161 years ago today, the American Civil War ended when Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to General Ulysses Grant and the Union Army. The moment was the first time the two men had seen each other face-to-face in almost two decades. Suddenly overcome with sadness, Grant found it hard to get to the point of the meeting. The victorious general granted parole and freedom to the 28,000 Confederate soldiers, allowing them to return home with their horses—and officers with their swords and pistols—effectively ending the four-year war. READ more about the moment… (1865)
Johns Hopkins Team Develops Therapeutic, Nasally-Delivered DNA Vaccine for Tuberculosis
A research team at Johns Hopkins Medicine is developing a nose-delivered inoculation against tuberculosis, the world’s leading cause of death from infectious disease.
The approach fuses two tuberculosis genes with the goal of directing the immune system to fight drug-tolerant bacterial survivors that can endure antibiotic treatment to spread another day.
The paper on the vaccine was published last week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, where JH Medicine researchers were joined by colleagues from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
TB is estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be spread asymptomatically by around 2 billion people. In 2024 , WHO reported that TB was the leading cause of death from a single infectious disease.
In recent years, WHO has called for therapeutic vaccines that can be used alongside drug therapies to shorten TB treatment regimens and improve outcomes, particularly because long multidrug courses are difficult to complete, and drug-resistant TB strains continue to emerge. The vaccine described in the new Johns Hopkins study shows promise for meeting that need.
The new Johns Hopkins vaccine, says study lead author Styliani Karanika, MD, fuses two genes: relMtb and Mip3α, and is given through the nose to take advantage of 3 beneficial biological activities.
“Administered together with first-line TB drug therapy, our intranasal DNA fusion vaccine helped infected mice clear the disease bacteria faster, reduced lung inflammation, and prevented relapse after treatment ended,” says Karanika, a faculty member of the Johns Hopkins Center for Tuberculosis Research.
“The vaccine also helped the powerful TB drug combination of bedaquiline, pretomanid, and linezolid work better, suggesting it could be used with treatments against drug-resistant TB to help the body fight the disease, even hard-to-treat cases.”
Dr. Karanika explained that TB bacteria possess a gene—relMtb—that produces a protein called RelMtb—which together help the microbes survive hostile conditions such as antibiotic exposure, low oxygen, and nutrient limitation by entering a drug-tolerant persistent state.
Fusing relMtb with another gene called Mip3α produces a signal that attracts immature human dendritic cells. These cells pick up TB proteins and ‘present’ them to T cells, the immune cells that help coordinate a targeted attack on the TB bacteria.
“Finally, intranasal delivery focuses vaccination on the respiratory mucosa in the lungs where TB infection occurs, helping generate long-lasting localized T-cell immunity in the airways and lungs, along with systemic immune responses,” says Karanika.
By combining these strategies, the investigators aimed to strengthen immune activity directly in the respiratory tract, where transmission most commonly occurs.
In the mouse studies, this approach both improved the quantity and organization of dendritic and T-cells in the lungs, and generated immune responses both locally and systemically. The improved response included to two types of T-cells, CD4 (also known as helper T-cells) and CD8 (also known as killer T-cells).
MORE INFECTIOUS DISEASE TRIUMPHS: Egypt Becomes 26th Country to Eliminate Leading Cause of Infectious Blindness with Triumph Over Trachoma
One study strongpoint was that it included tests on primates: in this case, rhesus macaques. The researchers found that their nose-delivered DNA vaccine prompted measurable TB‑focused immune responses in blood and in the airways similar to what led to lower bacterial counts in the lungs of the mice they studied.
These responses persisted for at least 6 months, suggesting durability for the vaccine’s action.
“These nonhuman primate data are encouraging because they show that the Mip3α/relMtb vaccine can generate durable, antigen-stimulated immune responses in an animal model whose immune system more closely resembles that of humans,” said Dr. Karanika. “That gives us an important translational bridge between the mouse efficacy studies and the additional preclinical work needed before human trials.”
TACKLING TB: Novel Plant-Derived Compound May Be Game-Changer for Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
Readers may recoil from the notion of primate testing, but Old World Monkeys are very susceptible to TB, and in fact spread it between themselves just as we do. Research has shown that TB has been spread among humans as far back as 70,000 years, and followed our migration out of Africa and across Asia.
