If you could be anybody in the world, who would it be? Your neighbor or a super star? A few people have experienced what it might be like to step into the skin of another person, thanks to an unusual virtual reality(虚拟现实) equipment. Rikke Wahl, an actress, model and artist, was one of the participants(参与者) in a body swapping experiment at the Be Another lab, a project developed by a group of artists based in Barcelona. She swapped with her partner—an actor, using a machine called The Machine to Be Another and temporarily became a man. “As I looked down, I saw my whole body as a man, dressed in my partner’s pants,” she said. “That’s the picture I remember best.”

The equipment is quite simple. Both users wear a virtual reality headset with a camera on the top. The video from each camera is sent to the other person, so what you see is the exact view of your partner. If she moves her arm, you see it. If you move your arm, she sees it.

To get used to seeing another person’s body without actually having control of it, participants start by raising their arms and legs very slowly, so that the other can follow along. Finally, this kind of slow synchronized(同步的) movement becomes comfortable, and participants really start to feel as though they are living in another person’s body.

By using such technology it is likely to change people’s behaviour afterwards—possibly for the better. Studies have shown that virtual reality can be effective in fighting racism(种族主义)—the bias( 偏 见 ) that humans have against those who don’t look or sound like them.

Researchers at the University of Barcelona gave the participants a questionnaire test called the Implicit Association Test, which measures the strength of people’s associations(关联) between black people and adjectives such as good or bad, athletic or awkward(笨拙的). Then they asked the participants to control the body of a dark skinned digital character using virtual reality glasses. After that, the participants took the questionnaire test once again. This time, the participants’ bias scores were lower. So the idea is that once you’ve “put yourself in another’s shoes”, you’re less likely to think ill of them, because your brain has experienced the feeling of being that person.

The creators of “The Machine to Be Another” hope to achieve a similar result. “At the end of body swapping, people feel like holding each other in their arms,” says Arthur Pointeau, a programmer with the project. “It’s a really nice way to have this kind of experience. I would really recommend it to everyone.”

The weather is getting hotter. You are thirsty playing basketball or riding home from school. A cold drink may be just the thing. But be careful what you are drinking. Something that looks cool may not be good for your health.

There are plenty of "energy drinks" on the market. Most of them have beautiful colors and cool names. The lists on them tell you they are helpful to your health. Sounds great!

But after a careful check you may find that most energy drinks have lots of caffeine (咖啡因) in them. These drinks are especially aimed at young people, students, busy people and sports players. Makers sometimes say their drinks make you better at sports and can keep you awake. But be careful not to drink too much.

Caffeine makes your heart beat fast. Because of this, the International Olympic Committee has limited( 限制) its use. Caffeine in most energy drinks is at least as strong as that in a cup of coffee or tea. Possible health dangers have something to do with energy drinks. Just one box of energy drink can make you nervous, have difficulty sleeping and can even cause heart problems. Scientists say that teenagers should be discouraged from taking drinks with a lot of caffeine in them.

Why Do People Blink (眨眼) Their Eyes?

People blink their eyes tens of thousands of times every day. Scientists have long believed blinking was an involuntary movement and served mainly to keep the eyeballs wet. But a new study suggests it has a more important purpose.

An international team of scientists from the University of California at Berkeley studied the blinking of human eyelids. The journal Current Biology published their findings. The team said they found that blinking “repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused” on what we are seeing. They said that when we blink our eyelids, the eyes roll back into their sockets—the bony area that surrounds and protects the eyes. However, the researchers found the eyes don’t always return to the same position (位置). They said this causes the brain to tell the eye muscles (肌肉) to reorganize our eyesight.

Gerrit Maus is the lead writer of the report. He serves as an assistant professor of psychology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Maus said, “Our eye muscles are quite sluggish (迟缓的) and imprecise (不精确的), so the brain needs to constantly adapt (改编) its motor signals to make sure our eyes are pointing where they should be. Our findings suggested that the brain measures the difference in what we see before and after a blink, and orders the eye muscles to make the needed corrections.” The researchers said that without such corrections our surroundings would appear unclear and even jumpy. They said the movement acts “like a steadicam (摄影稳定器) of the mind.”

The researchers said they asked volunteers to sit in a dark room while storing at a small dot on a flat surface. They used special cameras to follow the volunteer’s blinks and eye movements. After each blink, the dot was moved one centimeter to the right. The volunteers did not notice this, but the brain did. It followed the movement and directed the eye muscles to refocus on the dot. After the dot was moved in this way 30 times, the volunteers’ eyes changed their focus to the place where they predicted it would be.

Professor Maus said. “Even though the volunteers did not consciously register that the dot had moved, their brains did, and adjusted (调整)with the corrective eye movements. These findings add to our understanding of how the brain constantly adapts to (适应) changes directing our eye muscles to correct for errors in our bodies’ own hardware.”