I really love my job because I enjoy working with small children and like the challenges and awards from the job. I also think my work is important. There was a time when I thought I would never have that sort of career.

    I wasn't an excellent student because I didn't do much schoolwork. In my final term I started thinking what I might do and found I didn't have much to offer. I just accepted that I wasn't the type to have a career.

    I then found myself a job — looking after two little girls. It wasn't too bad at first. But the problems began when I agreed to live in so that I would be there if my boss had to go out for business in the evening. We agreed that if I had to work extra hours one week, she'd give me time off the next. But unfortunately, it didn't often work out. I was getting extremely tired and fed up, because I had too many late nights and early mornings with the children.

    One Sunday, I was in the park with the children, and met Megan who used to go to school with me. I told her about my situation. She suggested that I should do a course and get a qualification（资格证书）if I wanted to work with children. I didn't think I would be accepted because I didn't take many exams in school. She persuaded me to phone the local college and they were really helpful. My experience counted for a lot and I got on a part-time course. I had to leave my job with the family, and got work helping out at a kindergarten.

    Now I've got a full-time job there. I shall always be thankful to Megan. I wish I had known earlier that you could have a career, even if you aren't top of the class at school.

    My father was always a good gardener. One of my earliest memories is standing without shoes in the freshly tilled soil, my hands blackened from digging in the ground.

    As a child, I loved following Dad around in the garden. I remember Dad pushing the tiller(耕作机) ahead in perfectly straight lines. Dad loved growing all sorts of things: yellow and green onions, watermelons almost as big as me, rows of yellow corn, and our favorite — red tomatoes.

    As I grew into a teenager, I didn't get so excited about gardening with Dad. Instead of magical land of possibility, it had turned into some kind of prison. As Dad grew older, his love for gardening never disappeared. After all the kids were grown and had started families of their own, Dad turned to gardening like never before. Even when he was diagnosed with cancer, he still took care of his garden.

    But then, the cancer, bit by bit, invaded his body. I had to do the things he used to do. What really convinced me that Dad was dying was the state of his garden that year. The rows and rows of multicolored vegetables were gone. Too tired to weed them, he simply let them be. He only planted tomatoes.

    For the first few years after he died, I couldn't even bear to look at anyone's garden without having strong memories pour over me like cold water from a bucket. Three years ago, I decided to plant my own garden and started out with just a few tomatoes. That morning, after breaking up a fair amount of soil, something caught the corner of my eye and I had to smile. It was my eight-year-old son Nathan, happily playing in the freshly tilled soil.

    How fit are your teeth? Are you lazy about brushing them? Never fear: An inventor is on the case. An electric toothbrush senses how long and how well you brush, and it lets you track your performance on your phone.

    The Kolibree toothbrush was exhibited at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. It senses how it is moved and can send the information to an Android phone or iPhone via a Bluetooth wireless connection.

    The toothbrush will be able to teach you to brush right (don't forget the insides of the teeth!) and make sure you're brushing long enough. “It's kind of like having a dentist actually watch your brushing on a day-to-day basis,” says Thomas Serval, the French inventor.

    The toothbrush will also be able to talk to other applications on your phone, so developers could, for instance, create a game controlled by your toothbrush. You could score points for beating monsters among your teeth. “We try to make it smart but also  fun,” Several says.

    Serval says he was inspired by his experience as a father. He would come home from work and ask his kids if they had brushed their teeth. They said “yes,” but Serval would find their toothbrush heads dry. He decided he needed a brush that really told him how well his children brushed.

    The company says the Kolibree will go on sale this summer, for $99 to $199, developing on features. The U.S. is the first target market.

    Serval says that one day, it'll be possible to replace the brush on the handle with a brushing unit that also has a camera. The camera can even examine holes in your teeth while you brush.

We are interested in the preservation of the biodiversity on Earth. What I've been working on is rats. Just looking at rats, you can understand continental drift and climate change. We've actually rediscovered rats that were thought to be extinct. Darwin was the last one to document them on the Galapagos Islands. People have gone there for hundreds of years and not seen one. In 1997, I went there with my mentor(导师) and another graduate student. Everyone thought I was crazy, why look for something that doesn't exist? They wouldn't even give us permits. Our plan was to stop on a beach for a day and then hike up to the top of an extinct volcano where very few people had been: We were on a picturesque, isolated beach. We set out the traps just to see what we might find. The next morning, I checked my traps! I immediately ran back to my mentor. When he looked in the mental trap—I will never forget his face— It looked like he'd seen a ghost.

I certainly understand the argument: "Who cares about an extinct rat?" but you have no idea what role that rat plays in that functioning ecosystem. People can appreciate beauty, so that's why people love pandas and want to keep them around. You never hear, "What good is panda?" Ecologically, these rats are much more important to their ecosystem than those pandas— not that I don't love pandas but we have to look beyond the big and beautiful.

    I teach conservation biology and evolution. In both you have to appeal to people asking "Why is this important to me?" Some scientists refuse to do that. That's my entire approach. I'll ask "How many of you had a family member who was in a tornado, hurricane or flood?" .And almost every hand goes up. Climate change is suddenly very personal, and now they want to hear what you are saying. You are not looking for sympathy for the rats but for a greater understanding of the system.

    When I was growing up, Mother's Day was as important as Christmas.

    The energy around the house was always positive, mostly thanks to my father who made sure that his kids appreciated their mother. We would clean the house, and Mum got breakfast in bed in the morning and didn't have to lift a finger all day. And in the evening, we went to a restaurant for a traditional Mother's Day dinner.

    What I learned from my father over the years, was that no matter what, he always put my mother before himself. He absolutely loved her and never let her forget that.

    I maintain(保持) my father's Mother's Day tradition with my wife. Growing up, I learned that showing affection to the woman you love or who gave birth to you is an important part of life. You see, it goes both ways, and the love you have for your mother comes back to you again and again.

    Believing that and feeling it when you can may keep you from being lonely, even if your mum isn't close by or has passed away. There are a number of us who no longer have a mother in our lives, and truth be told, there are often times when I wish my mum were still here to comfort me. So instead, I remember the times she did just that. It makes me smile, and somehow, those memories of a more simple and loving life give me the comfort I'm looking for.

    If you are mum-less, you too should find a deserving woman in your life and celebrate Mother's Day with her. If you don't know anyone, there are plenty of lonely mums in rest homes who would enjoy your company for a couple of hours. The visit will make both of your days, and perhaps your lives, a little bit better.