“A good book might clarify something you knew little about, transform your world view, or move you in ways you didn't think possible. The Soul of an Octopus(章鱼)delivers on all three, ”the magazine New Scientist commented.

    After writing about birds, pigs and tigers, US naturalist Sy Montgomery decided to choose these many-footed animals as the subject of her latest book, The Soul of an Octopus: a surprising exploration into the wonder of consciousness.

    “Here is animal with poisonous liquid like a snake，a beak(喙)like a parrot，and ink like an old-fashioned pen. It can weigh as much as a man and extend as long as a car, yet it can pour its baggy; boneless body through an opening the size of all orange. It can change color and shape. It has a tongue covered with teeth. It can taste with its skin.” Montgomery explained to the National Geographic on why octopuses inspired her.

    What Montgomery is able to show in The Soul of an Octopus is that octopuses are creatures who exhibit personality, intelligence and emotion, despite having nervous systems completely different from our own. She uses different experiments to show that they possess consciousness as well as individual personalities. For example, based on her research, she finds out that Octavia, an octopus caught in the wild, is friendly and good at multi-tasking. And Kali, another octopus，who has been living at the New England Aquarium, is playful and loves exploring.

    Montgomery is a good storyteller. Through her study of, and communication with, these extraordinary creatures she shares what she learns from both science and her experiences. Her skillful writing presents facts together with personal description, which makes the book very informative but easy to read.

    Jealousy is such a powerful emotion that at least one study has characterized it as the third leading cause of non-accidental homicide(杀人) in all cultures. In a recently published study, researchers experimented with dogs to see whether they, like humans, have the nature of jealousy.

In an experiment, the authors took 36 dogs—along with their owners—and observed the dogs' behavior as their masters interacted with three non-living objects. One object was a children's book, which they read aloud; another object was a plastic pumpkin lantern; and the third was a mechanical stuffed dog that gave out a bark when the owner pressed a button.

    Former studies concluded that babies were probably capable of jealousy. In the experiment, their mothers showed attention to a life-like doll instead of their child, and other objects. The babies were reportedly more likely to respond with “negative” behavior if their mother turned to pay her attention to the doll.

    In the dog experiment, authors instructed the dog owners to push the bark button on the stuffed dog's head, and then speak to it sweetly, while ignoring their own dog. After that, they showed attention to the pumpkin lantern, and read the children's book, while also ignoring their dog.

    It is interesting to see the dogs were far more likely to act aggressively when their owners spoke to the stuffed dog than when they paid attention to the other objects. One-fourth of the dogs snapped at the stuffed dog, while only one dog snapped at the lantern or the book. The dogs were also more likely to push or touch their owners as they interacted with the mechanical dogs, and tried to get in between the owner and the stuffed dog more frequently than the other objects.

    “One possibility is that jealousy developed in species of many young relying on the parents, the young compete for parental resources such as food, attention, care, and affection,” the authors wrote.

    When Mackenzie Foy got the call from film director Lasse Halls telling her that she'd landed the role of Clara in the newDisney film The Nutcracker and the Fоur Rеаlmѕ, she said "yes immediately. "I was just excited to go on a new adventure," Foy told the Evening Standard. Indeed, when many actors and actresses choose to appear in films simply for the fame and exposure, Foy, the17-year-old US actress, does it for the "adventure".

    It's true that every movie Foy has ever been in is an adventure. In The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn for example, the then 11-year-old Foy plays a half-human-half-vampire girl who has a superpower. In Interstellar, then 14, plays the daughter of a scientist who travels across the universe to try to find ways to save human beings from destruction. And now, in The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which will be released in Chinese cinemas on November 2, Clara is going on yet another exciting journey. This time, she allows a doll that her parents give her as a Christmas gift into a strange world.

    Foy likes excitement in real life, too. In fact, she has a first-degree black belt in tae kwon do( MY y ilÏ)."I am dying to do an action movie," she told VanityFair. "I can do my own stunts." And not happy with simply being in front of the camera, Foy dreams of trying something new one day. I want to be a director once I finish high school," she told the Evening Standard. "I want to make films that will make people end up looking at the world in a different way, so that they will feel inspired and learn something new."

