“Can I hug you?” community nurse Joyce Jebambula asks with a smile as she welcomes me back to her village. “Of course,” I say as I put my arms around her. It's an unbelievable moment. Just at the height of the outbreak more than a year ago, there was an “avoid body contact” rule here. It's now been removed.

    One of the most challenging parts of reporting this outbreak over the past 18 months is that I haven't been able to touch anyone in the worst-affected countries. When Ebola(埃博拉病毒) survivors described in tears describing losing their families, I had to almost sit on my hands to avoid reaching out to comfort them.

    The outbreak was declared over in Sierra Leone on 7 November. I returned for the celebrations. But despite reaching this long-awaited milestone, all is not well.

    Ibrahim Koroma, 21, clings to (紧紧抓住) his survivor's certificate (证明) outside the home. All 17 of his family are now dead. The certificate is one of his most prized possessions. "He does not pose any risk to the community" it reads.

    Ibrahim tells me how his landlord has allowed him to stay in one of the rooms of his former family home until the end of the year. He says he doesn't know what he'll do after that. He does some part-time work, relying heavily on help from neighbors. His two little sisters and little brother died in the very room where he now sleeps. He says he often lies awake thinking about them, feeling very bad.

    The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was the worst on record. In past outbreaks there had only been a few hundred deaths and a few hundred survivors. It was thought Ebola could live for only three months. But research has now shown it can linger for at least nine months. Scientists are still trying to find how long it could be infectious.

    A linguist is always listening, never off-duty. I invited a group of friends round to my house, telling them that I was going to record their speech. I said I was interested in their regional accents, and that it would take only a few minutes. Thus one evening, three people turned up at my house and were shown into my front room. When they saw the room they were a bit anxious, for there was a microphone at head height, with wires leading to a tape-recorder in the middle of the floor. They sat down, rather nervously, and I explained that all I wanted was for them to count from 1 to 20. Then we could relax and have a drink. I turned on the tape-recorder and each in turn counted seriously from 1 to 20 in their best accents. When it was over, I turned the tape-recorder off and brought round the drinks. The rest of the evening was spent in total relaxation. I joined them in talking and joking freely, leaving them only to take a telephone call, which lasted some time.

    As a matter of fact, the microphones were not connected to the tape-recorder in the middle of the room at all but to another one in the kitchen. My friends, having seen the visible tape-recorder turned off, paid no more attention to the microphone which stayed in front of their chairs, only a few inches from their mouths, thus giving excellent sound quality. And my long absence meant that I was able to get as natural a piece of conversation as it would be possible to find I should add, perhaps, that I did tell my friends what had happened to them, after the recording was over, and asked them whether it should be destroyed. None of them wanted to—but for some years after that, it always seemed that when it came to buying drinks, it was I who paid for them. Linguistic research can be a very expensive business.

    Dr. Amanda Harris was ready for sleep since it was already 11 pm. The phone rang. On the other end of the line was a woman about to break a promise. The woman was her mother's neighbor. Flora Harris had made the neighbor swear she wouldn't tell her daughter she'd had a heart attack and was in hospital. The neighbor wisely decided to disobey orders.

    Amanda desperately wanted to get to the hospital immediately, but she couldn't. She lives in Washington D. C. and her mother lives in California. For the past year and a half, Amanda has gone to Los Angeles every other month to take care of her mother. Flora Harris takes care of her husband, James, who's 91 and has Alzheimer's disease. They live in their own home, and a caregiver comes to help them a few hours a day.

    Amanda is one of many Americans facing the heartache of how to take care of aging parents from afar. She's often worried and guilty, not to mention busy with a demanding job, two teenage daughters and the frequent trips to California.

    In some ways, Amanda is lucky. She has the resources to make the trips to Los Angeles. Plus, she is a doctor who treats the elderly. She's treated countless patients whose children live far away.

    “But it's still tough,” she says. “I can foresee what the next few years are going to look like, and it's not a pretty picture. There will come a time when my father won't recognize me and I worry he's going to be violent and hurt my mother.”

    So what do you do when you live a continent away from your aging, sick parents? You can hire someone to help, but you can't count on it completely.

    If cars had wings, they could fly and that just might happen, beginning in 2012.The company Terrafugia, based in Woburn, Massachusetts, says it plans to deliver its car­plane, the Transition, to customers by the end of 2012.

