Are you shy? If you are, you are not alone. In fact, close to 50 percent of people are shy. Almost 80 percent of people feel shy at some point in their lives. These days, shyness is becoming more and more common. Now, scientists are trying to understand shyness. They have some interesting ideas about why people are shy.

Is it possible to be born shy? Many scientists say yes. They say 15 to 20 percent of babies behave shyly. These babies are a little quieter and more watchful than other babies. Interestingly, these shy babies usually have shy parents. As a result, scientists think that some shyness is genetic.

Family size might cause people to be shy as well. Scientists at Harvard University studied shy children. They found that 66 percent of them had older brothers and sisters. As a result, they became shy. At the same time, children with no brothers and sisters may be shy as well. Growing up alone, they often play by themselves. They are not able to learn the same social skills as children from big families.

You may also be shy because of where you were born. When scientists studied shyness in different countries, they found surprising differences. In Japan, most people said they were shy. But in Israel, only one of three people said so. What explains the difference? One scientist says the Japanese and Israelis have different opinions of failure. In Japan, when people do not succeed, they feel bad about themselves. They blame（责备）themselves for their failure. In Israel, the opposite is true. Israelis often blame failure on outside reasons, such as family, teachers, friends, or bad luck. In Israel, freedom of opinion and risk taking are strongly supported. This may be why Israelis worry less about failure and are less shy.

For shy people, it can be difficult to make friends, speak in class, and even get a good job. But scientists say you can get over your shyness. They suggest trying new things and practicing conversation. And don't forget—if you are shy, you are not the only one.

    Several Asian hospitals are doing experiments with tele-medicine. Tele-medicine is a technology that allows doctors to "see" patients without them being in the same place. This is made possible through high-speed communication networks(网络). At both ends of the line, the way of video-meeting lets them see and talk to each other. Blood pressure (血压) and body temperature are directly shown on computers.

    Tele-medicine is already in wide use in some places such as the United States and Germany. Among other uses, village doctors hold "consultations (会诊)"with far-away experts(专家). The experts can also help them during operations.

    Tele-medicine has been slow to reach Asia because of high costs besides other reasons. When things improve, this technology will develop very fast. Chinese University of Hong Kong's medical school has joined a big hospital in Beijing, and Thailand is building a tele-medicine station connecting 20 areas.

    Tele-medicine will do good to patients because doctors from different places can see them and give their medical advice. The help is quite important if the disease is an unusual one. It also helps spread medical knowledge among experts.

    As tele-medicine develops well, its costs will be lower and it will become very popular in the medical field.

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    On May 17, 2009, according to the plan, Mike Good and I would take a space walk to the Hubble Space Telescope to repair an instrument. The power supply on this instrument had failed, so it could no longer be used. I would be the person doing the repair and Mike my assistant.

    Working in space is more difficult than you can imagine. As there is no gravity, you can't stand and any slight push can result in tragedy -you can be pushed into space, never be back.

    We got to the telescope. Before we could replace the power supply, we would have to remove from the telescope a handrail fixed with four screws. Having taken out the first three, I found the fourth stripped. I realized that the handrail would not come off, which meant we could no longer be able to replace the power supply and repair that instrument, which meant scientists could no longer look at the universe and find life on other planets.

    I tried all kinds of things, and nothing worked. Then Houston, the control centre on the earth, called up and told me to use the tape to tape the bottom of the handrail and pull it off the telescope. They said it was going to take about 27 kilograms of force for me to do that.

    I knew what it meant: The handrail could be completely pulled off and the safety tether might break, and I might therefore be pushed into space.

    Mike was next to me in his space suit but he could not take over my role. I turned and looked into the cabin where my five crewmates were, and nobody in there had a space suit on. However, I knew they were all looking at me. "Come on Mass, we are all behind you." The telescope must be repaired.

    "Bam!" The handrail came right off. The rest of the walk went well. We finally got the new power supply in. They tried it; turned it on from the ground. The instrument came back to life.

    At the edge of darkness, after about eight hours, I turned around and saw the Earth from our altitude at Hubble, 568 kilometers up. I saw the huge round pure blue globe home planet. It's the most beautiful, magnificent thing I've ever seen. It's like looking into heaven. It's paradise.

    Have you got an eReader? Are you thinking of getting one? We asked some eReaders owners to give us their opinions.

    There are many things that people like about eReaders. "eReaders are really light, weighing less than most paperbacks," said Nathan Jones, a market researcher. "You can hold the book and turn the pages with one hand. An eReader is definitely more comfortable to read in bed or if you're lying on a sofa, plus mine's got a light so I can read in bed at night without disturbing my partner." Another big advantage is that you can store hundreds of books on them. "eReaders are perfect for travel," said Kiera Smith. "You can have lots of books in one device, instead of carrying loads of books in your luggage." The search functions are also popular. "You can look for a character by their name or for a place just by typing in the word. That's really useful," said Megan Malone, a sales executive.

    One user liked the function for increasing font size. "I've got poor eyesight," explained Harvey Callaghan, an engineer. "But the eReader is perfect for me as I can increase the font size." And Jennifer Saunders said, "I like eReaders because they're ecological. If we buy an ebook, we're helping to save trees as they don't use paper. Also, my eReader is solarpowered, so it only uses renewable energy." Best of all is the availability of hundreds of free books online. "Project Gutenberg has millions of titles and they're all free to download," said another user.

    One of the biggest complaints is that you can't find certain titles. "Many books are simply not available in electronic form," said Daisy Madison, an estate agent. If you want a specific book, one that is older, perhaps, or not a bestseller, it won't be available – at least, that was my experience."

    Others complained about the small delay in turning pages. "The gap between pressing the 'next page' button and the screen showing the page is really annoying," said Joel Bray, a shop assistant. "Also, you can't flick between pages so easily."

So, what do you think?