    Walk through the Amazon rainforest today and you will find it steamy, warm, damp and thick. But if you had been there around 15,000 years ago, during the last ice age, would it have been the same? For more than 30 years, scientists have been arguing about how rainforests might have reacted to the cold, dry climate of the ice ages, but till now, no one has reached a satisfying answer.

    Rainforests like the Amazon are important for mopping up CO2 from the atmosphere and helping to solve global warming. Currently the trees in the Amazon take in around 500 million tons of CO2 each year: equal to the total amount of CO2 given off in the UK each year. But how will the Amazon react to the future climate change? If it gets drier, will it survive and continue to draw down CO2? Scientists hope that they will be able to learn in advance how the rainforest will manage in the future by understanding how rainforests reacted to climate change in the past.

    Unfortunately, collecting information is incredibly difficult. To study the past climate, scientists need to look at fossilized pollen (花粉) kept in lake mud. Going back to the last ice age means drilling down into lake sediments (沉淀物), which requires specialized equipment and heavy machinery . There are very few roads and paths, or places to land helicopters and aeroplanes. Rivers tend to be the easiest way to enter the forest, but this still leaves vast areas between the rivers completely unsampled (未取样). So far, only a handful of cores have been drilled that go back to the last ice age and none of them provide enough information to prove how the Amazon forest reacts to climate change.

Jiyou village in Jianhe county, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, is known by many {#blank#}1{#/blank#} its ancient trees and Miao love songs. With simple folk customs and a forest coverage rate of more than 90 percent, the village is rich in Miao culture, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} was officially listed in the second group of Chinese {#blank#}3{#/blank#}（tradition）villages in August 2013. A grand festival {#blank#}4{#/blank#}（hold）on the second day of the second lunar month—the Bridge Worship Festival. At this time, the ethnic Miao prepare food and wine and perform songs and dances. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}（walk）into Jiyou village during the festival, one can see villagers {#blank#}6{#/blank#}（dress）in Miao costumes. Men hold Lusheng and flags, women carry baskets of wine and food and children are wearing new clothes. All converge（汇集）for the "bridge sacrifice" ceremony and celebrate under the leadership of village {#blank#}7{#/blank#}（elder）. During the day, along with the lilting rhythm of the Lusheng, residents dance {#blank#}8{#/blank#}（joyful）in the square, while tourists take photos and broadcast live {#blank#}9{#/blank#}（record）the moment. At nightfall, villagers and tourists light a bonfire in the center of the square. By {#blank#}10{#/blank#} light of the fire, they savor food and wine and enjoy the general atmosphere of friendship. 

When adult humans meet a baby, many can't help speaking in a higher-pitched (更高音的) and sing-song y voice. This shift, known as parentese, is not unique to humans. It has also been observed in animals like monkeys and gorillas. Now, scientists are adding one more species to that list: bottle-nose dolphins.

Dolphins are intelligent animals that live and hunt in groups. They communicate in a unique way: Every individual produces its own signature sound that acts much like an ID card, usually by its first birthday. But how does each come up with its distinctive whistle? For babies, it might have something to do with listening to Mum. To solve this mystery, researchers examined the sounds mother dolphins make.

Scientists studied 34 years' worth of recordings of sounds made by 19 female bottle-nose dolphins. When the mother dolphins were near their young, they continued to make their signature sounds, but at a higher frequency. They also used a wider range of frequencies than they did when their babies were not nearby.

This discovery suggests that using these modifications, mother dolphins assist their young in learning how to produce these calls themselves. Since baby dolphins often spend some years with their mothers before living on their own, it makes sense that this adaptation would help them learn to communicate. At the very least, the higher-pitched whistle likely gets the babies' attention. "It's important for a baby to know, ‘Oh, Mum's talking to me now,'" says marine biologist Janet Mann.

This kind of research could help us understand how language developed in humans. "It is absolutely essential to have basic knowledge about other species and how they communicate," says Mann. "I would be really interested to see whether dolphins also change their sounds when interacting with babies of others, which is what happens in humans."