Classical Music Lifts Our Mood by ‘Synchronizing’ Parts of the Brain, Says Study of Patients with Depression

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Aug 25, 2024

Salieri's handwritten notes on part of the opening movement from Pafio e Mirra – SWNS / Austria National Library

Whether Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart, it’s widely recognized that classical music can affect a person’s mood.

Now, scientists are using brainwave measurements and neural imaging techniques to show exactly how Western classical music elicits its positive effects on the brain.

The discovery could lead to effective ways to use music as treatment to activate the brain in people with treatment-resistant depression.

“Ultimately, we hope to translate our research findings into clinical practice, developing convenient and effective music therapy tools and applications,” said Professor Bomin Sun, of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The study focused on 13 patients with treatment-resistant depression who already had electrodes implanted in their brains for the purpose of deep-brain stimulation.

The implants are placed in a circuit connecting two areas in the forebrain—the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc).

Using the implants, the researchers found that music generates its antidepressant effects by synchronizing the neural oscillations between the auditory cortex, which is responsible for processing of sensory information—and the rewards circuit, responsible for processing emotional information.

“The BNST-NAc circuit, sometimes referred to as part of the ‘extended amygdala’—underscores the close relationship between this circuit and the amygdala, a central structure in emotional information processing,” said Prof. Sun, a corresponding author of the paper published in the journal Cell Reports.

“This study reveals that music induces triple-time locking of neural oscillations in the cortical-BNST-NAc circuit through auditory synchronization.”

GENIUS! New Research into Beethoven’s DNA Reveals He Didn’t Inherit his Musical Talent

The patients in the study were divided into two groups: low music appreciation or high music appreciation. The research team found that those in the high music appreciation group showed more significant neural synchronization and better antidepressant effects, while those in the low music appreciation group showed poorer results.

By grouping the patients, the researchers were able to study the antidepressant mechanisms of music more precisely and propose personalized music therapy plans that would improve treatment results.

For example, when inserting theta frequency noise into music to enhance BNST-NAc oscillatory coupling, those in the low music appreciation group of patients reported higher music enjoyment.

Several pieces of Western classical music that most participants had no familiarity with were used in the study, to avoid any interference that could arise from subjective experience.

“We concluded that the music choices during the formal listening process were individualized and unrelated to the music’s emotional background,” said Sun.

Integrating the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry, and neurosurgery

Now the team plans to study how the interaction between music and the deep structures of the brain play a role in depressive disorders.

SING FOR YOUR HEALTH: Singing or Playing Music Throughout Life is Linked with Better Brain Health While You Age

They also plan to introduce other forms of sensory stimuli—including visual images—to investigate potential combined therapeutic effects of multi-sensory stimulation on depression.

“By collaborating with clinicians, music therapists, computer scientists, and engineers, we plan to develop a series of digital health products based on music therapy, such as smartphone applications and wearable devices.

MORE MUSIC MAGIC: Watching Symphonies Can Synchronize Heart, Lungs, and Even Electrical Impulses of the Listener

“These products will integrate personalized music recommendations, real-time emotional monitoring and feedback, and virtual-reality multi-sensory experiences to provide convenient and effective self-help tools for managing emotions and improving symptoms in daily life.”

RECOMMEND SOME MOZART To Anyone With Depression–Share on Social Media…

Injured Bald Eagle Plucked From River in Daring Rescue By College Staffers in Maryland (WATCH)

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Aug 25, 2024

David Kramer and Emma Cease rescue bald eagle in Chester River Maryland-released by Washington College — David Kramer and Emma Cease rescue bald eagle from Chester River in Maryland –Washington College

David Kramer and Emma Cease rescue bald eagle from Chester River in Maryland –Washington College

A bald eagle, injured and alone near the Chesapeake Bay, earned an A+ for the staff at Washington College after they made a daring rescue along the rocky banks of the Chester River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Two weeks ago, David Kramer noticed a post on Facebook asking if anyone could help with an eagle who seemed to have an injured wing and foot and was hobbling around on a dock over the river.

Kramer, who is the Director of the College’s Center for Environment, where students are provided with a living laboratory for their studies of wetlands, farmlands, and forest. He also happens to be an experienced avian rescuer.

He quickly grabbed two other department staffers, along with a net and blanket, and hopped in a truck to locate the bird, which was not predisposed to give-up easily.

After approaching the raptor, it tried to fly across the river and crashed into the water, so they drove across the bridge and managed to gain access to a backyard where the eagle had landed on the opposite shore.

Kramer approached the bird swiftly and a staffer’s video (view below) shows how he secured the animal’s feet before lifting him up and bringing him ashore.

David Kramer rescues bald eagle in Chester River Maryland – Washington College

Emma Cease helped to gently tuck the broken wing inside the padded blanket as they wrapped the eagle for the trip back to the River and Field Campus—during which it quietly sat in her lap.

Kramer, who has years of experience rescuing, researching, and working with bald eagles and other birds, is a listed rescuer with Tristate Bird Rescue, where the eagle became a patient, and is likely rehabbing from surgery today.

CHECK OUT: Two Rare Parrots Sent From Different Zoos So They Might ‘Fall in Love’ and Save Species With Just 300 Wild Birds Left

He also works with the Moon Owl Raptor Center in the Chesapeake Bay region and urges people to call the professionals if they spot an eagle or other large bird in need of help anywhere near this brackish estuary—the third largest in the world.

“If you don’t have handling experience, DON’T approach the bird,” cautions Kramer. “Bald Eagles have three sharp ends, if they can get you with one, they will. The thing is to get the bird safely restrained. We want to limit injury to people as well as the bird.”

Washington College is no stranger to bird encounters. In the last year, the staff at its Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory has caught, identified, banded, and released over 13,000 birds representing more than 125 species—including the big ones: herons, owls, ospreys, hawks, and woodpeckers.

Located on the Chester River, a few miles north of Chestertown, MD, the Bird Observatory is nestled in a waterfront refuge on the College’s River and Field Campus.

Chesapeake Bay map with Washington College – Google

The land serves as an important stopover habitat for shorebirds, and is home to thousands of migrating and wintering ducks and geese each year.

This unique Campus encompasses nearly 5,000 acres of diverse ecological communities just minutes from its main campus in Chestertown, including 2.5 miles of Chester River shoreline, a 90-acre freshwater lake, multiple streams and seasonal wetlands, 1,200 acres of forest, 3,000 acres of agricultural fields, and 228 acres of restored native prairie with natural grasses that have allowed northern bobwhite (also known as the Virginia quail) to flourish. The property also features 50 acres of managed, successional habitat for one of the most active bird-banding stations on the East Coast, handling approximately 14,000 birds a year.

