OGN Monday

Editor OGN Daily
30 minutes ago
4 min read

Ensuring the week gets off to an upbeat start with today's global selection of positive news stories.

Colourful Amphipods

Out of the 15,000-plus shots submitted by leading ocean photographers around the globe to the 2025 Ocean Photographer of the Year competition, Indonesia-based PADI Divemaster Yury Ivanov claimed the top prize for his entry of two colourful amphipods. Each measuring about 3 mm in body length, these “ladybugs of the sea” from the Cyproideidae family are resting and feeding in synchronized movements on coral in Bali. "The result reveals an intimate glimpse of underwater life that is often overlooked,” Ivanov said. He added that the award is about “celebrating the ocean itself - its fragility, its diversity, and its extraordinary power to inspire us.”

Healing Hearts

MIT engineers have designed a programmable drug-delivery patch that could help the heart heal after a heart attack, no open-heart surgery required. The flexible hydrogel patch, applied directly to the heart, releases three drugs in sequence over two weeks: one prevents cell death, another spurs blood vessel growth and a third blocks scarring. The approach mimics the body’s own healing timeline, restoring heart function far more effectively than traditional treatments.

Hoard of 12th century coins found in Sweden — Credit: Stockholm County Administrative Board

Stroke of Luck

Just outside Stockholm, Sweden, an unnamed fisherman scrounging for worms at his summer house discovered a corroded copper cauldron containing around 13 pounds of treasure from the Middle Ages. The tally is still underway, but an early estimate suggests as many as 20,000 silver coins, rings, pendants, and other jewelry were uncovered. Most of the coinage dates to the 12th century and an expert said that “This is probably one of the largest silver treasures from the early Middle Ages that has been found in Sweden.” Swedish law entitles any person who discovers an “ancient silver find” the chance to receive a finder’s fee.

iPhone showing a Spotify video — Spotify to offer music videos

Cultural Comeback?

Spotify is officially bringing music videos to the platform in the US after testing the feature overseas. Music videos have lost the cultural cachet they once had just 15 years ago (thanks largely to the decline of MTV), but with Spotify - the most popular music streamer in the world - putting them on the platform, they could be primed for a cultural comeback. Furthermore, if Spotify’s integration performs well, it could push labels to invest in traditional music videos again, giving emerging artists and filmmakers a long-overdue boost.

29 Percent

That's the annual global growth rate of renewable additions between 2023 and 2025, putting tripling of worldwide capacity by 2030 within reach - and with it the chance to stay on track for the 1.5C climate pathway, says independent energy think-tank Ember. That's very good news.

Walk Me, a four-legged autonomous chair designed to transform mobility — Credit: Toyota

Wheelchair Transformed

Stairs have long been the nemesis of wheelchair users, turning simple errands into logistical nightmares and limiting access to countless spaces. Like it or not, a lot of our built environment is designed for legs, not wheels, and as disability advocates know that’s fiendishly difficult to change. So if we can’t transform the world at the scale we need, could we transform the wheelchair? At the Japan Mobility Show 2025, Toyota revealed Walk Me, a four-legged autonomous chair designed to transform mobility. Unlike wheelchairs, Walk Me well, walks: its robotic legs can climb stairs, cross gravel and manoeuvre on rough ground. Lidar, collision radars and weight sensors keep riders centred and safe; a day-long battery targets real daily use.

Brilliant Wheelchair With Hands-Free Backrest Steering: This revolutionary new wheelchair removes a lot of the stress on the user's shoulders, arms and hands.

Clean 'District Energy'

In the depths of the 75-year-old Kendall Cogeneration Station along the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a clean-heating transformation is underway. For years, the facility has burned natural gas to produce steam for Boston and Cambridge’s century-old underground heating system. Now, it’s aiming to become a clean “district energy” system, capable of delivering warmth during bitter New England winters without baking the planet - a first for a citywide network in America. It has already installed an electric boiler, and is now working on installing a heat pump - and everything should be up and running along its 25 miles of piping (heating roughly 70 million square feet of buildings) by 2028.

“The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved; it is a reality to be experienced.” J.J. Van der Leeuw

On This Day

17 November 1869: After 10 years of construction, the 120 mile long Suez Canal opened in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia.