The UK’s public health services are officially prescribing stand-up comedy classes to men at risk of suicide from mental trauma or depression—after a pilot program proved outrageously successful.
While stand-up is one of the hardest, and scariest things most people could think to do, humor is also one of the most innate ways human beings process trauma.
Despite what social activists have for decades said about some topics being off-limits, British comedian Angie Belcher is showing that people exploring their personal history through comedy often makes them “stronger and more resilient.”
Belcher is the pioneer of Comedy on Referral, a six-week course for trauma survivors in Bristol that is now receiving National Health Service (NHS) funding to expand its programs to London to help men at risk of suicide.
Belcher, who describes herself on Twitter as a “Comedian in Residence,” also founded AFTERMIRTH Comedy Club—which helps celebrate parenthood and fight post-natal depression through stand-up comedy.
She explained Comedy on Referral to the Guardian, and why it has the power to change trauma survivors’ mentalities.
“My course for trauma victims encourages them to process their trauma in a different way, so they can change who the victim is and choose the narrative. They can actually go right down into ‘This is what I was thinking and then this thing happened to me’,” said Belcher.
“This enables survivors to consciously use comedy to change their perspective of their experiences, but it also puts them in a physically powerful position because being on stage is very powerful.”
This week, the North West London Integrated Care System, a large partner of the various NHS trusts, rewarded Belcher’s efforts with a grant in the hope to reduce British suicide rate by 10%. They admit they’ve never done anything like this before, but they’re excited by the results.
20 men over the age of 18 who have had suicidal episodes are currently in the program, in which Belcher works alongside psychologists to ensure that fine line between what’s funny and what can be triggering is walked safely.
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Food has been grown in soil collected from the moon for the first time, paving the way for human migration across the solar system.
Pioneers would be able to cultivate crops on other worlds—mirroring the plot of The Martian.
In the film, Matt Damon’s stranded astronaut character grows potatoes on the Red Planet to survive.
Now, in a case of life imitating art, scientists have cultivated cress in dirt, or regolith, that had been kept on Earth for half a century—since the Apollo missions.
It is a first step towards producing food and oxygen on the moon, or during space missions.
Over the next decade, NASA’s Artemis program will lay the foundation for a sustained colony on the lunar surface.
It will use the moon to validate deep space systems and operations—before embarking on a manned voyage to Mars.
“Artemis will require a better understanding of how to grow plants in space,” co-author Professor Rob Ferl said. “For future, longer space missions, we may use the moon as a hub or launching pad. It makes sense that we would want to use the soil that’s already there to grow plants.
“So, what happens when you grow plants in lunar soil, something that is totally outside of a plant’s evolutionary experience? What would plants do in a lunar greenhouse? Could we have lunar farmers?”
The University of Florida team planted thale cress seeds in lunar soil picked up by the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 crews between 1969 and 1972.
They added water, nutrients, and light, and watched the edible spring salad green flourish.
A tiny ‘lunar garden’ was created from just a few teaspoons of the prized dirt specially loaned from NASA. The university was granted 12 grams—after 11 years of negotiations.
Thimble-sized wells in plastic plates normally used to culture cells were filled with a gram each of the lunar soil.
They were moistened with a cocktail of nutrients. Then a few seeds of cress were added to each ‘pot.’
Fresh growth
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The horticulturalists weren’t sure if they would sprout, but nearly all of them did.
“We were amazed. We did not predict that,” co-author Prof Anna-Lisa Paul said. “That told us the lunar soils didn’t interrupt the hormones and signals involved in plant germination.”
It opens the door to “resource independence” from Earth.
NASA and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are committed to sending people to Mars in the near future.The logistical challenges are huge. Transporting food all the way from Earth would be impractical. Producing it locally is imperative.
Damon’s character in the sci-fi blockbuster fertilizes Martian soil with faeces—slicing potatoes and planting the cuttings. He grows enough food to last hundreds of days.
Even in the early days of lunar exploration, plants played an important role, said Prof. Paul. She explained, “Plants helped establish that the soil samples brought back from the moon did not harbour pathogens or other unknown components that would harm terrestrial life. But those plants were only dusted with the lunar regolith and were never actually grown in it.”
Prof. Paul and Prof. Ferl are internationally recognised experts in the field of plants in space. They have sent experiments on space shuttles, to the International Space Station and on suborbital flights.
