Woman Discovers Childhood Pen Pal Became Doctor Who Delivered Her 2 Kids: ‘My Mouth Dropped’
It wasn’t quite a reunion; since the women knew each other well. Their relationship, so far as they understood it, was that important one between an OB/GYN and their patient carrying a child. Little did Megan Lewis and Suzanne Koziol know it at the time, but their relationship was actually a little bit deeper than […]
Billionaire Tom Kaplan Auctions Rare Rembrandt Lion Drawing for $18M to Help Save the Animal it Depicts
Yesterday, Sotheby’s oversaw the record $18 million sale of a drawing by Rembrandt: one of 6 drafts he made of lions, and the only one to have resided in private hands. Those hands belong to Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan and his wife, who along with standing foremost among the world’s private Rembrandt collectors, ride in […]
Moss Spores Riding on the Outside of the Space Station Survive For 9 Months
The reproductive spores of a moss species were able to somehow survive the vacuum of space during a 9-month stint outside the International Space Station. In the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum, life, uh, finds a way. Physcomitrella patens is known as a hardy pioneer species of spreading moss that readily cultivates on muddy ground. Scientists […]
Good News in History, February 5
On this day 41 years ago, and in a charming little stint of political theater, the mayor of Rome, Ugo Vettere, and his counterpart Mr. Chedli Klibi in Carthage, Tunisia, met on a mission of goodwill to officially end the Third Punic War, which concluded with the destruction of Carthage 2,132 years ago. The agreement […]
NASA Webb Pushes Boundaries of Observable Universe Closer to Big Bang
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has topped itself once again, delivering the confirmation of a bright galaxy that existed a mere 280 million years after the Big Bang; so close to the beginning of the universe as we understand. GNN reported on the last such discovery, a galaxy 300 million years after, and scientists are […]
Jaguars Recorded Meowing for the First Time Ever (LISTEN)
While searching for their cubs, the females of the world’s third-largest feline will make a sound that’s strikingly similar to what you’ve heard your own cat make. Weighing in excess of 300 lbs., the jaguar is a ferocious predator that can take large caiman and even cattle, but recent video camera trap footage has revealed […]
Record Harvest Dubbed the ‘Potato Flood’ and Prompts Mass Spud Giveaways Across Berlin
From Germany comes the story of mountains of potatoes as far as the eye can see going to feed anyone and everyone in Berlin and nearby towns. For German potato farmers, the early winter potato harvest has been a bumper crop—no, a banner crop—nay, it’s a full-on food-bank-buster crop. The “potato flood” as it’s being […]
Police Officers Use Google Translate to Help Woman Deliver Baby in Backseat of a Car
When an adult male civilian rushed into a New Jersey police station, it’s anyone’s guess what the two officers inside imagined was the matter—a shooting, a fire, a bad car accident. What they almost certainly would not have guessed—and wouldn’t have known because the man didn’t speak English, was that they would spend a brief […]
Good News in History, February 4
Happy 53rd Birthday to Oscar De La Hoya, nicknamed the “Golden Boy of Boxing,” and winner of many world titles at lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight, and middleweight. De La Hoya had won 17 title bouts, either for claiming belts or retaining them, before he tasted the first defeat of his career, a reign of dominance […]
Successful World First: Baby Treated with Personalized CRISPR Gene Therapy for Rare Disease is Now ‘Thriving’
CRISPR has been used to create a genetic therapy option for a child born in Pennsylvania with a rare metabolic disorder. Unable to convert ammonia to urea, newborn KJ was in serious risk of brain or liver damage, and had to be kept on medications and an extremely restrictive diet to avoid protein metabolism. Children’s […]