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        A scientist working at her lab bench and a six-old baby playing with his food might seem to have little in common.After all,the scientist is engaged in serious research to uncover the very nature of the physical world,and the baby is,well, just playing…right? Perhaps,but some developmental psychologistshave argued that this“play”is  more like a scientific investigation than one might think.

Take a closerlookat the baby playing at the table.Each time the bowl of rice is pushed over the table edge,it falls in the ground—and, in the process, it belongs out important evidence about how physical objects interact ; bowls of rice do not flood in mid-sit, but require support to remain stable. It is likely that babies are not born knowing the basic fact of the universe; nor are they ever clearly taught it. Instead, babies may form an understanding of object support through repeated experiments and then build on this knowledge to learn even more about how objects interact. Though their ranges and tools differ, the baby's investigation and the scientist's experiment appear to share the same aim(to learn about the natural world ), overall approach (gathering direct evidence from the world), and logic (are my observations what I expected?).

Some psychologists suggest that young children learn about more than just the physical world in this way—that they investigate human psychology and the rules of language using similar means. For example, it may only be through repeated experiments, evidence gathering, and finally overturning a theory, that a baby will come to accept the idea that other people can have different views and desires from what he or she has. for example, unlike the child , Mommy actually doesn't like Dove chocolate.

Viewingchildhood development as a scientific investigation throws on how children learn ,but it also offers an inspiring look at science and scientists. Why do young children and scientists seem to be so much alike? Psychologists have suggested that science as an effort —the desire to explore, explain, and understand our world—is simply something that comes from our babyhood. Perhaps evolution provided human babies with curiosity and a natural drive to explain their worlds, and adult scientists simply make use of the same drive that served them as children. The same cognitive systems that make young children feel good about feel good about figuring something out may have been adopted by adult scientists. As some psychologists put it, ”It is not that children are little scientists but that scientists are big children.”

    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.

    Since his early childhood, G. A. Minton has always been a faithful fan of science fiction and horror. Whenever a scary movie was playing at the local theatre, he was there in attendance with his friends, loudly screaming in terror.

    In his everyday life, Minton likes playing the game of golf most, having lettered on his high school golf team. In addition to writing, he also enjoys reading, traveling, fishing, swimming, working out, listening to hard rock music, and watching great movies－especially those about horror, science fiction, mystery and comedy.

    Strangely enough, it was only after Minton was knocked down by a drunk driver and suffered a closed-head injury that he developed a new found passion for writing. After the car accident, he suffered from both memory loss and problems communicating with others, which frustrated him to no end. He had to go to see his doctor on a regular basis and for weeks he had to take medicine used by patients who are suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Luckily, his brain slowly began to mend itself.

    At the end of the healing process, something was very different. He noticed that he had developed a strong urge to write down a story that had formed in his mind. That's how his first novel Trisomy XXI was born. He penned（写作）it in only three months. He began with chapter one and wrote in a freestyle manner—almost in a stream of consciousness. The narrative flowed freely from his vivid imagination, creating a thrilling tale of terror that is formed from an ordered sequence of events.

    One could think that the damaged neurons（神经元）had rearranged themselves into a different pattern, and thus improving the creative elements in his brain. Besides, stranger things have happened! He has recently completed his second novel. Currently, his brain is busy at work, seriously processing the text for another -story of the terror-one that will both entertain and horrify its unsuspecting reader!

    New Zealand's chief conservation (环保) officer, Lou Sanson, caused an argument in October by suggesting that it should be time to start charging tourists for entering national parks. New Zealanders are keen fans of these parks. Many would be annoyed at having to pay. But many also worry about the incoming foreign tourists who have been seeking the same fun.

    In 2016 New Zealand hosted 3.5m tourists from overseas; by 2022 more than 4.5m are expected every year — about the same as the country's population. Tourism has become the biggest export. The national parks, which make up about one-third of the country, are a huge draw. About half of the foreign tourists visit one. They are keen to experience the natural beauty promised by the country's "100% Pure New Zealand" advertising campaign (and shown off in the film adaptations of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit", which were shot in New Zealand's breath-taking wilderness).

    But for every happy foreign couple posting for a selfie next to a tuatara (楔齿蜥) there is a New

    Zealander who remembers the way things used to be — when you could walk the tracks without running into crowds at every clearing. Many locals now wonder why their taxes, as they see it, are paying for someone else's holiday. Mr. Sanson would seem to agree. Entry fees could be used to upgrade facilities such as car parks and trails. A charge could also help reduce numbers at some of the popular locations by making it cheaper to use lesser-known, but no less beautiful, trails far away from home.

