Sunny Saturday News

Editor OGN Daily
Mar 29
4 min read

Ensuring it's a sunny Saturday with a global round up of positive news stories.

male red deer roaring in the rain — Paul Browning | British Wildlife Photography Awards

The Rain-Deer

Appearing in a landscape that looks as though it were painted in watercolour, a male red deer roars in the rain. This photograph is just one of the majestic images that received accolades at this year's British Wildlife Photography Awards. The winning photographs highlight the diversity of animal and plant life in Britain as well as the often hidden behaviours of wild creatures. Don't miss tomorrow's OGN Sunday Magazine to see more of the fabulous snaps by the winners and runners-up from the prestigious competition.

Tantalising Clue

When scientists revisited an old Martian rock sample collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover, they were initially hunting for evidence of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. But they ended up discovering something else entirely: the largest organic compounds ever documented on Mars. The compounds date to 3.7 billion years ago - around the same time that life first emerged on Earth. Although they could have been formed by either biological or non-biological activity, these compounds join a host of other tantalising clues to the potential existence of ancient Martian life. The discovery is detailed in a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

‘Scientific Asylum’

European universities are offering ‘scientific asylum’ to US-based researchers fleeing Donald Trump’s crackdown on academia, particularly as regards climate issues. France’s Aix-Marseille University has established a ‘safe place for science’ programme, which will fund US researchers working in climate, environment, health and human sciences. The Pasteur Institute in Paris is welcoming infectious disease researchers. Similar initiatives are being offered by research establishments in the Netherlands, UK and Belgium.

medieval gold ring with a sapphire centre stone — Credit: Noonan's Mayfair

Medieval Sapphire Ring

Several years ago, a metal detectorist was searching for treasure at a field in Norfolk, England. He had scanned this particular area before, though he hadn’t found anything. But just before dusk, his detector emitted a faint signal. About nine inches below the surface, he found a gold ring with five gemstones. Dating to the late 12th or early 13th century, the jewelry likely belonged to a medieval bishop. The ring features a principal cabochon stone, or a rounded, polished center gem. In this case, the centre stone is a sapphire, and it’s surrounded by two emeralds and two stones that are either garnets or rubies. In good news for the retired firefighter who found the ring, it sold for $24,000 earlier this week.

YouTube bright red play button — YouTube play button

YouTube Hits Top Spot

YouTube hit a record 11.6 percent of all TV viewing in February in the U.S., according to the latest edition of Nielsen's Media Distributor Gauge Report. That put the Google-owned video giant in the No. 1 spot, ahead of Disney. YouTube has been on a long-term growth trajectory in the Nielsen statistics and recently announced that living-room viewing had exceeded that on mobile devices and computers. In just two years, YouTube’s share of total TV viewing has jumped 53 percent to reach the current figure of 11.6 percent, reports Deadline. The overall viewing upturn has been increasingly driven by older audiences, Nielsen said. Viewing from adults 65 and over has nearly doubled in the last two years, and is now almost on par with kids aged 2 to 11.

Food Giveaway

Tesco, the largest supermarket chain in the UK, is to begin a trial giving expiring food to customers for free at the end of the day as it tries to cut food waste. The supermarket will give away some already discounted "yellow sticker" items after 21:30 in some of its smaller Express stores in coming months. Tesco already donates expiring food to charities and food banks. It says it is taking this step to try to meet its goal to halve food waste. The company said the expiring food would be offered to charities and shop workers first, before customers could take it.

“Middle age is when you’re sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn’t for you.” Ogden Nash

On This Day

Section of the terra-cotta army in China

29 March 1974: Farmers drilling a well near Xi'an, China, found a subterranean chamber that led to the discovery of the terra-cotta army, 8,000 life-size terra-cotta soldiers and horses in the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.