Quote of the Day: “The science of today is the technology of tomorrow.” – Edward Teller
Photo by: National Human Genome Research Institute (CC license)
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
21 years ago today, SpaceShipOne, funded by Microsoft’s Paul Allen, became the first private manned spacecraft to fly into sub-orbital space. That same year, its innovative design won the $10 million Ansari X Prize. Piloted and returned to Earth by Mike Melvill, he became the first-ever licensed US commercial astronaut. WATCH a Smithsonian video about the ship’s innovative hinged wing design that made it perfect for reentry… (2004)
In France, where cheese has a museum, and there’s a hospital ward for foreigners who get sick eating French cheese, is it really a surprise that they have a cheesemonger olympics?
A cheesemonger is the person who sources and sells cheese to the community—a respectable profession says Emilia D’Albero, the first US woman, and the first American to boot, to win gold in said olympics.
From Philadelphia, the city where she learned the profession at the Philly Cheese School, D’Albero has been cheesemongering for years under the TikTok handle @punkrockparmigiano, but it was her first time medaling at the olympics, held in Tours, France.
“My teammate, Courtney Johnson, and I are the first all-female team USA,” D’Albero told CBS News. “They had never sent two girls before.”
Beating out cheese stronghold nations like Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and of course, France, D’Albero had to compete in four events: a blind tasting, the “perfect cut,” a cheese sculpture, and a 100-centimeter square plateau centered around a theme.
She hopes that the heavy gold medal will bring the attention which her profession so richly deserves.
CHEESE STORIES:
“In other parts of the world, like Europe, being a cheesemonger is seen as a really respected career,” D’Albero said. “In America it’s not as respected as it should be. It’s definitely skilled labor. We have to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the cheeses in the case.”
While most Americans know only about as many cheeses as what go on pizza and sandwiches, there are some amazing American cheesemakers, which have also won awards for their cheeses.
A great start would be Point Reyes Farmstead in California, who’s Bay Blue is the perfect first-timer blue cheese you could hope to find—and you don’t even have to pay the import duty.
WATCH the story below from CBS News…
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For what was one of the most dangerous cities in America, a summer without a homicide is a major achievement.
Major—doubtless; but unexpected? Perhaps not. Camden, New Jersey hasn’t experienced a summer without a homicide in 5 decades, but thanks to a new approach to policing and a new police department in general, sunny summers such as these could become routine forecast.
“We dissolved the police department of Camden City, formed and brought up a new county department that oversees this city,” said Camden County Commissioner Director Lou Cappelli Jr.
The dramatic restructuring was followed by a dispersal of officers into each community, where they would forge relationships with the citizens, and be closer to where crime occurred.
Overseen by the Real Time Tactical Operation Intelligence Center, a new surveillance command center operating over one thousand street cameras, the new outfit rapidly saw success.
The start of this year has been one of the best there’s been in terms of crime statistics for the once troubled city.
“It was bad,” Cappelli told ABC 6 Action News. “Homicides are down 75%. I’m just so happy for the residents of this city. They deserve this kind of safety.”
MORE POLICING STORIES:
That community-focused policing has residents teaching their children that police aren’t their enemies, and working with charities and nonprofits that help put on events with them, the officers are eager to play that role—of trusted neighbor and guardian rather than enemy.
Cappelli said that the results are so good that the department has been getting inquiries from not only other American counties and cities, but also other countries as well, to ask and learn about their policing, which has been so successful it’s led the mayor and other officials to focus on growing the community again.
WATCH the story from ABC…
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Taiwan society has mobilized in response to flooding after a typhoon made landfill on the East Asian island, including visitors and foreign residents.
With those arriving with rainboots and shovels dubbed “Shovel Supermen” and those arriving to cook meals for those whose homes were destroyed dubbed “Cooking Supermen,” it’s a touching and inspiring example of an all-hands-on-deck response to disaster.
Typhoon Ragasa made landfall last Tuesday, causing heavy rains in Hualien County and causing local water sources to overflow. Flooding and mudslides have displaced hundreds of residents, particularly in Guangfu Township.
In response, thousands of volunteers have streamed south, shovels and rainboots in hand, to help. The Buddhist charity Tzu Chi managed to co-opt 3,000 volunteers by the following Saturday.
