Gino Bartali’s story is one of the most dramatic examples during World War II of an Italian willing to risk his own life to save the lives of strangers. During his lifetime, Bartali didn't talk about his wartime activities. It was only after his death in 2000 that details began to emerge.

Gino Bartali, a villager from a poor family, born in Florence in 1914, became a professional cyclist in 1935. He was reaching the peak of his career as the war approached. He won his first Giro d'Italia, one of the world’s biggest cycling races in 1936, retaining the title in 1937, and then in 1946. Much to Italy's delight, he won the Tour de France in1938 and 1948.

At this point Bartali was asked to join a secret network offering protection and safe passages to Jews and other endangered people. His role in the network was uniquely suited to his talents - he became a courier. On the face of it he was undertaking the long training rides, but in reality he was carrying photographs and counterfeit identity documents to and from a secret printing press.

All were hidden in the frame and handlebars of his bicycle. He travelled thousands of kilometres across Italy, travelling the roads between cities as far apart as Florence, Lucca, Genoa, Assisi, and the Vatican in Rome. By taking on this role, he put himself at huge risk. At one point he was arrested and questioned by the head of the secret police in Florence, where he lived. In spite of knowing that the Germans were killing everybody who was hiding Jews, he still hid his Jewish friend. He was risking not only his life but also his family.

"When people were telling him, 'Gino, you're a hero', he would reply, 'No, no —I want to be remembered for my sporting achievements. Real heroes are others, those who have suffered in their soul, in their heart, in their spirit, in their mind, for their loved ones. Those are the real heroes. I'm just a cyclist.'"

Emily Bonfim Camargo, a 10-yeiir-old girl, has cerebral palsy （大脑性瘫痪）. Because of her condition, her involuntary movements prevent her from freely holding objects with her hands or standing up. She's never been able to walk, but that doesn't mean she doesn’t have the same dreams and hopes as other children. In particular, she's always wanted to ride a bicycle.

“That was her dream, and I had 10 do something to help,” her grandfather. Clovis Urias dos Santos, a 69-year-old former construction worker? said. First he tried to make his granddaughter^ dream come true by buying her a tricycle （三轮车）. Unfortunately, she was unable to hold the handlebars to guide the vehicle, and she couldn't keep her balance on the seat. Her grandfather, however, isn't a man who is easily discouraged.

In his home workshop, he started to think of how he could make a more stable tricycle for her. He started to take things apart and put the useful pieces back together. “ I fixed the pedals （踏板）with brakes, and I didn't put on handlebars,” he told Sempre Familia a local news medium.

This vehicle isn't just fun； it's also practical. Clovis added a basket behind the seat, so that Emily can carry her backpack for school, or some groceries, because she likes to go to the supermarket and bakery with him. Emily's special tricycle is also stylish. "After the tricycle was ready, I painted it pink and purple because Emily chose those colors. She was very happy, and I was even happier," Clovis said.

There's no cure for cerebral palsy, although there is medicine to decrease involuntary muscle movements. So what does the future hold for Emily? Only time will tell, but the support of her family will fill her future with hope.

Many people say they wouldn't cheat on a test, lie on a job application or refuse to help a person in need. But what if you have to face the test answers and cheating didn't require any work on your part? If you didn't have to face the person who needed your help and refuse them? Would that change your behavior?

New research shows it might. In two studies that tested participants' willingness to behave immorally, the research team discovered people will behave badly —if it doesn't involve too much work on their part.

In one study, participants took a math test on a computer after being warned there were problems in the system. One group was told if they pressed the space bar, the answer to the question would appear on the screen. The second group was told if they didn't press the enter key within five seconds, the answer would appear. "People in the second group — those who didn't have to physically press a button to get the answers—were much more likely to cheat," says Associate Psychology Professor Michael Inzlicht, second author on the study.

In another study, the team asked participants whether they would volunteer to help a student with a learning disability complete a component of the test. One group of participants had only the freedom to check a 'yes' or 'no' box on the computer. The second group of people could follow a link at the bottom of the page to volunteer their help or simply press 'continue' to move on to the next page of their test. Participants were five times more likely to volunteer when they had to pick either 'yes' or 'no.'

"When people are faced with actively doing the right thing or the wrong thing, there are a lot of emotions involved—such as guilt and shame—that guide them to make the moral choice. When the transgression is more passive, however, we saw more people doing the wrong thing, and we believe this is because the moral emotions in such situations are probably less serious." Teper says.

"Forcing people to make an active, moral decision is going to be much more effective than allowing them to passively skip over a request," he says.

Most of the wind available on land is too gentle to push commercial wind turbine（涡轮机），but now researchers in China have designed a kind of "tiny wind turbine^,, that can use wind energy from breezes as little as those created by a quick walk. The new device is not technically a turbine. It is a nanogenerator made of two plastic strips in a tube that clap together when there is airflow. Like rubbing a balloon to your hair, the two plastics become electrically charged after being separated from contact, a phenomenon called the triboelectric effect. But instead of making your hair stand up like Einstein's, the electricity generated by the two plastic strips is captured and stored.

"Our intention isn't to replace existing wind power generation technology. "Our goal is to solve the issues that the traditional wind turbines can't solve?" says Ya Yang, a researcher from Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems. "Unlike wind turbines that use coils and magnets （磁石） where the costs are fixed, we can pick and choose low-cost materials for our device. Our device can also be safely applied to nature reserves or cities because it doesn't have the rotating （旋转）structures.

Yang says he has a small vision and a big vision for the project's next steps. In the past, Yang and his colleagues have designed a nanogenerator as small as a coin, but he wants to make it even tinier and more compact with higher efficiency. Yang is also looking to make the device bigger and more powerful. "I'm hoping to scale up the device to produce 1,000 watts. We can place these devices where traditional wind turbines can't reach. We can put it in the mountains or on the top of buildings for sustainable energy.