You can tell a lot about people by looking at their hair – not just whether they brush, spray or blow-dry. Scientists have found a way to use hair to figure out where a person is from and where that person has been. The finding could help solve crimes, among other useful applications.

    Water is central to the new technique. The liquid makes up more than half an adult human's body weight. Our bodies break water down into hydrogen(氢) and oxygen. Atoms of these two elements end up in our tissues, fingernails, and hair.

    But not all water is the same. Hydrogen and oxygen atoms can vary in how much they weigh. In the case of hydrogen, for example, there are three types according to their weights. Each type is called a hydrogen isotope（同位素）. And depending on where you live, tap water contains different isotopes.

    Can hair record this information? That's what James R. Ehleringer, an environmental chemist at the University of Utah, wondered. To find it out, he and his colleagues collected hair from hair stylists in 65 cities across the United States. Even though people drink a lot of bottled water these days, the researchers have found that people's hair has the same isotopes as found in local tap water. That's probably because people usually cook their food with the local water.

    Authorities can now use the information to analyze hair samples from criminals or crime victims and narrow their search for clues. For example, one hair sample used in Ehleringer's study came from a man who had moved from San Francisco to Salt Lake City. As his hair grew, it reflected his change in location.

    One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift. Unlike other gifts, it came without wrap(包装).

    On September 11th, 1958, mum gave birth to Richard. After she brought him home from hospital, she put him in my arms, saying, “I promised you a gift, and here it is.” What an honor! I became four years old a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own. I played with it day and night. I sang to it. I told stories. I told it again and again how much I loved it!

    One morning, however, I found its bed empty. My doll was gone! I cried for it. Mum wept(哭泣) and told me that the poor little thing had been sent to a hospital. It had a fever. For several days, I heard mum and dad whispering such words as “hopeless”, “pitiful”and “dying”, and all these words sounded ominous.

    Christmas was coming. “Don't expect any presents this year,” Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living rooms. “If your baby brother lives, that'll be Christmas enough.” As he spoke, his eyes filled with tears. I had never seen him cry before.

    The phone rang early on Christmas morning. Dad jumped out of bed to answer it. From my bedroom I heard him say, “What? He's all right?”He hung up and shouted upstairs. “The hospital said we can bring Richard home!”

    “Thank God!” I heard mum cry.

    From the upstairs window, I watched my parents rush out to the car. I had never seen them so happy. And I was also full of joy. What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home. I ran downstairs. My socks still hung there flat. But I knew they were not empty：they were filled with love!

    If you ever visit an English village, make sure to look out for morris dancing. Undoubtedly one of the strangest traditions of English culture, morris dancing is a form of folk dancing that dates back to the 15th century. If you ever get the opportunity, you really have to see it.

    Men and women wearing old-fashioned, shabby clothing dance in the streets of towns and villages across the country during the holiday periods. Women wear long, frilly (有褶皱边的) skirts and men wear short trousers with bells attached to them. They dance to traditional folk music which is often played on traditional musical instruments.

    Some groups carry heavy black sticks which they beat against each other while they dance. Other groups wave handkerchiefs in the air while they perform. The dances are usually performed near a pub so that when it's over, the dancers and audience can sing some traditional folk songs over a pint of beer. The celebrations will often continue long into the night, by which point most people are too drunk to think about performing again.

    Morris dancing is a great English tradition but it's facing a big crisis. As the years go by, fewer and fewer young people are joining morris dancing groups. The dancers are getting older and older and eventually. If you've ever had the fortune to see morris dancing, you may understand why teenagers aren't rushing to sign up. Putting it to the point, it's not exactly the coolest thing for an 18-year-old to be doing. Why dress up in bells and funny costumes when you could be going clubbing? Or playing sport? Or doing anything else?

However, it would be a great shame to lose such a fun and lively part of England's history and culture. It's important to look after some traditions and customs especially when it's something as harmless and happy as morris dancing. So here's a toast to the next generation of would-be morris dancers! Let's hope they don't leave it too late.

Winners Club

    You choose to be a winner!