GREAT NEWS: Stork That Went Extinct in the UK 600 Years Ago is Spotted in the English Skies: ‘It was a great sign’

Watch the :30 rescue video below…

If you spot an injured raptor, but are not within their local region, Kramer says you can look up local rehabbers for help.

The recovery of bald eagle populations in all 48 states is a major conservation success of America’s Endangered Species Act, with estimates showing that the numbers which had been decimated in the 20th century had quadrupled by 2020, in just 11 years—climbing to an estimated 316,700 birds, including 71,400 nesting pairs, up from only 417 pairs in 1963.

The United States government came to the bald eagle’s rescue by naming it one of the first species afforded full protection under the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

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“Choose a wife rather by your ear than your eye.” – Thomas Fuller

Quote of the Day

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Aug 25, 2024

Quote of the Day: “Choose a wife rather by your ear than your eye.” – Thomas Fuller

Photo by: Khamkéo

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?

Good News in History, August 25

This Day In History

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Aug 25, 2024

The Cepheus C & B Regions - Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA

21 years ago, NASA successfully launched the Spitzer Space Telescope. Spitzer was the third infrared space telescope, but the first to use an Earth-trailing orbit (more on that below). The telescope bucked the tradition of being named after famous and dead astronomers and was instead named after the living Lyman Spitzer, an employee at the RAND Corporation who first advocated space telescopes in the 1940s. READ more about what it discovered… (2003)

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Cone Snail Poison is Deadly But May Now Lead to Better Diabetes and Hormone Drugs

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Aug 24, 2024

6 dangerous cone snails- Photos by Almed2 and H Zell compiled by Mario NET-CC BY-SA 4.0 — 6 dangerous cone snails – Photos by Almed2 and H Zell compiled by Mario NET-CC BY-SA 4.0

Deadly poison from cone snails could be a newfound key to making better drugs to treat diabetes, according to a new study.

The toxin, from one of the most venomous creatures on the planet, may also lead to new medicines for additional conditions caused by hormone disorders, said the researchers.

They identified a component within the venom from the Conus geographus that mimics a human hormone called somatostatin—which regulates the levels of blood sugar and several other hormones in the human body.

The team, led by scientists from the University of Utah in the United States, said the somatostatin-like toxin helps the snail hunt its prey. In humans, somatostatin acts like a brake pedal for many processes in the body, preventing levels of blood sugar, several hormones, and many other important molecules from rising dangerously high.

The cone snail toxin, called consomatin, works similarly—but consomatin is more stable and specific than the human hormone, which makes it a “promising” blueprint for drug design, according to the results published in the journal Nature Communications.

By measuring how consomatin interacts with somatostatin’s targets in human cells in a dish, the researchers discovered that consomatin interacts with one of the same proteins that somatostatin does.

Importantly, though, while somatostatin directly interacts with several proteins, consomatin only interacts with one. Such a fine-tuned targeting means that the cone snail toxin affects hormone-determined blood sugar levels, but not the levels of several other molecules.

They concluded that the cone snail toxin was more precisely targeted than the most specific synthetic drugs designed to regulate hormone levels, such as drugs that regulate growth hormone.

Although the snail toxin may be dangerous to use as a therapeutic, the study of its structure could lead to the design of safe drugs for endocrine disorders.

Ho Yan Yeung and Thomas Koch examining cone snails – Credit: Safavi Lab / SWNS

Consomatin lasts far longer in the body than the human hormone, due to the inclusion of an unusual amino acid that makes it difficult to break down. Studying that feature would be useful to pharmaceutical researchers looking to make drugs that will have long-lasting benefits.

Senior author Professor Helena Safavi, of the University of Utah says the toxin’s precision can be “extraordinarily useful” when treating disease.

“Venomous animals have, through evolution, fine-tuned venom components to hit a particular target in the prey and disrupt it. If you take one individual component out of the venom mixture and look at how it disrupts normal physiology, that pathway is often really relevant in disease.”

She described it as “a bit of a shortcut” for medicinal chemists because consomatin shares an evolutionary lineage with somatostatin, but over millions of years of evolution, the cone snail turned its own hormone into a weapon.

MORE DIABETES GOOD NEWS: Diabetes-Reversing Drug Boosts Insulin-Producing Cells by 700%

Consomatin’s deadly effects hinge on its ability to prevent blood sugar levels from rising. It lowers the level of blood sugar so quickly that the cone snail’s prey becomes non-responsive. Then, its second component keeps blood sugar levels from recovering.

“We think the cone snail developed this highly selective toxin to work together with the insulin-like toxin to bring down blood glucose to a really low level,” said Dr. Ho Yan Yeung of the University of Utah, the study’s lead author.

She explained that the fact that several parts of the cone snail’s venom target blood sugar regulation hints that it could include many other molecules that do similar things.

“It means that there might not only be insulin and somatostatin-like toxins in the venom,” said Dr. Yeung. “There could potentially be other toxins that have glucose-regulating properties too.”

It may seem surprising that a snail is able to outperform the best human chemists in its drug design, but Prof. Safavi says that the cone snails have evolutionary time on their side.

“We’ve been trying to do medicinal chemistry and drug development for a few hundred years, sometimes badly.”

RECYCLING OYSTER SHELLS: Restaurants Find Companies to Take Their Spent Oyster Shells to Restore Oyster Reefs

“Cone snails have had a lot of time to do it really well—and they are just really good chemists.”

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Flintstones-like Home is Built Around 200 Million-Year-old Red Rock in Colorado–And is Now For Sale

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Aug 24, 2024

Flintstones home among Red Rock wide-SWNS-The Thayer Group — The 'Flintstones home' in Larkspur, Colorado – The Thayer Group / SWNS

The ‘Flintstones’ home in Larkspur, Colorado – The Thayer Group / SWNS

Check out this real life ‘Flintstones’ home, a property built around a giant 200 million-year-old red rock.

The two bedroom house in Larkspur, Colorado, has a unique style, with the boulder incorporated into the interior of the home—perfect for a geology (or Flintstones) fan.

The home, which is on the market for $989,900, is integrated with nature, nestled around a 45-foot-high section of one of Colorado’s beloved ancient red rocks.

The 2 bedroom-2 bath property boasts “Garden of the Gods” like surroundings, a picnic area, Milky Way views from the private hot tub, and all the peace and serenity a homeowner could wish for.

“Welcome to The Rock House,” the listing says.

“Entering through the pergola covered, double custom iron front doors, you will realize this isn’t your average home. It is perfectly integrated with nature.”

