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Bumblebees Have Learned to Read Simple Morse Code–an Ability Seen Only in Humans and Vertebrates

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SWNS
SWNS

A new study is the first to show that an insect can differentiate between different durations of visual cues.

In Morse code, a short duration flash or “dot” denotes a letter “E” and a long duration flash— or “dash”—means letter “T”.

Until now, the ability to discriminate between “dot” and “dash” has been seen only in humans and other vertebrates, including macaques and pigeons.

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London built a special maze to train individual bees to find a sugar reward at one of two flashing circles, shown with either a long or short flash duration.

The short flash – or “dot” – was associated with sugar, while the long flash – or “dash” – was instead associated with a bitter substance, quinine, that bees dislike.

At each room in the maze, the position of the “dot” and “dash” stimulus was changed, so that bees could not rely on spatial cues to orient their choices.

After bees learned to go straight to the flashing circle paired with the sugar, they were tested with flashing lights but no sugar present, to check whether their choices were driven by the flashing light, rather than by olfactory or visual cues presented by the sugar.

“We wanted to find out if bumblebees could learn to the difference between these different durations, and it was so exciting to see them do it,” said PhD student Alex Davidson in a University press release.

Connected to a wooden nest box where the bees live, acrylic tunnels lead to the observation chamber (left) where two platforms deliver either food or quinine – Credit: Queen Mary University of London / SWNS

Eventually, most of the bees went straight to the “correct” flashing light duration previously associated with sugar, irrespective of spatial location of the stimulus—and the study published in the journal Biology Letters clearly showed the bees had learned to tell the lights apart based on their duration.

“Since bees don’t encounter flashing stimuli in their natural environment, it’s remarkable that they could succeed at this task,” said Davidson.

“The fact that they could track the duration of visual stimuli might suggest an extension of a time processing capacity that has evolved for different purposes, such as keeping track of movement in space or communication.”

“Alternatively, this surprising ability to encode and process time duration might be a fundamental component of the nervous system that is intrinsic in the properties of neurons.”

THANK YOU! A Country of 2 Million is the World Leader in Beekeeping and Protecting Pollinators

Davidson and his supervisor Dr. Elisabetta Versace said the neural mechanisms involved in the ability to keep track of time for the durations remain mostly unknown. Several theories have been put forward, suggesting the presence of a single or multiple internal clocks.

Now that the ability to differentiate between durations of flashing lights has been discovered in insects, the researchers say they will be able to test different models in the miniature brains, which are smaller than one cubic millimeter.

BEE-EAUTIFUL: Beekeeper Finds Grandfather’s Long-Lost Hives Thriving in Quarry–and Turns Them into a Colony of Millions

Dr. Versace, senior lecturer in psychology at Queen Mary, said: “Many complex animal behaviors, such as navigation and communication, depend on time-processing abilities.

“It will be important to use a broad comparative approach across different species, including insects, to shed light on the evolution of those abilities.

“Processing durations in insects is evidence of a complex task solution using minimal neural substrate.

“This has implications for complex cognitive-like traits in artificial neural networks, which should seek to be as efficient as possible to be scalable, taking inspiration from biological intelligence.”

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Giant 7’9” Canadian is Tallest Player in College Basketball History, Dunking Without Jumping (WATCH)

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Nathan Frederick
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He was the same height as his kindergarten teacher and had eclipsed seven-feet-tall by the time he entered seventh grade.

And now—standing at 7’9”—Olivier Rioux from Quebec has ascended into sports history by becoming the tallest person to ever play in a college basketball game.

As the minutes ticked away in the second half of the University of Florida’s trouncing of North Florida on November 6th, the audience began chanting for Olivier.

Moments later, Florida coach Todd Golden turned toward the Canadian and granted the crowd’s wish.

More cheers rang out. And soon, history was made. (See the moment below…)

Olivier only played for two minutes late in the game for the team, which has an already stacked roster. He scored no points or rebounds, but was happy to be on the court—hearing the fans cheer for him.

“It felt great. The support from everybody was amazing,” Rioux told USA Today after the game. “Even on the bench and even with the fans. Everybody supported me. I’m very grateful.”

Prior to this month, Manute Bol had been the tallest college player—yet he measured a full two inches shorter than Olivier.

The young man’s journey into basketball accelerated rapidly after he played in an international tournament in Spain at the age of 12, and videos from his game went viral, reaching more than a million people.

In 2021, the youth with a size 20 shoe began attending IMG Academy in Florida, one of the country’s preeminent prep schools for standout athletes, and has been working to refine his talents ever since.

“He’s put in a lot of great work and to his credit, he’s kept a great attitude without getting a lot of reward in terms of playing time and opportunity,” Golden told USA Today.

“I thought (the North Florida game) would be a good opportunity to get him out there and get his first college experience, and I think he was pretty excited. It was pretty neat for him to finally see the floor.”

ANOTHER BASKETBALL TRAILBLAZER: One-Armed Player Has Made History in Women’s College Basketball – And She’s Become a Role Model for Others

But will his 8-foot wingspan be enough to turn him into an NBA player?

Other incredibly tall players such as Bol, Yao Ming (7’6”), and current superstar Victor Wembanyama (7’4”) have proven that there is plenty of room in the NBA for big men.

“The sky is the limit for him,”Rioux’s coach at IMG, Jeremy Schiller told Canada’s W5. “We haven’t even scratched the surface of what he can be.”

