I am peter Hodes ,a volunteer stem courier. Since March 2012, I've done 89 trips of those , 51 have been abroad, I have 42 hours to carry stem cells（干细胞）in my little box because I've got two ice packs and that's how long they last, in all, from the time the stem cells are harvested from a donor(捐献者) to the time they can be implanted in the patient, we've got 72 hours at most, So I am always conscious of time.

I had one trip last year where I was caught by a hurricane in America. I picked up the stem cells in Providence, Rhode Island, and was meant to fly to Washington then back to London. But when I arrived at the check-in desk at Providence, the lady on the desk said: “Well, I'm really sorry, I've got some bad news for you-there are no fights from Washington.” So I took my box and put it on the desk and I said: “In this box are some stem cells that are urgently needed for a patient-please, please, you've got to get me back to the United Kingdom.” She just dropped everything. She arranged for a flight on a small plane to be held for mere-routed(改道)me through Newark and got me back to the UK even earlier than originally scheduled.

For thiscourier job, you're consciously aware than that box you're got something that is potentially going to save somebody's life.

    Back in 1988, Red Delicious made up 70 to 80 percent of the domestic apple market. Over the years, farmers sold a lot of them because they looked great. But they had a floury texture (质地), and people want an apple that's firm, crisp(脆的)and juicy. I started searching for one. By 1994, threatened by varieties from Japan and New Zealand, the U.S. apple industry and Washington State University agreed that we had to grow our own.

    First, we cross-pollinated(授粉) existing apples: Collect pollen from one flower, put it on the tip of a pencil eraser, and rub it into another. We crossed dozens of crisp, tasty varieties such as Gala, Fuji, and Pink Lady. But the best breed came out of Honey Crisp and Enterprise parents. We grew the cross-bred seeds into 5-foot trees, grafted those to rootstocks(根茎) to make them start producing quickly, and planted them in evaluation gardens. A few years later, they fruited—and we began tasting.

    So I would walk down long rows of hundreds and thousands of trees, and when I found an attractive fruit, I'd bite, chew, spit it out. Most were terrible, but when I found one with good texture and taste, I'd pick 10 or 20 of them. Then I put them in cold storage to see how they would hold up after a few months. After that, three or four researchers sat down and tasted every apple. We checked acidity and sugar levels, which can break down over time, and tested firmness and crispness using instruments that measure pressure and cell breakdown.

    When we found exactly what we wanted, we planted and tested them all over again. Eventually, we ended up with the Cosmic Crisp. It can spend nine to 12 months in storage, and stay crisp, firm, juicy and sweet.

    The San Diego Center for Children recently added three acres of land to its 9-acre Linda Vista campus. Thanks to the efforts of Assembly member Dr. Shirley Weber, the state sold the land near the Center's main campus. Now the Center, which is the oldest children's nonprofit (非营利的机构) in the region, will be able to provide more treatment and educational foster care (看护) to kids and families who need it most.

    Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS) received a $10, 000 grant from the USS Midway Foundation to support its Hand Up Food Pantry (食品贮藏室). "Jewish Family Service works every day to help struggling families and individuals in San Diego move forward and build more stable, secure lives," says JFS CEO Michael Hopkins.

    St. Madeleine Sophie's Center raised more than $16, 000 at its Swing with Santa Golf Tournament (锦标赛). The funds will go toward programs for adults with developmental disabilities. The 5th annual tournament included 18 hotels, food and drinks, and two celebrity appearances: both Santa and Elvis made a dramatic entrance via helicopter.

    Coming Up: Raise money for the 4SRanch-Del Sur Community Foundation and Helen's Closet (壁橱，衣帽间) at the 9th Annual Thank You Run on Thanksgiving Day, November 22. Helen's Closet serves patients with ALS. The distance is 5K with a 1K Fun Run for children aged 8 and under.

    "You can use me as a last resort(选择), and if nobody else volunteers, then I will do it." This was an actual reply from a parent after I put out a request for volunteers for my kids' lacrosse(长曲棍球) club.

