The plants grown by Wageningen University researchers in Mars-like soil back in March have been analyzed and the results are excellent: at least four of the crops do not contain harmful heavy metal levels and are perfectly safe to eat, the University researchers report.

    If you've seen The Martian, you can remember how much Matt Damon got done living off of his poo-powered crop of potatoes. It just goes to show how important it is for a long-term colony to be able to grow their own food locally. We've taken one step closer to that goal in March, when Netherlands' Wageningen University reported that they've managed to grow ten different crops in Mars-like soil.

    However, growing food doesn't do us much good if eating it kills us, and researchers were worried that these crops contained dangerous heavy metals like lead or cadmium(镉) from the martian soil. But future colonists are delighted, as lab analysis of the crops determined that at least four of them are safe to eat.

    Led by ecologist Wieger Wamelink, the team tested radishes, tomatoes, rye, and peas. They looked at cadmium, lead, aluminium(铝), nickel(镍), copper, chrome(铬), iron, arsenic(砷), manganese(锰), and zinc(锌) contents in the plants, and didn't find any in dangerous levels. In fact, some of these vegetables have lower levels of heavy metals than those grown in regular potting soil. The plants were also tested for vitamins, alkaloids(生物碱), and flavonoids(类黄酮), with good results. While there are six more crops to test, Wamelink himself said that the results up to now are “very promising.”

    “Growing food locally is especially important to our mission of permanent settlement, as we have to ensure sustainable food production on Mars. The results of Dr. Wamelink and his team at Wageningen University & Research are significant progress towards that goal,” said Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp in a press release.

    A crowdfunding campaign is underway (and will be until the end of August) to fund the test of the remaining crops, potatoes included. If all the crops test out safe, with concentrations of heavy metal the FDA and the Dutch Food Agency consider as safe, Wamelink's team will host a “Martian dinner” at the Wageningen greenhouse. But I've seen the movie. Stay clear of the potatoes.

    Two new studies suggest that modem running shoes could increase the risk of injuries to runners.

    One study involved sixty-eight healthy young women and men who ran at least twenty-four kilometers a week. The runners were observed on a treadmill machine (跑步机). Sometimes they wore running shoes. Other times they ran barefoot.

    Researchers from the JKM Technologies Company in Virginia, the University of Virginia and the University of Colorado did the study.

They found that running shoes create more stress that could damage knees, hips and ankle joints than running barefoot. They observed that the effect was even greater than the effect reported earlier for walking in high heels.

    The study appeared in the official scientific journal of the American Academy of Physical Medicine.

    The other study appeared in the journal Nature. It compared runners in the United States and Kenya. The researchers were from Harvard University in Massachusetts, Moi University in Kenya and the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

    They divided the runners into three groups. One group had always run shoeless. Another group had always run with shoes. And the third group had changed to shoeless running.

    Runners who wear shoes usually come down heel first. That puts great force on the back of the foot. But the study found that barefoot runners generally land on the front or middle of their foot. That way they ease into their landing and avoid striking their heel.

    Harvard's Daniel Lieberman led the study. He says the way most running shoes are designed may explain why those who wear them land on their heels. The heel of the shoe is bigger and heavier than other parts of the shoe, so it would seem more likely to come down first. Also, the heel generally has thick material under it to soften landings.

    But the researchers do not suggest that runners immediately start running barefoot. They say it takes some training. And there can be risks, like running when your feet are too cold to feel if you get injured.

    The study was partly supported by Vibram, which makes a kind of footwear that it says is like running barefoot. The findings have gotten a lot of attention. But the researchers say there are many problems in the way the press has reported in their paper. So they have tried to explain their findings on a Harvard Website.

    Two things changed my life: my mother and a white, plastic, daisy bike basket. I would be a different person if my mom hadn't turned a silly bicycle accessory(配件) into a life lesson I carry with me today.

    It was summer and, one day, my mother drove me to the bike shop to get a tire fixed — and there it was in the window. White, shiny, plastic and decorated with daisies, the basket seemed so appealing and I knew I had to have it.

    "Mom, please can I get it? I'll do extra chores for as long as you say. I'll do anything, but I need that basket. I love that basket. Please, Mom. Please?"

    "You know," she said, gently rubbing my back while we both stared at what I believed was the coolest thing ever, "If you save up, you could buy this yourself."

    "By the time I make enough it'll be gone!"

    "Maybe Roger here could hold it for you," she smiled at Roger, the bike guy.

    "For that long? He can't hold it for that long, Mom. Someone else will buy it. Please, Mom, please?"

    "There might be another choice," she said. My mother bought the beautiful basket and put it safely out of reach in some hiding place I couldn't find. Each week I eagerly counted my growing nest egg earned by extra work here and there (washing the car, helping my mother make dinner, delivering milk around the neighborhood). And then, weeks later maybe, I counted, re-counted and jumped for joy. Oh, I made it! I finally had the exact amount we'd agreed upon.

