We think we are shaping our buildings. But really, our buildings and development are also shaping us. One of the best examples of this is the oldest-known construction: the ornately carved rings of standing stones at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey. Before these ancestors got the idea to erect standing stones some 12,000 years ago, they were hunter-gatherers. It appears that the erection of the multiple rings of megalithic stones took so long, and so many successive generations, that these innovators were forced to settle down to complete the construction works. In the process, they became the first farming society on Earth. This is an early example of a society constructing something that ends up radically remaking the society itself. Things are not so different in our own time.

Maybe you've heard this joke: "How do you eat an elephant?" The answer is "one bite at a time." So, how do you "build" the Earth? That's simple, too: one atom at a time. Atoms are the basic building blocks of crystals, and since all rocks are made up of crystals, the more you know about atoms, the better. Crystals come in a variety of shapes that scientists call habits. Common crystal habits include squares, triangles, and six-sided hexagons. Usually crystals form when liquids cool, such as when you create ice cubes. Many times, crystals form in ways that do not allow for perfect shapes. If conditions are too cold, too hot, or there isn't enough source material, they can form strange, twisted shapes. But when conditions are right, we see beautiful displays. Usually, this involves a slow, steady environment where the individual atoms have plenty of time to join and fit perfectly into what's known as the crystal lattice. This is the basic structure of atoms that is seen time after time.

When you pluck a guitar string it moves back and forth hundreds of times every second. Naturally, this movement is so fast that you cannot see it — you just see the blurred outline of the moving string. Strings vibrating in this way on their own make hardly any noise because strings are very thin and don't push much air about. But if you attach a string to a big hollow box (like a guitar body), then the vibration is amplified and the note is heard loud and clear. The vibration of the string is passed on to the wooden panels of the guitar body, which vibrate back and forth at the same rate as the string. The vibration of the wood creates more powerful waves in the air pressure, which travel away from the guitar. When the waves reach your eardrums they flex in and out the same number of times a second as the original string.

Mouth-to-mouth breathing isn't always the most effective way to save someone's life. The American Heart Association is suggesting a major change in how people deal with sudden heart attacks. It claims that hands-only CPR is just as effective as standard CPR in such cases. Quick, strong presses to the victim's chest should be performed until help arrives. Experts hope that this will encourage more people to help when they see someone suddenly collapse. Performing hands-only CPR is simpler and removes an obstacle for people who don't want to give mouth-to-mouth to strangers. However, mouth-to-mouth is still the best method for treating children who have stopped breathing as a result of choking.

Many dog owners believe that their pets can understand what they say. Now, scientific research suggests that this might actually be true. In an experiment at the University of Budapest, the brains of dogs were scanned while they listened to their trainers speak. The results showed that the dogs were processing words with the left side of their brains and intonation with the right side. This is the same way that the human brain works. In addition, the researchers found that the dogs understood praise only when meaningful words were spoken with a positive intonation. Neither meaningless words with a positive intonation nor meaningful words with a neutral intonation had the same effect.

Quest to Learn is a middle school and high school in New York City. It's special because it is the first public school whose curriculum is based on game design. Students who attend the school have the task of completing one "mission" in each subject every semester. These missions are divided into "quests." For the quests, teachers try to assign tasks that involve real-world examples. For example, ninth-grade biology students pretend to be workers at an imaginary company that clones dinosaurs and manages ecosystems. Digital games are also used, but the school usually selects ones that have educational value. In the first two years of operation, the students at the school maintained average test scores. However, they showed improvement in thinking skills that are valuable for life, such as systems thinking.

Findings on the sea rocket, a marine plant, show that it can distinguish between plants that are related to it and those that are not. And not only does this plant recognize its relatives, but it also treats them better than other plants. For example, if an unrelated plant starts growing next to the sea rocket, it will send out roots to suck up all the nutrients and kill the stranger. But if it detects a relative, those roots will not appear. Scientists were shocked to make these discoveries about the sea rocket because plants typically lack the ability to recognize related organisms. In fact, only three other plant species are known to do it.

Do you find that no matter how often you brush your teeth, you just can't get a sparkling white smile? Well, the natural color of your teeth is actually something you were born with. Unless you get an expensive teeth whitening treatment, there's little you can do about the color. However, teeth stains from plaque, food, and beverages can be controlled easily enough. These stains are only on the surface of your teeth and can be prevented. To avoid stains, brush your teeth and floss regularly. Stains can also be kept to a minimum by using a straw when you drink staining beverages like coffee. In this way, the beverage does not touch your teeth.

There are nine different species of honeybees in the world, and each has developed a different dance language to explain the location of flowers. Bees perform these dances inside the nest, using the direction and length of each dance to describe how to get to the food source. Researchers combined two of these species, Asian and European bees, in one hive and trained the European bees to travel to a feeder located at varying distances from the hive. Their Asian counterparts were able to figure out the European bees' dances and find where the feeder was located. The same result occurred when the bees' roles were reversed, indicating that they could understand each other even though they communicate by using different languages.

Since spellcheckers became available in the 1980s, they have saved many people from typing mistakes. However, many of us are likely to rely too much on the spellchecker. We think the spellchecker will fix everything, but it actually can't fix many common grammar mistakes. Although it is helpful to run a spell-check on an email or document, the spellchecker is not perfect. It can tell you if there is a combination of letters that doesn't form a word. For example, if you type cgange instead of change, the spellchecker will quickly detect that cgange is not a real word. However, if the phrase lend me the email tomorrow was written, the spellchecker wouldn't help you see that send makes more sense and lend is a typing mistake.

The police have a weapon to help them tackle crime — chemical traces left in human hair by local drinking water. University of Utah researchers have discovered that hydrogen and oxygen ratios in local drinking water differ according to region across the U.S. These traces can be used to reveal where a person has recently been. This means that police can use this approach to check a suspect's whereabouts when a crime was committed. This method may also prove useful for anthropologists and archaeologists, who could employ it to analyze hair samples to reveal how ancient groups migrated.

When you eat — and not just what you eat - might affect your body weight. In a recent 10-week study, time-restricted feeding was shown to reduce body fat. In the study, people were divided into two groups. The group trying time-restricted feeding was asked to delay breakfast by 90 minutes, have dinner 90 minutes earlier than usual, and fit all eating into fixed time windows. The other group kept their normal meal schedules and was allowed to eat anytime. Neither group had any restrictions on what they ate. After the study, 57 percent of the time-restricted participants reported that their consumption had decreased because of a smaller appetite or less time to eat. Although this study is small, it helps us to see how slight changes to our meal schedules might have surprising health benefits.

If you have tried to train a dog, you know that it can be quite a time-consuming challenge. It's a hard task and most dog training mistakes are usually the result of the owner's impatience. No matter how smart your dog is, it's highly unlikely that he will learn a trick the first time. It takes repetition and encouragement for an animal to learn what to do. By being in a hurry, you will simply confuse and discourage your dog. If you change the rules too often, don't expect your dog to follow them. This also applies to the use of commands. For example, just say come every time; don't start saying come here, or come quickly. It's best to be careful and take your time so that the dog can learn the commands more easily.

The art of storytelling is one of humankind's oldest creations. Long ago, before writing developed, stories were the only means of teaching lessons and sharing news. They helped people understand who they were, where they came from, and how they should behave. Storytelling as an art form includes long traditions of myths, folk tales, creation stories, epic tales, and historical stories from cultures around the world. It is important to remember that each story is not simply memorized or read from a book. Rather, it is retold again and again by different tellers, leading to many unique interpretations. Today, stories are often told for entertainment, but they still have the power to educate, heal, and inspire us.