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Ancient Stone-Lined Basin Discovered at Roman Town Reveals Engineering Brilliance Predating Concrete

By
Andy Corbley
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The stone-lined basin in Gabii - credit, University of Missouri, released
The stone-lined basin in Gabii – credit, University of Missouri, released

A massive, early republican-era water basin was recently uncovered in the ancient Roman town of Gabii, central Italy, that was constructed without concrete.

While architectural students from around the world come to marvel at the Romans’ structures of marble, brick, and self-healing concrete, this basin was made of meticulously stacked stones in harmony with the local topography.

Gabii was inhabited by a pre-Roman Italian tribe that eventually abandoned the site, some 11 miles away from the Eternal City, by 50 BCE, and it’s been under excavation since 2009. Unlike Rome, where the ancient foundations have been overbuilt throughout the last 2,000 years, Gabii remains largely as it was.

Like Pompeii, Gabii yields new discoveries frequently, and most recently it was this stone basin that captured headlines. Partly carved into the bedrock, it was likely made around 250 BCE, but could be as old as 400 BCE. It’s the first example of monumental stonework found at Gabii that isn’t a fortification or temple.

“Basins like this are rare, and this one predates Roman concrete and hydraulic mortar. Its design also shows how ancient engineers used the natural slope of the land—part of the ancient volcanic crater that Gabii was built next to—to its advantage,” says Marcello Mogetta, chair of classics, archaeology, and religion at the University of Missouri, who leads the team excavating the site currently.

The builders’ choices to use such durable materials and work in concert with the slope of the hill below which it was built demonstrate a substantial knowledge of how to engineer structures to last—in this case literally through the ages.

“Excavating the original soil at the bottom will tell us whether it was fed by a spring or the water table and whether it was mainly for practical uses—supplying water to nearby buildings—or had a symbolic or sacred function,” Mogetta told Engineering News Record.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Tiny Italian Town Dug Up an Extremely Rare Roman Temple while Trying to Build Supermarket

Roman roads are famous for their engineering excellence. The Romans built the final layer of the road—the cobbles—like a wall, by stacking stones that fit together naturally. The basin on the surface seems to exhibit similar stone-stacking methods.

The Temple of Juno, from the rear – credit, Carlo Morino, CC BY-SA 3.0

The University of Missouri holds a 3-year permit for excavation at the site under the Gabii Project, launched in 2009 by the Univ. of Michigan with the aim of conducting a geophysical survey of the former urban center of Gabii.

Previously, the only above ground evidence of any note were several walls of a temple dedicated to Juno, but following the survey, large-scale unearthing was performed over the twenty-teens that revealed substantial portions of several ancient city blocks.

MORE PRE-ROMAN DISCOVERIES: Archaeologists Find 24 Bronze Statues ‘Without Equal’ Preserved in Tuscany for 2,300 Years That ‘Rewrite History’

In regards to the basin, Mogetta believes that it likely had a ceremonial use, based on finds of pottery and oil lamps discovered very nearby.

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A 9-Year-Old Son Saves His Father from Leukemia by Donating Stem Cells

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Andy Corbley
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Nick Mondek with his family after the stem cell procedure - Credit: Cedars-Sinai
Nick Mondek with his family after the stem cell procedure – Credit: Cedars-Sinai

A boy in California may have saved his father from a deadly returning cancer by becoming one of if not the world’s youngest stem cell donor.

9-year-old Stephen Mondek from Torrance loves playing catch with his dad, Nick, who himself loves nothing more than being a father.

In 2022 Mr. Mondek was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, and had to be treated rapidly with an injection of donor stem cells from his older brother who was a perfect genetic match.

He went into remission but the cancer came back “ferociously fast,” and Mondek’s only option was that he had to find another stem cell donor. This form of leukemia affects the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow, but an injection of stem cells can form the basis of a new immune arsenal that can locate and attack the leukemia tumors.

A search through the National Bone Marrow Registry failed to turn up a match, but remembering the case of a friend of his, Mondek went into Cedars-Sinai Cancer center in April with a question to his doctors. He was remembering the case of a friend of his who received a lifesaving stem cell donation from his 18-year-old son to cure lymphoma.

“As my doctor came in the room, I said, ‘Could a 9-year-old who’s 70 pounds give us enough stem cells?’” Mondek said to NBC Nightly News.

Ronald Paquette, the clinical director of the Stem Cell and Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, confirmed that Stephen Mondek who turned 10 back in August, was a possible donor. A child receives half of their DNA from each parent, so Stephen would naturally be a half-match.

Reporting on the story itself, Cedars-Sinai wrote that Paquette said a half-match might make the transplant more effective. A half-matched immune system might more easily recognize and kill the cancer cells in Mondek’s bone marrow, and transplants from younger donors tend to be most successful.

“The conversation with Stephen was pretty simple,” Mondek said. “I said, ‘Hey, Buddy, Dad’s sick and they need someone to give me stem cells, and they want to know if you want to get tested to see if you can do it.’”