Thale cress, or Arabidopsis, is native to Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is widely used in research because its genetic code has been fully mapped.
Cultivation in the lunar soil shed fresh light on how plants would be affected—down to the level of gene expression.
Seeds were also planted in basaltic and volcanic ash from Earth, as well as simulated Martian soils, which acted as controls.
Over time, differences were observed. Some ‘lunar’ plants were smaller, grew more slowly, or were more varied in size than their counterparts.
These were signs they were working to cope with the chemical and structural make-up of the moon’s soil—which was confirmed by gene expression analysis.
One giant leap
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“At the genetic level, the plants were pulling out the tools typically used to cope with stressors, such as salt and metals or oxidative stress. So we can infer the plants perceive the lunar soil environment as stressful,” Prof Paul said. “Ultimately, we would like to use the gene expression data to help address how we can ameliorate the stress responses to the level where plants – particularly crops – are able to grow in lunar soil with very little impact to their health.”
The study also found plants with the most signs of stress were those grown in what geologists call mature lunar soil.
Exposed to more cosmic wind, that alters their makeup. Those grown in comparatively younger soils fared better. Growing may also change the soils themselves.
“The Moon is a very, very dry place. How will minerals in the lunar soil respond to having a plant grown in them, with the added water and nutrients? Will adding water make the mineralogy more hospitable to plants,” co-author Dr Stephen Elardo questioned.
Follow-up studies will build on these questions and more. For now, the researchers are celebrating ‘growing plants on the moon’.
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Quote of the Day: “My heart has developed a kind of amnesia, where it remembers everything but itself.” – Sabrina Benaim
Photo by: Fa Barboza
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Taking inspiration from the aspen tree the state of Colorado so loves—a Denver hotel is looking to become the first-of-its-kind in America that removes more carbon than it uses.
With cement-works, smelting, and heavy machinery being the birth of all big buildings, the Populus Hotel has spared no piece of its operations from being assessed for unnecessary emissions.
The building was designed by Studio Gang in Chicago, and is almost finished. At the hotel there’s no parking, removing the need for digging and building an underground concrete lot.
Instead, Populus is encouraging guests to take a bus or train to a city transportation hub right across the street to arrive.
The low-carbon concrete façade and skeleton of the hotel are inspired by aspen bark, and is crafted from a super insulating material that will greatly reduce energy consumption.
Deep-set windows work the same way, removing the amount of sun that directly enters a room.
The roof is lined with solar panels, and for every ton of CO2 produced from energy use, the hotel will be buying “carbon offsets”—trees planted somewhere by a third party that will absorb CO2 throughout their lifetime.
Studio Gang
“Internally, we often say if we can show people how to make money doing the right thing to change the world, it can be replicated,” Jon Buerge, chief development officer at Urban Villages, the sustainability-focused developer behind the project, told Fast Company.
“And so our projects are very profitable. We don’t ever come in saying, you know, well, if we use this material, and we reduce our return on investment, is that okay? It’s more saying, we’ve got to justify it. We have to make sure that the decisions we’re making are good for the planet and good for for the business.”
Studio Gang
Expected to open next year, the hotel will have 265 rooms, and will include a rooftop terrace garden and dining area with views out across to the State Capitol building, and towards the Rocky Mountains beyond.
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Whether you’ve seen it on Airplane! or tested on Mythbusters, it is possible for a passenger with no flying experience to land an airplane if there’s a calm voice on the radio telling them how.
That’s what happened recently aboard a small single-engine plane, when the incapacitation of the pilot left a passenger at the wheel. Radioing down to sea level, Darren Harrison admitted, “I have no idea how to fly the airplane.”
Air Traffic Controller Robert Morgan, a certified flight instructor with over 1,200 hours of flight time, was having a lunch break near his control tower at Fort Pierce when he got a disturbing call about a plane that needed help as it was flying in from the Bahamas.
“I rush over there and I walk in and the room is really busy… and they’re like, ‘Hey, this pilot’s incapacitated. The passengers are flying the plane. They have no flying experience,” Morgan told CNN’sNew Day on Wednesday.
