Thursday's round up of postive news nuggets from around the globe.
A new partnership has vowed to plant 10 trees for every man, woman, and child in the Glasgow region as part of a new urban ‘forest’ network. The ambitious planting pledge is being called the Clyde Climate Forest initiative, and it will ‘breathe new life’ across the eight local authorities around Scotland’s largest city. The 18 million trees to be planted over the next decade will increase woodland cover in the region from 17 percent to 20 percent.
If you live in the UK and you notice it's getting dark later this morning, here's why.
If you pictured cars in the future as sleek, glass-covered, EVs with the ability to clean pollution, then you pictured Airo. Unveiled at the Shanghai Motor Show in April, Airo is a fully electric vehicle that boasts both autonomous and driver-controlled modes. More excitingly, its designers promise it produces no fossil fuel pollutants, and taking it a step further, the vehicle even vacuums up polluted air around it as it drives.
While conventional pesticides can be beneficial for ensuring crop yields, they are also ecologically damaging. In a bid to provide a greener alternative, a team of scientists at Spain’s Neiker Basque Institute for Agricultural and Development has developed a natural pesticide - that’s also a fertilizer - made out of a combination of agricultural and beer brewing waste.
In the scientific search to learn more about the very early universe, a mysterious particle promises to take our knowledge to the very birth of the universe. While yet unproven, the hypothetical particle, called an axion, might reveal for the first time the conditions of the universe just one second after the Big Bang, according to a recent study published in the journal Physical Review D. We'll keep you posted.
How old is your brain? Do you have the reflexes of a young gun, or a wise old owl? Our cognitive abilities peak in our twenties but that doesn’t mean we lose our wits. Here are some games to exercise your grey matter. See how you compare to others, and find out how to keep your faculties fresh in later years.
Tuesday saw a record one million vaccine appointments booked as over-25s raced to secure their jabs in the UK. The NHS England chief executive called it a “Glastonbury-style rush” as a total of 1,082,596 first and second doses were booked up throughout the day. The record numbers seem to dispel concerns that vaccine hesitancy is particularly high among younger people.
Thailand has started its Covid vaccination campaign. Thailand aims to vaccinate 70% of the population before the end of the year, and is relying primarily on AstraZeneca doses produced by Siam Bioscience, a company owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The company is also due to supply vaccines to eight other countries in the region.
While few things about the Covid-19 pandemic have been good, scientists have recently discovered a possible silver lining: public health measures such as physical distancing and mask-wearing may have eliminated two of the most common strains of the flu and made future flu shots easier to make.
Dive in Deeper
Fjords of Norway
The majestic fjords are eerily quiet and very beautiful in late winter, as this stunning 4 minute time lapse film shows. Shot over 10 days in March last year.