    Some are not so sure it would work. Hugh Logan, a former chief of conservation for the government who now runs a mountain climbing club, worries it would cost too much to employ staff to take money from hikers at entrances. It would also be difficult to prevent tourists from entering the parks without paying.

    Some argue that it would be easier to charge visitors a "conservation tax" when they enter the country. The Green Party, the third-largest in parliament (议会), says that adding around NZ$18 ($12.50) is still acceptable to foreign tourists. But some travel companies don't quite agree with the idea. They note that tourists already contribute around NZ$1.1bn through the country's 15% sales tax. Better, such firms say, to use foreign tourists' contribution to this tax for the protection of the parks.

    Among the fiercest critics of a charge are those who point out that free access to wilderness areas is an important principle for New Zealanders. It is documented in a National Parks Act (法案) which inspires almost constitution-like devotion among the country's nature-lovers. Mr. Sanson has a rocky path ahead.

    In the U. S. state of Washington, a road called Interstate(州际公路；州际的)90 cuts through a wild mountainous area to reach the city of Seattle. For the area's many kinds of animals, busy high- way greatly limits their movements. Animals need to move to find food, to find mates, to find new places to live as their populations expand or just when conditions change, like a fire breaks out. Crossing I-90 – as the road is called – is a risky but sometimes necessary act. But soon, animals will have a safer choice. They will be able to go above it.

    To help the animals, the state is finishing work on its largest - ever wildlife bridge. The 11-meter-tall, 20 - meter - wide bridge begins in the forest. It forms two arches above the highway, one for each direction of traffic. Workers are adding fencing anti plants to help guide the animals across the bridge, Two-meter-thick walls will help block noise from vehicles below. Scientists chose the area because it is within a natural migration(迁徙)path for some animals.

    The I -90 bridge is part of a growing number of wildlife crossings across the United States. Some are fences, some are overland bridges，and some are underpasses. They all aim to keep drivers and animals away from each other.

    A U. S. Transportation Department study found crashes between animals and humans rose year by year. The accidents made up about 5 percent of all crashes nationally, and cost the economy (经济)about ＄8 billion. Such costs come from car repaid, emergency room visits and removal of the dead animals on roads. Collisions between animals and drivers are rarely deadly to people. But they are often deadly to wildlife. The study also found that 21 endangered or threatened species in the U.S. are affected by vehicle hits. Bridges, underpasses and fencing reduce I he area's animal - driver collisions by 80 percent.

    Most of the wildlife bridges are in western states. Many other areas also need such paths. But finding money for more crossings is "the- number - one problem". Patty Garvey — Darda of the U. S. Forest Service has worked on the I - 90 crossing from the start of the project. She says the $ 6 - million bridge will one day pay for itself because the highway will not have to be fully or partly closed each time a large animal is struck. "If you shut clown Interstate 90, you shut down interstate trade." she adds.

    Humans are social animals. They live in groups all over the world. As these groups of people live apart from other groups, over the years and centuries they develop their own habits and ideas, which are different from other cultures. One important particular side of every culture is how its people deal with time.

    Time is not very important in nonindustrial societies. The Nuer people of East Africa, for example, do not even have a word TIME that is in agreement with the abstract thing we call time. The daily lives of the people of such nonindustrial societies are likely to be patterned around their physical needs and natural events rather than around a time schedule(时间表)based on the clock. They cook and eat when they are hungry and sleep when the sun goes down. They plant crops during the growing seasons and harvest them when the crops are ripe. They measure time not by a clock or calendar(日历),but by saying that an event takes place before or after some other event Frequently such a society measures days in terms of "sleeps" or longer periods in terms of "moons." Some cultures, such as the Eskimos of Greenland measure seasons according to the migration of certain animals.

    Some cultures which do not have a written language or keep written records have developed interesting ways of "telling time". For example, when several Australian aborigines want to plan an event for a future time, one of them places a stone on a cliff or in a tree. Each day the angle of the sun changes slightly. In a few days, the rays of the sun strike the stone in a certain way. When this happens, the people see that the agreed-upon time has arrived and the event can take place.

    In contrast(成对比), exactly correct measurement of time is very important in modern, industrialized societies. This is because industrialized societies require the helpful efforts of many people in order to work. For a factory to work efficiently (well, quickly and without waste), for example, all of the workers must work at the same time. Therefore, they must know what time to start work in the morning and what time they may go home in the afternoon. Passengers must know the exact time that an airplane will arrive or depart. Students and teachers need to know when a class starts and ends. Stores must open on time in order to serve their customers. Complicated(复杂的)societies need clocks and calendars. Thus, we can see that if each person worked according to his or her own schedule, a complicated society could hardly work at all.