June

June 2023

Porto Digital Is the Quixotic Tech Hub That Actually Worked

Created in 2000 to halt urban decay in the Brazilian city of Recife, the initiative has brought thousands of tech jobs to the region.

Jun 30, 2023 Wired

Women have always hunted as much as men

A review of dozens of traditional societies shows that the sexual division of labor in these communities is a myth

Jun 29, 2023 El País

China on course to hit wind and solar power target five years ahead of time

China is shoring up its position as the world leader in renewable power and potentially outpacing its own ambitious energy targets, a report has found.

Jun 29, 2023 The Guardian

A new TB vaccine could save 8.5m lives over the next quarter of a century

Tuberculosis (TB), which kills one person every 20 seconds, is a forgotten pandemic. About a quarter of the world’s population has been infected with the bacterium . Most will never know, as they are asymptomatic. But these latent infections go on…

Jun 28, 2023 Economist

Using Half the Water, a Robot Gardens Just as Well as Humans

In a recent experiment conducted by researchers at UC Berkeley, a robot gardener performed just as well as its human counterpart while using significantly less water.

Jun 28, 2023 Reset.org

Saved by seaweed: nuns and Native women heal polluted New York waters using kelp

Early on a January morning, a dozen nuns hopped on a Zoom call and waited patiently for their turn to speak softly, sweetly to plants. One of the sisters sang a song; another played the flute; several recited poetry and prayers.

Jun 27, 2023 The Guardian

The dawn of the 1000km battery

China's 'condensed' battery breakthrough could power long-range electric cars and planes, and will be in mass production later this year

Jun 27, 2023 Positive News

CIA experiments, Mormon ravers and reformed racists: the untold history of MDMA

It was in 1975, when Carl Resnikoff and his girlfriend, Judith Gipson, took a bucolic ferry ride to Sausalito, a city located on the north end of Golden Gate Bridge, that a revolution in youth culture, music, emotion and imagination would take…

Jun 27, 2023 The Guardian

‘Impactful and beautiful’: how US homeless shelters are getting a radical redesign

When a former resident of the Path Home Family Village in Portland, Oregon, called and asked if he and his partner could get married at the shelter, Brandi Tuck, the executive director, knew that the shelter’s redesign had truly worked.

Jun 26, 2023 The Guardian

Millionaires Are Begging Governments to Tax Them More

A group of multi-millionaires has an old idea for new money: tax wealth to solve the cost of living crisis

Jun 23, 2023 Wired

Sweden wants to build an entire city from wood

There is a global race to build the tallest wooden skyscraper. The record was held by Mjostarnet, an 85-metre tower on the shore of Lake Mjosa in Norway, which hosts flats, a hotel and a swimming pool—until Ascent, an 87-metre structure, was…

Jun 21, 2023 Economist

‘Miracle material’ solar panels to finally enter production in China

Next-generation perovskite solar panels are 50 per cent cheaper and 50 per cent more efficient than traditional silicon cells

Jun 21, 2023 The Independent

How a canal is bringing water, fish and hope to farmers in Cambodia

A project funded by Japan and facilitated by the World Food Programme is changing lives in a community hit by erratic weather linked to climate extremes

Jun 18, 2023 The Independent

Are You Ready for ‘Extreme’ Water Recycling?

San Francisco is at the forefront of a movement to recycle wastewater from buildings, homes, and neighborhoods and use it for toilets and landscaping.

Jun 17, 2023 Wired

These kids revamped their schoolyard. It could be a model to make cities healthier

Living near parks can boost health and well being. But low-income communities and those of color often have less access than wealthier, white ones. Revamping schoolyards could be a game changer.

Jun 17, 2023 NPR

Climate Education in New Jersey: 7-Year Olds Are Finding Solutions

New Jersey is the first state to require that climate change be taught at all grade levels. The focus is on problem solving, not doom and gloom.

Jun 15, 2023 New York Times

Positive tipping points could save the climate – this man is showing us how

Instead of focusing on what doom might lie ahead, scientists are identifying positive tipping points that could save us

Jun 15, 2023 Positive News

Super-engineered vaccines created to help end polio

The first new polio vaccines in 50 years are less likely to mutate into a dangerous form that causes disease.

Jun 14, 2023 BBC

Brazil develops the first vaccine against schistosomiasis, the disease of swollen bellies

The researchers are waiting for the WHO to approve the treatment, which is the first in the world to protect against a worm that infects 200 million people a year

Jun 14, 2023 El País

How South Korean Food Waste Is Turned Into Feed, Fuel or Fertilizer

When wasted food rots in landfills, it pollutes soil and water — and warms the planet. Here’s how one country keeps that from happening.