    I guess that there's probably some demanding work schedule, or social anxiety around stepping up to help for an unknown sport. She may just need a little persuading. So I try again and tug at the heartstrings. I mention the single parent with four kids running the show and I talk about the dad coaching a team that his kids aren't even on … At this point the unwilling parent speaks up, "Alright. Yes, I'll do it."

    I'm secretly relieved because I know there's real power in sharing volunteer responsibilities among many. The unwilling parent organizes the meal schedule, sends out emails, and collects money for end-of-season gifts. Somewhere along the way, the same parent ends up becoming an invaluable member of the team. The coach is able to focus on the kids while the other parents are relieved to be off the hook for another season. Handing out sliced oranges to bloodthirsty kids can be as exciting as watching your own kid score a goal.

    Still, most of us volunteers breathe a sigh of relief when the season comes to a close. That relief is coupled with a deep understanding of why the same people keep coming back for more: Connecting to the community(社区) as you freely give your time, money, skills, or services provides a real joy. Volunteering just feels so good.

    In that sense, I'm pretty sure volunteering is more of a selfish act than I'd freely like to admit. However, if others benefit in the process, and I get some reward too, does it really matter where my motivation lies?

    Plastics remain one of the most - used materials for making many things. Things made of plastics can be very strong and last a long time. Plastics are also much lighter than metal and can easily be formed into different shapes. Plastics can take hundreds of years to break down on their own. And very few kinds are highly recyclable.

    A team of researchers working at the US Department of Energy says it has created a kind of plastic that could lead to products that are 100 percent recyclable. It recently reported the discovery in a study in the journal Nature Chemistry.

    The researchers say the new material is a plastic polymer (聚合体)called polydiketoenamine, or PDK. The team reports the material can be broken down in parts at the molecular (分子的)level. It can then be built up again to form plastics of different shapes, textures and colors. The researchers say this process can be repeated over and over again—without the plastic material losing any performance or quality.

    "Most plastics were never made to be recycled," lead researcher Peter Christensen said in a statement. " But we have discovered a new way to assemble plastics that takes recycling into consideration from a molecular perspective. "

    Many plastics have different chemicals added to them to make them more useful and powerful. The problem is that these chemicals attach to the monomers (单体), which remain in plastics even after the material gets processed at a recycling plant. The research team reported that, with the newly discovered PDK material, the monomers could be recovered and separated from any chemical additives.

    Next, the researchers plan to develop PDK plastics "with a wide range of thermal and mechanical properties. These plastics could be used for many kinds of cloth, as well as things such as 3D printed materials and foams. In addition, the team is trying to include plant - based materials in the process.

If you take a minute to think about the things that catch your attention, they're usually outsized (the Pyramids of Giza), extraordinarily delicate (a well-composed song), boldly colored (peacock feathers), or shocking (a bolt of lightning or a twist ending). These attention-grabbing things make us curious: Why is it like this? Where did the idea come from, or what made this happen?

From these questions come boundless story possibilities. From those ideas, though, we have to eventually cut them down to the ones worth telling, the ones that will grab and keep our readers' attention. This issue looks at that challenge from a variety of angles. Jane K. Cleland tackles the idea of thematic writing — writing that encourages readers to think about big issues that may or may not affect their lives, but at the very least will make them think What if… Then Jessica Strawser shares nine ways to write more authentic (真实的) child characters in adult fiction to bring a fresh perspective and engage readers. Tiffany Yates Martin takes on the debate of the controversial prologue (序言) — should you or shouldn't you use one? You'll have to read on to find out. When it comes to short fiction, Ran Walker offers tips for making the most of titles and first lines when every word counts. Finally, Amy Cook looks at the topic from a different angle — when your published book has stopped selling but you know it has more life in it, how can you use rights reversion to help it reach a new audience?

Our WD Interview for this issue features one author, Michael Cunningham. I was lucky enough to talk with him about his newest novel, Day, which features everything I love about a Cunningham novel: family drama, global issues made local, and impossibly affecting, heartbreaking prose. His writing advice was some of the most unexpected I've heard.

Maybe you're thinking about what you want to focus your attention on this year. Whatever your goal may be, we are glad to be with you along the way.