Thursday's upbeat collection of good news snippets.
Located 2,100 light-years from Earth lies a supernova remnant called the Veil Nebula. It's a cloud of ionized gas and dust that formed approximately 10,000 years ago when a star 20 times the size of our sun self-detonated and spewed plasma into the dark sky. This gorgeous image taken by the Hubble space telescope, just released by NASA, reveals the finer details of the nebula’s filaments and delicate threads of translucent ionized gas.
Dominos has begun making autonomous deliveries in Houston, using self-driving robots that pull up to your driveway. Customers can track the vehicle (and their pizza) via GPS on their order confirmation page. When the vehicle pulls up, customers simply enter a PIN to open the doors to retrieve their food. Tipping is optional - and superfluous!
Top foods for vascular health: You might associate better blood flow with exercise - understandable, as movement quite literally gets your heart pumping and helps deliver oxygen and nutrients throughout your body. But did you know there are certain foods specifically linked to better vascular health? No pizza, but it does include chocolate!
A landmark human trial testing a vaccine that’s designed to help the immune system target brain tumors has shown promising results - and Phase 2 of the trial is now being planned. According to a Nature article published by the researchers leading the trial at the German Cancer Research Centre, the vaccine was safe for all patients, and showed the hoped-for immune response to cancerous tissue.
Teenager joins Biden's climate team: It's a clear sign of the growing political clout of the youth climate movement and, of course, excellent news that Gen Z is now getting a place at the table.
In a similar vein, British company Good Energy - which supplies 100 percent renewable electricity - has appointed a group of young people to sit on an advisory board with no adults allowed. Made up entirely of 12 to 17 year olds, the Good Future Board will have the opportunity to review and feed into how Good Energy operates. Importantly, they will also get to tell the adults when they believe they’re wrong!
Edinburgh international festival will take place this August, but will be outdoors for the first time in its 74 year history. Organisers hope outdoor pavilions and shorter performances will make the event ‘relatively bulletproof’.
Good news for Bitche: Facebook mistakenly took down the official page for a French town called Bitche, after its algorithms dubbed the name as offensive. It has since apologised for the embarrassing error and restored the page. Earlier this year, Facebook apologised for banning users from mentioning National Trust beauty spot Devil's Dyke near Brighton after branding it ‘hate speech'.
Kingdom jabs 93 percent of its adults in 14 days: A small country wedged in the Himalayan mountains between India and China is right up there among the top nations to have vaccinated the majority of its population against Covid-19.
Many thanks to a reader for sending us a link to this April Fools prank. A very brave man put talcum powder in his wife's hair dryer...