Stephen’s response: “When do we go?”

“I wanted to make my dad’s cancer go away, and if I was sick, I would think he would do the same thing for me,” Stephen said.

CANCER BEING BEATEN: After Childhood Cancer Diagnosis, Donor Bone Marrow from Little Sister Sends it into Remission

After confirming that Stephen was a suitable match, he had the procedure explained to him so that he could give his own informed consent before visiting Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s Hospital for the donation that required general anesthesia. The stem cells were collected via a process of blood cycling over 6 hours.

A week later, Mondek underwent pre-donation chemotherapy to suppress his own immune system before eventually receiving the stem cells. After 6 weeks in the hospital, he was back home, but not before arriving in time to watch the final inning of Stephen’s little league game.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS ONE: British Woman Gives Birth After Receiving Transplant Womb from Sister and Pro Bono Surgery at Hospital

“Stephen was very brave, and our team made sure everything went perfectly so that this young boy could help his father,” said Hoyoung Chung, DO, a critical care pediatrician at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s.

“He donated six million stem cells to save my life, so it’s not just an honor to call him my son, I’m proud to call him my hero,” Mondek said.

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“To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.” – Robert Muller

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Good News Network
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Credit: Joshua Earle for Unsplash+

Quote of the Day: “To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.” – Robert Muller

Photo by: Joshua Earle for Unsplash+ (Scottish Isle of Skye – cropped)

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

Credit: Joshua Earle
for Unsplash+

Good News in History, October 30

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Good News Network
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52 years ago today, the Bosporus Bridge was completed, linking mainland Europe with Anatolia over the Bosporus Straits for the first time. It’s a gravity-anchored suspension bridge with steel towers and inclined hangers, and upon its completion was the 4th longest suspension bridge in the world. READ more famous historical figures who had proposed such a bridge… (1973)

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Childbirth and Breastfeeding Can Reduce Breast Cancer Risk Shows New Study

By
Andy Corbley
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- credit Leighann Blackwood
– credit Leighann Blackwood

Scientists in Australia, which endures the highest rates of breast cancer in the world, have presented multiple lines of evidence to suggest that breastfeeding and childbearing reduces a woman’s risk for developing breast cancer.

The scientists started by first pointing out that as far back as 300 years ago, people noted that women who didn’t have children—nuns, in this case—suffered from the highest rates of breast cancer in society.

More modern research confirmed these early observations, but the mechanism behind why that might be remained hidden. While previously hypothesized to be the work of hormonal shifts, the answer now seems clear: breastfeeding works on the human immune system.

“Pregnancy and breastfeeding leave behind long-lived protective immune cells in the breast and the body, and these cells help to reduce risk and improve defense against breast cancer, particularly triple-negative breast cancer,” Professor Sherene Loi, a medical oncologist and lead author on the research, told ABC News Au.

Triple-negative breast cancer, one of several forms of the disease, is characterized by an absence of the three receptors commonly found on breast cancer cells. It’s common in younger women but is one of the less-common forms of the cancer, as well as the most lethal.

Cancer risk is determined by many factors, but Loi felt confidant is ascribing the decision by many modern women around the world to delay pregnancy and shorten, or even abandon breastfeeding, as contributing to cancer risk.

A study published last week in Nature found that women who had children and breastfed had more T cells in their breast tissue, which “act like local guards, ready to attack abnormal cells that might turn into cancer,” Loi said.

T cells are those which are activated to fight cancer in the Nobel Prize-winning treatment known as CAR-T cell therapy, and these were found to be more plentiful in the breast tissue of women who breastfed or had children, and that these elevated T cell counts were conserved for years and years after the mother had stopped breastfeeding.

To provide additional controls, Professor Loi and her co-authors performed a test with mice, implanting cancerous cells in the mammary fat of animals that had never reared offspring, that were rearing them, or who had had and finished rearing them.

Group 2 showed smaller tumor growth with a higher T cell count, while group 3—those who had reared and weened pups—showed the smallest tumors. To continue their tests, the scientists removed the T cells from the mammary tissue, and the cancer began to grow and spread unabated.

Lastly, the study presented an analysis on 2 papers totaling 1,000 women with triple-negative breast cancer to see if the effect in mice was replicated in humans.

SUPERMOMS:

“What we found is that women who had breastfed did better than those who had not breastfed, and their tumors actually had more immune cells … suggesting there was ongoing immune activation and regulation from the body against their breast cancer,” Professor Loi told ABC. 

Though quantifying this protective effect is very nuanced, it seems that every child a woman has reduces her risk for breast cancer by 7%, and each 5 months of breastfeeding reduces it by an additional 2%.

These are substantial differences when the average rate of breast cancer incidence is about 1 in 8 women.

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Toddler Safe After German Shepherd Tracks Her for Hours in Cold Dense Woods

By
Andy Corbley
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Credit: Jeremy Corson
Credit: Jeremy Corson

A volunteer and his 7-year-old German shepherd named after a goddess have been hailed as heroes for finding a lost toddler amid plummeting temperatures.

