New research has found that even if you give up smoking,the damage it has done to your genes（基因）will stay there for a much longer time.

    In the research,a team of US scientists studied the blood of 16,000 people.Among them,some were smokers,some used to smoke,and the rest were non-smokers.Scientists compared their genes and found that more than 7,000 genes of smokers had changed-a number that is one-third of known human genes.

    According to NBC News,both heart disease and cancer are caused by genetic changes.Some people may have had the changes when they were born,but most people get them in their day-to-day lives while doing things like  smoking.

When you stop smoking,a lot of these genes will return to normal within five years.This means your body is trying to heal（治愈）itself of the harmful effects of smoking.But the changes in some of the genes stay for longer.They can stay for as long as 30 years.It's almost like leaving a footprint on wet cement（水泥）一it will always be there, even when you've walked away and when the cement becomes dry.

    Although the study results may make people unhappy,there is a bright side: the findings could help scientists invent medicine to treat genetic damage caused by smoking or find ways to tell which people have heart disease or cancer ricks.

    When we think of a generation gap we usually think of conflicting tastes in music, or pastimes. But now the generation gap is handwriting. After one teacher in Tennessee discovered that she had students who couldn't read the assignments she was writing on the board, she posted it on the Internet saying handwriting should be taught in schools.

    Opponents claim that handwriting has become out of time in our modern world. Typed words have become a primary form of communication. Once a practical kill handwriting is no longer used by the vast majority of Americans. It is no longer taught in schools, and some claim that the time that it would take to teach it could be put to better use, for instance, by teaching the technical skills.

    But even in today's world there are still plenty of reasons to pick up a pen and apply it to paper. Many American institutions still require original signatures, for instance, signing for a registered letter and buying a house. And original signatures are much more difficult to forge(伪造) than their digital counterparts. There is also strong evidence that writing by hand is good for the mind. It activates a different part of the brain, and improves fine moving skills in young children. People also tend to remember what they write by hand more than what they type, and the process of writing by hand has been shown to stimulate ideas. Besides, studies have shown that kids who write by hand learn to read and spell earlier than those who don't. Not to mention, handwriting is pleasing, as is evidenced by the fact that no one has ever typed a love letter. And handwriting remains popular as an art form.

    Yes, we live in a modern world, but we live in a modern world that is based on fundamental values.

    In the ongoing battle between Tiger Moms, French Mamas, and everyone else who wants to know what is the best way to raise their kids, a new study adds evidence that the extreme Tiger-style may do more harm than good. Authoritarian parents are more likely to end up with disrespectful children with violent behaviors, the study found, compared to parents who listen to their kids with the goal of gaining trust.

    It was the first study to look at how parenting styles affect the way teens view their parents and, in turn, how they behave. The study considered three general styles of parenting. Authoritative parents are demanding and controlling while also being warm and sensitive to their children's needs. Authoritarian parents, on the contrary, are demanding and controlling without the appearance of caring, attachment and receptiveness. They take a "my way or the highway" approach to their kids. Permissive parents, the third group, have warm and receptive qualities, but they set few boundaries and carry out few rules.

    Using data on early 600 kids from an ongoing study of middle school and high school students in New Hampshire, researchers from the University of New Hampshire were able to find "my way or the highway" parenting with more violent behaviors like robbery, drug-taking, and attacking someone else with the intention of hurting or killing. Firm but loving parenting, on the other hand, led to fewer lawbreakers. Permissive parenting, surprisingly, didn't seem to make much of a difference either.

    To explain the link between parenting style and behavior in kids, the researchers suggested that what matters most is how reasonable kids think their parents' power is. This sense comes when kids trust that their parents are making the best decisions for them and believe that they need to do what their parents say even if they don't always like how their parents are treating them. When kids respect the power of their parents, the researchers reported in the journal of Adolescence, their behavior is better. Previous research has also linked firm but caring parenting with kids who have more self-control and independence.

    "When children consider their parents to be the reliable figure, they trust the parents and feel that they have a duty to do what their parents tell them to do," said lead researcher Pick Trinkner. "This is very important as the parent doesn't have to rely on a system of rewards and punishments to control behavior and the child is more likely to follow the rules when the parent is not physically present."

    A robot called Bina48 has successfully taken a course in the philosophy of love at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU), in California.