The authors say their findings support a broader strategy of targeting surviving TB bacteria with immunotherapy, rather than relying solely on antibiotics to eliminate actively replicating bacteria. Because DNA vaccines are relatively stable and can be manufactured efficiently, they may offer practical advantages if this approach ultimately proves effective in humans.
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Visitors Can Now Watch the Restoring of a Masterpiece Bellini in Venice (Check out the Video)
When Venetian conservators were preparing for another round of conservation work on a monumental, 500-year-old masterpiece, they decided to open the process to the public eye.
Now installed in a special work area, visitors to the Galleria dell’Accademia can watch the various stages of conservation work that such an important and massive artwork requires to ensure it survives through the centuries.
Called Madonna and Child Enthroned, Music-Making Angels and Saints Francis, John the Baptist, Job, Dominic, Sebastian and Louis of Toulouse, the wood-panel painting was specially made by Venetian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini for the altar piece at the Church of San Giobbe.
According to a museum statement, the painting was carried out by Bellini between 1478 and the end of the following decade, and represents a “decisive turn” in the evolution of altar piece artworks.
By 1810, time had taken its toll on the work which was made out of 13 horizontal panels of poplar wood held together with glue and wooden pins. The bottom five panels, over several historic rounds of conservation work, have held up the best, while the above 8 have fared poorer.
In that year it was taken from the Church of San Giobbe to the Galleria, where it’s remained ever since. This preservation work will include special diagnostic analysis, including ultraviolent, fluorescent, and infrared imaging to get a better understanding of what lies beneath the pigments, what the pigments themselves were made of, and perhaps whether Bellini began with preparatory work.
Already, conservators have learned that preparatory work was carried out with layers of glue and white primer, and that Bellini’s brush wielded precious and expensive pigments mixed by three.
VENETIAN TIMES: Inflatable Floodgates in Venice Named After Moses Save the City for a Second Time
The previous centuries’ restoration efforts have now left the panel in need of a comprehensive treatment that will involve removing old varnish, addressing cracks formed in the swelling and shrinking of the poplar wood, scraping off dirt, and revivifying some of the color, a process which will take 2 years and $580,000 in grant money generously given by Venetian Heritage.
With so much touching up to do, the museum decided to move the altar piece to a special area where visitors can watch conservators work on the painting and receive explanations and descriptions about what is being done.
WATCH the painting being moved into the new area below…
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Cambodia Honors Minesweeping Hero Rat with Memorial Statue After He Cleared 100 Landmines
Cambodian artists and authorities have unveiled the statue of a four-footed hero to the nation, never to be forgotten.
During his remarkable life and career, Magawa the African giant pouched rat used his incredible sense of smell to locate 100 landmines and unexploded bombs before they were able to hurt anyone.
Because of his aptitude, exceptional even among minesweeping rats, (more on that later) there are 1,5 million square feet of space, equivalent to 20 English footfall fields, safe for farming and living once again.
A UK veterinarian’s charity PDSA awarded Magawa its ‘Medal of Gallantry’ in 2020 for his incredible work over a 5-year career that started in Africa in 2016.
The statue of the beloved ‘Hero Rat’ carved from local stone by artists was unveiled in Siem Reap on April 4th, International Day for Mine Awareness.
As GNN has reported before, one of the world’s great underreported tragedies is how much of the Earth is covered in landmines and unexploded bombs and shells from past conflicts.
Removing productive farmland from use, lying dormant with the potential to kill and maim for decades after being embedded in the ground, their deadly, indiscriminate effects are most often felt among children, who see strange metal objects among the grass and mistake them for toys.
Trained to sniff landmines by a Belgian NGO called APOPO, the Hero Rats were first deployed to Mozambique, the first nation since the 20th century began to be declared mine-free.
Over the course of APOPO’s work the rats it employs (and pampers) have safely located over 106,000 mines. Even though they’re one of the world’s largest rats, they are too small to trigger the detonation of mines, and are therefore safter than humans and dogs.
An APOPO Hero Rat like Magawa can search the area of a tennis court in 30 minutes—something that would take a human with a metal detector up to four days to achieve.