Up the first set of stairs is the guest suite with barn doors and modern bath—including a walk-in closet and additional bonus room.

The rock even protrudes into the office, to soothe your stress while working from home.

“Travel upstairs to the landing where you’ll find the home’s featured outdoor deck and viewing space—a large, two tiered deck that gives you breathtaking views.”

The 2,432 sq-ft property at 6619 Apache Place was listed this month (MLS 5031680) by Keller Williams Action Realty, The Thayer Group. See all the photos and more info, here.

CHECK OUT: A Real Life Barbie Dreamhouse For Sale on Zillow Goes Viral For Happy Seller in New Jersey

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

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Aug 24, 2024

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 August 24, 2024
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Now and then, zoologists decide that their classifications of species need to be revised and refined. For example, three subspecies of soft-furred, teardrop-shaped hedgehogs in Southeast Asia were recently elevated to distinct species of their own. They are no longer considered to be subspecies of Hylomys suillusbut, but are now named H. dorsalis, H. maxi, and H. peguensis. I bring this to your attention, Virgo, because I suspect that you, too, are ready for an upgrade to a new category all your own. It’s time for you to claim greater sovereignty. You will be wise to define how distinctive and unique you are, to distinguish yourself from influences that are superficially like you.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
When mega-famous artist Pablo Picasso was asked how he felt about NASA landing people on the moon in 1969, he said, “It means nothing to me. I have no opinion about it, and I don’t care.” I invite you to use his statement as one of your power mottoes in the coming weeks. Now is an excellent time to identify the experiences, influences, events, and people about which you have absolutely zero interest. Once you do that, I predict you will have a rush of clear revelations about the most interesting experiences, influences, events, and people you want in your future.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu made an observation that could serve as your watchword in the coming months. “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,” he wrote, “while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” In my astrological opinion, Scorpio, you are now primed to embody and express these states with unique intensity. If you embrace the inspiring challenge of loving deeply and being loved deeply, you will reach new heights of strength and courage.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Many musical instruments must be constantly adjusted to ensure they stay in tune. This usually means that the note A above middle C vibrates at 440 cycles per second—with all other notes tuned in relation to it. Having sung in bands for years, I have seen how guitarists, bass players, violinists, and even drummers have to continually attend to their tuning during performances. Imagine the diligent finesse it takes to keep an entire orchestra of many instruments in tune with each other. I suspect that one of your jobs in the coming weeks, Sagittarius, will have similarities to this kind of management and coordination.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Dancing is always good for you, but it will be extra healthy and energizing in the next four weeks. I hope you will be inspired to dance as often as possible, even if you just do it alone in your kitchen or bedroom while listening to music that moves you. Do you need rational explanations for why this is a good idea? OK, here are the hard facts: Dancing reduces stress, raises serotonin levels, enhances well-being, and is excellent physical exercise. Here’s another motivational reason: Dancing literally makes you smarter. Scientific research clearly says so. Furthermore: In the near future, you will be in a playful, sexy, exuberant phase of your astrological cycle.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
“Quo signo nata es?” is the Latin expression for What’s your sign? Did anyone in ancient Rome ever say that? Probably not, since it’s a modern idiom. However, astrology was very popular in that society and era. According to scholar Rhianna Padman in her essay Astrology in Ancient Rome, Romans “believed that the specific positions of celestial bodies at the moment of a person’s birth could greatly impact their life and character.” Back then, Thrasyllus of Mendes was a prominent astrologer who became a key advisor to Emperor Tiberius. Anyway, Aquarius, I bring “Quo signo nata es?” to your attention so as to inspire the following assignment: Update all your old favorite things. Put new spins on symbols and ideas that have served you for a long time. Take the best parts of your traditions and transplant them into the future.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
The coming weeks will be an excellent time to declare amnesty about all matters affecting your close alliances. Dissolve grudges, please. Tussle less, play more. Relax your demands and expectations—and nicely ask your companions to relax their demands and expectations. If possible, forgive others and yourself for everything; failing that, forgive as much of everything as feels right. You might even convene a ritual in which you and your intimate collaborators chant the following affirmation: “We are gleefully free to reimagine and reinvent the ways we fit together!”

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Some centenarians testify they have lived more than a century because they smoked many cigarettes, drank a lot of booze, and ate a steady diet of junk food. Should the rest of us adapt their habits? Of course not. The likelihood of remaining healthy while following such an unsound regimen is infinitesimal. Just because a few lucky people miraculously thrived like that is not a sound argument for imitating them. I bring this to your attention, Aries, because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to upgrade your commitment to healthy habits. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to love your body better, this is it.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Taurus stage magician Doug Henning had lavish ambitions. They served him well as he became a star performer in theater and on TV. “If I produce a 450-pound Bengal tiger,” he said, “it’s going to create a lot more wonder than if I produce a rabbit.” That’s the spirit I invite you to embrace in the coming weeks, Taurus. The cosmos is authorizing you to expand your understanding of what you can accomplish—and then accomplish it. Dream bigger dreams than you have previously dared.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
The color of planet Earth is predominantly blue with green, brown, and white mixed in. And for people all over the world, blue is more often their favorite color than any other. Why? In part because blue typically evokes peace, tranquility, security, and stability. It’s often used in therapeutic environments, since it makes us feel more at ease about expressing our feelings. I bring these thoughts to your attention, Gemini, because you are entering a blue phase of your cycle. It will be a favorable time to harvest the benefits of relaxing and slowing down. You are more likely to feel at home with yourself and accept yourself just as you are.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman, born under the sign of Cancer, says that 95 percent of our buying choices originate in our subconscious minds. Behavioral psychologist Susan Weinschenk believes 90 percent of all our decision-making is unconscious. But I propose that in the coming weeks, you increase the amount of conscious awareness you bring to sorting out your options. Cosmic energies will conspire in your favor if you do. You will receive unexpected boosts and generate creative enhancements if you resolve to rouse more lucid analysis and careful thoughtfulness.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
A wealthy hedge fund manager named Raj Rajaratnam paid Leo singer Kenny Rogers $4 million to perform at his epic birthday party. But the night turned nightmarish for Rogers when Rajaratnam insisted that he sing his hit song The Gambler over and over again. Finally, after 12 repetitions, Rogers refused to do more… I wonder if you, too, might soon have to deal with a situation that’s too much of a good thing. My advice: Make sure all agreements between you and others are clear and firm. Get a guarantee that you will receive exactly what you want, and don’t do more than you have promised.