    According to course instructor William Barry, associate professor at NDNU, Bina48 is the world's first socially advanced robot to complete a college course, a feat he described as "remarkable." The robot took part in class discussions, gave a presentation with a student partner and participated in a debate with students from another institution.

    Before becoming a student, Bina48 appeared as a guest speaker in Barry's classes for several years. One day when addressing Barry's class, Bina48 expressed a desire to go to college, a desire that Barry and his students positively supported. Rather than enroll Bina48 in his Robot Ethics: Philosophy of Emerging Technologies course, Barry suggested that Bina48 should take his course Philosophy of Love instead. Love is a concept Bina48 doesn't understand, said Barry. Therefore the challenge would be for Barry and his students to teach Bina48 what love is.

    "Some interesting things happened in the class," said Barry. He said that his students thought it would be straightforward to teach Bina48 about love, which, after all, is "fairly simple — it's a feeling," said Barry. But the reality was different. Bina48 ended up learning "31 different versions of love," said Barry, highlighting some of the challenges humans may face when working with artificial intelligence in future.

    Bina48 participated in class discussions via Skype and also took part in a class debate about love and conflict with students from West Point. Bina48's contribution to the debate was filmed and posted on YouTube. It was judged that Bina48 and NDNU classmates were the winners of this debate.

    In the next decade, Barry hopes Bina48 might become complex enough to teach a class, though he says he foresees robots being used to better the teaching and learning experience, rather than replacing instructors completely.

Instagram(图片分享社交应用程序)is about to take its biggest step toward removing likes from its platform. After months of testing an option to hide likes in select international markets, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook(FB), has already been testing hiding likes in seven other countries, including Canada, Ireland and Australia. For years, likes have been central to how celebrities, brands, politicians and everyday users experience Instagram and Facebook. It's a way of measuring popularity(名气) and success. But in recent months, Instagram has been rethinking how likes contribute to making its platform more toxic. Now it's considering a change.

The total number of likes on posts — which appear as hearts on the app—will disappear from Instagram's main feed, profile pages and permalink(永久链接)pages. The owner of the account can still see their own likes, but their followers won't know the count.

CNN Business previously spoke with users in countries with the test. The majority felt this move would improve well-being on the app. Instagram is the most harmful social networking app for young people's mental health, such as negatively influencing body image, according to one study.

But other users and psychologists said hiding likes won't fix everything. The test doesn't address some of the key ways that activity on Instagram can influence the well-being of users, including bullying(欺凌), feeling left out and thinking other people's lives are better than their own.

Renee Engeln, a psychology professor at Northwestern University, voiced his opinion that the biggest impact of Instagram is the content and the exposure to this constant stream of perfected images is what seems to hurt psychologically. Plus, users can still see their own likes—and feel badly if their posts don't perform well.

Millions of people crowded onto trains, airplanes and buses across China last week. They were hurrying home, to be with their families for China's most important holiday, Chinese New Year. More than one billion people around the world are celebrating the New Year.

History Behind the Holiday

The Chinese New Year is celebrated at the second new moon after the winter solstice (冬至). (The winter solstice is one of the two times of the year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the equator. It is also the shortest day of the year. ) According to an ancient legend, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. 12 animals came, and Buddha named a year after each animal. The animals were: the mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

A Good Year to Be a Pig

Buddha announced that people born in each animal's year would have some of that animal's personality. If you were born in 1959, 1971, 1983 or 1995, you were born in the year of the Pig. People who were born in these years are believed to be polite, honest, hardworking and loyal. They are also supposed to be lucky, which is why many Chinese like to have babies in a Pig year. They are said to get along best with people born under the year of the Rabbit, Goat, Tiger, Dragon, Horse and Dog.

Festivals, Lions and Feasts

On Chinese New Year's Eve, the Chinese celebrate with fireworks, family gatherings, and feasts. One of the most popular ways to celebrate the holiday is the lion dance. The lion is considered a holy (神圣的) animal. During celebrations, dancers dressed as lions (or holding up elaborate paper lions in the air) perform to bring good luck to the people they visit at their homes or businesses. People often wear in red, which symbolizes fire. Legend has it that fire can drive away bad luck. The 15­day New Year season is celebrated with firecrackers, dragon dances and visits to friends and relatives. The celebrations end with the Lantern Festival, when brightly colored lanterns are hung in parks around China.