Daydreaming was viewed as a waste of time. Or it was considered an unhealthy escape from real life and its duties. Daydreaming has always had a bad reputation, but now scientific research has showed that daydreaming may actually improve your mental health and creativity. It can even help you achieve your desired goals.

Now some people are taking a fresh look at daydreaming. Some think it may be a very healthy thing to do. Researchers are finding daydreaming, they tell us, is a good means of relaxation. But its benefits go beyond this. A number of psychologists have conducted experiments and have reached some surprising conclusions.

Dr. Joan T. Freyberg has concluded that daydreaming contributes to intellectual growth. It also improves concentration, attention span, and the ability to get along with others, she says. In an experiment with school children, the same researcher found that daydreaming led the children to pay more attention to details. They had more happy feelings. They worked together better. Another researcher reported that daydreaming seemed to produce improved self­control and creative abilities.

But that’s only part of the story. The most remarkable thing about daydreaming may be its usefulness in shaping our future lives as we want them to be. Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser believed that much of his success was due to the positive use of daydreaming. He maintained that “you can imagine your future”. Florence Nightingale dreamed of becoming a nurse. The young Thomas Edison pictured himself as an inventor. For these famous achievers, it appears that their daydreams came true.

Of course daydreaming is no substitute(代替者) for hard work. You have to work hard to develop skills. Daydreaming alone can’t turn you into your heart’s desire. But in combination with the more usual methods of self­development, it might make a critical difference. And who knows: You might see your own daydreams come true.

Human faces cut into stone up to 2,000 years ago have again been found on a rocky area along the Amazon River in northern Brazil. The stone carvings (雕刻品) appeared as a result of a big drop in water levels because of dry weather in parts of northern Brazil. The water level had dropped to the lowest level in the history of the river.

“People had reported some of the stone carvings before during periods when water levels were low. But now a greater number have been identified. That will help researchers establish the history of the carvings, and more secrets of historical relics will come to light,” researcher Jaime de Santana Oliveira said recently.

One area shows smooth marks in the rock thought to be where natives once sharpened their tools such   as arrows and spears before European settlers arrived.

“The carvings are prehistoric, or precolonial (殖民地时期前的). We can’t be sure of their precise date but based on the evidence of human living places of the area, we believe they are about 1, 000 to 2, 000 years old.” Oliveira said.

The rocky area is on the north shore of the Amazon River near the place where the Rio Negro River joins it.

Oliveira said the carvings were first seen in 2010, but this year’s drought has been more serious than earlier dry periods. The Rio Negro’s levels have dropped 15 meters since July, uncovering large areas of rocks and sand where there had been no beaches.

“This time we found not just more carvings, but the statue of a human face cut into the rock,” said Oliveira, who works for the Brazilian government’s National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute. The organization watches the care of historic places in Brazil.

The Ig Nobel awards are usually known as the "Igs" and are given out every year at around the same time as the real Nobel awards. The "Igs" are given for achievements that "make people laugh, and then make them think". The name "Ig Nobel" is a language joke. "Nobel" sounds like "noble" -- meaning "very honored". And Ig Nobel sounds like "ignoble" meaning the opposite of noble --- that is, "not honored^,."

According to Marc Abrahars, who co-founded the award in 1991, "Most prizes, such as Nobel Prize, reward the goodness of the people who receive them. These prizes are meant to honor the extremes of humanity-those whose achievements should be seen as very good."

"The Ig Nobel Prize isn’t like that. The Ig honors the great confusion in which most of us exist much of the time. Life is confusing. Good and bad get all mixed up. If you win an Ig, it shows that you have done something. What that thing is may be hard to explain. But the fact is, you did it, and have been recognized for doing it."

The Nobel science prizes encourage us to think that all over the world great discoveries are being made that will do good to the whole world. But real science is not like that. The main job of science is to find out what is not true. This leads people into areas of research that seem completely senseless. Why did a team of Japanese scientists spend months trying to teach birds to enjoy the paintings of Picasso? Why did a Norwegian biologist start a project to encourage insects to drink beer? It is hard to say. But it won them all an Ig.

Sometimes science tells us things that we don’t want or need to know. We don’t want to know that falling in love and going mad are exactly the same as far as the brain is concerned. And we don’t really need to know that worrying about money can cause tooth disease. Only the Ig award brought these great achievements to our attention.