Watching a 3D movie can more than double the concentration powers and the cognitive（认知的）process of children,new re-search claims.

    A study by visual technology firm Read and led by child psychologist Dr Richard Woolfson and associate lecturer at Goldsmiths Patrick Fagan suggests that children aged between 7 and 14 experienced twice the cognitive processing speed and performed better in tests after watching 20 minutes of a 3D film.

    This suggests that children's attention spans have shortened in the last decade due to unlimited access to entertainment,including on-demand TV,gaming and social media.

    A 2015 study claimed that watching 3D content had a similar effect to brain-training exercises.

    Consumer psychologist Mr Fagan said that the increased stimulation found in watching something in 3D "exercised" the brain and improved performance in the short term.

    3D films can play the role of brain-training "games and help to make children 'smarter' in the short term," he said. "The response speed after watching 3D was almost three times as quick as that gained from watching 2D; in other words,3D helps children process aspects of their environment more quickly.This is likely because 3D is a mentally exciting experience which 'gets the brain's juices flowing'."

    Humans have been keeping animals as pets for tens of thousands of years, but Dr Jean-Loup Rault, an animal scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, believes new companions are coming: robot pets.

    “Technology is moving very fast,” Rault told ABC News, “The Tamagotchi in the early 1990s was really the first robotic pet, and now Sony and other big companies have improved them a lot.”

    This may not sit well with pet lovers. After all, who would choose a plastic toy over a lovely puppy? But Rault argues that the robotic kind has a lot going for it: “You don't have to feed it, you don't have to walk it, it won't make a mess in your house, and you can go on a holiday without feeling guilty.” The technology also benefits those who are allergic to pets, short on space, or fearful of real animals.

    It's not clear whether robot pets can replace real ones. But studies do suggest that we can bond with these smart machines. People give their cars names and kids give their toy animals life stories. It's the same with robots. When Sony stopped its repair service for its robot dog Aibo in March 2014, owners in Japan held funerals.

    As an animal welfare researcher, Rault is concerned about how robotic pets could affect our attitudes towards live animals. “If we become used to a robotic companion that doesn't need food, water or exercises, perhaps it will change how humans care about other living beings,” he said.

    So are dogs and cats a thing of the past, as Rault predicts? For those who grew up with living and breathing pets, the mechanical kind might not do. But for our next generation who are in constant touch with smart technology, a future in which lovely pets needn't have a heartbeat might not be a far-fetched dream.

    Heat has been used to control hair for hundreds of years. But how much is too much? If you have ever opened a very hot oven, you know that heat can burn your eyebrows off your face very quickly. A scientist from Purdue University in Indiana is trying to find a scientific answer on how hot is too hot when it comes to your hair.

    Many women and some men are very particular about their hair. Some people who have naturally curly hair prefer to have it straightened. Others with straight hair want to have curls. Tahira Reid is one of those people. As an African-American woman, she is familiar with the challenges of maintaining (保养)curly hair.

    Tahira Reid and other researchers at Purdue University are studying how heat treatment interacts with different types of hair and how to prevent damage. Amy Marconnet is an assistant professor. She says the team is seeing how heat and temperature relate to their research.

    In a Purdue University's lab, team members designed a hair straightener tool —a flat iron with temperature control. They attached it to a robotic arm that moved over pieces of hair. They controlled the temperature while the device straightened hair.

    What did they find? Their study found that the heat weakens or breaks a protein called keratin, responsible for the hair's shape, and temporarily changes it. But nobody knows exactly what level can make the heat actually cause forever change. Researchers say early results are a bit inconclusive.

    It turns out that everyone's hair is different and there's no exact temperature where hair straightening becomes hair damage. Ms Reid says they will continue their research in the hope of finding what works best without damaging hair.

    Coming to the end of my assistantship in Barcelona, I start to think about what the future might hold.