    Days later, the unthinkable happened. A neighborhood girl I'd played with appeared with the exact same basket fixed to her shiny, new bike. I rode my bike fast home to tell my mother about this disaster, this horrible turn of events.

    And then came the lesson I've taken with me through my life: "Honey, your basket is extra-special," Mom said, gently wiping away my hot tears. "Your basket is special because you paid for it yourself."

    What do you remember about your life before you were three? Few people can remember anything that happened to them in their early years. Adults' memories of the next few years also tend to be unclear. Most people remember only a few events—usually ones that were meaningful and distinctive, such as being hospitalized or the birth of a new baby.

    How might this inability to recall early experiences be explained? The passage of time does not account for it; adults have excellent recognition of pictures of people who attended high school with them 35 years earlier. Another seemingly reasonable explanation—that infants do not form enduring memories at this point in development—also is incorrect. Children two and a half to three years old remember experiences that occurred in their first year, and eleven month olds remember some events a year later.

    However, three other explanations seem more promising. One involves physiological changes relevant to memory. Maturation of the frontal lobes (额叶) of the brain continues throughout early childhood, and this part of the brain may be critical for remembering particular episodes in ways that can be recalled later. Demonstrations of infants' and very young children's long-term memory have involved their repeating motor activities that they had seen or done earlier, such as reaching in the dark for objects, putting a bottle in a doll's mouth, or pulling apart two pieces of a toy. The brain's level of physiological maturation may support these types of memories, but not ones depending on clear verbal descriptions.

    A second explanation involves the influence of the social world on children's language use. Hearing and telling stories about events may help children store information in ways that will endure into later childhood and adulthood. Through hearing stories with a clear beginning, middle, and ending children may learn to take out the idea of events in ways that they will be able to describe many years later. Consistent with this view parents and children increasingly engage in discussions of past events when children are about three years old. However, hearing such stories is not sufficient for younger children to form enduring memories. Telling such stories to two year olds does not seem to produce long-lasting verbalizable memories.

    A third likely explanation for infantile memory loss involves mismatch between the ways in which infants encode information and the ways in which older children and adults recall it. Whether people can remember an event depends critically on the fit between the way in which they earlier encoded the information and the way in which they later attempt to recall it. The better the person is able to reconstruct the perspective from which the material was encoded, the more likely that recall will be successful.

    Each applicant to Harvard College is considered with great care. We consider each applicant to Harvard College as a whole person, and put enormous care into evaluating every application. We hope you will explore the information in this section to understand what we look for in our admissions process.

    How to Apply

    Submit your application through the Common Application, the Coalition Application, or the Universal College Application. Each is treated equally by the Admissions Committee. Complete and submit your materials as soon as possible to ensure full and timely consideration of your application. View our Application Tips for step-by-step information.

    When to Apply

    What We Look For

    We seek promising students who will contribute to the Harvard community during their college years, and to society throughout their lives. While academic accomplishment is the basic requirement, the Admission Committee considers many other factors—strong personal qualities, special talents or excellences of all kinds, perspectives formed by unusual personal circumstances, and the ability to take advantage of available resources and opportunities.

    We outline everything you need to apply to Harvard.

    Click https: //college.harvard.edu/admissions/apply to get detailed requirements.

    On her first morning in America, last summer, my daughter went out to explore her new neighborhood alone.

    Of course we were worried; we had just moved from Berlin, and she was just 8. But when she came home, we realized we had no reason to worry. She told us with pride how she had discovered the little park around the corner, and had made friends with a few local dog owners.

    When this story comes up in conversations with American friends, we are usually met with polite disbelief.

    A study by the University of California has found that American kids spend 90 percent of their free time at home, often watching TV or playing video games. Even when kids are physically active, they are watched closely by adults, either in school, at home, at afternoon activities or in the car. It seems that America's middle class has taken overprotective parenting to a new level, with the government even acting as a super nanny.

    Just take the example of the case of 10-year-old Rafi and 6-year-old Dvora Meitiv in 2015, in Silver Spring, Maryland, who were picked up by the police because their parents had dared to allow them to walk home from the park alone. The state's Child Protective Services said their parents were guilty.

    In reality, child abductions (绑架) by strangers in Silver Spring park are as rare as tiger attacks. Children are overprotected, which encourages dependency and affects their abilities to care for themselves and weigh risks. Mark Hemingway writes in The Federalist, "You know what it's called when kids make mistakes without adult supervision (监督) and have to struggle with the possible results? Growing up."

    At least, parents who want to give their children more room to walk around shouldn't be punished. Children are not easily damaged objects to be protected at all times.