Finding the source of the Coppename River (Left to right: Jacob Hudson, Ash Dykes, Dick Lock and Matt Wallace) via SWNS
Finding the source of the Coppename River (Left to right: Jacob Hudson, Ash Dykes, Dick Lock and Matt Wallace) via SWNS
A British explorer has discovered the source of an uncharted Amazon river, after being stalked by jaguars and ravaged by army ants.
The area has only ever been mapped by satellites, leading to solely inaccurate coordinates due to the jungle tree cover.
The daring 33-year-old, Ash Dykes, beamed with joy after finding the start of the Coppename River in Suriname with fellow adventurers Jacob Hudson, Dick Lock and Matt Wallace
They also named two undocumented waterfalls—Dykes Falls and Wallace Falls—after the team members who first spotted them in the largely unexplored jungle.
Speaking for the first time about their achievement, Ash said it felt “crazy” to find the elusive source of the river. “We were all screaming and getting excited.”
“We’ve mapped the coordinates and took a screenshot for any mapping associations who want that.”
Originally from Wales, but now living in London, he hired a helicopter on August 29th to drop them into the center of the ex-Dutch colony, which is 93% forested.
He and his team then spent the next six days fighting their way upstream in kayaks, carrying over 100 pounds of supplies—while being bitten by ticks and vicious army ants.
Ash Dykes and his team kayak up Coppename River (via SWNS)
“It is crazy to think that we are going to some places that the forest hasn’t ever seen a human footprint before. And it’s not surprising… It is brutal in the jungle.”
The group came across a terrifying Goliath tarantula, the world’s largest spider, along with snakes and caiman alligators. But Ash said the most chilling moment was when they awoke to find fresh jaguar excrement just yards from where they had been sleeping in their tarp-covered hammocks.
“We couldn’t see it, but who knows how long it was potentially following our tracks to camp. We also had army ants just take over our camp completely.
“They were all over our hammocks and our tarp, and they made four grown men stand at the side of the river bank, waiting for them to pass. And, Jacob got hit by them.”
The team survived on 500 to 600 calories a day, consuming ration packs and wolf fish they caught in the river—even though they trekked up to 16 hours at a time through jungle and fast-flowing river rapids.
But the team were thrilled to name two waterfalls that they discovered as they ventured towards the source of the Coppename River.
“We were pretty cut open and bruised for the majority of the first two days, and that’s when we came across an undiscovered waterfall,” said Ash.
“It’s a big 15-meter (45-foot) falls that stopped us in our tracks. It’s not on any GPS, and hasn’t been mapped. We discovered a smaller falls right near the source, which I named ‘Dykes Falls’, and that one is even more remote—about 100 meters from the source of the Coppename River.”
Ash has recorded coordinates of their finds in Suriname’s dense interior, which has barely been explored since Victorian missions failed due to disease and injury in the 1800s.
“We’ll probably go a month without seeing any human activity. It’s crazy remote here.”
“I didn’t expect to experience something like this in the 21st century. We’re being thrown back in time.”
Artist impression of vehicle partly constructed with batteries made of carbon fibre composite stiff as aluminum – Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden / SWNS
Artist impression of vehicle partly constructed with batteries made of carbon fibre composite stiff as aluminum – Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden / Henrik Sandsjö / SWNS
Cars and planes could soon be built from the world’s strongest batteries, thanks to a ground-breaking innovation from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.
Researchers detailed the advance of so-called massless energy storage—and a structural battery that could cut the weight of a laptop by 50%, make mobile phones as thin as a credit card, or increase the driving range of an EV by up to 70 percent on a single charge.
Structural batteries are materials that, in addition to storing energy, can carry loads. Stiff, strong carbon fibers could store electrical energy chemically and, in this way, the battery material can become part of the actual construction material of a product.
And, when cars, planes, ships, or computers are built from a material that functions as both a battery and a load-bearing structure, the weight and energy consumption are radically reduced.