Others brought food and portable kitchen supplies to cook food for volunteers and victims alike.
Heading southward in extra trains mobilized by Taiwan Railway Corp., the volunteers included two Ukrainian women who had lived in Taiwan for 9 years, and a Japanese resident Saito Tadataka.
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One of the Ukrainians had actually planned on visiting Hualien County, and when seeing it underwater, felt compelled to help. Mr. Saito too felt he had to act when he saw the number of other volunteers using their 3-day weekend time to help their countrymen.
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The county government turned over the coordination of the relief efforts to Tzu Chi, while enlisting the national government to identify hotel and lodging businesses who would be able and willing to house those displaced to ensure emergency shelters aren’t overwhelmed.
Displaced residents are being given a government stipend to pay for essential supplies while relief efforts are ongoing.
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Reprinted with Permission from World at Large
Two small islets crucial to the resiliency of the local environment in the Marshall Islands Republic are witnessing a major ecological revival.
Island Conservation, a global nonprofit organization with a mission to restore islands for nature and people, has successfully eradicated invasive black rats, allowing the native forests and seabird population on Bikar Atoll and Jemo Islet to recover.
The rats have had a devastating effect on their delicately balanced ecosystems on certain islands in the Marshalls. Bikar Atoll, one of the smallest atolls in the country, is located 360 miles (580 kilometers) north of the capital, Majuro. The reef surrounds a lagoon roughly 14 square miles.
The Jemo Islet is a 16-hectare inhabited coral island that’s known to be one of the major feeding grounds for green sea turtles and a seabird sanctuary. With the arrival of invasive species such as black rats on both these landmasses, the native environment has been heavily disrupted as native plants, seabirds, and other animals fall prey to the rats’ scavenging.
In addition to turtles, Jemo had been used for generations as a place to gather and hunt, but had become something like an ecological graveyard since the rats arrived. Having already eradicated black rats on dozens of islands before, Island Conservation trained local teams with the best practices to remove the rats via poison without harming the native wildlife.
After one year, a trip back to these islands, accompanied by Island Conservation, the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, Ministry of Natural Resources and Commerce, and community members from Utrik Atoll, found that the efforts to eradicate the rats had succeeded and that wildlife was bouncing back. The recovery of the native seabird population has positively impacted the link between land and sea. The nutrients from the seabirds’ droppings play a critical role as natural fertilizer for the plant population which anchors the local food web.
“After only one year, the transformation is dramatic. A colony of 2,000 Sooty Terns, where there was previously none, was feeding hundreds of chicks,” said Island Conservation Project Manager Paul Jacques. “We also counted thousands of native Pisonia grandis tree seedlings across just 60 monitored plots on the forest floor—in 2024, we found zero. Native forests are crucial for seabird nesting and are critical to carbon absorption and the island’s ecological health”.
The restoration of the atolls and islands will have a lasting impact on the communities for the people who, in the past, have used Jemo as a natural hub for resources.
The rat invasion has depleted the useful resources of Jemo for the Likiep people for many years, but with the help of major participating organizations, it not only benefits the natural ecosystems of the Marshall Islands but also the communities that depend on these resources.
“Our Marshallese friends continue to add restored, pest-free islands to their list of achievements,” said David Moverley, Invasive Species Adviser for the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP), who partnered with Island Conservation on the project.
“Participating in the first rat removal workshop in Tonga ten years ago allowed them early on to achieve successful eradications on small islands by themselves. Now with modern technology and expert technical support from our partner Island Conservation, they are really pushing the boundaries and people are starting to realize the treasures that abound within the Marshall Islands and the opportunities that they present”.
Previously, WaL had the opportunity to report on Island Conservation projects, one being Loosiep, located in Yap State within the Federated States of Micronesia.
The project focused on the removal of invasive rats—the almost ubiquitous problem on Pacific islands—that threatened the biodiversity of its area. In partnership with the Island Conservation, local groups removed the rats allowed the “turtle islands” to thrive once again.
WaL also reported on the 2022 Island Conservation removal of invasive rats across the Pacific Islands using technological advancements of drones and poisoned bait.
These ambitious efforts by Island Conservation have already benefited 65 Islands worldwide, and their continuous work in restoring ecosystems creates lasting benefits for both nature and communities across the globe. WaL
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Quote of the Day: “What do we know of the heart nearest to our own? … What do we know of our own heart?” – Amelia Barr
Photo by: Salomé Guruli
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
4,482 years ago today, or so it’s said, the sky above the Korean Peninsula opened and Hwanung, the mythical progenitor of Korean People descended from heaven. Today, it’s marked as National Foundation Day in both the South and the North of the Peninsula and referred to as Gaecheonjeol. READ more about this important day in the Korean calendar… (2,457 BCE)
Britain’s oldest brick tower windmill which sits in the middle of a housing development is still operating, more than 250 years after it was first built.
Located in Holgate, a suburb of York, the walled city in northeast England, the Holgate Windmill has been working since 1770 after being built by George Waud, from Selby, after he bought the land in North Yorkshire two years earlier.
The mill, which grinds corn into flour, was built in the open countryside—one of many mills in the Yorkshire region—and overlooked the hamlet of Holgate.
The 90-foot-tall mill now sits on a roundabout in the middle of a housing development built in the 1940s and 50s after World War II.
It went unused for 90 years until 2001 when a preservation society was formed and successfully restored the mill to its former glory 13 years ago.
Steve Potts, a trustee of the group and its head miller, called it an important building.
“Of all of the hundreds of windmills which which were once found around Yorkshire, this is the only working one left.
“We are a group of 35 volunteers and we think it is important to keep the industry of milling going.
“It is a dying art in many ways and if we weren’t doing it, in a couple of years there may be no one left who knows how to,” the 69-year-old told SWNS news agency.
“Our plan is to keep it’s legacy going forever.”
The volunteers at the windmill have been doing a great job of that these days, as locals can buy wholemeal flour produced at the mill in a number of shops in York.
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After the mill was erected in 1770, three generations of the Waud family ran it until it was sold in 1851 to John Musham, a local gentleman who hired a tenant miller John Thackwray to take over.
Mr. Musham then sold the mill in 1855 to Joseph Peart who installed a steam engine which worked the milling gear and employed William Bean Horseman and later Joseph Chapman as millers.
After Peart’s death in 1864 it’s unknown who owned the mill, but in 1877 Eliza Gutch, from the Gutch family, took it over—but Chapman continued operating it until he retired.
The milling duties were then taken over by his son Charles but only until 1901, but he died young after breathing in hazardous flour dust.
Herbert Warters ran the mill from 1901 to 1922 and was followed by Thomas Mollett.
Grain was ground into flour here until the 1930’s using wind power, but it ended in 1933 when the Gutch family sold the building to the York City Council after Eliza died.
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A housing neighborhood soon grew up surrounding the mill after WWII.
But now, for over a decade, it’s been fulfilling that wholesome, age-old mission of sustainable, wind-powered food production in the only working 5-sailed, fully double-shuttered windmill in England.
SEND THE GOOD NEWS to History and Local Food Buffs on Social Media…
Cousins from opposite sides of the ocean met by complete chance after turning up at their ancestor’s grave at the exact same time and discovering they were all related.
Ian Brandon and Malcolm Atkins from the UK were visiting the grave of their great, great, great, grandfather Anthony Smith only to find another couple from the US doing the same thing.
Rand Smith and his wife Janeel made the 3,700-mile journey from Kansas City to the town of Raunds in Northamptonshire, England, to see where his forefathers originated from.
The couple was left utterly astounded when strangers Ian and Malcolm showed up from London and Essex at the same time last month searching for the same gravestone, having planned their trip years ago.
“You couldn’t make it up. These other guys planned their trip a while ago, too,” said Malcolm, a grandfather-of-two from Harold Hill, East London.
“We met at that precise moment, and now people are saying it’s divine intervention.
“I don’t have a religious bone, but if we arrived half-an-hour later, we wouldn’t have known they were there.
Malcolm and Ian had spent seven years planning the trip to St Peter’s Church after researching his family tree.
“I’m still in shock. We’d been planning it years and years ago, and we finally got together.”
