“A room without books is like a body without a soul,” observed the Roman philosopher, Cicero. It can also be a sign of financial problems to come. New research has uncovered a strong connection between the earning of adults and whether they grew up surrounded by books as children.

    Three economists at the University of Padua—Giorgio Brunello, Guglielmo Weber and Christoph Weiss—studied 6000 men born in nine European countries and concluded that children with access to books could expect to earn more money than those who grew up with few or no books.

    They studied the period from 1920 to 1956, when school reforms saw the minimum school leaving age raised across Europe. They booked at whether, at the age of 10, a child lived in a house with fewer than 10 books, a shelf of books, a bookcase with up to 100 books, two bookcases, or more than two bookcases.

    Over the period studied, the research, published in The Economic Journal, found that an additional year of education increased a man's average lifetime earnings by 9%. Men brought up in houses with less than a shelf of books earned only 5% more as a result of the extra year's education, compared with 21% more for those who had access to a lot of books. And those who had access to books were more likely to move to the better-earning opportunities in cities than those without books. The men's first job was also much more likely to be a white-collar job.

    The economists offer a number of theories for the results. “Perhaps books matter because they encourage children to read more and reading can have positive effects on school performance,” they said.

    The number of books in children's homes can effectively predict their cognitive(认知的) test scores. This may indicate a home that encourages cognitive skills, which are important for economic success in life.

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    From now, if all goes well, a high-tech spacecraft will land in the South Pole of the moon. There, it will drill 66 feet down into the surface(表面) and collect samples of the mantle(地幔样本) to bring back to the earth.

    But before it leaves, it will have a two-part time capsule(时光胶囊): a public part, full of the Earth's history, and a private part, full of digital(数码的) memory boxes created by individuals(个人). These memory boxes can hold digital files — records of family trees, videos or actual DNA in the form of human hair. Not everyone can have a digital memory box, though. The boxes are only delivered for the people who donate the money to the project.

    The project, called Lunar Mission One, has already raised more than half of its ￡600,000 goal since its launch(启动) just a few days ago. The founders thought that it would succeed because of the attraction of both exploring the moon surface and leaving a time capsule behind. The mission was a technical action, but it was also an emotional one, bringing the excitement of knowing that something humans built on the Earth reached somewhere else in space.

    Still, it does seem risky(冒险的) for a person to donate￡60 to keep a digital memory box for a project that won't come true until 2024. What if the project never takes off? What if the technology isn't good enough? What if those digital memory boxes break on the moon's surface? And how will anybody ever even know if that happens? Ian Crawford, a professor at Birkbeck College in London and scientific advisor to the mission, says it is not necessary to worry about these. The plan to leave a time capsule on the moon isn't really about physically leaving something on the moon — it's more an opportunity to encourage people's interest in space.

    Human began farming around 12,000 years ago, and only in the past 50 years have scientists realized we're not the only species to research into agriculture. A new study has revealed that a small Fijian ant species beat us to becoming the first farmers by almost three millions years.

    The ants have been observed carefully sowing seeds, fertilizing (施肥) them, and waiting for them to grow into plants which bear tasty fruit. What led to the formation of this relationship remains a mystery to scientists. But it puts the ants millions of years ahead of the first human societies to use farming techniques.

    The newly discovered relationship is unique to the animal kingdom. Researchers say they have already watched ants spread seeds, and ants feed plants, but they never had a case where they farm a plant they can't live without. The ants rely on the plants for shelter and food, while the plants need the ants to sow and spread their seeds.

    The find puts the ants millions of years ahead of the first human societies to use farming techniques, who began using agriculture around 12,000 years ago.

    As the plants grow under the care of the ants, the plants to keep further growth. Once the plant is big enough, its hollow chambers provide shelter for the ants. It had previously been spotted that the ants like to live in these small chambers, but the Munich researchers have uncovered the true nature of the relationship that ants sow and take care of the plants to grow themselves a new home.

    The ants will eat the fruit of the plant and harvest their seeds for further projects.

While many other examples of mutually (相互地) beneficial relationships between ants and plants exist, the discovery marks the only case in which both parties other for are totally dependent on each other survival.