Dr. Ly Tuch, First Vice President of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, pulled the curtain off the statue, and gave a speech that wouldn’t be out of place on in a Medal of Honor ceremony.
HEROIC ANIMALS: First French Memorial for ‘Hero Dogs’ Honoring Their Military Service With New Monument – LOOK
“Before us stands Magawa—a small creature, yet one who changed the ground beneath our feet,” the translated speech read. “For years, Cambodia lived with land that could not be trusted. Fields held danger. Paths carried uncertainty. Families measured every step.”
“But Magawa moved through that same land with calm precision. Where others saw risk, he found what was hidden. Where fear remained, he helped restore confidence. More than 100 landmines and explosive remnants were cleared through his work.”
MINESWEEPING:
- Nonprofit Removes 300,000 Landmines in Sri Lanka, Allows 280K People to Return to Their Homes
- Croatia Declared Landmine-free After More Than 2 Decades of Demining Efforts
“Each detection meant a space returned to life. Each cleared area meant children walking safely, farmers working freely, communities rebuilding without hesitation. This is the true meaning of mine action. It is about restoring normal life. It is about dignity. It is about giving people back their future.”
“The statue we unveil today carries more than form. It carries a message — that even the smallest actor can leave a lasting impact.”
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(UPDATE) Aging Pizza Delivery Driver Gets $100K Tip After Conscientious Effort Goes Viral
On the last day in March, GNN reported that the conscientious efforts of a 70-year-old delivery driver left an Idaho man so taken aback, he raised $24,000 on GoFundMe to reward the employee, who told him he was mere weeks away from retirement.
Well the nation has clearly concurred that Dan the Dominoes deliveryman deserves a decent retirement, and it’s sent the GoFundMe to the moon, having surpassed $129,000 at publishing time.
“Hi everyone! First off, thank you SO much for your incredible donations to Dan,” wrote Brian Wilson, who ordered the pizza that Dan delivered. “We’ve had several opportunities to chat with him about the fundraiser, and he’s BLOWN away! Dan is such a humble guy, and incredibly appreciative of your contributions.”
The story began in late March when Wilson ordered a pizza and Diet Coke for delivery, but was called by the store later to explain that they had no Diet Coke and the driver had already left. He didn’t think much of it—because he didn’t know that Dan had stopped at a nearby store to pick up the soda especially for him, an extra mile that took just 3 minutes, Dan later admitted.
Wilson was shocked when Dan explained it all at his door, and wanted to tip more at the time, but had no cash on him. So as GNN has so often seen, he started a GoFundMe, and the whole nation responded.
“We were honestly blown away. That level of care and kindness is rare these days,” Wilson wrote on GoFundMe. “Let’s show Dan that his kindness didn’t go unnoticed. Let’s help him step into retirement feeling appreciated, supported, and celebrated.”
@katey_93 When Domino’s is out of Diet Coke, but your delivery driver stops at the store to get it for you. Dan, you went above and beyond tonight, thank you!The world needs more Dans. Happy almost retirement! #dominos #fyp ♬ original sound – Katey Ann
Wilson sent a letter to the store with $50 cash, while also sharing the Ring Camera video interaction on TikTok to see if anyone else would like to give Dan a tip. Just a few days later, that GoFundMe has received more than 1,600 donations totaling over $23,000.
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Woman’s Viral Video of Elderly DoorDash Driver Channels $1 Million to Help Him Retire
In an update to the story, local news sat down with Dan while he recounted the events. He remembered going into work the next day and his coworkers saying “you’re famous dude!”
“I’ve always tried to work hard and go the extra mile on stuff, and I guess maybe I’m getting rewarded for that,” he said, when it was up to around $18,500.
Oh if you only knew Dan, if you only knew.
