There are two main types of non­verbal communication. Body language is the first. Body language is body movements that depend on a person's attitude or feelings. Body language includes the way people walk，how they stand，and their facial features. In other words，any kind of meaning is shown by a person's attitude or body movements. For example，when a boy is sad he may drop his head and walk slowly. Or，if a girl is happy，she might run and jump or stand up straight and put her hands in the air. People don't have to say anything to show how they feel about things. The colour of people's skin may even show how they feel. For example，if people with light coloured skin get embarrassed，their skin may turn red，or if they are worried，they might get pale. Body language can be voluntary(主动的) or involuntary(无意识的)．An interesting fact is that blind children will smile when happy even though they have never seen a smile.

    The next main type of non­verbal communication is gestures. Gestures are communications like facial expressions，hand signals，eye gazing，and body postures. Examples include smiles，handshakes，waving，and raising certain fingers to say something. For instance，if you saw a friend at a noisy carnival，you might smile and wave at your friend. You might also point at the Ferris wheel if you wanted to meet your friend there. You could do all of these things without saying a word. Another great example is in baseball when the catcher signals to the pitcher the kind of pitch to use for the batter that is up.

    Are you so sure your mistakes are just mistakes? Or could they be building blocks to a success beyond any you imagined?

    When my friend Dorothy goes home to visit her family each Thanksgiving, her mother serves the traditional “mistake salad”. The dish was born many years ago. Dorothy explains, when mother was using a cookbook to make a salad. In the process, mother accidentally included half the salad ingredients(原料)from a recipe(食谱)on the left side of the open cookbook, and half the ingredients from a different salad recipe on the opposite page. Everyone enjoyed the salad so much that she continue to serve it every year. So it was really not a mistake at all.

    Then there was the fellow named Alfred, who invented dynamite(炸药). When Alfred's brother died, the city newspaper confused the two and printed an abituary(讣告)saying that the dead's most notable act was the creation of bombs. Surprised to consider that his name would forever be connected with destruction, Alfred sought to leave a more positive fame to humanity. So he set a prize for people who contributed to world peace. Now the Nobel Prize, established by Alfred Nobel, is the most respected award in the world.

    Everything is part of something bigger, and mistakes are no exception. In his brilliant book Illusions, Richard Bach explains that every problem comes to you with a gift. If you focus only on what went wrong, you miss the gift. If you are willing to look deeper and ask for the bright, the problem will disappear. You are left only with the learning, and you go forward on your path.

    Hacking isn't just for computers and smartphones, According to a study published last week in the journal Science, scientists have found a way to hack a plant's genes in order to make it use sunlight more quickly. Someday, the results could increase the amount of food produced around the world.

    Photosynthesis（光合作用）is the word used to describe how plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make their own food. Scientists who conducted the new study say this is a very slow process. Plants use less than 1 percent of the energy available to therm. But by hacking a plant's genes, the scientists were able to increase the amount of leaf growth on plants between 14 and 20 percent.

    "Specifically, scientists hacked the plant's protective system. Normally, this system is activated when a plant gets too much sunlight, "said scientist Krishna Niyogi, co-author of the study. When the plant senses the light, it gets rid of extra energy and creates more leaves. When the plant is in shade, the protective system is turned off, but the process is slow.

    Stephen Long is the lead author of the study. He compared a plant's protective system to light-adjusting glasses. When a person wears the glasses outside during the day, the lenses（镜片）darken and lighten depending on how sunny it is. Plants do the same thing, he said. But in plants the adjustment can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. This makes it hard for plants to get the right amount of sunlight needed to create food.

    The new study sped up the process. By changing the plant's genes, the protective system turned on and off more quickly than normal. As a result, leaf growth on the plants scientists used in the study increased. Leaf growth in two plants increased by 20 percent, while leaf growth on a third plant increased by 14 percent. Scientists conducted the study on tobacco plants. But they think the genetic changes will produce the same results in corn and rice.

    Sixty-four-year-old Pierre Deom has spent his entire life close to the woods and fields that he loves. Twice a year, his magazine, La Hulotte, focuses on an animal or plant native to the French countryside.

    The 100th edition was published in November. The magazine counts more than 150, 000 subscribers in many countries, and is doing very well financially. Deom says it all began in January 1972, when he was teaching science in a one-room schoolhouse here." It upset me how the forests and swamps were beginning to be ruined. The word 'ecology' didn't really exist yet. Some friends and I wanted to call attention to the issue. So we said, let's educate the kids. They're ready to hear our message." So he took a step into the unknown, planning to publish his nature journal.