    I was waiting for my train and on the subway station's floor was a man just sitting there. I looked around and nobody stopped so I just went my way. After a few steps, I turned and asked him whether he needed help. He told me his house was one station further and he would only need to take the train there. So I reached for his hand to help him stand up.

    He wanted to take the stairs but I feared that he would hurt himself since he seemed too weak to walk, so I asked him to take the elevator. Even though my mind was trying to turn the danger lights on, I put the thought that I should not go alone with a drunken man out of my mind and accompanied him on the elevator.

    We arrived on the platform with no incidents. The man's knees seemed to soften, so I asked him to rest on a bench. While sitting there, he thanked me, telling me that I saved him. No, I said, I really did nothing; he saved himself as he walked on his own feet.

    At the next station, we said our goodbyes. Before I knew it, he left 100 dollars and dashed out of the train. There was no way to give him back his money. I wanted to leave it on the seat, but a young woman who thought it belonged to me ran after me and gave me the note.

    My initial reaction to getting that money was of shame and I even felt offended. Then I thought he just wanted to thank me, the best way he knew how. Now, my question is — what act of kindness shall I do with these 100 dollars?

    When returning to south-western Germany, where my parents live, it is compulsory for me to go on a hike to connect with nature and reconnect with myself. So, that is exactly what I did the first sunny Sunday back in the beautiful Black Forest. The Huzenbacher See is a tarn in the middle of the northern Black Forest with abundant nature surrounding it. Approaching it after a good hour walk, I saw fascinating blue dragonflies in quantity that attracted us by the way they flew around. They didn't stand still for a photo, as they landed on leaves for a split second. We were also surprised at the yellow water lilies that can be seen floating on its surface between June and July.

    Sitting down at one of the benches surrounding the lake for a picnic was satisfying in two ways. I was aware of the world's beauty that gave me the energy to continue up the mountain to reach the most amazing view looking over the lake. The other was to really fill myself up in order to continue the adventure adequately, full up on some snacks and refreshing water from the well.

    The hike up wasn't as hard as expected and a good path was provided with dirty rocks and slippery stones all under the shade of the tall trees. This took about an hour and a half until reaching the beautiful view of the lake and land below. Once we had taken in the astonishing views, the walk back down took another hour or so, making the hike a 3-to4-hour round trip, which was well worth it!

    Simply being back in the Black Forest and having such pleasant hikes is definitely good for the soul and I highly recommend getting yourself outside, be it in the Black Forest or anywhere outdoors. Get your intake of vitamin D and, most importantly, take in the moments that nature has to offer.

    Alexa is a form of artificial intelligence, or Al for short. Many people start their mornings by asking Alexa for the weather forecast or the latest news. A device (设备)that houses Alexa can also play music from your favorite playlists, keep a shopping list, order takeout food, answer questions, send voice messages and even run "smart" home controls.

    Training AI systems to respond to problems with human-like intelligence—and learn from their mistakes —can take months, or even years. Consider Alexa and similar software, such as Apples Siri. To do the tasks its human owners ask, these systems must make sense of and then respond to sentences such as, "Alexa, play my Ed Sheeran playlist" or "Siri , what is the capital of India?"

    Computers can't understand language as it is spoken by people. So AI researchers must find a way to help humans communicate with computers. The technology used to get computers to "understand" human speech or text is known as natural language processing. By natural language, computer scientists refer to the way people naturally talk or write. To teach an AI system a task like comprehending a sentence or responding to a person's last move in a board game, scientists need to feed it lots of examples.

    AlphaGO is an AI system designed by Google that has beaten a human champion, Lee Sedol, at the strategy(策略)board game Go. To train AlphaGo, Google had to show it 30 million Go moves that people had made while playing the game. Then AlphaGo used what it learned to analyze those plays as it played against different versions (版本)of itself. During this practice, the program came up with new moves —ones never seen in games between people.

    Computers, software and devices that are powered by AI can do much more, however, than just play board games and music. And one day they could make our life much easier and much more interesting.