A brain can also simply be a smartperson,  If a person is called brainy,she is smart and intelligent. If a family has many children but one ofthem is super smart, you could say, "She's the brains in the family. "And if you are the brains behind something you are responsible for developing or organizing something. For example, Bill Gates is the brains behind Microsoft Brain trust is a group of experts who give advice. Word experts say the phrase "brain trust" became popularwhen Franklin D. Roosevelt first ran for president in 1932, Several professors gave him advice on social and political issues facingthe U.S.

    These professors were called his "braintrust." These ways we use the word"brain" all make sense. But other ways we use the word are not so easy to understand. Forexample, to understand the next brain expression, you first need to know theword “drain." As a verb to drain means to, remove something by letting it flow away. So abrain drain may sound like a disease where the brain flows out the ears. But, brain drain is when a country's most educated people leave their countries to live in another. The brains are, sort of, draining out of the country.

    However, if people are responsible for agreat idea, you could say they brainstormed it. Here, brainstorm is not an act of weather. It is a process of thinking creatively about a complex topic. Forexample, business leaders may use brainstorming to create new products, and government leaders may brainstorm to solve problems.

    If people are brainwashed, it does notmean their brains are nice and clean. To brainwash means to make someone accept new beliefs by using repeated pressure in a forceful or tricky way. Keep inmind that brainwash is never used in a positive way.

    At one time, computers were expected largely to remove the need for paper copies of documents(文件) because they could be stored electronically. But for all the texts that are written, stored and sent electronically, a lot of them are still ending up on paper.

    It is difficult to measure the quantity of paper used as a result of use of Internet-connected computers, although just about anyone who works in an office can tell you that when e-mail is introduced, the printers start working overtime. “I feel in my bones this revolution is causing more trees to be cut down,” says Ted Smith of the Earth Village Organization.

    Perhaps the best sign of how computer and Internet use pushes up demand for paper comes from the high-tech industry itself, which sees printing as one of its most promising new markets. Several Internet companies have been set up to help small businesses print quality documents from a computer. Earlier this week Hewlett-Packard Co. announced a plan to develop new technologies that will enable people to print even more so they can get a hard copy of a business document, a medical record or just a on-line e-mail, even if they are nowhere near a computer. As the company sees it, the more use of the Internet the greater demand for printers.

    Does all this mean environmental concerns (环境问题) have been forgotten? Some activists suggest people have been led to believe that a lot of dangers to the environment have gone away.

    “I guess people believe that the problem is taken care of, because of recycling（回收利用）,” said Kelly Quirke, director of the Rainforest Action Network in San Francisco. Yet Quirke is hopeful that high-tech may also prove helpful. He says printers that print on both sides are growing in popularity.

    The action group has also found acceptable paper made from materials other than wood, such as agricultural waste.

    It was already dark when an old man came to a small town. He found an inn and wanted to stay there for the night. After he had gone to his room, the owner said to his wife, "Look at his bag, dear. I'm sure there are lots of valuable things in it. I want to steal it when he is asleep."

    "No, no," said the woman. "He must look for his bag tomorrow morning. Then he'll take you before the judge." They thought and at last the woman had an idea. "We have forgetful grass," said the woman, "Why not put some into his food? If he has the food, he will forget to take his bag away." "How clever you are!" said the owner, "Don't forget it when you prepare supper for him."

    The old man had the food with the forgetful grass and went to bed. The next morning, when the owner got up, he found the door was open and the old man had left with his bag. He woke his wife up and said angrily, "What a fool! Your forgetful grass isn't useful at all."

    "No, no," said the woman. "I don't think so. He must forget something."

    "Oh, I've remembered!" The owner cried out suddenly, "He forgot…"

In the 1990s, a psychologist named Martin Seligman led the positive psychology movement, which placed the study of human happiness squarely at the center of psychology research and theory.

Since then, thousands of studies and hundreds of books have been published with the goal of increasing well-being and helping people lead more satisfying lives. But for over 40 years, self-reported measures of happiness have stayed stagnant (停滞的). Such efforts to improve happiness have been an ineffective attempt to swim against the tide, as we may actually be programmed to be dissatisfied most of the time. Why aren't we happier?

Part of the problem is that happiness isn't just one thing. Jennifer Hecht, a philosopher who studies the history of happiness, proposes that we all experience different types of happiness, which are not necessarily complementary Some types of happiness may even conflict with one another. In other words, having too much of one type of happiness may weaken our ability to have enough of the others. For example, a satisfying life is built on a successful career and a good marriage. It takes a lot of work and often requires cutting back on many of life's pleasures. That means we can't spend one pleasant lazy day after another in the company of good friends.

