Sam Neill speaking in December 2022, 7 months after he began chemotherapy - credit, New Zealand Government, Photo by Mark Tantrum CC 4.0. BY-SA
Sam Neill speaking in December 2022, 7 months after he began chemotherapy – credit, New Zealand Government, Photo by Mark Tantrum CC 4.0. BY-SA
Jurassic Park star Sam Neill, who’s been battling lymphoma, has spoken out that he’s cancer free and that now “it’s time I did another movie.”
The international A-lister from New Zealand was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, and immediately started chemotherapy as early as March, 2022.
The cancer had already progressed, and he said that it had likely been there since 2021. His chemotherapy was “pretty miserable business” but it was keeping him alive, he told Australia’s 7 News.
“Then the chemo stopped working. I was at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn’t ideal obviously.”
That’s when Neill switched from chemotherapy drugs to Car T-cell therapy, a Nobel-Prize winning therapy that has changed the game for the treatment of several cancers.
“I’ve just had a scan just now and there is no cancer in my body, that’s an extraordinary thing,” he admitted.
Neill says it’s “beautiful” he gets to watch his grandchildren grow up, but as regards the fans of his many fantastic films, he also said he’s eyeing up a Hollywood return.
“It’s time I did another movie,” he said, adding that though the opportunity to work again was exciting, his battle with cancer changed his outlook on what remains of his life.
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Colorado River - credit, San Diego County Water Authority
Colorado River – credit, San Diego County Water Authority
After years of suffering from drought, San Diego is using the resources it built up over that time to help neighboring states now facing their own water challenges.
Arizona and Nevada are pursuing agreements with the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) to siphon off its share of the Colorado River. In exchange, the states would fund the quarterly costs of running San Diego’s Carlsbad Desalination Plant.
It’s the largest seawater desalination plant in North America, and supplies 54 million gallons of drinking water for the city and county every day.
It was built following a 5-year drought that pushed San Diego County to the absolute limit. By the time it ended in 1992, the county had lost one-third of its water resources, and imports, tanked and bottled, had to come in to make up the difference.
Following the drought, the SDCWA sought insurances against such a disaster, by building the desalination plant, but also increasing the height of a major dam wall to store more water, and acquiring the rights to a major Colorado River allocation that had been conserved for a farming district.
These strategies reduced the county’s reliance on imports from 95% to 10%. Such substantial investments mean the SDCWA now has the opportunity to help its neighbors. By relinquishing part of its share in the Colorado River, 500,000 people in Nevada and Arizona would have access to clean water in case of drought.
“This agreement could be a gamechanger for San Diego County and the entire Southwest because it creates the possibility of a new, collaborative path for moving water where it’s needed most while keeping reliability and affordability at the center for ratepayers,” said Water Authority Board Chair Nick Serrano in a statement.
“Leveraging existing resources like our Carlsbad desalination plant in this moment simply makes sense for everyone.”
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When rescuers found a 2-week-old otter pup alone on Asilomar State Beach on California central coast, they knew exactly what to do.
They took the pup, nicknamed Sunny, to the Aquarium of the Pacific, where a maternal-aged otter named Rey resided—who was also found orphaned alone on a beach as a juvenile.
It’s a full circle moment that saw Rey adopt Sunny through a pioneering surrogate initiative run by the Monterrey Bay Aquarium (MBA).
The 2 are bonding well having been transferred to the MBA’s otter rehabilitation center in Long Beach. Staff have been determined that it’s no longer possible to release the two otters back into the wild as they’re already too accustomed to humans, and lack the experience to avoid a sea otter’s main dangers.
Nevertheless, Sunny needs to learn how to be an otter, and the Guardian reports that Rey is teaching her vital skills like how to find, catch, and open food, irrespective of where her future home will be.
Though the two are destined for an aquarium enclosure, the otter program has successfully rehabilitated 9 southern sea otters and released them back into the wild, in part because of this surrogacy program that gives otter pups a chance to survive to adulthood when they had no hope of doing so otherwise.
Megan Smylie, the sea otter program manager at MBA, said that the two were seen manipulating false crab shells, an important foraging skill. Next up may be the use of tools, a skill that the ultra-intelligent sea otter is quite proficient in. They’ve been recorded opening doors and unscrewing nuts from bolts.
