Katalin Karikó: Breaking Through: My Life in Science

A story of perseverance and the power of convictions from the groundbreaking immigrant scientist whose decades-long research led to the COVID-19 vaccines, hailed as “an inspiration” by Bill Gates

Karikó’s three-decades-long investigation into mRNA would lead to a staggering vaccine that protected millions of people from the direst consequences of COVID-19. These vaccines are just the beginning of mRNA’s potential. Today, the medical community eagerly awaits more mRNA vaccines—for the flu, HIV, and other emerging infectious diseases.

Breaking Through isn’t just the story of an extraordinary woman—it’s an indictment of closed-minded thinking and a testament to one woman’s commitment to laboring intensely in obscurity—knowing she might never be recognized in a culture that is more driven by prestige, power, and privilege—because she believed her work would save lives.

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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123025953-breaking-through

Kádár Annamária: Valódi példaképek - Inspiráló történetek küzdelemről és kitartásról

A good example gives strength, conveys a positive outlook on life, takes us forward and helps us recognize what we can be really good at. Role models should not be copied, but inspiration should be drawn from them. They provide us with a model and support for walking the chosen path and overcoming obstacles. They let us into the secrets of life, with their authentic stories they help us navigate what is right and what is wrong, what leads to success and what leads to failure. If we receive the necessary inspiration as a child, adolescent, and then as an adult, we can succeed and grow independently in life.

I find that both children and adults today hunger for authentic contemporary role models. They want to see people around them who they can appreciate both for their achievements and their inner attitude. Ordinary fairy-tale heroes who show how it is worth living by the example of their own lives. This gave me the idea for this book, in which I elaborated the stories of 13 contemporary Hungarian role models in the form of fairy tales. The book's characters provided material for these tales in interviews, from which we learn how they got to where they are today, what battles they had to fight with external and internal dragons, where they draw strength from to overcome difficulties, and what values ​​they live by. I recommend the stories to high school students, teenagers and adults alike. Because we all need role models!

Steigervald Krisztián: Generációk harca - Hogyan értsük meg egymást?

Krisztián Steigervald has been giving lectures for many years about the historical, technological and cultural events that have changed us in the last one hundred years: how each era affected our thinking and worldview, why different (veteran, baby boomer, X, Y, Z and alpha-) generations developed, what are their characteristics, how do they relate to each other, and how could their members understand each other for better cooperation - in the hope of a more successful and happier life.

The most important goal of his book is to remove untrue stereotypes from the generations and to reveal their values. This way everyone can recognize their own generational limitations, and instead of the battles raging between generations, we will be able to look at ourselves from the outside, understand others - or even laugh at those situations when it was only our generation speaking...

"During the past centuries, only minimal differences could be observed in the way of life of each generation. In the last fifty or sixty years, however, almost everything has changed at a rapid pace: life expectancy, the age composition of society, future prospects, the concept of communication - and thus, for example, respect, the meaning of expectation and so on. It is worth getting to know and mapping the nature of this transformation process more thoroughly and its impact on each age group, because without it we only see that it is not what it was before - and this leads to tension. Knowledge, on the other hand, leads to understanding and acceptance. This is the purpose of this book."

Krisztián Steigervald

Rudyard Kipling: A dzsungel első könyve - Helikon Zsebkönyvek 101.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) did not receive the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907 - as the first English-language writer - for The Jungle Book, but more than 150 years after the author's birth, it can be safely stated that - besides the poem If... - this collection of short stories is Kipling's best-known work. Children who read the stories about Mowgli, the Sioni wolf pack and other inhabitants of the Indian jungle for the first time are fascinated by the exciting, adventurous stories; then later, those who read The Jungle Book again as adults, realize what depths lie in these seemingly simple short stories. Kipling's work has been adapted in countless ways, several films and cartoons, and even a musical, have been made of it - this also shows that it is a timeless masterpiece. In this two-volume edition, the short stories can be read in their original order in a new, more accurate translation than before. (The paperback version was based on the Helikon volume published in 2016.)