Frank Woolworth was born in Rodman, New York, in 1852. His family were very poor farmers, and there was never enough to eat. Frank decided he did not want to be a farmer. He took a short business course, and went to work as a salesman（销售员）in a large city.

Woolworth realized he had a natural skill for showing goods to attract（吸引）people’s interest, but he soon learned something more important. One day his boss told him to sell some odds and ends（小商品）for as much as he could get. Frank put all these things on one table with a sign which said “FIVE CENTS EACH”. People fought and pushed to buy the things and the table was soon cleared. Soon afterwards, Woolworth opened his own store, selling goods at five and ten cents. But he had another lesson to learn before he became successful. That is, if you want to make money by selling low-price goods, you have to buy them in large numbers directly from the factories. Once, for example, Woolworth went to Germany and placed an order for knives. The order was so large that the factory had to keep running 24 hours a day for a whole year. In this way, the price of the knives was cut down by half.

By 1919, Woolworth had had over 1,000 stores in the USA and Canada, and opened his first store in London. He made many millions and his name became famous around the world. He always ran his business according to strict rules, of which the most important was “THE CUSTOMER（顾客）IS ALWAYS RIGHT”.

Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford, England in 1942. He went to school in St Albans. After leaving school, Hawking first went to Oxford University where he studied physics, then he went on studying in Cambridge University. As he himself admits（承认）, he didn’t work hard. He was a lazy student, and did very little work. However, he still got good marks.

At the age of 20, he first noticed something was wrong with him. His mother was very worried and took him to see a doctor. He was sent to hospital for tests. He had an incurable（不可治愈的）illness. And the doctor said he would die before he was 23.

At first, he became very sad and disappointed. After coming out of the hospital, he suddenly realized that life was beautiful. Later, he married, found a job and had three children. He also went on with some of the most scientific research.

Today, he had left us forever, but he strongly believed that his story showed that nobody, however bad their situation is, should lose hope. “Life is not fair,” he once said, “You just have to do the best you can in your own situation.”

Men have won most of the Nobel Prizes in science in the past. But this year, we saw more female winners.

Jennifer Doudna from the US and Emmanuelle Charpentier from France shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, it’s the first time in history for two women to win the prize without having to share it with a man. At the same time, US scientist Andrea Ghez became the fourth woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics. Its first female winner was Marie Curie in 1903.

Doudna and Charpentier won the prize for developing CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors（基因剪刀），a technology that can rewrite DNA in cells（细胞）. It has had a great impact（影响） on the life sciences. For example, it can help us develop crops that can withstand droughts（抗旱）. It could also help treat inherited diseases（遗传病） in the future.

On hearing that they were the sixth and seventh women in history to win the Chemistry Prize, Charpentier said that she hopes girls and young female scientists will “understand that nothing is impossible”. They can “find great discoveries（发现）”，no matter what their gender（性别）is.

Ghez, who was awarded for her research on black holes, had the same feeling—I hope more young women come into the field,” Ghez said. She is also one of the writers of the 2006 children’s book You Can Be a Woman Astronomer.