From childhood, Moira loved to write. Throughout school she enjoyed writing, but pursuing it professionally was never a possibility. Her father was a doctor, her mother a nurse. “Medicine was a fairly safe choice,” Moira says, “and writing was a career where it wasn't a certainty that you'd have high income.”

    She became a doctor but still wanted to write something. However, being a doctor was so demanding that she didn't take up writing until her thirties. She produced a novel—a fictionalized version of her travel in China after university. She got excellent reviews. Moira sent it off to as many agents as she could find, and found one who wanted to represent her. Suddenly, it seemed she was on her way as an author.

    “I had one lengthy phone call with the agent where we went through all possible areas that she thought needed polishing. I worked on those and sent it back to her but didn't hear anything.” It wasn't long before Moira found another agent who was interested if she was willing to rewrite it from the first person to the third person. She did the hard work and sent it off again. “I got back a really brief letter: 'Thank you, I'm no longer interested.' It was really disappointing.”

    A decade went by, and Moira found herself eager to write again, this time purely for her own enjoyment. She set herself the challenge of creating a thriller and chose Western Australia as her setting.

    As she was writing just for herself, something surprising began to happen. “The characters took on a life of their own; they started doing things I hadn't thought about. It just flew.” One day, an agent called from Australia. Three weeks later, Moira had a publication deal. Her novel, Cicada, was published in March.

    “Even if it hadn't been published I still gained so much from the process,” says Moira.

    My teenage son Karl became withdrawn after his father died. As a single parent, I tried to do my best to talk to him. But the more I tried, the more he pulled away. When his report card arrived during his junior year, it said that he had been absent 95 times from classes and had six falling grades for the year. At this rate he would never graduate. I sent him to the school adviser, and I even begged him. Nothing worked.

    One night I felt so powerless that I got down on my knees and begged for help. "Please God, I can't do anything more for my son. I'm at the end of my rope. I'm giving the whole thing up to you."

    I was at work when I got a phone call. A man introduced himself as the headmaster. "I want to talk to you about Karl's absences." Before he could say another word, I cried and all my disappointment and sadness over Karl came pouring out into the ears of this stranger. "I love my son but I just don't know what to do. I've tried everything to get Karl to go back to school and nothing has worked. It's out of nay hands. "For a moment there was silence on the other end of the line. The headmaster seriously said, "Thank you for your time", and hung up.

    Karl's next report card showed a marked improvement in his grades. Finally, he even made the honor roll. In his fourth year, I attended a parent-teacher meeting with Karl. I noticed that his teachers were astonished at the way he had turned himself around. On our way home, he said, "Mum, remember that call from the headmaster last year?" I nodded. "That was me. I thought I'd play a joke but when I heard what you said, it really hit me how much I was hurting you. That's when I knew I had to make you proud."

    The Broadcom MASTERS competition aims to find a balance between celebrating individual accomplishments and acknowledging that science seldom happens alone. The competition takes off when students from around the country are teamed up and have to solve a series of hands—on challenges in the spotlight.

    Nowadays, kids are fed with “the myth of the lone scientist”, so placing such challenges in the middle school period has a huge potential for impact. The focus on teambuilding skills gets students excited before more fears and stereotypes(成见)set in.

    The initial pool of qualified students comes from the participants in nation-wide science fairs. Those who score in the top 10％(about 10, 000 kids)have the qualification to apply. The judges select the top 300 young scientists, and that group is finally narrowed to 30 finalists.

    Selection at this stage is clearly an honor in itself, but it counts as step one for the finalists. They are then flown to Washington, D. C. and placed into teams of five for the hands-on part of the competition. Each team is made up of students with different talents and skills, including academic focus and experience.

    Unlike the science fairs, where most of the work takes place behind the scenes and students share a polished outcome, the hands-on challenges create a space where the work is the competition itself. The students take up a range of challenges in science, technology, engineering, math and so on. Each of the challenges will need the insight and skills of multiple team members.