Rey isn’t neglecting the lovey-dovey part of motherhood either, and when it’s time for a nap, will pull Sunny onto her chest belly-up to relax her. It doesn’t matter what species you are, motherhood is hard work, but Rey seems to excel at it.
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Students with makeshift stretcher and 11th grader Stephanie Blake (Supplied by Presbyterian Ladies' College, Armidale)
Students with makeshift stretcher and 11th grader Stephanie Blake (Supplied by Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Armidale)
A high school women’s group rescued a hiker with a broken leg having trained for that exact situation.
It started when the students from the Armidale’s Presbyterian Ladies’ College (PLC) arrived at Warrumbungle National Park for a 4-day hike.
On day 3, they came across Thomas Wendland, a hiker who had broken his leg. Startled but excited, since they had prepared for this very scenario as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award project, the students conferred with their leaders and then sprang into action.
Using tarp poles and a hammock, they created a gurney for Wendland to wriggle on to.
Then, 11th grader Stephanie Blake said, the team would count to 3 and hoist up the gurney which they would carry along the trail for 60 seconds. They’d put him down, rotate sides, take some deep breaths, and do another 60 seconds.
They continued like this for 2 hours until they could get Wendland to a location where medical teams could reach him.
The students and their program organizers – credit, supplied to ABC by the PLC
“The path just seemed to keep getting longer and longer,” Stephanie said. “You don’t realize how far [2.1 miles] is until you’re shuffling along carrying someone.”
Wendland is an experienced hiker, but said that he slipped and heard something snap that day. He wasn’t quite sure what had happened, only that something wasn’t right. It was a second fall that saw the pain really start.
“I felt quite useless while they got it all set up” Wendland told ABC News Australia. “It absolutely means the world that they were able to offer the assistance they did. I’m forever grateful for them.”
ABC wrote that the Duke of Edinburgh Award is a non-formal education program for young people that focuses on physical recreation, outdoor skills, voluntary service and “adventurous journey.”
Program organizers for the PLC, Amanda and Marty Burney, said that they had practiced the makeshift gurney strategy before, and that the students were excited and focused when they realized they’d be able to use it to help rescue someone for real.
Though the exertion was far more than what they’d imagined, Blake said to have that trick up their sleeve, and to have practiced it, provided “such a good sense of achievement.”
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Kenya’s highest court recently struck down as unconstitutional a law that forbade seed sharing, a long practiced traditional means of diversifying crop production and resilience.
The law, whether inadvertently or by design, made Kenya another country within the network of those whose seed industry is virtually controlled by a small group of international conglomerates like Bayer—or Monsanto before it was bought out.
Advocates on behalf of small-scale farmers and indigenous communities in Kenya said the 2016 Seeds and Plant Varieties Act infringed on their rights to practice indigenous activities, while advocates for seed-saving and seed-sharing say that the practice produces drought-resistant, pest-resistant crops better suited to local areas that don’t require as many imported agrochemicals to grow.
In November, Kenyan High Court Justice Rhoda Rutto ruled that by limiting “access to traditional and indigenous seeds, contrary to the Constitution,” the law violated “the petitioners’ and small-scale farmers’ cultural rights” and eroded “the cultural distinctiveness of Kenya’s indigenous peoples.”
“This judgment rightly recognizes that seed sharing is not a crime, but a fundamental element of peasants’ identity, resilience and contribution to national food systems,” said the Working Group on Peasants and other people working in rural areas.
Like many traditional farming cultures, Kenyan farmers share and exchange seeds after the growing season, and over time this has led to millions of genetically distinct crops of all different shapes, sizes, and colors.
If it seems bizarre that a government would try to micromanage, through the arm of the law, such a small-scale and trivial activity in agriculture and economics, campaigners like Greenpeace, which joined the suit on behalf of the petitioners, argued that it stems from globalist industry-capturing.
On the global scale, plant-breeders and seed producers argue that counterfeit seeds cause a major loss for farmers, and that through controlled breeding of plants, seeds can be perfected for certain countries and conditions (and tolerant of the pesticides the companies also sell).
That was what the Seeds and Plant Varieties Act sought to regulate—it granted exclusive sale rights to companies whose seeds were certified by national inspectors.
As many laws do, it created a monopoly where only international seed conglomerates had the time and money to comply with the regulation, and suddenly the farmers who produce some 80% of Kenya’s food became criminals if they simply took the seeds that fell from their property (crops), onto their property (farmland), and gave them to another farmer. These laws exist in many countries, if it can be believed.
