Until April 13, a phenomenon that can only be sighted twice a year is occurring above our heads.
Look towards the western horizon around an hour after sunset, and if the air is clear you could see ‘zodiacal light’.
ESOY. Beletsky, CC license
Seen in the Northern Hemisphere just after twilight, according to NASA, what we’re seeing in that faint glow is “sunlight reflected toward Earth by a cloud of tiny dust particles orbiting the Sun.”
According to the U.S. space agency, while there’s now solid evidence that Mars—the dustiest planet scientists know of—is the source of zodiacal light, it cannot yet be explained exactly how this dust “could have escaped the grip of Martian gravity.”
For the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Dr. Roy Bishop, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Acadia University, describes the celestial sight beautifully: “The zodiacal light appears as a huge, softly radiant pyramid of white light with its base near the horizon and its axis centred on the zodiac (or better, the ecliptic). In its brightest parts, it exceeds the luminance of the central Milky Way.”
Who wouldn’t want to see that? With the weather getting milder, it’s a very good time to gaze up at the night sky. Let us know if you see this particular light pillar shooting up, and good luck with your zodiacal hunt.
Global companies have put on a lot of fun jokes this April Fools’ Day, but instead of joining in with the high jinks this year, T-Mobile is instead partaking in high fives—by launching the hashtag movement #GiveThanksNotPranks.
Inspired by a study finding that those who witness even a single act of gratitude are more inspired to join in and express gratitude themselves—T-Mobile is donating $5 to classrooms every time their new hashtag is shared.
Through the nonprofit education crowdfunding site DonorsChoose, the company is helping the USA’s hardworking and often under-resourced teachers purchase critical classroom supplies to support students—to help educators and teachers adapting to all the changes in learning during the pandemic.
Motorola, OnePlus, SanMar, Wattpad, Mattress Firm, Sleep.com, and Drone Racing League have already pledged their support to join the movement with T-Mobile.
They’ll pause the pranks today and instead give donations to non-profit organizations and drive a wave of shout-outs through their social media channels with the #GiveThanksNotPranks hashtag.
TikTok is participating too, bringing their community in with a hashtag challenge.
So who’s in? You can join the movement by doing any of the following:
Share: Customers and fans can thank any person who has gone the extra mile by sharing stories on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram with #GiveThanksNotPranks. T-Mobile will donate $5 to DonorsChoose for each post up to the $500,000 campaign total.
Donate: T-Mobile will match individual donations made directly to its DonorsChoose campaign up to the $500,000 campaign total.
Text: Customers and fans can donate $5 of their own to DonorsChoose by texting THANKS to 50555.
We’ve scoured the web to bring you the best April Fools’ jokes from brands around the world.
From cauliflower-flavored Peeps to an anti-gravity trampoline that we really wish existed, check them out—and share your own favorites.
The Canadian Space Agency figures out an enduring mystery…
Wow! While travelling on the surface of Mars, the Perseverance rover found the place where all the missing socks from the dryer end up! 🙃#AprilFoolspic.twitter.com/rB1A21rTfF
And, we thought they went out the hold in the Hozone.
New tea bags are ‘self-jiggling’…
To be honest, we’re kind of hoping that Lipton does put some of their innovators onto a bag-jiggle technology that “guarantees even infusion, and aids milk dispersement.”
The language-learning app Duolingo knows that some of us spend at least a little toilet time playing on apps. So they created the Duolingo Roll that “turns your bathroom into a classroom.”
These joke-rolls have actually been made. Head over to their social media channels today for a giveaway of loo rolls in Japanese, Portuguese, English, Chinese, and Spanish. ¡Olé!
The ultimate perfume for book lovers…
Kobo Rakuten
eBooks company Rakuten Kobo has described its new perfume as having “just a hint of the musty smell of aged paper.”
“Our new signature fragrance conjures memories of old-school reading with a sprinkling of violets and a dash of tasteful potpourri. For those who just *need* the scent of paper to dive into a good story, we’re here for you too.” Sounds good to us.
Cauliflower-flavored Easter Peeps!
Green Giant/Peeps
Regular Peeps are pretty much straight injections of sugar. But Green Giant’s April Fools peeps? They taste of sugar… and boiled vegetables. Sound good to you?
The jigsaw puzzle to end all jigsaw puzzles…
Blue Kazoo
It’s been a good year for jigsaw puzzle manufacturers, but we’re not sure this $100,000 one, made up of 100,000 brilliantly blue pieces—of “unadulterated azure agony”—would actually do well if it went on the market. But it’s a great play for a company called Blue Kazoo.