HELP OLIVIER’S STORY REACH EVEN HIGHER HEIGHTS by Sharing it on Social Media…

Your Weekly Horoscope – ‘Free Will Astrology’ by Rob Brezsny

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Good News Network
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Our partner Rob Brezsny, who has a new book out, Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)

Here is your weekly horoscope…

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of November 15, 2025
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Your dreams speak in images, not ideas. They bypass your rational defenses and tell the truth slantwise because the truth straight-on may be too bright to bear. The source of dreams, your unconscious, is fluent in a language that your waking mind may not be entirely adept in understanding: symbol, metaphor, and emotional logic. It tries to tell you things your conscious self refuses to hear. Are you listening? Or are you too busy being reasonable? The coming weeks will be a crucial time to tune in to messages from deep within you.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
The tour guide at the museum was describing the leisure habits of ancient Romans. “Each day’s work was often completed by noon,” he said. “For the remainder of the day, they indulged in amusement and pleasure. Over half of the calendar consisted of holidays.” As I heard this cheerful news, my attention gravitated to you, Sagittarius. You probably can’t permanently arrange your schedule to be like the Romans’. But you’ll be wise to do so during the coming days. Do you dare to give yourself such abundant comfort and delight? Might you be bold enough to rebel against the daily drudgery to honor your soul’s and body’s cravings for relief and release?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
The Zulu greeting Sawubona means “I see you.” Not just “hello,” but “I acknowledge your existence, your dignity, and your humanity.” The response is Ngikhona: “I am here.” In this exchange, people receive a respectful appreciation of the fact that they contain deeper truths below the surface level of their personality. This is the opposite of the Western world’s default state of mutual invisibility. What if you greeted everyone like this, Capricorn—with an intention to bestow honor and recognition? I recommend that you try this experiment. It will spur others to treat you even better than they already do.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Bear with me while I propose an outlandish-sounding theory: that you have enough of everything. Not eventually, not after the next achievement, but right now: You have all you need. What if enoughness is not a quantity but a quality of attention? What if enoughness isn’t a perk you have to earn but a treasure you simply claim? In this way of thinking, you consider the possibility that the finish line keeps moving because you keep moving it. And now you will decide to stop doing that. You resolve to believe that this breath, this moment, and this gloriously imperfect life are enough, and the voice telling you it’s not enough is selling something you don’t need.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
The Inuit people have dozens of words for snow. The Scots have over 100 words for rain. Sanskrit is renowned for its detailed and nuanced vocabulary relating to love, tenderness, and spiritual bliss. According to some estimates, there are 96 different terms for various expressions of love, including the romantic and sensual kind, as well as compassion, friendship, devotion, and transcendence. I invite you to take an inventory of all the kinds of affection and care you experience. Now is an excellent phase to expand your understanding of these mysteries—and increase your capacity for giving and receiving them.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
The Akan concept of Sankofa is represented by a bird looking backward while moving forward. The message is “Go back and get it.” You must retrieve wisdom from the past to move into the future. Forgetting where you came from doesn’t liberate you; it orphans you. I encourage you to make Sankofa a prime meditation, Aries. The shape of your becoming must include the shape of your origin. You can’t transcend what you haven’t integrated. So look back, retrieve what you left behind, and bring it forward.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to engage in STRATEGIC FORGETTING. It’s the art of deliberately unlearning what you were taught about who you should be, what you should want, and how you should spend your precious life. Fact: Fanatical brand loyalty to yourself can be an act of self-sabotage. I suggest you fire yourself from your own expectations. Clock out from the job of being who you were yesterday. It’s liberation time!

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
We should all risk asking supposedly wrong questions. Doing so reminds us that truth and discovery often hide in the compost pile of our mistaken notions. A wrong question can help us shed tired assumptions, expose invisible taboos, and lure new insights out of hiding. By leaning into the awkward, we invite surprise, which may be a rich source of genuine learning. With that in mind, I invite you to ask the following: Why not? What if I fail spectacularly? What would I do if I weren’t afraid of looking dumb? How can I make this weirder? What if the opposite were true? What if I said yes? What if I said no? What if this is all simpler than I’m making it? What if it’s stranger than I can imagine?

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Cancerian novelist Octavia Butler said her stories were fueled by two obsessions: “Where will we be going?” and “How will we get there?” One critic praised this approach, saying she paid “serious attention to the way human beings actually work together and against each other.” Other critics praised her “clear-headed and brutally unsentimental” explorations of “far-reaching issues of race and power.” She was a gritty visionary whose imagination was expansive and attention to detail meticulous. Let’s make her your inspirational role model. Your future self is now leaning toward you, whispering previews and hints about paths still half-formed. You’re being invited to be both a dreamer and builder, both a seer and strategist. Where are you going, and how will you get there?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
The Tagalog language includes the word kilig. It refers to the butterfly-in-the-stomach flutter when something momentous, romantic, or cute happens. I suspect kilig will be a featured experience for you in the coming weeks—if you make room for it. Please don’t fill up every minute with mundane tasks and relentless worrying. Meditate on the truth that you deserve an influx of such blessings and must expand your consciousness to welcome their full arrival.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Your liver performs countless functions, including storing vitamins, synthesizing proteins, regulating blood sugar, filtering 1.5 quarts of blood per minute, and detoxifying metabolic wastes. It can regenerate itself from as little as 25 percent of its original tissue. It’s your internal resurrection machine: proof that some damage is reversible, and some second chances come built-in. Many cultures have regarded the liver not just as an organ, but as the seat of the soul and the source of passions. Some practice ritual purification ceremonies that honor the liver’s pivotal role. In accordance with astrological omens, Virgo, I invite you to celebrate this central repository of your life energy. Regard it as an inspiring symbol of your ability to revitalize yourself.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
The pupils of your eyes aren’t black. They are actually holes. Each pupil is an absence, a portal where light enters you and becomes sight. Do you understand how amazing this is? You have two voids in your face through which the world pours itself into your nervous system. These crucial features are literally made of nothing. The voidness is key to your love of life. Everything I just said reframes emptiness not as loss or deficiency, but as a functioning joy. Without the pupils’ hollowness, there is no color, no shape, no sunrise, no art. Likewise in emotional life, our ability to be delighted depends on vulnerability. To feel wonder and curiosity is to let the world enter us, just as light enters the eye.

WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com

(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com, CC license)

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“I don’t want to be interesting. I want to be good.” – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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Credit: Getty Images for Unsplash+

Quote of the Day: “I don’t want to be interesting. I want to be good.” – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Photo by: Getty Images For Unsplash+

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?

Credit: Getty Images for Unsplash+

Good News in History, November 15

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Good News Network
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The patent design of the Gillette razor

121 years ago today, King Gillette patented the disposable safety razor: an enormous improvement over the day’s shaving technology of straight, forged blades that needed to be honed every day with a leather strop. By contrast, Gillette utilized stamped razers from carbon steel sheets, while adapting existing safety features that prevented injury beyond the odd nick. The result, despite being disposable, was both expensive and hugely popular. READ a bit more about this American innovation… (1904)

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Holland Will Return a Looted 3,500-Year-Old Stone Bust Following Lavish Egyptian Museum Opening

By
Andy Corbley
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Dutch Information and Heritage Inspectorate
Dutch Information and Heritage Inspectorate

Having identified a 3,500-year-old bust of a pharaoh among the nation’s antiquity dealers, The Netherlands are turning it over to the Egyptian authorities in a “good faith gesture.”

It’s believed to have been stolen during the Arab Spring of 2011-12, when intense protests brought the end of Hosni Mubarak’s Presidency and the start of several years of turmoil in the land of the Nile.

Its return coincides with the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, the largest archaeological museum in the world focused on a single civilization, spanning 120 acres, and housing some 100,000 artifacts.

This bust, believed because of the craftsmanship to date to around 1,450 BCE, depicts the pharaoh Thutmose III, a contender for consideration as the most powerful ruler in all Egypt’s history. Son of the not-too-inglorious Thutmose II, whose tomb was discovered in May of this year by archaeologists, Thutmose III expanded the New Kingdom’s territory and influence to their zenith.

Measuring 7.5 inches tall, the artifact is made from rock granodiorite, according to the New York Times. It was found via an anonymous tip at TEFAF, a fair for visual arts, antiques, and design, in the city of Maastricht in 2022. The seller who was trying to offload the bust willingly relinquished it after being informed of its provenance.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Netherlands to Return its Share of Nigeria’s Looted Treasures: 120 Statues Set for Repatriation

The Netherlands Information and Heritage Inspectorate stated that Dutch Prime Minister Hendrikus Schoof gave first notice of the seizure during a conversation with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on November 2nd, and the agency said it would be returned to Egypt by the end of the year.

Seeking for a generation to build a showroom for the cream of this archaeological crop, the Egyptian government hopes the Grand Egyptian Museum, where this bust may come to be housed, fully-demonstrates the state’s commitment to protecting its heritage for all time.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: 3,400-Year-old Head of King Ramses II Statue Returned to Egypt After Theft

“We’ve all dreamed of this project and whether it would really come true,” Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said during a press conference at the opening on November 9th, per Reuters.

SHARE This Responsible Policing In Holland, And A Pharaoh Returned To Egypt…

A Free Pop-Up Apple Orchard in the Big Apple Invites You for Free Fruit and Hot Cider

By
Andy Corbley
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credit - Farmlink
credit – Farmlink

A pair of local organizations are inviting New Yorkers to skip Upstate for Midtown for a pop-up apple orchard in the Big Apple.

Along with being fun and festive, full of free apples and hot cider, the free event highlights how just a little extra attention in around moving surplus food can help families in need all across the country.

The collaboration between the nonprofit Farmlink Project and high-fashion discounter 260 Sample Sale will be giving away 20,000 pounds of farm-fresh, locally grown New York apples—enough for roughly 4,000 families—to spotlight how collective action can help mitigate food insecurity.

Starting at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, November 25th, at 261 Fifth Avenue, the one-day-only event invites New Yorkers to stop by 260 Sample Sale to pick up free apples, enjoy warm cider, and learn about how Farmlink reroutes surplus produce from farms to families in need nationwide.

“Every day, tons of fresh, healthy food goes to waste while families go hungry,” said Eliza Blank, CEO of The Farmlink Project. “With the government shutdown disrupting food assistance, Farmlink is stepping up to close the gap—showing how simple it can be to turn surplus into sustenance.”

In addition to the 20,000 pounds of fresh apples available onsite, Farmlink is donating an additional 15,000 pounds of apples to partner food banks all over NYC including in Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.

Sourced locally from farms upstate by the New York Apple Association, all apples are free; donations are welcome to further Farmlink’s nationwide food rescue efforts.

SIMILAR NONPROFITS: UK Dairy Company Reaches 4 Million Meals Donated – Tackling Hunger AND Food Waste with FareShare

Carhartt will be onsite as well with exclusive Carhartt x Farmlink hats and T-shirts available for purchase, with proceeds supporting Farmlink’s mission to close the gap between surplus and scarcity.

Building on the success of Farmlink’s recent activation with Happier Grocery, in which the nonprofit distributed 2,000 pounds of fresh produce to New Yorkers in just 2.5 hours, this free pop-up also brings Farmlink closer to its goal to deliver 10 million pounds of food by Thanksgiving.

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NYC Innovation Sees Century-Old Bridge Replaced – at $93M Under Budget, Without Stopping Trains

By
Andy Corbley
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Crews used a hydraulic gantry to quickly move new elements into position - credit, Metropolitan Transport Authority, CC 2.0. via Flickr
Crews used a hydraulic gantry to quickly move new elements into position – credit, Metropolitan Transport Authority, CC 2.0. via Flickr

New York City had to replace a 132-year-old railway line along Park Avenue, and the contractor’s innovative approach has saved taxpayers millions.

