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Suppose scientists could erase certain memories by tinkering with a single substance in the brain. Could make you forget a chronic fear, a traumatic loss, even a bad habit.

Researchers in Brooklyn have recently accomplished comparable feats, with a single dose of an experimental drug delivered to areas of the brain critical for holding specific types of memory, like emotional associations, spatial knowledge or motor skills.

The drug blocks the activity of a substance that the brain apparently needs to retain much of its learned information.

Multitasking is part of daily life. But humans remember and learn differently when their attention is divided. Russel Poldrack, a UCLA psychology professor, speaks with Lynn Neary about what occurs in the brain during multitasking.

Toolmaking not only resulted in tools, but also the reconfiguration of our brains so they comprehended the world on the same terms as our toolmaking hands interacted with it. With mirror neurons, something entirely new entered the world: memes--a far more effective and speedy method for pooling knowledge and passing it around than the old genetic way.

大脑就是一台三磅重的超级计算机。它是身体运行的命令和控制中心。它几乎涉及你所做的每一件事。你的大脑决定你如何思考，如何感觉，如何行动，以及如何与他人相处。你的大脑甚至决定你是哪一类的人。它决定了你有多善解人意；你有多友善或是有多粗鲁。它决定了你思维有多敏捷，这还涉及到你工作完成的如何以及你的家庭。你的大脑还影响你的情感活动，以及你如何对待异性。

可以充当情绪兴奋剂的味道有薄荷，柏杨和柠檬。起到舒缓作用的味道有：依兰，天竺葵和玫瑰。滴几滴精油在浴缸中或者在扩散器中，都可以起到作用。你也可以在一个棉球或手帕中滴一两滴，然后吸入这种味道。对于办公地点使用的一个警告：先确保没有人对你使用的精油过敏。

Wikileaks has released nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports commissioned by the United States Congress. Frontpage of sample CRS report, RL31555: China and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Missiles: Policy Issues, dated January 7, 2009. A full listing of reports is available here.

The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation, from the U.S. relationship with Israel to the financial collapse.

The Federation of American Scientists, in pushing for the reports to be made public, stated that the "CRS is Congress' Brain and it's useful for the public to be plugged into it,"[2]. While Wired magazine called their concealment "The biggest Congressional scandal of the digital age"[3]. Although all CRS reports are legally in the public domain, they are quasi-secret because the CRS, as a matter of policy, makes the reports available only to members of Congress, Congressional committees and select sister agencies such as the GAO.

People often overestimate the importance of intellectual ability. Practice and perseverance contribute more to accomplishment than being smart does.