“We have succeeded in creating a battery made of carbon fibre composite that is as stiff as aluminum and energy-dense enough to be used commercially,” says Chalmers researcher Richa Chaudhary, the first author of a paper recently published in Advanced Materials. “Just like a human skeleton, the battery has several functions at the same time.”
When it comes to vehicles there are high demands on the design to be sufficiently strong to meet safety requirements. There, the research team’s structural battery cell has significantly increased its stiffness, or more specifically, the elastic modulus, which is measured in gigapascal (GPa), from 25 to 70. This means that the material can carry loads just as well as aluminum, but with a lower weight.
Battery made of carbon fibre and artist – Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden SWNS
“In terms of multifunctional properties, the new battery is twice as good as its predecessor – and actually the best ever made in the world,” said research leader Leif Asp, professor at the Department of Industrial and Materials Science at Chalmers.
“Investing in light, energy-efficient vehicles is a matter of course if we are to economize on energy and think about future generations. We have made calculations on electric cars that show that they could drive for up to 70 percent longer than today if they had competitive structural batteries.”
Massless energy storage – Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden
The team said the goal was always to achieve a performance that makes it possible to commercialize the technology. The link to the market has been forged through the newly started Chalmers Venture company called Sinonus. And, they’ve received “a great deal of interest from the automotive and aerospace industries”.
However, there is still a lot of engineering work to be done before the battery cells have taken the step from lab manufacturing on a small scale to being produced on a large scale for our vehicles.
“It will require large investments to meet the transport industry’s challenging energy needs, but this is also where the technology could make the most difference,” added Professor Asp.
SHARE AN EXCITING VISION OF THE FUTURE With EV Enthusiasts on Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “The world is a looking glass. It gives back to every man a true reflection of his own thoughts.” – William Makepeace Thackeray (quoteoften attributed to Buddha)
Photo by: Dollar Gill
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Tom Hardy at San Diego Comic Con - Credit Gage Skidmore, CC 3.0. BY SA
Many happy returns to a brilliant Brit, Tom Hardy, who turns 47 years old today. The London actor got his start in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, and preceded along a course of action and adventure films to rival any actor of the 21st century, including Inception, Dark Knight Rises, and Mad Max: Fury Road. The charismatic Londoner won a BAFTA Rising Star award and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in The Revenant, alongside Leonardo Di Caprio. READ more about this star of stars… (1977)
Patients with an inherited disease that caused them to lose much of their sight early in childhood experienced a quick return of vision after they received gene therapy.
The new treatment addressed the genetic mutation that caused their vision’s deterioration, letting them see 100 times better than before.
Some patients even experienced a 10,000-fold improvement in their vision after receiving the highest dose of the therapy, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine.
“That 10,000-fold improvement is the same as a patient being able to see their surroundings on a moonlit night outdoors as opposed to requiring bright indoor lighting before treatment,” said the study’s lead author, Artur Cideciyan, PhD, a professor of Ophthalmology and co-director of the Center for Hereditary Retinal Degenerations.
“One patient reported for the first time being able to navigate at midnight outdoors only with the light of a bonfire.”
A total of 15 people participated in the Phase 1/2 trial, including three pediatric patients. Each patient suffered from Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA1) as a result of mutations in the GUCY2D gene, which is essential to producing proteins critical for vision. The rare condition, which affects 100,000 people worldwide, causes significant amount of vision loss as early as infancy.
All subjects had severe vision loss with their best measure of vision being equal or worse than 20/80—meaning if a typically-sighted person could see an object clearly at 80 feet, these patients would have to move up to at least 20 feet to see it. Glasses provide limited benefit to these patients because they correct abnormalities in the optical focusing ability of the eye, and are unable to address medical causes of vision loss, such as genetic retinal diseases like LCA1.
The clinical trial published in The Lancet tested different dosage levels of the gene therapy, ATSN-101, which was adapted from the AAV5 microorganism and was surgically injected under the retina.
Improvements were noticed quickly, often within the first month, after the therapy was applied and lasted for at least 12 months.