Confusingly called the Park Avenue Viaduct, the same name as the historic automobile viaduct at Pershing Square, the aging structure carried some 750 Metro-North trains into Grand Central Station every day.

The city’s Metropolitan Transport Authority contracted Halmar International to lead the design and building process, which is to be done in several stages from October 2023, to summer of 2027. Halmar is so far working $93 million under budget, and a staggering 51 months ahead of schedule.

For Phase 1, Halmar brought in an enormous hydraulic gantry system to remove the old concrete and steel superstructure and replace it with brand new pre-fabricated elements, each weighing 190,000 lbs. and coming already assembled with track fasteners, third rail fasteners, guardrails, and walkways

According to Engineering News Record, GNN’s favored source for feats of engineering, it took crews 19 weekends to perform the first 128 installations between East 115th Street and East 123rd Street along Park Avenue in Upper Manhattan. They installed 8,240 feet of the track on the new bridge.

A gantry crane system allows operators to quickly lift, move, and lower heavy materials into place. Gantry cranes differ from normal cranes because they perch over the work site rather than beside it.

A typical gantry consists of four legs mounted either on rails or wheels. Atop and across each pair of legs is a long sturdy beam that supports the crane mechanism. Utilizing either hydraulic legs, or hydraulic crane components, the gantry lowers until the building element is secured, then raises it up above the work site, and moves along the rails or the road to the spot where the element is to be lowered into position.

Crews used concrete saws to cut away the old structure which the gantry could quickly remove – credit, Metropolitan Transport Authority, CC 2.0. via Flickr

A favorite for loading and unloading boxcars trains or container ships at port, Halmar contacted the gantry manufacturer MiJack, which produced the largest gantry it had ever made to perch completely over the viaduct. This allowed Metro-North service to continue on two of the four rail while the other two were being replaced.

MORE BRILLIANT BUILDS:

Crews could cut away the aging concrete of the rail bridge in large segments, which the gantry could quickly pick up and lower onto a flatbed which drove it away. Then, the gantry could lay the new sections down like planks on a footbridge.

The first stretch was finished 21 months early, despite a constrained urban environment with sidewalks and crossings that had to remain open. The second stretch began in March 2024, from East 127th Street to East 132nd Street.

Work is expected to conclude next April.

WATCH a time-lapse video of the work in progress… 

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Speaking Two Languages Seems to Slows Aging, Speaking Three or More Augments the Effect

By
Andy Corbley
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- credit Riky
– credit Riky

Speaking two or more languages is associated with a reduced risk of accelerated aging, according to data from more than 86,000 people across 27 European countries.

It’s yet another great reason to learn a new language, or bring up a child in a bilingual household.

Previous research has proposed that multilingualism can help maintain cognitive function, but evidence has been inconsistent owing to the use of small sample sizes, clinical cohorts, and indirect measures of ageing.

Now published in Nature Aging, Agustin Ibañez and colleagues at the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) in Trinity College, Dublin, present evidence that promoting multilingualism can support healthy aging strategies at a population level.

The team analyzed survey data from 86,149 participants aged 51–90 years across 27 European countries to estimate whether aging was faster or slower than expected based on health and lifestyle factors.

They found that people who use only one language were approximately twice as likely to experience accelerated aging, whereas multilingual individuals were on average about half as likely to do so. The authors also observed that speaking additional languages promoted delayed aging over time and found a dose-dependent effect of speaking multiple languages—in other words, the more languages one spoke, the slower they aged.

The data showed that the protective effect of multilingualism remained significant even when they adjusted for age, and for physical, social, and sociopolitical exposures.

“Unlike potentially expensive dietary, lifestyle or translational interventions, multilingual language use is not confined to those who can afford specific resources,” said Jason Rothman from Lancaster University in the UK, who wasn’t involved with the study.

These findings could inform educational and public health policies aimed at promoting cognitive resilience and functional ability in aging populations, the authors suggest.

“Multilingualism is the default state of the world, and emerges from necessity, community or opportunity,” Rothman points out. “It is embedded in daily life, and spreads across social, cultural, and economic boundaries. This makes it uniquely positioned as a low-cost, scalable lever for public health.”

“If multilingualism builds resilience against aging, then encouraging additional language learning in schools, protecting migrant and minoritized languages, and fostering and maintaining opportunities for multilingual usage across the lifespan could be as important as campaigns that promote physical activity, or smoking cessation,” he added.

ANTI-AGING STRATEGIES: Seniors Who Listen to Music May Slash Their Dementia Risk by Over a Third

The authors noted that multilingualism itself can’t be defined as such, since it occurs in roughly two phases. The first is an intensive, effortful, (even arduous) task to learn the basics of a new language, which establishes new neuronal networks and pathways. The second, is the continuous employment and expansion of a new language according to habitual use, which requires a different form of mental exertion, and, Rothman adds, would therefore be expected to affect the brain differently.

Disentangling these stages may shed light on exactly what the neuro-protective effect of multilingualism is and how it’s developed. Research has shown that mentally-fatiguing and/or stimulating tasks are strongly associated with protection from neurodegenerative disease like dementia.

Is multilingualism’s benefit to brain aging entirely from the mental gymnastics routine of learning and mastering a new grammatical ruleset and vocabulary, or is the social component: learning new ways to express complex thoughts in language and enjoying social events with new people from different backgrounds what accounts for the reduced aging? Is it both, are they complimentary or separate in their benefits?

MORE LANGUAGE-RELATED NEWS: Want to Learn a New Language? Study Says Be Sure to Get Enough Sleep First

GNN reported last year on a survey that found more Americans to be bilingual on average than the French, Italians, or English, despite some negative stereotypes about our country’s reliance on English.