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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“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson

Quote of the Day

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Aug 24, 2024

Quote of the Day: “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson

Photo by: Aaron Andrew Ang (Lake Lucerne, Switzerland)

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?

Plan a Trip to Alaska and Stay in These Classic Airplanes Converted into Luxury Accommodations (LOOK)

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Andy Corbley

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Aug 23, 2024

A flying instructor in Alaska, has taken on a second gig as manager of an “airplane amusement park” complete with luxury accommodations built out of old, decommissioned aircraft.

John Kotwicki says there’s little red tape interfering with getting old airplanes up to his flight school and converting them into Airbnbs to use as a base to explore southern Alaska’s incredible natural scenery.

He’s in the process of converting a third aircraft, while also building a cabin into the top of a runway control tower for unparalleled stargazing, a frisbee golf course, volleyball court, and authentic aircraft hanger to display the parts ripped out of the old airplanes.

Kotwicki runs the pilot school FLY8MA, but never wanted to go into commercial aviation because of how “boring” it was, remarking that driving for Uber is more exciting because you can talk to the passengers.

It was after a trip to the south-central area of Alaska that he fell in love with the state’s wilderness and wanted to move that way. His plan was to develop his own runway and facilities for flying, but it quickly became so much more, as he had to add cottages for the students, and then cottages for the tourists who came via word of mouth from the students to experience the remote southern Alaska terrain.

“And then, like, let’s one up that,” Kotwicki told CNN. “It would be cool if we got an old airplane to turn into a house. Let’s make it really nice and put a Jacuzzi on the wing and a barbecue grill. Let’s get two more and have three of them.”

Starting with a US-built 1950s DC-6, known as the C-118 Liftmaster in the Air Force, Kotwicki then set to work on a larger DC-9, and then a Boeing 727.

Featuring heated floors, heated towel racks, a fully functioning kitchen, and a firepit/BBQ on the wing which is also a deck, the DC-6 sleeps up to 4 and runs $441 per night.

The DC-9 will have a spa/sauna as well, and be able to sleep 6, while the 727 will be more like a lodge space, with a big dining hall, and a rooftop deck on the tailwing.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Spend the Night in a Giant Flower Pot – AirBnb is Funding The Most Off-Beat Lodgings

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME: Man Builds Cozy Treehouse to Post on AirBnB and Earns Enough to Quit His Job (LOOK)

“It’s fun, whether it’s grown adults just in awe of the place, or it’s kids running up and down the whole length of the airplane, going crazy and running to the cockpit,” Kotwicki said. “It’s frustrating and stressful and overwhelming and expensive to do these things – but it’s rewarding.”

The laundry, featuring exposed DC-9 skeleton

The property is all owned by Kotwicki and stretches out around 100 acres which he says has no zoning limitations whatsoever. The hardest part is finding the decommissioned planes to convert, which takes about 9 months of cold calling aviation acquaintances, and then transporting it up to Alaska on the highways.

Once there, the dampness and cold make it very difficult to maintain the planes, which are thin, light, and have to be specially insulated to keep the heat in for the guests. He admits it would have been a lot easier to do this sort of thing in Arizona, but the beauty and freedom of Alaska outweigh the maintenance requirements.

MORE CREATIVE AIRBNBS: Couple Builds Airbnb in Just 10 Days – The Stunning Airship is Now a Top-Requested Property

There are grizzly bear viewing spots, incredible fishing opportunities, a cross-country ski trail, the Northern Lights, and so much more surrounding the airstrip.

SHARE This Amazing Opportunity For a Getaway In Nature…

First-Ever Coral Crossbreeding Hopes to Mimic the Resilience of an ‘Invincible’ Reef in Honduras

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Andy Corbley

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Aug 23, 2024

honduras-corals-hero-940x529 — Cameron McMath, facilities manager for the Coral Reef Futures Lab, checks on the health of new corals collected recently from Tela Bay, Honduras. The brain and elkhorn corals are now in special tanks at the Rosenstiel School Photo: Diana Udel/University of Miami

Cameron McMath, facilities manager for the Coral Reef Futures Lab, checks on the health of new corals collected recently from Tela Bay, Honduras. The brain and elkhorn corals are now in special tanks at the Rosenstiel School. credit – Diana Udel/University of Miami.

Mere feet under the waters off the coast of the Honduran city of Tela lies a coral reef that has the entire marine scientific community excited.

The reef of Tela Bay should be dead if anything we know about coral reefs is true. The harms it faces are manifold, from warm waters to boat traffic to agricultural runoff and murky water.

Not only can the Tela reef survive these hazards, it thrives—as no other reef in the Caribbean thrives. On any given day, live coral cover in Tela is around 65%, almost four times more than the average for the Caribbean (18%).

Scientists are now working hard and fast to try and solve the mystery of why the Tela Reef seems partially invincible, and whether its secret sauce can be applied to other reefs at peril in the Gulf of Mexico.

Reporting at National Geographic and the University of Miami states that one of the things that stands out in the Tela Reef is the presence of elkhorn coral, a Critically Endangered species in the Caribbean. At Tela, whole fields of this coral can prosper and grow in the face of what appears to be the exact same conditions that recently devastated elkhorn coral cover in the Florida Keys.

“If elkhorn is going to survive in Florida, it’s going to need outside help,” Andrew Baker, a University of Miami marine scientist told Nat Geo. “That means we’re going to have to introduce diversity, ideally from a resilient population that’s dealing with the same conditions.”

“Last summer’s bleaching event showed that Florida’s elkhorn populations are struggling to deal with warming temperatures, so we hope that going further afield, to warmer places like Honduras, will help us produce the next generation of corals that will be able to deal with climate change,” he told his University Press.

Baker packs corals that he and students collected from the massive coral reefs in Tela Bay, off the coast of northern Honduras.

Chicken or the egg—coral or the urchin

Divers and scientists of all stripes have been down to Tela to study the reef and come up with ideas for how it’s so resilient. Several theories exist.

The first, developed by a local hotelier and diver, is that periodic flushes of very saline water from the Gulf cause mass die-offs of harmful bacteria and algae that can choke coral reefs. It’s plausible, but nearly impossible to study scientifically.

Another theory is more straightforward—fishermen avoid the reef because its richness presents small bait fish with innumerable hiding places, keeping larger species of game fish away.

A third and more exciting theory is that the coral at Tela contains a special variety of heat-resistant ‘symbionts’—the term for photophilic microorganisms that live inside coral cells and feed the coral with energy via photosynthesis.

There are many kinds of symbionts, Nat Geo claims, and coral can “shuffle” them around after stressful events. The corals of Tela may have a special symbiont that helps them cope with warmer, more acidic water.

