For many of us, talking about money is embarrassing, especially revealing our income and spending habits in public. So it's no wonder that seeking investment advice from computer program is so popular.

    Consultancy firm Accenture found that 68% of global consumers would be happy to use robot-advice to plan for retirement, feeling it would be faster, cheaper, and fairer than human advice. “Many of our customers say they feel awkward in face-to-face meetings, preferring an online experience where they don't feel nervous,” says Lynn Smith, a director of robot-advice firm Wealth Wizards. So how does robot-advice work and is it really any better than traditional financial advice?

    Robot-adviser firms use algorithms (算法) to analyse your financial situation and goals and then work out an investment plan to suit you. Basically, you answer lots of questions online about your income, expenses, family situation, attitude to risk and so on, and then the algorithm allocates (分配) your savings to a series of investments, from index funds that aim to imitate a particular stock market index or sector, to fixed-income bonds.

    Robot-advice is certainly growing in popularity. But are we really happy to give up the human adviser completely? “No” is the short answer. Accenture finds that a significant proportion of us still want human interaction, particularly when our finances are complex. “When a customer needs advice surpassing a number of different regulatory regimes, human advice will be required, says John Perks, managing director of life and pensions at UK insurer LV, which launched its Retirement Wizard robot-advice service two years ago.

    The truth is that only about a quarter of funds managed by clever humans overcome the market as a whole, so when you take into account the much higher management fees you pay for that kind of service, the performance difference is likely to be marginal (微不足道的) for most of us.

    The robots may be coming, but in this case at least, they seem to be on the side of the small investor trying to save for a comfortable retirement.

                                                                     The Diet Zone: A Dangerous Place

    Diet Coke, diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, vegetable diet… We are surrounded by the word “diet” everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that harm us psychologically and physically.

    Diet products significantly weaken us psychologically. On one level, we are not allowing our brain to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption of fatty, high-calorie, unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the scale(秤)instead. All we have to do is to swallow or recognize the word “diet” in food labels.

    On another level, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink, we are telling ourselves without our awareness that we don't have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without resistance and struggle.

    The danger of diet products lies not only in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm that they cause. Diet foods can indirectly harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients. Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonder products. Diet products may not be nutritional, and the chemicals that go into diet products are potentially dangerous.

    Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to seriously think about buying them. Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore prevent the psychological and physical harm that comes from using them.

                                       Cell phones：Is there a cancer link?

    Could your cell phone give you cancer? Whether it could or not, some people are worrying about the possibility that phones, power lines and Wi-Fi could be responsible for a range of illnesses, from rashes to brain tumors.

    Some say there is evidence to support the growing anxieties. David Carpenter, a professor of environmental health sciences at the university at Albany, in New York, thinks there's a greater than 95 percent chance that power lines can cause childhood leukemia (白血病). Also there's a greater than 90 percent chance that cell phones can cause brain tumors. “It's apparent now that there's a real risk, ”said Carpenter.

    But others believe these concerns are not justified. Dr Martha Linet, head of radiation epidemiology (流行病学) at the US National Cancer Institute, has looked at the same research as Carpenter but has reached a different conclusion. “I don't support warning labels for cell phones, ”said Linet. “We don't have the evidence that there's much danger.”

    Studies so far suggest a weak connection between EMFs (电磁场) and illness—so weak that it might not exist at all. A multinational investigation of cell phones and brain cancer, in 13 countries outside the US, has been underway for several years. It's funded in part by the European Union, in part by a cell phone industry group. The final report should come out later this year, but data so far don't suggest a strong link between cell phone use and cancer risk.

    Imagination and fantasy can play an important role in achieving the things we fear. Children know this very well. Fred Epstein, in his book If I Make It to Five, tells a story he heard from one of friends about Tom, a four-year-old boy with a cancer in his back bone. He came through several operations and a lot of pain by mastering his imagination.

    Tom loved to pretend, and he particularly loved to play superheroes, Dr. Epstein explained that it was actually a brilliant way for his young mind to handle the terrifying and painful life he led.

    The day before his third trip to the operating room, Tom was terribly afraid. ”Maybe I could go as Superman,”he whispered to his mom. Hearing this, the mother hesitated for a while. She had avoided buying the expensive costume（戏装），finally she agreed.

    The next day Tom appeared as the powerful Superman, showing off through the hospital halls and coolly waving his hand to the people greeting him along the way. And Tom, with the strength of his fantasy, successfully made it through the operation.

    The power of imagination need not be reserved for children only. We all have the power to use our fantasies to attempt things we never thought possible, to go through those things that seem impossible, and to achieve what we never believed we could. Just as Dr. Epstein puts it, ”If you can dream it, you can do it.”

    It doesn't mean that you should dress as a superhero for your next job interview. But, next time you are texted in a way that seems impossible, imagine what it would take to overcome it .Become the person you need to become to win over your challenge and do it in your mind first. So, let your imagination run wild, and dare to dream.

    Shree Bose is one of the most impressive kids graduating from Fort Worth Country Day High School this year. Bose has a large circle of friends, and there's one who you may have heard of: President Obama. He has twice publicly recognized her achievements in cancer research and spoken with her in the Oval Office.

    If that isn't enough, Bose recently gave a TED Talk about her work with the cancer drug Cisplatin, which also won her first prize at the Google Science Fair and recognition as one of Glamour magazine's Young Amazing Women of the Year.

    After watching her grandfather struggle with liver cancer, Bose was determined to help out in any way she could. As a high school student though, her scientific choices were limited. She reached out to various hospitals and research centers, but doctors turned down her requests because they felt she was too inexperienced medically.

    Only the North Texas Science Health Center respected her determination and chose to guide her. The results were amazing.

    Bose chose to study a protein (蛋白质) and its reaction with the cancer drug Cisplatin. She noticed that when she prevented this protein from growing, Cisplatin was allowed to begin destroying cancer cells once again.

    “My project not only contributes to the understanding of the relationship between the protein and Cisplatin, but also suggests a newer, more effective treatment for patients who resist Cisplatin,” Bose said.

    Bose's achievements aren't limited to the lab, though. She was also captain of her swim team and editor-in-chief of her school paper.

    Bose is currently getting practical experience at the National Institute of Health and she'll be attending Harvard in the fall. She plans to study molecular biology and go to medical school. Eventually, she would like to be a doctor.

    Does your older brother think he's cleverer than you? Well, he's probably right. According to a new research published in the journal Intelligence, the oldest children in families are likely to have the highest IQs and the youngest the lowest.

    A number of studies have suggested that IQ scores decline with birth order. In the most recent study, at Vrije University, Amsterdam, researchers looked at men and women whose IQ had been tested at the ages of 5, 12, and 18.

    The results, which show a trend for the oldest to score better than the youngest in each test, involved about 200,000 people. That showed that first-borns had a three-point IQ advantage over the second-born, who was a point ahead of the next in line.

    The order of birth can also affect personality, achievement, and career, with first-borns being more academically successful and more likely to win Nobel prizes. However, eldest children are less likely to be radical(不同凡响的) and pioneering. Charles Darwin, for example, was the fifth child of six.

    Exactly why there should be such differences is not clear, and there are a number of theories on environmental influences on the child.

    The so-called dilution(稀释法) theory suggests that as family resources, both emotional and physical, as well as economic, are limited, it follows that, as a result , as more children come along, the levels of parental attention and encouragement will drop. Another theory is that the intellectual environment in the family favors the first-born who has, at least for some time, the benefit of individual care and help.

    The theory which enjoys the most support is that the extra time and patience that the earlier-borned get from their parents, compared with those arriving later, gives them an advantage.