A recent issue of National Geographic magazine described one of the wonders of the earth, the tiny silver ants of the Sahara desert. These ants live in areas where temperatures reach up to 57℃, as the article described it, an environment “where shoes melt.”

These tiny ants are amazing. In the Sahara desert, where most creatures avoid going out in the middle of the day to avoid high temperatures,the Saharan silver ants have evolved(进化)a number of adaptations to do just that. Scientists have discovered that several unique features of the Saharan silver ants permit them to grow well in a scorching climate.

These ants have longer legs than other ants, which keep their bodies critically greater distance away from the hot desert sand. The ants run 108 times the length of their own bodies every second at a speed of just over 3kph. And they keep track of the position of the sun, so that they always know the most direct route back to the nest, thus lowering their time spent in extreme heat. Their bodies produce proteins that resist heat. Some other creatures produce such proteins after they come in contact with extreme heat. But since the silver ants only exit the nest for a few minutes at a time — not long enough for the protein to take effect — they produce the protein while still in the nest before they go out, or they would die before the protein could take effect.

Researchers also discovered that the ants are covered on their tops and sides with the uniquely triangular(三角的)shape of the silver hairs,which enable them to dissipate(消散)heat.The hairs help an ant's body exchange its heat to a cooler area, even under full sun conditions. This discovery inspired the scientists, for it could lead to new materials and paints that can be applied to rooftops or cars to keep them cool. And it is also expected to be applied in clinical care, wearable devices,protective clothing and other fields.

When you start working on something but don’t finish it, thoughts of the unfinished work continue to jump into your mind even when you’ve moved on to other things. Psychologists refer to this psychological phenomenon as the Zeigarnik effect. The effect was first observed by a Russian psychologist named Bluma Zeigarnik. While sitting in a busy restaurant in Vienna, she noted the waiters had better memories of unpaid orders. Once the bill was paid, however, the waiters had difficulty remembering the exact details of the orders.

In one of her studies, participants were asked to complete simple tasks such as putting together puzzles, or solving math problems. Half of the participants were interrupted halfway through these tasks. After an hour-long delay, Zeigarnik asked the participants to give an account of what they’d been working on. She discovered that those who had their work interrupted were twice as likely to remember what they had been doing as those who had actually completed the tasks.

We can use this effect to our advantage. For example, if you’re struggling to memorize something important, momentary interruptions might actually work to your advantage. Rather than simply remember the information over and over again, review it several times and then take a break. While you’re focusing on other things, you’ll find yourself mentally returning to the information you were studying.

We often put off tasks until the last moment, only completing them in a rush at the last possible moment. Unfortunately, this tendency can lead to heavy stress and even poor performance. One way to overcome this is to put the Zeigarnik effect to work. Start by taking the first step, no matter how small. Once you’ve begun，but not finished your work, you’ll find yourself thinking of the task until, at last, you finish it. You might not finish it all at once, but each small step you take puts you closer to your final goal.

Runners who encounter visual and auditory(听觉的) distractions may be more likely to suffer leg injuries, according to a research by the Association of Academic Physiatrists in Las Vegas. Runners often seek distractions from the task at hand. Whether it is music, texting, daydreaming, taking in the sights, or propping a book up on the treadmill(跑步机), more often than not a distraction is welcome. But, researchers from the University of Florida have recently discovered that those distractions may lead to injury.

Daniel Herman, MD, PhD, assistant professor at University of Florida, and his team conducted a research on the effect of visual and auditory distractions on 14 runners to determine what effect, if any, these distractions would have on things such as heart rate, how much a runner breathes per minute, how much oxygen is consumed by the body, the speed in which runners apply force to their bodies, and the force the ground applies to the runners’ bodies when they come in contact with it.

The runners were all injury free at the time of the study and ran 31 miles each week. Dr. Herman’s team had each participant run on a treadmill three separate times. The first time was without any distractions. The second time added a visual distraction, during which the runners concentrated on a screen displaying different letters in different colors with the runners having to note when a specific letter-color combination appeared. The third time added an auditory distraction similar to the visual distraction, with the runners having to note when a particular word was spoken by a particular voice.

When compared to running without distractions, the participants had faster application of force to their left and right legs, called loading rate, with auditory and visual distractions. They also experienced an increased amount of force from the ground on both legs, called ground reaction force, with auditory distractions. Finally, the runners tended to breathe heavier and have higher heart rates with visual and auditory distractions than without any distractions at all.

“Running in environments with different distractions may unfavorably affect running performance and injury risk,” explains Dr. Herman. “Sometimes these things cannot be avoided, but you may be able to minimize potentially cumulative(累积的) effects. For example, when running a new route in a noisy environment such as during a destination marathon, you may want to skip listening to something which may require more attention—like a new song playlist.”

Dr. Herman’s team will continue to investigate the potential relationship between distracted running and leg injuries, and any effect this relationship has on different training techniques that use auditory or visual cues(暗示).