WATCH the video below…
SHARE And CELEBRATE Dan’s Hard Work And Just Rewards On Social Media…
“We can spend our life suffering because we can’t relax with how things really are, or we can embrace the open-endedness of the human situation.” – Pema Chödrön
Quote of the Day: “We can spend our life suffering because we can’t relax with how things really are, or we can embrace the open-endedness of the human situation.” – Pema Chödrön
Photo by: Lili Popper
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Good News in History, April 8
Happy Birthday to actress Robin Wright, who turns 60 years old today. Known for her film portrayals as Buttercup, in The Princess Bride, and Jenny in Forrest Gump, she won a Golden Globe for playing the devious political wife on the critically-acclaimed Netflix series House of Cards. READ more about Wright… (1966)
Singapore’s First 3D-Printed Bridge Planned for 2028 After Rigorous Testing
Singapore’s transportation officials are set to debut the use of 3D-printed concrete in the form of a new pedestrian bridge that will stretch 30 feet across a waterway.
Brought onboard a larger project to improve transit options in the Jurong River and Temah areas of the city state, it’s the country’s first use of 3D printing for this kind of infrastructure.
The project, managed by the Land Transit Authority (LTA) has just completed a testing phase where segments of printed concrete, made up of cement, sand, and water, were subjected to stress tests under the weight of large water tanks weighing 1 metric ton each.
The first printed segments formed a scale model of what will be the eventual bridge. 10 segments in total took about 40 hours to finish compared to two weeks that might have been expected with manual concrete laying.
It cost a mere $1.4 million to develop and supply the specialized 3D-printing mixture, and the whole project was carried out by Singapore Center for 3D Printing at Nanyang Technological University, with help from the engineering consultancy Witteveen+Bos and 3D concrete printing construction firm CES_Innovfab.
The real thing is slated for completion in 2028, when each of the 10 segments will be threaded together on robust steel cables until it measures 30 feet long and 15 feet wide.
3D-printed bridges have also been installed in China and the Netherlands. The longest in the world is in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, where it stretches 95 feet (29 meters) across a canal.
MORE 3D-PRINTING:
The bridge is striking to look at, with sculpted conical feet that gives it a shape a little like that of a caterpillar.
In Singapore, it’s very much early days for the technology, and the load-bearing tests carried out on the scale model will inform any future applications of the technology. It’s hoped they will be successful, as labor shortages are affecting LTA’s ability to conduct similar projects at scale.
SINGAPORE STORIES:
3D-printed homes present as a much easier engineering challenge since the structure is built from the ground up. Printing each bridge segment—set for a life of foundationless suspension, required a precise mixture of ingredients, printing flow rate, and printing speed to ensure each layer fell, filled, and dried in a perfectly even pattern to ensure no cracks would develop as the mixture hardened.
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Pinch of Gold Dust May Be Secret to Bringing Longer Lasting and Safer Batteries to Market
A nano-scale pinch of gold dust may be enough to transform a previously-ineffective battery technology into a new industry standard.
As the demand for more reliable power systems grows in the renewable energy sector, the race is on to develop batteries that cost less but have a longer lifespan.
Precious metals are a key part of this effort, with silver and gold being among the most conductive elements on the periodic table. Silver is being used in new solid-state batteries, while gold has been used by Canadian researchers to solve a major issue with zinc batteries.
While zinc-based batteries are safer and more cost-effective than industry-standard lithium-ion batteries, a major obstacle to their use in large-scale, grid storage is their shorter lifespan. They fail sooner because they develop tiny, tree-shaped metal structures on the anode called dendrites, which cause the battery to short circuit.
Now, researchers from Concordia University have found a way to slow dendrite formation.
Using the ultrabright X-ray devices of the Canadian Light Source at the national laboratory at the University of Saskatchewan, the Concordia team found that “sprinkling” a small amount of gold nanoparticles on a battery’s inner surface can cut dendrite growth by up to 50 times compared to regular zinc batteries.
Their gold-treated batteries went on to work for more than 6,000 hours in lab settings, a 50-fold increase compared to uncoated zinc.
“Coating the electrode is known to improve battery performance, but the small quantity of particles needed for our technique and how they are arranged on the battery surface is a very new, exciting finding,” says Seungil Lee, a PhD student at Concordia and lead author of the team’s paper, published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
Although gold is expensive, the technique the researchers developed—which sparsely distributes particles on less than 10% of the battery surface—could be relatively cheap to implement for large-scale battery applications.