Doesn’t this ‘hand-scooped’ GuacPaste toothpaste from Chosen Foods look mighty fine? Who wouldn’t want to freshen their breath with “aromatic savory flavors.”
Peanut butter is super popular. Beauty subscription services are super popular. Put the two together and what do you get? Ipsy plus Jif came up with creamy peanut butter sheet masks and more.
The world’s first anti-gravity trampoline is launched (sort of)…
Outdoor play company Vuly has gone more than a little sci-fi, with an anti-gravity trampoline that… turns out to be just a joke. Still, watch the video and imagine something this fun was real!
So the fire pits are all sold at the local hardware store—but that shouldn’t mean you can’t get your fix of perfectly toasty mallows. Jet-Puffed, for one day only, is giving a glimpse of something people might actually pay good money for: marshmallows flavored so they’re already “burnt to that perfect level of crisp.”
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What can generate clean energy, biomass for fertilizers, convert CO2 into oxygen, and be used in space? Algae.
Pursuing this incredible organism’s potential is young Adán Ramirez Sánchez—23-year-old Mexican biotechnician and winner of MIT’s 2019 Latin American Innovators Under 35—who has made solar panels powered by algae instead of minerals mined from the earth.
His Intelligent Solar Biopanels, made at his firm GreenFluidics, are one part microalgae, one part nanotechnology, and they absorb CO2 before converting it into electricity and oxygen, potentially solving two of the largest problems of our time.
If you paid attention in biology class, you may notice a similarity between this and the evolutionary strategy of photosynthesis, the method by which plants generate energy from CO2 and sunlight.
The invention just gets better and better however, as the panels are totally biodegradable—since they are made from algae and abundant marine material—and they produce biomass while running, which can be collected and used as fertilizer.
Measuring a meter across, the green triangular panels are quirky and avant-garde, and can lend an office a unique touch while purifying the air within.
Consumption of fuel to generate electricity or thrust is the largest source of emissions by an enormous margin. For comparison’s sake, the U.S. would have to multiply the number of horses, sheep, goats, and cows in the country by roughly 50 to come close to matching it through the animals’ enteric fermentation.
Ramirez defines GreenFluidics as Mexico’s first technology firm to produce biotech for outer space exploration, saying upon receiving his award from MIT that “we are looking to connect outer space with planet Earth through the technology we have developed.”
He hopes they can be taken onboard spaceships or within colonies, as they can simply be set on a window and generate electricity and oxygen for the astronauts inside using the sun. The biomass produced can be used to fertilize space crops—another biotech that’s being developed by NASA and ESA.
Quote of the Day: “Over the winter glaciers, I see the summer glow. And through the wind-piled snowdrift, the warm rosebuds below.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Photo by: Bernd Dittrich
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Reprinted with permission from World At Large, a news website of nature, politics, science, health, and travel.
Richard Brown and Giselle Eagle, WTSWW
Alone on the windswept island Skokholm, wardens have found Stone Age tools and a pottery shard from an unlikely survey plot—down a rabbit burrow.
The finds date to 3,750—9,000 years ago, and include tools for making seal hide clothes and boats and the shard of a funerary urn, suggesting the small island could have been used for ritual burial.
Richard Brown and Giselle Eagle, the only humans on the island since COVID-19 arrived, discovered the first of two “bevelled pebbles” outside of a burrow where, rather than tomb-robbers or artifact hunters, it had been dug up from the ground by the island’s rabbits as they strove to make their underground home.
“These are common and distinctive finds amongst flint scatters of this age found on coastal sites all the way from [northern] France up to western Scotland, and also on some northern English coasts,” he added, according to the Skokholm Blog, managed by Brown and Eagle.
“We had our eye in, and it wasn’t long before we found another very likely candidate for a bevelled pebble along Little Bay Wall (again exposed by the digging of Rabbits),” wrote the pair two days later when they happened upon another find.
“Although we couldn’t find any more stones at the original site in the lee of the knoll, we did find a piece of pottery which to our (very) untrained eyes looked old.”
Richard Brown and Giselle Eagle, WTSWW
Once again they alerted an expert and received an analysis that the thick-walled pottery shard was part, not of ancient food storage, but rather of a funerary urn. Jody Deacon at the National Museum of Wales told them that they are “common in Ireland and seem to turn up more frequently in the western areas of Wales”.