Talking her down
Robert Morgan (L) and Darren Harrison (R); Robert Morgan
“Try to hold the wings level and see if you can start descending for me. Push forward on the controls and descend at a very slow rate,” Morgan advised. Having never flown this particular Cessna Caravan propeller plane, he pulled up a photograph of the control panel to improve his explanations.
Between radio calls with the plane, Morgan organized air traffic at Palm Beach, the biggest runway in the area, where he knew he could give Harrison the largest target to aim at.
Talking Harrison down step by step, the plane landed safely, with much of the traffic at Palm Beach listening.
“You just witnessed a couple of passengers land that plane,” a Palm Beach tower controller told a waiting pilot. “Did you say the passengers landed the airplane? Oh, my God. Great job,” he said.
Afterwards Morgan got to meet his new student, whom he gave a 10/10 for the landing during an emotional exchange. Morgan said Harrison was the real hero of the day, having had the courage to take over the situation. Harrison was just happy to be down and to be able to get back to his wife—who is currently pregnant.
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Memory loss has been reversed in mice by injecting them with a brain liquid from younger peers in a “groundbreaking” new treatment..
The substance, called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), washes in and out of grey and white matter in waves—helping clear out waste.
It bathes the tissue with proteins, or growth factors, that are vital for normal development.
Amounts reduce as we get older—increasing the risk of Alzheimer’s and other neurological conditions.
The therapy opens the door to new treatments, and slowing cognitive decline, say scientists.
Using a tiny tube and pump, CSF from young adult mice was infused into the brains of 18-month-old animals—equivalent to about 60 in human years—over seven days.
Scans showed it boosted production of myelin, a fatty sheath that protects neurons from damage.
Afterwards, the elderly mice got better at a ‘fear-conditioning task’. They remembered a tone and flashing light meant they were about to receive a small electric shock.
New hope
“Brain aging underlies dementia and neurodegenerative diseases, imposing an immense societal burden,” corresponding author Professor Tony Wyss-Coray, of Stanford University in California, said. “Memory improvements that are seen in old mice receiving CSF from younger animals may be attributed to growth factors that are shown to restore neural cell function.
“The findings demonstrate the potential rejuvenating properties of young CSF for the aging brain.”
A computer tool called RNA sequencing showed the therapy altered gene expression in the hippocampus—which controls memory.
It stimulated cells in the central nervous system known as oligodendrocytes. They make myelin, ensuring strong signals between neurons.
The study in the journal Nature found genes that are typically expressed in oligodendrocytes were highly up-regulated in old mice treated with CSF from young mice.
In particular, it identified a gene named Fgf17 as being key. Activity decreases in aged mice.
Boosting it achieved the same benefits as young CSF±offering hope of developing a drug that targets it.
“As the brain ages, cognitive decline increases along with the risk of dementia and neurodegenerative disease,” Prof. Wyss-Coray said. “An understanding of how systemic factors affect the brain throughout life has shed light on potential treatments to slow brain aging.
“The CSF is part of the immediate environment of the brain, providing brain cells with nutrients, signalling molecules and growth factors.”
Age-related cognitive decline affects up to a quarter of over 60s. A healthy diet and regular exercise protect against it—but there are no pharmacological treatments.
Groundbreaking treatment
These findings demonstrate the rejuvenating power of young CSF and identify Fgf17 as a key target to restore oligodendrocyte function in the aging brain,” Prof Wyss-Coray said. “Combined, our results suggest that targeting hippocampal myelination through factors present in young CSF might be a therapeutic strategy to prevent or rescue cognitive decline associated with ageing and neurodegenerative diseases.”
Dr Miriam Zawadzki and Prof Maria Lehtinen, of Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts, who were not involved in the study, described it as “groundbreaking.”
“Not only does the study imply FGF17 has potential as a therapeutic
target, but it also suggests routes of drug administration that allow therapeutics to
directly access the CSF could be beneficial in treating dementia,” they said. “Any such treatments will be hugely helpful in supporting our aging population.”
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A farmer says an extremely rare pig has successfully been brought back from the brink of extinction.
40-year-old Michelle Burley-Hodge has joined a small group dedicated to saving a rare ‘hardy’ porker breed known as the wooly Mangalitza—that is able to fight off bears.
She said she was inspired to rescue the curly haired pigs after hearing her grandmother’s childhood stories about a now-extinct pig from her village.
And she said the work being done to is having a positive impact—with the pigs slowly recovering from just ten in the UK to around 50.