The “America the Bilingual Project” has found that the EU average for number of bilingual citizens is 25% of a country’s population, while the US is 23%—a few percentage points higher than France and Britain, just 5% less than Germany, and double that of the Italians.

SHARE This Fantastic Reason To Learn A New Language With Your Friends… 

“All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.” – Juvenal

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Good News Network
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Credit: Annie Spratt

Quote of the Day: “All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.” – Juvenal

Photo by: Annie Spratt

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?

Credit: Annie Spratt

 

Good News in History, November 14

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Good News Network
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Lion's Gate Bridge - CC 3.0. Tom Richards

87 years ago today, the Lion’s Gate Bridge opened in Vancouver. Crossing the Burrard Inlet, the total length of the bridge including the north viaduct is 5,981 feet (1,823 meters), with the length of the main span alone exceeding 1,500 feet. It forms part of Highways 1A and 99, and total traffic averages 60,000 cars a day. The name “Lion’s Gate” is taken from the pair of cast concrete lions at the entrance of the bridge, and the name was taken by Lionsgate Films of Hollywood. READ about how the bridge was made… (1938)

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New Gel Regrows Dental Enamel–Which Humans Cannot Do–and Could Revolutionize Tooth Care

By
Andy Corbley
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Electron microscopy images of a tooth with demineralized enamel (left) and a similar demineralized tooth after a 2-week treatment (right) - credit, Univ of Nottingham
Electron microscopy images of a tooth with demineralized enamel (left) and a similar demineralized tooth after a 2-week treatment (right) – credit, Univ of Nottingham

Chemists in England have created a gel that can repair and regenerate tooth enamel, opening up new possibilities for effective and long-lasting dental treatment.

The gel can be rapidly applied to teeth in the same way dentists currently apply standard fluoride treatments. However, this new protein-based gel is fluoride-free and works by mimicking key features of the natural proteins that guide the growth of dental enamel in infancy.

The findings have been published today in Nature Communications.

Scientists from the University of Nottingham’s School of Pharmacy, in collaboration with an international team of researchers, sought a method of treatment for addressing this major cause of tooth decay which is estimated to be associated with a full 50% of all tooth problems in the world.

These 50% of problems don’t merely lead to the obvious infections like dental caries, cavities, and tooth loss, but are also heavily associated with conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Arterial plaques—the substances that can impede blood flow and cause stroke and heart attacks, have been found to contain bacterial biofilms in the periodontal environment—think about that the next time to want skip flossing.

When applied, the scientist’s experimental gel creates a thin and robust layer that impregnates teeth, filling holes and cracks in them. It then functions as a scaffold that takes calcium and phosphate ions from saliva and promotes the controlled growth of new mineral in a process called epitaxial mineralization.

This enables the new mineral to be organized and integrated to the underlying natural tissue while recovering both the structure and properties of natural healthy enamel.

It can also be applied on top of exposed dentine, growing an enamel-like layer on top of dentine, which has many benefits including treating hypersensitivity or enhancing the bonding of dental restorations.

“We have tested the mechanical properties of these regenerated tissues under conditions simulating ‘real-life situations’ such as tooth brushing, chewing, and exposure to acidic foods, and found that the regenerated enamel behaves just like healthy enamel,”
Dr. Abshar Hasan, a postdoctoral fellow and leading author of the study, said in a Nottingham U. press release.

Enamel does not naturally regenerate; once you lose it it’s gone forever. There is currently no solution available that can effectively regrow enamel. Current treatments such as fluoride varnishes and remineralization solutions only alleviate the symptoms of lost enamel.

ALSO CHECK OUT: The Simple Habit of Flossing Reduces Your Risk Of COVID-19 Complications, Says New Study

“Dental enamel has a unique structure, which gives enamel its remarkable properties that protect our teeth throughout life against physical, chemical, and thermal insults,” said Dr. Hasan. “When our material is applied to demineralized or eroded enamel, or exposed dentine, the material promotes the growth of crystals in an integrated and organized manner, recovering the architecture of our natural healthy enamel.”

In 2023, GNN reported that a drug which was able to regrow adult teeth in mice entered clinical trials after it was discovered by a dental scientist named Takahashi in Japan years prior.

MORE DENTISTRY BREAKTHROUGHS: Wisdom Teeth Contain Unique Stem Cell That Can Form Cartilage, Neurons, and Heart Tissue

The breakthrough came from the identification of a gene-protein interaction in mice that resulted in the growth of fewer teeth. An antibody medicine that inhibited the protein’s ability to function caused teeth to grow in both mice and ferrets who were born with improper tooth formation.

Unlike many other animals on Earth, Humans can’t regrow teeth constantly, and the regrowth of a third tooth at the loss of our adult teeth would revolutionize dentistry.

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Delta Airlines Treats Teens to Free ‘Dream Flights’ Inspiring Many to Become Pilots and Engineers

By
Andy Corbley
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Delta's 24th Dream Flight - credit, Delta Airlines
Delta’s 24th Dream Flight – credit, Delta Airlines

Every year, Delta Airlines hosts a special, one-of-a-kind trip to place the heads of ambitious Black students squarely in the clouds.

Climbing aboard a Boeing 757 as it took off from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, 100 local teens were the latest passengers on Delta’s “Dream Flights” program, a give-back initiative that introduces students to the concept of a career in aerospace and aviation.

Organized in partnership with the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP), the concept goes right back to that famous quote Whoopi Goldberg said when she saw Lieutenant Uhuru in Star Trek: “I just saw a black woman on TV and she ain’t no maid!”

“When I met my first Black pilot, that’s when I realized I could do it too,” said Delta captain Justin Mutawassim. “Now, I get to show these students—especially Hayden—that they can follow that same path.”

