If you like texting and are trying to lose weight, a new study found that using texting(发短信) to track diet and exercise habits may help you lose weight.

    Previous research has shown that keeping food and exercise diaries improves the likelihood of success when you are using it to lose weight. Using a computer or a pen and paper to record information, however, can be a burden and cause some people to give up.

    Duke University researchers said using text messages to track eating and exercise habits can save time, and increase the chances that people will stick with their weight-loss rules.

    The study included 26 obese/fat women with an average age of 38. The women used daily texting as part of their weight-loss program. The text messages focused on tracking personalized goals, such as avoiding sugary drinks or walking 10,000 steps a day. Messages also provided brief feedback (反馈) and tips.

    Every morning, the women received a text from an automated system that said, “Please text yesterday's personal information of steps you walked and how many sugary drinks you had.” Based on the women's responses to the text message, the system sent another text with personalized feedback and tips.

    After six months, the women who used daily texting lost an average of nearly 3 pounds, while another group of women who used traditional methods to keep food and exercise diaries gained an average of 2.5 pounds, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

    “Text messaging has become popular and may be an effective method to simplify tracking of diet and exercise behavior,” Dori Steinberg, who was responsible for this research, said.

    Steinberg said, “Text messaging offers several advantages compared to other self-monitoring methods. Unlike web-based diet and exercise diaries, data in a text message can be entered quickly on nearly all cell phone platforms so it is very convenient to receive feedback. Besides, because of the limited number of words used in text messages, it saves time.”

    Dogs are wonderful companions all their own, but they can also help change your life so that you're more accepting of new friendships. A new study studied how dogs' brains responded to the human voice and found that “the human brain responds to dog emotions the same way it responds to human emotions” and that the dog's brain does the same.

    Dogs are pack animals, so in terms of pet ownership, your dog will prefer to stay with you rather than somewhere alone. Think about how this concept applies to friendship. People today are getting more and more used to spending time on social networking, email, and text. While all methods of communication are good, there is nothing like seeing your friends and hearing their voice. With good friends, sometimes a look explains everything, and you can only get this when you're together hanging out in person.

    Let's face it, dogs never hide their feeling. They let you know what they enjoy doing most, whether it is chasing a ball, going for a walk, or getting a treat. For people, it's harder to be open with your emotions. But in order to truly find a friend, you'll need to let go of your fears and put trust into your friends. The reality is that you'll never make everyone you meet happy one-hundred percent of the time, so if your friends and family think you're great, put aside the need to be liked by everyone.

    Dogs wait for you to come home and are so happy to see you again that they practically do a happy dance when you walk through the door. Friends, on the other hand, are sometimes so busy that even hearing from a friend becomes an unwelcome interruption. Rather than avoid calls or emails, make a point to talk to friends on a regular basis.

    Life-Changing Science Discoveries

    Here's a look at some discoveries that have changed the world. It's impossible to rank their importance, so they're listed in the order they were discovered

Micro-organism

    Before French chemist Louis Pasteur began experimenting with bacteria in the 1860s, people did not know what caused disease. He not only discovered that disease came from micro-organisms, but also realized that bacteria could be killed by heat and disinfectant(消毒剂). This idea caused doctors to wash their hands and disinfect their instruments, which has saved millions of lives.

Penicillin

    Antibiotics are powerful drugs that kill dangerous bacteria in our bodies that make us sick. In 1928, British Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic, penicillin, which he grew in his lab. Without antibiotics, infections like strep throat could be deadly

DNA

    On February 28, 1853, James Watson of the United States and Francis Crick of England made one of the greatest scientific discoveries in history. The two scientists found the structure of DNA. Our genes are made of DNA and determine how things like what color hair and eye we'll have. In 1962, they were awarded the Nobel Prize for this work . The discovery has helped doctors understand diseases and may someday prevent some illnesses like heart disease and cancer.

X-rays

    Wilhelm Roentgen, a German physicist, discovered X-rays in 1895. X-rays go right through some substances, like flesh and wood, but are stopped by others, such as bones and lead. This allows them to be used to see broken bones or explosives inside suitcases, which makes them useful for doctors and security officers. For this discovery, Roentgen was awarded the first-ever Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.