“[This is the] First Bronze Age burial urn fragment from the west Pembrokeshire islands,” remarked Dr. Driver upon hearing the news. “The prehistory of Skokholm has changed completely in only a few days.”
Similar examples from west Wales dated to about 2,100 and 1,750 BCE, or around 3,750 years ago.
From nature reserve to national reserve
Skokholm Island/Bob Embleton, CC license
Situated two miles off the coast of Pembrokeshire, in Wales, the island of Skokholm, meaning “wooded island” in the language of the Norse peoples who settled it in the Viking Age, is just one-mile long and a half mile across at the widest point.
Nicknamed, “Dream Island,” rabbits and seabirds, along with other sea life are the only inhabitants outside of primitive campers seeking an overnight experience in nature. The island was bought and turned into a nature reserve by the The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales.
Colonized every summer by tens of thousands of shearwaters, petrels, gulls, guillemots, puffins, and razorbills, there is also a plentiful population of rabbits. Rabbits, according to Danièle Cybulskie writing at Medievalists, were brought over to Britain by the Normans, and warrens were created for them on islands like Bannow, and probably Skokholm, to protect them from predators so as to supply a stable food and fur resource.
Nearby Skomer Island is better known for its well-preserved prehistoric archaeology, and archaeologists Driver and Louise Barker from the Royal Commission, who have carried out archaeological surveys there, intend to pay a little visit to Skokholm after quarantine restrictions ease to investigate the site further.
“Now Skokholm is producing some amazing prehistoric finds,” write the Commission in a release. “It seems we may have an Early Bronze burial mound built over a Middle Stone Age hunter gatherer site, disturbed by rabbits. It’s a sheltered spot, where the island’s cottage now stands, and has clearly been settled for millennia.”
Mary Shannon Johnstone, Duplin County Animal Services/Facebook
Mary Shannon Johnstone, Duplin County Animal Services/Facebook
Shoplifting and petty theft are no laughing matter—except when the culprit is a cute canine kleptomaniac determined to liberate a certain stuffed purple unicorn from the confines of a North Carolina Dollar General store.
Mary Shannon Johnstone, Duplin County Animal Services/Facebook
According to the store staff, the dogged doggo was a repeat offender—making five separate attempts to be reunited with his favorite cuddle-buddy.
“The store called and said they had a stray dog in the parking lot that kept coming into the store,” Joe Newburn, head of the County Animal Services Department, told McClatchy News. “He’d walk in, go to that unicorn and try to get it. He did it four or five times before they locked the door and called us to come get him. Maybe he had a stuffed animal like that in his original home. I don’t know, but he wanted that purple unicorn bad.”
The persistent “pup-a-traitor” was eventually collared but rather than the hoosegow, he found himself at the local animal shelter, where he was booked in as a stray and given the name Sisu (a nod to a character in Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon).
While Dollar General might have been hard-pressed to sell a plushie covered in doggie drool, Samantha Lane, the animal control officer tasked with escorting Sisu to the shelter decided it was in everyone’s best interest to keep the pair together, so she purchased the $10 toy and took it along.
“He kept going to that one particular unicorn,” Lane told Inside Edition. “He likes to sleep on it, lay on it… He just loves his unicorn.”
Mary Shannon Johnstone, Duplin County Animal Services/Facebook
Not long after his arrival, the shelter posted pictures of Sisu and a report of his exploits to their Facebook page, saying: “This is what happens when you break into the Dollar General consistently to steal the purple unicorn… but then get Animal Control called to lock you up for your B&E and larceny.”
Although he’ll have to wait out his stray hold, shelter updates indicate that Sisu has new pet parents waiting in the wings to bring him—and his BFF unicorn—home.
Along with a thank-you gift for Officer Lane and a pet food donation to Duplin County Animal Services, Dollar General plans to send a “few extra purple unicorns for the adoptive family,” company spokesperson Crystal Luce told People.
Mary Shannon Johnstone, Duplin County Animal Services/Facebook
Now, while we firmly believe in the adage “crime doesn’t pay,” for this heart-stealing hound with an unwavering devotion to stuffed his unicorn, we’re willing to make an exception.
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North Carolina-based writer Judy Cole has a new rom-com murder mystery debuting on Amazon: And Jilly Came Tumbling After (from Red Sky Presents).
Bottles of wines recently brought back from the International Space Station were finally opened and drank—several of them—for research purposes.