In Dorchester, New Hampshire, temps were passing 40 on route to an expected 20°F when a mother called 911 to frantically explain that her 2-year-old daughter and the family dogs were missing.

A hole where a wooden fence joined a metal wire fence told of clever canines and a curious child in tow.

At 3:15 p.m. on October 10th, the word went out to fire and rescue, state and local police, and volunteer teams, and soon 90 people were scouring the deep woods looking for the child.

“Everybody dropped what they were doing and came over extremely quickly knowing the temperature was dropping,” Sgt. Christopher McKee of New Hampshire Fish and Game told the Washington Post. “They are all volunteers, doing this all on their own time … the sheer outpouring of support was incredible.”

One man who showed up though made off with the headlines. Jeremy Corson from Concord, almost 40 miles away, arrived with Freyja, a trained scent tracking dog to lend a hand, a heart, and a nose to the search.

It is, Corson said, his 13th year of volunteering as a search and rescue personnel in these situations. He described the woods as very thick where one couldn’t see more than a few feet in any direction.

While Corson and Freyja hunted, the two family dogs returned home, worrying the rescue teams that time was running out. There were no more warm bodies or good company for the toddler, and the Sun was going down. On the bright side, it meant they were likely looking in the right area.

Corson told the Post that it isn’t as easy as it looks working with a rescue dog—just giving an old piece of clothing for it to smell and then running off into the woods.

“The dog and the handler are very much a team,” Corson said. “We do the human part of it, figuring out how the wind moves and how to move through the area — and the dog provides the nose … she brought us right into it.”

MORE HEROIC DOGS AND VOLUNTEERS: Dogs Are Being Trained to Track Elusive Spotted Lanternfly and Save Crops from Devastation

That she did. At about 8 p.m., while Freyja went along nose to the ground, Corson heard a voice respond as he was calling out the toddler’s name. They found her and she was very happy to see them, thinking Corson was her father.

At home the mother was overwhelmed and “broke down.” All the rescuers were relieved and there was a sense of elation in the air. The toddler declared she was ready for night-night, though her parents agreed it was wise to take her to the hospital to check for hypothermia and other injuries.

Corson was extremely proud of his dog, and bought her a brand new ball as a reward.

GREAT SCENT TRACKING DOGS: These Welsh Puppies are Helping Stop Wildlife Poachers in Africa

The comment section was awash with praise for the man and his dog.

“What a wonderful story. The bond between the dog and handler is amazing,” wrote one, while many others admitted it reaffirmed their love for one of the most famous of all working dog breeds.

SHARE This Searched And Rescued Story With Your Friends In The Mid-Atlantic… 

Family Finds Trove of Rare Tudor Coins Buried in Backyard–Now They Can Sell at Auction

By
Andy Corbley
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- credit, Numismatica Ars Classica
– credit, Numismatica Ars Classica

English news headlines are no stranger to buried treasure. Thousands of silver coins have been found by citizens up and down the country over the last 50 years.

Gold ones, however, are substantially rarer, and that makes this haul of 69 gold coins from the Tudor dynasties of 15th and 16th-century England one of the most incredible in decades.

Found embedded in a patch of clay under a garden during fence maintenance at a family’s home in the south England coastal area of Hampshire, the haul was kept secret from the public while its discovery was reported to the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme.

With 63 coins found in 2020, archaeologists eventually visited the property and turned up another 6 nearby a year later.

Now, on November 5th, the treasure, called the New Forest Hoard, will be sold by the Swiss coin auctioneer and appraiser Numismatica Ars Classica. Smithsonian Magazine reported the current valuation to be over $300,000.

The hoard includes coins from the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, Henry VII, and Henry VIII, and examples also carried the names of two of the latter’s wives and the initials of a third. According to the auction catalogue, the collection is the “only complete and fully documented gold coin hoard from the early Tudor period ever to have been sold at auction.”

“Four kings, two queens and one cardinal are named on coins in the hoard,” numismatist and business owner David Guest told Fox News Digital. “I am very confident that the total price realized will be significantly more than the pre-sale estimate.”

A HOARD OF HOARDS:

“While we will never know why and by whom the hoard was buried, it was almost certainly concealed during the tumultuous first phase of the English Reformation, when Henry VIII was dissolving England’s ancient monasteries and appropriating much of the wealth of the Catholic Church,” Guest said.

This chapter in English history saw the country briefly break relations with the Vatican, and many churches likely attempted to hide their wealth in hopes of reclaiming it during calmer times.

A workable strategy from the dawn of hard currency to our present day, the burying one’s gold or silver when at risk will always represent a decent guess as to any particular item’s provenance.

SHARE This Incredible Find And Windfall For Your Average English Family…

Peg–Legged Lizards Lead a Pirate’s Life On Caribbean Islands

By
Andy Corbley
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An amputee American green anole - credit, Tony Gamble supplied to Washington University
An amputee American green anole – credit, Tony Gamble supplied to Washington University

The Bahamas were once crawling with pirates, but have always been crawling with lizards.