“We’d actually gone up and got the car stuck while trying to find the car park. These two Americans went past the car and smiled as I was stuck.
“Then these two people were literally standing by the headstone of my third great-grandad.”
Rand was looking at the headstone and his wife Janeel asked the strangers, “Do you know that person?” Ian answered, “That’s my third great-grandfather”—and that’s when Rand said, “That’s my third great grandfather”.
The three men, who are fourth cousins, learned that their encounter on the same day, September 22, defied the odds of 12 billion-to-one.
“It was amazing, it was like we all knew each other. Then we went to a nearby pub, where we found we had so much in common,” Malcolm told SWNS news agency.
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“We’d love to see him again. I’d love to go to Kansas.”
Ian said the pair in their 70s chose to visit the grave around 100 miles from both their homes last Monday purely by chance.
“We basically turned up together, it was most strange,” Ian, from Danbury, Essex, told SWNS. “They were there two minutes before we were. It was strange, as we were all looking at the same stones.
“We had so much in common. We exchanged emails, so we’ll keep in contact.”
The cousins were visiting the historic market town after discovering Anthony Smith used to own a shoe factory in the area.
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A family tree fanatic, Malcolm discovered Anthony had initially married an American and had eight children before re-marrying, after her death at a ‘quite young’ age, an English lady who he had seven children with.
“My wife Linda always wondered how I could do such a boring hobby. It is just names on a piece of paper, but on one account I’ve got 2,000 names.
“It’s helped us dig into this, which is incredible. You couldn’t have written it. I’m still shocked by it. It’s a day we’ll never forget.”
Rand explained why they traveled to England, “Forty years ago my grandfather travelled from the U.S. and visited the graves of our forefathers at the St. Peter’s Church in Raunds.
“Since that time, I have had the same desire. When my wife, Janeel, and I visited the graveyard and located the headstones, we were stunned to have several others come up and examine the same stones.
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“No one else was in the cemetery. To learn that they are our fourth cousins was absolutely thrilling.
“We went to lunch together and it was like we had known them for years.
“We feel that divine intervention put us together. What a highlight of our lives.”
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A Canadian dog-lover has gotten to learn all over again why they call the animal Man’s best friend after his own brave pooch deterred a bear attack.
On a familiar trail in Cochrane, near Calgary, Craig Campbell was on a walk with his dog, a 10-year-old Doberman named Night. It was a trail he had taken with Night several times, but the routine physical activity suddenly turned into a life or death situation.
There in the bushes, a grizzly sow with her 2 cubs had wandered into the woods sandwiched between farms. Even still, Campbell had his bear spray, but having it is only half the challenge; the other half is using it.
“I managed two thoughts,” Campbell recalled in an interview with CTV News. “First of all, I said to myself, ‘This can’t be happening.’ And then I realized I wasn’t going to get the bear spray out (in time) and I said to myself, ‘I’m about to die.’”
Just then, Night came from beside in a flash and put himself between man and bear. Towering 7 feet on its hind legs above the crouching, barking dog, it gave enough time for Campbell to arm himself, but by then the bear huffed and went back to her cubs.
An avid trainer, Campbell has for years been training Night in the German sport of Schutzhund, often used to train the breed and others like it as police dogs. He believes this is why Night ran at the bear when others might have ran away, tail between their legs as it were.
“He is a very brave dog,” Campbell said. “To have an animal that literally stood between me and death, there’s no better friend than that.”
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Dogs Are Being Trained to Track Elusive Spotted Lanternfly and Save Crops from Devastation
The story won Night an award in Purina’s Animal Hall of Fame for 2025, Canada’s longest-running pet recognition award. Inductees receive a medallion, recognition at a ceremony in Toronto, and one year’s worth of free pet food.
Despite the sports and the bravery, Campbell said Night is a playful dog too, loving few things more than jumping into a stream and watching minnows swim through his paws.
WATCH the story below from CTV News…
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For the crew that’s going to return humanity to the Moon, the Artemis 2 mission astronauts recently said they were fully ready and focused on the task at hand, with everything else being just noise.
Everything else is a lot, since Artemis 2 represents a lot. It will send the first Black Man and the first woman to the Lunar environment. It will set a new record for distance in a human voyage beyond Earth. It is being undertaken in what some are calling a space race with China.
