by all.

    Take on a 1.5-mile course and then enjoy the post-race festival full of fun activities.

    Note: Please be sure to register all those who will be participating on race day­including those little ones in the stroller.

    Live Results

    Live unofficial results are available during the race at liveresults.nyrr.org and in the NYRR app, including leaderboards, map tracking, and an individual runner search that can be shared on Twitter.

    Race Number Pickup

    Numbers and souvenir (New Balance water bottle) may be picked up at the NYRR RUNCENTER at 320 West 57th Street on the following dates:

    * Sunday, August 11, 9: 00 a. m. ­5: 00 p. m.

    * Monday­Friday, August 12­August 16, 7: 00 a. m. ­8: 00 p. m.

    * Saturday, August 17, 8: 00 a. m. ­7: 00 p. m.

    Show the QR code(二维码) from your race confirmation email or your NYRR account to pick up your race materials. Please pick up during the week to avoid crowds on race day. Race-day lines may affect your ability to get to the start on time. Please note that souvenirs may not be available at race-day pickup.

    Race-day pickup will be available at Race-Day Central in Central Park from 6: 00 a.m. to 7: 30 a. m.

    Detailed Route Info

    Begin your race on the west side of the 72nd St Transverse, and head south around the southern end of the park, continuing onto East Drive. Turn left onto the 72nd St Transverse and head to the finish line near Bethesda Terrace.