Do the two have anything in common? Well, much like the old trope of pirates missing legs and hands, many of the lizards of the Bahamas are too.

The reason we know this is because there happened to be the right person in the right place with the right interests at the right time: Jonathan Losos—who began to notice that peg-legged lizards were pretty nimble.

In fact, after decades of study and a worldwide academic collaboration, Losos’ paper on the subject reveals that agility and capability was a trait possessed by over a hundred amputee lizards.

Losos first formed this ad-hoc study project when he was catching and measuring anole lizards (pronounced a-nole-ee) in the Bahamas over 20 years ago, and noticed a female who was missing part of her hindleg.

She was nonetheless speedy and agile, and it got Losos thinking how one could persevere at hunting and avoiding predators with such a debilitating injury. Joining with herpetologist James Stroud, Losos began corroborating field research on 58 different species observed over 100 times by some 50 scientists.

Published in a paper recently in the American Naturalist, Losos, Stroud, and dozens of co-authors present evidence that these “Pirates of the Caribbean (and other places)” can continue to plunder even after losing some or most of their hind or forelegs.

“You can’t help but be impressed by lizards that do well even when they lose a good chunk of a limb,” Losos, the William Danforth Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, told Wash. U news outlets. “They’re remarkably resilient.”

However resilient the anoles and other lizards may be, limb loss must be a significant predictor of mortality, and indeed just 1% of surveyed lizards during the study period had limb injuries. Unlike the tails of some lizard species like anoles and geckos, limbs do not grow back.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Endangered ‘Blue Dragon’ of the Caymans Roars Back from the Brink as Population Climbs Above 1,000

Nevertheless, when Losos and his many collaborators subjected the peg-legged lizards to speed tests, many proved not only as fast as their 4-legged kin, but even faster in some cases. Slow-motion video analysis showed how the lizards had altered their locomotion to swing their abdomens in greater arcs to the left and right which increased forward motion, adapting sometimes for a loss of a hindlimb, which is responsible for generating forward acceleration.

The tests confirmed what Losos had seen in the field: these lizards appeared fine.

MORE SCALY STORIES: World’s Smallest Snake Rediscovered in Barbados After 20 Years

“You can tell just by looking at them,” Losos said. “They’re fat and sassy, and clearly aren’t starving.”

The team in their paper posits that these lizards show that at least in some cases, natural selection isn’t as ruthless as Charles Darwin made it out to be, and that even substantial disfiguring injuries could be managed over long periods of time through on-the-spot adaptations.

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“Love is too young to know what conscience is.” – William Shakespeare

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Good News Network
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Credit: Alex Jumper

Quote of the Day: “Love is too young to know what conscience is.” – William Shakespeare

Photo by: Alex Jumper

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

Credit: Alex Jumper

Good News in History, October 29

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Good News Network
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60 years ago, The Who released their iconic single My Generation. The hit was ranked #11 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Pete Townshend reportedly wrote the song on a train but credits American jazz and bluesman Mose Allison’s Young Man Blues as its inspiration, saying “Without Mose I wouldn’t have written My Generation”. Singer Roger Daltrey’s delivery—an angry and frustrated stutter (‘Why don’t you all fff … fade away’)—was inspired by, among other things, John Lee Hooker’s Stuttering Blues. WATCH the Smothers Brothers introduce the young mods to the world, before they play the song… (1965)

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Nonprofit Removes 300,000 Landmines in Sri Lanka, Allows 280K People to Return to Their Homes

By
Andy Corbley
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A mineclearer in Sri Lanka - credit, The HALO Trust
A mineclearer in Sri Lanka – credit, The HALO Trust ©

In northern Sri Lanka, an area largely avoided by the 2 million tourists who visit the island every year, an organization has safely removed its 300,000th landmine leftover from the island’s civil war.

Those mines and unexploded bombs were cleared across an area 33% larger than the island of Manhattan, and their removal allowed for the repopulation of a quarter-million people to their lands and homes.

War is the health of the state and the scourge of everyone else. Nothing epitomizes war’s destructive legacy more than landmines and unexploded bombs, which have terrorized the populations of dozens of countries for decades.

Sri Lanka’s civil war lasted for more than 30 years, as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil fought the forces of the central government across the northern and eastern provinces. When the war ended in 2009, The HALO Trust, a British nonprofit that works to clear landmines from conflict areas, was already on the ground helping to remove the unexploded ordnance from the country.

Over the years, in the districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar, and Vavuniya, work continued slowly to safely detonate or disarm mines and ordnance where people used to live and farm.

16 years later, on June 18th, the trust announced it had reached a milestone of 300,000 mines removed, and 120 square kilometers of land rendered safe and useable again.

