- Consuming olive oil could reduce risk of dying from dementia by a third, study suggests
- Can using aromatherapy oils every night help improve memory?
- ‘Swifterature:’ Belgian university launches course to analyze Taylor Swift lyrics
- Barbie? Titanic? Jurassic Park? What is the best $1bn movie ever?
- Nature’s changing colors make climate change visible
- Many frogs glow in blue light, and it may be a secret, eerie language
Consuming olive oil could reduce risk of dying from dementia by a third, study suggests
研究顯示：攝取橄欖油有助降低三分之一的失智症死亡風險
Health
Olive oil has long been held up as an example of a "super food" that can help you to live longer when consumed as part of a healthy diet. Now a new study suggests that olive oil could help to reduce the risk of dying from dementia. The study, conducted by researchers at Harvard University in the United States, comes at a time when many countries are facing rising rates of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, amid ageing populations. According to the researchers, using olive oil instead of fats such as margarine and commercial mayonnaise could reduce the risk of dying from dementia. “Our study reinforces dietary guidelines recommending vegetable oils such as olive oil and suggests that these recommendations not only support heart health but potentially brain health, as well,” said Anne-Julie Tessier, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
--from Euronews
長期以來，橄欖油一直被推崇為「超級食品」的典範，是可延年益壽健康飲食的一部分。現在一項新的研究表明橄欖油有助降低死於失智症的風險。由美國哈佛大學的研究人員執行的這項研究，正值許多國家因人口老化而面臨阿茲罕默症及其他形式失智症罹患率上升的問題。研究人員表示，使用橄欖油代替人造奶油和市售美奶滋等脂肪，可以降低死於失智症的風險。哈佛大學TH Chan公共衛生學院博士後研究員Anne-Julie Tessier 表示：「我們的研究進一步證實推薦橄欖油等植物油的飲食指南，其建議不僅有助心臟健康，還可能有助大腦健康。」
--摘錄翻譯自Euronews
Can using aromatherapy oils every night help improve memory?
每晚使用香氛治療能幫助增進記憶力嗎？
Health
Previous research has shown that cognitive decline is accompanied or even preceded by loss of sense of smell in various neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease. Some research indicates that regular exposure to multiple scents or odorants — a practice known as olfactory enrichment — can have beneficial effects on cognitive abilities in older adults. In a new clinical study, researchers at the University of California, Irvine, examined if a nightly aromatherapy regimen for six months could improve cognitive skills in older adults. They observed significant improvements in word list recall as well as improved functioning in the part of the brain known as the left uncinate fasciculus after olfactory enrichment with aromatherapy oils.
--from Medical News Today
過去的研究顯示，認知能力退化會伴隨嗅覺喪失等各種神經系統疾病，包括阿茲罕默症、失智症和帕金森氏症。有研究指出：定期接觸多種香氛或氣味劑（一種稱為強化嗅覺的練習）可對年長者的認知能力產生有益的影響。在一項新的臨床研究中，加州大學Irvine分校的研究人員測試了為期6個月的夜間芳香療法能否增進年長者的認知能力。他們觀察到在使用香療精油強化嗅覺後，詞彙表記憶力隨者大腦左鉤束功能改善，也有顯著的進步。
--摘錄翻譯自Medical News Today
‘Swifterature:’ Belgian university launches course to analyze Taylor Swift lyrics
「Swifterature」： 比利時大學推出泰勒絲Taylor Swift歌詞分析課程
Culture
Ghent University in Belgium is launching a new literature course dedicated to the literary merit of Taylor Swift’s discography. This fall, “Literature: Taylor’s Version” will be available to students, curated by assistant professor Elly McCausland. “Highly prolific and autobiographical in her songwriting, Swift makes frequent allusions to canonical literary texts in her music,” the class syllabus explains. “Using Swift’s work as a springboard, we will explore, among other topics, literary feminism, ecocriticism, fan studies, and tropes such as the anti-hero. Swift’s enduring popularity stems, at least in part, from the heavily intertextual aspect of her work, and this course will dig deeper to explore its literary roots.” Registration, “is open to all, including those who do not consider themselves fans of Taylor Swift (or may never have encountered her music),” the syllabus continues. Enrolled students will, over the semester, be graded on a “reflection report” — which could even be presented as a song — and a 4,000 word essay.
--from CNN
比利時根特大學正推出一門新的文學課程，課程致力於研討泰勒絲Taylor Swift的音樂背後的文學價值。今年秋天，助理教授Elly McCausland策劃的「文學：泰勒絲」(Literature：Taylor’s Version)課程將向學生開放。於課程大綱中提及：「泰勒絲的作品具有高產能及自傳性質，她的音樂也經常引用經典文學文段內容。課程將引用她的音樂作品做為跳板的方式，來探討相關文學主題如女性主義、生態批評、粉絲文化及反英雄等。她的高人氣也是因為來自作品中強烈地互文性，而這門課將會更深入探討其文學根源。」課程大綱中也提到：「此課程將開放所有學生進行選修，即使不是泰粉或是根本沒聽過她的音樂皆能選修。」選修這門課的學生於學期修完課程後，須提交一份反思報告，甚至可以是一首歌來呈現，和一篇4000字論文報告。
--摘錄翻譯自CNN
Barbie? Titanic? Jurassic Park? What is the best $1bn movie ever?
