In recent years, we’ve all been horrified by news of increasing wildfires, but between 2002 and 2021, global burned area fell 26%. The horror mostly comes now that humans are being exposed to more wildfires, because settlement near wild lands and climate change makes fires easier to encounter and start - but ignores how they’ve also gotten easier to stop. Science https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu6408?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email #ShareGoodNewsToo

Cotton farmers are turning to nature’s own pest control. Developed by entomologist Robert Mensah, a simple mix of yeast, sugar, and water lures in ladybirds and lacewings (predator insects that feast on crop pests). The method has since spread from Australia to Benin, Ethiopia, Vietnam and India, protecting farmers’ health while cutting pesticide use. The Guardian

the Guardian

‘Leave it to nature’: how enticing insects to kill off pests helped cut reliance on pesticides

While working to stop bollworms destroying cotton crops, Dr Robert Mensah wondered whether other insects could provide a solution

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We can now restore memory by recharging the brain’s batteries. French and Canadian researchers have shown that faulty mitochondria directly drive memory loss in dementia. Using a new tool to boost mitochondrial activity in mice, they restored memory performance, proving cause and effect for the first time. The work points to mitochondria as a powerful target for therapies that could slow, or even prevent, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

ScienceDaily

Scientists reversed memory loss by powering the brain’s tiny engines

Scientists have discovered a direct cause-and-effect link between faulty mitochondria and the memory loss seen in neurodegenerative diseases. By cr...

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Scientists just created the first global maps of mycorrhizal fungi, the vast underground mushroom networks that connect plant roots and let plants trade nutrients and store carbon. Safeguarding these networks could boost biodiversity, food security, and carbon storage all at once, with the maps identifying hotspots most in need of protection. Plus, the initiative was led by SPUN, the whimsically named Society for the Protection of Underground Networks.

SPUN | Society for the Protection of Underground Networks

SPUN (Society for the Protection of Underground Networks) is a scientific research organization founded to map mycorrhizal fungal communities and a...

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Just one year after its breakout public health moment, 'miracle drug' lenacapavir has been approved by the FDA and recommended by the WHO. The drug, which Science called its 'breakthrough of the year' in 2024, is a long-lasting shot that provides almost 100% protection against HIV infection. https://www.science.org/content/article/breakthrough-2024 #ShareGoodNewsToo

Murujuga, a 1.000 km² property in Western Australia that holds the world’s densest concentration of rock art, has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. Home to over a million petroglyphs carved by First Nations over tens of thousands of years, it means Australia now has two World Heritage sites exclusively listed as Indigenous sites of outstanding universal value to all humanity. https://archive.md/p823A #ShareGoodNewsToo

Poland repeals its last anti-LGBT+ resolutions. In 2019 and 2020, over 100 local authorities around Poland adopted sometimes-thinly-veiled anti-LGBT+ resolutions, declaring themselves free of “LGBT ideology” or pledging to “protect children from moral corruption.” Last week, the last of those declarations was revoked after the EU threatened to deny those regions funding, marking the end of Poland’s so-called 'LGBT-free zones.' Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch

Poland Ends ‘LGBT Free’ Zones

Municipal officials in the town of Łańcut, Poland, have abolished the country’s last remaining “LGBT Ideology Free” zone, righting more tha...

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A $65,000 electric Kia just out-dragged Ferrari’s $400,000 Purosangue. We haven't featured one of these drag races in a while... they're fun reminders that mainstream EV drivetrains have smashed the performance ceiling once reserved for supercars. Electric torque, not cylinders, now rules acceleration bragging rights. insideevs.com

InsideEVs

Electric Cars Are So Fast That A Ferrari Can

The Kia EV6 GT is slightly heavier and less powerful than the Ferrari Purosangue, but it

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The Oder Delta becomes Europe’s wetland classroom, thanks to ten years of cross-border rewilding. Poland and Germany have re-flooded polders, removed dams and restored landscapes, two-thirds of which is now under protection. Wildlife tourism is soaring as elk, wolf, grey seal, and beaver recolonise the area, while European bison and Eurasian lynx are gradually moving westwards towards the delta from Poland. Rewilding Europe

Rewilding Europe

A decade of rewilding lays the foundations for a wilder Oder Delta | Rewilding Europe

The Oder Delta became Rewilding Europe’s eighth rewilding landscape in 2015. Over the last 10 years, trans-boundary rewilding efforts ha...

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Scientists have figured out how to turn Earth’s most abundant mineral into zero-waste battery metals. The most abundant mineral in earth’s crust is something called olivine: pretty in the gemstone peridot, but otherwise pretty useless. Now, New Zealand engineers have figured out how to dissolve olivine to yield silica (50%), magnesium (40%) and nickel-manganese-cobalt hydroxide (10%) for lithium-ion cathodes, leaving only brine. IEEE Spectrum https://spectrum.ieee.org/nmc-battery-aspiring-materials?ref=fixthenews.com #ShareGoodNewsToo