Better News

Should children be on social media? Too late, they already are

Are worsening mental health outcomes and social media related? The timing is suggestive: mental health began to slide just as smartphones and social apps took off.

27/04/2024 Sydney Morning Herald

‘We live in a golden time of exploration’: astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger on the hunt for signs of extraterrestrial life

Staring into the abyss… Am I really reaching anyone out there?” Lisa Kaltenegger is laughing about the unsatisfactory experience of teaching astrophysics over Zoom during Covid lockdowns, but she could be talking about her vocation: trying to…

27/04/2024 The Guardian

The ‘boring phone’: stressed-out gen Z ditch smartphones for dumbphones

It’s almost enough to make you stop doomscrolling: dull devices are now cool. The Boring Phone is a new, featureless flip phone that is feeding the growing appetites of younger people who want to bin their smartphones in favour of a dumbphone.

27/04/2024 The Guardian

Rare Lego octopus found on beach after 27 years

A rare piece of Lego which fell into the sea more than 25 years ago has washed up on a beach in Cornwall. Liutauras Cemolonskas, 13, found the plastic octopus in Marazion after a two-year long search.

27/04/2024 BBC

Got brothers or sisters? Warm sibling bonds help booster happiness as you age

Researchers have found that a warm, close bond with a sibling in early adult life is predictive of good emotional health later in life, with less loneliness, anxiety and depression.

27/04/2024 NPR

‘Is it aliens?’: how a mysterious star could help the search for extraterrestrial life

It is our galaxy’s strangest star, a flickering globe of light whose sporadic and unpredictable output has baffled astronomers for years.

27/04/2024 The Guardian

I Witnessed the Future of AI, and It’s a Broken Toy

This story was supposed to have a different beginning. You were supposed to hear about how, earlier this week, I attended a splashy launch party for a new AI gadget—the Rabbit R1—in New York City, and then, standing on a windy curb outside the…

27/04/2024 The Atlantic

In Race to Build A.I., Tech Plans a Big Plumbing Upgrade

The spending that the industry’s giants expect artificial intelligence to require is starting to come into focus — and it is jarringly large.

27/04/2024 New York Times

New Orleans Likes to Drink. They Spotted a Huge Recycling Opportunity

College students started a venture that has diverted glass bottles from landfills and crushed them into sand for coastal restoration efforts.

27/04/2024 New York Times

‘The Interview’ Podcast: Anne Hathaway

On the debut of ‘The Interview,' the actress talks to David Marchese about learning to let go of other people’s opinions.

27/04/2024 New York Times

Psychologist Diana Jiménez: ‘Don’t aim to constantly make your kids happy. Let them feel and grow from every emotion’

The therapist advises parents to instill values at an early age like respect, communication, responsibility and empathy

27/04/2024 El País

Anne Boyer, poet: ‘Denying hatred isn’t good for you, you need to let it out’

Her memoir – ‘The Undying: A Meditation on Modern Illness’ – went beyond her own medical treatment. When it comes to searching for the causes of cancer, she writes how, in addition to studying genes, it’s just as important to examine the water we…

27/04/2024 El País

Mr Eazi, the master of the great Afro-Latin party

Nigerian Oluwatosin Ajibade is an afrobeats star who has toured with J Balvin, made tracks with Bad Bunny and Beyoncé and travels the world to discover new musical talent. His dream is a more just music industry in which African labels get a larger…

27/04/2024 El País

‘NEETs’ slow the German machine

After coming up short in an international educational assessment, the country will invest in books and 4,000 schools for students facing challenges. While 71% of young people were in the middle class in the 1980s and 1990s, today, only 61% of…

27/04/2024 El País

A vaccine against dengue in times of crisis: How, where and when?

The drug Qdenga, which has begun to be distributed massively in Brazil, could be a useful tool against a disease on the rise in Latin America

27/04/2024 El País

Orca calf swims out of Canadian lagoon where it had been trapped more than a month

Officials in Canada say a young killer whale that was trapped for more than a month in a lagoon on Vancouver Island has gotten past a bottleneck at high tide, reaching an inlet that could take it to the open sea

27/04/2024 The Independent

UN-led panel aims to tackle abuses linked to mining for ‘critical minerals’

A UN-led panel of nearly 100 countries is to draw up new guidelines to prevent some of the environmental damage and human rights abuses associated with mining for “critical minerals”. Mining for some of the key raw materials used in low-carbon…

26/04/2024 The Guardian