The human thirst for knowledge is the driving force behind our successful development as a species. But curiosity can also be dangerous, leading to setbacks or even downfalls. Given curiosity’s complexity, scientists have found it hard to define.

        While pinning down a definition has proven tricky, the general consensus is it’s some means of information gathering. Psychologists also agree curiosity is intrinsically (内在地) motivated.

        Curiosity covers such a large set of behaviors that there probably isn’t any single “curiosity gene” that makes humans wonder about and explore their environment. That said, curiosity does have a genetic component. Genes and the environment interact in many complex ways to shape individuals and guide their behavior, including their curiosity.

        Regardless of their genetic makeup, infants have to learn an incredible amount of information in a short time, and curiosity is one of the tools humans have found to accomplish that gigantic task.

        Hundreds of studies show that infants prefer novelty. It’s what motivates non-human animals, human infants and probably human adults to explore and seek out new things before growing less interested in them after continued exposure.

        But curiosity often comes with a cost.

        In some situations, the stakes are low and failure is a healthy part of growth. For instance, many babies are perfectly proficient crawlers, but they decide to try walking because there’s more to see and do when they stand upright. But this milestone comes at a small cost. A study of 12- to19-month-olds learning how to walk documented that these children fell down a lot. Seventeen times per hour, to be exact. But walking is faster than crawling, so this motivates expert crawlers to transition to walking.

        Sometimes, however, testing out a new idea can lead to disaster. For instance, the Inuit people of the Arctic regions have created incredible modes to deal with the challenges of living in northern climates, but what we forget about are the tens of thousands of people that tried and failed to make it in those challenging landscapes.

解析：B。根据题干中的numerous studies和infants可定位至原文第五段第一句。该句提到，数百项研究（numerous studies）表明，婴儿喜欢新奇事物胜过（旧事物）。B项与此内容相符，其中prefer原词复现，all that is novel是该句中novelty的同义替换，故B项为正确答案。

错项排除：文章中虽然提到了婴儿、动物、成年人的好奇心，但并没有对比婴儿和成年人的好奇心，故A项排除。C项的interests在文章中未提及，故排除。D项利用文中出现的non-human animal和behaviors进行干扰，但两词在文中并无关联，故D项排除。