This Animal Shelter Closes, Emptied from Day After Day of Instant Adoptions: ‘It’s Been Nonstop’
It’s always a bit of a struggle to walk through an animal shelter, past all those pairs of eyes watching you from behind bars, knowing you can’t take more than a couple home with you. At Bide Awhile Animal Shelter in Nova Scotia, there’s no such struggle—the cages are all empty. “It’s crazy to say […]
Star’s Final Breath Appears Like Columns of Smoke in Breathtaking New James Webb Image
In a new image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, the dying breaths of the star at the heart of the famous Helix Nebula are exposed in wonder and radiance. Imaged many times by previous space telescopes, including Hubble and Spitzer, the Helix Nebula is loved for its similarity to the Eye of Sauron […]
Man Donates Empty Field to His Town So it Can Be Made Community Orchard
When Mr. Michel Éprinchard inherited a large empty field in Western France, he didn’t think much of it. Overgrown with weeds and childhood memories of walks along the tree line, for a long time neither he nor anyone else in his family had any interest in developing it. That all changed with a change of […]
Cherry Crops Kept Safe from Diseases Thanks to Tiny Kestrel Falcons in Michigan
This is the American kestrel; a sight to behold. Sporting a back that’s emblazoned with pheasant rust and bars of black, supporting wings of battleship grey tipped with white dots like a moth’s, and streaks of menacing black down its eyes, the smallest of the New World falcons is a treat for any birdwatcher. That’s […]
Good News in History, January 27
100 years ago, Erwin Schrödinger published his theory of wave mechanics, a significant landmark in the development of quantum theory that won him the Nobel Prize. Raised in Austria, but Irish after emigration, the physicist’s theory is known as the Schrödinger equation, and provided a way to calculate the wave function of a system and […]
Swedish Company Pays Employees to Form Bonds in ‘Friend Care’ Trial
A pharmacy chain in Sweden has started running a trial across its locations with a simple aim: can a few minutes a day of free time help reduce loneliness? Sweden’s government recently commissioned a large social study about loneliness across its citizenry, and what it found made for heavy reading. 8% of adults don’t have […]
Exquisite Underground Roman Villa Open to the Public for the First Time Via Livestream Tour
In a bid to combat overtourism in the Eternal City, the Colosseum Archaeological Park is allowing visitors to virtually access the House of Griffins, the remains of an elite mansion which though well-documented has always been closed to visitors. The House of Griffins, thusly named for a pair of white stucco griffins decorating an internal […]
Bison Return to Illinois Prairie to the Sounds of Drumming After 200 Years of Absence
A herd of 6 American bison—3 males and 3 females—have been released onto native Illinois prairie. There, to the sound of drumming, songs, and cheers, they began to acclimate to their new surroundings—surroundings that had missed them for 200 years. A large crowd of Santee Sioux, herded together in their woven blankets and synthetic down […]
4 Sisters Invent Electric Tractor with Mom and Dad and it’s Selling in 5 Countries
A big Swiss family has invented Europe’s first all-electric, solar-assisted tractor, and is now selling the vehicle in 5 countries. The Knüsel Family lives in the canton of Schwyz, where patriarch and father of 4, Sepp Knüsel, has been building tractors for over 20 years under the brand name Rigitrac AG. In 2019, with the […]
Good News in History, January 26
111 years ago today, Congress signed into law a bill creating Rocky Mountain National Park. Protecting over a thousand square kilometers of the Front Range of the mountains, the park was designated among the first UNESCO Biosphere Reserves due to the amount of undisturbed and unspoiled land. Indeed the park bridges a space of two […]