Scientists Find Giant Pristine Coral Reef Undiscovered Near Tahiti, With Clues There Are More

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Jan 30, 2022

rose coral in reef near tahiti-Alexis Rosenfeld via 1 Ocean — Alexis Rosenfeld, Founder of 1 Ocean

A scientific research mission has discovered one of the largest coral reefs in the world off the coast of Tahiti. The pristine condition of the rose-shaped corals, and the sheer size of the reef, make this a rare discovery.

Uncovered by photographer and explorer Alexis Rosenfeld, Founder of 1 Ocean, the highly valuable reef is almost 2 miles long and 200 feet (30-65m) below the surface. At 200 feet wide (30-65m), it is one of the most extensive healthy coral reefs on record.

The giant rose-shaped corals, pictured in photos captured by Rosenfeld, are up to 6 feet in diameter (2 meters).

Up until now, the vast majority of the world’s known coral reefs sit at depths of up to 82 feed (25m). So this discovery suggests that there are more large reefs out there, at greater depths.

“It was magical to witness giant, beautiful rose corals which stretch as far as the eye can see,” says the French explorer, Rosenfeld. “It was like a work of art.”

1 Ocean has partnered with UNESCO in the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development campaign. Each year, until 2030, expeditions funded by UNESCO will be carried out across the ocean to map the biodiversity and find solutions to any threats.

LOOK: Spectacular Coral Event This Year Spawns Hope –And Billions of Babies For Great Barrier Reef (LOOK)

“To date, we know the surface of the moon better than the deep ocean,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. “Only 20% of the entire seabed has been mapped.”

“This remarkable discovery in Tahiti demonstrates the incredible work of scientists who, with the support of UNESCO, further the extent of our knowledge about what lies beneath,” he said in a statement.

French Polynesia suffered a significant bleaching event back in 2019, however this reef does not appear to have been significantly affected. The discovery of such a pristine reef shows that coral at deeper depths may be better protected from climate change.

CHECK Out: Scientists Excited by Odd Fish Sounds Recorded in a Restored Coral Reef—the Coolest Thing You’ll Hear All Week

Until now, very few scientists have been able to locate, investigate and study coral reefs at depths of 100 feet (30m).

Technology means longer dives at greater depths. In total, the team carried out 200 hours of dives to study the reef—and were able to witness the coral spawning.

With its Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), UNESCO is the UN agency in charge of ocean research, founded in 1960 and joined by 150 countries.

WATCH a video from the BBC…

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Dolly Parton Launches Southern-Style Cake Mix and Frostings Line With Duncan Hines

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Jan 30, 2022

Entertainment icon Dolly Parton has launched a new line of ‘Southern-inspired’ desserts, manufactured by Duncan Hines, including cake mixes and frostings as an homage to some of Dolly’s favorite family recipes.

“I have always loved to cook and, growing up in the South, I especially love that authentic Mom and Pop kind of cooking,” said the 76-year old singer who’s been nominated for 50 Grammys. “Baking was no different. My Mama, my grandmothers, and my aunts were all wonderful bakers.”

“They taught me everything I know, from biscuits and gravy to chocolate cake.”

Two of the new cake mixes due to arrive on grocery shelves in early March were based on her favorites, Coconut Cake and Banana Puddin’ Cake, but she is careful to call the new products, “coconut- or banana-flavored“.

They were available at the Duncan Hines website, but quickly sold out. You can check back or sign up to be alerted when they are in stock this spring.

If you want the real recipes, you will have to wait for a new Dolly Parton cookbook. Her 2006 recipe collection, entitled Dixie Fixin’s, features over 100 recipes from her childhood, but it is out of print and hard to find (except on Amazon for $500).

The cake mixes and frostings will be priced around $2.00 each or kits will be available containing both for $5.49 per box. No ingredient labels have been published prior to the retail launch.

WATCH a new interview with the CBS Morning show…

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“Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” – William Faulkner

Quote of the Day

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Jan 30, 2022

Quote of the Day: “Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” – William Faulkner

Photo: by Isi Parente

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

Amazing Quarter-Million Monarchs in 2021, Up From Just 2,000 the Year Before in Migration Count

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Jan 29, 2022

monarch butterflies cluster Pismo Beach Grove-Credit-Lisa Damerel-Xerces society Instagram — Pismo Beach State Park Grove, Credit: Lisa Damerel / Xerces Society

The Xerces Society just released numbers from their annual Western Monarch Count—and the tally was remarkable.

Pismo Beach State Park Grove, Credit: Lisa Damerel / Xerces Society

The nonprofit announced that 247,237 monarch butterflies were observed across overwintering sites, a 125-fold increase over last year.

Volunteers counted insects at 283 different overwintering sites, and celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Xerces Society Thanksgiving tally.

“This year’s total… amazed us with the monarchs’ ability to bounce up from a record low,” says the group on their website.

In 2021, the Thanksgiving Count reached an all-time record for number of volunteers since the inception of the first count in 1997.

This year’s total of nearly a quarter million monarchs illustrates a considerable rebound from 2020’s all-time low of less than 2,000—and the two previous years’ tallies of less than 30,000 individuals overwintering.

Central California coast is most popular overwintering site

In Monterey County, the city of Pacific Grove celebrated the return of approximately 14,000 monarchs to their sanctuary, and there were thousands at other sites in Big Sur. San Luis Obispo County had over 90,000 butterflies reported at its overwintering sites, including the California State Parks-managed Pismo Beach Butterfly Sanctuary which had the second highest count at an overwintering site this season at 20,871 butterflies. The county with the most monarchs was Santa Barbara County, with over 95,000 monarchs reported. Santa Barbara County also hosted the largest site this year, a count of just over 25,000 butterflies at a private property.