17-year-old Hayden Lynch has Mutawassim as a program mentor, and years before he stepped onboard Delta flight 2025, he became smitten with aviation after receiving a drone for Christmas.

At the helm was First Officer Dana Nelson, Delta’s first Black woman pilot, hired in 2001. The theme continued with an all-black cabin crew and co-pilot Lyob Makonnen.

GOOD RESPRESENTATION: New Astronaut Camp for Girls Named After Star Trek Actress Nichelle Nichols, Honored as Role Model

This year, their final destination was NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s “Space Coast.” Once there, the students wandered around with necks craned to see towards the ceiling to gaze at the collection of historic rockets, shuttles, and simulators used in NASA missions past. The trip finished with a panel discussion hosted by OBAP aviators and astronauts on how to navigate turbulence, whether in the cockpit, or in life.

This year was the 25th edition of Delta’s Dream Flight. They’ve transported and inspired more than 4,000 students throughout that time.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: A New Generation of Tuskegee Aviators Takes to the Skies to Tackle Another National Challenge

Many of these, CBS News reports, have followed their dreams born on the flight to careers as pilots, in aviation engineering, and in aerospace at large.

“My dream is to become a Delta pilot one day—and inspire others just like they inspired me,” Hayden told CBS.

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Scientist Discovers New Bee Species with ‘Devil-like’ Horns–Names Her ‘Lucifer’

By
Andy Corbley
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The Megachile lucifer - credit, Dr. Kit Prendergast
The Megachile lucifer – credit, Dr. Kit Prendergast

She’s got devil-like horns, but she ain’t after your soul: she’s only looking for pollen.

She’s Megachile lucifer, a new species of solitary bee identified in Western Australia’s Goldfields region by a team of scientists inspecting a rare wildflower habitat.

She’s also the first new bee species added to the genus in 20 years, making this resident of the Bremer Ranges east of Perth a devilishly good reason to increase habitat protections in the area.

“The female had these incredible little horns on her face,” said Dr. Kit Prendergast from Curtin University, who made the discovery at a time in her life when she had become a fan of a particular Netflix show.

“When writing up the new species description I was watching the Netflix show Lucifer at the time, and the name just fit perfectly.”

Only the females sport these devil horns, which could be an additional set of wands for reaching the pollen of certain plants, or a defensive weapon. The full description of the species was published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research

The area in and around where the bee was found also contains the aforementioned rare wildflowers, and along with these charismatic new bees, Dr. Prendergast suggests it should be “formally protected and gazetted as conservation land that cannot be cleared.”

BEES: A Country of 2 Million is the World Leader in Beekeeping and Protecting Pollinators

“Because the new species was found in the same small area as the endangered wildflower, both could be at risk from habitat disturbance and other threatening processes like climate change,” she told the BBC.

Solitary bee species are major pollinators of wild plants, and there are over 1,500 species in the Megachile genus alone.

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Three Bob Ross Paintings Sold for $600,000 at Auction in Fundraiser for Public Television

By
Andy Corbley
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Winter's Peace by Bob Ross - credit Bonham's Auctioneers, released
Winter’s Peace by Bob Ross – credit Bonham’s Auctioneers, released

Three works from Bob Ross’ classic public television show The Joy of Painting raised over half a million dollars for public television.

Having relied for decades on endowment contributions and pledge drives of every tact and description, it was brilliant idea that puts a brilliant man and his brilliant perspective on the arts back into the spotlight 30 years after his death.

“I think this actually would have been Bob’s idea,” said Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc., the firm that manages his likeness, content, and collection of thousands of works that he painted on television, in advance of the auction. “And when I think about that, it makes me very proud.”

The auction came months after cuts to PBS and other stations were passed in the most recent budget, but also as a pair of Bob Ross paintings touched, and then surmounted, 6-figure valuations—something very rarely seen before.

Straight Arrow News, which spoke with Kowalski, also reached out to Bonham’s, which had seen a pair of Ross’ sold for $115,000 and $95,000.

In many ways, the gentle television painter was a singular figure; irreplicable, not only as a figure in time but also in style and method. Ross paintings have always been conspicuously absent from the fine art auction circuits, and rarely come anywhere close to these sorts of valuations.

But in light of the appreciation, Bob Ross Inc. will be auctioning Home in the Valley, (1993) Cliffside, (1990) and Winter’s Peace (1993). They were priced to start at between $25,000 – $30,000, but quickly went to the Moon.

The first brought $229,100, the second $114,800, and Winter’s Peace went for a staggering $318,000.

– credit, Bob Ross Inc. fair use

“I think that there’s a certain amount of snobbery in the art business, but Bob is a cultural touchstone,” Aaron Bastian, senior director of California and Western paintings at Bonhams, told Straight Arrow News.

“He crosses a lot of different generations. Kids these days have seen him on YouTube. I watched him with my parents, right? And so, it’s something that is readily accessible to everyone.”

Modern artistic stars and works commonly seek to portray the world’s challenges, contradictions, and crises, while Bob Ross, a former Air Force drill sergeant who vowed never the raise his voice again after leaving the military, sought every broadcast to create a world he wanted to see: full of ‘happy little trees,’ and all the rest.

Kowalski points out that Ross loved the idea of public television, and that he would probably have been the first to pull out some out works to put towards the cause. After all, they aren’t unique.

MORE INSPRING FUNDRAISERS: Man Who Made History in ‘Blinking Guy’ Meme Using His Fame to ‘Pay it Forward’

While viewers saw only the canvas that Ross painted on screen over the course of the 30-minute program, that was actually the second of three renditions. One, he would do before shooting as a preparatory work that sat off camera as a reference. The second he’d do for the recorded broadcast, and a third, well-finished work with much more attention to detail than he could manage on-screen was painted for his instructional booklets.