The mother-of-two from Perranwell in Cornwall is currently one of four farmers in the UK who have made it their mission to rescue the rare pigs.
Mangalitza pigs are huge animals, with long curly hair that originate from Hungary.
“They’re not very sought after pigs,” Michelle said, “because they take longer to rear for meat, but they’re really unique and hardy animals.
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“You do get a lot of meat, and a lot of different meat. Their fat is also really good for omega-3, some other farmers render it down for sale. It’s called the golden lard.
“You can get different varieties too, blondes, redheads, and swallow-bellied versions all have different looks.
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“I know that recently the farmers I work with near Yorkshire and Sussex have had new litters, so the breed is definitely improving over time.
“We’re also going to import a whole new strain of Mangalitza pigs from Austria in July, so hopefully that will add some variety and make the breed more viable.
Michelle was inspired to rescue the breed after hearing her 85-year-old grandmother Sylvia talk about a huge hairy pig that used to walk around her childhood landscape.
While searching for one to purchase for herself, Michelle discovered that the breed of pig, a Lincolnshire curlycoat, has since gone extinct.
A global breed, the Mangalitza pigs have been exported across the world as far afield as Japan and Canada due to how tough they are.
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Michelle says that there are even Facebook groups dedicated to the pigs, with owners who share their experiences and how their pigs are faring from across the world.
“One pig in the U.S. was attacked by a bear, which is not something we’re used to here. The pig was fine, and there’s even a video of it fighting off the bear.”
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Quote of the Day: “Confusing emotions with analyses is a pandemic unto itself.” – Rebecca Solnit
Photo by: Hello I’m Nik
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The historic reintroduction of Chinook salmon into a California creek this spring will help secure another generation of this iconic species.
State and federal biologists have been busy moving endangered adult winter-run Chinook salmon to the upper reaches of Battle Creek and threatened spring-run Chinook salmon to Clear Creek in Northern California, where colder water temperatures will better support spawning and help their eggs survive the continuing drought.
Together the scientists will return about 300 adult winter-run Chinook salmon to native habitat above Eagle Canyon Dam on North Fork Battle Creek, about 20 miles east of Cottonwood, in Shasta/Tehama counties for the first time in more than 110 years.
It is one of a series of urgent actions to help the native fish survive another year of the lasting drought, high temperatures, and other stressors.
Agencies Join Forces
Various agencies, including CDFW, USFWS, NOAA Fisheries, Bureau of Reclamation, the California Department of Water Resources, and water users are working closely with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, whose culture is intertwined with salmon in the area.
Actions to help the salmon population include managing releases of limited water stored in Shasta Reservoir into the Sacramento River, where additional spawning gravel has been placed, to improve the odds that the released water is cool enough to allow some Chinook salmon eggs in the river to survive.
USFW salmon release location
Scientists are also expanding production of juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon at Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery operated by the USFWS at the base of Shasta Dam.
Offspring produced at the hatchery in recent years have helped save the species as most of their eggs in the wild died. Juvenile fish will be released into the river in stages when conditions are more hospitable in the late fall and winter.
They will be moving adult spring-run Chinook salmon that return up the Sacramento River to the upper reaches of Clear Creek in Shasta county to cooler water and increased chances of egg survival.
Boosting the resilience of transported adult salmon with injections of thiamine (Vitamin B) is also being managed.
There are also plans to track the survival and reproduction of the transported fish as part of a science plan to learn from these actions to promote climate resilience of Chinook salmon. Research includes field studies to understand the productivity of historic habitat where winter-run Chinook salmon will be reintroduced.
The transport of adult winter-run Chinook salmon to upper Battle Creek builds on the “jumpstart” reintroduction program that began in 2018 with annual releases of juvenile salmon in lower reaches of the creek.
Many of the released fish migrated to the ocean and have returned as adults to spawn, demonstrating that Chinook salmon can reestablish themselves given habitat that remains cool enough for their eggs to survive the summer.
Resilience of an iconic species
State and federal salmon recovery plans also call for returning winter-run Chinook salmon to historical spawning habitat in the McCloud River above Shasta Dam and Reservoir. That requires a means of collecting juvenile salmon that hatch and try to swim downriver toward the ocean and need to safely get past the 600-foot high Shasta Dam. Agencies plan to test a pilot juvenile collection system this fall.
