Researchers Discover the Universe’s Oldest Stars Circling Our Own Galaxy: ‘We have a new way to find them’

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May 17, 2024

Part of the reason the James Webb Space Telescope is so sophisticated is that it had to be able to see stars from the earliest periods of the universe—just a few million years after the Big Bang.

But a team of students at MIT has discovered that chances are very high that we have some of these stars in our own galactic backyard, at mere thousands of light-years from Earth, rather than billions.

Their discoveries: that 65 or so stars that formed 13 billion years ago are encircling the Milky Way’s halo, is a major observation that promises to change how we study the early universe for the next few decades.

It all started when Anna Frebel, professor of physics at MIT, launched an unusual class project to study ancient stars called Observational Stellar Archaeology, for which she and her students examined data collected over the years from the 6.5-meter Magellan-Clay telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory.

The Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago, and in the ensuing expansion and formation of the universe, galaxies and stars had very little material to build from, and so were composed mostly of helium and hydrogen, with trace amounts of strontium and barium.

The latter two elements were one of the key signatures that Frebel and her students were looking for as they combed through years of stellar observations made by Magellan-Clay.

Some of these stars had never been closely examined by astronomers, so Frebel and her class chose them to study for their project. Looking at spectroscopy data, which can reveal the presence and abundance of various elements based on the light signatures from an object, they found 10 that contained the same low levels of strontium, barium, and also iron, as ancient stars and dwarf galaxies observed from the furthest reaches of the universe; approximately 1/10,000th of the content in our Sun.

Looking to gather more evidence for their theory that the Milky Way contains the hidden remnants of similarly ancient dwarf galaxies, Frebel and her students looked at the orbital data of the stars they found, and, sure enough, there was something anomalous about them—they were in retrograde, meaning they were orbiting in the opposite direction as the galactic disk and the halo of the Milky Way.

MORE EARLY UNIVERSE INSIGHTS: The Hubble and Webb Telescopes Join to Create Unprecedented Photo of Universe

“The only way you can have stars going the wrong way from the rest of the gang is if you threw them in the wrong way,” Frebel says.

Cross-referencing, they looked at the orbital data of other stars that had previously been identified as containing ultra-low quantities of strontium and barium and found that others were also in retrograde.

YOU’LL DEFINITELY LIKE: Locked in a 4 Billion-Year-old Dance, Six New Exoplanets Demonstrate the Cosmic Beauty of ‘Resonant Orbits’

“Interestingly they’re all quite fast—hundreds of kilometers per second, going the wrong way,” Frebel told MIT press. “They’re on the run! We don’t know why that’s the case, but it was the piece to the puzzle that we needed, and that I didn’t quite anticipate when we started.”

She and her students have taken to calling these stars Small Accreted Stellar System stars, or SASS stars, and are postulating that they are the last remaining stars of ancient dwarf galaxies that fell into the Milky Way as the latter grew in size. The SASS stars are ‘accreted,’ meaning they are being drawn in by something because they were once part of a galactic configuration on their own.

Along with pioneering a simple method for searching for these stars, Frebel and her students have opened the door for astronomers to be able to study the earliest reaches of the universe in much clearer detail—by looking at stars much closer, and therefore much brighter, to home.

“These oldest stars should definitely be there, given what we know of galaxy formation,” says MIT professor of physics Anna Frebel. “They are part of our cosmic family tree. And we now have a new way to find them.”

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Spiders Use Their Webs as Giant Microphones to Hear What’s Going on Around Them, Says New Research

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Andy Corbley

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May 17, 2024

Spider web in morning dew - by Torbjørn Helgesen-public domain — Torbjørn Helgesen

Spiders use their webs as giant microphones reveals new research that shows how the arachnids weave webs to do more than just trap their insect prey.

Scientists at Binghamton University, New York, found that spiderweb silk moves at the velocity of particles in a sound field for highly sensitive, long-distance noise detection.

Unlike human eardrums and conventional microphones that detect sound pressure waves, the researchers explained that spider silk responds to changes in the velocities of air particles as they are thrust about by soundwaves.

That sound velocity detection method remains largely underexplored compared to pressure sensing, but American scientists say it holds “great potential” for high-sensitivity, long-distance sound detection.

In their investigations, the team found that the webs match the acoustic particle velocity for a wide range of sound frequencies.

“Most insects that can hear sound use fine hairs or their antennae, which don’t respond to sound pressure,” said study leader Professor Ronald Miles. “Instead, these thin structures respond to the motion of the air in a sound field.”

“I wondered how to make an engineered device that would also be able to respond to sound-driven airflow. We tried various man-made fibers that were very thin, but they were also very fragile and difficult to work with.”

“Then, Dr. Jian Zhou was walking in our campus nature preserve and saw a spiderweb blowing in the breeze,” he added.

Before building such a device, the team had to prove spiderwebs really responded to sound-driven airflow.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Bumblebees Share Knowledge Like Humans and Chimpanzees, Suggesting the Hive Mind Is More Personal

To test the theory, they simply opened their lab windows to observe the Larinioides sclopetarius, or bridge spiders, that live on the windowsills.

The research team played sound ranging from 1 Hz to 50 kHz for the spiders and measured the spider silk motion with a laser vibrometer.

They found the sound-induced velocity of the silk was the same as the particles in the air surrounding it, confirming the mechanism that the spiders use to detect their prey.

OTHER DISCOVERIES LIKE THIS: Moths’ Rippled Forewings Are Actually a Sophisticated Defense System Against Echo Location

“Because spider silk is, of course, created by spiders, it isn’t practical to incorporate it into the billions of microphones that are made each year. It does, however, teach us a lot about what mechanical properties are desirable in a microphone and may inspire entirely new designs,” said Professor Miles.

He is due to present the findings at a joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Canadian Acoustical Association in Ottawa, Canada.

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“It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly.” – Stephen Ambrose

Quote of the Day

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Good News Network

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May 17, 2024

Quote of the Day: “It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly.” – Stephen Ambrose

Photo by: Bruno Rodrigues

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Herd of Bison Reintroduced in Europe Are Climate Heroes–Helping Store CO2 Equal to 43,000 Cars

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Andy Corbley

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May 17, 2024

European Bison keystone species-ARK Rewilding Netherlands released-cropped — European Bison keystone species – ARK Rewilding Netherlands

European Bison is keystone species – Jeroen Helmer/ ARK Rewilding Netherlands

A recent study that looked at the effects of European bison on the ability of forests in Romania to store carbon found that these large animals have a ‘heroic’ effect.

By increasing the carbon storage potential of forests by 10%, it’s the equivalent of taking 54,000 US gasoline-powered cars off the road—and there are only 170 animals.

In 2014, WWF Romania reintroduced a herd of European wood bison into the Țarcu mountains that has grown from 100 to 170 head. Rooting around in the woods, scrub, and fields for their fodder, rolling around on the ground, and stomping, breaking, and squishing the landscape up with their hooves, are all important ecosystem mechanisms that have been absent for decades.

As the graphic above depicts, bison epitomize the concept of a keystone species, one that holds the ecosystem together through their actions, whether it’s dispersing seeds caught in their fur, or creating patches of clear earth for lizards to sunbathe in.

The study, which hasn’t finished peer-review, was funded by Rewilding Netherlands. It used a model based on previous research published in April that looked at how large animals affect the carbon cycle.

Their findings were that a herd of 170 bison grazing in a 50 square kilometer habitat in the Țarcu mountains had the potential to open the landscape up to an additional 54,000 metric tons of CO2, although the ratio of uncertainty was high, and could be 55% more or less, than the 54,000 figure.

Taken as a median, it represents a 10% increase in the carbon-bearing potential of the landscape.

“These creatures evolved for millions of years with grassland and forest ecosystems, and their removal, especially where grasslands have been plowed up, has led to the release of vast amounts of carbon,” said Professor Oswald Schmitz of the Yale School of the Environment in Connecticut. “Restoring these ecosystems can bring back balance, and ‘rewilded’ bison are some of the climate heroes that can help achieve this.”

BISON BACK IN BRITAIN: Wild Bison Return to UK After Thousands of Years – And Are Ready to Tear S*!# Up

Grasslands might be more important for carbon storage than forests because of the much lesser degree to which grasslands decay. In a forest, trees and leaves are constantly decomposing, releasing both carbon and methane. Trees that die before reaching maturity will release much of the carbon they stored throughout their life.

Grasslands on the other hand incur very little decomposition, and the carbon they do store is constantly being tamped down by the hooves of grazing animals.

Professor Schmitz and his team looked at nine different animals, including musk oxen, forest elephants, and river otters.

“Many of them show similar promise to these bison, often doubling an ecosystem’s capacity to draw down and store carbon, and sometimes much more,” Schmitz told the Guardian. “This really is a policy option with massive potential.”

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Good News in History, May 17

This Day In History

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Good News Network

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May 17, 2024

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' original cover - public domain

124 years ago today, L. Frank Baum’s first children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in the US. The first edition was printed and bound by Baum himself for presentation to his sister, Mary Louise Baum Brewster. The first 10,000 copies sold out fast, and by 1938 over a million were sold. Telling the story of a simple farm girl from Kansas being swept up by a twister and landing in a mysterious fantastical world, it was the first novel in a series that would extend up to 14 entries. READ more… (1900)

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Majestic Sei Whales Reappear in Argentine Waters After Nearly A Century

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Andy Corbley

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May 16, 2024

Sei whale and her calf - Christian Khan, NOAA

GNN has reported several times over the last three years about large baleen whales returning to waters in which they haven’t been sighted for decades.

Now again, news from Argentina shows that the benefits of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling are still compounding, with sei whales returning to the South American nation’s coastal waters for the first time in nearly a decade.