Often, Ross would ensure the three remained together, either in his holdings at Bob Ross Inc., or in the cases when he would donate them, either to PBS or to the Smithsonian.

MORE AUCTIONS FOR GOOD: British Man Finishes His Run Across Africa: 385 Marathons in 352 days

All the money raised from the auction will go to Create Channel, which Straight Arrow described as a “premium lifestyle channel for public television stations.”

Another 3 works will be auctioned in January—part of a collection of 27 that could be ultimately sold to support the various channels and outlets under American Public Television.

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“The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.” – Mark Twain

By
Good News Network
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Credit: Muhamad Iqbal Akbar

Quote of the Day: “The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.” – Mark Twain

Photo by: Muhamad Iqbal Akbar

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?

Credit: Muhamad Iqbal Akbar

 

Good News in History, November 13

By
Good News Network
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85 years ago today, the animated film Fantasia, conceived and produced by Walt Disney himself, was released. It was only Disney’s third animated film and, though it featured Mickey Mouse in the role of ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’, it had almost no dialogue and consisted of eight pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, including The Nutcracker Suite and Pastoral Symphony. READ more… (1940)

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Boy’s Great Tagline Helps Raise Thousands For Underprivileged Kids to Afford Hockey

By
Andy Corbley
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Courtesy of Grahame Family
Courtesy of Grahame Family

A hockey-loving boy from a hockey-loving family is selling special hockey merch to help other hockey lovers—and he’s loving it.

His family took a childhood utterance, as genius as it was random, and spun it into a line of merchandise with the proceeds going to charities that pay for gear, rink time, and team fees for kids who want to play hockey but whose families can’t afford the expense.

He’s got a special fundraiser going at the moment specifically for the children of veterans, in honor of Veteran’s Day.

8-year-old Luke Grahame is the son of John Grahame, a goaltender who played for the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning. John’s father was also goaltender, who also played for the Boston Bruins, as well as the Los Angeles Kings and Quebec Nordiques during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

John’s brother, Luke’s uncle, is a scout for the Colorado Avalanche. John and his mother, Charlotte who also worked for the Avalanche, became the first mother-son duo to have both of their names engraved on the Stanley Cup, which John won as a goalie with the Lightning in 2004.

Luke’s two older brothers both play, and Luke loved going to watch their games before he was old enough to hit the ice. But eventually, eagerness and frustration culminated in a now-famous line.

“I’m tired of just being a rink dude,” he said in frustration. That day, the Rink Dude brand was born.

“We thought maybe we could print a hat that said ‘Rink Dude’ just for him,” his mother, Niki Grahame, told CBS News Colorado. “Then we thought, what if he sold a few and helped other kids who want to play hockey but can’t afford it?”

That’s exactly what happened, and it was a huge success. Hockey is the most expensive youth sport, and nonprofits like Hockey Unlimited help underprivileged children bridge the financial gap made up by gear and fees to use ice rinks for training and pick-up games.

SIMILAR SUPER YOUTH: 

Rink Dude hats, shirts, and other merch, featuring a cartoonized Luke Grahame flexing his bicep, sometimes make thousands of dollars in a week of sales, and each purchase comes with donation cards to Hockey Unlimited or other nonprofits.

For Veterans Day, Luke focused on helping military families by channeling money to United Heroes League, a nonprofit that keeps military kids active by providing gear, camps, grants and special experiences.

“Our goal is $5,000 to raise for kids of veterans,” Luke said, adding “veterans are heroes.”

Mrs. Grahame wasn’t surprised, saying “he gets to feel the joy of helping others while doing something he loves.”

WATCH the story below from CBS News… 

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Shipwrecked Cargo of Roman Lead Bars Provides a Chance to Observe Dark Matter on Earth

By
Andy Corbley
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Hundreds of lead bricks were found in a ship that sunk between 50 and 80 BCE - credit, CUORE Collaboration and LNGS/INFN
Hundreds of lead bricks were found in a ship that sunk between 50 and 80 BCE – credit, CUORE Collaboration and LNGS/INFN

What do dark matter, the Roman Empire, and a toxic heavy metal have in common?

The answer is Mr. Ettore Fiorini who helped excavate a 2,000-year-old shipwreck whose cargo of Roman lead bars could, he believed, help him unravel the secrets of the universe.

If the second sentence made no more sense than the first, let’s do some storytelling.

Sometime between 50 and 80 BCE, merchants or military engineers from Rome were transporting a cargo around the island of Sardinia that included hundreds of pounds of lead ingots from Spain meant for building ammunition or aqueducts.

The sea was angry that day, and sent the cargo down to the crushing black oblivion of Davy Jones’ Locker. In 1988, the ship was discovered, and the maritime archaeologists working on it got a message from a strange address: Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy’s National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN).

The sender was Dr. Fiorini, who wasn’t interested in the historical value of the shipwreck, but wanted the lead to build a radiation shield for a particle detector deep under a mountain.

Lead is used to isolate chambers from radioactivity, which is why we wear lead vests when taking x-rays. However, lead itself also contains trace amounts of a radioactive isotope lead-210, which can interfere with any observations.

The experiments need to be absolutely free of any outside radioactive interference—which can come from anything—to ensure that the scientists can say whatever they see in their experiments is genuine and not noise. The cool thing about the Roman lead is that, having sat underwater for 2,000 years, the radioactivity had completely decayed, making the ingots perfect for isolating the chamber where the experiment would take place.

What was Fiorini looking for in his experiments? Nothing less than the detection of dark matter at work on Earth.

The CUORE particle detector – credit, CUORE Collaboration and LNGS/INFN

Between past and future

Some archaeologists have brought up ethical dilemmas with destroying ancient artifacts to conduct modern experiments.

