Today's Flight Time Table

（Departure＝leave）

    Vitamin B could help reduce the effects of the dangerous type of air pollution, according to a new study published on Monday. In the first study of its kind, a team of international researchers looked into the damage caused by one of the pollutants that have the severest impact on health—PM2.5.

    They found that Vitamin B supplement could effectively reduce the impact of the tiny particles     （颗粒）on the human body, although they stressed that the research was in its early stages. According to the WHO, 92% of the world's people are living in places where the PM2.5 level goes beyond the recommended level. So it's urgent to find a solution to the problem.

    According to this study, published in the PNAS, 10 volunteers were initially exposed to clean air and given a placebo (安慰剂）to check their baseline responses. The group then kept on taking placebos tor tour weeks before being exposed to heavily polluted air from downtown Toronto, where an estimated 1,000 cars passed every hour. The bad air was delivered to the volunteers through an "oxygen type" face mask. The experiment was then repeated, with each volunteer taking a Vitamin B supplement daily, made up of 2.5mg of folic acid, 50mg of Vitamin B6, and l mg of Vitamin B12.

    Vitamin B6 can be found in liver, chicken, nuts and other things, and Vitamin B12 in fish, meat, eggs, milk and some cereals. The researchers found that four weeks of Vitamin B supplements — the damage of PM2.5 effects by 28-76%. The results emphasized how prevention at an individual level could be used to fight against the damage of PM2.5, the researchers said.

    Superman, Spider-Man, Batman and Iron Man ... .There is no shortage of superheroes. You find them in comic books, on TV and the big screen.

    In a survey of fans by the sci-fi（科幻）and fantasy website, SFX.co.uk, Batman, 70 years old this year, was voted Britain's favorite superhero.

    Unlike many crime-fighting superheroes Batman has no special powers. He can't fly like Superman or shoot a sticky web like Spider-Man.

    Bruce Wayne is born to a wealthy Gotham City business family. However, when his parents are murdered his life changes completely.

    Wayne feels angry at their deaths and guilty that he did not prevent them. He travels around the world learning how to fight. Upon returning to Gotham, he creates a disguise (伪装) to enable him to fight crime without being recognized.

    A childhood fear of bats leads him to choose to dress as one. His idea is that through the bat persona (角色) he can prove to himself that he has overcome his childhood fears.

    Wayne is the CEO of the company he inherits from his father. He seems to live the lifestyle of a millionaire playboy. But this is a ruse (计策). He works hard at the image to allow himself the freedom he needs to do his work as a crime fighter. "Bruce Wayne, playboy" is the disguise; Batman is the real person.

    "Wayne is not a born superhero. Instead, he is a real, complex person," said Dace Golder, editor of the website. "He is the most realistic of all the superheroes. I am particularly interested in the emotional process by which a boy becomes a hero. His superhero qualities come from within."

Yawning（哈欠）sends out certain messages—either “Oh, this movie is boring" or "I probably need to get some sleep". But did you know that a yawn can also help your brain to cool down when it is so overheated?

    A new study, led by a research team of Princeton University, has indicated（表明）that yawning could be the brain's natural way of regulating temperature. People yawn more often when the temperature outdoors is lower than their body temperature but are less likely to yawn when it is hotter outdoors, according to Sciencedaily.com.

    The research team did an experiment on 160 people, 80 in summer and 80 in winter, to examine how often they yawned at different air temperatures. The study found that people yawned more often in winter than in summer. Scientists say that when the air temperature is lower outside the body, there is heat exchange between the overheated brain and the cool air. But when the air temperature is higher than or equal to the body, people are less likely to yawn because the hot air they breathe in will make the brain even hotter.

    When people yawn, their jaw is also stretched, which increases blood flow and may also help cool the brain.

    The study showed that the amount someone yawned could be related to the amount of time they spent outside. The longer they spent outside in summer, the less they yawn. Nearly 40 percent of participants yawned within their first five minutes outside, but after that the percentage was reduced to less than 10 percent.

    However, the result was the opposite in winter. The number of people who yawned increased when they spent more than five minutes outdoors. But the change was only slight compared to summertime.

    According to Gallup, this is the first report to show that yawning frequencies(频率) change depending on season. This could help us to understand better the way our brains work. It may also help us understand the reason why frequent yawning can sometimes be a sign of brain disease.

    People have understood that kindness is good for the person who receives help. For example, when we give food to a hungry person, he is blessed. However, scientists have recently begun to study the effect kindness has on the person giving it. What they have found is that doing good is good for the doer. Acts of kindness can improve health, help a person reach goals and even add years to a person's life.

    The first study to show the connection between doing good and living a long life was a study on aging. Beginning in 1956, scientists studied a group of married mothers for 30 years. They thought the women with the most children would die first. But the number of children a woman had did not matter. Wealth did not matter. Education did not matter. What did matter was whether they volunteered. Women that volunteered had fewer diseases during their life.

    Many other studies have found the same positive effects. Helping other people improves long-term health. The gains are the same for men, women, old people and the young. Those who volunteered had fewer serious diseases than those who did not volunteer. This included diseases such as heart attack, cancer and stroke.

    Scientists are researching many possible causes. One possible cause is an increase in antibodies （抗体）, which help fight against disease. One study showed the body produces more antibodies after an act of kindness. This increase in antibodies can last nearly an hour after one act of kindness is finished.

    Another one is an increase in a chemical that fights the effects of stress from life. Scientists have found a link between being kind to people and an increase in the chemical oxytocin. Oxytocin is a chemical produced in the brain. It reduces many of the harmful chemicals the body produces under stress.

    The Intelligent Transport team at Newcastle University have turned an electric car into a mobile laboratory named "DriveLAB" in order to understand the challenges faced by older drivers and to discover where the key stress points are.

    Research shows that giving up driving is one of the key reasons for a fall in health and well-being among older people, leading to them becoming more isolated (隔绝) and inactive.

    Led by Professor Phil Blythe, the Newcastle team are developing in-vehicle technologies for older drivers which they hope could help them to continue driving into later life.

    These include custom-made navigation (导航) tools, night vision systems and intelligent speed adaptations. Phil Blythe explains: "For many older people, particularly those living alone or in the country, driving is important for preserving their independence, giving them the freedom to get out and about without having to rely on others.

    "But we all have to accept that as we get older our reactions slow down and this often results in people avoiding any potentially challenging driving conditions and losing confidence in their driving skills. The result is that people stop driving before they really need to."

    Dr Amy Guo, the leading researcher on the older driver study, explains:" The DriveLAB is helping us to understand what the key stress points and difficulties are for older drivers and how we might use technology to address these problems.

    "For example, most of us would expect older drivers always go slower than everyone else but surprisingly, we found that in 30mph zones they struggled to keep at a constant speed and so were more likely to break the speed limit and be at risk of getting fined. We're looking at the benefits of systems which control their speed as a way of preventing that.

    "We hope that our work will help with technological solutions (解决方案) to ensure that older drivers stay safer behind the wheel."