You’ll boost your brainpower if you brave the unknown, says our memory expert, Jonathan Hancock.

There’s a lot to cope with when you go off to university, and the academic work is just the start. There are new friends to meet, new opportunities to choose between, new responsibilities to accept... and, for most students, a completely new city to explore.

We recently drove our daughter Evie 150 miles to start life as a fresher. It was a struggle to find the car park, let alone navigate the maze of corridors that led to her room. Before we left that evening, we’d taken her to the local supermarket, and we knew that she had flatmates and phone apps to get her orientated. But the scale of the challenge ahead was clear — to find her way in an unfamiliar world.

The good news for Evie — and learners everywhere is that exploring new habitats is hugely beneficial to memory. In a recent study, volunteers walked around a simulated forest environment. Then some of them took the same walk again, while others explored a different forest. And that second group performed significantly better in memory tests straight after. According to the researchers, that was because navigating the new environment stimulated their dopamine (多巴胺) systems-setting up their brains for learning.

So leaving home to study for a degree makes perfect sense. What’s more, young minds seem to gain most from being in strange surroundings. But we may all be able to gain some of the benefits, even if it’s just by stimulating our senses and challenging our thinking skills. Here are three things to try:

(1) Go somewhere new to tackle an upcoming learning task—like memorizing a speech in the library or revising for an exam on a park bench — and take an unfamiliar route to get there.

(2) Play video games that get you moving through new landscapes. Then see whether it improves your success with other learning tasks, like practising a dance or mastering phrases for a foreign trip.

(3) Get lost in your imagination! To warm yourself up for learning, picture a city you know well, but imagine you’re stranded in a part of it that you’ve never visited. Then try to fancy exactly how you’ll get out.

Along with soccer, basketball is a global sport. As you read this. young people somewhere in the world are happily passing, dribbling (运球) and shooting. It’s enormous fun and a joyful way to spend time with others.

Basketball is a game for everyone. Unlike golf or tennis. it doesn’t require great wealth or a lot of space to play. After all, not many people have a golf course-sized backyard, and tennis equipment is expensive. Basketball, by contrast, just needs a wall with a hoop and a ball.

So after its invention by Canadian-American physical educator James Naismith in 1891, the sport took off within US citizens, who quickly became attracted to the game because it suited their circumstances. Today, 127 years later, basketball remains one of the most popular sports in the US, and the National Basketball Association (NBA) has an increasing appeal for fans around the world.

The success of basketball as global phenomenon is undoubtedly related to the way African-Americans play the game. “The basketball court reflected some of the major cultural shifts in America, such as from forbidding African-Americans to play basketball to allowing them to play in the NBA,” the LIVESTRONG website noted.

From the 1950s onwards, segregation (隔离) rules, which had prohibited African-Americans from playing basketball in NBA games, were no longer used in the US. In 1950, when Earl Lloyd started to play for the Washington Capitols, things began to change. Since then, most of the greats of the game have been African-Americans, like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

It’s not difficult to see that there’s a strong link between political liberation and basketball. Something of this is expressed in a quote from the US author John Edgar Wideman. He makes a connection between basketball and hope: “When it’s played the way it’s supposed to be played, basketball happens in the air; flying, floating, raised above the floor, letting the oppressed (受压制的) people of this earth imagine themselves in their dreams.”

Red pandas are native to the high forests of Asia. They are only a little bigger than a house cat and considered to be endangered. Scientists reported last month that not all red pandas belong to the same species. There are two different species of this animal，not just one，a study found. The scientists reported finding major differences in three genetic markers between Chinese red pandas and Himalayan red pandas. Scientists identified the markers after studying DNA from 65 of the creatures. DNA carries genetic information for the development，growth and reproduction of living things. Documenting the existence of two separate species could help guide efforts for protecting red pandas，scientists added.

Chinese red pandas live in northern Myanmar，as well as southeastern Tibet，Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in China. Himalayan red pandas are native to Nepal，India，Bhutan and southern Tibet in China，the researchers said.

Conservation biologists Yibo Hu and Fuwen Wei 1ed the study.   “To conserve the genetic uniqueness of the two species，we should avoid their interbreeding(杂交繁殖)in captivity，”Hu said. “Interbreeding between species may harm the genetic adaptations already established for their local habitat environment. ”

Scientists had earlier suggested there were two species of red panda. But the new study was the first to provide the genetic information necessary to permit such a judgment. International experts estimate a total population of around 10，000 red pandas in the wild. The two species differ in coloration and skull shape. The Himalayan red panda is the rarer of the two.

Major dangers to red pandas include deforestation and habitat loss. While they have similar names，red pandas and giant pandas are not closely related. Giant pandas are one of the world’s eight bear species. Red pandas are sometimes called living fossils because they have no close living relatives. They are the only remaining member of their mammalian family.