“This decision is a significant affirmation that the human rights of peasants and the imperatives of food security and biodiversity must prevail over overly restrictive intellectual property regimes,” the UN Working Group said.
“The Kenyan ruling sends a clear and timely message that human rights obligations cannot be subordinated to commercial seed monopolies or narrow interpretations of plant breeders’ rights.”
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Quote of the Day: “The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” – Eden Phillpotts
Photo by: Getty Images for Unsplash+ (colorized)
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?
George Clooney in 2025 by Bryan Berlin (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Happy 65th Birthday to George Clooney, the actor, director, screenwriter, and producer who’s won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. Born in Kentucky—with singer-actress Rosemary Clooney as an aunt—he rose to fame playing Dr. Doug Ross on TV’s ER. During a film role in Out of Sight, he first worked with director Steven Soderbergh, a long-time collaborator. Soderbergh’s heist comedy trilogy Ocean’s Eleven (and Ocean’s 12, and 13) became the star’s biggest commercial success. WATCH his moving speech after receiving the 51st annual Chaplin Award last weekend… (1961)
REDMOD AI model analyzed CT scan to detect early tissue changes from pancreatic cancer–Mayo Clinic
REDMOD AI model analyzed CT scan to detect early tissue changes from pancreatic cancer–Mayo Clinic
An artificial intelligence model developed by the Mayo Clinic can help specialists detect pancreatic cancer on routine abdominal CT scans up to three years before clinical diagnosis, according to a new study.
The AI can identify subtle signs of disease before tumors are visible, when curative treatment may still be possible. The findings, published last week in Gut, mark a milestone in Mayo Clinic’s multiyear research into earlier detection of one of the deadliest cancers.
Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest cancers because it rarely causes detectable signs in its earliest stages. More than 85% of patients receive a diagnosis after the disease has already spread, with survival rates below 15%, according to the National Cancer Institute.
The study validates this AI model using data and workflows that mirror clinical practice, including CT scans from multiple institutions, imaging systems, and protocols.
Researchers used it to analyze nearly 2,000 CT scans, including scans from patients later diagnosed with pancreatic cancer — all originally interpreted as normal. The system, called the Radiomics-based Early Detection Model (REDMOD), identified 73% of those prediagnostic cancers at a median of about 16 months before diagnosis — nearly double the detection rate of specialists reviewing the same scans without computer assistance.
The advantage was even greater at earlier time points. In scans obtained more than two years before diagnosis, the AI identified nearly three times as many early cancers that would otherwise go undetected.
“The greatest barrier to saving lives from pancreatic cancer has been our inability to see the disease when it is still curable,” says Ajit Goenka, M.D., the study’s senior author, and a Mayo Clinic radiologist and nuclear medicine specialist.
“This AI can now identify the signature of cancer from a normal-appearing pancreas,” explained Dr. Ajit Goenka. “And it can do so reliably over time and across diverse clinical settings.”
REDMOD measures hundreds of quantitative imaging that describe tissue texture and structure, capturing faint biological changes as cancer begins to develop. The model is designed to analyze CT scans already obtained for other reasons—particularly in high-risk patients, such as those with new-onset diabetes—and flag elevated risk before any visible mass appears.
The team validated the model across CT scans from multiple institutions, imaging systems and protocols, demonstrating consistent performance.
In patients with multiple scans, the AI produced consistent results months apart, supporting its use for longitudinal monitoring and early detection.
Researchers are advancing this work into clinical testing through Artificial Intelligence for Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection, or AI-PACED. This prospective study evaluates how clinicians can integrate AI-guided detection into care for patients at elevated risk. The study combines AI analysis of routine imaging with long-term follow-up to assess false positives and clinical outcomes.
This research, supported by the National Institutes of Health, is part of Mayo Clinic’s Precure initiative, which aims to predict and prevent disease by identifying the earliest biological changes in the body before symptoms begin.
TELL FRIENDS AI STANDS FOR AMAZING INSTRUCTIONS–Share This on Social Media…
Haily and Misty (Before and after rescue) – Courtesy of Humane World for Animals
Credit: Kitty Block – Humane World for Animals / Runnels County Sheriff Office
Some rescue dog transformations are so profound that they restore your faith in second chances. Dobby’s journey from squalor to a new family home is one of those stories.
