OGN Wednesday

2 minutes ago
3 min read

Mid-week selection of upbeat news nuggets to brighten the day.

Baby chicken standing next to a boiled egg in an egg cup — Credit: Inge Heimensen / 2026 International Pet Photography Awards

Pet Photography

If you share a home with a pet, it’s likely you’ve filled your camera with photos of them. We humans love documenting the antics of our animal companions and the International Pet Photography Awards celebrates our quest to capture the perfect snapshot of them. The finalists for the 2026 competition come from more than 4,200 submissions and you can view the winning images of this year's competition.

Tiny Bird Sculptures

Approximately 40,000 years ago, not long after Homo sapiens arrived in Europe, a group of early humans settled in a cave in present-day Germany. Among these residents were artists who used mammoth ivory to carve two tiny bird sculptures. The delicate figurines spent the millennia that followed buried in a layer of prehistoric sediment. Now, archaeologists have recovered the artworks, becoming the first to set eyes on them in tens of thousands of years. Weighing just a fraction of an ounce each, the figurines measure less than an inch long - about the size of a thumbnail. One depicts a bird with its wings spread, though fragments of its body have been lost. The other, which was found intact, appears to be lying down, perhaps tending to its eggs.

blooming lavender fields in China’s Sichuan Province, with the Minshan Snow Mountain in the distance — Credit: CGTN

Peak Florescence

Peak viewing season has started for the blooming lavender fields in southwestern China’s Songpan County in Sichuan Province, attracting visitors from near and far. “With the Minshan Snow Mountain in the distance as a natural backdrop, plain lavender fields simply can't compare,” according to Trip.com. Due to the elevation of around 3,000 meters, the peak florescence arrives later in July and August than lower-elevation regions.

For comparison, check out this stunning 3 minute of the Lavender Fields of Provence

Emily Morrison showing off her back covered in tattoos of sharks — Credit: Guinness World Records

Strange But True

Emily Morrison was just 8 years old when she first saw “Jaws” and became convinced that sharks would eat her. But instead of feeding her fear, her father took her to the library so that she could learn more about them. With every fact she uncovered, she slowly fell in love with the ocean predators. Later, her passion for sharks inspired her to pursue a career as a marine biologist, which brought her face-to-face with her favorite animal a hundred times over. Today, Morrison has 108 tattoos, one for every shark she’s encountered. It’s a pursuit that’s earned her the Guinness World Records title for the woman with the most shark tattoos.

Twice as Effective

Electric vehicle sales are reaching record numbers in places all over the world - but one key driver of waste is associated with the lithium batteries required to power them. Engineers at a Japanese recycling facility think they have found a way to recover around 90 percent of the lithium in used EV batteries, which could completely transform how the batteries are built and reused long into the future. By making a simple swap in the recycling process, they turned sludgy battery waste into high-purity lithium that could immediately go into a new battery cell. Better yet, the process could also cut carbon emissions by around 40 percent.

NYC's Flatiron

New York City’s Flatiron building has had many lives but, mainly, as a commercial space. Now, the triangular building, a favourite of tourists and locals alike, is entering a new era: as a residential building, where apartments cost up to $58.5m. Completed in 1902, the Flatiron was once derided as a folly, but the Beaux-Arts building is now one of New York’s most admired buildings. Named Flatiron for its resemblance, from above, to a clothes iron, the building’s ornamental brick and terracotta exterior has been hidden behind scaffolding for the best part of seven years. Now, the reimagined Flatiron will open to very wealthy residents later this fall. There are 36 apartments in the building, including some which span entire floors.

“The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds.” John Glenn