Overhunting during the 1920s and 1930s led these massive blue-grey giants to abandon their ancestral waters in Argentina.

“After nearly a century of being hunted to near extinction, sei whale populations are now bouncing back and returning to their former habitats,” said Mariano Coscarella, a biologist and marine ecosystem researcher at Argentina’s CONICET scientific agency, who added that the whales “reproduce every two or three years, so it nearly took 100 years for their population to reach a level where people could notice their presence.”

The third largest whale in the world, the sei can grow up to 64 feet (20 meters) in length and weigh up to 31 tons (28 tonnes). It’s also among the fastest whales in the world, and is certainly the fastest for its size group. It can swim 31 mph over short distances.

Despite being recognized on the IUCN Red List as Endangered, there are estimated to be 50,000 sei whales in a global population that is trending up.

Apart from sei whales and Argentina, a recent survey in the Seychelles sighted 10 groups of at least a few blue whales, the first such observations since 1966.

Back in March, a New England Aquarium aerial survey team sighted a gray whale off the New England coast last week, a species that has been extinct in the Atlantic for more than 200 years.

OTHER MARINE LIFE BOUNCING BACK: Scientists Release Hundreds of Endangered Seahorses Back Into the Wild–’Best We’ve Ever Done’

The largest animal on Earth, the blue whale, is returning to coastal Californian waters in numbers not seen since before the whaling industry, GNN reported in 2023 based on a 2014 survey.

ALSO CHECK OUT: World’s Largest Container Line is Rerouting its Fleet to Avoid Collisions with Endangered Blue Whales

And down in Antarctica, where many different whale species come to feed and breed, recent surveys have found the Southern Ocean is once again becoming a Sarengetti for whales, with an estimated 8,000 Southern fin whales found between 2018 and 2019.

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13-year-old Successfully Undergoes World-First Treatment to Cure Rarer-Than-Rare Wild Syndrome

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Andy Corbley

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May 16, 2024

39873c8486ed9104ca34014b99e887ad — Left to right Dr Yvonne Slater, Consultant Paediatric Gastroenterologist, Ning Chen, Kai Xue, and Dr Mona Mossad, Consultant Interventional Radiologist - credit University Hospitals North Midlands.

Left to right Dr Yvonne Slater, Consultant Paediatric Gastroenterologist, Ning Chen, Kai Xue, and Dr Mona Mossad, Consultant Interventional Radiologist – credit University Hospitals North Midlands.

The girl, pictured here third from right, is the first in world history to successfully undergo liver surgery for Wild Syndrome, a condition so rare it’s only been documented 21 times.

After what seemed like an eternity in the hospital for 13-year-old Kai Xue and her mother Ning Chen, during which they traveled all over the UK and China looking for help, they were eventually referred to Royal Stoke University Hospital, in Stoke-on-Trent, England.

“Kai was born with an abnormal lymphatic system, and her left arm was very swollen,” Ning Chen told Stoke-on-Trent Live. “Throughout her childhood we were under the care of a number of different hospitals to try to find out what the matter was, but nobody knew the cause.”

The cause was a truly tiny hole in her liver that would result in lymphatic fluid leaking into her abdomen, applying undue pressure on her internal organs and causing swelling there and in other parts of the body.

Xue’s attending physician at Royal Stoke was Dr. Mona Mossad, a nationally recognized expert in lymphatic interventions, whose first procedure was dilating Kai’s thoracic duct to improve lymphatic drainage which had never been done on a child before.

After failing to improve Xue’s condition, Dr. Mossad sought to identify the source of the leak in the lymphatic system and found it was coming from a hole one-tenth of a millimeter on her liver.

Located on the left lobe, Dr. Mossad’s surgery team went to work repairing the hole using a set of specialized, tiny needles filled with surgical adhesive. During the surgery, they were forced to drain an astonishing 7 gallons of lymphatic fluid from a small 13-year-old.

After 5 weeks recovery, Kai Xue was given a clean bill of health.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Texas Mother–Daughter Duo Given Prestigious Award from 3 Past Presidents for Easing Others’ Pain From Rare Disease

“We are all over the moon for Kai, who is the first child to undergo this treatment anywhere in the world,” said Dr. Yvonne Slater, a consultant pediatric gastroenterologist who was part of Xue’s overall care team.

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Expert Believes He Has Solved Archaeological Mystery Surrounding Ancient Assyrian Symbols

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Andy Corbley

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May 16, 2024

Late 19th century drawings of the tree and plough symbols published by French excavator Victor Place. From New York Public Library.

Late 19th-century drawings of the tree and plow symbols published by French excavator Victor Place. From New York Public Library.

An Assyriologist from Ireland believes he has discovered the meaning behind a series of symbols always presented together on the walls of the ancient Assyrian city of King Sargon II.

His belief is that rather than being simple motifs or allegorical pieces, they were a way to imprint Sargon’s name in the stars themselves through language, ensuring it would live on forever.