Baker works in the Univ. of Miami’s Coral Reef Futures Lab, and the elkhorn coral samples that he and his team brought back from Honduras in the first-ever transportation of its kind are, in fact, dominated by a unique symbiont that displays heat resistance. The symbiont has been found in coral before, but never in whole reef systems.

There’s another aspect of Tela Bay that could account for the coral’s survival: the presence of long-spined sea urchins, a species that was decimated by a disease in the 1980s that saw 90% of the individuals die off. They graze on harmful algae and create spaces for coral to settle.

“It’s a real chicken and egg situation,” Dan Exton, a coral reef ecologist who has studied Tela, told Nato Geo. “What came first, the unusually high population of sea urchins or the exceptionally high abundance of corals?” he said, adding that the density of corals gives them ample space to hide and avoid predators.

DO YOU THINK THERE’S NO HOPE FOR CORAL?

It’s not clear to scientists whether the answer to the riddle of Tela is one or all or some of these theories, but they’re not waiting around to find out. There’s now a coral breeding center at Tela called Tela Marine, and the proprietor hopes that genetic footprints of Tela coral will begin to make their way onto every reef in the world.

The first step has been to bring samples of elkhorn to the University of Miami’s Coral Reef Futures Lab and the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, where the two institutions will be cross-breeding native Floridian elkhorn coral with those of Tela Bay.

“This is the first time that scientists have been able to import corals from very warm reefs overseas, with the goal of trying to breed those corals with Florida’s corals, to create offspring that have increased heat tolerance,” said Baker, who has been working to understand the biology of resilient corals for more than two decades.

The breeding is already underway, and four of the 13 Honduran elkhorn have not only spawned in captivity, which itself is a very difficult process, but crossbred with Florida corals.

Keri O’Neil, director and senior scientist of the coral conservation program at the Tampa aquarium, is confident they will have spawning as well later this summer.

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Postcard Finally Arrives in Swansea 121 Years After it Was First Sent–Quest to Find Descendants Begins

By

Andy Corbley

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Aug 23, 2024

This postcard was slipped into a mailbox, or perhaps was supposed to be, over 100 years ago, but has only just arrived.

Dated to 1903, the Christmas-themed postcard had the address for the Swansea Building Society’s Cradock Street branch, which still exists today, and the staff there hope to find the relatives of Miss Lydia Davis, to whom it was supposed to be mailed.

According to the BBC, Ewart, the sender, was expressing to “L” his regrets that he can’t “pick up” a “pair” of an unspecified thing.

With 10 shillings “in pocket money, not counting the train fare,” he continues, “I am doing alright”.

He ends the note by urging Lydia to “remember me to (Mssrs) Gilbert and John, with love to all.”

When asked about the tardy delivery, the Royal Mail said with surprising seriousness that “when an item is in our system, we are under obligation to deliver it to the correct address.”

“It is likely that this postcard was put back into our system rather than being lost in the post for over a century.”

Henry Darby, marketing and communications officer for Swansea Building Society, told the BBC that the card was delivered along with the normal mail, and that he had had no significant results in finding the relatives of “L” and the only lead they have to go on was that the rest of her family, including her father John F. Davis, had been identified. Lydia was 16 when the postcard was written.

“So we thought we’d pop it on our social media and thought maybe someone locally may be connected to her, a few generations down,” he said.

It remains to be seen what will come of the post. GNN will follow the story

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Surprising Sophistication of the Viking Legal Code Newly Discovered in Carved Runes

By

Andy Corbley

-

Aug 23, 2024

runes carved on Ring_from_Forsa-CC-SA-3 Sven Rosborn-cropped — Runes carved on The Ring from Forsa by Sven Rosborn, CC-SA-3.0

The Forsa Ring – Photo by Ulrika Eriksson/Svenska kyrkan, released

A recent reinterpretation of the oldest extant Viking legal text in Scandinavia has shed light on the surprising societal sophistication of these raiders and traders.

The text is from an iron ring found in Sweden dating to the 9th century, called the Varsa Ring

Though an undoubtedly strange place to post civic information about fines, the runic inscription emblazoned on an iron door handle was once believed to read that fines had to be paid with an ox and two öre of silver, or “uksa … auk aura tua.”

But auk has multiple meanings, one of which is “also” and Professor of Economic History at Stockholm University, Rodney Edvinsson, believes this means that fines could be paid with an ox, or two öre of silver.

Along with being a reminder that the fine print in legal speak, whether medieval or modern, should always be read carefully, the inscription’s new meaning captures the depth of societal cohesion that the often isolated and disparate communities of Scandinavia maintained, even as their members were constantly sailing off to raid or settle in other lands.

“This indicates a much more flexible system, where both oxen and silver could be used as units of payment. If a person had easier access to oxen than to silver, they could pay their fines with an ox. Conversely, if someone had silver but no oxen, they could pay with two öre of silver,” Professor Edvinsson told his university press.

A Northman who spent the majority of his time going abroad on the trade routes, or to plunder England, France, the Low Countries, or the Baltic states would find it far easier to get his hands on two öre of silver than on ox, considering his unstable lifestyle.

Indeed, tens of thousands of silver coins from all over Europe have been found at Viking trading settlements like Birka and Gotland, where, along with honestly obtained goods, those stolen from royal or monastic settlements in Europe, or from other Scandinavian kings and jarls who would certainly be wanting to recover them, could be fenced.

Runes carved on The Ring from Forsa by Sven Rosborn, CC-SA-3.0

However, for a sedentary Scandinavian who fished or farmed, two öre of silver would be a significant quantity of money, representing months of labor, and could therefore be avoided by the payment of an oxen.

“The valuation of an ox at two öre, or 50 grams of silver, in 10th-century Sweden resembles contemporary valuations in other parts of Europe, indicating a high degree of integration and exchange between different economies,” says Rodney Edvinsson. One öre was likely equivalent to about nine Arabic dirhams, a currency that circulated in large quantities among the Vikings.

The Icelandic family sagas written in the 13th century by the legendary Norse writer Snorri Sturlsson constantly narrative scenes involving the Norse law codes that capture how these simple yet honored legal customs could resolve disputes across all the disparate Scandinavian proto-states, city-states, and communes separated even as they were by mountains, ocean, and ice.

MUST-READ STORIES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE VIKINGS:

Women had a panoply of rights above and beyond what most women in Europe at the time enjoyed. Men who committed property crimes were forced to pay for the property they took or destroyed with an equivalent from their own stock. If they couldn’t pay or refused to, the ‘Thing,’ or jury, may declare that the criminal lost legal protections on a certain amount of his property. This often led to a culture of bounty hunting, but could nevertheless quickly resolve property disputes if the criminal went to sea to try and escape justice.