These efforts are part of a comprehensive program in the Sacramento Valley to address all freshwater life-cycle stages to benefit all four runs of Chinook salmon in the region.
Work will continue this year to advance science through the Sacramento River Science Partnership and to implement projects in the downstream reaches of rivers and creeks to create additional spawning habitat, side channel rearing habitat, fish food and migration barrier removal.
These efforts are also part of a longer-term recovery effort underway to address climate change and provide greater resilience for salmon by expanding access to important habitat and landscapes, including reintroduction for spawning and rearing above Shasta Dam and Reservoir, spawning in the upper reaches of Battle Creek, and food sources and safe haven in the bypasses, oxbows, and historic floodplain in the lower part of the system.
A vast array of 12,000 solar panels are set to become Europe’s largest floating solar park when they finish taking position atop the Alqueva reservoir this year.
Supplying a third of the electricity to the nearby towns of Moura and Portel—they look to continue taking advantage of Portugal’s exceptional year-round weather that has seen the nation become one of the leading renewable-powered nations in Europe.
Built by EDP, the country’s principal utilities provider, the panels will be mounted on pontoons in an area the size of four European soccer pitches, equipped with lithium-ion batteries to store a total excess of 1.5 gigawatts.
The advantage of floating solar is that it doesn’t take up limited land space in the small country. Unused electricity that can’t be used pumps water into the reservoir, which can be fed through the hydropower system of the dam to create additional power.
“This project is the biggest floating solar park in a hydro dam in Europe, it is a very good benchmark,” said Miguel Patena, group director for EDP who is in charge of the project.
By 2030, EDP hopes to offer 100% renewable electricity across all infrastructure, and currently produces 78% of EDP’s 25.6 GW of installed capacity from solar, wind, and hydropower.
(WATCH the video for this story below.)
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Carcinoma (left), squamous cell carcinoma (middle), and actinic keratosis (right)/Stevens Institute of Technology
Skin biopsies are no fun: doctors carve away small lumps of tissue for laboratory testing, leaving patients with painful wounds that can take weeks to heal. That’s a price worth paying if it enables early cancer treatment. However, in recent years, aggressive diagnostic efforts have seen the number of biopsies grow around four times faster than the number of cancers detected, with about 30 benign lesions now biopsied for every case of skin cancer that’s found.
Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology are now developing a low-cost handheld device that could cut the rate of unnecessary biopsies in half and give dermatologists and other frontline physicians easy access to laboratory-grade cancer diagnostics. “We aren’t trying to get rid of biopsies,” said Negar Tavassolian, director of the Bio-Electromagnetics Laboratory at Stevens. “But we do want to give doctors additional tools and help them to make better decisions.”
The team’s device uses milimeter-wave imaging—the same technology used in airport security scanners—to scan a patient’s skin. (In earlier work, Tavassolian and her team had to work with already biopsied skin for the device to detect if it was cancerous.)
Healthy tissue reflects milimeter-wave rays differently than cancerous tissue, so it’s theoretically possible to spot cancers by monitoring contrasts in the rays reflected back from the skin. To bring that approach into clinical practice, the researchers used algorithms to fuse signals captured by multiple different antennas into a single ultrahigh-bandwidth image, reducing noise and quickly capturing high-resolution images of even the tiniest mole or blemish.
Spearheaded by Amir Mirbeik Ph.D. ’18, the team used a tabletop version of their technology to examine 71 patients during real-world clinical visits, and found their methods could accurately distinguish benign and malignant lesions in just a few seconds. Using their device, Tavassolian and Mirbeik could identify cancerous tissue with 97% sensitivity and 98% specificity—a rate competitive with even the best hospital-grade diagnostic tools.
“There are other advanced imaging technologies that can detect skin cancers, but they’re big, expensive machines that aren’t available in the clinic,” said Tavassolian. “We’re creating a low-cost device that’s as small and as easy to use as a cellphone, so we can bring advanced diagnostics within reach for everyone.”
Because the team’s technology delivers results in seconds, it could one day be used instead of a magnifying dermatoscope in routine checkups, giving extremely accurate results almost instantly. “That means doctors can integrate accurate diagnostics into routine checkups, and ultimately treat more patients,” said Tavassolian.
