Samuel Osmond is a 19-year-old law student from Cornwall, England. He never studied the piano. However, he can play very difficult musical pieces by musicians such as Chopin and Beethoven just a few minutes after he hears them. He learns a piece of music by listening to it in parts. Then he thinks about the notes in his head. Two years ago, he played his first piece Moonlight Sonata (奏鸣曲) by Beethoven. He surprised everyone around him.

    Amazed that he remembered this long and difficult piece of music and played it perfectly, his teachers say Samuel is unbelievable. They say his ability is very rare, but Samuel doesn't even realize that what he can do is special. Samuel wanted to become a lawyer as it was the wish of his parents, but music teachers told him he should study music instead. Now, he studies law and music.

    Samuel can't understand why everyone is so surprised. “I grew up with music. My mother played the piano and my father played the guitar. About two years ago, I suddenly decided to sun playing the piano, without being able to read music and without having any lessons. It comes easily to me — I hear the notes and can bear them in mind — each and every note,” says Samuel.

    Recently, Samuel performed a piece during a special event at his college. The piece had more than a thousand notes. The audience was impressed by his amazing performance. He is now learning a piece that is so difficult that many professional pianists can't play it. Samuel says confidently,” It's all about super memory — I guess I have that gift.”

    However, Samuel's ability to remember things doesn't slop with music. His family says that even when he was a young boy, Samuel heard someone read a story, and then he could retell the story word for word.

    Samuel is still only a teenager. He doesn't know what he wants to do in the future. For now, he is just happy to play beautiful music and continue his studies.

    In a research carried out in the UK, it was found that only four out of every five employees were happy at work. Surprisingly, it wasn't the pay or the love for the work that made people happy. Instead, friendly, supportive colleagues and a good manager have been found to be the primary causes of happiness at work. So how do you develop a sense of joy on the job? Here are some suggestions.

    Happiness is a state of mind, so staying happy at work is completely based on a positive attitude towards your job. Focus on the bright side of the work rather than keep talking about what makes you unhappy.

    Challenge yourself and take charge of your own growth in your career. Boredom is one of the primary factors that cause people to change jobs. Find new challenges and it's a great feeling to take control over what you do and see a task through.

    Having co­workers you like and enjoy working with is a feature of happiness in the workplace. Talk to people, get to know them and try to get along well with them in the workplace. Meeting new people and getting fresh views can help you to keep yourself interested in your work.

    Complete your tasks, no matter how disagreeable or tough they might be. This gives you a sense of achievement and encourages you to work towards your goals in future.

    Sitting and staring at your screen all day long isn't going to help you. Instead, take breaks and go outside for some time. For example, go out for a few minutes to feel the breeze (微风). Eat your lunch outside or work for a few minutes during that hour, which helps you stay happy at work.

    Humans' invention of zero was vital for modern mathematics and science, but we're not the only species to consider “nothing” a number. Parrots and monkeys understand the concept of zero, and now bees have joined the club, too.

    Honey bees are known to have some numerical skills such as the ability to count to four, which may come in handy when keeping track of landmarks in their environment. To see whether these abilities extended to understanding zero, researchers trained 10 bees to identify the smaller of two numbers. Across a series of trials, they showed the insects two different pictures displaying a few black shapes on a white background. If the bees flew to the picture with the smaller number of shapes, they were given delicious sugar water, but if they flew toward the larger number, they were punished with bitter-tasting food.

    Once the bees had learned to consistently make the correct choice, the researchers gave them a new choice: a white background containing no shapes at all. Even though the bees had never seen an empty picture before, 64% of the time they chose it rather than a picture containing two or three shapes, the authors report today in Science. This suggests that the insects understood that “zero” is less than two or three. And they weren't just going for the empty picture because it was new and interesting. Another group of bees trained to always choose the larger number tended to pick the nonzero image in this test.

    In further experiments, the researchers showed that bees' understanding of zero was even more complex: for example, they were able to distinguish between one and zero-a challenge even for some other members of the zero club. Advanced numerical abilities like this could give animals an evolutionary advantage, helping them keep track of predators（捕食者）and food sources. And if an insect can display such a thorough grasp of the number zero, write the researchers, then this ability may be more common in the animal kingdom than we think.

    Earlier this month a study showed that bees can teach themselves to play football. They can learn by watching and, rather than copy what they have seen, change it to make it better. Bees also have a clever trick for helping their friends find lunch. New research shows that bees leave smelly little footprints on flowers that help them know what flowers they and their family members have recently visited.

    The discovery was made by scientists from University of Bristol who report these smelly footprints help bees distinguish  between their own scent(气味), the scent of a relative and the scent of a stranger. And by using this ability, bees can improve their success at finding good sources of a food and avoid flowers that have already been visited and mined of nutrients.

    The Bristol team performed three separate experiments with bumblebees(大黄蜂)in which they were repeatedly exposed to rewarding and unrewarding flowers at the same time that had footprints from different bees attached to them. Each flower type either carried scent -marks from bumblebees of differing relatedness or were unmarked. The marks were either the bee's own marks, sisters from their nest, or strangers from another nest.

    The study shows that not only can bumblebees tell the marks of their own nest mates from strangers, but they can also discriminate between the smell of their own footprints and those of their nest mate sisters, which could help them to remember which flowers they have visited recently. But it doesn't explain how they use that in the wild. They may detect the footprints of their friends and keep moving on, since that flower may be tapped out. Or they may smell a bit of familiar foot smell and dive in, seeing it as a marker that nectar(花蜜)is present.

    "I will need to open your neck to remove the tumor," the surgeon told me on a hot summer day. The words turned into white noise. "So, an ugly scar across my neck, then?" I asked. The nurse said: "Don't worry. The closure is like his signature. Just like you want a perfect scar, he wants to give you one. You'll barely see it." I found some comfort in that.

    I googled "cancer surgery scar" and was presented with neck images: necks with red and purple lines, closed with stitches or glue; necks with multiple scars....It was enough to make me shut my Macbook, as anxiety pulsed through my body. In the mirror, I admired my neck, running my finger across a gold chain I wore. Then a tiny voice said:" Mummy!"

    My then fie-year-old son. Jack, appeared in the mirror behind me. Our reflection was a big reality check. See, my son didn't know I had cancer and was having surgery. I'm a single mom. Jack lives with me and doesn't have a relationship with his father. I'm his hero. I'm the homework helper, nurse, chef, taxi driver, and every other variation of parent. I knew I couldn't lose heart over cancer or some scar on my neck --I'm this kid's life!

    So I did the next best thing I could think of: I made an appointment to get my hair done a few days before the first surgery. My goal was simple: golden hair to frame my scar. If I couldn't hide it, I might as well show it off. I never had any intentions of hiding the scar. I didn't want my son to think my scar was something to be ashamed of. I'm his role model and I needed to set a good example. Bad things can happen, but it's how you deal with them that matters.

    The scar proves I faced my fear and won. If I got through that I can get through all the hardships, land on my feet and live boldly.