In short, there’s a lot to think about, but Mission Commander Reid Wiseman says they are ready for “every scenario.”
“We might go to the Moon—that’s where we want to go—but it is a test mission, and we are ready for every scenario as we ride this amazing Space Launch System on the Orion spacecraft, 250,000 miles away,” he said on a September 24th media event. “It’s going to be amazing.”
September also saw the naming of the Orion capsule for the Artemis 2 Mission as Integrity.
Joining Wiseman will be NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Victor Glover, both of whom have spent over 100 days (over 300 in Koch’s case) on board the ISS. From the Canadian Space Agency there’s Jeremy Hansen, a first-timer, who admitted the chance to fly on Artemis II will be “an absolute privilege.”
Following an almost perfect Artemis 1 test flight of the Orion spacecraft back in November 2022, several delays have prevented its follow-up with Artemis II set to be a 10-day flight around the Moon and back to Earth, paving the way for a crewed Lunar landing.
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The flight will also mark the farthest trip by humans into deep space, and will travel as many as 9,000 miles beyond the Moon, even farther than Apollo 13 traveled on its near-disastrous flight.
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy mentioned how competitive he and the agency felt in getting to the Moon before China and winning the “second space race,” but Artemis 2 Mission pilot Glover said he wasn’t focusing on that race—nor his own race, but a different race altogether.
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“The race that I think the most about is the relay race that we’re in,” he said. “We are going together, and our mission success is built on handing off, starting off with Artemis 3—that sets up our country and our partners to go back to the surface of the Moon.”
The first astronaut flight of NASA’s Artemis Program, which seeks not only to land humans on the Moon a second time, but also to conduct sustained crewed exploration of the lunar south pole and beyond to prepare for an eventual trip to Mars, is hoping for an early February launch date.
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Quote of the Day: “Let your mind alone, and see what happens.” – Virgil Thomson
Photo by: Dingzeyu Li
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
68 years ago today, a new island, or Ilha Novo, appeared on the edge of the westernmost island (Faial) in the Azores chain after the eruption of Capelinhos, or “little cape,” one of many submerged cone volcanoes in the area. The eruption caused no deaths, however it did wreck many houses and reduce the population of the island by half—most of whom evacuated and immigrated to the US under the Azorean Refugee Act, passed under John F. Kennedy. It did extend Faial’s land area by 3 square kilometers though, and blanketed the surrounding slopes with volcanic ash that spawned lush forests and a tourism boom. READ more… (1957)
NASA recently achieved an incredible milestone in an even more incredible quest: providing broadband to the solar system.
But speaking specifically, the organization’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) division just downlinked 15 terabits of data from the Psyche Mission about 300 million miles from Earth via laser beam.
That’s over three times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, and it represents a huge breakthrough in outer space communications that will be absolutely necessary in the future, and pretty much necessary now.
“There are kind of bottlenecks now in just how much volume of data we can get down in a given amount of time from the transmitters that we have,” said Sean Meenehan, the DSOC Ground Software Lead, referring to existing technology of using radio waves.
Aside from the brilliant scientists and engineers behind it, DSOC consists of a laser transceiver, which is mounted on the Psyche spacecraft, and two ground stations. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Table Mountain Facility sends a laser beam to Psyche, which receives it and uses that signal to accurately beam its own laser to the second station, Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County.
The laser sends back data encoded and communicated basically like morse code but with flickers in its light beam. How difficult is that? Try using a laser pointer to highlight Mars in the sky.
Both Psyche and Earth are moving through space at tremendous speeds, and they are so distant from each other that the laser signal—which travels at the speed of light—can take several minutes to reach its destination. By using the precise pointing required from the ground and flight laser transmitters to close the communication link, teams at NASA proved that optical communications can be done to support future missions throughout the solar system.
In December 2023, it made history when it sent an ultra-high-definition video of Taters the cat chasing a laser pointer to Earth from over 19 million miles away at 267 megabits per second.
In December 2024, DSCO completed its 65th and final pass, when it received a downlinked signal from 307 million miles away—far past Mars.
MORE NASA MISSION UPDATES:
“As space exploration continues to evolve, so do our data transfer needs,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator, NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program at the agency’s headquarters.