Jun 14, 2023 New York Times

Germany returns remains of Indigenous people to New Zealand

Remains of 95 Maori and Moriori people, including six mummified tattooed heads, were returned by German institutions.

Jun 14, 2023 Al Jazeera

The case for compost: why recycling food waste is so much better than sending it to landfill

When food scraps and garden clippings are sent to landfill, it’s not just a waste of nutrients and water. The rotting organic matter trapped in landfill produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Jun 12, 2023 The Conversation

A new weapon against malaria

Expensive synthetic proteins revolutionized the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disorders in high-income countries. But the same therapeutics could lead to the eradication of infectious diseases linked to poverty if they become more potent, less…

Jun 11, 2023 El País

Yale, University of New Haven partnership celebrates first degrees awarded to inmates

Officials from the University of New Haven and Yale held a special graduation ceremony inside a maximum-security prison in Connecticut

Jun 9, 2023 The Independent

Surfing has a dirty secret. These board riders are cleaning it up

Synonymous with a lifestyle that’s in tune with the environment, surfing is not as green as it appears. But solutions are on the horizon

Jun 9, 2023 Positive News

What went right this week: the good news you should know about

The UK called time on greenwashing, mushrooms showed their magic, and a new test promised a cancer breakthrough, plus more good news

Jun 8, 2023 Positive News

Devastating heart condition spontaneously reversed in ‘unprecedented case’

Researchers said that, for the first time, they have seen evidence that amyloidosis affecting the heart can get better.

Jun 7, 2023 The Independent

A Finnish firm thinks it can cut industrial carbon emissions by a third

Just three industries—chemicals, steel and cement—account for around a fifth of all man-made carbon-dioxide emissions (see chart). Not only are those industries big polluters, they are also hard to clean up.

Jun 7, 2023 Economist

When Politics Saves Lives: a Good-News Story

The decision to fund medications to treat H.I.V.-AIDS patients in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean flew in the face of expert advice. But the U.S. did it anyway.

Jun 7, 2023 New York Times

Deepmind’s AI Is Learning About the Art of Coding

AlphaDev has made small but significant improvements to decades-old C++ algorithms. Its builders say that’s just the start.

Jun 7, 2023 Wired

Kicking toxic people off social media reduces hate speech on the internet

Controlling hate speech on the internet poses one of the greatest challenges of our information age. Everyone says it’s important, but how effective is it? Some platforms have chosen to remove individual accounts who disseminate toxic content.

Jun 6, 2023 El País

The ‘lost’ underwater rainforest that came back from the dead

England’s kelp forests have suffered a silent plight at the hands of trawlers. But communities are mobilising to save them

Jun 6, 2023 Positive News

Welcome to Amsterdam’s floating eco-community

The Dutch are no strangers to living on the water, but a new eco-community in Amsterdam is taking things even further

Jun 5, 2023 Positive News

‘In regenerative medicine, the new organ is never rejected’

Bioprinting pioneer and surgeon, Anthony Atala visits Spain to talk about medical research into reconstructing vital organs from their own cells

Jun 5, 2023 El País

Greek NGO leads ‘crazy’ bid to rid Mediterranean of plastic waste

A fifth-generation fisherman finds an innovative way to remove and recycle plastic waste from the Mediterranean Sea.

Jun 5, 2023 Al Jazeera

Using electric water heaters to store renewable energy could do the work of 2 million home batteries – and save us billions

A heater with a 300-litre tank can store as much energy as a home battery at a fraction of the cost. Being able to store surplus solar energy at the right times helps grid stability and cuts emissions.

Jun 4, 2023 The Conversation

Universal basic income of £1,600 a month to be trialled in England

A universal basic income of £1,600 a month is to be trialled in England for the first time in a pilot programme.

Jun 4, 2023 The Guardian

Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half, says ‘thrilling’ study

A pill taken once a day cuts the risk of dying from lung cancer by half, according to “thrilling” and “unprecedented” results from a decade-long global study.

Jun 4, 2023 The Guardian

Solar panels - an eco-disaster waiting to happen?

A French factory is pioneering recycling of solar units as experts warn of a waste mountain by 2050.

Jun 4, 2023 BBC

Breast cancer drug reduces risk of most common form recurring by 25 percent

The study of ribociclib has been described as a 'very important and practice-changing clinical trial.'

Jun 2, 2023 Le Monde

India Puts Pause on New Coal Plants to Boost Clean Energy

The Indian government will not consider any proposals for new coal plants for the next five years and focus on growing its renewables sector.

Jun 1, 2023 Time Magazine