Found trembling in appalling conditions, the resilient pup now spends her days playing and soaking up love alongside a new best friend.
When Humane World for Animals and the Runnels County Sheriff’s Office arrived at a property in Ballinger, Texas, they found a heartbreaking scene. The air was thick with nonstop barking and the smell of feces and urine.
Among the many dogs inside, rescuers discovered a young pup that was completely hairless and crouched inside a kitchen cabinet, and they gave her a fitting nickname, “Dobby” (for the Harry Potter ‘house elf’ that was not allowed clothes).
In total, the team rescued over 70 animals from the property, including chickens, ducks, geese, and a cat—each being given a chance at a better life.
Dobby woke up the next morning in a clean and safe environment, her healing journey already underway.
Friendly with responders, she wagged her tail as she accepted gentle affection—along with treatment for her mange, which most of the animals also required.
Haily, a graphic designer for Humane World, soon heard Dobby’s story. The little hairless pup tugged at her heartstrings, and she drove two hours to meet her.
Haily and Misty –courtesy of Humane World for Animals
“I often joked that at some point while working at Humane World, I would likely fall in love with a pup and want to rescue one,” Haily said.
The connection was immediate, and Haily knew they were meant to be best friends.
After bringing her home, Haily renamed her “Misty” to give her a fresh start and leave her painful past behind. That first night, Misty surprised everyone by prancing with joy around the house and quickly bonding with Haily’s other dog Ozwald. The two have now become inseparable friends.
She began eating like a normal puppy, gaining weight, and where there had been only bare, irritated skin was now soft fur as her coat began growing in.
Misty’s transformation was incredible. The trembling, hairless dog from the kitchen cabinet became a confident, playful pup who knew she was loved.
Shelters always need families willing to provide homes for animals who have experienced neglect or abandonment, with each adoption creating space for another animal in need.
Volunteering at local shelters—for instance, walking dogs or assisting with events, or helping with administrative tasks—all support rescue efforts. Even a few hours a month can have a meaningful impact.
Formerly Dobby, Misty is free now – Credit: Haily House
Giving financial support helps these nonprofits provide medical care, shelter, and food: donate here to assist Humane World for Animals.
Misty’s journey shows the incredible resilience of animals made possible when people contribute time, money, and homes—and reminds us that we all can make a difference.
DOBBY’S FREE! Share Her Moving Before-And-After Pics On Social Media…
Oxyrhynchus necropolis and Papyrus fragment with Homer’s Iliad found in mummy – University of Barcelona (released)
Oxyrhynchus necropolis and Papyrus fragment with Homer’s Iliad found in mummy – University of Barcelona (released)
A 1,600-year-old Egyptian mummy was discovered buried with a fragment of papyrus that contained a short passage from Homer’s Iliad, marking the first time that literature—instead of a ‘magical or ritual text’—has been found incorporated directly into a burial.
This unique discovery, made by a University of Barcelona team, suggests new insights into the spread of Greek literature and its unexpected inclusion in funerary rituals.
The papyrus containing the Iliad fragment was atop the abdomen of a mummy inside a Roman-era tomb, in ancient Oxyrhynchus, now known as the Egyptian town of Al Bahnasa.
The discovery is exceptional, according to The Oxyrhynchus Archaeological Mission, run by the University’s Institute of Ancient Near East Studies, led by Maite Mascort and Esther Pons.
“It is the first time in the history of archaeology that a Greek literary text has been found deliberately incorporated into the mummification process.”
Several months ago, the team discovered the mummy in Tomb 65 of Sector 22 which featured an unusual element: a papyrus placed on the abdomen as part of the embalming ritual.
The Oxyrhynchus Mission had already documented papyri written in Greek in similar positions, but all contained magical or ritualistic content. A literary text such as the Iliad had never before been found in this context.
Papyrus fragment with Homer’s Iliad found inside 1600-year-old Roman-era tomb (University of Barcelona)
Early this year, the fragment was analyzed by papyrologist Leah Mascia, and Professor Adiego, in the Department of Classical, Romance and Semitic Languages. Based on Mascia’s reading, it was identified as text from the Catalogue of Ships in Book II of Homer’s Iliad—the famous passage listing the Greek forces before Troy—one of the most iconic texts in Western literature.
