What kind of people can become scientists? When a group of researchers posed that question to ninth-and 10th-graders, almost every student gave such responses as "People who work hard" or "Anyone who seems interested in the field of science."

Many of these same students struggled to imagine themselves as scientists, citing concerns such as "I'm not good at science" and "Even if I work hard, I will not do well." It's easy for them to see a scientist's work as arising from an inborn talent.

But for high school students, learning more about some struggles of scientists can help students feel more motivated to learn science. Researchers at Teachers College, Columbia University and the University of Washington designed an intervention to change students' beliefs that scientific achievement depends on ability rather than effort by exposing students to stories of how accomplished scientists struggled and overcame challenges in their scientific efforts.

During the study, the students read one of three types of stories about Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Michael Faraday. Intellectual(智力的)struggle stories: stories about how scientists "struggled intellectually," such as making mistakes while addressing a scientific problem and learning from them. Life struggle stories: stories about how scientists struggled in their personal lives, such as not giving up in the face of poverty or lack of family support. Achievement stories: stories about how scientists made great discoveries, without any discussion of coexisting challenges.

Researchers found that students who heard either type of "struggle stories" improved their science performance after-intervention, compared to students in the control group. The effect was especially pronounced for lower performing students, for whom exposure to struggling stories led to significantly better science-class performance than low-performing students who read achievement stories. In addition, students who read struggle stories reported feeling more personally connected to the scientists. By recognizing a scientist's struggles and introducing the growth mindset he or she applied to accomplish great works, the students were able to empathize(共情)with the scientists during their own struggles.

Each year，as many as one billion birds are killed in the US from collisions (相撞) with glass windows and buildings every year. Birds that crashed into Philadelphia buildings began to be collected in the 1890s. Nearly 100 species of birds are known to have died out from crashes with buildings and other structures in Philadelphia. Many other species are probably affected in the city.

Called Lights Out Philly, the voluntary program in Philadelphia encourages buildings to turn out or dim unnecessary external and internal lights between midnight and six o'clock early in the morning to protect birds as they pass through during migration seasons.

Bird migration seasons are from April 1 to May 31 in spring and from August 15 to November 15 in fall. Each year, millions of birds pass through Philadelphia along a migration route known as the Atlantic Flyway. Bird-glass crashes are very common for migrating birds, most of which travel at night. Glass is difficult for them to recognize as hard surfaces, and artificial light can fool them into crashing with buildings and outdoor structures. Turning off lights between midnight and sunrise helps minimize the effect of artificial light when most birds are migrating.

On Oct. 2, 2020, a stormy and foggy day, Philadelphia had its largest mass collision event in more than 70 years with an estimated 1, 000 birds crashing with buildings in one 3.5-square block area in just one day. Paired with a terrible storm of weather and fog conditions, the bright city and building lights attracted and confused the migrating birds, causing them to crash with buildings and outdoor structures.

Even if you don't play a part in managing the lights of a big building, you can help birds avoid crashes by making the glass opaque to reduce the amount and intensity of artificial light at night, changing the color of lighting to blue or green, shortening the duration lights are on, directing the lighting downward or screening lighting.

While Disney animations are successful in moving their audiences, their subsidiary (子公司) Pixar is expert at creating tear-jerking movies as well.

At first sight, it is remarkable that these movies make us cry—the main characters are cartoon characters, in most cases not even human beings, who do things that could evidently never happen in the real world: toys come to life, monsters are to scare sleeping children, and helium-balloon-powered houses travel the world. How can a story so unrealistic make us care so much about their animated main characters?

The Pixar creators explained that their stories often reflect their own personal lives. Whereas the animated characters are far from real, their lives are relatable. The magical ingredient is the realistic portrayal of the complex emotional lives of the characters.

As Pixar director Pete Doctor explains: "What you're trying to do, when you tell a story, is to write about an event in your life that made you feel a particular way. And what you're trying to do, when you tell a story, is to get the audience to have that same feeling. While this is true for storytelling in general, it is especially important in Pixar movies, given that the basic plots of their movies cannot happen in real life."

What makes Pixar's highly unrealistic stories believable is the fact that they address problems that are central to our own lives. Pixar addresses real human matters such as family, friendship, death, loss, and the highly realistic emotions that such events evoke in our life.

The effect of the story thus depends on the human capacity to empathize with others: to recognize which emotions others experience, and to understand why others feel how they feel. The fact that empathy is learned and developed through life may well be the reason why these movies are entertaining for kids but rather devastating and heart-crushing for adults.

Every Pixar movie has the moment when we cry. We learn and feel with the characters through the realistic portrayal of their emotional lives. The stories appeal to our deepest emotions and, thus, make us cry. Because, essentially, Pixar stories are about us.