Los Angeles and Ventura counties report highest numbers in 20 years

Moving further south, monarchs were found in numbers unseen since the early 2000s. Ventura County contained nearly 19,500 butterflies and had several stand-out sites, including Arundell Barranca with over 7,700 butterflies. Ventura has not seen an excess of 19,000 monarchs since the 2001 Thanksgiving Count, which totaled 28,465 butterflies. In Los Angeles County, volunteers reported over 4,000 butterflies, the highest Thanksgiving Count in that area since 2000.

After surveying a newly discovered overwintering site near one LA beach, the regional volunteer coordinator expressed his excitement. “I was really excited to see for myself the clusters at Hermosa Beach,” said Richard Rachman. “Walking up, I was just taken aback at the sheer volume of monarchs, it really says what sustainable urban planning can do to protect biodiversity.”

Expanding their range

Thanks to public tips, monarchs were also discovered roosting in five new locations this season: three sites close together in San Luis Obispo County and two sites in Los Angeles County. Counts from these five new sites totaled over 7,000 butterflies. This is a reminder that reports from the public are incredibly valuable.

The Monarch Count uses iNaturalist, a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, to follow up on monarch observations from the public.

There are more questions than answers as to why western monarchs bounced back at the rate they did in 2021. It is unlikely that there is a single cause for such a complex migratory journey and a single year’s increase.

The 2021 uptick represents a serious “bounce”, and conservation scientists hope to instill cautious optimism with news of the 2021 Thanksgiving Count.

“Now more than ever, we have an opportunity to double down on our conservation efforts,” says Isis Howard, Endangered Species Conservation Biologist for the Xerces Society. “Harnessing the momentum of this upswing may be our best chance at aiding western monarchs and other at-risk butterflies.”

40 years ago, the western butterfly population was estimated in the low millions, so conservationists have more work to do—and you can help.

Our collective efforts can make a difference

Here are a few actions you can take to be part of the solution:

Plant native milkweed species.
Plant a diversity of nectar plants (look below this map to see the plant list for your area in the US).
Stop using pesticides, or minimize risk associated with pesticide use.
Contribute to community science projects, like iNaturalist, that track monarchs, and the food mapper for Western Monarch Milkweed.
Visit Xerces.org to learn more about monarchs and find additional ways to help.

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Scientists Achieve Milestone in Self-Sustaining Fusion Energy, Burning Plasma in U.S. Experiments for First Time

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Jan 29, 2022

National Ignition Facility target chamber for laser beams and fusion-released-Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — National Ignition Facility’s target chamber was assembled from 10-centimeter-thick aluminum panels. Holes in the chamber provide access for laser beams and ports for diagnostics. – Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

For more than 60 years, scientists have sought to understand and control the process of fusion, a quest to harness vast amounts of energy released by the type of reactions that power the sun and stars.

National Ignition Facility’s target chamber with its aluminum panels and holes that10 provide access for laser beams and ports for diagnostics. – Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

New experiments in the U.S. have now achieved a burning plasma state, helping steer fusion research closer than it has ever been to its ultimate goal: a controlled reaction of self-sustaining power.

Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers, including members of the Physics division, contributed essential capabilities in diagnostic science to achieve and analyze the unprecedented results.

The diagnostic advances helped to transition fusion research to the threshold of ignition—the point at which a fusion reaction generates more energy than it receives and can burn on its own.

“These experiments indicate a transition to a different physics regime,” said physicist Hermann Geppert-Kleinrath, a member of the team at the National Ignition Facility working on the burning plasma project.

“The research described in this paper marks where alpha heating in the reactions outcompeted the loss between radiation and heat conduction. It’s an exciting time because we’re at the point where continued marginal gains in how we conduct our experiments will lead to exponential improvements.”

Watch the Reuters video below, or read more at the bottom…

The laser inertial confinement fusion experiments took place at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Within a specially constructed cavity, a carbon-formed capsule, about one millimeter in diameter, contains both cryogenically frozen deuterium-tritium and the same as gas mixture — the fuel. When the cavity is heated with lasers, an x-ray bath results and warms the capsule until the fuel inside is compressed.

The paper published this week in the journal Nature describes the fusion of deuterium and tritium nuclei releasing neutrons and alpha particles; the latter deposit their energy back into the hotspot of the reaction and in so doing contribute to the propagation of the burn. Such an alpha-dominated reaction is sought after as a key element in self-sustaining fusion.

The forces at work in fusion are extreme. In the experiments described in the Nature paper, the temperature during the fusion reaction is about three times hotter than the center of the sun. The length of the reaction is incredibly short—approximately 130 picoseconds, the time it takes light to travel just four centimeters (at 300,000 km per second).

“It’s an unbelievably tough physics regime to do measurements on,” said Geppert-Kleinrath. “We’re essentially creating a miniature sun in the laboratory.”

To capture meaningful data, Hermann’s team was responsible for the gamma reaction history diagnostic, providing bang time (the time of maximum compression and reaction rate—also called stagnation) and burn duration. The gamma reaction history instrument measures reactions with time resolution down to ten picoseconds—a tiny timescale on which light only travels millimeters.

Physicist Verena Geppert-Kleinrath, who is married to Hermann, is the team leader for advanced imaging at Los Alamos, and led the neutron imaging capabilities that provided three-dimensional hot spot shapes for the National Ignition Facility experiments. Neutron imaging meant measuring a 70-micron hotspot—equal to the thickness of a human hair—from 30 meters away through an extended aperture with openings only a few microns wide.

