Why do we find ugly animals so appealing? And what makes odd-looking creatures so cute?

Evolution plays a role. According to Austrian zoologist Konrad Lorenz, human attraction to infantile (婴儿的) features, such as big eyes, large heads and soft bodies, is an evolutionary adaptation that helps ensure that adults care for their offspring, guaranteeing the survival of their species. Odd-looking animals such as blobfish, pugs, aye-ayes and bulldogs all share these infantile qualities that trigger an affectionate response among humans and an natural instinct (本能) to nurture and protect. And these infantile characteristics increase a person’s protective behavior, attention and willingness to care for the individual and reduce the likelihood of aggression towards an infant, says Marta Borgi, a researcher.

Ugly animals often have other value-some, like the blobfish or the naked mole rat, live in extreme environments that they have adapted to in remarkable ways. Scientists are keen to study these animals to understand whether their biology might provide fresh insights that could lead to treatments for human health conditions such as cancer, heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases.

But while many ugly creatures are adapted to their life in the wild and can provide enormous benefits to the ecosystems they live in, they often still don’t get as much attention as more traditionally cute animals. This can result in a prejudice which leads to many of the less attractive species being overlooked in terms of research.

There are other culture-led factors that also drive our obsession (痴迷) with ugly-cute animals. “The ugly-cute thing is very fashionable,” says Rowena Packer, a lecturer of animal behavior. This is partly driven by social media, with many celebrities and influencers showing off pet pugs and French bulldogs on Instagram, she says.

But there are some serious welfare concerns around this trend. Veterinarians are urging people not to choose a flat-faced dog breed (品种), because they suffer from serious health problems. Pugs and French bulldogs which have been selectively bred experience breathing difficulties, repeated skin infections and eye diseases. So while ridiculous features such as bulging eyes and wrinkly faces may make us smile, we might want to reconsider our obsession with “ugly-cute” pets.

Every year thousands of people are crowded in the city of Pamplona, in north eastern Spain, for the opportunity to run for their lives as six fighting bulls are released to charge through the town. There are dozens of injuries every year, and there have been at least 15 deaths recorded since 1910. Daniel Parisi, a physicist and computer scientist realized that the Pamplona bull-runs offered the perfect natural experiment to research the insight of the psychology of panicked crowds.

Dr. Parisi and his team went to two different rooftop locations in Pamplona in July 2019, and recorded footage (镜头) of the runners as the animals were released. A wave of people running at top speed raced past their cameras a few seconds ahead of the bulls. The researchers brought their recordings back to the lab to calculate the speed of the runners, the density (密度) of the crowd and the probability of a runner tripping and falling. They also examined the tracks of the bulls, the responses of individual runners as the bulls came near to them, and the relationship between runner-group density and speed.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the researchers found that runners picked up speed when the bulls drew near. Less expected was the finding that the speed of individual runners increased with the density of the crowd This finding is at odds with a long-held assumption in architectural and urban-design circles that people will slow their pace as group density goes up, in order to lower the risk of a collision, which could lead to a fall and, perhaps, injury or death as a runner is trampled by others.

It seems that, in the heat of the moment, people pay little attention to the danger of colliding with each other, and do not slow down. The duty falls upon urban designers to work out how best to plan the construction of future alleys, tunnels, bridges and other passages that restrict flow. The only option may well be to make them wider.

Americans spend billions on vitamins, multivitamins for their health, but a review of numerous studies concluded there is little to no evidence that some of those vitamins prevent heart disease, cancer or death.

The report, released by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force last week, concluded that “recent evidence is not enough” to determine whether vitamins actually help or hurt your health, based on 84 studies, 52 of which were done since 2014. Vitamins examined included vitamins A, B, C, D and E, as well as other multivitamins.

“Our suggestion is neither for nor against taking vitamins, or combinations of those nutrients (营养物质). We just don’t have enough evidence,” said Dr. John Wong, a doctor in the Department of Medicine at Tufts Medical Center who was involved in the report.

While the finding is that vitamins don’t have any benefits to “healthy, non-pregnant (未怀孕) adults”, it doesn’t apply to “children, people who are pregnant or may become pregnant, or people who are hospitalized.”

The Task Force admitted it makes sense that people would take vitamins in hopes of health benefits, as some shortage may lead to illness. But experts agreed the best way to get good health and prevent cancer is a balanced diet and regular physical activity.

“The suggestion across all organizations about vitamins is to eat a balanced diet, and then the key tends to be on plenty of fruit and vegetables and less junk foods,” Wong said.

Wong added people should refer to their health doctors to determine if any vitamins are worth taking. He said this suggestion should also serve as a need to further research into proving the official benefits and risks for each vitamin.