“Thanks to HALO, over 280,000 former internally displaced persons have now returned safely to their homes and most of the land is clear,” said the trust in a press release.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Drones Find Dozens of Landmines Littering Ukraine So They Can Be Defused

“HALO and other demining operators continue to work at pace to clear the remaining contaminated areas to fully open up the pristine north of the island to tourists who flock to Sri Lanka every year, netting the country more than $3bn in 2024.”

“These minefields were laid when I was still in primary school. I remember hearing about them in the newspapers,” Vithoozen Antony, Operations Manager, HALO Sri Lanka. “Today, I’m proud to be part of the team leading their clearance. Reaching the milestone of 300,000 landmines removed is not just a number; it represents lives saved and land returned to communities.”

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: US Donation Kicks Off Landmine Clearing in One of the Largest Conservation Areas in the World

HALO is the world’s largest landmine clearance organization, and its work is ongoing across the world. This month, it marked 550,000 mines and unexploded bombs cleared in Cambodia since 1991.

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‘Incredibly Encouraging’ Drug Trial Shrinks Tumors in Head and Neck Cancer Patients Within Six Weeks

By
Andy Corbley
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A squamous cell carcinoma tumor - Photo by Ed Uthman, CC license on Flickr
A squamous cell carcinoma tumor – Photo by Ed Uthman, CC license on Flickr

For patients with returning head and neck cancers, there are few if any potential options other than further chemotherapy sessions.

But now, doctors and oncologists are hopeful that that is a reality soon to enter the past tense after initial success seen in a large clinical trial studying a drug to target this form of cancer called amivantamab.

The triple-action injection-based therapy targets metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), a hard-to-treat form of head and neck cancer, considered the 6th-most common form of the disease.

For those who are diagnosed with HNSCC, the first line of treatment is the more forgiving immunotherapy, which can sometimes see success. But if the cancer returns, as it often does, oncologists will generally resort to chemotherapy and hope.

But with amivantamab, they have an “incredibly encouraging” new option that was shown in a trial conducted across 11 different countries to shrink tumors as soon as 6 weeks from the start of treatment, while slowing and sometimes halting altogether the disease’s progression.

The findings were presented recently at the European Society for Medical Oncology conference in Berlin.

CANCER TREATMENTS AT LARGE: CAR-T Cell Therapy Achieves Near-Complete Tumor Regression in Brain Cancer After Five Days

“To see this level of benefit for patients who have endured numerous treatments is incredibly encouraging,” Kevin Harrington, a professor of biological cancer therapies at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, told the Guardian. “This could represent a real shift in how we treat head and neck cancer—not just in terms of effectiveness, but also in how we deliver care.”

“This is the first time we’ve tested this kind of triple-action therapy for head and neck cancer patients whose disease has returned after treatment. Amivantamab is a smart drug that not only blocks two key cancer pathways but also helps the immune system do its job,” he added.

MORE HEAD AND NECK TREATMENTS: Immunotherapy Drugs So Effective that Tumors Disappear in Weeks for Head and Neck Cancer Patients in Landmark Trial

One group in particular that consisted of 86 patients who had previously received immunotherapy or chemotherapy received amivantamab and recorded a halting or reversing of tumor growth in three-fourths of the patients within just 6 weeks.

A key strength in the drug is that it attacks cancer cells in three major ways. It inhabits the production of a protein called epidermal growth factor receptor, which helps tumors grow, and MET, a pathway that helps cancer cells evade detection. In addition to these, it helps coordinate the immune system’s response to the tumors.

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10-Year-old Girl Invited to Join Mensa After Dyslexia Test Revealed She Has Top 1% IQ

By
Andy Corbley
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10-year-old Poppy O'Malley-Flack - credit, James Linsell Clark / SWNS
10-year-old Poppy O’Malley-Flack – credit, James Linsell Clark / SWNS

Mr. and Mrs. O’Malley-Flack might have been anxious while they waited for their daughter to complete her dyslexia test.

The 10-year-old had had trouble spelling, and it was recommended she take an examination, but as it turned out, she had something else entirely—a prodigious IQ.

Poppy O’Malley-Flack, from the English county of Kent has an IQ of 136, putting her in the top one-percentile of all Britons. The three-hour test concluded that she has exceptional reasoning and problem-solving skills, leaving her mother Lucy in shock.

“We never expected to come out of a dyslexic test and the lady say her reasoning skills and intelligence were exceptionally high,” she told England’s Southwest News Service.

The surprise wasn’t because Poppy wasn’t a clever girl, but rather because she seemed to self-select for and gravitate to, the arts.

“We were as shocked I think as Poppy was. She had never been the type of child you thought was gifted or very academic… However, she is very logical and has good reasoning skills and is very good at problem solving. We have always known that. We always knew she was quite grown up for her age.”

After receiving the results, Mrs. O’Malley-Flack approached the grand old IQ society Mensa in hopes of getting Poppy into the program with other gifted children. Shortly after sending off the IQ test results, they received an email accepting her into the prestigious club.

“We were absolutely chuffed and really proud of her and I think she was really proud of herself,” Lucy said. “She is the most humble child you will ever meet, but she is really enjoying this prestige.”