The ancient one-time capital city of Dūr-Šarrukīn, in modern day Iraq, contained multiple instances of a sequence of five images or symbols (lion, bird, bull, tree, plow) which also appeared shortened to three (lion, tree, plow) carved and painted onto the walls of the palace. There is currently no consensus on their meaning.

Animal reliefs are nothing new in Mesopotamian carvings, but in paintings commissioned by French excavators working in the 19th century, we see they were always in the same order.

Dr. Martin Worthington of Trinity College Dublin’s School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultural Studies, proposes a new idea: the words for each animal and object when read together in the order they are depicted more or less sound out the name of Sargon, or šargīnu, as they would have said it back then.

But the clever part is, each of the symbols corresponded to one of the constellations. Trinity College Dublin news reports that the Greeks adopted most of their understanding about the cosmos from Babylon, which the Assyrians also did. We today in turn adopted them mostly from the Greeks, so in Dūr-Šarrukīn we have the lion (Leo) bird (Aquila) bull (Taurus), and the plow (the big dipper).

The only one we don’t recognize on star charts today is the fig tree, but Dr. Worthington decoded that too: it stands in for the hard-to-illustrate constellation ‘the Jaw’ (which we don’t have today), on the basis that iṣu ‘tree’ sounds similar to isu ‘jaw’.

“The effect of the five symbols was to place Sargon’s name in the heavens, for all eternity – a clever way to make the king’s name immortal. And, of course, the idea of bombastic individuals writing their name on buildings is not unique to ancient Assyria,” said Dr. Worthington.

The paper was published in the Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research.

MORE ANCIENT DECODING:

Most of the time, Assyriologists, or people who study the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, are working on transcribing the various cuneiform scripts of tablets found during excavations in the 19th and 20th centuries, of which there are tens of thousands in museum collections that haven’t ever been read.

ANCIENT ARCHAEOLOGY:

“I can’t prove my theory, but the fact it works for both the five-symbol sequence and the three-symbol sequence, and that the symbols can also be understood as culturally appropriate constellations, strikes me as highly suggestive. The odds against it all being happenstance are—forgive the pun—astronomical.”

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“Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.” – Hosea Ballou

Quote of the Day

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Good News Network

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May 16, 2024

Quote of the Day: “Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.” – Hosea Ballou

Photo by: Free Walking Tour Salzburg

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Good News in History, May 16

This Day In History

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Good News Network

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May 16, 2024

Maria Agnesi's bust in Milano - credit Giovanni Dall'Orto (Copy)

306 years ago today, Maria Agnesei was born in Milan. She is the first woman in the Western World ever to be appointed as a professor of mathematics at a university. She is credited with writing the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus. Her name is remembered most often today through her mathematical curve called the Witch of Agnesi, defined from two diametrically opposite points of a circle. READ more about the prodigious maiden… (1718)

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Experimental Cancer Treatment Gives New Jersey Mom a Chance for A Second Baby: ‘I decided to go for it’

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Andy Corbley

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May 15, 2024

Kelly Spill was just 28 years old when she received her cancer diagnosis - credit, Kelly Spill, released

After less than a year of treatment with an experimental new cancer drug, a young woman has seen her tumor vanish, along with her fears that she would never be able to carry another child.

It should have been the happiest days of Kelly Spill’s life, until shortly after she delivered her first baby she received a life-threatening cancer diagnosis.

The 28-year-old from New Jersey was still recuperating in the hospital with her little boy Chase when she began to experience fatigue and bleeding, weight loss and loss of appetite.

Her doctors told her it was probably just symptoms of childbirth, but for reasons not explained in her interview with Fox, Spill said she knew it was cancer.

Stage-3 colorectal cancer was the diagnosis, a colonoscopy later revealed, but this super mom’s first fear wasn’t for her own life, that she wouldn’t be able to have another child, as she and her husband always wanted at least 3.

After looking around for hospitals, she decided to seek treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, one of the world’s leading cancer treatment centers.

But even here, she was told radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery were the treatment options, which her doctors told her would seriously jeopardize her chances of ever giving birth again, something she said was “really hard to hear at just 28 years old.”

“Radiation targeted at, or absorbed by, a woman’s reproductive organs can affect fertility, as can chemotherapy, which may cause women to lose fertility-related hormones,” Dr. Amanda Schwer, a radiation oncologist at City of Hope Cancer Center in California told Fox News Digital.

Dr. Schwer was not involved with Spill’s treatment, which considering the severity of the cancer, Spill decided to pursue regardless of her dreams of an expanded family. But luck was on her side, as just one day before she was scheduled for her first chemotherapy session, members of the SU2C Colorectal Cancer Dream Team, a research team at Memorial Sloan informed her she would be eligible for a new clinical trial to test a gentler new drug for colorectal cancer.

Called dostarlimab, if it worked as the developers believed it might, then radiation, chemotherapy, and even surgery might all be avoided.

