Vice-director in Europe/Director UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security

Duty Station: Bonn, Germany

The United Nations University (UNU) has been a think tank for fair research on the pressing global problems of human survival, conflict prevention, development and welfare, for the past four decades. UNU is re-cruiting a Director for the UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) who will meanwhile serve as UNU’s Vice-director in Europe, dividing his/her time equally between both positions.

The Institution: UNU-EHS aims to carry out research on risks and adaptation related to global change. The Institute’s research promotes policies and programmes to reduce these risks, while taking into account the con-nection between environmental and societal factors.

Qualifications: The Director should have academic qualifications that lend to UNU-EHS fame in the inter-national scholarly community; guarantee scientific excellence; and provide leadership and guidance for activities at UNU-EHS and UNU-ViE.

Experience: Strong research background and publications in areas related to addressing risks and societal change. Demonstrated administration experience. Successful influencing of policymakers. Strong contributions to knowledge sharing communities. Strong international fundraising skills and past success in securing support from multiple funders.

Fluency in English is required. Fluency in German and official languages of the United Nations is desira-ble.

Application deadline: 12 January 2020

Full details of the position and how to apply: https :// unu. edu/ about/hr

A Pakistani man who was born without arms has developed into a highly skilled snooker player. In the game of snooker, players traditionally use long sticks to hit colored balls into holes at the end of a table. But Muham-mad Ikram has learned a different method. He uses his chin (下巴) to hit the balls into the holes.

Muhammad Ikram is one of nine children. He did not receive an education and his family faced struggles meeting basic needs. Growing up, Ikram spent much of his time watching people play snooker, a game no one dreamed he could ever play. He says he does not remember exactly how the idea of playing struck him. But at some point, he started practicing the game in secret. “He would eagerly watch other boys play. He would keep wishing he also had arms so he could play like them,” said his mother, Razia Bibi. “Then he started using his chin.”

The 32-year-old lives in Samundri, a rural town in Pakistan’s Punjab province. He has spent eight years perfecting his game and says he is not afraid to take on any players. “I have met very good snooker players who tell me I am a real genius and I can bring great fame to Pakistan,” he told Reuters Television. Mian Usman Ahmed is co-owner of the Cuemaster Snooker Club. He says Ikram won several prizes in local competitions over the past two years. “He would come to the club and ask if he could be allowed to play. We would look at his arms and feel he was unable to,” Ahmed said. “He insisted we allow him to prove himself. When he did that, we saw he was actually very good.”

When asked what he would say to others with physical disabilities, Ikram said, “No one should lose hope.” He added that he would one day like to compete at the international level, hopefully with government support.

Smart phones, tablets, fitness trackers, headphones and most of the electronic devices we use today are made of metal, plastic and glass. But electronics don’t have to be. Sala de Medeiros and her colleagues found a way to turn an ordinary piece of paper into a simple electronic keypad. Many teams around the world are working on paper-based electronics. But this new device is different from any other device. It’s the first to power itself and also resist water and dust. The user’s touch gives it all the power it needs to run.

No single moment inspired her paper keypad. Instead, she focused on devices other engineers have been working on. Then she discovered that high cost was a problem with some flexible electronics. So she decided to work with low-cost materials.

Teflon(聚四氟乙烯) is a chemical coating that keeps food from sticking to pots and pans. Similar com-pounds(复合物) can also make paper waterproof. So she started testing the chemical but the one that was sup-posed to do the best job didn’t work at all. After some research, Sala de Medeiros found out that this chemical reacts with air. She had to buy special equipment that forbade any air getting in the way. Now, the chemical works as planned. Then the team placed a stencil(钢板) with the shape of a circuit(电路) onto the back of the paper and sprayed on several layers of materials. Finally, the team flipped over the paper and printed a keypad of numbers on the other side. They also added a tiny Bluetooth chip, which let their paper device talk to a computer. The source of electricity comes from the tap of a finger. When you’re typing we can create the energy by touching or rubbing.

The electronic keypad is regular paper most people could afford but wouldn’t easily get wet or dirty. It also should fit in your pocket.

Two American astronauts were greeted by more than a dozen private boats on Sunday as their SpaceX capsule landed safely in the Gulf of Mexico. A few boats went for a closer look at the capsule, which, aided by parachutes, gently hit the water off the coast of Florida. As the capsule bounced in the water, a recovery team instructed the boaters to stay away.

This raised concerns among NASA and SpaceX officials about security and safety procedures. The NASA administrator, Jim, acknowledged that the unprotected reception should not have happened. "If there is an emergency, the boats might have made recovery efforts, but there were poisonous smokes from the capsule. We need to do better next time," he said.

The Coast Guard waned boaters to stay clear of the area in a radio broadcast two hours before the splashdown, but many boaters ignored the requests and decided to enter the area, putting themselves in potential danger.

Robert L. Behnken and Douglas G. Hurley, the NASA astronauts, returned to Earth after nearly 64 days in orbit, most of them spent aboard the International Space Station. Their trip home was aboard the Crew Dragon, built by the private company SpaceX to transport NASA astronauts. The agency has relied on Russia for trips to space since the space shuttles were retired in 2011.

While the shuttles, like airplanes, landed on runways, SpaceX chose water landings, which NASA has not done since 1975, when the last of the Apollo modules went to space.