Rome is recognized across the globe for its classical artwork, but recently the city's street art has been drawing attention. While many urban artists stick to painting murals（壁画），one Italian sculptor is resisting the trend with his wonderful works made from an unusual material. Andrea Gandini, a native of Rome in his early twenties, has been recognized for his wood carvings of old tree trunks scattered across the city's landscape.

Gandini's Trocomorto, or "dead trunk" project, began in 2018, when the artist ran out of sculpting clay. That's when he noticed the remains of an old tree stump in his neighborhood. He realized that Rome was full of potential canvases（画布）just waiting to be given a new life. "Bringing trees back to life" is exactly how Gandini and others describe his art.

Due to years of poor care by the city, many trees became diseased and had to be cut down. This resulted in lots of old stumps that degraded the streets of Rome, which were costly to remove. However, they have been a perfect canvas of Gandini, who has completed over 50 carvings across the city.

Gandini gives each old tree trunk a face and personality of its own. By recognizing each formerly living tree as individual, he hopes to give them some dignity in death and respect each of them with their own headstone of sorts. For those that can't make the trip to Rome, Gandini documents his works of art on Facebook.

Gandini's “dead trunk" project reminds us of what Auguste Rodin says, "There is no lack of beauty in the world, but a lack of eyes to find it." All is beautiful in the eyes of the artist, for his keen eye sees through the heart of all living things. To discover its character is to pierce its outer form and touch its inner truth. This "truth" is also "beauty".

Every winter, huge crowds come to the parking lots of big box stores. Not crazy shoppers... but crows (乌鸦)

“Sometimes there’re 4,010,00 even 20,000 birds,” says Andrea Townsend, a behavioral ecologist at Hamilton College.” They’re really conspicuous. What they like are urban areas, so you’ll see them in trees, on rooftops, certainly, in well-lit parking lots. They’re their favorite places.”

Crows are known as “partial migrants (候鸟)”. Every year, some members of the population migrate between breeding (繁殖) grounds and overwintering grounds. But others just stay put. So Townsend and her colleagues wanted to know if that urge to migrate was something individual crows can turn on and off. With no previous studies to refer to, they caught 18 crows from overwintering spots to find out. They fitted the birds with little backpack satellite devices after collecting blood and feather samples, keeping recording where they went during winter for years.

Overall, three quarters of the birds migrated, an average of 300 miles. And more importantly, if they migrated once, they did it every year—suggesting traveling is not a habit they switch on and off. The researchers also found migrating crows returned faithfully to the same breeding grounds every year—but were more flexible on where to overwinter, which could be a good thing.

“Birds with flexible strategies can change their behavior when the environment changes, while other birds are more locked into their overwintering sites. They may not be able to adjust so quickly or easily to changing environmental conditions.” Townsend also wanted to know how migration is connected with their mental ability and whether it’s a mental trade-off for the birds—since migrants have to remember all location data.

“Maybe they’re not as good at solving problems as a resident bird that doesn’t have to invest so much in that long-term memory.” Then again, with all that time on the wing, migrants simply may not have as much free time to think hard about problems.

Your eyes pick up color using a type of cell called cones (视锥细胞) in your retina (视网膜). The same is true for dogs, though our cones aren’t exactly the same.

“Humans have three types of cones, which enables us to see different shades of red, blue-violet, and green; Dogs have two types of cones that pick up blue-violet and yellow shades, ”says Lara Sypniewski, DVM, a professor of small animal medicine at Oklahoma State University.

This means that dogs see in a similar way to humans who are red-green colorblind. “They don’t see red or green and they see everything in shades of blue and yellow,”says Jay Neitz, Phd, a researcher and professor of ophthalmology at the University of Washington.

Humans may have the advantage in color vision, but dogs definitely have us beat in the realm of night vision. This is because dogs’ eyes have more light-gathering power than ours, Neitz says.

Dogs have a wider field of vision than humans. Dogs’ eyes are set slightly farther apart than humans’ eyes, so they can see further to the side in each direction.

A dog’s retina is largely composed of cells called rods, which can sense light, even in very low-light conditions, says Sypniewski.

Dogs are especially good at sensing movement. “The increased number of rods in the dog’s retina also increases their ability to detect motion,” Sypniewski says. This ability can help them detect small prey like squirrels.

Dogs have trouble seeing things very close up. Dogs can see objects clearly if they’re at least 13 to 20 inches away from their eyes, “but if the object is closer, the image may be blurry,” Sypniewski says. Humans can see objects slightly closer — about 10 inches away from the eye.

Dogs may recognize you by your shape and motion. “If your dog recognizes you from a distance, it is not because it can see the details of your face like a human would, but rather because of your shape or the way you move,” Neitz says.