Unlike many other imaging methods, milimeter-wave rays harmlessly penetrate about 2mm into human skin, so the team’s imaging technology provides a clear 3D map of scanned lesions. Future improvements to the algorithm powering the device could significantly improve mapping of lesion margins, enabling more precise and less invasive biopsying for malignant lesions.
The next step is to pack the team’s diagnostic kit onto an integrated circuit, a step that could soon allow functional handheld milimeter-wave diagnostic devices to be produced for as little as $100 a piece—a fraction of the cost of existing hospital-grade diagnostic equipment. The team is already working to commercialize their technology and hopes to start putting their devices in clinicians’ hands within the next two years.
“The path forward is clear, and we know what we need to do,” said Tavassolian. “After this proof of concept, we need to miniaturize our technology, bring the price down, and bring it to the market.”
A six-year old sifting for shark teeth on a British beach found the four-inch long tooth of a megalodon, buried for at least three million years.
Sammy Shelton found the tooth with his dad Peter on Bawdsey Beach, at Gorleston-on-Sea in Suffolk; it’s a spot where many people come to look for different shells, sharks’ teeth, and fossils from recent times and those long gone.
Semi-professional fossil hunters with trowels and knee pads for kneeling in the mud told the father and son it’s nearly unheard of to find megalodon teeth in Great Britain, despite the fact they have been found nearly everywhere on Earth.
“Sammy was very excited as we’d seen fragments of shark teeth on the beach, but nothing as big and heavy as this,” Mr. Shelton told the BBC, adding that the little boy had become “very attached to it” and that he even sleeps with it.
“Now that Sammy has found this it has really piqued his interest [in paleontology] and he took it to school to show his class,” Mr. Shelton told the Great Yarmouth Mercury.
Megalodon didn’t live alongside the dinosaurs, but evolved as Earth returned to flourishing from the catastrophe that caused them to go extinct. They were three-times bigger than a great white shark, hypothesized as having the most powerful bite of any animal, land or sea, to ever live, and cruised the sea between 23 and 3 million years ago.
Such a massive body guarantees that nobody can chow down on you, but with a diet that consisted of animals as large as whales, it’s life was greatly dependent on there being equally enormous sea creatures around—a status quo which will never last forever, as Earth’s history bears witness.
When megalodon (meaning big tooth) did go extinct, it did so not only from a position at the top of the food chain, but one of extreme distribution, propagating all the world’s seas apart from Antarctica’s with its 60 ton, 18 meter-long bulk.
TV scientist personality and author Ben Garrod shared little Sammy’s excitement, as the tooth was so well preserved that one could even see the enamel inside of it. Garrod added that he had looked for a megalodon tooth throughout his life, but never found one, and that maybe two or three a year are found in Britain—and they’re normally very eroded.
Quote of the Day: “I am so busy. I am practicing my new hobby of watching me become someone else.” – Jennifer Willoughby
Photo by: Paul Skorupskas
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Scientists can now create new hearing cells that can overcome deafness caused by aging.
Considered a “major hurdle” to reversing hearing loss, the gene discovery allows the production of inner or outer ear hair cells.
Hearing loss due to aging, noise, and certain cancer therapy drugs and antibiotics has up until now been seen as irreversible when there is the death of such cells—which develop in the embryo and do not reproduce.
But scientists have discovered a single master gene, TBX2, that can change ear cells into either outer or inner sensory hair ones.
The outer hair cells expand and contract in response to the pressure of sound waves and amplify sound for the inner hair cells. The inner cells transmit those vibrations to the neurons to create the sounds we hear.
Currently, scientists can produce an artificial hair cell, but it does not differentiate into an inner or outer cell, which provide different essential functions to produce hearing.
About 8.5 percent of adults aged 55 to 64 in the U.S. have disabling hearing loss—so this discovery could be revolutionary to many.
Hearing works
“We have overcome a major hurdle,” Professor Jaime Garcia-Anoveros, of Northwestern University explained in a statement. Describing the coordinated movement of the inner and outer cells, he said, “It’s like a ballet… The ear is a beautiful organ. There is no other organ in a mammal where the cells are so precisely positioned with micrometric precision. Otherwise, hearing doesn’t occur.”
The study was published in the journal Nature, and complements recent research by MIT which has a new drug candidate that stimulates the growth of hair cells in the inner ear.