“This is not the first time we have found Greek papyri, bundled, sealed, and incorporated into the mummification process, but until now, their content was mainly magical,” explained Prof. Adiego.
“Furthermore, it is worth noting that, since the late 19th century, a huge number of papyri have been discovered at Oxyrhynchus, including Greek literary texts of great importance, but the real novelty is finding a literary papyrus in a funerary context.”
The discovery was made at the Al Bahnasa necropolis, the Egyptian site identified with ancient Oxyrhynchus, one of the most important cities of Greco-Roman Egypt, located approximately 190 kilometers south of Cairo, next to the branch of the Nile known as Bahr Yussef. There, the important necropolis was in use for over a thousand years.
The excavation has revealed a funerary complex comprising three limestone chambers in which Roman-era mummies and decorated wooden sarcophagi were found, many of them in a state of disrepair due to past looting.
Based on its findings, the University’s Oxyrhynchus Archaeological Mission, launched in 1992, will be conducting a number of lectures in Barcelona through May 11 to share the new discovery—the first time a Greek literary text has been found inside a mummy.
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Preparing a home cooked meal at least once a week may cut the risk of dementia for seniors by 30%.
And the risk may be 70% lower in novice cooks with few culinary skills, suggested the study published in March in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
Over the past few decades, people have increasingly come to rely on restaurants, takeout, and frozen food rather than cooking their meals at home, said the Japanese researchers.
But, for older people, meal preparation is not only an important source of physical activity, but also cognitive stimulus.
As such, they wanted to find out if the frequency of home cooking might be associated with the incidence of dementia and if this might depend on the level of cooking skills.
They analyzed 10,978 participants age 65 and over, from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, whose cognitive health was tracked for 6 years up to 2022.
20% of participants were over 80—with more than half retired—and 50% were women. A third had fewer than 9 years of education, and 40% had an annual income of less than $12,500 (under £10,000).
Participants filled in questionnaires on how often they cooked meals from scratch at home, ranging from never to more than 5 times a week, as well as the extent of their culinary competence. This was assessed on 7 skills, ranging from the ability/inability to peel fruit and vegetables to the ability/inability to make stews.
Around half of the participants cooked at least five times a week, while more than a quarter didn’t. Women and those who were experienced cooks tended to cook more meals at home than men, and more often than inexperienced cooks.
Cases of dementia were defined as functionally significant cognitive impairment requiring care.
Analysis of the data showed that greater cooking frequency was associated with a lower risk of dementia in both men and women, but differed according to the extent of culinary competency.
Cooking from scratch at least once a week was associated with a 23% lower risk of dementia in men, and a 27% lower risk in women, than cooking less than once a week.
And for those with few cooking skills, cooking a meal from scratch at least once a week was associated with a 67% reduction in the risk of dementia. (While a high degree of culinary competency was associated with a lower risk of dementia, the number of cooking sessions per week didn’t reduce the risk of dementia further.)
These findings held true after accounting for potentially influential factors, such as lifestyle, household income, and years of education, and they were independent of other activities positively associated with cognitive reserve, such as crafting, volunteering, and gardening.
This is an observational study, and as such, no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. Also notable, cases of mild dementia were not included and the classification of cooking skills may not have differentiated between those cooking simple meals—because they didn’t like cooking—and those unable to cook.
Researchers also noted the findings may not apply worldwide because the exact food eaten, and how it is prepared, vary from culture to culture.
Nevertheless, they concluded: “Creating an environment where people can cook meals when they are older may be important for the prevention of dementia.”
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Quote of the Day: Be the still point of the turning world. – T.S. Eliot (from the poem Burnt Norton)
Photo by: Getty Images for Unsplash+
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Chanel No. 5 eau de parfum - credit, public domain, ARZ
105 years ago today, Coco Chanel debuted her No. 5 perfume, as revolutionary a fashion-fragrance as was every made. Smelling unlike anything that until then had been sold, and hoping to appeal to the free-wheeling, flapper culture of the 1920s, the glass bottle, rather than appearing as an overelaborate crystal vial, was inspired by a whiskey decanter. Andy Warhol chose to commemorate its iconic status in the mid-1980s with his pop art, silk-screened, Ads: Chanel. READ about why it’s called Number 5… (1921)
For a Saskatchewan tow truck driver with work still to be done last Saturday, it was immediately clear what took priority.
