New research has shown that you might not just be feeling blue; you may also be seeing it differently. Your mood may affect how you see the world around you, according to a new study. A team of researchers has proved that sadness could have an effect on the way we see colors.

The team, led by psychology researcher Christopher Thorstenson of the University of Rochester, found that people who had a sad mood were less accurate in identifying colors on the blue-yellow axis (轴), compared to people who weren’t feeling sad.

“We were already deeply familiar with how often people use color terms to describe common phenomena, like mood, even when these concepts seem unrelated,” Thorstenson said in a statement. “We thought maybe a reason why these metaphors (比喻) appear was that there really was a connection between mood and identifying colors in a different way.”

Thorstenson and his team are not the first to identify a link between a depressed mood and a difference in recognition. In 2010, Emanuel Bubl and his team at Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg in Germany first proved a link between mood and identifying colors. This was supported by a 2013 paper by Johnson Fam of the University of Singapore.

The team conducted two studies. In the first, 127 participants were chosen randomly to watch one of two video clips, which had been proved in previous studies to feel either sadness or amusement. They didn’t do that in a specific order. The entire group was then tasked with identifying the colors in 48 continued color changes. The group that had been shown the sad clip was measurably worse at identifying colors along the blue-yellow axis.

For the second study, 130 participants were randomly assigned to watch either a sad clip or a neutral (中性的) one. The sadness group showed reduced ability to identify colors along the blue-yellow axis than the neutral group.

Most people hate mosquitoes — but scientists are about to build a “mosquito factory” to release modified (改良的) mosquitoes.

The modified mosquitoes carry a bacterium called Wolbachia pipientis (沃尔巴克氏菌), which can be naturally found in most insect species. However, it’s rarely discovered in mosquitoes. “We actually grow these mosquitoes that contain the bacterium,” Scott O’Neill, an Australian scientist involved in the project, told CBC News. When the modified mosquitoes are released, they slowly spread the bacterium to the population.

Several studies have demonstrated the insects’ success. For example, a controlled experiment in Indonesia showed that the modified insect helped reduce the cases of the disease dengue (登革热) by 77 percent, according to a study paper published in 2021.

The World Mosquito Program has announced that it will release modified mosquitoes in many of Brazil’s urban areas over the next 10 years. The aim is to protect up to 70 million people from diseases such as dengue, an infectious disease mainly spread by mosquitoes.

Brazil has one of the highest rates of dengue infection in the world, according to the Nature website. “More than 1,000 people died of dengue in 2022 because of the spread of mosquitoes. It’s going everywhere,” Luciano Moreira, a scientist in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, told CBC News.

Another way to prevent mosquitoes from spreading diseases is by producing genetically modified mosquitoes (GM). In 2022, the US Environmental Protection Agency approved the release of 2.4 billion GM mosquitoes in California and Florida.

According to the agency, GM mosquitoes carry two types of genes: a self-limiting gene that prevents female offspring (后代) from surviving to adulthood; and a marker gene that allows researchers to identify GM ones in the wild. After being released, GM mosquitoes lay eggs, so the genes are passed on to offspring. In this way, the number of female mosquitoes is reduced, therefore reducing the chance of spreading disease.

EQ means people’s ability to understand their own feelings and the feelings of others.

It is the ability to perceive, interpret, demonstrate, control, evaluate, and use emotions to communicate with and relate to others effectively and constructively. This ability to express and control emotions is essential, but so is the ability to understand, interpret, and respond to the emotions of others. Some experts suggest that emotional intelligence is more important than IQ for success in life.

It is generally believed that people with high EQs are open to new ideas and have positive attitudes towards life. They are also less likely to be troubled by internal problems. On the other hand, there is little doubt that people with low EQs often have problems getting on with other people and dealing with difficult situations; hence they have a harder time adjusting in life and in their careers.

People generally believe that a person’s IQ is determined by birth. However, most social scientists agree that EQ has a lot to do with education. Some are trying to study the possibility of improving a person’s EQ, especially in terms of “people kills”, such as understanding and communication.

Professor Mayer, recognised by many as a leading expert in the study of changes to people’s EQs, recently announced the results of a study on senior secondary school students. When students were introduced to those who had disabilities, they found that, afterwards, the non-disabled students were more willing to help people with difficulties. Compared to students who had not been involved in the study, they also showed a better understanding of the disabled students’ feelings. There was also an obvious change in the disabled students’ attitudes. They became more positive about life and more willing to try new things.

Altogether, the results of studies show that EQ is as important, if not more important than IQ. To get ahead in the world and lead a happy successful life requires getting on well with other people and being able to understand and react to situations in the best way possible. A high EQ is necessary for this — the higher the better. And the fact that it might be possible to raise EQs means that schools need to make sure that their students are receiving an education they really need, not solely based on IQ but on developing the entire character.