    Judges observing the challenges aren't just looking for outcomes but also for leadership, teamwork and problem solving.

    The Broadcom MASTERS attracts increasing numbers of passionate and talented young people who are eager to take part in a program that helps them grow as scientists, engineers and inventors. It lets the students experience a sense of coming together with true peers. More importantly, it provides them with new skills to tackle future challenges.

My Favourite Books

    Jo Usmar is a writer for Cosmopolitan and co-author of the This Book Will series（系列）of lifestyle books. Here she picks her top reads.

    Matilda

    Roald Dahl

    I once wrote a paper on the influence of fairy tales on Roald Dahl's writing and it gave me a new appreciation for his strange and delightful words. Matilda's battles with her cruel parents and the bossy headmisres, Miss Trunchbull, are equally funny and frightening, but they're also aspirational.

    After Dark

    Haruki Murakami

    It's about two sisters-Eri, a model who either won't or can't stop sleeping, and Mari, a young student. In trying to connect to her sister. Mari starts changing her life and discovers a world of diverse "night people" who are hiding secrets.

    Gone Girl

    Gillian Fynn

    There was a bit of me that didn't want to love this when everyone else on the planet did but the horror story is brilliant. There's tension and anxiety from the beginning as Nick and Amy battle for your trust. It's a real whodunit and the frustration when you realise what's going on is horribly enjoyable

    The Stand

    Stephen King

    This is an excellent fantasy novel from one of the best storytellers around. After a serious flu outbreak wipes out 99.4% of the world's population, a battle unfolds between good and evil among those let. Randall Flagg is one of the scariest characters ever.

    A couple had a son eleven years after they married. They were a loving couple and the boy was the apple of their eye. When the boy was around four years old, one day the father was very tired after work so he asked his wife to pick up their son. The mother, who was very busy in the kitchen, totally forgot about it.

    Later the boy lost his way on the street. When the son was found missing, the mother hurried to look for him, but she didn't find him. The mother felt very sad and didn't know how to face her husband.

    When the father went to the police station after hearing that the son was missing, he looked at his wife and said just four words. What do you think the four words were? The husband just said "I love you, darling."

    The son was missing. If he had picked him up earlier, this would not have happened. There is no point in blaming (责备) anyone. His wife had also lost her only child. What his wife needed at that moment was comfort and understanding from her husband. That is what the husband gave his wife. Several weeks later, with the help of the police, the couple finally found their lost son. The family's relationship became stronger over that time.

    Sometimes we spend lots of time asking who is to blame. We miss many chances to give each other support and let each other feel the warmth of human relationships. Get rid of all your unwillingness to forgive, selfishness, and fears and you will find the world is much more wonderful.

    Seal Island is a 200-meter long island off the coast of South Africa, which is surrounded by 55 to 57 degrees Fahrenheit waters and covered with over 60,000 seals and some birds. This island has been home to many birds and seals. You may think this island is a paradise. In fact, the island is not famous for the seals or birds. However, the real stars are the great white sharks that leap out of the water to catch the seals they are hunting.

    You may think that there is no way for a 15-foot long, 3000-pound shark to hurl its body out of the water and catch a seal in midair. Actually, these sharks are called "Air Jaws".

    Over the years, the seals have gotten smarter. Now, they go out in groups of seven and eight to feed. They swim down on the sea floor, which gives them extra cover. When they have to swim near the surface of water, they swim in a zigzag pattern(Z字形). But with all these tricks, they can still be cleverly beaten by the sharks. Usually, the sharks will take one seal away from its group and force it to swim on the surface, where it is easy to hunt. Sometimes, the seal is fortunate and gets away, but most of them die in the process of trying to survive.

    Every year, tourists go to see these amazing animals leap out of the water, sometimes flinging their whole bodies into the air when they want to catch the seals. This is the reason why this island attracts thousands of tourists from around the world every year.