Welcome to the Kids' Science Challenge!

    Do you like science projects and winning some awesome gifts? This is the challenge for you. What's even better is that you don't have to build anything--simply come up with an original idea or design that relates to one of three topics given below.

Wonderful Sounds

    Ready for Wonderful Sounds? Click on Science Secrets to meet our sound specialist. And be sure to download fun activities with crazy new sounds and musical instruments in the Dig In section! Now what kind of new musical instrument can you invent?

Super Material for Sports

    Ready for Super Material for Sports? You'll discover the amazing world of Materials Science, where scientists and engineers develop new materials for everyday functions--like sports! Click on Science Secrets for information about our scientist. And don't forget to download the fun activities in the Dig In section! Now can you come up with a new sports material that would help you play your favorite sport?

Magical Microbes

    Ready to discover Magical Microbes, the tiniest living things on earth? Click on Science Secrets for information about our scientists. And be sure to download all the fun activities in the Dig In section! Now can you think of a brand new way that microbes can help people?

    My daughter Kelly is a cautious person. She needs to warm up to situations' and is hesitant to try new things. When with close friends, she becomes a leader who laughs loudly and chants, “Girls rule, boys drool.” But when that comfort zone is not around her, she is shy and nervous.

    This has been challenging for me at times. “Shy” is not a word that I think has ever been used to describe me. But this has been a year of firsts for my girl that has filled her with a new sense of confidence. This year she moved to lap lane in swimming where she was preparing for a swim team. This year she learned to ride a bike without training wheels. And this year she completed her first kids' triathlon (三项全能).

    On Saturday, with a thunderstorm coming soon and my son's birthday party later in the day, we all went out in the dark of the morning for Kelly to participate in her first triathlon. We practiced transitions from swim to bike to run with her, we got all the equipment she'd need, and we kept talking about the race. But as we waited the two hours for the older kids to finish before her turn, she held my leg a little harder and told me she loved me a few too many times. She was nervous but trying to keep it together.

    And then it was her turn. From the second she jumped into the water, my heart soared. My daughter transformed into the most confident human being I had ever seen. She dominated that swim, crushed that bike ride and ran to the finish with the biggest smile on her face.

    I can honestly say that I never felt so proud of someone in my entire life. It wasn't because she did a sport or anything like that. It was because she was afraid of something and conquered that fear with confidence and a fire I hadn't seen before.

    All day I would find myself just looking over at her and smiling. She might be wearing the finalist medal but I felt like I won that day. I won the chance to see my girl shine.

Shine on, sweet baby.

    You can tell a lot about a country from its passport. Color is the first give-away. Nations tend to pick colors that reflect their national character. New Zealand decorates its famous rugby team, its airline and its passports in the nation's favorite color—black. Many Islamic countries have green passports because of the importance of the color in the Muslim faith.

    But as well as a statement of national identity, color can show international cooperation. The British passport was originally a navy blue. But after Britain joined the European Union in 1973, it switched to burgundy red（酒红色）like other EU countries. The common color was supposed to make European passports instantly recognizable.

    But since colors can't be patented（专利）, nothing stops others with the same idea. A number of countries that long to join the EU have changed their passports to burgundy too. Meanwhile Britain has decided to leave the club. Its government has announced that the UK passports will return to navy blue after Breit（脱欧）.

    If you have a passport from Singapore or South Korea, you are in possession of one of the most powe3rful travel documents on earth. Passport power is measured by the number of countries the holder can access visa-free. Currently sharing first place in the power rankings, Singaporean and South Korean passports provide visa-free access to 162 countries each. British passport holders share fourth place in the power ranking with six other nations, each accessing 159 countries visa-free. Americans ranked fifth with access to 158. Somalia, Syria, Pakistan and Iraq are among the world's least powerful passports. Afghanistan is the lowest ranking of all, with visa0free access to just 26 countries.

    Having to get a visa is not a piece of cake. First there is the never-ending form. Then there are lengthy appointments and expensive fees. Some visas also require travelers to pre-booked flights to prove that they intend to return home.

    But there are unexpected advantages to some of the world's weaker passports. Middle-ranking Namibia is one of just a handful of countries, whose citizens can enter Angola visa-free. India is one of only three countries, whose citizens have visa-free access to Bhutan.

    A low-ranking passport limits your choices, but not your sense of adventure.

    It's said that you don't know a man until you walk a mile in his shoes. And you also don't know what it's like for older people to travel until you accompany one on a trip.

    After flying with my elderly father from Washington, D.C. to L.A. in July, I began to realize that a companion has important tasks that can make a journey easier for older people. I booked nonstop tickets on JetBlue to avoid tiring, confusing connections, and we flew directly into small, manageable Long Beach Airport. Even though my father could walk, I arranged with the airline for wheelchair assistance, which meant we got on board first.

    When I took him back to the airport for his return flight to Washington, I got permission from JetBlue to wait with him at the gate instead of saying goodbye at the security checkpoint. I wished he'd had a first-class seat and access to a comfortable airline club. Better yet, I wish I had flown with him both ways. As I watched the attendant wheel him to the lift that took him from the tarmac（飞机跑道）to the plane, I felt like an anxious mom sending her child to school for the first time.

    Things can go awry on a plane trip. And then there is the horrifying story about Joe and Margie. When they landed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, a wheelchair attendant met them to help with a connection. But somehow Margie, who had Alzheimer's disease, disappeared.

    I didn't need to worry about my father wandering away; at 82, his mind was sharper than mine. But his hearing was poor, so I worried about what would happen if he missed an important announcement. Fortunately, everything went just fine. Careful planning made the trip successful.

    Next time I travel with a senior, I'll know better. I hope there will be a next time.

    The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly held image of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.

    An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past." We were surprised by just how positive today's young people seen to be about their families," said one member of the research team. "They're expected to be rebellious(叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There's more negotiation and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don't want to rock the boat."

    So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. "My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me," says 17-years-old Daniel Lazall. "I always tell them when I'm going out clubbing. As long as they know what I'm doing, they're fine with it." Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees." Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I'd done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that."

    Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenagers' rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, "Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over."

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.