MORE GREAT NEW DRUGS: Immunotherapy for Hard to Treat Cancer Just Granted FDA Fast Track During Promising Clinical Trial

“All I knew at that time was that the side effects of this immunotherapy would be a lot less harsh on my body than chemotherapy, and I would have a chance of a better quality of life—and maybe even another baby,” Spill said.

All kinds of immunotherapy drugs are under development after the initial technology won a Nobel Prize more than half a decade ago, GNN has reported on several, including one that has cured several children of leukemia.

YOU’LL ALSO LIKE: Using the Body’s ‘Invisible Scalpel’ to Remove Brain Cancer With Immunotherapy at Salk Institute

Spill was just the fourth person to receive dostarlimab—which she took as an injection every week for six months. After her fourth treatment, Spill got the news—her tumor had shrunk to half its original size.

Spill and her son Chase welcoming the new member of the family – credit, Kelly Spill, released

“By the ninth treatment, my tumor had completely disappeared, which was extremely exciting,” she said.

Having frozen an embryo in advance of the cancer treatments, Spill’s first thought was to go for number two, but followed her doctor’s advice that she should wait two years and see if the cancer returns. It didn’t.

In July of 2023, Spill gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Mya Grace. She remains cancer-free to this day.

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11 Acres of Plant-infused Green Roofs Go ‘Blue’–Capturing Rainwater in Flood-Prone Amsterdam

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Andy Corbley

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May 15, 2024

Resilio has covered 9,000 sq meters of Amsterdam’s roofs with plants that suck up rainwater - Credit: Resilio

Resilio has covered 9,000 sq meters of Amsterdam’s roofs with plants that suck up rainwater – Credit: Resilio

Amsterdam’s roofs have just been converted into a giant sponge that will make the city more climate resilient.

The Dutch have always been famous for their ability to control water, born out of the necessity of their homeland, much of which is below sea level.

Now, their expert water management skills are transforming the city skyline in the capital city of Amsterdam from one of terracotta tile, concrete, and shingles into green grass and brown earth.

It’s part of a new climate-resiliency trend in architecture and civic planning known as the ‘sponge city concept,’ in which a garden of water-loving plants, mosses, and soil absorbs excess rainwater before feeding it into the building for use in flushing toilets or watering plants on the ground.

If heavy rains are predicted, a smart valve system empties the stored rainwater into the municipal storm drains and sewers in advance of the weather, allowing the roof to soak up water and reduce flooding in the city.

In this way, the rooftops of buildings can be wrung out and filled up just like a sponge.

In Amsterdam, 45,000 square meters, or 11 acres of flat metropolitan rooftops have already been fitted with these systems, and the contracting firms behind the technology say they make sense in dry climates like Spain just as much as in wet climates like Amsterdam.

Blue-green roof functions like a flat rain barrel – Credit: Resilio (Amsterdam)

Rains, some scientists believe, will become heavier and more erratic in their delivery as the climate changes. Flooding costs billions in damages in countries like the UK, Netherlands, and Italy which just last year experienced terrible flooding in the plains of Emiglia Romagna.

OTHER ROOFTOP REVOLUTIONS: European Cities Are Turning Rooftops Into Community and Sustainability Hubs: ‘A revolution in urban planning’

A 4-year project of different firms and organizations called Resilio, the resilient network for smart climate adaptive rooftops, rolled out thousands of square meters of sponge city technology into new buildings. As with many climate technologies, the costs are high upfront but tend to result in savings from several expenditures like water utilities and water damage, over a long-enough time horizon.

Companies like Waternet, MetroPolder Company, Rooftop Revolution, HvA, VU, Stadgenoot, de Alliantie, and De Key all participated in the transformative effort that has left many buildings capped with green bonnets of ferns, mosses, small shrubs, and sedum, a genus that is particularly suited to turf rooftops.

All together, Amsterdam’s sponge capacity is over 120,000 gallons.

“We think the concept is applicable to many urban areas around the world,” Kasper Spaan from Waternet, Amsterdam’s public water management organization, told Wired Magazine. “In the south of Europe–Italy and Spain–where there are really drought-stressed areas, there’s new attention for rainwater catchment.”

Indeed the sponge city concept comes into a different shade when installed in drought-prone regions. Waters absorbed by rooftops during heavy rains can be used for municipal purposes to reduce pressure on underground aquifers or rivers, or be sweated out under the Sun’s rays which cools the interior of the building naturally.

Additionally, if solar panels were added on top of the rooftop garden, the evaporation would keep the panels cooler, which has been shown in other projects to improve their energy generation.

“Our philosophy in the end is not that on every roof, everything is possible,” says Spaan, “but that on every roof, something is possible.”

Matt Simon, reporting on the Resilio project for Wired, said succinctly that perhaps science fiction authors have missed the mark when it came to envisioning the city of the future, and that rather than being a glittering metropolis of glass, metal, and marble as smooth as a pannacotta, it will look an awful lot more like an enormous sculpture garden.

