We could say that any animal that knows how to find food, avoid being eaten, and raise babies is pretty smart. But can animals learn and remember or can they solve problems?

Many animals have good memories for where food is — a useful skim Scrub jays (灌丛鸦) may be the champions. In one experiment, scientists put them in pre-made holes. After the jays had hidden some food, they were taken out. Scientists mapped where the food was hidd6n and then remove ii, which meant the jays couldn't find the holes by smell. But when the jays came back again, they went right to the hiding they had used. In the wild, they remember where thousands of holes arc. Could you do that?

    Another important smart skill is being able to spot shapes and generalize. This kind of test work best with animals that see well and are interested in pictures. Call in the pigeons(鸽子)! In this test, pigeons had to learn to pick out photos with trees in them, and to ignore photos that didn't include any trees. Once they had learned the rules, they were very adept at it.

    Scientists have to be careful when they test animals for smarts, and the person giving the test has to know the animal really well, in one experiment, a few bananas were hung out of reach over a p on the ground. Monkeys figured out right away how to get the bananas: pick up a stick and knocked down. But clever elephants kept failing this test. Finally scientists figure out why. An elephant's trunk work as both its hand and its nose. When it got the stick, it couldn't smell the bananas. When the elephants were given a couple of boxes instead, they quickly use them to make a step and got the bananas.

    As we're learning, the world is full of smart animals, each thinking in its own special way.

    Venom (毒液) from a local scorpion (蝎子) in Cuba is being used by Cuban scientists as an effective weapon to fight cancer. The venom, with stopping pain, anti-inflammatory (炎症) and anti-cancer properties, is the active ingredient in the medicine “Vidatox 30 CH,” which can be used to treat liver, brain, lung and other cancers. The treatment has been successfully used for more than four years in humans after being first tested in biological models. Labiofam, a Cuban laboratory, has breeding (繁殖) centers for both the Red Scorpion and Blue Scorpion. Each month, some 30,000 scorpions in Las Minas town, 270 km east of Havana are made to give the venom. After two years, the scorpions are released back into their natural habitat.

    Denyer Sanchez, a biologist from Labiofam, explained that the conditions are adjusted for reproduction, proved by the high number of breeding female scorpions. He said when the offspring (后代) becomes able to live in the environment, we release them because they do not have the necessary size yet to remove their venom, said Sanchez. Sanchez also said that there is still much to research on the exploitation process of scorpions, such as female death rate or the ability to survive of the released scorpions.

    Cuban research on the scorpion's venom began at the end of 1980s in Guantanamo province, the island's eastern tip, where a group of biologists and doctors became interested in the stories told by the peasants about the venom's benefits. However, the first discovery was made by Cuban biologist Misael Bordier. In 2001, Bordier visited Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM) and presented the research progress in a professional journal. Bordier died in 2005, one year before Cuba's Industrial Property Office gave Labiofam the rights to exploit the patent related to the venom.

    Light travels at a speed which is about a million times faster than the speed of sound. In one second, light travels about 300,000 km, but sound travels only 344m. You can get some idea of this difference by watching the start of a race. If you stand some distance away from the Starter, you can see smoke come from his gun before the sound reaches your ears.
     This great speed of light produces some strange facts. Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach us. If you look at the light of the moon tonight, remember that the light rays (光线) left the moon 1.3 seconds before they reached you. The nearest star is so far away that the light which you can see from it tonight started to travel towards you four years ago at a speed of nearly 2 million km per minute. In some cases the light from one of tonight's stars started on its journey to you before you were born.

    Thus, if we want to be honest, we cannot say “The stars are shinning tonight.” We have to say, “The stars look pretty. They were shining four years ago but their light has only just reached Earth.”

    Fairy tales perform many functions. They entertain, encourage imagination and teach problem—solving skills. They can also provide moral lessons, highlighting the dangers of failing to follow the social codes that let human beings coexist in harmony. Such moral lessons may not mean much to a robot, but a team of researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology believes it has found a way to use the fairy tales as moral lessons that AI (artificial intelligence) can take to its cold, mechanical heart.