    "It's the next 'wow' vehicle, "said Terrafugia vice president Richard Gersh. "Anybody can buy a Ferrari, but as we say, Ferraris don't fly."

    The car plane has wings that unfold for flying—a process the company says takes one minute—and fold back up for driving. A runway is still required to take off and land.

    The Transition is being marketed more as a plane that drives than a car that flies, although it is both. The company has been working with FAA to meet aircraft regulations, and with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to meet vehicle safety regulations.

    The company is aiming to sell the Transition to private pilots as a more convenient and cheaper way to fly. They say it saves you the trouble of trying to find another mode of transportation to get to and from airports: You drive the car to the airport and then you're good to go. When you land, you fold up the wings and hit the road. There are no expensive parking fees because you don't have to store it at an airport—you park it in the garage at home.

    The car­plane is designed to fly primarily under 10,000 feet. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 1,430 pounds, including fuel and passengers. Terrafugia says the Transition reduces the potential for an accident by allowing pilots to drive under bad weather instead of flying into marginal(临界)conditions.

    The Transition's price tag: $194,000. But there may be additional charges for options like a radio, transponder or GPS. Another option is a full­plane parachute.

    "If you get into a very awful situation, it is the necessary safety option," Gersh said. So far, the company has more than 70 orders with deposits. "We're working very closely with them, but there are still some remaining steps," Brown said.

For those individuals who aspire to embark upon a professional journey within the realms of pedagogy, empirical inquiry, or the arts, a period of apprenticeship at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) presents itself as an exemplary opportunity.

Eligibility Criteria for Application:

Candidates who have successfully concluded their full-time academic tenure at a university level; or those who are currently immersed in a postgraduate curriculum in pursuit of a master's qualification.

For those engaged in specialized technical roles, it is imperative that they have reached the culminating phase of their educational trajectory within a technical learning institution.

Qualifications and Skills Required:

Applicants must be of at least two decades in age.

A proficient mastery, either in the English or French language, is a prerequisite.

An exceptional familiarity with software applications pertinent to office management is mandatory.

The capacity to collaborate effectively within a team and to acclimate to a cosmopolitan work setting is essential.

Robust interpersonal and communicative abilities are a must.

Preparations for the Application Process:

Visa Acquisition: It is incumbent upon you to secure the requisite visas for your intended duration of stay.

Travel Arrangements: You are expected to organize and finance your own transportation to and from the internship site.

Medical Insurance: Evidence of a comprehensive health insurance policy, valid within the host country for the entire internship period, is required. UNESCO will extend a limited insurance coverage, capped at USD 30,000, for the duration of the internship.

Health Certification: Submission of a medical certificate affirming your fitness for work is obligatory.

Motivational Correspondence: Prior to the completion of the application form, you should prepare a well-articulated motivation letter. This document will be reviewed by UNESCO executives and retained in our records for a period of six months. Please note that we do not provide feedback to every applicant. In the event of selection, you will be contacted directly by a manager. Should you not receive any communication within the six-month timeframe, it implies that your application has not been successful.

A 15-year-old Colorado high school student and young scientist who has used artificial intelligence (AI) and created apps to address polluted drinking water, drug addiction and other social problems has been named Time Magazine's first-ever "Kid of the Year". 

Rao told The Associated Press in an interview from her home that the prize is nothing that I could have ever imagined. And I'm so grateful and just so excited that we're really taking a look at the upcoming generation and our generation, since the future is in our hands. 

Time said Rao stood out for creating a global community of young innovators and inspiring them to pursue their goals. Rao insisted that starting out small doesn't matter, as long as you're passionate about it. 

She told Time contributing editor Angelina Jolie in an interview that her science pursuits started early as a way to improve social conditions. The drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan, inspired her work to develop a way to detect pollutants and send those results to a mobile phone, she said. 

"I was like 10 when I told my parents that I wanted to research carbon nanotube sensor technology at the Denver Water quality research lab, and my mum was like, A what?" Rao told Jolie. She said that work is going to be in our generation's hands pretty soon. "So if no one else is gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. "

In a world where science is increasingly questioned or challenged, Rao insisted that its pursuit is an act of kindness, the best way that a younger generation can better the world. 

"We have science in everything we're involved in, and I think that's the biggest thing to put out there, that science is cool, innovating is cool, and anybody can be an innovator. " Rao said, "Anybody can do science. "