Synopsis of last week's good news about medical advances, the environment and other uplifting stuff.
After Five Centuries: White-tailed eagles nesting and breeding in Belgium have been observed for the first time in 500 years ago.
Protein From Air: The world's first commercial-scale factory for making nutrient-rich and versatile protein from air and sustainable energy has opened its doors in Finland. Get ready, food out of thin air is going to be with us soon.
Barking Mad? If you ever find yourself wishing you could bring along your faithful four legged companion on a trip, you’ll be pleased to know that a brand-new airline - commencing in June - has just been created that specialises in all things dog friendly.
Masterpiece Saved: A rare Caravaggio painting, which was once misattributed with a shockingly low price tag of $1,800, was saved by Spanish authorities and will now go on display at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The painting, which the museum calls “one of the most valuable old master artworks in the world,” is one of about 60 known Caravaggios in existence. Prado experts believe that the Italian painter created the piece around 1605 to 1609.
Medical Advances
Prostate Screening: A prostate cancer screening trial in the UK is being hailed as “a pivotal moment in the history of prostate cancer research”. Despite the disease killing an estimated 12,000 men each year in the UK, there’s currently no screening programme. But that’s set to change and experts say could reduce deaths by 40 percent.
Universal Donor: There’s a global shortage of blood supplies needed for life-saving transfusions but now, researchers in Denmark and Sweden have found that by using enzymes produced by a bacteria that almost everyone has in their gut, they can remove the antigens from red blood cells that determine blood type, putting us within reach of producing universal donor blood.
Hearing Unaided: A UK girl born deaf can now hear unaided, after a groundbreaking gene-therapy treatment. Opal Sandy was treated shortly before her first birthday - and six months on, can hear sounds as soft as a whisper and is starting to talk. Given as an infusion into the ear, the therapy replaces faulty DNA causing her type of inherited deafness.
Genetic Marker: For the first time, researchers have found that a genetic marker - two copies of a particular gene - is an underlying cause in late-in-life Alzheimer's. The finding opens the door for research to develop gene therapy or drugs to target the offending gene.
Personalised Vaccine: A personalised mRNA vaccine for melanoma - which could have the potential to cure the cancer completely - is entering into Phase 3 trials at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust after previous trials found that it reduced the risk of death or return of the disease by almost half.
By The Numbers
30 percent: Renewable energy accounted for more than 30 percent of the world’s electricity for the first time in 2023, according to the Global Electricity Review. “The renewables future has arrived... Solar in particular is accelerating faster than anyone thought possible.”
Less than 1 percent: The rate of primary-age children not enrolled in school in Morocco, meaning that attendance is now nearly universal. In the 1970s, over 60 percent of Moroccan children were out of school.
88: The percentage reduction in emissions, from 1990 levels, that modelling from the European Commission predicts can be reached by 2040 for the European Union.
100 percent: In the Netherlands, all of its trains run entirely on energy sourced from wind power.
6G: Researchers in Japan have achieved data transfer speeds of 100 gigabits per second, which is 500 times faster than the average 5G speed.
Environment
The End is Nigh: Energy ministers from the Group of Seven nations have agreed to shut down all their coal-powered plants by 2035. The deal marks a significant step in the transition away from fossil fuels. The G7 decision follows on the heels of new US Environmental Protection Agency rules that require coal plants to cut or capture 90 percent of carbon emissions by 2032, or shut down by 2039.
Green Marine: World’s first eco-friendly hydrogen-powered 390 feet (119m) superyacht has been launched.
Solar Explosion: At current growth rates (20 percent per annum), solar will pass fossil gas in 2024 and coal in 2025, reports RenewEconomy. Current growth rates also suggest that by 2031 there will be more solar generation capacity than everything else combined.
Yes to Low Emissions: It was an election billed as a bellwether for British attitudes towards environmental policies, with one issue coming to dominate London’s mayoral elections last week: the city’s ultra-low emissions zone (ULEZ). The main challenger for the top job vowed to repeal the roll out of ULEZ to outer London on “day one” if she was elected - despite it being linked with improvements in air quality. In the end, Sadiq Khan, who expanded the ULEZ last year, was re-elected with a big majority.
Record Reduction: Emissions under the EU emissions trading system (ETS) decreased by 15.5 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, due largely to the boost in supply of renewable energy, says the European Commission. ETS emissions are now about 47 percent lower than 2005 levels, well on the way to the 2030 target of a 62 percent reduction.
Extracting CO2 From Air: Climeworks has opened the world’s largest operational direct air capture (DAC) plant to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, with its Mammoth plant in Iceland almost ten times larger than the current record holder. It has the capacity to capture 36,000 metric tons of CO2 a year.
Deliberately Ambitious: Eurostar’s high-speed rail network links France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK, carrying millions of passengers across Europe each year. Now, Eurostar has set itself the "deliberately ambitious" target of powering its trains with 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.
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Now that you've caught up with the serious stuff, why not take a look at last week's most watched (hilarious) video? Flight Attendant Helps Obnoxious Passenger
Today's Articles
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