Having drifted 273 miles above the surface of the Earth for a year, a dozen bottles of Petrus Pomerol, as well as 320 snippets of grape vines, were brought back down as part of an experiment to study the changes in plants within environments of minimal gravity, light, and moisture.
Having the honor of uncorking and sharing a glass of wine at the Institute for Wine and Vine Research in Bordeaux is a lovely thing, but the special space wine tasting was something so unique as to invoke tears among the organizers and tasters.
The program is not just an exercise in excess, but an important scientific experiment to understand how plants react to stress.
Here on Earth, we’re familiar with many of the ways in which plants protect themselves from bugs, heat, water, and more. But things like zero gravity or radiation are not understood in most plants, but must be for several reasons.
If human beings cannot slow or reverse the warming of the planet, more radiation from the Sun will reach the surface of the Earth. If we expect to enjoy wine in space, or amid a changing climate, wine makers must be able to understand what is lethal stress to the plants and what is manageable stress.
The cosmic vintage
Announced on Wednesday, the experiment confirmed that the cold, weightless confines of the ISS do not ruin the wine, but they seem to make it age faster.
12 connoisseurs tasted the bottles blinded alongside an identically aged vintage from a normal cellar. Delightfully, no two tasters described the same experience, with some of the notes reporting the smell of campfires, cured leather, and burnt orange.
“The one that had remained on Earth, for me, was still a bit more closed, a bit more tannic, a bit younger. And the one that had been up into space, the tannins had softened, the side of more floral aromatics came out,” said Jane Anson, a wine expert and writer, according to AP.
“The wine of Bordeaux is a wine that gets its singularity from its history but also from its innovations,” Christophe Chateau of the Bordeaux Wine-Makers’ Council, who welcomed the research, told AP directly. “And we should never stop innovating.”
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, takeout food has come to feel like an essential rather than a luxury.
Of course, if your best-loved dining spot isn’t close to where you live, that generally puts the kibosh on a delivery… Unless there happens to be a generous chef who’s willing to go the extra miles—roughly 530 of them—to ensure a loyal customer gets to enjoy her favorite meal one more time.
When Baltimore restaurant owner Steve Chu learned one of his longtime patrons (whose name is being withheld for reasons of privacy) was losing her battle with cancer, rather than share the recipe for her go-to dish per son-in-law’s Brandon Jones’ request, the chef offered instead to make the six-hour drive to Vermont to cook it for her in person.
The woman’s daughter, Rina, knows just how much the tempura broccoli from Chu’s Asian-Fusion restaurant Ekiben means to her mom. Even though her mom was teasing, the 72-year-old made sure to put in her takeout order for Rina and Brandon’s upcoming visit.
“She always told us, ‘When I’m on my death bed, I want to have that broccoli,’” Rina said in an interview with The Washington Post. “In fact, when I was packing on Friday to drive up to Vermont, I called my mom to see if she wanted us to bring anything special and she jokingly said, ‘tempura broccoli!’”
After confirming his plans with Rina and Brandon, Chu provisioned his pickup truck, and with business partner Ephrem Abebe and restaurant worker Joe Anonuevo in tow, the three men made the trek to Vermont. The next morning, Chu and his crew bivouacked in the parking lot of his unsuspecting patron’s condo, where they proceeded to fire up the grill, and get cooking.
When the woman opened her door and saw Chu’s familiar figure standing there with a takeout order, she could hardly believe her eyes. It was almost impossible for her to fathom that he’d be willing to travel from Baltimore to Vermont just to cook her a meal.
Brandon Jones
But for Chu, the gesture didn’t seem far-fetched at all. Unlike many other restaurants, thanks to its devoted clientele, Ekiben was able to ride out the pandemic with relative ease. Knowing how lucky he was, Chu felt it was only right to pay back some of the kindness he’d been so fortunate to receive.
Chu recognized his longtime customer the minute he set eyes on her as well. While patrons come and go, he says she’d made a lasting impression, not only in the way she enjoyed his cooking but in always making a point of praising the cuisine to his restaurant staff.
Their mission accomplished, Chu and his crew turned down an offer to stay for dinner and headed back to Baltimore—also refusing to take any payment for their time and trouble. Rina Jones reported Chu’s generosity left her and her mom with tears of gratitude—and enough leftovers to stand them to lunch the following day.
After a thankful Brandon Jones reported the events to Facebook his post was deluged with thousands of likes, including one from Baltimore City Council member Zeke Cohen who said: “I always point to Ekiben as a business that always models respect for community and treats people with love. Plus their food is amazing! Read this, eat their tofu nuggets and try not to cry!”