“Because of the way that we make it, which doesn’t require any special lab conditions and only small amounts of gold, it just becomes dead cheap to put gold particles on the surface, it’s 1/100th of the price of regular gold coatings,” says Ayse Turak, Associate Professor, Physics, and Lee’s supervisor.
“It was a revelation for us. There’s so little material on the surface that it’s almost impossible to characterize by any other means. But X-rays at the Canadian Light Source provide a very strong signal, so we can see it and we can confirm it’s there, and where it sits on the surface,” added Turak.
Now the team is studying how the particle-coating technology could perform with copper electrodes for next-generation anode-free batteries. They’re also investigating whether sparse nanoparticles could be used beyond batteries, in other technologies such as sensors, photovoltaics, and lighting.
MORE USE OF THE CANADIAN LIGHT SOURCE:
- Industrial Pollution is Cleaned by Converting Toxic Heavy Metals into Essential Nutrients
- Researchers Invent Way to Turn Harmful Mine Waste into Healthy Soil
- Newly Discovered Protein Stops DNA Damage and Even Repairs it – Pointing to a Cancer Vaccine
Silver and gold are recognized in the investment community mostly as non-interest bearing reserve assets—safe havens from monetary debasement. Studies like these remind us that just because gold and silver have been used as money for 5,000 years at least, they have numerous current and future industrial applications.
Samsung’s new, all-solid-state battery, to be debuted first (it’s believed) in EVs will provide almost twice as much range as lithium-ion battery packs and charge within 10 minutes. The advent of silver as a key coating in the battery was one of several developments that saw silver prices rise parabolically between November and February from around $50 per ounce to $150.
SHARE This Great New Use For Gold To Make Safer, Longer-Lasting Batteries…
Half-blind, 12-yo Dog Fights off Hungry Bear to Protect Family and Pets in New Mexico: “She’s our little savior ’
A rural New Mexico family was left in a state resembling heartbroken wonderment when they discovered their 12-year-old dog who’s afraid of the vacuum cleaner fought off a bear encroaching on their property.
Honey the dog was recorded in security camera audio having it out with the bear, newly emerged from hibernation and famished; with an eye and a nose on the 60 or so chickens that Denise Martinez houses in a coup on her property.
At risk might also have been the horses, or the other dogs, but Honey was having none of it.
She’s far from her prime years, and half-blind from an encounter with a porcupine, but still managed miraculously to ward off the ursine intruder despite suffering grievous injuries.
“She is our little savior—she’s always been protective that way,” Martinez told the Guardian in a brief phone call on Monday. “She risked her life to save not just the coop, but her family, from that bear.”
Martinez’s daughter, Leanna was the one who found Honey after she fell under the bear’s attacks, suffering deep punctures, bruising, and partial flaying around the head and neck.
The wounds were everything the chilling security camera audio of the battle sounded like they’d be, and the family didn’t imagine she’d pull through as they raced her to a local treatment center, Española Humane.
Once there, she underwent a battery of life-saving interventions, including surgery, medication, and frequent bandage changing. Flaying, or the removal of skin, is a common occurrence in bear attacks. The animal’s tongue is strong enough to take off the skin organ in its totality as easy was we might remove the point of an ice cream dollop.
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS:
- Dog Named Hero Saves Owner’s Life for Days, Fighting Off Cold and Coyotes and Getting Help
- Watch Tiny Dog Sprint After Coyote While His Puppy Pal is Being Attacked in the Backyard
In spite of it all, Honey the “Bearslayer” pulled through.
“And because of her family’s love, a community who cares, and a little bit of … badassery, this half-blind sassy senior is still here,” Española Humane wrote in a Facebook post celebrating the fact that she pulled through.
Now at home, Honey can rest easy knowing she carried out the ultimate responsibility of any ranch dog, without paying the ultimate price, a testament both to her own inner strength, and that of all her race.
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Humanity’s Long-Awaited Return to Lunar Space Captured with Brilliant Photographs Aboard Artemis II
Americans and Canadians been delighted with images of the Moon and Earth taken from onboard the Orion capsule as it took 4 astronauts into Lunar orbit for the first time since the Apollo program.
Artemis II lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1st, 2026, reached the Moon on the 5th, and transited the Moon’s far side on the 6th.
