I used to ride my bike to work on quiet Sundays，and then gave it up when my work schedule changed. Concerns about traffic on the streets of Washington, D.C took away my confidence, but National Bike to Work Day made me try again.

This morning, at 6:45. I wheeled my bike out of the garage and joined a nation of first-timers and old-timers on National Bike to Work Day.

I bought a new bike last year with the intention of cycling regularly to the office. I started riding right away, but set the goal realistically low: just once a week.

In my favor was the fact that I worked on Sundays, a perfect riding day because of the low traffic. And so I enjoyed a series of nearly deserted morning rides from my bungalow in a Washington. D. C. neighborhood to the Monitor’s bureau., just two blocks from the White House.

But then I no longer needed to work on Sundays. And my bike stayed parked in the garage. The last part of my cycle route covered busy urban streets, and I worried about traffic.

Today made me give bike commuting (通勤) a second try. However, some of the cyclists roared (呼啸而行) down the path quite fast, and I nearly caused an accident; downtown, I made a wrong turn, and ended up on a busy street; unlike Sundays, I had to pack a change of work clothes; besides, there was no shower.

Bike commuting is on the rise in America, but I’m a fair—weather rider, easily influenced by rain or snow. This morning did little to calm my worries about commuter traffic. One of the problems is my inexperience, and I’m willing to learn from that. But I can see now that if commuter biking is to really take off, cities and workplaces need to encourage it, from bike lanes (车道) to workplace showers.

“ The moment before they called my name, I was really nervous because the other finalists’ presentations are really good and I thought they would win, ” Kara Fan, 14, who has won America’ s Top Young Scientist, told Yahoo Finance. “ When they announced my name, I was really surprised actually. ”

To win that claim, Fan’ s nano-particle liquid bandage had to surpass the experiments of hundreds of fifth to eighth graders as well as nine other finalists. Fan started developing her liquid bandage in April 2019 to fight the overuse of antibiotics(抗生素).

According to the CDC, roughly 2 million people every year suffer a bacterial infection in the U. S. and about 23, 000 passed away as a result. If left alone, a UN study reported, drug- resistant diseases or the “ superbug” could lead to 10 million deaths across the globe by 2050. When Fan’ s sprayable bandage dries on a person’ s skin, it creates a thin layer that protects the wounded area while breaking the cell wall and killing the bacteria on the skin. After experimenting with copper nitrate(硝酸铜) to fight bacteria, switching to the silver nitrate ended up being the major catalyst (催化剂) to seeing results for her award-winning project.

“ Thousands of years ago, ancient people would use copper and silver to eat with and they would drink water from like copper bowls to kill bacteria, ” Fan explained. “ I found out that it didn’t work. So I used nano silver. ”

Sir Alexander Fleming’ s discovery of penicillin— a type of antibiotic— is Fan’ s favorite scientific discovery. That said, she doesn’ t think humans should rely too heavily on penicillin.

Following her years at Westview High School, Fan hopes to continue her biology track at Stanford University. Along with the ＄ 25, 000 cash prize she won on October 29, becoming Amer-ica’ s Top Young Scientist may help get the private university’ s attention.

When Demetris Payne saw a missed call from her son’s junior high school, she knew something was wrong. With a sigh, the single mom of four from Shreveport, Louisiana, called back. A school official said her 13-year-old son Jadarien was suspended (停课) for three days for talking back to his teacher. She was told to pick him up right away.

As soon as the pair got home, Payne took away her son’s cellphone and video games. She left him with her 70-year-old father, who lives with them.

“When I got home from work, he was eating strawberries and having fun with my dad.” Payne said. “It was like a vacation.” Payne knew she needed to do more to discipline him. So she handed him a tool and asked him to start cleaning up the yard. When he finished, she told him he’d be volunteering his yard services free of charge for people in need during the spare time of his suspension.

“He didn’t believe it,” Payne said. “I can be soft on him and baby him sometimes.” But Payne was serious. She posted a photo of Jadarien online with the heading, “Yard services-FREE”, explaining that he got suspended from school and would do yard services or wash cars for members of the community over the next three days. Some neighbours responded immediately.

Jadarien spent about two hours cleaning up the yards. He ended up hitting at least eight different homes. When he finished, Payne took him to the library, where he spent the rest of the day reading and completing his homework.

“We explained to him that these things weren’t to punish, but to teach him about discipline.” Payne said. “Whether the teachers are right or wrong, always respect them.”

On Tuesday, Jadarien was happy to finally head to school. Payne sat down with Jadarien’s teachers to help come up with a plan to keep him on track. However, she’s confident Jadarien learned his lesson.