For the first part of the study, cohorts of three adults each received one of the three different dosages: Low, mid, and high. Evaluations were held between each level of dosage to ensure that they were safe before upping the dosage for the next cohort. A second phase of the study involved only administering the high dosage levels to both an adult cohort of three and a pediatric cohort of three, again after safety reviews of the previous cohorts.
Three of six high-dosage patients who were tested to navigate a mobility course in varying levels of light achieved the maximum-possible score. Other tests used eye charts or measured the dimmest flashes of light patients perceived in a dark environment.
Of the nine patients who received the maximum dosage, two had the 10,000-fold improvement in vision.
“Even though we previously predicted a large vision improvement potential in LCA1, we did not know how receptive patients’ photoreceptors would be to treatment after decades of blindness,” said Cideciyan.
“It is very satisfying to see a successful multi-center trial that shows gene therapy can be dramatically efficacious.”
Researchers did find some patients had side effects, but the overwhelming majority were related to the surgical procedure itself. The most common side effect was the breakage of small blood vessels underneath the clear surface of the eye, which healed. Two patients had eye inflammation that was reversed with a course of steroids. No serious side effects were related to the study drug.
This work, funded by Atsena Therapeutics, comes on the heels of another successful ophthalmological trial at Penn restoring sight in patients with a different form of LCA. Earlier in 2024, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing was used to improve the sight of many patients with a form of LCA tied to mutations in the CEP290 gene. Co-led by one of the new paper’s co-authors, Tomas S. Aleman, MD, the study used similar tests and was the first time children were involved in any gene editing work.
“The treatment success in our most recent clinical trials together with our earlier experience brings hope for a viable treatment for about 20 percent of infantile blindness caused by inherited retinal degenerations,” Aleman said.
“The focus now is on perfecting the treatments and treating earlier manifestations of these conditions once safety is confirmed. We hope similar approaches will lead to equally positive outcomes in other forms of congenital retinal blindness.”
Americans have revealed the most unusual hacks to help their gardens thrive, like keeping away cats using cinnamon, and making plants grow faster by singing to them.
The survey uncovered some weird and wonderful ways people tend their gardens, according to Sabrina Carmona, a VP at the game developer behind Farm Heroes Saga, which commissioned the poll.
How about throwing used-up teabags on soil? While the tea leaves and bag begin to break down and decompose, they release nutrients into the soil and help plants retain water—but only use on plants that like acidic soil, such as hydrangeas, blueberries, marigolds, and gardenias.
Some gardeners use baking soda in the opposite way—to make the soil more alkaline, they add ashes from their fireplace which acts as a fertilizer.
Watering plants with potato water was also cited by respondents.
The average gardener spends three hours weekly tending to their outdoor space. However, 67% would like to invest more time in their green space.
The survey found 67% of those who garden do it because of the satisfaction they get from achieving results.
65 percent most enjoy watering plants, 36% thrive from mowing the grass, and 51 percent love harvesting their own fruit and veg, aiming to save money.
“Lots of people see gardening as an art form,” said Carmona. But it’s all about enjoyment, according to the poll of 2,000 adults conducted by OnePoll.
Almost half admitted that they would rather go to a garden center than a nightclub.
