When I was 12 years old, I already knew that my teen years were going to be the worst years of my life. I was a total outsider, bullied （欺凌）at school. I felt completely alone in my small town.

But by starting to do volunteer work when I was 14, I turned my problem into a passion for helping others. The opportunity to practice kindness made me feel like my life had a greater purpose. The more positive energy 1 shared, the more kindness and appreciation I received, I realized that my purpose in life would be to reach out to people, specifically teenagers, and help them feel less alone.

Books were my true friends back then. I was so thankful that the authors wrote those books. The kindness they offered me with their books saved my life. One of my biggest dreams was to become an author so I could write books that would help other teenagers the way those books helped me.

After surviving the terrible experiences at school and at home, 1 made a choice to take the optimistic, positive road in the next steps of my journey. My dream career, one I thought was only possible for the authors I loved, is what I am doing now. I have been a full-time author of teen novels since 2007 and am grateful for this amazing opportunity to reach out to readers every single day.

Kindness saved me when I needed help the most. Even small acts of kindness can change someone's life. You never know what someone else is going through. But by practicing daily kindness, you become an architect of positive change.

Born in Potsdam (in the Kingdom of Prussia) in 1821, Helmholtz was one of the 19th century’s most knowledgeable scientists, whose name turns up in the histories of multiple scientific fields and specialties. As a youngster, he had an interest in physics, but that seemed a financially unwise career choice. He went to medical school and studied physiology (生理学) instead, because he was drawn to others who promoted the point that physiology should be based on the principles of chemistry and physics, not the “vital forces” that had been popularly emphasized previously.

After earning his medical degree, Helmholtz served as an army surgeon before becoming professor of physiology at the University of Königsberg. During that time, he composed a groundbreaking paper on the conservation of energy, which made him a good reputation (名声) in science community. His main argument is that all science can be reduced to mechanics. It is emphasized that Newtonian mechanics and Lagrangian mechanics are mathematically equivalent (相等的), so a force can be measured by the Laplace method in terms of the energy transferred by the force or the work done by the force. All of this energy is conserved. While at Königsberg, he studied the nervous system, optics (光学) and acoustics (声学), especially with regard to the physiology of the senses. Then he moved on to the University of Bonn as professor of anatomy (解剖学) and physiology.

After some time at the University of Heidelberg, where he became interested in philosophy, in 1871 he was awarded the physics chair at the University of Berlin. At last he could focus on physics, emphasizing the importance of the principle of least action for explaining physical phenomena. He also explored the branches of Maxwell’s new theory. By this time, he was recognized as one of Germany’s premier scientists, until his death in 1894.

With the world’s attention on vaccines (疫苗), now feels like a good moment to sing the raises of an often forgotten contribution to their development. Three hundred years ago this month, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu got her daughter inoculated (接种) against smallpox, making her child the first person in the West to be protected in this way. Without Montagu’s willingness to adopt a practice she had learned from other cultures, the introduction of vaccines around 80 years later would never have taken place.

Montagu first witnessed inoculation when she accompanied her husband to Turkey in 1717. Inoculation had started in Asia, probably in China, as early as the 10th century AD. Montagu observed how older women in Turkey took a tiny amount of pus (脓) from a person with smallpox. They then used needles to make cuts on people’s wrists and ankles and added the pus to their bloodstream. This helped people gain immunity from future infection.

Like other visitors to the country, Montagu took steps to ensure that her son was inoculated in Turkey. This worked well, but she knew that trying it in England would be far more challenging. Inoculation performed by unlicensed amateurs would threaten doctors’ professional standing and potentially rob them of valuable income. Churchmen also disagree with the practice, as they saw it as going against nature.

Back in England, Montagu observed the increased severity of smallpox infections. Eventually, in April 1721, she decided to use the Turkish practice to have her daughter inoculated, because she believed that the rewards would outweigh the risks. After a safe time had passed following the inoculation, Montagu allowed doctors to examine her daughter.

Doctors in Britain gradually accepted the practice. About so years later, a pioneering physician found smallpox vaccines to destroy smallpox completely. As early as last century, academics argued that Montagu was no more than an enthusiastic amateur. In truth, she made a vital scientific contribution towards finding the cure for smallpox.