While Chu says he’s enjoying an uptick in business since the details of the long-distance delivery became known, his reason for reaching out had nothing to do with grabbing glory.
“She’s a lovely lady, who has showered us with love at our restaurant for years,” he told The Washington Post, adding it was an honor to help fulfill the family’s wishes. “It was a powerful experience, and I’m happy that we could make it happen.”
And that’s the best takeaway we’ve had in ages.
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North Carolina-based writer Judy Cole has a new rom-com murder mystery debuting on Amazon: And Jilly Came Tumbling After (from Red Sky Presents).
Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland began its much-anticipated eruption a couple of weeks ago—marking the first eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula in over 800 years.
Luckily, drone videographer Vilius Petrikas was there to capture history in the making by flying his camera over the site.
The stunning footage shows the main volcanic cone and surrounding smaller cones erupting—while a valley surrounded by mountains slowly fills with lava.
30-year-old Vilius, who lives in Reykjavik, described first seeing the eruption site: “I was speechless… It’s very hard to describe how it looked and felt in person, the power was overwhelming.
“I’m still in disbelief to what I saw, and can’t wait to get back there to feel the energy of our powerful nature.”
Quote of the Day: “It takes two flints to make a fire.” – Louisa May Alcott
Photo by: Jonathan Forage, cropped
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
For the first time in 100 years, the endangered California condor will return to the Pacific Northwest.
Jon Myatt/USFWS
Once on the brink of extinction, this iconic species has made significant steps towards recovery.
This month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and the Yurok Tribe announced a final rule that will help facilitate the creation of a new California condor release facility for the reintroduction of condors to Yurok Ancestral Territory and Redwood National Park, which is in the northern portion of the species’ historic range.
The rule will designate the condors affiliated with this program as a nonessential, experimental population under the Endangered Species Act.
This status will provide needed flexibility in managing the reintroduced population, reduce the regulatory impact of reintroducing a federally listed species, and facilitate cooperative conservation.
“The California condor is a shining example of how a species can be brought back from the brink of extinction through the power of partnerships,” said Paul Souza, Regional Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s California-Great Basin Region. Together, we can help recover and conserve this magnificent species for future generations.”
Brian Sims, CC license
With a wingspan of almost 10 feet, the California condor is the largest soaring land bird in North America. These massive vultures are essential members of their ecosystems and play a significant role in the spiritual and cultural beliefs of the Yurok Tribe, as well as many other Tribes throughout northern California and the Pacific Northwest.
Over the past twelve years, the Yurok Tribe has led this reintroduction effort and completed a tremendous amount of legwork to prepare for the return of condors to the Pacific Northwest.
Extensive environmental assessments, contaminant analyses, and community outreach were just a few of the requisite tasks. The Tribe completed this endeavor because the condor is an irreplaceable part of a sacred cultural landscape. Pending completion of the condor release facility, the anticipated release of condors would be fall of 2021 or spring of 2022.
“We are extremely proud of the fact that our future generations will not know a world without prey-go-neesh,” said Joseph L. James, Chairman of the Yurok Tribe.
California condors prehistorically ranged from California to Florida and, in contemporary times, from Western Canada to Northern Mexico.
By the mid-20th century, condor populations drastically declined due to poaching and poisoning. In 1967, the California condor was listed as endangered. In 1982, only 23 condors survived worldwide. By 1987, all remaining wild condors were placed into a captive breeding program. Thus began an intensive recovery program to save the species from extinction.
As a result of exemplary conservation partnerships, and intensive captive breeding and reintroduction efforts, there are now over 300 California condors in the wild in California, Arizona, Utah, and Baja California.
“The return of condors to the skies above Redwood National and State Parks is a critical step toward recovery of this majestic landscape,” said Steve Mietz, superintendent of Redwood National and State Parks. “Working with our friends and partners… we will continue the unparalleled success story of condor recovery allowing all Americans to visit the tallest trees in the world while watching one of the largest birds in the world soar overhead.”
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For the second day in a row, on Monday the Navajo Nation reported no new COVID-19 cases or deaths.
Tribal health officials say over 191,000 vaccine doses have already been distributed among the community—with more than 87 percent of people already receiving their first-round dose.
Tribal President Jonathan Nez said in a statement, “Once again, the Navajo Nation is exemplifying what can be accomplished when we listen to the public health experts and work together.”