    It's been seven months and a few days since I arrived here and things have changed so much in what some might call a short period of time. When I first arrived in Terrassa I was excited and nervous to start a new adventure in a country I love. The first few days seem so long ago now, trying to find a place to live, organizing my timetable with the schools, meeting new people.

    However, a fortnight later, the excitement started to fade and I began to spend more than a few nights thinking about family and friends back home, wondering if I should be there with them. Everything started to change after meeting some new friends and spending good time with them, eating together and seeing new places as a group. I suppose we should never forget how important it is to have good people in your life, because they can make a difference.

    Coming back to Terrassa after visiting home for Christmas felt like returning to a second home, to a place that was mine with people I cared about. Things got even busier and more people came into my life; new friends, romance and a whole lot of good food flowed by in what seems to have been weeks, not months.

    Now, looking forward, there are some decisions to make. Should I return home to Scotland and move on with life there or try to extend my time here, perhaps make it something permanent? Experiencing other cultures or learning about the world is such an important thing to do if you have the means.

    My advice from my experience so far is to travel and try new things whenever you get the opportunity. You may find somewhere you were always supposed to be.

    Something very strange and mysterious was going on in Sesemann's house. Every morning, when the servants went downstairs, they found the front door wide open. During the first few days that this happened, every room and corner was searched in great alarm to see if anything had been stolen, but not a thing in the house had been touched. The door was doubly locked at night, and for further security the wooden bar was fastened across it; but it was no good – next morning the door again stood open. One servant even claimed he had seen a white figure standing at the top of the steps and then all in a minute it disappeared.

    Mr. Sesemann told his old friend, a doctor, what had happened in his house. That evening they decided to wait for the ghost. One o'clock struck. There was not a sound. Suddenly the doctor lifted his finger. "Hush! Don't you hear something?" They both listened, and they distinctly heard the bar softly pushed aside and then the key turned in the lock and the door opened. They stepped into the hall.

    "Who is there?" thundered the doctor in a voice that echoed through the hall, as the two men advanced with lights and weapons towards the figure. It turned and gave a low cry. There stood Heidi, with bare feet, staring with wild eyes and trembling from head to foot. The two men looked at one another in surprise. "Child, why did you come down here?" said Sesemann. White with terror, and hardly able to make her voice heard, Heidi answered, "I don't know." The doctor gently took the child by the hand upstairs.

    Then the doctor sat down besides her and asked her some questions in a kind voice. Later he went downstairs. "Sesemann," he said, "let me first tell you that the child is a sleep-walker; secondly, the child is consumed with homesickness. Something must be done at once."

    In 2012, Kim Stemple, a special-education teacher, found herself in a Boston hospital being treated for one of several diseases she had been diagnosed(诊断) with, including lupus and lymphoma. The normally confident Stemple was naturally getting very depressed. And then a friend gave her a medal.

    Before she got too sick to exercise, Stemple had been a marathon runner. The medal came from a racing partner who had just finished a half marathon in Las Vegas and hoped the souvenir would act as a kind of feeling pick-me-up. It worked like a charm­and then some.

    After Stemple hung the medal near her hospital bed, other patients said they wanted medals too. That got Stemple thinking. "A medal is a simple way to give a positive message," she told pilotonline.com. And so was born her charity, We Finish Together, which collects medals from strangers­runners, dancers, swimmers, singers, and even spelling bee winners-and donates them to all sorts of people in need.

    Those who received the medals have included hospital patients, residents of homeless shelters, and veterans. Part of the process involves the donor writing a personalized note on the ribbon. "This gives them a connection to someone," says Stemple. "If they receive a medal, they know someone cares."

    Can a simple medal really make a difference? Yes, says Joan Musarra, who suffers from pulmonary fibrosis. "I opened my package containing my new medal and the notes of positive, warm thoughts, I was overwhelmed," she wrote to Stemple. "At that moment, I was sitting on my couch breathing through life-support machine because my lungs have been worsening so badly. It means so much to me to feel that I am not alone."