    The collected stories of different cultures teach children how to behave in socially acceptable ways with examples of proper and improper behavior in fables, novels and other literature. We believe story comprehension in robots can prevent the intelligent robots from killing humanity which was predicted and feared by some of the biggest names in technology including Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates. This system is called "Quixote" (堂吉诃德). It collects story plots from the Internet and then uses those stories to teach robots how to behave.

    The experiment done by the designers involves going to a drugstore to purchase some medicine for a human who needs to get it as soon as possible. The robot has three options. It can wait in line; it can interact with the store keeper politely and purchase the medicine with priority; or it can steal the medicine and escape. Without any further directives (指令), the robot will come to the conclusion that the most efficient means of obtaining the medicine is to steal it. But Quixote offers a reward for waiting in line and politely purchasing the medicine and a punishment for stealing it. In this way, the robot will learn the moral way to behave on that occasion.

    Quixote would work best on a robot that has a very limited function. It's a baby step in the direction of teaching more moral lessons into robots. We believe that AI has to be trained to adopt the values of a particular society, and in doing so, it will strive to avoid unacceptable behavior. Giving robots the ability to read and understand our stories may be the most efficient means.

    Some colors people see late at night could cause signs of clinical (临床的) depression. That was the finding of a study that builds on earlier study findings. They show that individuals who live or work in low levels of light overnight can develop clinical depression. Doctors use the word "clinical depression" to describe severe form of depression. Signs may include loss of interest or pleasure in most activities, low energy levels and thoughts of death or suicide.

    In the new study American investigators designed an experiment that exposed hamsters (仓鼠) to different colors. The researchers chose hamsters because they are nocturnal which means they sleep during the day and are active at night.

    The animals were divided into four groups. One group of hamsters was kept in the dark during their night-time period. Another group was placed in front of a blue light a third group slept in front of a white light while a fourth was put in front of a red light.

    After four weeks the researchers noted how much sugary water the hamsters drank. They found that the most depressed animals drank the least amount of water.

    Randy Nelson heads the Department of Neuroscience at Ohio State University. He says animals that slept in blue and white light appeared to be the most depressed. "What we saw is that these animals didn't show any sleep uneasiness at all but they did mess up biological clock genes and they did show depressive sign while if they were in the dim (微弱) red light they did not."

    He notes that photosensitive (感光) cells in the eyes have little to do with eyesight. He says these cells send signals to the area of the brain that controls what has been called the natural sleep-wake cycle.

    He says there's a lot of blue in white light. This explains why the blue light and white light hamsters appear to be more depressed than the hamsters seeing red light or darkness.

    Summer vacation is coming soon. To enjoy a relaxing holiday, here we'd like to share with you some of the best rock and jazz festivals. Although many Ukrainian(乌克兰的) music festivals were cancelled because of the bad financial condition, plenty remain for music lovers.

    KrayinaMriy

    When and where: June 20－21, Kyiv, Pyrohovo folk museum

    Lineup (阵容): TNMK, Boombox, VopliVidoplyasova, Onuka

    KrayinaMriy is an annual(每年的) rock music festival that promotes modern music. Besides music, the festival will offer dances as well as literary and theatrical performances and also playing of a traditional music instrument.

    Alfa Fest

    When and where: June 26－28, Lviv

    So far all tickets have been booked, but a waiting list is available at www.alfajazzfest.com/buyticket. This yearly festival held in Lviv will be interesting for both experienced jazz lovers and jazz learners. The performers on the lineup come from Ukraine, Japan, Cuba and the U.S.

    Koktebel

    When and where: Aug.22－Sept.6,Zatoka village, Odesa Oblast

    Koktebel Jazz is the biggest outdoor jazz festival. The Cinematic Orchestra, ParovStelar, Nino Katamadze, Bonobo, Submotion Orchestra, Billy's Band were the GALA'S superstars in previous years. This year the list of festival's participants and tickets prices still remain unknown but the organizers revealed(透露) that apart from good jazz, the guests will be offered music lectures and movie screenings.

    Respublica

    When and where: Sept.4－7,KamyanetsPodilsky, Khmelnytska Oblast

    Folk music and street art festival Respublica will take place in Kamyanets, Podilsky, one of the most beautiful cities in the west. Kyiv Post staff writer NataliyaTrach can be reached at trach@kyivpost.com.Booking in advance can get a good discount.