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1、2011Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle(risttl亚里士多德) viewed laughter as “a bodily exercise precious to health.” But despite some claims to the contrary, laughing probably has little influence on physical fitness. Laughter does produce short-term changes in the function of the heart and its blood ves
2、sels, boosting heart rate and oxygen consumption. But because hard laughter is difficult to sustain, a good laugh is unlikely to have measurable benefits the way, say, walking or jogging does.In fact, instead of straining muscles to build them, as exercise does, laughter apparently accomplishes the
3、opposite. Studies dating back to the 1930s indicate that laughter relaxes muscles, decreasing muscle tone(肌张力；肌肉紧张度) for up to 45minutes after the laugh dies down. Such bodily reaction might conceivably(令人信服地；可相信地；想得到地) help moderate the effects of psychological stress. Anyway, the act of laughing p
4、robably does produce other types of physical feedback that improve an individuals emotional state. According to one classical theory of emotion, our feelings are partially rooted in physical reactions. It was argued at the end of the 19th century that humans do not cry because they are sad but that
5、they become sad and tears begin to flow. Although sadness also precedes tears, evidence suggests that emotions can flow from muscular( mskjul adj. 肌肉的；肌肉发达的；强健的) responses. In an experiment published in 1988, social psychologist Fritz Strack of the University of Wurzburg in Germany asked volunteers
6、to hold a pen either with their teeththereby creating an artificial smileor with their lips, which would produce a disappointed expression. Those forced to exercise their smiling muscles reacted more enthusiastically to funny cartoons than did those whose mouths were contracted in a frown(皱眉,不同意，蹙额)
7、, suggesting that expressions may influence emotions rather than just the other way around. Similarly, the physical act of laughter could improve mood.2010In 1924 Americas National Research Council sent two engineers to supervise (监督，管理；指导)a series of experiments at a telephone-parts factory called
8、the Hawthorne Plant near Chicago. It hoped they would learn how shop-floor lighting affected workers productivity. Instead, the studies ended up giving their name to the “Hawthorne effect,” the extremely influential idea that the very act of being experimented upon changed subjects behavior. The ide
9、a arose because of the perplexing behavior of the women in the plant. According to accounts of the experiments, their hourly output rose when lighting was increased, but also when it was dimmed. It did not matter what was done in the experiment; so long as something was changed, productivity rose. A
10、n awareness that they were being experimented upon seemed to be enough to alter workers behavior by itself.After several decades, the same data were subjected to econometric ( i,knmetrikl adj. 计量经济学的) analysis. The Hawthorne experiments had another surprise in store. Contrary to the descriptions on
11、record, no systematic evidence was found that levels of productivity were related to changes in lighting.It turns out that peculiar (pikju:lj adj. 特殊的；独特的；奇怪的；罕见的n. 特权；特有财产) way of conducting the experiments may have led to misleading interpretations(解释) of what happened. For example, lighting was a
12、lways changed on a Sunday. When work started again on Monday, output duly rose compared with the previous Saturday and continued to rise for the next couple of days. However, a comparison with data for weeks when there was no experimentation showed that output always went ups on Mondays. Workers ten
13、ded to be diligent for the first few day of the week in any case, before hitting a plateau (pltu n. 高原；稳定水平；托盘；平顶女帽vi. 达到平衡；达到稳定时期) and then slackening off. This suggests that the alleged (ledd adj. 所谓的；声称的；被断言的v. 宣称；断言adj.所谓的；声称的；被断言的)” Hawthorne effect” is hard to pin down.2009Research on animal i
14、ntelligence always makes us wonder just how smart humans are. Consider the fruit-fly experiments described by Carl Zimmer in the Science Times. Fruit flies who were taught to be smarter than the average fruit fly tended to live shorter lives. This suggests that dimmer bulbs burn longer, that there i
15、s an advantage in not being too bright.Intelligence, it turns out, is a high-priced option. It takes more upkeep (n. 维持；维修费；保养), burns more fuel and is now slow off the starting line because it depends on learninga gradual processinstead of instinct. Plenty of other species are able to learn, and on
16、e of the things theyve apparently learned is when to stop.Is there an adaptive value to limited intelligence? Thats the question behind this new research. Instead of casting a wistful glance backward at all the species weve left in the dust I.Q.-wise, it implicitly (implisitli adv. 含蓄地；暗中地) asks what the real costs of our own intelligence might be. This is on the mind of every animal weve met.Research on animal intell