    Deom does all the research and writing and the illustrations (插图) of the magazine by hand. He combines science and humor in his writing and drawing to describe the daily life and sufferings of his creatures. Animals you might overlook or consider dull are magically and vividly brought to life in La Hulotte. "I try to write about animals and plants that are easy to find because I want kids to put on boots, take a magnifying glass, go to the woods and fields to observe and be amazed by what they find," Deom says.

    And it seems to work. Biologist Jerome Fournier began subscribing to La Hulotte when he was just eight years old. "For me it was the first contact with nature when I was a child. And maybe it's the beginning for my life of scientist. I think so."

    What's amazing is its approach. The magazine has realistic drawings and also a little cast of cartoon creatures who comment on things and give a different views. You can read it as an adult or a child; it can be understood on two different levels. So scientists, regular people and children all get something out of it. "It's extraordinary." Fournier says, who works at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where he says La Hulotte has a crazy following.

    Two heads are better than one. After all, when trying to make decisions, it's good to have a second opinion. But what about a third, fourth — even twelfth? What group size is best for making decisions quickly? For ants, four to six heads surpass one and also outperform 12 or 24. That's what Sylvia Zamescu now reports.

    The 18-year-old senior at Catalina Foothills High School in Tucson, Arizona isn't generally into ants. She's interested in decision-making, especially by people. Last summer, Sylvia read that social insects such as ants and bees can be used to model decision-making. Ants, for example, forage for food. When an ant finds it, it takes a bite and heads back to the nest. On the way; the ant leaves a scented trail for other ants to pick up. Back at the nest, the ant vomits up its meal into the mouth of other ants. Those nest-mates then decide with the first ant whether the food is good enough to deserve a trip back for more. If it is, they follow the first ant's scented trail to lunch.

    When there are too few ants, it could take a long time for one ant to spread the word. If there are too many, it's hard to "tell" each about the find. What's the right number for foraging success? Sylvia decided to find out. She contacted professors at the University of Arizona in Tucson to look for someone who would let her study decision-making by ants in their lab. Professor Wulfila Gronenberg answered her email.

    Working with one of Wulfila's graduate students Sylvia set up an experiment. She tested the behavior of one, two, four, six, twelve and twenty-four ants. Each group was placed in a large box al taped "starting line". At the other end of the box were two bricks of sweetened gelatin (动物胶) one contained only 3 per cent sugar, and the other 30 per cent. Sylvia timed how long it took each group of ants to find the food. She also measured how much time they spent around each sweet treat.

    When there were just one or two ants, the discovery was slow. The same was true when she set twelve or twenty-four ants loose. But four to six ants? Perfect! These medium-size groups found the food forest. They also figured out quickly that the sweeter food was better.

    Similar work has been done on bighorn sheep, fish and fruit flies. "It may not be four to six animals, but it's the same principle," Sylvia says. A medium-size group "is optimal". So when faced with a new decision, two heads are better than one. But too many heads are too much. Like the ants, a good decision may just require a happy medium.

It's widely recognized that play-based learning significantly benefits the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional health of children. Recent research suggests that certain board games, such as Chutes and Ladders and Monopoly, can further contribute to enhancing their mathematical abilities.

A team of researchers from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago, Chile, reached this conclusion after a comprehensive analysis of 19 studies conducted between the years 2000 and 2023. With the exception of one study, all focused on the correlation between board games and the development of math skills.

In these studies, children aged between 3 and 9 engaged in board games under the watchful eyes of teachers or trained adults. The structured 20-minute gaming sessions were held twice weekly for a duration of approximately six weeks. In some of the studies, one group of children (the intervention group) played board games that were centered around numbers, while another group (the control group) played games that did not necessitate mathematical skills. In other instances, both the intervention and control groups indulged in number-based games, but they were assigned different games, such as Monopoly and Dominoes.

The mathematical proficiency of the children was evaluated both at the beginning and the end of each study. The researchers were particularly interested in observing improvements in four pivotal areas: the ability to name numbers and exhibit basic numerical understanding, for instance, recognizing that "nine is greater than three." They also monitored the children's progress in addition and subtraction, as well as their burgeoning interest in mathematics.

The findings of this study were published in the academic journal Early Years on July 6, 2023. The results indicated that engaging in board games positively influenced the children's math skills in more than half of the four key areas examined. Moreover, nearly a third of the children in the intervention groups outperformed their counterparts in the control groups on math assessments.

The researchers are optimistic that their findings will encourage the development of new board games specifically tailored for educational purposes in classrooms. In the meantime, consider enhancing your own mathematical skills by organizing a board game night with family and friends this summer—it all adds up to a fun and educational experience!