TOP 15 UNUSUAL HACKS TO HELP GARDENS GROW
1. Using coffee grounds as a fertilizer
2. Using egg shells as fertilizer
3. Growing new fruit/vegetables from leftover vegetable roots/seeds
4. Talking to my plants
5. Using banana peels as fertilizer
6. Throwing used teabags onto the soil
7. Using ash from the fireplace as fertilizer
8. Sprinkling cayenne pepper to ward off pests
9. Using baking soda to make the soil more alkaline
10. Singing to my plants
11. Sprinkling cinnamon on the ground to deter cats
12. Using fish heads as fertilizer
13. Using potato water to water plants
14. Using white vinegar as a plant feed
15. Destroying fungus with cinnamon
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of September 14, 2024
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Peregrine falcons can move at a speed of 242 miles per hour. Mexican free-tailed bats reach 100 miles per hour, and black marlin fish go 80 mph. These animals are your spirit creatures in the coming weeks, Virgo. Although you can’t literally travel that fast (unless you’re on a jet), I am confident you can make metaphorical progress at a rapid rate. Your ability to transition into the next chapter of your life story will be at a peak. You will have a robust power to change, shift, and develop.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Mythically speaking, I envision a death and rebirth in your future. The death won’t be literal; neither you nor anyone you love will travel to the other side of the veil. Rather, I foresee the demise of a hope, the finale of a storyline, or the loss of a possibility. Feeling sad might temporarily be the right thing to do, but I want you to know that this ending will ultimately lead to a fresh beginning. In fact, the new blooms ahead wouldn’t be possible without the expiration of the old ways. The novel resources that arrive will come only because an old resource has faded.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Did you ever have roommates who stole your credit card and used it to buy gifts for themselves? Does your history include a friend or loved one who told you a lie that turned out to be hurtful? Did you ever get cheated on by a lover you trusted? If anything like this has happened to you, I suspect you will soon get a karmic recompense. An atonement will unfold. A reparation will come your way. A wrong will be righted. A loss will be indemnified. My advice is to welcome the redress graciously. Use it to dissolve your resentments and retire uncomfortable parts of your past.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
One of my oldest friends is Sagittarius-born Jeffrey Brown. We had rowdy fun together in our twenties. We were mad poets who loved to party. But while I went on to become an unruly rock and roll musician, experimental novelist, and iconoclastic astrologer, Brown worked hard to become a highly respected, award-winning journalist for the PBS News Hour, a major American TV show. Among his many successes: He has brought in-depth coverage of poetry and art to mainstream TV. How did he manage to pull off such an unlikely coup? I think it’s because he channeled his wildness into disciplined expression; he converted his raw passions into practical power; he honed and refined his creativity so it wielded great clout. In the coming months, dear Sagittarius, I urge you to make him one of your inspirational role models.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Let’s hypothesize that you will be alive, alert, and active on your hundredth birthday. If that joyous event comes to pass, you may have strong ideas about why you have achieved such marvelous longevity. I invite you to imagine what you will tell people on that momentous occasion. Which practices, feelings, and attitudes will have turned you into such a vigorous example of a strong human life? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to meditate on these matters. It will also be a favorable phase to explore new practices, feelings, and attitudes that will prolong your satisfying time here on planet Earth.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Few Americans are more famous than George Washington. He was a top military leader in the Revolutionary War before he became the country’s first president. George had a half-brother named Lawrence, who was 16 years older. Virtually no one knows about him now, but during his life, he was a renowned landowner, soldier, and politician. Historians say that his political influence was crucial in George’s rise to power. Is there anyone remotely comparable to Lawrence Washington in your life, Aquarius? Someone who is your advocate? Who works behind the scenes on your behalf? If not, go searching for them. The astrological omens say your chances are better than usual of finding such champions. If there are people like that, ask them for a special favor.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Over 15 centuries ago, Christian monks decided Fridays were unlucky. Why? Because they were the special day of the pagan Goddess Freya. Friday the 13th was extra afflicted, they believed, because it combined a supposedly evil number with the inauspicious day. And how did they get their opinion that 13 was malevolent? Because it was the holy number of the Goddess and her 13-month lunar calendar. I mention this because a Friday the 13th is now upon us. If you are afraid of the things Christian monks once feared, this could be a difficult time. But if you celebrate radical empathy, ingenious intimacy, playful eros, and fertile intuition, you will be awash in good fortune. That’s what the astrological omens tell me.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
