At times my mom has been uncomfortable seeing these qualities in me. For example, when I was 12, I went to Puerto Rico all by myself to stay with my grandmother for the summer. My mom was extremely nervous about it. She kept telling me how things were different in Puerto Rico, to always put on sunscreen, not to wander away from my grandmother, and other warnings. She helped me pack and did not leave the airport until she saw my plane take off.

    But despite her worries, she let me go on my own. As I moved into my teens, she continued to give me space to grow and learn even when it might have been difficult for her. When I reached my senior year, I decided to move away for college. Once again I found that I differed from my peers: while many of them wanted to stay close to home, I couldn't wait to be out in the world on my own. While my mom may not have been happy at the thought of me going away, she was supportive and excited for me.

    One big thing I realized during my senior year, as my mom granted me more freedom, was that she actually believes in me and trusts me. That means a lot. Most of my life, and especially when I was little, the main person I tried to impress in my schoolwork or other things was my mother. I knew she expected nothing but the best from me. Sometimes it was hard to live up to her standards; getting a single B on my report card would make me feel bad because I knew she wanted me to have all A's.

    I know that her high standards have helped me stay focused on what's important, like education, and made me who I am. I am thankful for her support and involvement in my life. Most of all I respect her. She is the strongest woman I know and that's why I have turned out so strong and independent.

    If you are given only 1 yuan, could you live in a city for one day? It seems this may be a little difficult. But students from Xi'an did it.

    On April 10, more than 60 students from the Middle School Attached to Northwestern Polytechnic University took part in the One Yuan Metropolis Survival. The charitable organization for teenagers called Imperceptible Education held this activity. Students not only have to live, but they also have to deal with a lot of hard tasks. It has happened in eight cities and is going to four others, including Beijing, in June.

    To make money, many students looked for part-time jobs and saw how hard life was. Zhang Queue, 14, asked more than 10 restaurants for a job and finally got one chance. “We were sad when they said no. But gradually (逐渐地), we got used to it,” he said. After being a waiter for an hour, he got 25 yuan.

    Some made use of their talents by singing and dancing in parks or shopping malls. Many people who walked by took notice and helped them. Zhao Jincheng, 14, drew pictures and made paper crafts(手工). “This showed it's important to learn a special skill,” he said.

    Living was hard, but finishing the tasks wasn't any easier. They went to different places to finish tasks in a short time. The most amazing one was when they had to exchange things worth thousands yuan with only a piece of paper in half an hour. “We learned how to persuade others. From a balloon to a cake to a bottle of yogurt (酸乳) … after almost 20 tries, we got an expensive necklace,” he said. They will give all of the money they made to poor schools in Tibet.

    The digital revolution is both launching us into a no-handwriting future, and also sending us backwards in time to when the spoken words ruled. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

    "I don't think kids should be assessed on their ability to master cursive(草书). It's not something that they are going to use much in their lives as they grow older. It's not something most of us adults use in our lives today. " Anne Trubek, an author, suggests that schools offer handwriting or cursive as an elective or art class in the future.

    "Focus on how to teach kids to express their ideas, how to organize their thoughts, how to make arguments" she says. "The forming of the letters are less important. And there are certainly many ways to individualize what you write beyond the way you've circled the 'I' or crossed your 'T'."

    "This myth that handwriting is just a motor skill (运动技能) is just plain wrong," Virginia Berninger said. "We use motor parts of our brain, motor planning, motor control, but what's very critical is a region of our brain where the visual and language come together and actually become letters and written words."

    "A lot of people are very stubborn about the importance of handwriting, but at the same time will admit they never write themselves," Trubek says.

    Trubek suggests, however, that handwriting keeps some value – for now. " For us today, in the 21st century America, handwriting represents something individual and unique about a person. It doesn't always mean that in previous times in history, and it won't always mean that in the future, but right now for us we relate our sense of self to our handwriting."

    Batteries can power anything from small sensors to large systems. While scientists are finding ways to make them smaller but even more powerful, problems can arise when these batteries are much larger and heavier than the devices themselves. University of Missouri (MU) researchers are developing a nuclear energy source that is smaller, lighter and more efficient.