The frozen moose trapped in the ice of a lake came first, and Clint Gottinger, owner of Rebel Towing, told his clients like it was.
“After they heard I was digging a moose out of the ice they said ‘Oh okay that’s fine.’ They were very understanding.”
Gottinger was on his way to two separate tow calls when around 5 pm about half a mile from his house, he spotted a young moose frozen in the ice.
“I can’t leave him,” Gottinger remembered thinking. “Everyone has to wait. This is a priority.”
He figured he could back the truck up towards the moose, lower the bed, and use the winch to help him get out. The moose was clearly too exhausted to think much about his strange, loud, smelly rescue vehicle, nor the soft sling that was lassoed over his backend.
“We got the sling around his butt and popped him right out and then onto the deck,” Gottinger said, narrating his story to CBC News. Some neighbors came by to help, and they told him that they’d seen the moose there since about 8:45 o’clock that morning. It was half-past 5 when they got him on the truck bed.
Heading home, Gottinger called his wife with the news: “honey get some blankets, I’ve got a moose.”
Back at their home in Kelvington, they plopped the moose down on a large blanket and put another one overtop of him. The animal was still too tired to resist the blankets, or its rescuer’s scratches behind the ear.
By 11 pm, the moose was back on its feet, and in no mood for any more of Gottinger’s scratches. He lingered around the property until late morning the following day, when he finally headed off; behavior that one biologist said was normal for moose that have had to be rescued by humans.
They can suffer something called “capture myopathy” which is a state of overwhelming stress and confusion that can lead to metabolic issues and even organ failure, but the biologist said this wasn’t likely to be the case based on what Gottinger had observed.
14 trafficked toucans rescued at the US-Mexico border now have a chance to contribute to conservation and the public’s awareness of wildlife crime following successful rehabilitation.
Agents from US Fish and Wildlife Service took ownership of the keel-billed toucans after they were seized at the the Otay Mesa port of entry in California.
They were assisted by members of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Bronx Zoo, who came to ensure the animals were properly cared for until a suitable decision could be made on their future.
Having been sedated, bound to restrict movement and noise, and hidden in the dashboard of a vehicle, they were in extremely poor condition upon rescue. Keel-billed toucans (Ramphastos sulfuratus) are protected by the Wild Bird Conservation Act, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Upon arrival at the Bronx Zoo on July 31st, 2025, all 14 toucans showed signs of malnutrition, severe stress, and metabolic issues. Through a coordinated effort between the Bronx Zoo’s Ornithology and Zoological Health Departments, the birds received specialized care and rehabilitation over several months.
“Thanks to the dedication of our animal care and veterinary teams, we were able to stabilize and rehabilitate them,” said Chuck Cerbini, Curator of Ornithology at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo.
10 of the toucans were transferred to Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited institutions where they will now contribute to conservation breeding and education programs. For multiple reasons, it is not possible to return birds that have been subject to these conditions to the wild.
4 of the rehabilitated toucans, two of which have recovered from fractured legs due to the effects of malnutrition, will remain at the Bronx Zoo. Two of these birds, both males, can be visited in the World of Birds. The other two are off-exhibit and are a future breeding pair.
Keel-billed toucans, native to tropical forests of Mexico, Central America and parts of South America, are listed by IUCN as Near-Threatened through a variety of factors, including capture for the pet trade and deforestation. The species is listed on CITES Appendix II, meaning its trade is strictly regulated.
In addition to these rehabilitation efforts, WCS is working across the toucan’s range to protect nature strongholds in Mexico, Central America, and South America, and to stop wildlife poaching at the source.
“The work of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo to rehabilitate these toucans is a testament to the skill and dedication of their veterinary and animal care teams,” said Sara Walker, Senior Advisor on Wildlife Trafficking at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
“The Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Wildlife Confiscations Network supports law enforcement at the point of confiscation, helps guide animals through recovery, and coordinates placement across vetted facilities when they cannot be returned to the wild. Over the past three years, the Network has helped place more than 4,000 animals.
“While not every case has a happy outcome like this, we’re thrilled to see these toucans healthy and now placed across seven AZA-accredited institutions—reflecting the coordination across a broader network of partners.”