芭比？鐵達尼號？侏羅紀公園？有史以來最好的 10 億美元電影是哪一部？
Culture
Legend has it that when Margot Robbie pitched Warner Bros her idea for what the Barbie movie should be, she won the executives over by telling them that it would make a billion dollars. Last week she was proved right. Barbie has now made $1.18bn at the global box office. This is an incredible achievement. Of all the movies ever made, only 53 have managed to hit this milestone. Because, while Barbie definitely deserves this accolade (the New Yorker’s Richard Brody tweeted such), the billion-dollar club does sometimes look like a place where creativity goes to die. It’s a fatberg of sequels and remakes and cynically licensed intellectual property content, inching its way down the Hollywood sewer. Proof? That’s easy. Of the 53 films that have ever made a billion dollars, two are from the Despicable Me franchise. Two are Transformers films. There are four live action Disney remakes, four Jurassic Parks, five Star Wars films and 15 superhero movies, 11 of which were made by Marvel.
--from The Guardian
據說當時Margot Robbie向華納兄弟電影公司提案時，因為她向公司高階主管表示此部電影將會賣座10億美元而贏得信任。然而上週他的預言成真。 芭比這部電影目前全球票房是11.8億美元。這是一項非常難以相信的成就。有史以來所有電影中，僅有53部電影達到這個里程碑。芭比當然值得獲得這份榮耀(雜誌紐約客Richard Brody在推特上提到)，這個創造數十億美元的俱樂部有時候貌似是創造力邁向凋零的地方，它就像有著續集、翻拍和無所顧忌地獲得許可智財權內容一般的油脂塊，慢慢沿著好萊塢下水道走下去。有任何證明嗎?那很簡單。在這53部票房突破10億美元的電影中，有2部來自「神偷奶爸」系列，2部是變形金剛電影，還有4部是迪士尼真人翻拍電影、4部侏儸紀公園、5部星際大戰電影和15部超級英雄電影，其中11部由漫威製作。
--摘錄翻譯自The Guardian
Nature’s changing colors make climate change visible
自然界顏色的改變，使氣候變遷的影響更為明顯
Sciences
Historically, the colors of a person’s world would have stayed fairly constant, [Tim Edensor] says. But climate change is rapidly altering our visual environment. And those changes can be hard to ignore. “This transformation of the color of the water, I think this is really quite perturbing and it’s also disorienting,” he says. When it comes to the world’s waterways, satellite images taken over the past 20 years show that over half the world’s oceans have become greener, researchers reported in July in Nature. Dissolved organic material in the water or changes to the type or quantity of phytoplankton are the most likely culprits, says Emmanuel Boss, an aquatic physicist at the University of Maine in Orono. “The bacteria are very happy. There is a whole microbial community that I think is having a blast.”
--from Science News
歷史上，一個人看到的世界的色彩是相當穩定的，[不太會有變化的]。但是氣候變遷正在快速改變我們的視覺環境，而這些變化很難被忽視。「我認為水的顏色出現這種變化確實令人不安，而且讓人不知所措」Tim Edensor說。研究人員在 7 月的《自然》雜誌上報導稱，以世界的水道來說，過去 20 年拍攝的衛星圖像顯示，世界上一半以上的海洋變得[比以往]更綠了。緬因大學Orono分校的水域物理學家Emmanuel Boss說，溶解於水中的有機物質或浮游植物的類型或數量產生變化是最有可能的罪魁禍首。「細菌非常的高興。我認為有一整個微生物群落玩得很開心，蓬勃發展。」
--摘錄翻譯自Science News
Many frogs glow in blue light, and it may be a secret, eerie language
許多種類的青蛙在藍光照射下會發光，而這可能是一種神秘又怪異的語言
Sciences
In the dim twilight hours, many frogs may be capable of emitting a faint green or orange glow. A survey of hundreds of frogs in South America shows that far more frogs are biofluorescent than previously thought, researchers report in a preprint posted July 28 at bioRxiv.org. The ghostly colors may have a role in the frogs’ communication with members of the same species, the scientists say. The findings “are a reminder to check our own perception as humans,” says Jennifer Lamb, a herpetologist at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota who was not involved with the research. “We are very visually dominant in terms of our senses. And other animals are too, but they might be experiencing that visual world differently than we are.”
--from Science News
在昏暗的黃昏時分，許多青蛙可能會發出微弱的綠色或橙色光芒。一項針對數百隻南美洲青蛙所做的調查顯示，具有生物熒光的青蛙數量比之前科學界所預想的多很多。上述是研究人員在 7 月 28 日發佈於 bioRxiv.org 的預印本中的報導。此研究的科學家們表示，這些幽靈般的顏色可能與同類青蛙成員間的溝通有關。明尼蘇達州聖克勞德州立大學的爬蟲兩棲學家Jennifer Lamb表示，這些新發現「提醒我們要重新檢視身為人類的認知」。Jennifer Lamb並沒有參與上述這項研究。「就我們[人類]的感官而言，我們在視覺上佔據主導地位。 其他動物也是如此，但它們經歷的視覺世界的方式可能與我們不同。」
--摘錄翻譯自 Science News