He continued, Our hard work is paying off and our prayers are being answered.”
Last week, the Navajo Nation—which covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah—had a soft re-opening, with some businesses opening their doors at 25% capacity.
(WATCH the KOB4 video about this story below.)
Featured image: Massimo Catarinella, CC license
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When a wildfire destroys the forest on your property, what are your options for restoring what has been lost?
DroneSeed will fly a squadron of seed-dispersing aerial robots to lay the foundations for a new forest atop ones that have been torched.
Carrying 57 pounds of tree seeds, the drones weigh over 100 pounds in total, and operate in teams of five using satellite-guided software to identify hundreds of “microsites”—areas where trees will be expected to grow the best.
Holders of the only Federal Aviation Administration license for operating “heavy lift drone swarms,” DroneSeed can seed the ground 6x faster than hand-planting seedlings can—covering around 40 acres per day at a cost of around $275 to $400 per acre.
This may seem like a lot, but as well as saving a huge amount of time—a lot of the cost can be offset with discounts offered by DroneSeed if they can successfully offer the land’s reforestation as carbon credits on the global carbon market. This can help make the cost of planting seedlings 60-70% less than traditional reforesting.
DroneSeed
“We are always looking for ways to innovate, especially when it can help us increase the pace and scale of habitat restoration to benefit both nature and people,” says Jay Kerby, Project Manager at The Nature Conservancy, which was able to contract DroneSeed for Oregon state reforestation after a recent fundraising event.
Right now the company is in beta-testing for their software, but the team feels it’s a game changer that can be used to totally update the playbook for how to combat global climate emissions.
“Across the world there’s been a lot of slash and burn agriculture, so how do you go out and replant those in a cost effective way? And that’s where our technology comes in,” says Grant Canary, CEO of DroneSeed.
An obvious implication is restoration after wildfires on public land, for which DroneSeed would save a lot of taxpayer dollars if contracted. But not all American forests are owned by the government, and for a private owner DroneSeed could be a real help.
For those to whom forests act as a livelihood as sources of lumber, honey, resin, mushrooms, or other agroforestry products, there’s every chance that their business is over if a wildfire moves across their land. But the sheer amount of labor, time, and costs saved by DroneSeed’s technology gives a chance for not only their forests to regrow, but their lives too.
(WATCH the Mashable video about DroneSeed below.)
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In the country’s oldest science fair, 17-year old high schooler Dasia Taylor submitted a surgical suture that changes colors to warn of possible infections.
Society for Science
This invention, aimed at helping surgery patients in Africa detect infections before they become serious, elevated Dasia into the 40 finalists of the national Regeneron Science Talent Search.
The sutures are the perfect solution to a problem which Smithsonian Magazine summarizes—where not only are post-surgical infection rates typically higher in Africa, but expensive, smartphone-based infection early warning systems aren’t practical in many African countries where basic cell phones are widely used, but not smartphones.
Beginning her project back in 2019 in her chemistry class at Iowa City West High School, the process from theory to practice ended up winning Dasia several regional science fair prizes.
Her method uses beetroot, famous as any cook knows for turning everything red and purple. The pH of our skin is acidic and averages at 5, while an infected wound raises that pH to a level of 9, and as it turns out beets change color from candy apple red to deep purple as the pH level of its environment grows.
“I found that beets changed color at the perfect pH point,” Taylor tells Smithsonian. “That’s perfect for an infected wound. And so, I was like, ‘Oh, okay. So beets is where it’s at.’”
After concluding beets were where it’s at, the next step was to find which material held the dye from the beet juice in while also fulfilling the natural requirements of suture thread. A cotton-polyester blend eventually proved to be the ticket.
Suture thread turning from red to purple after 5 minutes under an infection-like pH/Society for Science
After five minutes of infection, the red suture began to turn purple, suggesting patients would be aware of infection immediately, perhaps even before being discharged from a hospital.
While outside of the top ten, Dasia’s sutures won her $25,000, as well as the Seaborg Award, given by the 40 finalists to whichever student most embodies the spirit of their class. Taylor was also given the honor of speaking on behalf of the Regeneron Science Talent Search Class of 2021.
“I have so much school pride because when somebody in our school does something great, they’re celebrated to its fullest extent,” says Taylor. “And being able to be one of those kids has been so amazing.”
Curiously enough, Taylor sees her fortunes elsewhere, and wants to study political science at Howard University, before becoming a lawyer when her time at high school comes to an end.
