We learn about the world through the knowledge accumulated (积累) over  thousands of years. Standing on the shoulders of great men, we don't have to experience endless trial and error, just as the wheels do not have to be reinvented each time to run a car. But where does our ability to learn from others come from?

A study led by Markus Paulus, professor at Loyola Marymount University, shows that the ability has its roots in earliest childhood. "I's generally assumed that children's ability to imitate (模仿) is in born, but according to our observation, children imitate because they themselves are imitated by caregivers. This interaction enables a cultural transfer of knowledge, which, through generations' efforts, consequently leads to the development of human beings," says Markus Paulus.

In this research, Paulus recorded the interaction between mother and child over several months. The babies came into the lab for the first time at the age of 6 months, while their final visit was when they were 18 months old. As they engaged in various play situations, the interactions and imitations of mother and child were analyzed. The long-term study showed what the more sensitive a mother was in her interactions with her six-month-old child and the more often she imitated the baby, the greater the child's overall ability was at the age of 18 months.

Paulus' research shows that mutual imitation is the keystone of knowledge transfer, through which children successfully learn various skills, such as how to use objects, waving and acquisition of language. "This interaction is the nucleus of learning and, finally, gives rise to evolutionary success of human," says Paulus.

"Culural learning is an essential part of human evolution, and it is rooted in the imitation of others, particularly oun caregivers during our earliest childhood," says Paulus. "Through this, we learn from each other and pass on knowledge to the next generation, so certain actions or techniques do not have to be constantly invented again."

A Letter from Willa Cather to President TomaS Masaryk

Honored Sir, 

Your letter, sent to me through your Legation at Washington, confers upon me great honor and gives me great pleasure. I am glad to have carried a message from the Bohemian (波希米亚) neighbors, whom I grew up with, to their home country of the

Czech Republic.

I have just returned to New York, where I had the pleasure of taking Annie Pavelka, the living "Antonia" in my book My Antonia, and six of her children to the first screening of A Lost Lady. I have the good fortune to proserve relations with most of my characters. "Antonia" and her splendid children are flesh and blood realities. Every time I go back to them, I feel how much more interesting and lovable they are than my picture of them. I wish I could present them to you in person.

I regret that I cannot satisfactorily meet your kind request for biographical (传记的) material. I avoid biographers, asking them to wait until I get my work further along. My first novel was published in 1912, and a period of twelve years is hardly long enough for a writer to find the form best suited for writing. I was not young when I began to write, and though living is a good preparation for writing, I do need more time to acquire a simple and modest way of presenting my work, however well I know what I wish to present.

I am able to send you a very good photograph taken recently. I enclose a short biographical account which my publishers use for publicity purposes, and some casual reviews. Biographies usually begin to come along just about the time a writer has no more to say, and I do not feel that time has yet come to me.

I beg you, President Masaryk, to believe in my grateful appreciation of your letter.

Respectfully yours,

Willa Cather

Welcome to WSU Libraries! In this guide, we'll unlock the mysteries of call numbers and location prefixes. Knowing these helps you quickly locate and access your desired

Call Numbers

Books and material are arranged on our shelves according to the Library of Congress (LC) classification system. These call numbers uniquely identify and organize items near other material on the same or similar subjects. Consider the call number: LB2395 C65 1991.

●LB defines the subject area. The call letters are typically arranged in alphabetical (字母的) order, starting from A and continuing through the alphabet. Knowing the letter(s) for your subject area gives you a place to start browsing the shelves. For example: A—Special request General Works; B—Special request Special request Philosophy, Psychology, Religion; D—Special request World History; G—Geography; H—Special request Social Sciences; J—Special request Political Science; K—Special request Law; L—Special request Education; M—Special request Music; N—Special request Arts; P—Special request Language and Literature; Q—Special request Science...For more, click here.

●2395 is the classification number, which further distinguishes the subject matter. Read as a whole number: 1, 2, 3, 45, 100, 2430...

●C65 is the Cutter number and usually represents the author's last name. Find C, then 

65. Read the number as a decimal (小数).

●1991 is the year of publication.

Location Prefixes

Some call numbers have a location prefix. I ocation prefixes mean that the book or material is shelved in a special place, and may have loan restrictions. WSU uses the following prefixes:

Imagine a dog you don't need to train. Instead, you can program it to do whatever you want. Now, you don't need to imagine it. Meet Spot, a dog-like robot from US company Boston Dynamics.

In March, the Archaeological Park of Pompeii (庞贝考古公园) in Italy gave Spot a new job. Pompeii is a famous "time capsule (胶囊)" from the ancient world. Thousands of years ago, a nearby volcano covered the city in ash. Many people died, but the ash kept buildings safe until someone found it in 1748.

