Good News Notes: “We’ve gotten very, very good at making things that are cheap and durable. Unfortunately, there are some deleterious side effects. Among them: Our society generates massive amounts of waste that is going to remain in landfills for a long time. What’s more, the process of making these goods is also bad for…
Category: discovery
Giant sinkhole with a forest inside found in China
Good News Notes: “A team of Chinese scientists has discovered a giant new sinkhole with a forest at its bottom. The sinkhole is 630 feet (192 meters) deep, according to the Xinhua news agency, deep enough to just swallow St. Louis’ Gateway Arch. A team of speleologists and spelunkers rappelled into the sinkhole on Friday (May…
Failed Clinical Trial Leads to Scientific Breakthrough: Investigating Cancer Drug Toxicity Leads to Critical Discovery
Good News Notes: “It’s not often that a failed clinical trial leads to a scientific breakthrough. When patients in the UK started experiencing negative side effects during a cancer immunotherapy trial, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Center for Cancer Immunotherapy and University of Liverpool went back, examined the data, and worked with…
Baby bald eagle rescued after parent accidentally kicks it from nest
Good News Notes: “Ecologists came to the rescue of a baby bald eagle after it was accidentally kicked from its nest by its parent. The chick was sleeping Monday on one of its parents’ feet when “the parent took off, and it just accidentally knocked the chick out of the nest,” research ecologist Peter Sharpe,…
Naked mole rats, frogs and other animals may hold the secrets to preventing brain injury
Good News Notes: “The brain is the organ that orchestrates all the diverse functions and complex decisions that take place in biological systems. Despite its critical nature, it is equally as fragile: the neurons that make up the brain do not regenerate like many other cell types. While cells found in many other organs constantly divide…
BCI lets completely “locked-in” man communicate with his son, ask for a beer
Good News Notes: “A 36-year-old German man in a completely locked-in state was outfitted with a novel brain-computer interface (BCI) system that relies on auditory feedback. The man learned to alter his brain activity in response to that auditory feedback to compose simple messages. He used this ability to ask for a beer, for his…
The #1 Best Fruit To Keep Your Bones From Aging, New Study Says
Good News Notes: “When you eat fruit, you might be aiming to satisfy a sweet hunger-related craving or be looking for a quick and healthy snack. While apples and oranges are always a delicious choice—not to mention grapes, bananas, strawberries, and blueberries—you might want to consider grabbing some prunes on a regular basis if you want to feel younger and stay stronger as you get…
Back from the dead? Elusive ivory-billed woodpecker not extinct, researchers say
Good News Notes: “In terms of elusiveness, it is the Bigfoot or Loch Ness monster of the bird world, so rare and undetectable that the US government declared it extinct last year. But the ivory-billed woodpecker is, in fact, still alive and pecking in the forests of Louisiana, a team of researchers has claimed. A series…
MIT Scientists Develop New Regenerative Drug That Reverses Hearing Loss
Good News Notes: “The biotechnology company Frequency Therapeutics is seeking to reverse hearing loss — not with hearing aids or implants, but with a new kind of regenerative therapy. The company uses small molecules to program progenitor cells, a descendant of stem cells in the inner ear, to create the tiny hair cells that allow…
Scientists Rewind The Clock of Human Skin Cells to Make Them Act 30 Years Younger
Good News Notes: “It’s not quite the mythical fountain of youth but it is, perhaps, a start: Scientists have managed to engineer human skin cells to reverse 30 years of aging, resetting them to a much more youthful state in terms of certain molecular measurements. While it’s very early days for the research – so…