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(left) Moringa oleifera seeds and (right) the scientists mimicking a water treatment facility - credit Dr. Adriano Gonçalves dos Reis
(left) Moringa oleifera seeds and (right) the scientists mimicking a water treatment facility – credit Dr. Adriano Gonçalves dos Reis
A tree known for its medicinal properties for thousands of years may also be able to help humanity tackle the problem of microplastic pollution.
The Moringa tree is sometimes called “the Miracle Tree,” but while healing and good eating may have earned this tree its reputation in antiquity, one study recently found it was able to filter microplastics from water as effective as heavy metal alternatives.
When used in a machine that mimics how municipal water treatment works, the moringa seeds filtered 98.5% of microplastic particles from PVC, one of the most pernicious of all microplastics.
Microplastics are now an enormous challenge worldwide. Ranging in size from visible fragments to particles one-25,000th the width of a human hair, they’ve been found all over the Earth, swirling around in the jet stream, and at the deepest ocean reaches. They’ve also been detected in every human organ that has been examined, from the brain to the placenta, and the average person through drinking water and city air alone may be consuming up to 10 credit cards worth of plastic every year.
While we don’t know definitively what the health burden of this is in terms of mortality, we know that plastic work as endocrine disrupters, blocking or confusing hormone signaling and reception.
Solutions are needed as the problem is only likely to increase as more and more plastic is produced and consumed. Dr. Adriano Gonçalves dos Reis, a professor at the Institute of Science and Technology of São Paulo State University, has been studying this tree for years, and believes its seeds may help humans combat microplastic pollution.
Specifically, they tested the seeds’ potential as a coagulant that can bind together disparate particles in water which can then be removed.
Having first degraded PVC plastic to the point where the particles spanned just a quarter of the thickness of human hair. They then ran the water containing them through a coagulation–flocculation–filtration circuit, used in modern-day direct filtration systems for water production plants.
The tree was 98.5% effective at removing the microplastics, comparable with the current synthetic standard: aluminum sulfate, also known as alum. Aluminum is a toxic heavy metal like arsenic or lead, and is linked with neurological disorders.
Moringa seeds performed even better than alum in more alkaline water. One moringa seed can treat 10 liters of water, which would mean however that a considerable amount of seeds would be needed to treat water in an urban setting. The process would also create a large amount of organic waste.
Alternatively, alum itself produces a toxic sludge that has to be removed, and mining aluminum is an environmentally-costly endeavor.
Dr. Gonçalves dos Reis believes that the moringa method would be most effective in smaller communities where access to alum may be difficult or expensive. Moringa is cultivated for food, medicine, and honey production all over the tropics, and rural communities already harvesting the seed pods could simply leverage their crop for filtration as well.
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An experienced rancher and his 2 neighbors recently conducted a harrowing rescue of 15 horses from chest-high floodwaters in the dead of night.
When a stronger than usual Hawaiian wet season dumped disaster-level rains on Oahu’s normally-tranquil north shore, Tyler Smith was first on the scene.
But it was a scene of disaster, and after waiting anxiously for weather developments following a government alert, Smith wasn’t going to wait around to see if the already chest-high water would reach the chest of the horses in the paddocks of Dillingham Ranch in Waialua.
“When I got there, it was definitely something I’ll never forget,” Smith shared with Hawaii Public Radio. “There’s nobody there. I drive up into a disaster scene that nobody knows about, starting off alone.”
He arrived in his pickup truck, and as he drove through the paddock gate and opened the door, the water was already so high it began filling the footwell. He mounted the horse he said he was responsible for and rode her out of the paddock.
That’s when his paddock neighbors, Kelsey and Levi, arrived in a backhoe to help execute a quick, calm, and effective response in truly harrowing circumstances.
Levi and his family do a lot to take care of the ranch, Smith told the producer of the Dodo, with whom he also shared his story, and with their backhoe, the trio could move through the deeper water without issue. They also rescued a woman, Inga, who was nearby and needed help, and in turn helped them with their rescue.
They got to a flooded paddock where 4 of Levi’s horses were clustered together on a spit of high ground. They were surprisingly calm once Levi and Smith arrived with halters. After that it was just a case of leading them to a place that wasn’t flooded.
Smith reckoned he walked with the horses a quarter-mile, and they remained mostly calm for the entire way.