On Monday, the mission marked the farthest point humans have ever traveled from the surface of Earth—about the width of the Lower 48—plus a quarter-million miles—from home.
On the way, the crew have kept their countrymen updated with all the sights from Lunar sphere of influence, where the gravity of our satellite affects the capsule more than does the gravity of Earth.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch, the first woman to visit Lunar space, was captured in a particularly striking photo gazing out a cabin window at our planet while her hair dangled in microgravity.
Mission Commander Chris Wiseman captured the Earth illuminated by the Sun, with the polar aurora spreading out along the Northern Hemisphere.
A striking image of the Moon’s near side (the side we see from Earth) was taken from the capsule that shows a major crater and former lava flow, while the bottom-third of the photo captures the far side, totally pockmarked with impact sites.
Artemis II is the mission that would return humans to Lunar space to build up performance data and know-how for an eventual return to the Moon’s surface with Artemis III.
SHARE These Breathtaking Photos With Your Friends Who Love Space…
“Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad, but sober; not to make us sorry, but wise.” – H.G. Wells
Quote of the Day: “Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad, but sober; not to make us sorry, but wise.” – H.G. Wells
Photo by: Abdulla Faiz (CC license)
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Good News in History, April 7
25 years ago today, NASA launched the “2001 Odyssey” probe to Mars. Named after Kubrick’s classic sci-fi film, its mission was to use spectrometers and a thermal imager to detect evidence of past or present water and ice, as well as study the planet’s geology and radiation environment.
That mission was a success over a period that elapsed 32 months after it arrived in orbit around the Red Planet, and has continued on for 24 years and 5 months, still transmitting valuable data as the oldest craft on or around Mars, and the second oldest serving spacecraft in the solar system. READ more about what it’s found… (2021)
Betta Fish Turns Vivid Blue When Happy Again–After Moving From Pet Shop Jar to Caring Home (WATCH)
A woman who’s spent 15 years raising beautiful betta fish shared a heartwarming story about her latest family member: Stevie, who she found as a dull and depressed white color in a pet shop cup of water.
Taking him home and nursing him back to health, he rewarded her by flushing an incredible electric blue.
Adriana recently ceased her Instagram activity; she had been posting for many years about the care and activity of raising half-a-dozen betta fish on a channel called @thebettaboys.
Before announcing the end to her channel’s activity, she shared one more viral video: the life story of Stevie, whose white coloration and frail fins indicated how poorly he was living inside what Adriana described as a “cup.”
“There is some kind of myth that a fish is the easiest pet to get a child. I actually got my first betta when I was 11, and I always feel some guilt for that because he didn’t thrive,” she says in a video narration from the Dodo.
Stevie, whom Adriana described as looking “a little goth” with black lips and rings around his eyes, was kept in a cup with no filtration or heating. After some weeks in a proper tank with new vegetation, objects, and good nutrition, the bone-colored Stevie began to get these orange spots, which were quickly overtaken by blue ones.
Like a Pokémon evolving, his long lace-like fins doubled in length and size, and the blue spots eventually expanded to cover his whole body.
“Even though he’s changed blue, he still has his signature moustache,” she said.
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Watch Little Octopus Demand Endless Attention From Aquarium Worker Who Captures it All on Video
Betta fish are native to Southeast Asia and are prized aquarium species for their long fins and varied colors.
The Betta Boys, who Adriana raised with love and care for 15 years, were black, red, shades of blue, orange, and white, with no two looking even remotely the same.
She says the fish a really smart, and enjoy so much when she changed the vegetation or objects in their aquariums.
WATCH the video below…
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Endangered Bird Was Losing its Song, So Captive Breeding Now Includes ‘Singing Lessons’ from Wild Males
In one of the stranger manifestations of species decline in Australia, the Critically-Endangered regent honeyeater is having to re-learn its natural love song.
With 300 or fewer of these beautiful birds left in the wild, young solitary males have been observed mimicking the calls of other honeyeaters, and even other birds.
The songs are part of the regent honeyeater’s mating tradition, and if lost, the birds at risk of vanishing won’t even know how to find a lover.
But scientists at the Australian National University weren’t about to let this happen, and so set up ‘music lessons’ for captive males in a breeding program.