    It's comforting to think if you were somehow swallowed by a whale, you'd simply hang out in his stomach until he eventually spat you out, unharmed and whole. Unfortunately, your chance of ending up in this type of situation is pretty low.

    In 2012 reporter Ben Shattuck read the records at the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library. Despite his extensive research at one of the most comprehensive whaling archives(档案), he failed to find a single report of anyone ever being swallowed alive by a whale. He found plenty of reports of whalers who were bitten or injured by the creatures, and several who died after fighting with a whale, but none related to swallowing.

    With whales' large mouths, it certainly seems possible that a whale could swallow someone whole, so why is it so unlikely? Baleen whales, or whales without teeth, are some of the largest creatures on the planet. Despite their massive size, baleen whales could never get you into their bellies thanks to their relatively small esophagus(食道). These whales are designed to eat small sea creatures, and the opening in their throat is only about as large as a basketball, so you'd never make it that far.

    But what about toothed whales? Sperm whales eat whole seals, so you could easily fit down their throats and into their stomachs. However, once you reached the first of the sperm whale's four stomachs, your journey would probably end quickly. Not only would the whale's stomach acid make quick work of you, but you'd experience a distinct lack of air on the inside. Actually, you're more likely to get eaten or injured as you try to make it past the sperm whale's sharp teeth. Plenty of whalers, have fought with sperm whales and lost their hands or lives due to these mean teeth.

    Chocolate could soon be a thing of the past, after scientists warned that the cacao plant, from which chocolate is made, could be extinct within 32 years.

    Over half of the world's chocolate comes from just two countries in West Africa­Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana­where the temperature, rain, and humidity provide the perfect conditions for cacao to grow. But the threat of rising temperatures over the next three decades caused by climate change, is expected to result in a loss of water from the ground, which scientists say could upset this balance.

    According to the related data, a temperature rise of just 2.1℃ could spell an end for the chocolate industry worldwide by 2050. Farmers in the region are already considering moving cacao production areas thousands of feet uphill into mountainous area­much of which is currently preserved for wildlife. But a move of this scale could destroy ecosystems that are already under threat from illegal farming and deforestation.

    Part of the problem, according to Doug Hawkins, is that cacao farming methods have not changed for hundreds of years. "Unlike other tree crops that have benefited from the development of modern, high yielding strains and crop management techniques to realize their genetic potential, more than 90% of the global cocoa crop is produced by small farms with unimproved planting material," he said. "It means that we could be facing a chocolate decrease of 100,000 tons a year in the next few years."

    Now scientists at the University of California at Berkeley have teamed up with American candy company Mars to keep chocolate on the menu. Using the controversial(有争议的) gene-editing technology known as CRISPR they are trying to develop a type of the cacao plant capable of surviving in dryer, warmer climates. If the team's work on the cacao plant is successful, it could remove the need for farmers in West Africa to relocate to higher ground, and perhaps even allow cacao to be grown elsewhere in the world.

    Closeness and independence are both important in our life. Though all humans need both of them women tend to focus on the first and men on the second. It is as if their lifeblood ran in different directions.

    These differences can give women and men differing views of the same situation, as they did in the case of couple I will call Tracy and Brian. When Brian's old high school friend called him at work and announced he'd be in town on business the following month, Brian invited him to stay for the weekend. That evening he informed Tracy that they were going to have a houseguest, and that he and his friend would go out together the first night to chat like old times. Tracy was upset. She was going to be away on business the week before, and the Friday night when Brian would be out with his friend would be her first night home. But what upset her the most was that Brian had made these plans on his own and informed her of them, rather than discussing them with her before extending the invitation.

    Tracy would never make plans, for a weekend or an evening, without first checking with Brian. She can't understand why he doesn't show her the same courtesy and consideration that she shows him. But when she protests, Brian says, "I can't say to my friend, 'I have to ask my wife for permission'!"

    To Brian, checking with his wife means seeking permission, which implies that he is not independent, not free to act on his own. To Tracy, checking with her husband makes her feel good to know and show that she is involved with someone, that her life is bound up with someone else's.

    Tracy and Brian both felt upset by this incident because it cut to the core of their primary concerns. Tracy was hurt because she sensed a failure of closeness in their relationship: He didn't care about her as much as she cared about him. And he was hurt because he felt she was trying to control him and limit his freedom.