“We’re very proud that coming from different fields and different groups within physics we have the privilege of being part of this very momentous achievement together,” said Verena Geppert-Kleinrath. “Los Alamos’ physics teams have been able to provide unique diagnostics to show the markers that we are looking for under challenging conditions.”

CHECK OUT: China’s Artificial Sun Just Broke a Record for Longest Sustained Nuclear Fusion Ten Times Over

Improvements make progress toward fusion

Ultimately, the experiments explored the criteria for ignition — how fusion can be generated, and how it can be generated in such a way that it propagates itself, releasing more energy from the fuel than the energy it took to start the reaction courtesy of the lasers. The experiments and the analysis of the results suggested gradual improvements that could keep more energy inside the reaction instead of being lost to radioactivity or heat conduction. For instance, the fuel fill tube’s size was identified as a performance limitation through 3D neutron imaging, and future experiments used a specially engineered fill tube that was much smaller.

The four experiments or “shots” represented significant accomplishments in achieving burning plasma. The fourth shot saw more energy created than was lost due to radiation or heat conduction and likely may have achieved propagation had the capsule not disassembled in the implosion. The total energy output, including the laser energy to start the reaction, was still a net negative, but the clear improvement represented a tipping point toward self-sustaining fusion.

The gradual improvements paid off significantly in August 2021, when an experiment at the National Ignition Facility achieved a yield of 1.3 megajoules — an eight-fold increase over the experiments described in the Nature publication. While falling just short of one definition of ignition, the experiment suggests that fusion research has entered a new era, with further gradual improvements perhaps able to achieve ignition and self-sustaining fusion.

“We’re right at the cliff of experiments fizzling out versus experiments going into the ignition regime,” said Hermann Geppert-Kleinrath. “Once you transition into this regime where alpha heating is dominating, marginal gains in how we do the experiment lead to very large gains in yield.”

Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Ignition Facility experiments are testing these challenges that cannot be realized or addressed in any other way.

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An Office Worker Captures Beautiful Wildlife Photos On His Lunchbreak – LOOK

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Jan 29, 2022

duckling reflection-by Dave Newman-SWNS — By Dave Newman -SWNS

Dave Newman has a full-time job inside an office, but he always tries to make time to go outside to spy on the local animals.

On his journey to document the creatures, he’s created gorgeous portraits of foxes, ducklings, herons, and deer.

The 42-year-old amateur photographer started out around four years ago in his Lincolnshire, England town, and he is completely self-taught.

From Monday through Friday, he works a full-time job in the construction industry, but makes the short trip on his lunch hour from the office in the center of Sleaford to the local river to capture its beasts and birds.

“I only get 30/35 mins, so need to make the most of it.”

“If the weather plays ball, I try to get out.”

LOOK: 84-Year-Old Saves Neighborhood From Bulldozer By Painting Every Street With Joyful Color – Check out Rainbow Village

To date, his all-time favorite animal is the kingfisher, a diving bird that launches head first into the water.

It might take longer than 50 minutes to get the perfect shot—especially the gem below, which might well be entitled ‘3 blind mice’.

Whether it’s in the wildlife hides, woodlands, local rivers, or simply driving around, Dave can be seen stalking the cute and the curious on his artistic quest.

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This Week’s Inspiring Horoscopes From Rob Brezsny’s ‘Free Will Astrology’

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Jan 29, 2022

Our partner Rob Brezsny provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)

Here is your weekly horoscope…

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of January 29, 2022
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Since the iconoclastic planet Uranus is a chief symbol for the Aquarian tribe, you people are more likely to be dissenters and mavericks and questioners than all the other signs. That doesn’t mean your departures from orthodoxy are always successful or popular. Sometimes you meet resistance from the status quo. Having offered that caveat, I’m happy to announce that in the coming weeks, your unique offerings are more likely than usual to be effective. For inspiration, read these observations by author Kristine Kathryn Rusch: “Rebels learn the rules better than the rule-makers do. Rebels learn where the holes are, where the rules can best be breached. Become an expert at the rules. Then break them with creativity and style.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Piscean author Juansen Dizon tells us, “Don’t find yourself in places where people have it all figured out.” That’s always good advice, but it will be especially germane for you in the coming weeks and months. You need the catalytic stimulation that comes from associating with curious, open-minded folks who are committed to the high art of not being know-it-alls. The influences you surround yourself with will be key in your efforts to learn new information and master new skills. And that will be an essential assignment for you throughout 2022.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Author Helen Hunt Jackson said that one component of happiness is “a little less time than you want.” Why? Because you always “have so many things you want to see, to have, and to do” and “no day is quite long enough for all you would like to get done before you go to bed.” I propose you experiment with this definition in the coming weeks. According to my astrological analysis, you will have even more interesting assignments and challenges than usual—as well as a brimming vitality that will make it possible for you to accomplish many but not all of them. Your happiness should be abundant!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Born under the sign of Taurus, Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) had considerable skills as a composer of music, an athlete, an author, a passionate lover, and an activist working for women’s rights. She was successful in all of them. I propose we make her one of your role models for the coming months. Why? First, because she did more than one thing really well, and you are now primed to enhance your versatility, flexibility, and adaptability. Second, because she described a formula for high achievement that would suit you well. She said, “Night after night I went to sleep murmuring, ‘Tomorrow I will be easy, strong, quick, supple, accurate, dashing and self-controlled all at once!'” (PS: I suggest you make “supple” your word of power in 2022.)