(MEET Dasia and learn about her project in the video below.)
Editor’s Note: this story has been altered to better reflect the characteristics of pH.
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Epitomizing the old adage of “where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” a group of volunteers and scientists in Finland have set out to prove or disprove that the aurora borealis, or northern lights, make sounds.
For hundreds of years reports of sizzling, cracking, or whooshing sounds abound, especially from Indigenous people living in the Arctic, but also from non-Indigenous people living in Canada, Finland, and other northern countries.
A belief among some groups of Canadian First Nations is that the aurora consists of the spirits of their ancestors, and the noise is their singing.
However, very little science exists which would suggest that the solar radiation moving in the magnetosphere is capable of producing anything more than visuals of famous green, pink, and purple lights.
But just as there’s a line of reasoning among people who look for species presumed extinct that if so many people are reporting sightings, there must be something there, one scientist figures that for years people have described sounds coming from the aurora, so it’s at least worth exploring the possibility.
Auroral Acoustics
Robert Snache, CC license
A professor in acoustics at Finland’s Aalto University, Unto Laine, who himself heard slight sounds while watching the northern lights in remote Lapland, looked at the mountain of anecdotal reports and sought to construct a hypothesis that might explain them.
He came up with the idea in 2016 that the sounds were electrical discharges resulting from a “temperature inversion,” which happens when cool air, rather than floating above the earth, clings to the ground, and when warm air which normally radiates near the level of dirt, rises to cover the cold air at altitudes around 60-400 meters—a reversal of their normal positions.
When this warm air rises, it carries negatively charged electrons with it to the bottom of the inversion. The field of static electrical potential expands up towards the sky and down towards the earth, and as the northern lights bombard the magnetosphere with positively charged electrons, they coalesce at the top of the inversion.
“I tested it with two hours of material I recorded in Fiskars in 2013,” Laine wrote in his university press. “The model fitted the hypothesis beautifully and at the same time gave the height of the inversion layer more precisely at 78–80 meters.”
This would at least explain why the sounds are described as “sizzling” by one First Nations photographer, and of “bubbles popping” by Laine himself, as well as why plenty of people never hear anything when standing under the aurora—since if there were no temperature inversion the electrical conditions would be absent.
The data was gathered by Laine over nearly two decades with a setup of three microphones recorded over certain periods, but now his research has inspired a new citizen science project at the Hankasalmi Observatory in Jyväskylä, Finland that will record potential aurora sounds 24 hours a day with four microphones.
The project was funded by 200 separate donors, as well as a science grant from the EU.
“We are trying to hear the same sound with three or four microphones located a few meters apart,” said Arto Oksanen, the observatory’s president. “By measuring the time delay in each recording, it is possible to calculate the three-dimensional position of the sound source—or at least the direction to the sound source.”
This would allow researchers to place a distance on the genesis of the sound, and to a large part would help prove or disprove Laine’s theory. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the eventual findings of this intriguing project.
(LISTEN for claps in the northern lights video below.)
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Quote of the Day: “There is immense power when a group of people with similar interests gets together to work toward the same goals.” – Idowu Koyenikan
Photo by: Carl Jorgensen
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
An agriculture feed startup has received $9.4 million in initial funding for its technology that produces pure protein from CO2.
The protein would come from carbon dioxide generated by industrial exhaust, and would be combined with hydrogen to create scalable, cheap animal feed to replace soybeans—a major feed crop linked heavily with deforestation.
Deep Branch combines some of the most basic chemical building blocks, present in everything from stars to skyscrapers—like carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen—inside a fermentation chamber where it produces high-value protein called “Proton.”
This Proton is then dried, mixed with other nutrients, and turned into pellets at a 90% CO2 savings rate compared to other feed sources.
Attracting support from the biggest feed producers in Europe, as well as carbon-control/sustainable investment funds from financial institutions like Barclays, a Series-A funding round has now been completed with multiple long-term investment commitments.
Deep Branch
James Ferrier, an investment director at Barclays, said in a statement that “Deep Branch’s technology has the potential to be part of the solution to overcome the biggest environmental challenges of our time.”
Unlike fishmeal or soy, there is no fluctuation in price or yield caused by seasonality, food security, or reliance on favorable weather conditions.
The resulting stable prices and reliable manufacturing means that every link in the supply chain can calculate costs with much more precision.
Deep Branch, which operates in the UK and Netherlands, is currently looking for a suitable location for its first large-scale production facility.