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Diligent Planning Sees Teen Accepted into 231 Schools, Winning $14.7 Million in Scholarships–Here’s Some Advice

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Andy Corbley

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May 15, 2024

Maddison Crowell always knew she wanted to go to university, and her parents were all on board making it happen. Throughout her later high school years, they would regularly send admission applications to various schools, some nearer to their home in Liberty County, Georgia, some much farther away.

When it came time to make the big decision, One might say she had the pick of the litter, because not 2, not 3, but 231 different universities and colleges had sent her acceptance letters, bundled in which were various scholarships totaling $14.7 million.

Crowell is highly active in extracurricular activities at Liberty County High School. She is vice president of the Class of 2024, a varsity cheerleader, a student ambassador, the school’s lead basketball manager, a member of the National Honors Society, and managing editor of the school’s yearbook.

Featured in Good Morning America, Crowell’s father, Delando Langley, said that even as early as middle school they would be taking field trips to visit different universities and learn about their programs and facilities.

Crowell, an aspiring physical therapist, selected North Carolina’s High Point University, an institution that is now understandably proud and enthusiastic about the fact that this bright student selected them over so many of their competitors.

“Choosing to attend High Point for the next four years is something that I believe to be one of the best decisions of my life. The atmosphere that HPU had when I stepped on campus for the first time was unmatched,” Crowell told HPU in a statement.

CHECK OUT THESE OVERACHIEVERS: Precocious Child Identifies Japanese Wolf Specimen Amid Museum Collection, Encouraged to Publish Scientific Paper

Crowell was joined by her parents, her classmates, and local and state government officials as she announced during the ceremony at her high school that she plans to attend HPU. A statement from President Joe Biden congratulating Crowell and telling her that she was one of the reasons he was “so optimistic about the future” was shared during the ceremony.

“We are excited to welcome Madison to our HPU family. She is going to do exceptional things right here at The Premier Life Skills University, where we call everybody to be extraordinary,” said Dr. Nido Qubein, HPU’s president.

MORE OUTSTANDING STUDENTS: Zimbabwe Youth at Berkeley Creates Free Online Coding Classes to Help Others Get Similar Scholarships

She had some advice for high schoolers entering that transitional period, reminding them to take time off from the application process for R&R to avoid burning out, and to stay organized: she and her mom plugged all scholarship and university information into a spreadsheet to keep track of pending applications, accepted ones, and rejected ones—all with relevant contact information.

The last piece of advice she shared with GMA is to stay positive about the whole process and not let one rejection, even of the biggest school, to be the end of your search or your positivity.

WATCH the young woman below from GMA…

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‘Old age’ Starts Later Than Ever in the Eye of the Beholder and Beholden, Study Reveals

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Andy Corbley

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May 15, 2024

happy aging senior man older grandfather-smiling-pubdomain Centre for Ageing Better — Centre for Ageing Better

Middle-aged and older adults believe that old age begins later in life than their peers did decades ago according to a new study.

It’s enough to put a bit of spring chicken back into the feet of a silver fox, and the study found that people tended to view being old as occurring later and later as they advanced through life, showing age is even less than a number—it’s just a mindset.

“Life expectancy has increased, which might contribute to a later perceived onset of old age,” said study author Markus Wettstein, PhD, of Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. “Also, some aspects of health have improved over time, so that people of a certain age who were regarded as old in the past may no longer be considered old nowadays.”

However, the study, which was published in the journal Psychology and Aging, also found evidence that the trend of later perceived old age has slowed in the past two decades.

Wettstein, along with colleagues at Stanford University, the Univ. of Luxembourg, and the Univ. of Greifswald, examined data from 14,056 participants in the German Ageing Survey, a longitudinal study that includes people living in Germany born between 1911 and 1974.

Participants responded to survey questions up to eight times over 25 years (1996–2021), when they were between 40 and 100 years old. Additional participants (40 to 85 years old) were recruited throughout the study period as later generations entered midlife and old age. Among the many questions survey participants answered was, “At what age would you describe someone as old?”

The researchers found that compared with the earliest-born participants, later-born participants perceived a later onset of old age. For example, when participants born in 1911 were 65 years old, they set the beginning of old age at age 71. In contrast, participants born in 1956 said old age begins at age 74, on average, when they were 65.

However, the researchers also found that the trend toward a later perceived onset of old age has slowed in recent years.

“The trend toward postponing old age is not linear and might not necessarily continue in the future,” Wettstein said.

The researchers also looked at how individual participants’ perceptions of old age changed as they got older. They found that as individuals aged, their perception of the onset of old age was pushed further out.

At age 64, the average participant said old age started at 74.7. At age 74, they said old age started at 76.8. On average, the perceived onset of old age increased by about one year for every four to five years of actual aging.

Finally, the researchers examined how individual characteristics such as gender and health status contributed to the answers to the questions. They found that women, on average, said that old age started two years later than men—and that the difference between men and women had increased over time.