The Mensa High-IQ Society has been around for over 100 years, and focuses on welcoming those extremely gifted minds among us into a space of collaboration and camaraderie. The American chapter of Mensa boasts 50,000 members of the over 150,000, located in 90+ countries worldwide.

Isaac Asimov, Commander Chris Hadfield, Steve Martin, and John McAfee were all members of Mensa, along with the inventor of the mobile phone and author of The Clan of the Cave Bear novels.

FUTURE CHANGEMAKERS: Girl Joins Mensa at 13 After Scoring Higher Than Albert Einstein–Even with No Exam Prep

Poppy is hoping to get into grammar school but has no career aspirations beyond that yet, though her mother suspects that she will end up doing something in the realm of science.

“I don’t think Poppy is going to go into your normal 9-5 job. She will be going into something scientific or arty. Something that requires detail. It is a perfect example of how a learning difference and giftedness can co-exist. While she might have struggles with spelling she has extraordinary reasoning skills.”

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: What Did Albert Einstein, Da Vinci, and Steve Jobs Have in Common: Dyslexia – Why They’re Top Achievers

According to BBC Test The Nation data, the average IQ in Britain is around 100—and any number above 135 puts you in the top percentile.

Both Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking never took official tests, but are estimated to have had IQs around 160.

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A Combination Implant and Augmented Reality Glasses Restores Reading Vision to Blind Eyes

By
Andy Corbley
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Study participant Sheila Irvine training with the device - credit Moorfields Eye Hospital
Study participant Sheila Irvine training with the device – credit Moorfields Eye Hospital

A “new era” has begun in the development of artificial vision after a combination electronic eye implant—with augmented reality glasses restored vision to blind eyes in patients with untreatable macular degeneration.

Those treated with the device could read, on average, five lines of a vision chart, even though some could not even see the chart before their surgery.

The results of the European clinical trial which involved 38 patients in 17 hospitals across 5 countries were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. They showed 84% of participants were able to read letters, numbers, and words using prosthetic vision through an eye that had previously lost its sight due to the untreatable progressive eye condition, “geographic atrophy with dry age-related macular degeneration (GA in dry AMD).”

The now-proven device is called PRIMA, and consists of an ultra-thin microchip implanted in the eye that receives infrared projections of the waking world by a video camera installed in a pair of augmented reality classes.

A pocket computer fixed to a small control panel worn on the waistband then runs artificial intelligence algorithms to process the information contained in the infrared projection, which is converted into an electrical signal. This signal passes through the retinal and optical nerve cells into the brain, where it’s interpreted as vision.

The patient uses their glasses to focus and scan across the main object in the projected image from the video camera, using the zoom feature to enlarge the text. Each patient goes through an intensive rehabilitation program over several months to learn to interpret these signals and start reading again.

“In the history of artificial vision, this represents a new era,” said Mr. Mahi Muqit, associate professor at the UK’s University College London’s Institute of Ophthalmology and consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital where the UK arm of the trial was conducted.

“Blind patients are actually able to have meaningful central vision restoration, which has never been done before.”

“Getting back the ability to read is a major improvement in their quality of life, lifts their mood and helps to restore their confidence and independence. The PRIMA chip operation can safely be performed by any trained vitreoretinal surgeon in under two hours—that is key for allowing all blind patients to have access to this new medical therapy for GA in dry AMD.”

Dry AMD is a slow deterioration of the cells of the macula over many years, as the light-sensitive retinal cells die off. For most people with dry AMD, they can experience a slight loss of central vision.

Through a process known as geographic atrophy (GA), it can progress to full vision loss in the eye, as the cells die and the central macula melts away. There is currently no treatment for GA, which affects 5 million people globally. All participants in this trial had lost the central sight of the eye being tested, leaving only limited peripheral vision.

Scans of the implant in a patient’s eye – credit Science Corporation

The procedure in install the implant involves a vitrectomy, where the eye’s vitreous jelly is removed from between the lens and the retina, and the surgeon inserts the ultra-thin microchip, which is shaped like a SIM card and just 2mm x 2mm.

The PRIMA System device used in this operation is being developed by Science Corporation, which develops brain-computer interfaces and neural engineering. No significant decline in existing peripheral vison was observed in trial participants, and these findings pave the way for seeking approval to market this new device.

UCL spoke with one of the patients who received the implant for the college’s news outlet.

“I wanted to take part in research to help future generations, and my optician suggested I get in touch with Moorfields,” began Sheila Irvine, one of Moorfields’ patients on the trial. “Before receiving the implant, it was like having two black discs in my eyes, with the outside distorted.

“I was an avid bookworm, and I wanted that back. I was nervous, excited, all those things. There was no pain during the operation, but you’re still aware of what’s happening. It’s a new way of looking through your eyes, and it was dead exciting when I began seeing a letter. It’s not simple, learning to read again, but the more hours I put in, the more I pick up.”