This difficult situation becomes more confused by the way our brains process the experience of happiness. A lot of evidence shows that most of the people possess something called the optimistic bias. They tend to think that their future will be better than the present.

Cognitive psychologists have also identified something called the Pollyanna Principle. It means that people process, rehearse and remember pleasant information more than unpleasant information. Why the good old days seem so good is because we focus on the pleasant stuff and tend to forget the unpleasantness. And if our past is great and our future can be even better, then we can work our way out of the unpleasant present.

Dissatisfaction with the present and dreams of the future are what keep us motivated. In fact, endless happiness would completely destroy our will. Among our earliest ancestors, those who were perfectly content may have been left in the dust.

Recognizing that happiness exists may help us appreciate it more when it arrives. Furthermore, understanding that it's impossible to have happiness in all aspects of life can help us enjoy the happiness that has touched us. Recognizing that no one "has it all" can cut down on the one thing that psychologists know prevents happiness: envy.

It's 1:30 am in Kenya's populated north, and 50 people are lying on their backs on the shore of a dried-up river, staring up at the night sky. These stargazers have travelled 250 miles to Samburu to witness the Perseid meteor shower(英仙座流星雨). They are not disappointed: Every few minutes, arrows of light shoot across the sky like silent fireworks.

The Star Safari is organised by a Kenyan astronomer, Susan Murabana, who has brought a 50 kg,170 cm-long telescope to allow the group to view Mars and deep-sky objects. But here in Samburu, where light pollution is minimal, the Perseid meteors—visible with the naked eye (裸眼)—steal the show.

Every two months, Murabana and her husband load their telescope on to the roof of their 4×4 and set off to rural communities, where they give up to 300 children a chance to view the planets and learn about constellations (星座) and the basics of astrophysics. They primarily targets schools in remote areas because of her mission to give girls an opportunity that she wishes had been available to her.

"When I started this work, I didn't see people who looked like me. I was a lone ranger and I wanted to change that." says Murabana.

"There is a common misconception in Kenya that astronomy in general is hard, boring, and only for boys," she adds. "I'd like to teach young girls that astronomy is neither of these things and that they, too, can become astronomers," says Murabana.

Murabana's passion for astronomy began in her early 20s when her uncle invited her to join a similar outreach session organized by the Cosmos Education. "That was a gamechanger. If an outreach group had come to me when I was a young teenager, my attitude towards a career in astronomy would have been positive. I ended up studying sociology and economics, but maybe I would have desired to be an astronomer," she says.

Inspired by the Cosmos Education, Murabana completed an online master's degree in astronomy with the James Cook University in 201l and set up her own outreach programme. She looked to Dr Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space, as a role model. "I hope that one day, through this work, I will spark a chain reaction that leads to the first African woman in space."

The ancient Egyptians were known for their carefully record-keeping, documenting prayers, declarations, and taxes. This extensive writing has now been linked to physical marks on the bones of the kingdom's scribes, as revealed in a new study published in Scientific Reports.

The study focused on the bones of 69 adult men buried between 2,700 and 2,180 B.C. at Abusir. The researchers identified 30 of these individuals as either professional scribes or high-status officials who needed language skills for their work. These scribes exhibited specific physical characteristics related to their occupation. Many had osteoarthritis in their right collar bone, shoulder, and thumb, likely due to the repetitive movements involved in writing. Their ankle and leg bones were flat from sitting cross-legged for extended periods, and they also showed signs of spinal(脊柱) osteoarthritis, possibly from looking up to listen and then bending over to write on papers.

An fascinating finding was the prevalence of jaw joint issues among the scribes, which 

the researchers speculate might be associated with chewing on reed(芦苇) pens. The ink for these pens was typically black from soot(烟灰) or red from iron for important documents.

However, not all scholars are convinced by the study's conclusions. Cynthia Wilczak and Danny Wescott, who were not involved in the research, argue that more evidence is necessary. Only six of the 30 bones were confirmed to be scribes based on their titles, while the rest were identified based on their tomb locations and social status. Additionally, there is no dental evidence to support the theory that the scribes chewed on pens.

Despite these criticisms, Brukner Havelková and her team aim to expand their research by examining scribe remains from other locations to confirm their findings. While this study is just the beginning, it offers a unique perspective into the lives of ancient Egyptian scribes and the physical cost their work demanded.