The results may have implications for when and how people prepare for their own aging, as well as how people think about older adults in general, Wettstein said.

AGING SCIENCE: Eight Habits to Take Up by Age 40 if You Want to Live Decades Longer

“It is unclear to what extent the trend towards postponing old age reflects a trend towards more positive views on older people and aging, or rather the opposite—perhaps the onset of old age is postponed because people consider being old to be an undesirable state,” Wettstein said.

Future research should examine whether the trend toward a “postponement” of old age continues and investigate more diverse populations in other countries, including non-Western countries, to understand how perceptions of aging vary by country and culture, according to the researchers.

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“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” – Vincent Van Gogh

Quote of the Day

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May 15, 2024

Quote of the Day: “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” – Vincent Van Gogh

Photo by: stuart anthony

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Good News in History, May 15

This Day In History

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Good News Network

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May 15, 2024

Sejong the Great on the 10,000 won banknote

627 years ago today, one of the most august figures in East Asian history was born—Sejong the Great—scientist, reformer, and engineer of the Korean alphabet, Hangul. The historic record indicates he had an insatiable appetite for knowledge, and was extremely effective at translating that knowledge into real-world improvements in the welfare of his people, both rich and poor. Among the inventions and products he either commissioned or himself made a reality, there was a new calendar specifically for Korea, a new printing press, medical and agriculture textbooks to be distributed to average people, one of the world’s first rain gauges, hundreds of musical arrangements, some of which are still performed as repertoire today, 100 days’ maternity leave for mothers and 30 days for fathers, and sophisticated gunpowder weaponry. READ about his crowning achievement… (1397)

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Light Show in the Night Sky May Not be Over as Jaw-Dropping Aurora Borealis Gets New Blast

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Andy Corbley

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May 14, 2024

Night Sky Aurora Borealis-pubdomain Jonatan Pie — Night Sky Aurora Borealis by Jonatan Pie

Night Sky Aurora Borealis by Jonatan Pie

This week, the Northern Lights were seen as far south as Florida, giving millions of people a glimpse at a phenomenon usually seen only in the coldest of climes.

Now, Sunspot AR3664 has had a final blast, promising perhaps another night or two of lights.

This active region of the Sun generated an even more massive solar flare on May 13th, releasing intense bursts of energy and radiation into space.

However, this latest coronal mass ejection of X-rays, despite being at magnitude 8.7 (very high indeed) isn’t likely to cause other sets of auroras, only interfere with radio communications on the sunlit side of Earth, say the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

Space blog EarthSky was more positive, saying that while the Sun’s fresh output won’t have such a dramatic effect on Earth as the weekend’s activity, but “at least G3 (moderate) geomagnetic storming is in the forecast”, which has the potential to produce significant auroral displays under the right conditions.

DETAILS ON THE AURORA: NOAA Predicts Potential Aurora as Far South as Alabama After Severe Solar Storm Witnessed

AR3664 started ejecting and caused a geomagnetic storm on Friday, May 10th. Over the weekend it dazzled GNN readers in South Florida, the Bay Area in California, northern Arizona, and Charlotte NC.

The Sun’s activity was observed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft. Its mission is to study the Sun’s dynamics to “increase understanding of the nature and sources of solar variability”.

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Mom Designs Stunning Dress Made of 210 Fresh Flowers Combining Her Love of Art and Gardening

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May 14, 2024

dahlia flower dress by Anita Lee-Archer-SWNS — Dress made of 200 dahlia flowers – by Anita Lee-Archer / SWNS

Dress made of 200 dahlia flowers – by Anita Lee-Archer / SWNS

A mom created a fairytale dress made of more than 200 fresh flowers she grew herself, as part of her university studies in art and design.

Anita Lee-Archer created the dress on her daughter, Bella, spending around two hours arranging multi-colored dahlias, hand-picked from her garden in Australia.

The mother-of-five is pursuing a fine arts degree at the University of Tasmania at age 48. She decided to go back to college four years ago to pursue her dreams of a career in art.

Now she’s combining another passion—her love of gardening—to create impressive art installations.

To attach the flowers to the dress, she wrapped bird netting tightly around her daughter, Bella, who wore a black slip underneath (see the video at the bottom). She threaded the flowers through the holes, choosing colors from seven buckets of pre-cut blooms.

“It turned out how I wanted it,” said Anita, from Launceston, Tasmania. “It was really fun.”

Anita says she was discouraged from choosing a career in art as a teenager, so instead worked as a nurse and midwife.

“I have always been a creative. But, people always said, ‘you won’t earn any money doing art’.”

But Anita never forgot her love and when they moved to Tasmania she asked her husband, a neurologist, if she could enroll in university. She eagerly started classes in 2020 to finally fulfill her dreams.

“I really want to paint flowers. I breed different varieties and have always been a gardener.

