The Best News of 2020

Best News of 2020

Despite the ongoing pandemic good things happen every month. Hence in the tradition of the year in review we like to remind you of three randomly selected news articles of each month.

January

How to Make Snake Venom Without Any Snakes

Lab-grown glands can now produce realistic cocktails of toxins, which could help address one of the world’s biggest and most neglected health crises.

23/01/2020 The Atlantic

A new battery could keep your phone charged for five days

An ultra-high capacity lithium-sulphur battery that could keep a smartphone charged for five days may pave the way for cheaper electric cars

03/01/2020 NewScientist

How Super Sniffer Dogs Are Helping Detect Disease Around The World

Our canine buddies can do more than play fetch. Turns out dogs' incredible sense of smell is a secret weapon in medicine.

25/01/2020 NPR

February

Crossing Divides: The hostel promoting tourism to ease Israel's tensions

An Arab-Jewish-owned hostel caused controversy but is being held up as a symbol of change.

16/02/2020 BBC

Taiwan's female politicians forge path to equality

Women legislators take up 42 percent of seats in the island's legislative body, making it the most equitable in Asia.

01/02/2020 Al Jazeera

Bell's New Design Could Make Helicopters Quieter—and Safer

The new aircraft, which ditches the noisy tail rotor for four fans, may also be a step toward electric-powered flight.

22/02/2020 Wired

March

A Deft Robotic Hand That’d Make Luke Skywalker Proud

Surgeons use muscle grafts to amplify nerve signals—allowing amputees to control a new prosthetic with incredible precision.

04/03/2020 Wired

State school hires ecotherapist to garden with pupils to tackle mental health issues

'Screens and gaming have massive impact on children's emotional wellbeing,' headteacher warns

08/03/2020 The Independent

20 amazing women in science and math

Some were hailed in their lifetime, others died unrecognized, but all were amazing.

08/03/2020 LiveScience

April

Psychedelic mushrooms for depression: "This is the one that changed things"

Psychedelic drugs like psilocybin are back in human trials to treat people with mental health conditions. It's a second revolution for a class of drugs shunned by 1960s society. But more research is needed. Here's why.

24/04/2020 Deutsche Welle

‘Our need for joy is greater than ever’: Clowns Without Borders wins Kindness Awards

A charity that uses clowns to bring laughter and respite to displaced children has won the inaugural Kindness Awards

06/04/2020 Positive News

Norway and the A-ha moment that made electric cars the answer

In 1995, the lead singer of the 1980s band A-ha and the head of the Norwegian environmental group Bellona climbed improbably into a converted electric Fiat Panda they had imported from Switzerland and set off on a road trip.

19/04/2020 The Guardian

May

Farms of the future: Rotterdam’s dairy with a difference

This floating farm in the Netherlands was designed to be a solution to rising sea levels but that's not the only benefit

25/05/2020 Positive News

Lab Grown Coral Breakthrough Could Help Save Our Dwindling Coral Reefs

An aquarium in Florida achieves a world first by artificially growing ridged cactus coral in their specialised laboratory nurseries.

18/05/2020 Reset.org

An inmate's love of mathematics leads to discovery in number theory

Christopher Havens came upon his love of math while in solitary confinement. A decade later, he published a paper on number theory in a top mathematics journal.

30/05/2020 LiveScience

June

The Swedish Startup Cutting Down on Methane Emissions by Curbing Cow Burps

When people think environmentally damaging emissions, their minds often conjures up images of automobiles and smoke belching factories. However, a much more literal type of belching also has a major impact - the burps of cows.

03/06/2020 Reset.org

Last of Us Part II: Is this the most accessible game ever?

A hotly-anticipated game release brought tears to some purely because of its options menu.

20/06/2020 BBC

Two-sided solar panels that track the sun produce a third more energy

Double-sided solar panels that track the sun as it moves in the sky would produce 35 per cent more energy and reduce the average cost of electricity by 16 per cent

03/06/2020 NewScientist

July

Spreading rock dust on the ground could pull carbon from the air, researchers say

Spreading rock dust on farmland could pull enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to remove about half of the amount of that greenhouse gas currently produced by Europe, according to a major study published Thursday in the journal Nature. And if…

08/07/2020 Washington Post

Your 'Doomscrolling' Breeds Anxiety. Here's How To Stop The Cycle

So many of us do it: the long scroll through grim news on social media before bed. A cognitive behavioral specialist offers advice on how to stop "doomscrolling" for the sake of your mental health.

19/07/2020 NPR

Digital DIY: The superfast internet network built by locals in the Yorkshire Dales

Fed up with being sidelined by broadband providers, a rural community took matters into their own hands. Kira Allmann meets them

10/07/2020 The Independent

August

Menstrual cups make your period easier. Why aren't they more popular?

A few years ago, I was having dinner with a group of girlfriends when one of them suddenly began raving about menstrual cups. A longtime devotee, she lit up describing how this one little product had changed her life.

31/08/2020 The Guardian

Green is the new black: how biotech is making fashion more sustainable

From lab-grown spider silk to ‘living dyes’, biotechnology is being used to make clothes that don’t cost the earth

24/08/2020 Positive News

Germany to give people £1,000 a month, no questions asked, in universal basic income experiment

Researchers in Berlin want to know how 'unconditional flow of money' affects people's behaviour

19/08/2020 The Independent

September

LivingPANELS: New Green Wall Technology to Tackle the Heat Island Effect

A new type of "green wall" with a modular, simple to install design, a fully automatic irrigation system and much more - this is the result of a new European research project, and a promising step forward in much-needed urban adaptation to the…

22/09/2020 Reset.org

Beavers, bison and returning beasts: Rewilding the UK

Rewilding is not about restoring the past, but about proactively seeking solutions for a world in environmental crisis.

03/09/2020 Al Jazeera

'It’s going to be our way now': the guerrilla rewilder shaking up British farming

I am sleeping in a shepherd’s hut 30 metres from a dozen wildcats. It’s an unusual way to spend a Monday night, especially in rural Devon.

04/09/2020 The Guardian

October

New Experiment Could Pave the Way for Practical, Affordable Nuclear Fusion

Many researchers consider nuclear fusion as inevitable, but will be simply be too expensive for some? A new experiment looks to make it more practical.

31/10/2020 Reset.org

‘Do Not Track’ Is Back, and This Time It Might Work

California’s privacy law says businesses must respect universal opt-outs. Now the technology finally exists to put that to the test.

07/10/2020 Wired

Prickly business: the hedgehog highway that knits a village together

Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant. This was the first lesson from my village safari around Kirtlington in Oxfordshire, home to the UK’s longest volunteer-run hedgehog highway.

17/10/2020 The Guardian

November

Climate heroes: the countries pioneering a green future

While the world must wait to see whether US president-elect Joe Biden can fulfil his election promise of a $2tn Green New Deal, nations elsewhere in the world are setting carbon-neutral targets and pushing ahead with mega-programmes to cut…

11/11/2020 The Guardian

Potent new antifungal discovered in the microbiome of marine animals

A new antifungal compound that is effective against multidrug-resistant fungi has been isolated from bacteria living in filter-feeding marine animals called sea squirts

19/11/2020 NewScientist

The Weekly Planet: A Startup’s Unusual Plan to Suck Carbon Out of the Sky

Updated at 2:25 p.m. ET on December 1, 2020. Every Tuesday morning, our lead climate reporter brings you the big ideas, expert analysis, and vital guidance that will help you flourish on a changing planet. Sign up to get The Weekly Planet, our guide…

25/11/2020 The Atlantic