“Future space missions will require astronauts to send high-resolution images and instrument data from the Moon and Mars back to Earth. Bolstering our capabilities of traditional radio frequency communications with the power and benefits of optical communications will allow NASA to meet these new requirements.”
Throughout all 65 passes, the system maintained downlink speeds comparable to household broadband internet.
WATCH a great explainer from NASA below…
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Every time a toilet in Melbourne flushes, the contents start a long trip from the metro area to a sewage treatment plant that has garnered a mythical reputation among birdwatchers.
Following the treatment process, the government allows it to retain certain excess nutrients that cause microbes and insects to flourish—anchoring the food web in an area of marsh and mudflats that birds just love.
300 different species of birds, including endangered species like the orange bellied parrot have been recorded in the Western Treatment Plant, on the shores of Phillips Bay, in Victoria state.
In the paddies, visiting birdwatchers can see the brolga, a crane common in the neighboring Queensland, but endangered in Victoria. Above, squadrons of seabirds and raptors ply the skies looking for food or nesting grounds, and shorebirds eagerly wade, hope, an skitter along man-made mudflats gobbling up tasty morsels.
50 billion gallons of sewage and wastewater flow through the plant’s 32 huge lagoons. Some are anaerobic, or oxygen deprived treatment lagoons where harmful bacteria are expunged and beneficial bacteria, which breakdown the sewage, matter are cultivated.
Oxygenated, or aerobic lagoons then work on the wastewater to reduce the levels of nitrogen—a compound common in human sewage that enriches harmful algae which can grow exponentially on the stuff if too much of it were to make it into the bay—the final destination of the water having passed through the other lagoons where it enriches the life.
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“The water that goes out into the bay at the end result of the sewage treatment process does still have a lot of nutrient in it,” Cody McCormack, conservation and land officer with Melbourne Water, told the Guardian Australia on its visit to the Western Treatment Plant.
That nutrient is left over on purpose—to anchor the biodiversity at the site, but men and women like McCormack have the job of making sure it’s never so much as to cause an algal bloom. McCormack is a birdwatcher himself, and loves the shorebirds in particular.
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“The nutrient in the water provides the food for the insects and for the vegetation to grow as well,” says McCormack. “It’s one of the most annoying things in my role, where I’m lowering these ponds to create these beautiful mudflats for shorebirds, but as soon as you expose the mud, there’s so much nutrient in the water that all the vegetation grows up.”
Birdwatchers can apply for access to a gate key on the active industrial site, and a few are given out to the community of Melbourne birders. A short flight over to Flickr and a search for “Western Treatment Plant” reveals the wealth of species these birders enjoy seeing and photographing.
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The United Nations has added an area the size of Bolivia to a network of special land and seascapes with the aim of ensuring they remain places where Man can anchor himself to his national and global ecosystem.
Much like the way UNESCO nominates places to become World Heritage Sites, the organization’s Man and Biosphere Program nominates UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. The network of these areas has now grown to 785 sites in 142 countries, totaling 5% of the planet’s landmass.
Again, like World Heritage Sites, each year new potential Biosphere Reserves are submitted as candidates by UN member states, and may be then added to the Reserve Network. With this year’s addition of 26 new sites, it means that one million km² of natural areas have been brought under protection just since 2018—equivalent to the size of Bolivia.
“With nearly thirty new designations this year, our World Network of Biosphere Reserves has reached a major milestone, now protecting 5% of the planet. Within these reserves, new ways of balancing nature conservation with sustainable livelihoods are being forged every day. UNESCO will continue to mobilize states, scientists, civil society, and local and Indigenous communities to continue this positive momentum,” said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO.
6 countries received the designation of their first Biosphere Reserve this year, including Angola, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Iceland, Oman, and Tajikistan, while São Tomé and Príncipe becomes the first state to have its entire territory designated as a Biosphere Reserve.
In addition to these 6, new reserves have also been designated in Albania, China, Ethiopia, France, Greece, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mongolia, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and Sweden.