LOOK: Man Who Built Adorable Mouse Village to Cope With Depression Adds a Pub, Book Shop, and Hobbit Homes–LOOK

“It’s nice to combine my loves. One lecturer told me ‘it’s your work, you need to do what you love’.”

She admitted the dress turned out to be “really heavy” and it was hard to walk in it.

“Initially it was going to be a strapless dress, but I had to fashion straps.”

Anita graduates from her course at the end of this year and wants to continue creating flower-themed art.

“My garden has been my solace.”

DELICIOUS DESIGN: Sculptor Carves Life-sized Willy Wonka Using 220 Lbs of Chocolate in London’s Trafalgar Square

Here’s a video her daughter shared while modeling the stunning dress of dahlias…

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Grad Student Trades Piano Performances for Housing at Senior Facility–Melting the Age Divide and Making Friends

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Andy Corbley

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May 14, 2024

Beth Christensen playing piano at Claridge Court

A university concert pianist has made an unlikely nest for herself while she continues her studies: an old age home.

While Beth Christensen studies piano at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, she doesn’t have a dorm on campus, and instead lodges at Claridge Court, a senior living facility in the nearby town of Prairie Village.

Placed there in July 2023 as a student-in-residence by a partnership between the home and the Conservatory, Christensen says that the experience has been special, and that many of the residents are more than just friendly faces she sees while plunking out a bit of jazz or classical music, they’ve become true friends.

“It’s really fun to have a relationship with your audience as a performer,” Christensen told the university press. “In the beginning, I wouldn’t do anything too out of the ordinary—I would bring a vocalist sometimes, or I would play classical music.”

“As I got more comfortable, I would try new things and play more recent music. Sometimes people wouldn’t like it, and they let me know. Others love to see where the future of music is going. It’s fun to be able to ask what kind of music people want to hear and work it into my repertoire.”

In exchange for her stay at the home, she is encouraged to immerse herself in the community as much as possible in addition to the routine performances, for which she may also bring in other musicians from the Conservatory.

Christensen’s free time is filled with games of ‘chair volleyball’ or doing a puzzle and talking about education with her friend Pat, a former teacher.

INTERGENERATIONAL CONNECTION: More Young Adults are Renting Next Door to Retired Folks – With Intergenerational Benefits

The partnership is supported by Claridge Court residents Charlie and Mary Kay Horner, who were involved in the Conservatory for decades, and the director of Claridge said that her presence has been enriching.

“We are absolutely thrilled that Beth has become such an integral part of our community,” Mary Kay Horner said. “Witnessing the connections she’s made with the residents is incredibly gratifying.”

“Music is such a connecting force,” Christensen adds.

“It bridges the divisions that exist between people. Having the opportunity to make connections with a community that’s several generations older than me has been so special. These connections don’t make our differences go away, but it helps us really appreciate each other. It’s been such a beautiful experience.”

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NASA Visualizes What it Would Be Like to Plunge into a Black Hole – WATCH

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Andy Corbley

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May 14, 2024

Scientists show what it's like plunging into a black hole — Visual simulation of entering a black hole – by Jeremy Schnittman, astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center / NASA

Visual simulation of entering a black hole – by Jeremy Schnittman, astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center / NASA

Relying on a supercomputer and the people with talent enough to use it, NASA scientists have produced a video illustration of what it would be like to float into a black hole if you were somehow invincible.

Being that within the event horizon of a black hole, the laws of general relativity break down, it’s extremely difficult to say or to predict what would happen to an object, but we do know from recent observations what can happen with light.

Several versions of the same simulation are explained in a 4-minute video released by NASA that offers visual aids to some extremely complex physics.

“People often ask about [what it would be like to fall into a black hole] and simulating these difficult-to-imagine processes helps me connect the mathematics of relativity to actual consequences in the real universe,” said Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who created the visualizations.

“So I simulated two different scenarios, one where a camera—a stand-in for a daring astronaut—just misses the event horizon and slingshots back out, and one where it crosses the boundary, sealing its fate.”

The video is more than just fluff, every feature of it corresponds with precise calculations that would have once been a published paper released to great acclaim. The simulation set the target as a supermassive black hole like the one at the center of our galaxy. The camera was set 400 million miles from the 25 million mile-wide black hole, and as it approaches, the hot disk of dust and gas that swirls around a black hole, called an accretion disk, begins to elongate and brighten.

This is the same effect as when the sound of an approaching racecar is amplified based on its speed.

Then, the supercomputer takes over, and the markers of light, namely the stars, the accretion disk, and a band of photon rings, which are thinner and made up of light orbiting inside the event horizon, begin to warp.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Eerie Echo Detected Coming From Milky Way’s Black Hole 200 Years Ago (Listen)

The project generated about 10 terabytes of data—equivalent to roughly half of the estimated text content in the Library of Congress—and took about 5 days what would have taken a normal computer a decade.

WATCH the video and enjoy…

SHARE This Amazing Video Project With Your Friends Who Dabble In Astrophysics…

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