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
According to author Olivia Dresher, “Feelings want to be free. Thoughts want to be right.” Well, then, what about intuitions? In a sense, they’re hybrids of feelings and thoughts. They’re a way of knowing that transcends both feelings and thoughts. When intuitions come from the clear-seeing part of your deep psyche rather than the fear-prone part of your conditioning, they are sweet and fun and accurate and humble and brisk and pure. They don’t “want” to be anything. I’m pleased to inform you, Gemini, that in the coming weeks, your intuitions will be working at peak efficiency. It should be relatively easy for you to distinguish between the clear-seeing and fear-prone modes of intuition.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
“If you are going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it,” wrote humorist Leo Rosten. I offer his counsel to you right now because I want you to have fun if you wander away from your usual upstanding behavior. But may I make a suggestion? As you depart from normal, boring niceness, please remain honorable and righteous. What I’m envisioning for you are experiments that are disruptive in healthy ways, and dares that stir up interesting problems, and rebellious explorations that inspire beauty and truth. They’ll be “wrong” only in the sense of being mutinies against static, even stagnant, situations that should indeed be prodded and pricked. Remember Bob Dylan’s idea: “To live outside the law, you must be honest.”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Leo actor Anna Kendrick bragged, “I’m so humble it’s crazy. I’m like the Kanye West of humility.” I’d like to see you adopt that extravagant approach to expressing your magnificence in the coming weeks. I hope you’ll add another perspective to your repertoire, too—this one from Leo actor Mae West. She exulted, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!” Here’s one further attitude I encourage you to incorporate, courtesy of Leo author Rachel Pollack: “To learn to play seriously is one of the great secrets of spiritual exploration.”

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Sammy Davis Jr. (1925–1990) was multi-talented: an actor, singer, comedian, and dancer. One critic described him as “the greatest entertainer ever to grace a stage.” He didn’t think highly of his own physical appearance, however. “I know I’m dreadfully ugly,” Davis said, “one of the ugliest men you could meet. But ugliness, like beauty, is something you must learn how to use.” That’s an interesting lesson to meditate on. I think it’s true that each of us has rough, awkward, irregular aspects—if not in our physical appearance, then in our psyches. And yet, as Davis suggested, we can learn to not just tolerate those qualities, but use them to our advantage. Now is a favorable time for you to do that.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
“It is the nature of love to work in a thousand different ways,” wrote the mystic Saint Teresa of Avila. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you’re due to discover new and different ways to wield your love magic—in addition to the many you already know and use. For best results, you’ll have to be willing to depart from old reliable methods for expressing care and tenderness and nurturing. You must be willing to experiment with fresh approaches that may require you to stretch yourself. Sounds like fun to me!

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
“If you are drilling for water, it’s better to drill one 60-foot well than 10 six-foot wells,” advised author and religious scholar Huston Smith. He was using well-drilling as a metaphor, of course—as a symbol for solving a problem, for example, or developing a spiritual practice, or formulating an approach to psychological healing. The metaphor might not be perfectly applicable for everyone in every situation. But I believe it is vividly apropos for you and your current situations.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
A well-worn proverb tells us, “All good things come to those who wait.” There’s a variation, whose author is unknown (although it’s often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln): “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left behind by those who hustle.” I think that’s far more useful advice for you in the coming weeks. I’d much rather see you hustle than wait. Here’s a third variant, which may be the best counsel of all. It’s by author Holly Woodward: “All good things come to those who bait.”

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Author Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote, “To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization.” I agree, which is why I authorize you to add “Saint” to the front of your name in the coming weeks. There’s an excellent chance you will fit the description Stowe articulated. You’ll be at the peak of your power to elevate the daily rhythm into a stream of subtle marvels. You’ll be quietly heroic. If you’re not fond of the designation “Saint,” you could use the Muslim equivalent term, “Wali,” the Jewish “Tzadik,” Buddhist “Arhat,” or Hindu “Swami.”

WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com

(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com, CC license)

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Celebrating GNN’s 25th Anniversary in August; And Please Note Our New Mailing Address!

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Jan 29, 2022

Anthony and Geri GNN co-owners — GNN Founder, Geri Weis-Corbley (right) with GNN co-owner Anthony Samadani

GNN Founder, Geri Weis-Corbley (right) with GNN co-owner Anthony Samadani

I wanted to let you know that we have a new mailing address—and also to get your ideas on how to celebrate the 25th anniversary of GNN’s founding.

We moved the Good News Network operation from California back to its roots in Virginia—just in time to mark the website’s 25th Anniversary on August 30th.

We’ve been pondering what to do to celebrate. On the 15th anniversary, I rented a historic yacht to sail up the Potomac in Washington, DC; in 2014 we met fans for lunch on a Chicago beach; the year before we held a Meet and Greet in Vancouver, Canada.

What do you think we should do? Some sort of streaming event for fans across the world?

One of our writers lives in Italy. Maybe we should arrange a party there, and you can save up for the trip?

Let us know in the comments below, or send us your feedback by email…

NOTE our new address is:

PO Box 161
Manassas, VA 20108

Here’s hoping you enjoy many celebrations in 2022!

“Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Quote of the Day

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Jan 29, 2022

Quote of the Day: “Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves.” – Thich Nhat Hanh (died this week at age 95)

Photo: by Tengyart

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

Mysterious Object Unlike Anything Astronomers Have Seen Before Discovered

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Jan 28, 2022

Released An artist’s impression of what the object might look like if it’s a magnetar ICRAR

Star icon shows the position of the repeating transient in the Milky Way/Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker; ICRAR-Curtin

A team mapping radio waves in the Universe has discovered something unusual that releases a giant burst of energy three times an hour, and it’s unlike anything astronomers have seen before.