It was a case of ‘all’s wool that ends wool’ for five sheep who found themselves on the rooftop of a house in Yorkshire—and were successfully rescued by local firemen.
While goats are famous for appearing on all fours in places that boggle the mind, these five farm sheep had apparently leapt from a nearby field onto the roof, where they then found themselves quite stuck.
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue were called to Barnsley Road in Newmillerdam, England— where rescue officer Damian Cameron worked with a local landowner to create a makeshift bridge the sheep could use to escape from the roof.
Cameron reckoned that one sheep noticed that he could make the leap from the paddock to the roof.
This Rambo then dragged the other four there instinctually, as the flock animals prefer to stay as a team.
Fortunately it all turned out well, as all five sheep alighted the bridge and back into the paddock.
The Lesson: Prisons in the U.S. bury people. And they rely on the burying of those people to sever the connection they have with society’s knowledge that they exist, which in turn allows the prisons to bury them in a vicious cycle. But it turns out that even if it’s mere voices that escape those walls; poems, songs, art, all escaping without a person on stage or on the street attached to them, that’s enough to create a two-way connection with society that leads to a life and a voice beyond prison, and restorative justice, and not justice by diminishment.
Notable Excerpt: “I would say ‘yeah I’m starting this program in a prison,’ and the first question everyone asks is ‘are you scared?’ and I’m like ‘why would I be scared?’ So seeing this disjunction between what people were thinking about what I was doing, and what I was experiencing in there, for me I started to think this whole system of burying people, like “the disappeared”, depends on people not knowing who these people are in a deeper way, and so it became a kind of calling really to say ‘how can I play some small part in, not shining a light on, but allowing this light to come out?”
The Guest: Bidhan Roy received his Ph.D. at Goldsmith College, University of London, where he studied English literature and post-colonialism He is the founder of Words Uncaged, an organization which provides a platform for incarcerated artists and writers to engage with the public through book publishing, art exhibits and digital media. Words Uncaged has programs in 5 prisons and on death row in the U.S., serving more than 2,000 men and women, and uses storytelling to foster empathy for and understanding of, others, and to promote collective and individual healing. Dr. Roy is also the director of the Calstate Prison Graduation Initiative, which allows incarcerated men and women to receive BA degrees while serving time.
The Podcast: Livin’ Good Currency explores the relationship of time to our lives. It gives a simple, straight-forward formula that anyone can use to be present in the moment—and features a co-host who knows better than anyone the value of time (see below). How do you want to spend your life? This hour can inspire you, along with upcoming guests, to be sure you are ‘Livin’ Good Currency’ and never get caught running out of time.
The Hosts: Good News Network fans will know Tony (Anthony) Samadani as the co-owner of GNN and its Chief of Strategic Partnerships. Co-host Tobias Tubbs was handed a double life sentence without the possibility of parole for a crime he didn’t commit. Behind bars, he used his own version of the Livin’ Good Currency formula to inspire young men in prison to turn their hours into honors. An expert in conflict resolution, spirituality, and philosophy, Tobias is a master gardener who employs ex-felons to grow their Good Currency by planting crops and feeding neighborhoods.
The Red Planet just got even more peaceful, as the Mars rover made an accidental Zen garden.
NASA’s Perseverance rover left some picturesque track marks around a rock—creating a scene resembling a meditation landscape in Japan.
Zen gardens usually feature carefully composed arrangements of rocks, water features, moss, pruned trees, and bushes, and use gravel or sand that is raked to represent ripples in water.
They are intended to imitate the essence of nature, not its actual appearance, and to serve as an aid for meditation.
What is NASA’s latest rover actually up to there on the Red Planet? Its mission is to look for signs of past microbial life, cache rock and soil samples, and prepare for future human exploration.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
That’s exciting indeed—and GNN will continue to update you with its latest positive developments.
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Helping to sweep 200 explosive devices in Ukraine, Patron the Jack Russel recently received a presidential medal from President Zelenskyy.
Meaning “Ammo” in Ukrainian, Patron’s handler, Mykhailo Iliev of the Civil Protection Service, accepted the medal on the two-year-old pooch’s behalf in a news conference that included Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
“Today, I want to award those Ukrainian heroes who are already clearing our land of mines. And together with our heroes, a wonderful little sapper—Patron—who helps not only to neutralize explosives, but also to teach our children the necessary safety rules in areas where there is a mine threat,” Zelenskyy said in a statement after the ceremony.