    "To provide enough power, we need certain methods with high energy density (密度)", said Jae Kwon, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at MU. ''The radioisotope (放射性同位素) battery can provide power density that is much higher than chemical batteries."

    Kwon and his research team have been working on building a small nuclear battery, presently the size and thickness of a penny, intended to power various micro systems (MNEMS). Although nuclear batteries can cause concerns, Kwon said they are safe.

    "People hear the word 'nuclear' and think of something very dangerous." he said. "However, nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pace-makers, space satellites and underwater systems."

    His new idea is not only in the battery's size, but also in its semiconductor (半导体). Kwon's battery uses a liquid semi conduct or rather than a solid semiconductor.

    "The key part of using a radioactive battery is that when you harvest the energy, part of the radiation energy can damage the lattice structure (晶体结构) of the solid semiconductor." Kwon said, "By using a liquid semiconductor, we believe we can minimize that problem."

    Together with J. David Robertson, chemistry professor and associate director of the MU Research Reactor, Kwon is working to build and test the battery. In the future, they hope to increase the battery's power, shrink its size and try with various other materials. Kwon said that battery could be thinner than the thickness of human hair.

    A new study from brain researchers helps explain how the human brain evolved or changed over time, to permit people to speak and write.

    Michael Ullman, the lead researcher, a professor at Georgetown University Medical School in Washington, D.C, has been studying language learning for more than 20 years.

    Ullman says his research shows that the human brain does not have a special area or system for making language. Over time we have simply reused or co-opted (指派) parts of our brain for language. And those parts, he says, are ancient-older even than humans themselves.

    "This study examines the theoretical framework (准则) that language is learned, stored and' processed in two ancient learning and memory systems in the brain."

    Ullman, Hamrick and the rest of the team looked at data from 16 other studies on language. They found that people learn language using two memory systems: declarative and procedural. Memorizing vocabulary, for example, is a declarative memory process. But learning grammar is, mostly, a procedural memory process.

    "Declarative memory, in humans at least, is what we think of as learning memory', such as, 'Oh, remember what you said last night' or things like that. And procedural motor memory is what we often call motor memory' such as how you learn to ride a bicycle." Or, Ullman adds, "These procedural memory skills become so deeply leaned that we are no longer aware that we are doing them."

    However, Ullman explains that the two long-term memory systems can share tasks. And, he adds, the adult brain uses the systems to learn language a bit differently than a child's brain.

    "Adult language learners of a second language may use their declarative memory for using grammar patterns. They think about it purposefully. For a child, the grammar may come more naturally. They don't have to think about the grammar rules before speaking."

    In addition to language learners, Ullman's study could help people who have a brain injury that affects speaking and writing. This knowledge can also help those who have learning disabilities such as dyslexia (阅读障碍). People with dyslexia have difficulty recognizing words and symbols accurately.

Even though it is just a few years old, the comic strip, Cul de Sac, has already won many fans through its characters. So when cartoonist, Richard Thompson, announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, his fans sat up and took notice.

One of the fans was Chris Sparks, a designer and web developer in North Carolina. Sparks was building a website for Thompson when the cartoonist announced his disease. He started reading more about Parkinson's disease through books and websites. There he found that people could form public fund-raising teams to raise money for Parkinson's research. He quickly decided to form his own team: Team Cul de Sac.

However, Sparks decided to take a different path. He has contacted dozens of cartoonists around the world, who will contribute artworks inspired by the Cul de Sac strip. Thompson's publisher, Andrews Mcmeel, has agreed to release them in a book next year. Some of the profits from the book will go to the research. And after the book is released, the artworks will be auctioned off. All profits will go to the research team. The aim is to raise $450,000 for the foundation. "We've already had around 80 people who say they are interested in contributing", says Sparks.

Although many people with Parkinson's disease are private about their condition, Thompson is not one of them. He's happy to put his support behind the project. "I think we can make a difference," says Sparks, who points out that his love of comics inspired him. "I've been reading comics since I was 5 years old, and most of the cartoonists I've met have been wonderful human beings,"he says. "They've made a difference in my life, and I hope to make a difference as well."