Robots are very important in our daily life now. People like robots because they can do things for us. They can do housework. They can deal with data (处理数据) fast. Some people think robots can do everything nicely. But some things that are easy for us are difficult for robots. For example, robots have difficulty picking up things. This may make you feel surprised because even babies can pick up things easily. That’s because our brains tell us how to use our hands to hold things. But robots can’t understand these kinds of things. So they often break or drop things.

Many scientists are trying to deal with this problem. Among them is Ken Goldberg from the University of California, Berkeley, the US. He has studied the problem for years. Finally, he came up with an answer to the question. He built a database for robots. All kinds of information about a thing, such as its size and shape, are in the database. Before a robot picks up a thing, it can find the information about the thing. In this way, the robot can pick up the thing easily.

The traditional Chinese calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms (节气). The following are five things you might not know about the Summer Solstice (夏至), one of the 24 solar terms.

●The longest day of the year

On the Summer Solstice, daylight lasts the longest for the whole year in the northern hemisphere (北半球). According to some researchers, the whole day in Mohe in Heilongjiang province lasts nearly 17 hours.

●A public holiday

The Summer Solstice was an important festival in ancient China. As early as the Han Dynasty, the Summer Solstice was already celebrated. Before the Qing Dynasty, people even had a one-day holiday on the Summer Solstice.

●An amazing sight (景象)

Every year on the Summer Solstice, the sun appears to “standstill” and does not move further north. Then, the amazing “upright pole with no shadows (立竿不见影)” appears in Hani autonomous county of Mojiang, Yunnan province.

●A food tradition

People in different areas of Shandong province eat noodles on the Summer Solstice. Other people around China, including those in Beijing, also have a tradition of eating noodles.

●A fun activity

Dragon boat races have been held on the Summer Solstice in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province rather than on the Dragon Boat Festival since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. This tradition is still in practice today.

Why Do We Care So Much About Our Hair?

If you stress over your tresses(女性的头发) to the point that unruly hair ruins your mood, you’re not alone. A survey showed that 23 percent of women don’t want to leave their house on a bad hair day.

“That sounds extreme? Not when you consider that young girls receive more compliments for their hair, smile or eye color than for their soccer skills or math expertise,” says Dr Marianne LaFrance, a psychologist at Yale University. “From early on, women are given the message that appearance is massively important, and it can become marker for their success in life,” says LaFrance.

Hair can be a significant piece of that puzzle. In a Harvard study, women who felt like they looked younger after a cut, color or both showed a drop in blood pressure, suggesting that a simple haircut can make your body more youthful.

So the question is, if your hair can make you feel amazing, is that a bad thing? For the most part, no. “Your outward appearance projects things about you, and people will make judgments about you based on that,” says Art Markman, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas. Hair plays a role because it frames your face and it’s a prominent part of first impressions, so it’s natural to care for it.

What’s more, Professor Markman says, when you look good, it gives you an extra feeling of confidence, which allows you to take risks. You might find the nerve to speak to someone you normally wouldn’t,   or do something gutsy (大胆的) in an office presentation. “There’s research that shows when you’re in a positive mood, a lot of things go better,” he says.   

Besides riding a good-hair high to social and work success, you can use hair to shape your   identity (身份). “Because hair is so malleable (有可塑性的) , it can give women a feeling of control over their bodies which they don’t otherwise have,” says Viren Swami, psychologist at the University of Westminster in London.