The famous dog #Patron, who daily saves #Ukraine from the "gifts of the #Russian world", fell asleep at a briefing with journalists.
Patron has become well-known since the conflict began, appearing in dozens of stories across a variety of news networks and outlets. His Instagram boasts 220,000 followers.
As a Jack Russel terrier, he’s one of the ultimate workhorse breeds. Bred for fox catching, and later for rat catching and travel, his powerful snout, endless energy, and smaller appetite make him ideal for mine sweeping—yet that wasn’t supposed to be his destiny, as NPR reports that Iliev bought him originally to be nothing more than a loyal friend for his young son.
(WATCH Paton in action in the video below.)
Patron the dog keeps working hard — just yesterday, he helped defuse 262 items of explosive ordnance near #Chernihiv. We are very proud of our very good boy. pic.twitter.com/hw4zyA8S9R
— Stratcom Centre UA (@StratcomCentre) May 1, 2022
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Photo by: Mor Shani
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Haim Zinger site almog 3d Bar-Ilan University released
3D Printer printing the reef; Ofer Berman, Bar-Ilan University
An innovation interface tailors 3D-printed reefs to their marine environment and may curb reef devastation plaguing global coral ecosystems.
In a new paper, researchers from four of Israel’s leading universities highlight a 3D printing method they developed to preserve coral reefs. Their innovation is based on the natural structure of coral reefs off the southern coastal Israeli city of Eilat, but their model is adaptable to other marine environments.
The 3D process begins by scanning underwater photographs of coral reefs. From this visual information, a three-dimensional model of the reef is assembled with maximum accuracy. Thousands of images are photographed and sent to the laboratory to calculate the complex form of the reef and how that form encourages the evolution of reef species diversity.
Next, the researchers use a molecular method of collecting environmental genetic information which provides accurate data on the reef’s organisms. This data is incorporated with other parameters and is fed into a 3D technology algorithm, making it possible to build a parametric interactive model of the reef. The three-dimensional model can be designed to precisely fit the designated reef environment.
The final stage is the translation and production of a ceramic reef in 3D printing. The reefs are made of a unique ceramic that is naturally porous underwater and provides the most ideal construction and restoration needs to the affected area, or for the establishment of a new reef structure as a foundation for the continuation of life. “Three-dimensional printing with natural material facilitates the production of highly complex and diverse units that is not possible with the usual means of mold production,” says Prof. Ezri. Tarazi.
The process combines 3D scanning algorithms, together with environmental DNA sampling, and a 3D printing algorithm that allows in-depth and accurate examination of the data from each reef as well as tailoring the printed model to a specific reef environment.
Haim Zinger; Bar-Ilan University
In addition, data can be re-fed into the algorithm to check the level of effectiveness and efficiency of the design after it has been implemented, based on information collected in the process.
“Existing artificial reefs have difficulty replicating the complexity of coral habitats and hosting reef species that mirror natural environments. We introduce a novel customizable 3D interface for producing scalable structures, utilizing real data collected from coral ecosystems,” explains Natalie Levy, a Ph.D. student at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
Ofer Berman adds, “The use of three-dimensional printing allows extensive freedom of action in reality algorithm-based solutions, and the assimilation of sustainable production for the development of large-scale marine rehabilitation.”
This study meets two critical needs to save coral reefs, according to the researchers. The first is the need for innovative solutions that facilitate large-scale restoration that can be adapted to support coral reefs worldwide.
The second is the recreation of the natural complexity of the coral reef—both in size and design—that will attract reef species such as corals, fish, and invertebrates that support the regrowth of natural coral reefs. The researchers are currently installing several 3D printed reefs in the Gulf of Eilat. They believe that the results they obtain will help them apply this innovation to other reef ecosystems around the world.
The joint research was led by Prof. Oren Levy and Ph.D. student Natalie Levy, of the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Ezri Tarazi and Ph.D. student Ofer Berman, from the Technion’s Architecture and Town Planning Faculty, Prof. Tali Treibitz and Ph.D. student Matan Yuval from the University of Haifa, and Prof. Yossi Loya of Tel Aviv University. Their study has been recently published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
