Inside the Rain Room

    The Rain Room has arrived and local art lovers are taking notice. Is it worth the wait? Yes, I assure you it is. Once inside, visitors find a long, dark room with a high ceiling. A single bright light shines through heavy rain falling around visitors. The mist. The damp air. The noise. It feels like a mighty storm is pouring down. But the storm is inside. And visitors aren't getting wet. Instead, visitors wander in awe, admiring the rain and the artists who created it.

    The Rain Room was created to highlight the connection between humans, nature and technology. With a tracking system that senses movement and stops the rain wherever visitors move, it does just that. Light and sound produce an experience that feels both natural and foreign. The exhibit is moving on to Atlanta next month. I urge you to visit before then. It's time to experience the Rain Room for yourself!

Welcome to the Rain Room

• The Rain Room features falling water. Please be aware you may get slightly wet. However, visitors wearing raincoats will be turned away.

• This exhibit features advanced technology. To ensure its effectiveness, please avoid wearing dark or reflective clothing.

• Visitors are welcome to take photographs of the exhibit.

• Children must be accompanied by an adult.

• For the convenience of all guests, visits are limited to 10 minutes.

    Hummingbirds(蜂鸟) are one of nature's most energetic fliers and the only birds to hover(盘旋) in the air by relying on their strength alone.

    Now scientists have found that it is the ratio(比值) of the bird's wing length to its width that makes them so efficient. The discovery is helping experts compete with 42 million years of natural selection to build helicopters that are increasingly efficient.

    David Lentink, an assistant professor at Stanford University in California, tested wings from 12 different species of hummingbirds, which he sourced from museums. He placed them on a machine used to test the aerodynamics(气力学) of the helicopter blades(桨叶). Professor Lentink's team used the same machine to test the blades from an advanced micro-helicopter used by the UK's army. They found that the micro-helicopter's blades are as efficient at hovering as the average hummingbirds.

    But while the micro-helicopter's blades kept pace with the average hummingbird wings, they could not keep up with the most efficient hummingbird's wing. The wings of Anna's hummingbird were found to be about 27 percent more efficient than the man-made micro- helicopter's blades.

    While Professor Lentink wasn't surprised at nature's superiority, he said that helicopter blades have come a long way. “The technology is at the level of an average hummingbird,” he said. “A helicopter is really the most efficient hovering device that we can build. The best hummingbirds are still better, but I think it's amazing that we're getting closer. It's not easy to match their performance, but if we build better wings with better shapes, we might match hummingbirds.”

    Professor Lentink said that we don't know how hummingbirds maintain their flight in a strong wind, how they navigate(确定方向) through branches, or how they change direction so quickly. He thinks that great steps could be made by studying wing aspect ratios-the ratio of wing length to wing width. Understanding these abilities and characteristics could be a benefit for robotics and will be the focus of future experiments.

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    There's a curious thing about people.All of us are driven in some way or another to achieve—we want to run faster,be more creative,win more awards,and earn more money.But here's the thing: if you want to offer warm words of wisdom,constructive criticism or "360-degree feedback",then think again.Most of us would rather not hear it.

    Our easily-broken egos（自尊心）are partly to blame.We all want to meet our own expectations of ourselves,and so being critised can present a huge threat to our egos.Yet as decades of psychological theory and research have indicated,people have endless tricky strategies of remaining positive in the face of criticism.For this reason,rather than us welcoming feedback with open arms,our first response is often an automatic defense.These reactions serve to make us feel better about ourselves.

    Psychological research exposes this unhealthy appetite for ignorance.In one study,students watched a false educational film about a serious disease called "TAA Deficiency".In fact,TAA Deficiency is completely fictional,but the students were not told this information;instead,they were asked whether they wished to provide a cheek test for assessing（评估）their risk of developing the disease.Half of the students were told that if they ever developed TAA Deficiency,then the treatment would involve them taking a two-week course of pills.Of this group,52% agreed to provide the cheek test.The other half of students learned the treatment would involve taking the pills for the rest of their lives.Of this group,only 21% agreed to the test.

    These findings show a common pattern seen in other studies within and beyond the context of healthcare.That is,people are especially resistant to hearing feedback when they believe it could force them to do something difficult or unpleasant.

How to Prevent Dehydration

    When the weather's warm, you need to make sure you drink enough water. But did you know that you lose your sense of thirst as you get older? This means you5re more likely to become dehydrated, making you more prone to (有倾向) falls, heart disease, urinary-tract infections, kidney stones and confusion. A study from Loughborough University in the UK has shown that drivers who had only a little water an hour made twice as many mistakes as motorists who were properly hydrated. In fact, they made a similar number of errors to what you'd expect from someone over the drink-drive limit.

    So how do you know when you're dehydrated? Warning signs include:

    Feeling tired

    Dry mouth and dry skin

    Dark urine

    Reduced appetite (食欲)

    Reduced concentration

    Headache

    Constipation.

    But you might not notice any symptoms (症状)at all，so to make sure you stay hydrated:

    Keep a glass of water by your side when you're at home, and drink it regularly.

    Form a new drinking habit—for example, when watching TV, always reach for the water glass during an ad break.

    Take a small bottle of water with you when you go out.

    Always drink a large glass of water with a meal.

    Eat fruit and vegetables with high water content.

    Draw up a weekly water card—a bit like a coffee loyalty card—with a target of eight glasses of water a day. Mark it every time you have a glass of water. Award yourself a prize when ifs full at the end of the week.

    Drink water before, during and after you take any exercise.

    The well-known adventurer (冒险家)and explorer Steve Fossett, born in 1944 in America, was famous for extraordinary efforts setting world records in flying, ballooning and sailing. He set or broke over 100 records in five different sports, many of which are still held. Many of his most extraordinary adventures were as a pilot. He once said that he did not like risks. This might sound strange considering his activities. But he said what he tried to do was to reduce risk with careful planning, technological development and the help of the best scientists and other experts. In 2007, during a short-distance flight, his plane disappeared and he died at the age of 63.

    In 1903 Benjamin Spock was born in America. After he attended Yale University he joined a sports team that competed in rolling boats, which in 1924 won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris. He used to work at a camp for disabled children for three summers during his years at Yale. And the experience probably led to his decision to enter Yale Medical School, and finally completed his medical degree at Columbia in New York. From 1933 he worked as a baby doctor, trying to fit the theories (理论)about how children develop with what mothers told him about their children. During the 1950s, Dr Spock became famous. He wrote articles for magazines, appeared on TV programs, taught at universities and gave speeches to talk to parents about their concerns (担心).Benjamin died in 1998 at 94. Yet his advice continues to affect the lives of millions of children and their parents.

    An 80-year-old Japanese mountain climber who has had four heart surgeries (手术) reached the top of Mount on Thursday, becoming the oldest to climb up the world's highest mountain on May 23, 2013. It was Yuichiro Miura. As a famous adventurer, he skied down Everest from the South Col in 1970, a deed that became the subject of a documentary. He has since skied down the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, following the tradition of his late father, who skied down Europe's Mont Blanc at 99. "If you wish strongly, have courage and endurance, then you can get to the summit (顶峰)of your dream, Miura said.