So, what is Spot doing in Pompeii? It walks around the site with a 3D scanner (扫描仪). There are many narrow, underground tunnels in Pompeii. Thieves used the tunnels to steal things. The tunnels bring safety problems to the ancient buildings. Robot dogs are small enough to go through these tunnels and find any changes to the buildings.

According to Gabriel Zuchtriegel, new director of the site, this is the first time anyone has used a robot to help protect an archaeological site. "It's a breakthrough and it would allow us to protect the ruins with greater speed and in total safety," said Zuchtriegel.

Spot will also work with a 3D-scanning drone (无人机). The two tools will check the site regularly. They will look for any damage that may need a repair. As art magazine ART news said, Pompeii is turning into a "Smart Archaeological Park".

The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Minor Snow (小雪) refers to the time when it starts to snow, mostly in China's northern areas, and the temperature continues to drop.

Here are four things you should know about Minor Snow.

Wearing hats and scarves

In China, starting in Minor Snow, the wind blows from the northeast a lot. Because it's still not bitterly cold, many people do not wear hats or scarves yet. In fact, according to an old Chinese saying, "The head is the place where all passages of the body gather". It's sensible to keep one's head warm.

Drinking soup

During Minor Snow, indoor heating begins to work, which means the air indoors is dry and most people might find their nose and mouth feels a bit dry. According to practices in traditional Chinese medicine, this accumulation of "inner heat" in one's body can cause problems, including oral ulcers and breakouts (口腔溃疡和破损). The solution is to drink more hot soup, such as cabbage and bean curd soup, spinach and bean curd soup, and mutton and radish soup.

Making preserved pork

After Minor Snow, the temperature declines sharply and the air becomes dry. It is the best time to start making preserved pork, which by the Chinese Spring Festival would be ready to enjoy. In the past, when storage conditions were poor, people developed many ways to store food and preserved pork is one such example. So even in the bitter winter, the whole family could enjoy meat. Some even say preserved pork tastes more delicious than fresh meat.

Avoiding spicy food

On cold days, people may crave some hot and spicy food to keep warm. Experts say it's wise not to eat overly spicy food, since that will increase your inner heat.

When delivering medications to patients, one of the most effective methods is direct injection （注射） into the bloodstream using a needle. But this can be an uncomfortable experience, especially for kids or adults with a fear of needles. While patients do have the option to take oral pills instead, drugs containing large molecules（分子） are not absorbed effectively this way. 

Now, inspired by octopus suckers（章鱼吸盘）, researchers from China and Switzerland have designed a needle-free alternative: a tiny, drug-filled, cup-like patch （贴片） that sticks to the inside of the cheeks. The device is easily accessible, and it can be removed at any time and the drug gets absorbed through the lining of the inner cheek, the team reports in a paper in Science Translational Medicine. 

To test the design, the team 3D printed the suckers. They loaded each with the drug and stuck them inside the cheeks of three beagles, a kind of dog which has a similar inner cheek lining to humans. For comparison, they also delivered the drug to beagles via a pill. After three hours, the team found that drug blood concentrations in dogs with the patch were more than 150 times higher than in the dogs that took a tablet. They also found patches worked effectively for drugs with large molecules. 

40 healthy human volunteers self-applied water-filled patches to see how well they would stay on while talking and moving their mouths. After 30 minutes, only five of the 40 patches had fallen off, which was because of improper placement. Most volunteers said they would prefer a patch over injections for daily applications. 

Still, the team only tested the patch for a short time so they would need to find out what would happen if it was used repeatedly. They'd also need to determine which drugs would work with the technology: the target is large molecules, such as those used to treat obesity or osteoporosis, but they can't be too large to fit in the cup. 

Flights of imagination take wing with picture books

Room for Everyone (ages 4-8)

Written by Naaz Khan, illustrated by Merce Lopez

Hop on the dala-dala (a kind of minibus taxi) on the way to the blue crystal waters of Zanzibar! Rhythmic language dances across the pages as more and more people and their belongings pile into （挤进） the vehicle on the way to the beach. It seems there can't possibly be room, but "after some moving around and fun, they make enough room for everyone." This is a book you will be happy to read again and again because it's so full of sunlight and energy.

Gladys the Magic Chicken (ages 4-9)

Written by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Adam Rex

It's a big, sweeping story that's just right for sharing a belly laugh （捧腹大笑） with the whole family. Set in ancient times, the story centers around a much-celebrated chicken named Gladys. At 48 pages, this is longer than the standard picture book, which helps give it a bigger feeling.

Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey (ages 4-10)

Written and illustrated by Erin Entrada Kelly

Readers might know Erin Entrada Kelly from her Newbery Medal-winning chapter book, "Hello, Universe". In this start of a series aimed at younger readers, Kelly again creates rich characters, but this time with short chapters and cute line drawings that work perfectly for early independent chapter-book reading.