TREATMENTS TO GET EXCITED ABOUT: Sight Restored to People Blinded in Eye Accidents Using New Stem Cell Treatment

“The team at Moorfields has given me challenges, like ‘Look at your prescription,’ which is always tiny. I like stretching myself, trying to look at the little writing on tins, doing crosswords.”

The global trial was led by Dr. Frank Holz of the University of Bonn, with participants from the UK, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.

MORE VISION RECOVERIES: World’s First Whole-Eye Transplant Gives Arkansas Man New Hope After Terrible Accident

Mr. Muqit that it left him feeling that a door was opened for medical devices in this area, because there is no treatment currently licensed for dry AMD.

“I think it’s something that, in future, could be used to treat multiple eye conditions.”

SHARE This True Cyborg Eye Procedure’s Success For Sheila And Others… 

“Judge a rookie by what they do at their best, not at their worst.” – Steve ‘The Homer’ True

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Good News Network
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Credit: Ahmet Kurt For Unsplash+

Quote of the Day: “Judge a rookie by what they do at their best, not at their worst.” – Steve ‘The Homer’ True (ESPN Milwaukee)

Photo by: Dylan Ferreira (cropped)

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

Credit: Ahmet Kurt For Unsplash+

Good News in History, October 28

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Good News Network
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By Kenny Nguyễn

60 years ago today, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri was completed. Clad in stainless steel and standing 630 feet high, it is the tallest monument in the Western Hemisphere. The arch sits on the west bank of the Mississippi River as a tribute to the great westward explorers, Lewis and Clark, and other pioneers who began treks in St. Louis. READ more about the arch… (1965)

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Innovative Wildfire Defense Sprinkler System for Homes Can Detect Flames and Lower Insurance

By
Andy Corbley
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Defense Delivered's sprinklers in action - credit, retrieved from Defense Delivered
Defense Delivered’s sprinklers in action – credit, retrieved from Defense Delivered

A pair of Colorado innovators have designed an autonomous sprinkler system to hose down a home if it detects an approaching wildfire.

With both men having experienced the threat of wildfires first hand, each said they were driven to try and do something about it.

Owners of a firm called Defense Delivered, their system uses thermal imaging cameras to detect when flames or sparks might be entering the immediate zone of the house. If the camera sensor is triggered, the sprinklers automatically hose down the house to ideally keep it from burning, and will eventually deploy firefighting foam as a last resort if the threat persists.

Founder and CEO Duston Dolamore told CBS News Colorado that the idea was spawned in the wake of the Ptarmigan Fire in 2021, which burned more than 100 acres near Silverthorne in Summit County, where Dolamore lived.

“When we experienced that fire, the feeling of helplessness, that really nothing could be done, it drove us to make a working solution,” Dolamore said.

The system will spray 35 gallons a minute to coat the house, an amount that was specifically calculated to prevent an overdraw on water resources in drier parts of Colorado.

In fact, it’s built for Colorado in all respects, and has a preprogramed drain and flush function in preparation for winter; owners don’t have to remember or worry about freezing pipes.

According to Defense Delivered’s data, more and more homes are being built every year across America in what’s known as the wildland-urban interface—the place where residential zones brush up against National Forest land. This is not only putting more homes at risk of fire, but raising the cost of home insurance for whole communities as a result.

SIMILAR INSPIRATION: Teen Invents Clever Fire Extinguisher to Save Your Home When You’re Away – and He’s Donating All the Profits

Dolamore said a secondary aim of their automated sprinkler defense system was to hopefully give residents a chance at obtaining a lower insurance rate.

Red, White and Blue Fire Protection District Division Chief Mathew Benedict told CBS News that having seen the system in action, he considers it a “win” for homeowners who opt to install one.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: First Antidote for Carbon Monoxide Poisoning ‘Cleans’ Blood in Minutes

“There are companies trying different ideas out there. This company has gone at it following the good science, the wildfire science, the wildfire physics… they’re looking at homes and looking at their vulnerability and putting water where the home is most vulnerable. In my opinion, that’s a win.”

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Parkinson’s Patient Plays Clarinet During Brain Surgery–Is ‘Delighted’ with How it Went (WATCH)

By
Andy Corbley
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credit - NHS Foundation Trust, Kings College Hospital
credit – NHS Foundation Trust, Kings College Hospital

Under local anesthesia, a woman in England was able to play her clarinet for the first time in 5 years whilst receiving treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

The deep-brain stimulation (DBS) procedure promised, if successful, to restore motor control in the patient’s hands such that she would be able to play her beloved instrument again, and the surgeon asked her to bring it with her to test the theory.

The resulting video makes for quite the sight, as the surgery team behind the plastic sanitary screen sat listening in wonder.

65-year-old Denise Bacon from Crowborough, in the English county of East Sussex, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2014, and she gradually lost the ability to do her favorite things such as swim, dance, and play the clarinet.