Another reporter’s notes on the story claimed that with “just the backhoe’s muscle, halters, and sheer willpower,” they kept working until 15 horses were out of there, but not before a stallion’s fear almost led to panic among the animals. Later, Sumi Sarkar writes, veterinarians marveled at how all 15 horses came out of the flood without any injuries.
Smith said that once Levi and Kelsey had finished with the horses, they returned with their backhoe to help their neighbors, pulling cars out that were stuck, or picking up those who had climbed onto the roofs of their houses.
WATCH the story below…
WHINNY About This Incredible Rescue Effort To Your Herd On Socials…
Quote of the Day: “We should lie as empty, open, and choiceless as a beach—waiting for gifts from the sea.” – Mark Doty, poet
Photo by: GWC
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?
The Natural Bridge, Virginia - Frederic Edwin Church in his 40s - Google Art Project, public domain
200 years ago today, Frederic Edwin Church, one of the foremost painters in the American landscape movement known as the Hudson River School, was born. His absolutely stunning depictions of North and South American wilderness put an emphasis on realistic detail, dramatic light, and panoramic views. In his pomp, Church was the most famous painter in New York City, and a wonderful selection of his works can be seen today at the National Gallery in Washington DC SEE some and read more about his life… (1826)
Oak trees comparison by Sven Finnberg for University of Würzburg / SWNS
Oak trees comparison: The tree on the right was more heavily infested with caterpillars last year – by Sven Finnberg for University of Würzburg / SWNS
New research reveals oak trees deliberately delay sprouting their leaves by three days to avoid being infested by hungry caterpillars, after it happened the previous year.
The trees’ clever tactic to outwit potentially deadly predators was detected by scientists in Germany using data from satellite.
They found that many insects, particularly caterpillars, hatch in the Spring just when the trees’ nutrient-rich leaves are still young and soft—an ample food source.
But if oak trees are heavily infested by caterpillars in a given year, they react the following Spring by delaying their leaf emergence by three days.
That means the caterpillars have nothing to eat after hatching because the oak leaves are still firmly hidden in the buds.
The strategy is “highly effective” because the three-day delay is sufficient to drastically reduce the insects’ survival rate—and reduce the damage on the tree by 55 percent, according to the study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
“The delaying tactic is more effective for the oak than a chemical defense, such as bitter tannins in the leaves, because the tree would have to expend a great deal of energy to increase tannin production,” said lead author Dr. Soumen Mallick, of the University of Würzburg, Germany.
“This discovery fundamentally changes our previous understanding of the onset of spring in the forest.
“It shows that trees do not merely react passively to the weather in timing their leaves to emerge but also respond flexibly to biological threats.”
Oak tree buds with newborn caterpillar by Sven Finnberg for University of Würzburg / SWNS
Previously, scientists had to laboriously observe individual trees on the ground, but now they are using state-of-the-art interdisciplinary methods from ecology and remote sensing.
For the new study, a 2,400-square-km (925 sq mile) area in Northern Bavaria was monitored continuously using Sentinel-1 satellite data. The radar satellites provide precise data on the condition of tree canopies even in thick cloud cover.
The research team analyzed a total of 137,500 individual observations spanning five years, from 2017 to 2021.
The satellites provided data at a resolution of 10×10 meters per pixel, which roughly corresponds to the crown of a single tree. A total of 27,500 such pixels were analyzed across 60 forest areas.
The researchers said the year 2019 proved particularly revealing as the region experienced a massive gypsy moth outbreak.
“The radar sensors recorded exactly which trees were stripped bare and how they reacted in the following year,” explained study co-author Professor Jörg Müller, from the University of Würzburg.
The researchers say their findings conclusively explain, for the first time, why in some Springs the forest does not turn green as quickly as temperatures would suggest.
Previous computer models often calculated the state of the forest inaccurately because they took into account almost exclusively “lifeless” factors such as temperature and ignore biological interactions between plants and insects.
The researchers explained that trees find themselves in an “evolutionary tug-of-war” with rising temperatures caused by climate change pushing them to sprout leaves ever earlier, and pressure from insect feeding is forcing them to hold back.
They say a key advantage of the delaying tactic is that it is temporary and reversible.
Study co-senior author Professor Andreas Prinzing said as the trees only sprout later following an actual infestation, the insects cannot adapt permanently.
Prof. Prinzing, of the University of Rennes, France, added: “This dynamic interplay is an example of the forest’s high resilience and adaptability in a changing world.”
