Basically, two pivotal notions about the nature of the brain have been nullified. __22__ The second is that the brain steadily loses brain cells after age twenty or so and consequently relentlessly declines in mental capacities.  __23__ But scientists thought older brains lost the capacity to grow, and were fixed and static after puberty. It is now known that brain cells can sprout new dendrites and new synapses, forming new communication networks at any age. Thus, although everyone is born with a fixed number of brain cells, that innate figure does not define mental capacity. __24__ Brains with fewer cells can have just as much, or more, mental capacity than larger brains, depending on the lushness of neurons. The idea that a massive and progressive loss of neurons is an inevitable consequence of aging has also been thoroughly disproved. 

According to Russell L. Blaylock at University of Mississippi Medical Center, “The process by which the brain is ‘wired’ and even ‘rewired’ is referred to as plasticity. __25__ We now know that even the brains of adults are constantly changing and being rewired.”

Exactly what constitutes smart living is a matter of conjecture as various aspects of life continue to become digitalized. Some might call their homes smart just because they 41 security service companies that can provide long-distance protection. However, for others, a smart home should have additional features, such as energy-saving 42 . Similarly, a vehicle equipped with a GPS 43 device is smart for some drivers. Nevertheless, others may think smart cars should be able to plan the route to the destination and 44 traffic congestion. As far as smart living is 45 , the sky is the limit. Before the increasingly ICT-enabled world can fully satisfy all users, there shall always be room for development and improvement. Smart living may no longer be a dream.

    By about age 12, students who feel threatened by mathematics start to avoid math courses, do poorly in thefew math classes they do take, and earn low scores on math-achievement tests. Some scientists have theorized thatkids having little math aptitude in the first place justifiably dread grappling with numbers. However, it is not thatsimple, at least for college students, according to a study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. According tothe study, people’s intrusive worries about math temporarily disrupt mental processes needed for doing arithmeticand drag down math competence, report Mark H. Ashcraft and Elizabeth P. Kirk, both psychologists at Cleveland(Ohio) State University. Math anxiety exerts this effect by making it difficult to hold new information in mindwhile simultaneously manipulating it, the researchers hold. Psychologists regard this capacity, known as workingmemory, as crucial for dealing with numbers. “Math anxiety soaks up working memory resources and makes itharder to learn mathematics, probably beginning in middle school,” Ashcraft says.