The team who discovered it think it could be a neutron star or a white dwarf—collapsed cores of stars—with an ultra-powerful magnetic field.

Spinning around in space, the strange object sends out a beam of radiation that crosses our line of sight, and for a minute in every twenty, is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky.

Astrophysicist Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, led the team that made the discovery.

“This object was appearing and disappearing over a few hours during our observations,” she said.

“That was completely unexpected. It was kind of spooky for an astronomer because there’s nothing known in the sky that does that.

“And it’s really quite close to us—about 4,000 lightyears away. It’s in our galactic backyard.”

The object was discovered by Curtin University Honours student Tyrone O’Doherty using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope in outback Western Australia and a new technique he developed.

MORE: Gigantic Planet Found Hidden in Plain Sight

“It’s exciting that the source I identified last year has turned out to be such a peculiar object,” said Mr O’Doherty, who is now studying for a PhD at Curtin.

Composite of SKA-Low telescope in Western Australia; ICRAR/SKAO

“The MWA’s wide field of view and extreme sensitivity are perfect for surveying the entire sky and detecting the unexpected.”

Objects that turn on and off in the Universe aren’t new to astronomers—they call them ‘transients’.

ICRAR-Curtin astrophysicist and co-author Dr Gemma Anderson said that “when studying transients, you’re watching the death of a massive star or the activity of the remnants it leaves behind.”

An artist’s impression of what the object might look like if it’s a magnetar/ICRAR

‘Slow transients’—like supernovae—might appear over the course of a few days and disappear after a few months.

‘Fast transients’—like a type of neutron star called a pulsar—flash on and off within milliseconds or seconds.

But Dr Anderson said finding something that turned on for a minute was really weird.

She said the mysterious object was incredibly bright and smaller than the Sun, emitting highly-polarised radio waves—suggesting the object had an extremely strong magnetic field.

Dr Hurley-Walker said the observations match a predicted astrophysical object called an ‘ultra-long period magnetar’.

“It’s a type of slowly spinning neutron star that has been predicted to exist theoretically,” she said.

“But nobody expected to directly detect one like this because we didn’t expect them to be so bright.

“Somehow it’s converting magnetic energy to radio waves much more effectively than anything we’ve seen before.”

LOOK: ‘Orion’s Fireplace’: Flame Nebula is Ablaze With Color and Captured in Stunning New Images

Dr Hurley-Walker is now monitoring the object with the MWA to see if it switches back on.

“If it does, there are telescopes across the Southern Hemisphere and even in orbit that can point straight to it,” she said.

Dr Hurley-Walker plans to search for more of these unusual objects in the vast archives of the MWA.

“More detections will tell astronomers whether this was a rare one-off event or a vast new population we’d never noticed before,” she said.

MWA Director Professor Steven Tingay said the telescope is a precursor instrument for the Square Kilometre Array—a global initiative to build the world’s largest radio telescopes in Western Australia and South Africa.

“Key to finding this object, and studying its detailed properties, is the fact that we have been able to collect and store all the data the MWA produces for almost the last decade at the Pawsey Research Supercomputing Centre. Being able to look back through such a massive dataset when you find an object is pretty unique in astronomy,” he said.

“There are, no doubt, many more gems to be discovered by the MWA and the SKA in coming years.”

The study for this article has been published in Nature journal.

Source: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research

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South Australia Smashes Renewable Record Using 100% Solar And Wind For Full Week

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Andy Corbley

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Jan 28, 2022

bright light bulb idea in sunset solar-pubdomain-Ameen Fahmy — By Ameen Fahmy

South Australia spent the last week of December generating 100% of its power demand from wind and solar.

This isn’t unheard of for the sunny southern state in the Land Down Under, but rather the first time it’s happened for so many days in a row.

Wind turbines supplied 64.4% of power, while rooftop PV panel generation provided 29.5%, and utility-scale solar averaged 6.2%.

The state would have actually generated more than 100% of its demand but for a brief curtailment of semi-scheduled generation which reduced the totals by 8.2%.

Over that period the contribution from natural gas averaged just 114 megawatts.

The territory is populated by around 1.7 million people, mostly centered around the coast and in Adelaide, its capital city.

The conditions for solar and wind energy has allowed the renewable energy market to flourish, highlighted by the fact that in the same period of last year, 142% of needs were met with these elements.

MORE: Wind Turbines Are Using Cameras and AI to See Birds –And Shut Down When They Approach

Being in the Southern Hemisphere, the hottest, driest, and windiest months are all in what Northern Hemisphere dwellers would describe as winter. The solar energy from 110°F (43°C) is generous, as is the wind power from speeds which average 10mph.

In order to harness these, the South Aussies built the Hornsdale Power Reserve. In 2017 it was the world’s largest lithium-ion battery, capable of storing 129 megawatt-hours of energy.

ENERGIZE Those News Feeds With This Good News From Down Under…

A Flying Car Just Got Certified as Airworthy to Fly

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Andy Corbley

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Jan 28, 2022

air car by Klein Vision-released — AirCar by Klein Vision

The world’s first proven flying car just received its airworthiness certificate by the Slovakian Transport Authority.

Last June, this car deployed some mechanical wings and took off from a runway in the city of Nitra in Slovakia, and landed in Bratislava 35 minutes later. After it folded up its wings, the exotic-looking sports car drove off down the highway.

The aptly-named AirCar then did this 200 more times across 700 hours of flight time before the aviation authorities decided that it was reliable and safe.

“AirCar certification opens the door for mass production of very efficient flying cars,” its creator, Prof Stefan Klein, said. “It is official and the final confirmation of our ability to change mid-distance travel forever.”

