Tuesday's collection of positive news nuggets from around the globe.
Archaeologists excavating the so-called Avenue of the Sphinxes in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor have discovered three ancient stone ram heads. Authorities plan to place the heads back where they stood in ancient times, on statues that line the road in what was once the city of Thebes. The find is part of an effort to restore the 1.7 mile road as an open-air museum between the Luxor and Karnak temples, two of the largest and most significant religious temples in ancient Egypt.
Another new discovery shows that the ancient Egyptians were carrying out sophisticated mummifications of their dead 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to new evidence which could lead to a rewriting of the history books. The preserved body of a high-ranking nobleman called Khuwy, discovered in 2019, has been found to be far older than assumed and is, in fact, one of the oldest Egyptian mummies ever discovered. It has been dated to the Old Kingdom, proving that mummification techniques some 4,000 years ago were highly advanced.
Science fiction travel is finally set to arrive! Swedish eVTOL startup Jetson has officially unveiled its Jetson ONE personal electric aerial vehicle. After a successful prototype in 2018, Jetson has created a consumer-grade version of the ONE eVTOL that has already sold out its limited production run for 2022 and is now taking orders for 2023. When the first single seater electric 'cars' make their way to customers next year, they will see flight times of 20 minutes and will be able to fly at a top speed of 102 km/h (63mph). If you would like to see this craft in action, see today's video (below).
One of the world’s rarest trees grows in north Wales. There are only thirty Menai whitebeam left in the world, all growing on a tiny strip of steep coast in a Menai Strait nature reserve. Urgent work has begun to map each tree, monitor its wellbeing and collect seeds so it can be cultivated and planted in the wild in the future.
Anti-cancer drug derived from Himalayan fungus clears early clinical trials in Oxford. The naturally-occurring nucleoside analogue known as Cordycepin is found in the Himalayan fungus Cordyceps sinensis and has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for hundreds of years to treat cancers and other inflammatory diseases.
Wild beavers have been spotted in the Avon region of England for the first time in 400 years. The species has been reintroduced to some UK sites as part of controlled trials. But their arrival in the Avon catchment area, near Bristol and Bath, shows the animals are now re-establishing themselves elsewhere in England, four centuries after they were hunted to extinction.
Divers on the Musi River in Indonesia are beginning to fish out fistfuls of gold, gems, and other treasures from the mud - and it might be the site of a fabled kingdom known in the 8th century as the ‘Island of Gold’. Dr. Sean Kingsley, a British maritime archaeologist, suspects the finds, such as a ruby-studded life-size golden Buddha worth millions, represent the discovery of a lost merchant palace city from the kingdom of Svirijaya, which ruled the trade routes in large parts of Indonesia for 400 years. Situated around the town of Palembang, sometimes called “Venice of the East,” the palace city would have sat on a major artery of the maritime version of the Silk Road, and like its terrestrial counterparts would have bustled in its heyday with people of every faith and skin colour.
Tesla breaks $1 trillion valuation barrier after Hertz orders 100,000 vehicles. Milestone comes after firm’s Model 3 became first battery electric car to top Europe’s monthly sales chart.
Forecasts seen by the UK government suggest Covid cases will plummet in November even without Plan B restrictions, according to The Daily Telegraph. A model published last week by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine predicts that cases will soon peak before falling steeply in the winter months, even without new rules. The paper says other unpublished models have also shown similar imminent drops.
Fun Fact: At the bottom of the globe, Dry Valleys in Antarctica has not had a single drop of rain or snow in nearly 2 million years! Scientists attribute this to the earth's gravitational pull. If you think that the world's largest desert is the Sahara, you would be mistaken. That title actually goes to Antarctica at around 5.5 million square miles. Followed by the Arctic, then the Sahara.
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Single Seat eVTOL
Jetson ONE is an ultralight and extremely fun to fly recreational all-electric personal vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft.