You’ve finally stopped coughing and aching. Should you really go back to work?

Your body has been waging all-out war against the flu for days, but just because you feel better doesn't mean you've won. There are still risks — potentially big ones — to the people around you.

Jenn Liv for NPR He may be hacking your thermostat right now. It’s for your own good Internet-connected devices have added a lot of functionality to our homes, but they also present a risk: If a hacker takes over enough coffee makers, smart speakers and lightbulbs, they can take down Netflix and other sites. NPR's Laura Sydell, working on a series about innovation on the edges of the law and culture, met up with Samy Kamkar, a famed “gray hat” hacker, to learn how it works. For his first trick, he showed her how to “borrow” her colleague’s keyless-entry car. Aris Messinis /AFP/Getty Images As the Olympics end, recognizing some superlative performances Pettiest: In speedskating's pursuit event, teams place based on where their slowest member finishes. So South Koreans Kim Bo-reum and Park Ji Woo hurt their own results when they left their slower teammate in the dust — and they really did a number on their reputations at home. Most surprised: The Czech Republic’s Ester Ledecka is a champ on one board; on two, she was only ranked 43rd. Still, she took skiing gold in the women’s super-G, but had a lot of questions: “How did that happen? … I really don’t know what happened. … This must be some mistake.” Blandest: American Elizabeth Swaney took the path of least resistance to the Olympics, making the Hungarian team by finishing just high enough at underattended events. Her half-pipe runs at the Olympics were just as minimal: zero tricks attempted. Skunk Bear/NPR If you’re one of the thousands of Americans with the flu, do your colleagues a favor and take an extra sick day Even if most of your symptoms have passed, you're still hauling around viruses — and a cough, sneeze or even breath can scatter them across your office as far as 20 feet away. Sometimes they can stay suspended in the air for hours. The CDC says you are contagious one day before you start feeling sick and up to seven days after. Courtesy of Ben Dickmann If you think average people shouldn’t have assault weapons, his friend asked, why don’t you get rid of yours? So he had it destroyed. Ben Dickmann lives less than an hour from the Florida high school where 17 people were killed earlier this month. He is a conservative and a longtime hunter and, until recently, was the proud owner of an AR-57 rifle, a higher-caliber variant of the AR-15s used in several mass shootings. After the most recent one, he wrote on Facebook that such guns needed to go away. He decided to set an example and gave his AR-57 to the Broward Sheriff's office for destruction. Yuhan Xu/NPR 'A Sputnik moment' in cancer treatment: As China races ahead with gene editing, U.S. researchers worry about ethics, getting left behind By knocking out genes in patients’ immune cells, Chinese doctors are chasing advances — and are claiming some success — in battling several kinds of cancer, even in advanced cases. The country has been investing in biomedicine for decades and has a quicker approval process. But outsiders worry weak oversight — “like the wild West” — could mean the studies are putting patients at risk. Others worry the U.S. is falling behind in a critical area of science. You received this message because you're subscribed to our Best of NPR emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002