Since 1971, Biosphere Reserves have played a central role in UNESCO’s environmental mission. Alongside natural World Heritage sites and Global Geoparks, they contribute to protecting more than 13 million km² of terrestrial and marine ecosystems under UNESCO’s umbrella, advancing the global Kunming-Montreal target of conserving 30% of land and sea by 2030.
They also safeguard some of the planet’s richest and most fragile ecosystems. They harbor a significant share of global biodiversity including more than 60% of terrestrial vertebrate species, 12% of mapped mangroves, 10% of salt marshes, and 8% of the world’s seagrass meadows.
Many iconic American landscapes are also Biosphere Reserves, including the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, the Southern Appalachians, and the Channel Islands.
They foster local and community initiatives and serve as learning grounds for younger generations, through educational program tailored to schools as well as to local and indigenous communities.
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UNESCO cannot designate Biosphere Reserves itself, and the job of policing and maintaining them falls on the nations that nominate areas—often national parks—to become reserves.
They are not created for the purpose of returning land to a wild state, or even from removing activities like agriculture, but are governed in a way that Man and the biosphere he needs to survive can do so for as long as we humans live on this planet—striking a balance between the needs of the land and the needs of the humans living on it.
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The governance aspect combines activities in the natural and social sciences with a view to drafting management and development plans that will improve human livelihoods while safeguarding natural and managed ecosystems.
Partnerships with the private sector further strengthen these efforts. For example, the Amazonia Project, deployed across eight biosphere reserves with support from French conglomerate LVMH, has already supported more than 40 local initiatives, creating sustainable green jobs in agroforestry and regenerative agriculture, while strengthening forest and biodiversity protection against wildfires.
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12,000-year-old engravings of desert animals like the dromedary camel were used by ancient Arabian tribes to mark where water could be found, a new discovery hypothesizes.
An international team of archaeologists discovered more than 60 rock art panels containing 176 engravings in three previously unexplored areas: Jebel Arnaan, Jebel Mleiha, and Jebel Misma, along the southern edge of the Nefud Desert in northern Saudi Arabia.
The engravings mainly depict camels, ibex, equids, gazelles, and auroch in 130 life-sized and naturalistic figures, some measuring up to three 10 feet long and more than two 6 feet high.
The researchers say the rock art dates to between 12,800 and 11,400 years ago, a period when seasonal water bodies reappeared in the region following extreme aridity.
They explained that the water sources, confirmed through sediment analysis, supported early human expansions into the desert interior and offered opportunities for surviving.
“These large engravings are not just rock art. They were probably statements of presence, access, and cultural identity,” said the lead author of a corresponding paper published on the discovery, Dr. Maria Guagnin from the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
“The carvings would have been significant to the people of the region. Several of the etchings were found carved on top of older ones, indicating that they were maintained and updated over thousands of years.”
Unlike previously known sites where engravings were hidden in crevices, the researchers say the Jebel Mleiha and the Jebel Arnaan panels were etched onto towering cliff faces up to 128 feet high, in “visually commanding” locations. Jebel means mountain or hill in Arabic.
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Co-lead author Dr. Ceri Shipton, from University College London said one panel would have required ancient artists to climb and work “precariously” on narrow ledges, underscoring the sheer effort and significance of the imagery.
“The rock art marks water sources and movement routes, possibly signifying territorial rights and intergenerational memory.”
The water source hypothesis is particularly compelling as the camels were depicted as males during the breeding season, which for camels corresponds with the rainy season. It seems a very deliberate detail for these ancient Arabians to add.
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The research team say their findings, published in the journal Nature Communications and part of the Green Arabia project, highlight the pioneering role of human groups who lived in the interior of northern Arabia shortly after the hyper-arid conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum.
“This unique form of symbolic expression belongs to a distinct cultural identity adapted to life in a challenging, arid environment,” said Dr. Faisal Al-Jibreen, from the country’s culture ministry.
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101 years ago today, former President Jimmy Carter was born The 39th president of the United States from 1977–1981, is one of the few American presidents to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (for his Camp David Accords). He is also the first American centenarian president, perhaps a result of him only serving a single term, or because of his extensive charity work through various housing organizations like Habitat for Humanity. He pardoned all Vietnam draft dodgers and consciousness objectors, and pursued a second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the Soviets. READ about his charity work… (1924)