    The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers. It has been made to help you better manage your money. The Winners Club is a transaction account（交易账户）where you receive a key-card so you can get to your money 24/7 — that's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

    It's a club with impressive features for teenagers.

    No account keeping fees!

    You're no millionaire so we don't expect you to pay large fees. In fact, there are no account keeping or transaction fees!

    Excellent interest rates!

    You want your money to grow. The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits（储蓄）without taking them out in a month.

Convenient

    Teenagers are busy—we get that. You may never need to come to a bank at all. With the Winners Club, you can choose to use handy tellers and to bank from home using the phone and the Internet, you can have money directly deposited into your Winners Club account. This could be your pocket money or your pay from your part-time job!

Mega magazine included

    Along with your regular report, you will receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money. There are also fantastic offers and competitions only for Winners Club members.

    The Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers. And it is so easy to join. Simply fill in an application form. You will have to get permission from your parent (so we can organize that cool key-card) but it is easy. We can't wait to hear from you. It's the best way to choose to be a winner!

    Chinese scientists recently have produced two monkeys with the same gene, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, using the same technique that gave us Dolly the sheep. These monkeys are not actually the first primates(灵长类)to be cloned. Another one named Tetra was produced in the late 1990s by embryo(胚胎)splitting, the division of an early-stage embryo into two or four separate cells to make clones. By contrast, they were each made by replacing an egg cell nucleus(卵原子核)with DNA from a differentiated body cell. This Dolly method, known as somatic(躯体的) cell nuclear transfer(SCNT), can create more clones and allows researchers greater control over the edits they make to the DNA.

    Success came from adopting several new techniques. These included a new type of microscopy(显微术) to better view the cells during handling or using several materials that encourage cell reprogramming, which hadn't been tried before on primates. Still, the research process proved difficult, and many attempts by the team failed. Just two healthy baby monkeys born from more than 60 tested mothers. This leads to many researchers' pouring water on the idea that the team's results bring scientists closer to cloning humans. They thought this work is not a stepping stone to establishing methods for obtaining live born human clones. Instead, this clearly remains a very foolish thing to attempt, and it would be far too inefficient, far too unsafe, and it is also pointless.

    But the scientists involved emphasize that this is not their goal. There is now no barrier for cloning primate species, thus cloning humans is closer to reality. However, their research purpose is entirely for producing non-human primate models for human diseases; they absolutely have no intention, and society will not permit this work to be extended to humans. Despite limitations, they treat this breakthrough as a novel model system for scientists studying human biology and disease.

    "I really wrote it for me. It was what I found funny and what I liked". Those are the words of J K Rowling, author of the enormously popular "Harry Potter" books. The quote refers to the first in a series of novels featuring a young character who has carved out a permanent place for his creator in the world of children's literature.

    Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born in England in 1965, and wrote her first story at the age of six. She was in her mid-20s when the idea for the Harry Potter novels came to her, during a long train ride. By the end of that journey, she says, the character of Harry and the school for wizards which he attends were more or less fully formed in her mind.

    It would be several years, however, before the novel was completed. By that time, Rowling had been through a failed marriage. Living on welfare as a single parent, she wrote about Harry Potter while sitting in an Edinburgh café with her daughter asleep beside her. She could not have dreamed of the fame and success which Harry would bring her in the years to come.

    Harry Potter is not your average superhero. He is 12 years old, skinny, wears glasses, and tends to worry a lot. Yet, he has captured the imagination of children and adults the world over, and has introduced millions to the joys of reading.

    Harry's appeal stems from his role as a very ordinary boy who finds himself in extraordinary situations. Orphaned as a baby, Harry spends the next 10 years being mistreated by the awful relatives with whom he lives. On his 11th birthday, he learns that he possesses magical powers and is admitted for training at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

    The adventures of Harry and his friends at the school are superbly narrated by J. K. Rowling. She manages to lead her millions of readers deep into the world of the supernatural, while at the same time dealing with the fears and emotions of the ordinary human world. Many feel that this is the real magic of Harry Potter.