基因兴奋剂

由于衰老和疾病，骨骼肌会丢失，一种修复或重建的基因疗法已准备进入临床，但某些优秀运动员也期待用它来提高成绩。基因兴奋剂使竞技体育变质的日子不远了。     

General physiology,experimental psychology,and evolutionism. Unicellular organisms as objects of psychophysiological research, 1877-1918

This essay aims to shed new light on the relations between physiology and psychology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by focusing on the use of unicellular organisms as research objects during that period. Within the frameworks of evolutionism and monism advocated by Ernst Haeckel, protozoa were perceived as objects situated at the borders between organism and cell and individual and society. Scholars such as Max Verworn, Alfred Binet, and Herbert Spencer Jennings were provoked by these organisms to undertake experimental investigations situated between general physiology and psychology that differed from the physiological psychology advocated by Wilhelm Wundt. Some of these investigations sought to locate psychological properties in the molecular structure of protoplasm; others stressed the existence of organic and psychological individuality in protozoa. In the following decades, leading philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Sanders Peirce, and Henri Bergson, as well as psychological researchers like Sigmund Freud, integrated the results of these investigations into their reflections on such problems as the nature of the will, the structure of the ego, and the holistic nature of the reactions of organisms to their environment.     

基于科学家发现研究的学校科学教育

学校科学教育的顺利进行,有赖于学校所在地科学家和科学研究人员的介入。科学家的科学研究对于学校的科学教育起着重要的助推作用。为了有效推进学校的科学教育,科学家直接进入学校,参与学校的科学教育,或者在学校组织专场报告、讲座,把自己的研究经历和经验带入学校的科学教育教学中,对学生的学习、生涯发展,以及未来的科学家的培养,将起到重要作用。     

某些观点

类星体和射电星系或许是同一类事物的两个侧面。在道教传说中，有下列故事，先哲老子说过：“二者本为一体，但它们诞生之后，有了不同的名称。”也许，这种神秘的观念能够应用到类星体和射电星系吧!初看起来，这两者是极不相像的。类星体是高度密集的物质，它们发射着大量的光与辐射能。射电星系则是哑铃状的结构，主要发射射频辐射，而且远较任何普通星系为大。     

把温室气体埋起来

将二氧化碳泵入地下，避免大气变暖，但可能要遇到几个关键性挑战。     

天灾对发展中国家的影响

比较一下一个发达国家(罗马尼亚)与一个发展中国家(尼加拉瓜)对天灾的社会反应可以看出一些明显差别,使人感到后者容易遭受天灾袭击。发展中国家的人民非常贫困,促使他们有甘冒风险的倾向,容易听天由命,因此他们继续居住在危险地区。     

Cognitive and environmental predictors of early literacy skills

Not all young children benefit from book exposure in preschool age. It is claimed that the ability to hold information in mind (short-term memory), to ignore distraction (inhibition), and to focus attention and stay focused (sustained attention) may have a moderating effect on children’s reactions to the home literacy environment. In a group of 228 junior kindergarten children with a native Dutch background, with a mean age of 54.29 months (SD = 2.12 months), we explored therefore the relationship between book exposure, cognitive control and early literacy skills. Parents filled in a HLE questionnaire (book sharing frequency and an author recognition checklist as indicator of parental leisure reading habits), and children completed several tests in individual sessions with the researcher (a book-cover recognition test, PPVT, letter knowledge test, the subtests categories and patterns of the SON, and cognitive control measures namely digit span of the KABC, a peg tapping task and sustained attention of the ANT). Main findings were: (1) Children’s storybook knowledge mediated the relationship between home literacy environment and literacy skills. (2) Both vocabulary and letter knowledge were predicted by book exposure. (3) Short-term memory predicted vocabulary over and above book exposure. (4) None of the cognitive control mechanisms moderated the beneficial effects of book exposure.     

How Does It Look? Level 2 Perspective‐Taking at 36 Months of Age

Previous research has found that children engage in Level 2 visual perspective-taking, that is, the understanding that others may see things in a different way, between 4 and 5 years of age (e.g., J. H. Flavell, B. A. Everett, K. Croft, & E. R. Flavell, 1981). This ability was reexamined in 36-month-olds using color filters. In Experiment 1 (N = 24), children had to recognize how an object looked to an adult when she saw it through a color filter. In Experiment 2 (N = 24), a novel production test was applied. Results of both studies show that 36-month-olds know how an object looks to another person. The discussion focuses on the psychological requirements of visual perspective-taking and its relation to other "theory of mind" abilities, such as the distinction between appearance and reality and understanding false belief.     

Benefits of practicing 4 = 2 + 2: nontraditional problem formats facilitate children's understanding of mathematical equivalence

This study examined whether practice with arithmetic problems presented in a nontraditional problem format improves understanding of mathematical equivalence. Children (M age = 8;0; N = 90) were randomly assigned to practice addition in one of three conditions: (a) traditional, in which problems were presented in the traditional "operations on left side" format (e.g., 9 + 8 = 17); (b) nontraditional, in which problems were presented in a nontraditional format (e.g., 17 = 9 + 8); or (c) no extra practice. Children developed a better understanding of mathematical equivalence after receiving nontraditional practice than after receiving traditional practice or no extra practice. Results suggest that minor differences in early input can yield substantial differences in children's understanding of fundamental concepts.