Beginning in 2021, scientists overseeing the program tried playing for their birds the “Blue Mountains Typical,” an aria sung by the regent honeyeater in their native highland habitat in the state of New South Wales.
A “clipped” or piecemeal version of the Blue Mountains Typical has been recorded by these birds in the wild, likely a result of having little to no contact with other adults who know it by heart.
After some initial success playing recordings of the song, ANU behavioral ecologist and conservationist at the Taronga Conservation Society, Joy Tripovich, said that the team behind the long-established captive breeding program for regent honeyeaters began to bring wild males into the aviary to teach young males the song.
WILDLIFE SOUNDS: Australian Lyrebirds Give Singing Lessons to Juveniles–Mimicking 10 Different Species–LISTEN
She spoke with ABC News Australia about the process.
“The simplest way that we’ve actually cracked this code is by just mimicking what happens in nature, by having a tutor, a wild bird, next to the youngsters, so they had direct interactions,” Dr. Tripovich said.
“It’s pretty remarkable … the first time it happened the smiles on people’s faces were just amazing because you knew you’d just managed to capture this wild song.”
MORE ON THE HONEYEATERS: A Mass Blossoming Is Occurring in Wake of Floods to Feed Honeyeater Birds in Australia Where Just 300 Remain
As the years marched on towards present day, the team at Taronga refined the music lessons; eventually knowing exactly how many ‘students’ could manage to learn from a single ‘teacher;’ between 4 and 5.
“We are releasing the birds that can actually sing into the wild, with the hope that wild calls can be re-established,” Dr. Tripovich said.
SHARE This Great Idea That Got These Birds Singing Their Song Again…
Hard-to-Recycle Waste Forms Lightweight Concrete for Paving Roads and More in Hungary
A Hungarian firm is adding shredded, hard-to-recycle waste into a light concrete mixture for use in paving roads, building houses, and insulating structures.
The firm based in Budapest, called Makropa, utilizes many unrecyclable waste streams that would otherwise be destined for landfills or the incinerator.
It says it can entrap between 3,000 and 4,000 tons of trash per kilometer of road.
Makropa’s (WLC) Waste Light Concrete has been available since 2021. The WLC is a blend of proprietary binding additive, shredded waste, and standard concrete mixing ingredients.
WLC can contain a variety of materials, including polystyrene foam, mixed-ester plastics that are hard to recycle, rigid plastics, but also non-plastic waste like furnace ash, sawdust, and cigarette butts. The shredded components take the form of the stones that would normally be used in standard concrete.
Károly Bus, the founder of Makropa and patent holder of WLC, says the worst thing that can happen is for these materials to be buried or incinerated.
“I don’t know anyone else utilizing it in the way we are. So far, no one else has found a solution at this scale and quantity,” Mr. Bus told Reuters.
MORE SOLUTIONS LIKE THIS: Premiere of Innovative Low-Carbon Cement: Will ‘Be in That Building for Decades to Come’
Plastic roads, including made of unrecyclable plastic are not a new phenomenon, but they are melted typically into an asphalt mixture. Makropa’s method sees the product maintain its concrete chemistry, making it more durable and longer-lasting, as well as more versatile.
WLC has been used to construct building foundations, and has showed impressive resistance to projectiles and greater soundproofing potential than normal concrete.
WATCH the WLC in action through this Reuters report…
SHARE This Hungarian Innovation Saving Space In The Landfills…
Scotland’s Largest Greenhouse Set to Be Preserved as ‘Living Ruin’ and New Event Space
A historic greenhouse in Glasgow is set to finally be revived after 40 years of dereliction.
$1.5 million will help a trust organized to save the building do just that, while simultaneously opening it up to events and perhaps more.
Located in the northern district of the same name, the Springburn Winter Gardens was Scotland’s largest greenhouse when there was still green in the house. Built in 1892, it played host to classical concertos and exotic flower displays behind the massive glazing held up by attractive British ironworks.
In the post-war years, however, the gardens and park began to decay with the general Springburn neighborhood, and in 1983, the Winter Garden was closed after a huge storm damaged it. It has ever since remained in disrepair and disregard.