DBS is a surgical procedure that delivers an electrical current to electrodes implanted in the brain, and is suitable for some patients with disorders such as Parkinson’s. Her skull and scalp were numbed with anesthesia, but she stayed during the four hour intervention, which is when she was asked to play the clarinet to see if her motor control had improved.

A SIMILAR STORY:

“I remember my right hand being able to move with much more ease once the stimulation was applied, and this in turn improved my ability to play the clarinet, which I was delighted with,” she told the BBC.

“I’m already experiencing improvements in my ability to walk, and I’m keen to get back in the swimming pool, and on the dance floor to see if my abilities have improved there.”

WATCH the performance below…

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Endangered North Atlantic Right Whale Population Is Slowly Increasing, Scientists Say

By
Andy Corbley
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A North Atlantic right whale - credit, NOAA via AP
A North Atlantic right whale – credit, NOAA via AP

Scientists studying the North Atlantic right whale have celebrated a year without mortalities in which four new whale mothers entered the breeding population.

11 calves were born this year, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium reported in a document released Tuesday.

Covered by AP, the animals have now increased to 384 individuals thanks to increased measures to protect these gentle giants from collisions with ships and entanglement with fishing gear: two of their main threats.

Living as their name suggests in the North Atlantic Ocean, the animals were heavily targeted by whalers in the 18th century, but have been federally protected for decades following the commercial whaling ban in 1982.

“The slight increase in the population estimate, coupled with no detected mortalities and fewer detected injuries than in the last several years, leaves us cautiously optimistic about the future of North Atlantic right whales,” Heather Pettis, the consortium’s chairwoman, said. ”What we’ve seen before is this population can turn on a dime.”

Unlike other baleens like the fin whale, humpback, and blue whale, the North Atlantic right whale has been slow to recover, and scientists remain convinced that stronger conservation measures are needed to ensure they can continue to grow long term. The animals are less likely to breed if wounded in ship strikes or by derelict fishing equipment.

But despite the 11 newborns being less than the consortium hoped for, they were reared by both new mothers and by previous mothers who seem to be waiting less time between calves: both encouraging statistics.

WHALES COMING BACK 

The animals migrate from their breeding grounds near Florida up to feed in the colder waters off Canada and the northeastern United States.  

Philip Hamilton, a senior scientist with the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, said ongoing, slow recovery is a testament to the effectiveness of conservation measures already implemented, particularly around the Saint Lawrence Gulf in Canada where the whales will sometimes travel.

“We know that a modest increase every year, if we can sustain it, will lead to population growth,” Hamilton said. “It’s just whether or not we can sustain it.”

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Town Devastated by Steel Mill Closure Reborn Thanks to B-Ball Ref and the Hopes for New Grocery Store

By
Andy Corbley
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The New Venice Elementary School building - submitted to hmdb.org by Jason Voigt of Glen Carbon, Illinois
The New Venice Elementary School building – submitted to hmdb.org by Jason Voigt of Glen Carbon, Illinois

Once the steel and manufacturing jobs dried up, the town of Venice began to sink.

This Illinois community lost two-thirds of its population, before seeing its last remaining grocery store close, and even its only school.

But things are looking up again thanks to an unlikely ally, who presented himself as a financial and managerial conduit through which state money could help turn the lights back on in the town.

In his pomp, Ed Hightower was an award-winning college basketball referee and school superintendent for Edwardsville School District. Refereeing 12 NCAA Division I Final Fours, the 1990 World Championship of Basketball in South America, the European Basketball Championship in 1993, and the Goodwill Games in 1994 and 1998, Hightower built a storied career for himself that allowed his later years to be spent in stressless comfort.

But now he’s taken $3.5 million from that nest egg and put it up as an investment for a new grocery store in Venice, just 20 miles from Edwardsville where he grew up.

The “Venice Market” will receive funding help from the state, which will lease it from Hightower who will manage the business.

“It will put fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and healthy options within walking distance for families—who have gone without them before too long,” town Alderman Tyrone Echols said at a press conference. “But this project is about more than access to groceries.”

ALSO CHECK OUT: Canada’s First Grocery Store Where Food is FREE Opens in Saskatchewan

“I will have skin in the game to make sure it’s successful,” Hightower told CBS News, who added that it’s part of his motivation—part of the belief system his mother instilled in him, that giving back is important. “[M]y mom always taught us that you don’t get there by yourself.”

The grocery store is just one of several new projects on Venice’s shores. A new school opened in 2021, breathing new life into the community, while a medical clinic and affordable housing are also on their way. State money, along with numerous nonprofit and for-profit partners, are footing the bill for Venice’s transformation.

MORE SMALL TOWN TRANSFORMATIONS: Italian ‘Ghost Town’ Rescued by Instagramable Street Art Which Attracts Thousands

“It doesn’t matter what color you are, what belief you have, you want to reside in a safe environment where you can go to school, you can get your groceries,” Hightower said.

Local residents speaking with CBS News said they hope these transformative investments mean that the town starts to grow, rather than shrink, and that their children don’t grow up feeling like they have to move away for an opportunity.

WATCH the story below…

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