Their hope is that the product will cut into the market share of soybeans, but also fishmeal produced normally from wild-caught salmon leftovers—another source of protein for animal feed. Their first scouted location is in Norway, the world’s largest exporter of salmon.
Deep Branch is looking to begin commercially trialing their feed with hatchery salmon and chickens next year, with the only remaining major production hurdle being where to find sources of the other vitamins and minerals needed for healthy animal growth.
A couple have recreated their wedding album half a century later—at the same church, and in the very same dress.
Carolyn and Kelly Gay, who are now in their seventies, got married in March 1971 with a white wedding at their local church.
To celebrate their golden anniversary, the couple returned to DSM First Church in Des Moines, Iowa, to recreate their pictures—exactly 50 years later to the day.
The church had the same alter, cross, and candelabras as was present at their first ceremony so many years before, so the photos were a perfect match.
SWNS
Grandmother-of-four Carolyn spent three years growing out her hair for the shoot and was even able to wear the same dress she wore in her twenties.
SWNS
The new photos were taken by Sam Hoyle from Two Hoyles Photography—who even managed to edit in Carolyn’s late father Rolland Swalking her down the aisle.
Carolyn said, “It took about an hour to an hour-and-a-half to take the new pictures and it was just a fun time. They’ve had the church painted a couple of times since, but not long ago they scraped it back and have taken it back to the original colour… it’s amazing.”
As part of the shoot, Carolyn and Kelly dug out receipts from the original big day and rediscovered the entire thing—including honeymoon and feeding nearly 200 guests—came to around $340.
Carolyn’s dress cost $46.35, with an extra $8.24 for alterations, while catering for 193 guests totaled $63.82.
Flowers, the biggest expense, came to $131.84, while their four-night honeymoon to New Orleans came in at $91.20, with $0.36 for gas.
But why go to all the trouble of recreating their wedding after all these years? Carolyn says, “I have one wedding picture I really, really loved when they took it from in the balcony overlooking all the people that came, and you can see a picture of Jesus overlooking the wedding.
SWNS
“I wanted so badly to recreate that picture in particular.
The overlaid image took weeks to produce after the wedding, because it was a novel photography technique, but this time the photographer “whipped it out in no time.”
Wheel of Fortune players have been buying vowels and filling in the blanks on “America’s game” since 1975. With stakes determined by the luck of the spin combined with contestants’ puzzle-solving prowess, it’s a formula that ensures pretty much anything can happen—including one winner who recently gave away his entire $145,000 prize earnings to charity.
Wheel of Fortune
That’s just what Encino, California resident Scott Kolbrenner did on the Wheel episode that aired March 18, 2021—and it was what he’d planned to do all along should he win.
“When I went on the show, I was doing it for the fun of it,” he told Good Morning America. “I said to my wife… ‘…Anything that I get, let’s give it to charity. We’re very fortunate. Let’s see if we can support some others who aren’t as fortunate as we are.”
The luck of the wheel was with Kolbrenner throughout the entire show. After scoring a $3,500 wedge, he landed next on the Express Wedge, which he parlayed into another winning answer.
Kolbrenner kept the momentum building, finishing the game with a total of $45,000 to ace out the other contestants. Along with the show’s pre-set letters, R, L, S, T, N, and E, Kolbrenner chose P, H, G, and O for his chance at solving the grand-prize puzzle in the category “What Are You Wearing?”
Once Vanna White was finished turning tiles, all only six letters remained hidden. The 10-second clock had barely begun ticking when Kolbrenner correctly guessed: “Flowing white gown.”
Pat Sajack revealed the bonus amount—$100,000. With winnings totaling $145,000, Kolbrenner became the fifth-biggest winner in Wheel’s 46-year history.
Kolbrenner split the booty between two local charities with which he’s long been affiliated: Uplift Family Services, a comprehensive behavioral health treatment provider (of which he is a board member), and Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, whose outreach supports thousands of California families facing food insecurity.
“While I hoped I would do okay, I never thought that anything like this could happen,” Kolbrenner told Yahoo News, “I got lucky that day and knew right away that I wanted to share my good fortune. The fun and memories from the day will stay with me forever, but the urgent need in our community cannot wait.”
In a statement from Uplift Family Services, Kolbrenner revealed that “his ‘good fortune’ came long before he ever spun the Wheel, having grown up an intact, secure family where he never had to worry about his next meal or for his safety.” He credits his grandfather with instilling the values of “charity and civic duty as a critical part of life.”