Plans to tear it down were rebuffed by locals with long, fond memories of the greenhouse in Springburn Park, and in 2012, the Springburn Winter Garden Trust was formed to preserve the building, whose first charge was to perform emergency stabilization work in 2017.
This very trust just recently received £1.1 million from the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund which aims to renew community sites in disadvantaged areas around Scottish cities.
MORE SCOTTISH STORIES: Couple Converts Their Home into ‘Hedgehog Haven’ to Rehabilitate Over 500 Spiky Critters
Sarah Robinson Frood owns a company called Innovate Rural, which is now developing a plan to take the first step towards restoring the greenhouse by turning it into a “living ruin.”
She spoke to BBC Scotland with more details.
“On a basic level it’s going to make it accessible again and stop it falling down. There has been a lot of technical reporting over the past couple of years and that has shown it is in a precarious state.”
TURNING THE PAST INTO A PRESENT: Archaeologists to Excavate Glasgow’s First Skatepark with the Help of Former Skateboarders
“It’s just about bringing it back into use after stabilizing it. It’s something like a ruined church or a bandstand, where the structure is still there and can be utilized while not being a completed or closed building.”
Ways of utilizing the heritage-listed building could involve making it into a hub for arts and culture, with leasable spaces, a performance venue, and cafe/bar.
SHARE This Story Of How This Historic Building Will Be Saved In Glasgow…
“Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.” – Alfred Montapert
Quote of the Day: “Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.” – Alfred Montapert
Photo by: Jackie Hutchinson
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Good News in History, April 6
130 years ago today, the first Olympic Games of the modern era opened in Athens–1,500 years after the original games were banned by the Roman emperor. Because Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games, Athens was chosen as the perfect place to stage the first modern Games. Despite obstacles, the Games of the I Olympiad were regarded as a great success, attracting the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date. The Panathinaiko Olympic Stadium overflowed with the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event. READ some of the highlights… (1896)
Architect Creates App to Show Which Pub Gardens are Sunny – Using Shadow Simulations From Buildings
In cloudy old England, an architect has created his own phone app that displays which pubs are currently in the sunshine.
Mo Dawod was out in London in April last year when he decided that he wanted an iced coffee in the sunshine, but there was no way to know which cafes would be blanketed in shade.
So, later that night, he created his own mobile map using publicly available data, such as a building’s height and footprint, to create a shadow simulation for pubs, restaurants, and cafes.
What started as a simple ‘hack’ for himself quickly turned into the number one app in the UK—called Sunseekr—and Mo has since quit his day job in architecture to pursue it full time.
“I decided to share it with the community to see if anyone was also struggling like me and would be interested,” said the 34-year-old. “People went crazy. It went so viral on Reddit that night.
“I was astonished and shocked. After that I decided to make it as an app.”
“The app went number one in the UK in the lifestyle category four days after it became real. It was so surreal that all this happened from me just wanting to have an iced coffee.”
Mo, who is originally from Egypt, next looked at how to monetize his invention so he could pay his bills while operating the Sunseekr app—now with over 250,000 users.
Last summer, he managed to get a sponsorship from Aperol, who used his map to create their own version showing where people could drink an aperitivo of Aperol Spritz in the sunshine.
With the app becoming less popular in the winter months, the founder decided to use the time to work on leveling-up the experience with new elements.
Venues now have a chance to be more featured, uploading pictures of their venue, mapping the garden, and pushing themselves on the explore page for £350 a year.
It uses a moon emoji if the location is in the shade, and a sun if it’s not. The app can also notify you when your favorite spot is getting sun beamed, displays closing and opening times, and offers the ability to leave comments and reviews.
“When I built this app it was more of a hack for the problem I had. Now I am trying to take it to the next level. I have rebuilt the whole app for summer 2026.
“It has been for me such a crazy journey. It was so unexpected. I never thought I would be running such a platform. I am so happy that I managed to put this together.”
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Sunseekr was also launched in other countries such as Germany and Spain.
“We reworked the app from the ground up to map the actual outdoor areas and show people, hour by hour, how much sun you will be having.”
The company is now asking the community to help map more pubs because they don’t have the manpower to go and map every single venue in the country.
INSPIRE YOUR FRIENDS TO CREATE –Share The Idea on Social Media…
