Saturday's Upbeat News
- Editor OGN Daily
- 1 minute ago
- 4 min read
Ensuring the weekend gets off to a bright start with today's global round up of positive news stories.
US State Action
State action to reduce carbon emissions and address climate change can make a big difference, even in the absence of a strong federal climate strategy, according to a new study led by researchers from North Carolina State University. The researchers found that, while state measures to tackle climate change are just slightly more expensive than an organized national effort, they would likely lead to the implementation of different decarbonization technologies. “Given that there is little expectation the Trump administration will promote a national effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to address climate change, we think there is significant value in assessing what kind of difference state-led efforts could make,” said study co-author Jeremiah Johnson.
Memorial Weekend Movies
Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is projected to open with a combined $485 million worldwide box office haul, potentially a record for America's Memorial Day weekend. It looks to rival 2013’s high-water mark when Fast & Furious 6 and Hangover III ruled, which minted $314 million stateside over four days, says Deadline.
A Medical First
A child diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder that kills half of those affected has been successfully treated with a gene editing therapy. The feat - published in a new study - paves the way for curing rare genetic diseases by rewriting faulty DNA soon after children carrying it are born. “The promise of gene therapy that we’ve heard about for decades is coming to fruition, and it’s going to utterly transform the way we approach medicine,” said a doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Indicator Species
As the world’s largest tropical rainforest, the Amazon is home to a staggering 3 million species. And a team of researchers just published their discovery of one more, found in the Juruá River basin forests of Brazil. It's a new species of Ranitomeya (a genus of poison dart frogs) that they dubbed “an Amazonian hidden gem.” The colour of the amphibian was so striking that the researchers decided to name it Ranitomeya aquamarina. Poison dart frogs are small but hugely significant in the greater food web of the Amazon. By eating ants, mites, and beetles, they help control local insect populations. They are also an indicator species. When they begin to disappear from their natural environment, it’s an indication that the ecosystem’s health is on the decline.
Frog That Quacks Like a Duck Discovered: A new species of music frog has been found in the dense landscapes of Arunachal Pradesh, in north eastern India.
Perfectly Spherical
Our Milky Way galaxy is home to some extremely weird things, but a new discovery has astronomers truly baffled. In data collected by a powerful radio telescope, astronomers have found what appears to be a perfectly spherical bubble. We know more or less what it is – it's the ball of expanding material ejected by an exploding star, a supernova remnant – but how it came to be is more of a puzzle. A large international team led by astrophysicist Miroslav Filipović of Western Sydney University in Australia has named the object Teleios, after the ancient Greek for "perfection". After an exhaustive review of the possibilities, the researchers conclude that they are going to need more information to understand how this object formed. OGN will keep you updated.
Fan Favourite: The Sombrero Galaxy. The observable universe contains at least 100 billion galaxies, but humans have given only a handful of these galaxies catchy nicknames.
Marine Conservation
Marine protected areas in the EU must be safeguarded from harmful fishing practices such as bottom trawling, the General Court of the European Union has ruled. The ruling upholds states’ legal duty to ensure that marine protected areas (MPAs) are adequately protected from harmful practices. “The court’s rejection of the lawsuit against protective measures in the North Sea is a critical victory for marine conservation,” said John Condon, a senior lawyer for ClientEarth, an environmental law charity.
“The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have.” Henry James, The Ambassadors
On This Day
24 May 1883: A great feat of 19th-century engineering, the Brooklyn Bridge - spanning the East River from Brooklyn to Manhattan Island in New York City - opened, designed by civil engineer John Augustus Roebling.
Today's Articles
'Pretty Little Baby': Connie Francis 1960s classic takes on a new lease of life after being embraced by a new generation.
Mood Boosting Video
Max Moments: Hang on to your chair, this Top 10 from GoPro is quite a collection.