The dramatic, watershed-moment-tone is perhaps appropriate, as the car can reach 100 mph on the road, and 8,000 feet of altitude, while needing only around 2 minutes and 15 seconds to deploy or store its wings.

MORE: Jet Flown by United Airlines Entirely Powered by 100% Plant-Based Fuel from Corn Stalk Waste

Last year, GNN reported that the prototype was developed by a company called KleinVision, founded by Stefan Klein, who spent 20 years turning his dream into a reality. For an unbelievably small amount of money—about 2 million euro—the Slovak created the world’s first flying car to travel between two airports.

Dr. Stephen Wright, a research fellow of avionics at the University of West England, told the BBC at the point of the test flight that he had reservations but that he “[couldn’t] wait to see the piece of paper that says this is safe to fly and safe to sell.” Eat your heart out, Wright.

Klein Vision has specified that they are looking to take a share out of the aircraft market with the AirCar, not the auto market—and Morgan Stanley estimates the flying car market over the next 20 years will be worth over a trillion dollars, similar to the buzz that arose around the recent boom in private spaceflight.

(WATCH the video for this story below.)

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65 Different Species of Animals Laugh, Says a New Study

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Good News Network

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Jan 28, 2022

Human laughter is common, but it’s a somewhat mysterious part of our evolution. It’s clear to evolutionary scholars that we laugh as a part of play, signaling our cooperation or friendliness. But how did laughter evolve? And are humans the only ones who do it?

Not a chance: Animals laugh too, researchers have observed.

Primatologist and UCLA anthropology graduate student Sasha Winkler and UCLA professor of communication Greg Bryant have taken a closer look at the phenomenon of laughter across the animal kingdom.

The pair combed through the existing scientific literature on animal play behavior, looking for mentions of vocal play signals—or what might be thought of as laughter.

They found such vocal play behavior documented in at least 65 species. That list includes a variety of primates, domestic cows and dogs, foxes, seals, and mongooses, as well as three bird species, including parakeets and Australian magpies.

“This work lays out nicely how a phenomenon once thought to be particularly human turns out to be closely tied to behavior shared with species separated from humans by tens of millions of years,” Bryant said.

The researchers looked for information on whether the animal vocalizations were recorded as noisy or tonal, loud or quiet, high-pitched or low-pitched, short or long, a single call or a rhythmic pattern—seeking known features of play sounds.

There’s much existing documentation of play-based body language among animals, such as what is known as “play face” in primates or “play bows” in canines, the researchers noted.

Since what constitutes “play” in much of the animal kingdom is rough-and-tumble and can also resemble fighting, play sounds can help emphasize non-aggression during such physical moments, the article suggests.

“When we laugh, we are often providing information to others that we are having fun and also inviting others to join,” Winkler said. “Some scholars have suggested that this kind of vocal behavior is shared across many animals who play, and as such, laughter is our human version of an evolutionarily old vocal play signal.”

MORE: Why Cats Love to Sit in Boxes – Even Fake Ones, According to Science

While Winkler and Bryant say that further observation and research into vocalizations would be fruitful, they also note that such observations can be hard to come by in the wild, especially for animals whose play sounds might be quieter.

Paying attention to other species in this way sheds light on the form and function of human laughter, the researchers write, and helps us to better understand the evolution of human social behavior.

The article for this research was published in Bioacoustics.

(WATCH the National Geographic Video of Rats ‘Laughing’ While Being Tickled)

Source: UCLA

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“You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.” – Les Brown

Quote of the Day

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Good News Network

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Jan 28, 2022

Quote of the Day: “You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.” – Les Brown

Photo: by Ambrose Chua

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

Decarbonization Tech Instantly Converts Carbon Dioxide to Solid Carbon

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Good News Network

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Jan 27, 2022

Australian researchers have developed a smart and super-efficient new way of capturing carbon dioxide and converting it to solid carbon, to help advance the decarbonization of heavy industries.

The carbon dioxide utilization technology from researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, is designed to be smoothly integrated into existing industrial processes.

Decarbonization is an immense technical challenge for heavy industries like cement and steel, which are not only energy-intensive but also directly emit CO₂ as part of the production process.

The new technology offers a pathway for instantly converting carbon dioxide as it is produced and locking it permanently in a solid state, keeping CO₂ out of the atmosphere.

Co-lead researcher Associate Professor Torben Daeneke said the work built on an earlier experimental approach that used liquid metals as a catalyst.

“Our new method still harnesses the power of liquid metals but the design has been modified for smoother integration into standard industrial processes,” Daeneke said.

LOOK: World’s First Laundry Detergent Made From Industrial Carbon Emissions Launched By Unilever

“As well as being simpler to scale up, the new tech is radically more efficient and can break down CO₂ to carbon in an instant.

“We hope this could be a significant new tool in the push towards decarbonization, to help industries and governments deliver on their climate commitments and bring us radically closer to net zero.”

A provisional patent application has been filed for the technology and researchers have recently signed a $AUD2.6 million ($1.85 million) agreement with Australian environmental technology company ABR, who are commercializing technologies to decarbonize the cement and steel manufacturing industries.

Co-lead researcher Dr Ken Chiang said the team was keen to hear from other companies to understand the challenges in difficult-to-decarbonize industries and identify other potential applications of the technology.

“To accelerate the sustainable industrial revolution and the zero carbon economy, we need smart technical solutions and effective research-industry collaborations,” Chiang said.

The steel and cement industries are each responsible for about 7% of total global CO₂ emissions (International Energy Agency), with both sectors expected to continue growing over coming decades as demand is fuelled by population growth and urbanization.

