OGN Monday

10 hours ago
4 min read

Kick-starting the week with an eclectic global selection of upbeat news nuggets.

Dolerite Polygons

The Beaker Street Science Photography Prize recognizes images that “reveal the wonder, complexity, and fragility of the natural world” by way of science. The competition just announced its finalists for the 2026 edition, encompassing a wide range of subject matter within the natural world. One stunning finalist image is titled Dolerite Polygons. Dolerite is an igneous rock that is unusually widespread in Tasmania and so significantly shapes the landscape. It has been described as ‘the rock that makes Tasmania’. During the breakup of Gondwana, dolerite magma intruded into the crust as subsurface dykes and sills (sheets). As the magma cooled and crystallised, regular vertical cracks propagated through the sills, forming polygonal columns. The characteristic form of many dolerite cliff-lines is due to this. Less common is such a clear exposure of a cross-section of these columns seen here, forming a glaciated pavement on the Ben Lomond plateau, their outline highlighted by a light fall of snow.

Some Good Numbers

£1,100: Annual fuel cost savings of EV owners in the UK. In total, the more than 2 million BEVs, 1 million PHEVs and 100,000 electric vans on UK roads are saving drivers around £3bn a year.

$10 Trillion: Market value of the global green economy, a record high. If the green economy - defined as the group of companies heavily involved in environmental business - were its own industry, it would be the third-largest in the world.

916: Turbines now operating at the US’ largest wind farm, in New Mexico.

30%: French Polynesia will expand its fully protected waters by 200,773 square miles, bringing 30 percent of the South Pacific island nation’s waters under bans against seabed mining and industrial fishing.

63%: The global market for EVs is growing much more quickly than predicted. In 2019, EVs made up just 1 percent of new car sales globally; in 2025, that figure rose to 25 percent; by May 2026, 63 percent of new cars sold were electric. China and Europe are leading the charge, but the market is growing rapidly in other parts of the world, too.

Young woman in a white T-shirt leaning on a railing — New priorities

Solomaxxing

We all know that the dating world can be brutal, particularly in our era of apps, swiping, ghosting, and many other manmade horrors. With all that pressure, a new study reveals that some Gen Zers are now deliberately choosing to stay single and focus on themselves, rather than spending time (and money) seeking a partner. Aptly called ‘solomaxxing,’ this trend sees young people move away from the traditional, aspirational milestones of marriage and children and instead prioritise new experiences, self-improvement, and a full life without a companion. The trend removes the stigma of being unmarried and alone, and recasts it as something to aim for, not avoid.

Handy Guide to The New Dating Trends And Terms: Remember beige flags, icks and situationships? Well, those terms are so last year.

a 44-page notebook Mozart used for his tutoring exercises in his early twenties — Credit: Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP

Mozart's Notebook

When Mozart was 22 years old - four years before his famed opera The Abduction From the Seraglio premiered in 1782 - he worked as a music tutor while studying in Paris. Nearly two and a half centuries later, the 44-page notebook the young composer used for his tutoring exercises has been identified at France’s National Library. The “major discovery” was unearthed by Francois-Pierre Goy, a curator in the library’s music department, while sorting through a pile of documents ahead of his retirement. “I never imagined what I was about to find,” he told AFP of the manuscript, which includes a dozen daily exercises and seven pieces for flute and harp for his pupil, the daughter of the Duke of Guines. It has just gone on display at the National Library of France in Paris.

Great Progress

CleanTechnica reports that German researchers have built the most efficient solar panel ever, turning a whopping 34.4 percent of sunlight into electricity. That’s way higher than ordinary rooftop panels, which usually convert around 20 percent. This is a research breakthrough, not something you can buy for your roof yet, but it shows how much better solar panels may still become.

Mission 300

Under the World Bank’s Mission 300 at least 50 million people across Africa have been connected to electricity since 2024. This is an astonishing achievement. The closest modern parallel is India, which connected around 120 million people in 2017 and 2018. But India had a centralised government, plenty of institutional infrastructure, and decades of prior grid-building to leverage. Mission 300 is doing it across 40 countries with fragmented governance, weaker institutions, and some of the hardest last-mile terrain on Earth. Insanely ambitious, but it looks like it’s working.

“Candy is nature’s way of making up for Mondays.” Rebecca Gober

On This Day

29 June 1953: Oklahoma governor declares today "Maria Tallchief Day" in honor of Native American prima ballerina Maria Tallchief. Born Elizabeth Maria Tall Chief on the Osage Nation Reservation in Fairfax, Oklahoma, she became America's first major prima ballerina. Throughout her career, she continuously defied expectations and refused to anglicize her name to Ballet Russe standards, becoming an international superstar while elevating the visibility of Native Americans in the arts.