Repeated criminal offenses could lead to all the man’s property being forfeited to the community, or even of the man himself being declared an exile, at which point even his murder was permitted by law—though this was rarely done if the case did not itself involve murder.

This simple recourse to community-established norms predated both the Magna Carta and therefore English Common Law, and indeed is one of the foundational legal systems of modern Europe. It served to satisfy community members’ needs for legal recourse and mediation, and could be quickly adapted to suit any community of Norsemen whether far afield or right at home.

The price mechanisms for fines fit perfectly into this paradigm of ensuring that fair compensation for anti-social behavior could be obtained reasonably quickly regardless of which profession the lawbreaker practiced.

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“I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.” – Emma Goldman

Quote of the Day

By

Good News Network

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Aug 23, 2024

Quote of the Day: “I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.” – Emma Goldman

Photo by: Yuliia Dementsova

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?

Manuka Honey Reduces Breast Cancer Cell Growth by 84% in Human Cells and Mice

By

Andy Corbley

-

Aug 22, 2024

Honey has all manner of often-hidden medicine-like qualities, but more eyes will certainly be falling on Manuka honey after it was recently shown to reduce the proliferation of breast cancer cells.

It did so in a sophisticated manner that even resulted in the occasional triggering of natural cell death, or apoptosis, a mechanism that’s bypassed as a malignant cell becomes cancerous.

Manuka honey is made by bees that feed on the nectar of the manuka tree from New Zealand and coastal Australia. This member of the Myrtle family is a cousin to other plants that yield powerful medicinal products like clove, allspice, and eucalyptus.

In a study published in the journal Nutrients, investigators at the UC Los Angeles Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that Manuka honey significantly reduced tumor growth in mice with ER-positive breast cancer cells by 84% without affecting normal breast cells or causing major side effects.

ER-positive breast cancer makes up around 60-70% of all breast cancer cases in a given year.

It’s thought that Manuka honey is unique compared to all other commercially produced kinds of honey because of its unique chemical composition. Manuka honey has been found to be antibacterial—and not just for the bacteria a parent worries about when their child scrapes their knee—but of the kinds that cause the infections typical in cystic fibrosis patients.

“The findings provide hope for [the] development of a natural, less toxic alternative to traditional chemotherapy,” said Dr. Diana Márquez-Garbán, associate professor of medicine at UCLA, and the study’s lead author.

“Although more research is necessary to fully understand the benefits of natural compounds in cancer therapy, this study establishes a strong foundation for further exploration in this area.”

In ER-positive breast cancer, tumor cells use estrogen to grow. To combat the tumors, breast cancer patients take estrogen blockers as a non-toxic way of trying to starve them. However, cancer tumors are sometimes able to develop resistance to such treatments, leaving chemotherapy as the only alternative.

NUTRACEUTICAL NEWS: Keep Out All the Christmas Spices – They’re Powerful Antioxidants Known as ‘Nutraceuticals’

During experiments with human cancer cells in vitro, the researchers found that the best anti-cancer response was when Manuka honey was combined with the common anti-estrogen drug tamoxifen. In these circumstances, the ER-positive cell proliferation was markedly suppressed, and the combination also significantly inhibited the growth of triple-negative breast cancer, another common form, which the honey by itself could only do modestly.

In vivo experiments were then conducted in mice, during which they observed the 84% reduction in cell proliferation quoted above.

MORE MEDICINAL USES OF HONEY: Hospitals Could Use Honey and Vinegar as Antibiotic for ‘Low-Cost’ Wound Care

“These findings indicate that natural compounds such as Manuka honey, with significant antitumor activity and selectivity towards hormone receptor-positive breast cancers, may be further developed as a supplement or potential alternative to cytotoxic anticancer drugs that have more non-selective adverse effects,” the researchers concluded.

Manuka honey from New Zealand must undergo a five-stage process called the Mānuka Honey Science Definition test developed by the Ministry of Primary Industries to ensure all honey made for export is standardized to certain chemical and physical characteristics.

MORE MEDICINAL USES OF HONEY: Honey Added to Yogurt Bolsters its Bacterial Benefits–a Classic Greek Dessert Turned Medicine

This includes the presence of naturally occurring methylglyoxal, dihydroxyacetone, and leptosperin, as well as traces of the DNA of the Manuka plant. Without these, it is illegal to call a product Manuka honey. The Australian AMHA and the New Zealand UMFHA, are organizations of producers that do their part to ensure that any product labeled Manuka honey meets the standard to be called as such.

These guilds have marks of authenticity that consumers can look for to know the medicinal honey they are buying is genuine, as the amount of counterfeit Manuka honey in the market is estimated to be 6 times the amount of authentic Manuka honey.

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Editor’s note: This story has been corrected from a previous version to reflect that cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that increases patients vulnerability to bacteria.

Rare ‘Doomsday’ Fish Surfaces in California–Just the 20th Discovered in the State Since 1901

By

Andy Corbley

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Aug 22, 2024

Oarfish-Regalecus glesne-credit Michael Wang and Scripps Institution of Oceanography — Oarfish (Regalecus glesne) by Michael Wang / Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Oarfish (Regalecus glesne) by Michael Wang / Scripps Institution of Oceanography

A group of what only can be described as ‘brave’ kayakers and snorkelers saw a giant shape floating in the water ahead of them, and paddled towards it to record the sighting of an incredible species.

On a recreational paddle near La Jolla Cove, California, they had found an oarfish (Regalecus glesne)—an omen of destruction and chaos—a species of legend—and one that’s adapted to live in deeper depths in the open ocean.

Only 20 oarfish have washed up in California since 1901, according to a Facebook post from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and fortunately, this particular carcass was found by a group of people who work in marine sciences.

Smithsonian Institute reports that the five seagoers contacted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Service and California Sea Grant (a collaboration between the federal government, the state of California, and California’s universities) and then enlisted the help of some passing paddleboarders as well as the lifeguards on duty to bring this 12-foot monster of the deeps to the kayak landing.

IF YOU LOVE THE DEEP OCEAN: Thar’ Be a Kraken! First Video Footage of a Possible Colossal Squid in its Own Habitat Captured

Let’s talk about this species: which may be the most interesting fish in the sea. It holds the Guinness World Record for being the longest bony fish after a specimen was seen swimming off Asbury Park, New Jersey, by a team of scientists from the Sandy Hook Marine Laboratory in 1963 estimated to measure 50 feet (15.2 meters) in length.

The longest photographed oarfish was 27 feet long, more than twice the size of this most recent one found in La Jolla Cove.

credit – Catalina Island Marine Institute, via Guinness World Records

The incredible length of this animal, its tendency to spend most of its time between 700 to 3,000 feet down under, and the fact that it also occasionally comes to the surface, have led many to pinpoint it as the origin of all sea serpent mythology, as they live in all oceans apart from the poles.

Above, readers will have seen it referred to as the Doomsday Fish, a moniker that arises from Japanese mythology where its nickname is “ryugu no tsukai” which translates to “Messenger from the Sea God’s Palace”.

Sea God Ryūjin, according to a report from USA Today published last year in the wake of incredible diver footage of an oarfish off the coast of Taiwan, sends the oarfish to the surface to warn of impending earthquakes. There were sightings of the fish ahead of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake which caused the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster.

🌊 Last weekend, some lucky kayakers and snorkelers came across a rare deep-sea dwelling fish in La Jolla Cove. The seagoers spotted a 12-foot #oarfish and to give you an idea of how rare this encounter is, only 20 oarfish have washed up in California since 1901! pic.twitter.com/fDL3AWPOFq
— Scripps Institution of Oceanography (@Scripps_Ocean) August 14, 2024

The La Jolla oarfish surfaced two days before a 4.4-magnitude earthquake rattled Los Angeles.

Scientists from NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Scripps Oceanography will perform a necropsy to see if they can determine a cause of death.

MORE INCREDIBLE OCEAN WONDERS: Giant 7-foot Sunfish Found on Oregon Beach Turns Out to Be Rarest Member of the Species

After the necropsy, the specimen will find a home in the Scripps Marine Vertebrate Collection—one of the largest collections of deep-sea fish in the world—where scientists will be able to further study this mysterious species.

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The World’s Oldest Human Gives Us the Best Advice, Before She Dies at 117 Years

By

Andy Corbley

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Aug 22, 2024

Maria Branyas Morera-released — Credit: Guinness World Records

“Order, tranquility, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets;” might these be a string of virtues that the Stoics strove to obtain in Classical Greece and Rome?

No, not quite. They were entries in the list of all the things that have contributed to Maria Branyas Morera’s long life of 117 years of age, along with “good connection with family and friends, lots of positivity, and staying away from toxic people.”

The (how about this for a word) ondecagenarian was the oldest person alive until she passed away at her nursing home in Catalonia, Spain on August 19th, having lived to meet 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Unlike many alive today, Morera saw the advent of mass communication as a positive, because it allowed her to keep in touch with people located across distances she long ago lost the ability to cover, and also share her knowledge with the world.

With the help of her daughter, she was particularly fond of taking to Twitter, now X, to share her pearls of wisdom grown over a long and prosperous life.

In many cases, these involve how she managed to live so long, which certainly never involved not taking risks or avoiding danger. Born in San Francisco, USA to immigrants from Catalonia who came over on a boat, she was 8 years old when she returned with her mother to her ancestral home where she lived ever after.

Her father died of tuberculosis contracted on the voyage to America, but his daughter survived the crossing in reverse via the Azores as a way to avoid the guns of the First World War. She survived the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish Flu, both World Wars, and briefly became the world’s oldest COVID-19 survivor when she contracted the virus at 113 years old.

On the first day of 2023, she tweeted: “Life is not eternal for anyone… At my age, a new year is a gift, a humble celebration, a new adventure, a beautiful journey, a moment of happiness. Let’s enjoy life together.”

Her opnions are not all sunshine and rainbows with a glass of wine, however. For example, on July 9th, 2023, she warned that the rising rates of dementia in Western society isn’t just a challenge to public health, but to the very fabric of society.

“The great heritage of the old is the world of memory. We are our memories,” she tweeted. In an interview with the the Observer, she said that the pandemic revealed that the elderly are society’s outcast and forgotten.

MORE WISOM FROM OUR ELDERS: At 96 He May Be Britain’s Oldest Worker–And He Has No Plans to Retire: ‘You can’t sit back…Keep going’

Morera also felt that today the emphasis on money and material possessions was too great, and it worried her in general.

On August 20th, her family tweeted that she had passed away in her sleep, adding that she told them shortly before her death: “I don’t know when, but very soon this long journey will come to an end. Death will find me worn down from having lived so much, but I want it to find me smiling, free, and satisfied.”

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Build Zigzag Patterns On Exterior Walls to Keep Buildings Cooler During Heat Waves

By

Andy Corbley

-

Aug 22, 2024

Structural engineers have discovered that if you build an apartment building with angled, shark-fin-shaped protrusions on the side where the Sun’s heat is the strongest, the angles keep the building cooler.

It’s one of a variety of simple new building and design elements being proposed for a world where July and August routinely feature stories of droughts, heat waves, and temperature records.

From the dawn of time, humans have been forced to live in hot environs. From the dawn of construction, humans have figured out how to build buildings in a way that takes advantage of thermodynamics to cool them naturally. Many of these are delightful architectural features visible in buildings from antiquity such as the Roman amphitheaters, the Taj Mahal, and the wind towers of Yazd.

Much of that planning was ignored with the advent of the modern age, and homes, whether those of the lower-middle class or the upper-middle class, took on the same character of modular boxes exposed to the mercy of any element that batters them.

In a study from Purdue and Colombia universities, researchers sought to find a simple way to retrofit boxy buildings with features that could help keep them cooler amid rising global temperatures.

One issue their research encountered is that heat hits most urban buildings from two angles—from the sun, and the ground, where cement and asphalt absorb heat and radiate it upwards all day.

“These two directions require different properties for cool walls,” says Qilong Cheng, a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue University who worked on the study as a graduate student at Columbia University. “So we have this two-surface zigzag design, with one surface facing the sky and the other facing the ground.”

The angles, looking a little like the sawtooth roofs of factory rooms, can shave 5.5° Fahrenheit off average indoor temperatures.

Radiation coming up from the ground is reduced or deflected by one material, while heat from the sun is reflected with ultra-white paint.

OTHER INNOVATIVE COOLING METHODS: Stunning ‘House of Arches’ Uses Gorgeous Geometry to Keep Three Generations Cool in Rajasthan’s Heat

Cheng and his colleagues are now looking to patent the design and turn it into a product, perhaps made of corrugated iron which they used in their study and found could reduce HVAC energy usage by 14%.

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“Love is a great beautifier.” – Louisa May Alcott

Quote of the Day

By

Good News Network

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Aug 22, 2024

Quote of the Day: “Love is a great beautifier.” – Louisa May Alcott

Photo by: Fernando Jiménez – licensed under CC BY-SA

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?

Stray Pup Chases a Doggie Day-Care Bus and Gets Adopted

By

Andy Corbley

-

Aug 21, 2024

imrs (2) — Nellie, left, and Waylon ride the Keller Creek Boarding and Grooming pup bus in Franklin County, Ga. On July 16, Waylon — a stray dog — chased after the bus. He was later adopted by one of the day care's clients. (Keller Creek Boarding and Grooming)

Nellie, left, and Waylon ride the Keller Creek Boarding and Grooming pup bus in Franklin County, Georgia. Waylon was later adopted by one of the daycare’s clients. (Keller Creek Boarding and Grooming)

A determined Lab has found a new home in Georgia after galloping alongside a doggie daycare bus until he won over the driver and found a new home.

In Franklin County, the story begins when the driver of the ‘pup bus’ was doing his rounds to bring clients’ dogs to daycare.

Coming to a house he knew well, a Labrador retriever who had been attending Keller Creek Boarding and Grooming for three years named Motley was waiting for the bus like normal, but this time he had a friend.

Tyson Cash, the owner of Keller Creek, contacted Motley’s owners to ask who the new arrival was, but to his double surprise, the owners said they had not adopted any new dogs.

They added, however, that a stray Lab had been in the area for a few days and neighbors were feeding and occasionally letting it stay on their property. Keller Creek is a reputable doggie daycare center, and Cash couldn’t take the risk of letting a stray onboard. So after loading Motley, he closed the door.

“I didn’t know about his vaccination status. I didn’t know if he was on flea and tick prevention,” said Cash. “I didn’t want to jeopardize all the other dogs, [but] he wanted on the bus badly. He was doing everything he could to get on with the other dogs.”

Steeling himself, he drove off, but the yellow Lab gave chase. Heart aching, Cash asked his wife to take a video and photo of the dog alongside the bus to post on social media to see if anyone in the area knew who his owners were.

A crazy dog dad through and through, Cash was pondering if there were any way he could find room in his house—filled with 9 other pooches as things stood—for this dog desperate for company. But fate, fortune, and a friendly soul stayed Cash’s hand.

Also onboard the pup bus was Nellie, another yellow Lab, whose owner saw the Facebook post and felt even worse than Cash did.

“To see a dog so desperate to catch a ride was very heartbreaking,” she told the Washington Post. “I thought, I’ve got to reach out and see if anybody has a home for this dog. If not, I want him.”

NEED MORE STORIES ABOUT DOG LOVE?

Ask and you shall receive. Pearce was put in contact with a woman who had been allowing the stray to stay on her property—she called him Waylon, but her two dogs were entering heat, so she had to cast him off yet again.

Pearce and her boyfriend went to bring the dog to the vet as he was in bad shape; covered in ticks and fleas, and suffering from malnourishment. They also found that Waylon had a microchip—the manufacturer of which was able to organize a transfer of ownership from the previous owners to Pearce without the latter learning anything about the former.

Nellie, left, snuggling with Waylon credit – Sadie Peace

Now Nellie and Waylon are the best of friends, following each other everywhere, and the Pearce home has become one of joy and cuddles.

Last week, Waylon finally got his wish—a ride on the pup bus when he climbed aboard alongside his new sister much to Cash’s delight, who said it was the best ending to the story anyone could have hoped for.

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Planting This Grass Could Yield a Bumper Crop in Flood Plains and Stop Coastal Erosion

By

Andy Corbley

-

Aug 21, 2024

Spartina patens also known as Salt Hay - Photo Dana FilippiniNational Park Service

Rising sea levels and coastal erosion are threatening farmers on America’s mid-Atlantic coast, but a crop from colonial times may be the future harvest in places like Delaware and New Jersey.

The issue is that more and more mid-Atlantic farmland is becoming inundated with salt making crops like corn and soy ungrowable, but a group of grasses colloquially known as ‘salt hay’ can not only grow in saltier fields, but has been used as fodder to give northern France’s lamb a distinctive salty flavor.

The lamb is sold as “pre-salted” because the grasses on which the lambs are grazing grow on salty marshes and plains near the coast.

A study published in Nature found that between 2011 and 2017, visible salt patches almost doubled across land along the Delmarva Peninsula, and over 20,000 acres of farmlands were converted to marsh. The range of economic losses was estimated between $39.4 million and $107.5 million annually under circumstances where farmers abandoned corn and soy altogether.

Farmers need crops that are salt tolerant if they are to continue their livelihoods, and salt hay is not an entirely forgotten option as it was farmed at scale in New Jersey as recently as 1975. However, harvesting salt hay is just too much trouble for most farmers because it grows on marshy ground where tractors and machines are liable to get stuck.

Ambrook Research, a financial and operations planning firm for farmers and agriculturalists, found that salt hay may be on the brink of a renaissance, as some farmers on the mid-Atlantic coast are working to revive the age-old crop with modern harvesting techniques, particularly because it has so many uses.

“I have documentation of salt hay harvests on our farm dating back to the 1600s,” said John Zander, whose Cohansey Meadows Farms is perched on the Delaware Bay in New Jersey. Spartina patens, the native species of what’s officially called salt meadow cordgrass, has been identified by Zander and others as being once used for building insulation, as packing material, and as an additive to concrete.

It has also been used for paper, textiles, fodder for animals, and because it’s naturally free of seeds and weeds because of its strangulating root system, as a premium mulch for flower beds.

Ambrook Research spoke to Zander who said he has been experimenting with different planting, propagation, and harvesting methods. In his father and grandfather’s day, salt hay was harvested after a deep freeze allowed light machinery to traverse the marshes, but such frosts don’t happen these days. Instead, Zander has been growing it in salt-contaminated fields inland of where the salt hay would typically grow naturally, and says it’s producing “prolifically.”

AGRICULTURE DONE BETTER:

“We’re cutting it out now like basically rolls of sod,” he said. “We either cut it into plugs or leave it in bigger mats, and it can be transplanted that way.”

Scott Snell, an agronomist at the Cape May Plant Materials Center, told Ambrook that he is interested in salt hay for its secondary benefit: as an anchor to prevent coastal soil erosion.

“These salt meadow cordgrasses are natural buffers. They help to prevent runoff and erosion, so you’re capturing nutrients and reducing soil loss from wind and water erosion,” he said.

Zander agrees, saying the root system is simply impervious.

“It just really grips on. I think if we can get some of that into places where we’re having erosion problems, it might be pretty beneficial to some of these coastal farms and towns.”

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