The lead in the Sardinian shipwreck, for example, was melted down to create a shield for Fiorini’s particle detection program. Each one of the ancient lead ingots had a stamp on it in Latin, carrying information about its origin and brand.

Dr. Paolo Gorla, an INFN physicist, told ABC News Australia that the historic value wasn’t lost on Fiorini and his team, who struck a bargain with archaeologists that with money and backing from the INFN, they would help recover the shipwreck—but they would get to keep the lead.

The archaeologists eventually agreed on the condition that each ingot be documented thoroughly.

“Something amazing is that the companies that extracted the lead from the mine stamped [their] brand on top of the bricks,” said Dr. Gorla, adding that part of the deal was an examination by the physicists of each ingot at the molecular level to look for contaminants that might hint at the object’s place of origin.

“It was like an ID card … it helped the cultural heritage officials reconstruct from which mine in Spain this lead was extracted.”

Scientists posing with part of the ancient lead shield for CUORE – credit, CUORE Collaboration and LNGS/INFN

Gorla called it a mutual exchange between lovers of history; only that the archaeologists’ love affair was with the history of Rome, and his affair was with the history of the universe.

ITALIAN SCIENTISTS AT WORK: Graphene Dream Becomes a Reality as Miracle Material Enters Production for Better Chips, Batteries

The INFN received their long-awaited lead treasure in 2010, and in 2017, armed with a new shield made of melted Roman lead, the CUORE detector (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) began its work under Gran Sasso mountain.

Dr. Fiorini passed away in 2023, and an upgrade to his life’s final project will soon arrive that should allow CUORE to identify the particles it has detected, none of which, as of yet, has turned out to be dark matter.

CUORE is kept at near absolute zero temperatures, is shielded from cosmic radiation from the Sun by the mountain, and shielded from radiation in the lab by the Roman lead. Here, any elementary particle leftover, if touching any other particle, would raise the temperature in the observation chamber ever so slightly, allowing for quick identification of particle collisions.

MORE SCIENCE COLLABORATIONS: Pollution Efforts in Lake Tahoe Have Cut Sediment and Algae Run-off to Preserve the Water’s Iconic Clarity

Dark matter is thought to make up 85% of all the matter in the universe. It doesn’t interact with light, but it does feel the effects of gravity. Experiments like Fiorini’s may be key to making a detection of this strange substance on Earth, and his idea that Roman lead was a key component in any successful detection, was clearly a good one.

“We can easily tell that without the quality of the shield, we would not have been able to measure at the level we’re measuring now,” Dr. Gorla says.

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Man Returns Dad’s ‘Souvenir of Parthenon’ and Turns Out it Was Even Older Acropolis Relic

By
Andy Corbley
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- credit Greek Culture Ministry
– credit Greek Culture Ministry

In 2022, an elder Chilean man walked into the Greek embassy in Santiago on a mission: to turn himself in.

Not that 77-year-old Enrico Tosti-Croce had done anything wrong, but rather he was putting a small family matter to rest.

In the 1930s, a young Italian submariner visited Athens with the Italian Navy and paid a visit to the legendary Parthenon, a temple built to honor the goddess Athena atop the Acropolis of Athens in the 5th century BCE.

There, he found a small piece of marble statuary decorated with a lotus flower, and with the idea of cultural patrimony still far off beyond the World War he would eventually fight in, Gaetano Tosti-Croce took the piece for himself.

After the war, when he fled/immigrated to Chile, he would show it off to anyone who visited his home, a habit his son began to replicate.

“When someone came to my house for the first time, I would show them that stone and say, ‘This is from the Parthenon,’” Enrico told the Art Newspaper. “Some believed me; others didn’t.”

He never thought much of his father’s illicit souvenir, until in 2022 he saw a report on the news about Greece’s decades-long struggle to reclaim the Parthenon marbles from the British Museum, where substantial evidence suggests they were taken in a hasty act of looting and plunder by the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin, in the 19th century.

Inspired by the quest for repatriating cultural heritage lost during dark days, Tosti-Croce got up, and emailed the Greek embassy’s deputy chief of mission, Theodosios Theos.

Theos forwarded the email to the Chief of the Greek Archaeological Service, Olympia Vikatou, who then responded with thanks and salutations to the Chilean, as well as with a fascinating story behind the seemingly simple marble piece still in his possession.

The ‘Elgin’ marbles held in the British Museum, alleged to have been looted from the Parthenon by the British – credit, Jay. M CC BY-SA 4.0

Vikatou and colleagues believed it made up part of a basin or gutter on the Hekatompedon—the Acropolis’ oldest monumental temple, built before the Parthenon perhaps as early as 570 BCE.

According to El País, reporting on the story, Vikatou noted that the temple’s gutter was decorated with alternating oval palmettes and lotus flowers.

GREEK STORIES: Visitors Gaze on Parthenon Free of Scaffolding for the First Time in 200 Years

Theos praised the “honor and courage” of the Chilean citizen, and hoped his virtue can shine as an example to anyone who may have also come into possession of plundered Greek antiquities.

During the Roman period, and all of the Middle Ages, Greece had somewhat autonomous control ensconced within imperial regimes, alternating between Italy and Byzantium. By the Renaissance, it had been taken by Ottoman Turks, and there it remained as a colonial possession until 1830 when, with the help of Western European powers, the rebellious Greeks threw off the shackles of domination.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Poland Secures Return of Gorgeous Artwork from Danish Auction Stolen During World War II

The decades that followed were tumultuous—right up until the creation of the Third Hellenic Republic in 1974—and Greece would have experienced cultural losses likely far beyond just the Elgin Marbles.

The lotus fragment of Tosti-Croce has already been returned to Greece and was handed over to the Ephorate of Antiquities of the City of Athens, according to a statement.

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