Technologies for carbon capture and storage (CCS) have largely focused on compressing the gas into a liquid and injecting it underground, but this comes with significant engineering challenges and environmental concerns. CCS has also drawn criticism for being too expensive and energy-intensive for widespread use.

Daeneke, an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow, said the new approach offered a sustainable alternative, with the aim of both preventing CO₂ emissions and delivering value-added reutilization of carbon.

MORE: World’s Biggest Factory to Suck Carbon from the Sky and Store it For Millions of Years Turns on in Iceland

“Turning CO₂ into a solid avoids potential issues of leakage and locks it away securely and indefinitely,” he said.

“And because our process does not use very high temperatures, it would be feasible to power the reaction with renewable energy.”

The Australian Government has highlighted CCS as a priority technology for investment in its net zero plan, announcing a AUD$1 billion fund ($7,156,666) for the development of new low emissions technologies.

How the tech works

The RMIT team, with lead author and PhD researcher Karma Zuraiqi, employed thermal chemistry methods widely used by industry in their development of the new CCS tech.

The “bubble column” method starts with liquid metal being heated to about 100-120C.

Carbon dioxide is injected into the liquid metal, with the gas bubbles rising up just like bubbles in a champagne glass.

As the bubbles move through the liquid metal, the gas molecule splits up to form flakes of solid carbon, with the reaction taking just a split second.

“It’s the extraordinary speed of the chemical reaction we have achieved that makes our technology commercially viable, where so many alternative approaches have struggled,” Chiang said.

The next stage in the research is scaling up the proof-of-concept to a modularized prototype the size of a shipping container, in collaboration with industry partner ABR.

ABR Project Director David Ngo said the RMIT process turns a waste product into a core ingredient in the next generation of cement blends.

“Climate change will not be solved by one single solution, however, the collaboration between ABR and RMIT will yield an efficient and effective technology for our net-zero goals,” Ngo said.

The team is also investigating potential applications for the converted carbon, including in construction materials.

“Ideally the carbon we make could be turned into a value-added product, contributing to the circular economy and enabling the CCS technology to pay for itself over time,” Daeneke said.

The research is published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science.

(WATCH the video for this story below.)

Source: RMIT

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Kefir the Maine Coon Cat is So Big People Mistake Him For a Dog

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Jan 27, 2022

Meet “the world’s biggest cat,” a kitty so large people think it’s a dog—and he’s still growing.

The oversized puss belongs to Yulia Minina, who lives in the small Russian town of Stary Oskol.

She bought Kefir—named after a popular, milky fermented drink—almost two years ago as a little Maine Coon kitten. Now she says most people think Kefir is a dog.

Yulia explains of her pet, “I couldn’t imagine an ordinary kitten could become so big. He’s very smart though, and always behaves calmly.

While Kefir has a formidable appearance, she says he is a very affectionate cat.

“When friends and acquaintances come to the house—all the attention is on him and he willingly allows himself to be stroked.

”But when strangers come to the house, everyone confuses him with a dog.

Kefir does have one tricky habit. At night, he likes to climb on Yulia and sleep. “When he was a kitten, it didn’t cause me any inconvenience,” she says. ”But now he has become big and heavy, of course it’s difficult to sleep like that.”

MORE: Young Woman Makes a Special Pouch For Her Cat to Take Him Traveling Around Italy – His Favorite Hobby

Kefir is now one year and ten months old and weighs 12.5 kg (28 pounds).

It’s expected that, as a Maine Coon, he’ll continue to grow until the age of three or four.

Questioned whether Kefir is really as big as he seems, Yulia has just one thing to say: “I don’t use Photoshop.”

So there you have it.

SHARE This Cute Kitty’s Story With Your Pawsome Friends…

A New Neighborhood is Being Built in Utah That Looks Like a European ‘One-Car Town’

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Andy Corbley

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Jan 27, 2022

the point released the point — The Point

Car-free zones, bike lanes, pedestrian-friendly urban design; these aren’t the features of a typical American suburb. This sounds like something in The Netherlands rather than in Utah, where a new “one-car community” is being built in an experimental suburb.

Called The Point, it’s located on 600 acres of federal land in Draper that once housed a prison, and will be purpose-built for businesses, families, and individuals to be able to access every quarter with a 15-minute walk or bike ride.

Utah is famous for having 60% of its land under various forms of state and federal protection, due to its majestic and one-of-a-kind desert and scrub landscapes. As the population grows, planners and developers are wondering how to grant access to one of the most beautiful states without impacting nature too overtly.

In order to figure this out, town hall-type meetings revealed that local opinions favored a more walking-friendly, planned community.

CHECK OUT: World’s First 3D-Printed House Made Of Local Raw Earth – And it Closes the Roof With a Dome

“We heard loud and clear from them that the principles of having more convenient, less car-focused development, and a little more compact and amenity-rich community, would be appealing,” Alan Matheson, executive director of The Point of the Mountain State Land Authority, told Fast Company.

About 7,400 houses together, built by global engineering and development firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, will sit in acreage connected by veins of greenery to every chief area in the city.

Occasional streets which allow cars will also have bike lanes and wide sidewalks. Buses will operate around the perimeter, maybe automatically, to ferry people into the main areas, as well as to downtown Salt Lake City.

The Point will be connected with the Jordan River Parkway to take hikers and cyclists to the nearby mountain trail systems. This path will also help wildlife move between the river and the mountains.

“The idea here is that it’s an economic driver for the state to attract younger workers who are in the tech sector or the science sector, and we know that they don’t want to live in the suburbs, oftentimes, as the suburbs are currently configured,” Peter Kindel, one of the developers, told Fast Company.

“They want more urban features, they want to know their neighbors, they want to be part of a community. They don’t want to spend their day driving.”

MORE: Visit ‘Fortlandia’ Where Designers Have Built Odes to Childhood Fort-Building in Austin, Texas

The Point has been created in three different configurations, all of which preserve the fundamental “points” of the idea, namely community, connecting with nature, smart, less car-focused transit, and economic opportunity, as well as a 45% coverage of the city in greenery. These configurations, the developers hope, will influence future building growth opportunities.

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Device Wraps Around Hot Surfaces to Turn Wasted Heat to Electricity

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Good News Network

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Jan 27, 2022

Low-Res_thermoelectric 1.jpg penn state non commercial use only — Penn State, non-commercial use

The energy systems that power our lives also produce wasted heat—like heat that radiates off hot water pipes in buildings and exhaust pipes on vehicles. A new flexible thermoelectric generator can wrap around pipes and other hot surfaces and convert wasted heat into electricity more efficiently than previously possible, according to scientists at Penn State and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

“A large amount of heat from the energy we consume is essentially being thrown away, often dispersed right into the atmosphere,” said Shashank Priya, associate vice president for research and professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State. “We haven’t had cost-effective ways with conformal shapes to trap and convert that heat to useable energy. This research opens that door.”

Penn State researchers have been working to improve the performance of thermoelectric generators—devices that can convert differences in temperature to electricity. When the devices are placed near a heat source, electrons moving from the hot side to the cold side produce an electric current, the scientists said.

In prior work, the team created rigid devices that were more efficient than commercial units in high-temperature applications. Now the team has developed a new manufacturing process to produce flexible devices that offer higher power output and efficiency, the scientists said.

“These results provide a promising pathway toward widespread utilization of thermoelectric technology into waste heat recovery application,” said Wenjie Li, assistant research professor at Penn State. “This could have a significant impact on the development of practical thermal to electrical generators.”

MORE: Scientists Create Biodegradable Batteries That Can Be Buried in Soil After Use

Flexible devices better fit the most attractive waste heat sources, like pipes in industrial and residential buildings and on vehicles, the scientists said. And they don’t have to be glued on surfaces like traditional, rigid devices, which further decreases efficiency.

Positive results

In tests being conducted on a gas flue, the new device exhibited 150% higher power density than other state-of-the-art units, the scientists reported in Applied Materials & Interfaces. A scaled-up version, just over 3-inches squared, maintained a 115% power density advantage. That version exhibited a total power output of 56.6 watts when placed on the hot surface, the scientists said.

“Think about an industrial power plant with pipes hundreds of feet long,” Priya said. “If you can wrap these devices around an area that large, you could generate kilowatts of energy from wasted heat that’s normally just being thrown away. You could convert discarded heat into something useful.”

LOOK: The Greatest Technological Hurdle to Making Nuclear Fusion Possible – the Magnet – Just Powered Up

Thermoelectric devices are made up of small couples, each resembling a table with two legs. Many of these two-leg couples are connected together, typically forming a flat, square device.

In creating the new device, scientists placed six couples along a thin strip. They then used flexible metal foil to connect 12 of the strips together, creating a device with 72 couples. Liquid metal was used between the layers of each strip to improve device performance, the scientist said.

“As you scale up these devices, you often lose power density, making it challenging to fabricate large-scale thermoelectric generators,” said Bed Poudel, associate research professor at Penn State. “This illustrates the extraordinary performance of our 72-couple device.”

The 72-couple device exhibited the highest reported output power and device power density from a single thermoelectric generator, the scientists said.

The gaps between the strips provide the flexibility to fit around shapes like pipes. The gaps also allow for flexibility in altering the fill factor, or the ratio between the area of thermoelectric material and the area of the device, which can be used to optimize thermoelectric devices for different heat sources, the scientists said.

Source: Penn State

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“Appreciation can make a day – even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” – Margaret Cousins

Quote of the Day

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Good News Network

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Jan 27, 2022

Quote of the Day: “Appreciation can make a day – even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” – Margaret Cousins

Photo: by Carrie Beth Williams

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

How Does the Brain Perceive Mountain Vistas or Passing Clouds as Beautiful?

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Good News Network

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Jan 26, 2022

How does a view of nature gain its gloss of beauty? We know that the sight of beautiful landscapes engages the brain’s reward systems. But how does the brain transform visual signals into aesthetic ones? Why do we perceive a mountain vista or passing clouds as beautiful?

A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics has taken up this question and investigated how our brains proceed from merely seeing a landscape to feeling its aesthetic impact.

In their study, the research team presented artistic landscape videos to 24 participants. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), they measured the participants’ brain activity as they viewed and rated the videos.

First author of the study, A. Ilkay Isik, encapsulates, “We would have expected the aesthetic signals to be limited to the brain’s reward systems, but surprisingly, we found them already present in visual areas of the brain while the participants were watching the videos.

“The activations occurred right next to brain regions deployed in recognizing physical features in movies, such as the layout of a scene or the presence of motion.”

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Senior author Edward Vessel suggests that these signals may reflect an early, elemental form of beauty perception, saying, “When we see something beyond our expectations, local patches of brain tissue generate small ‘atoms’ of positive affect.

“The combination of many such surprise signals across the visual system adds up to make for an aesthetically appealing experience.”

With this new knowledge, the study—published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience—not only contributes to our understanding of beauty, but may also help clarify how interactions with the natural environment can affect our sense of well-being.

The results might have potential applications in a variety of fields where the link between perception and emotion is important, such as clinical health care and artificial intelligence.

Source: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

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