A Boy Named Isamu (ages 3-7)

Written and illustrated by James Yang

One of the unexpected charms of this book is that it is told in the second person. The lines between audience and character, observer and artist, and reader and listener soften to allow us to explore isolation （孤独） and creativity along with the protagonist （主人公）. This book might help everyone understand how one might be "alone but not lonely".

3M and Discovery Education announced Sean Jiang from Gilman School as one of the top ten finalists from across the nation for the 2023 3M Young Scientist Challenge. It's a competition that encourages students to identify an everyday problem and submit a video showing the science behind the solution he or she came up with.

14-year-old Jiang decided to help those who can't see. Blind people had a hard time navigationg （导航） objects that are medium to far range. So Jiang wanted to design something to give them aheads-up on obstacles （障碍） that may be incoming.

Jiang's inspiration came from the powers of the hearing system. "I learned in school that bats and whales are able to use echolocation （回声定位） to help them navigate and just use their sense of hearing and I also saw on YouTube some very skilled blind people that use echolocation to help them walk," said Jiang.

Jiang started with a virtual reality setting and then made it a reality. His creation uses a depth camera that can detect how close objects are, thus giving enough time to avoid the obstacles. When a blind is walking with the device, the sensor of the depth camera gathers the information regarding the obstacles' position and distance. Then the AI system in it will turn the distance data into musical sound guidance. This could significantly increase the walking speed of a blind person as well as decrease the number of obstacles they hit.

Some other similar programs were alright at finding objects that were in close range, but Jiang still wanted the blind to experience the world even fuller so they were able to see stuff that was much further away than their circle of reach.

In October, the top ten finalists will compete in person in Minneapolis for the title of "America's Top Young Scientist" and a $25,000 prize.

Since the 1950s, some 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced globally, of which only about 10% has ever been recycled. Yet environmentally conscious companies and consumers continue to look to recycling as a way to ease the plastic problem. Manufacturing giants claim to be committed to making more of their products and packaging from recycled materials. However, this confidence masks （掩饰） a complex web of issues around plastic recycling. Recycling rates remain extremely low and critics argue that we should look at alternative ways to tackle plastic pollution.

While many plastics have the potential to be recycled, most are not because the process is costly, complicated and the resulting product of a lower quality than the original. Despite rising demand for recycled plastic, few waste companies turn a profit. Part of this is because virgin plastic—linked to oil prices—is often cheaper than recycled plastic, meaning there is little economic motive to use it. Worse yet, much of our plastic waste is difficult to recycle. Lightweight food packaging, like a mozzarella packet, contains different plastics, dyes and toxic additives （添加剂）. This dirty mix means plastic recycled through mechanical methods—the most common form—can only be melted down and moulded again a couple of times before it becomes too fragile to be reused. And the nature of the process means plastic recycling has a carbon footprint of its own.

Given all of these difficulties, environmental critics say recycling is not the solution and argue that creating more products from recycled material to attract environmental consciousness merely worsens the problem. "The solution is to use less plastic and to stop misleading the public about the recyclability," says Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, a US campaign group with a mission to end single-use plastic. "They should stop making false claims about the recyclability of plastics since they know most will either be littered or burned or landfilled （填埋）. Using less plastics means shifting to reusable products and relying more on paper, cardboard, glass and metal—all of which should be made from recycled content."

At 98, Dick Van Dyke still sings with his group, The Vantastix, and still makes it all look easy. When asked how important it is that he's having fun when he's doing it, Van Dyke replied, "My whole career has relied on that. It's such a blessing to find a way of making a living that you love. I feel so sorry for people who hate their job. I look forward to going to work every morning!"

And some of his work helped define a generation. Take "The Dick Van Dyke Show"; it ran for five years on CBS, and it was such a hit that they're bringing it back. This week, CBS aired a two-hour tribute （致敬）, "Dick Van Dyke, 98 Years of Magic", and for the occasion, they recreated the original Dick Van Dyke Show set, down to that well-known sofa.

Early in his career Van Dyke was quoted as saying he only wanted to make films his children could watch. That got the attention of Walt Disney, who promptly cast him in "Mary Poppins". And his next few films were equally family-friendly, like "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," which happened to have been co-written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming. From then on, Van Dyke was almost always assigned to play the good guy, though he claims to have missed out on a choice part: "Yeah, I could have been James Bond. When Sean Connery left, the producer said, ‘Would you like to be the next Bond?' I said, ‘Have you heard my British accent?' That's a true story!"

It seems that in show biz the true legends never stop. In an interview from 2017 with his friends, Van Dyke described what it was like hitting 90: "People are more afraid of aging than they are of death these days. And I want to say that remain young in heart and there's a lot of good living to do."