One of the longest bridges in the world is the 24-mile-long Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana. During one eight-mile stretch, as it crosses Lake Pontchartrain, travelers can’t see land. That freaks out some of them. You might be experiencing a metaphorically similar passage these days, Aries. As you journey from one mode to the next, you may lose sight of familiar terrain for a while. My advice: Have faith, gaze straight ahead, and keep going.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
My horoscopes don’t necessarily answer questions that are foremost in your awareness. This might annoy you. But consider this: My horoscopes may nevertheless nudge you in unexpected directions that eventually lead you, in seemingly roundabout ways, to useful answers. The riddles I offer may stir you to gather novel experiences you didn’t realize you needed. Keep this in mind, Taurus, while reading the following: In the coming weeks, you can attract minor miracles and fun breakthroughs if you treat your life as an art project. I urge you to fully activate your imagination and ingenuity as you work on the creative masterpiece that is YOU.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
The Gemini musician known as Prince got an early start on his vocation. At age 7, he wrote “Funk Machine,” his first song. Have you thought recently about how the passions of your adult life first appeared in childhood? Now is an excellent time to ruminate on this and related subjects. Why? Because you are primed to discover forgotten feelings and events that could inspire you going forward. To nurture the future, draw on the past.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
You are lucky to have an opposable thumb on each of your hands. You’re not as lucky as koala bears, however, which have two opposable thumbs on each hand. But in the coming weeks, you may sometimes feel like you have extra thumbs, at least metaphorically. I suspect you will be extra dexterous and nimble in every way, including mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. You could accomplish wonders of agility. You and your sexy soul may be extra supple, lithe, and flexible. These superpowers will serve you well if you decide to improvise and experiment, which I hope you will.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
The internet is filled with wise quotes wrongly attributed. Among those frequently cited as saying words they didn’t actually say, Buddha is at the top of the list. There are so many fraudulent Buddha quotes in circulation that there’s a website devoted to tracking them down: FakeBuddhaQuotes.com. Here’s an example. The following statement was articulated not by Buddha but by English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray: “The world is a looking glass. It gives back to every man a true reflection of his own thoughts.” I bring these thoughts to your attention, Leo, because it’s a crucial time for you to be dedicated to truth and accuracy. You will gain power by uncovering deceptions, shams, and misrepresentations. Be a beacon of authenticity!
WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com
Quote of the Day: “Courage, my friends; ‘tis not too late to build a better world” – Tommy Douglas
Photo by: Aidamarie Photography
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
The whole span of the Penang Bridge - Leonard Kong CC 2.0.
39 years ago today, the Penang Bridge officially opened connecting the Malay Peninsula with the island of Penang. Stretching 5.2 miles across the Penang Strait, it’s the second-longest bridge over water in Malaysia. Architects decided to use a cable-stayed suspension design similar to the Golden Gate Bridge rather than the steel-tied arch style of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. READ a short synopsis of the building challenges… (1985)
When a three-day music festival was called off and the organizers declined to offer a refund to pass holders, a totally different festival decided to welcome them all for free.
Now in its 12th year, the Lucidity Festival was set to kick off in Santa Barbara, California this September. But citing “unforeseen last-minute changes in requirements” imposed by Santa Barbara County, the festival had to be canceled.
To make matters worse, the circumstances lead “to a postponement that we can not financially recover from,” and so organizers announced there would be no refunds for the passes.
To be fair, Lucidity Festival’s official policy is that passes can only be transferred from one holder to another, but refunds are never offered. While hundreds of derelict pass-holders are incensed and considering a class-action lawsuit, Lucidity has warned that if they can’t find a solution for a place to host the event by April next year, they will declare bankruptcy and end the festival for good.
The end of that saga, no one can yet predict, but a totally unaffiliated festival called Same Same But Different (SSBD) heard what was happening and decided to welcome all Lucidity pass holders free of charge as a gesture of goodwill.
“We know how challenging these times can be, especially when the festival experiences we all cherish don’t go as planned,” reads a statement released by SSBD. “It’s never easy when something you’ve been looking forward to doesn’t work out, and we understand how much time, energy, and anticipation went into planning for Lucidity.”
“Featuring a big lineup of electronic music artists the likes of Big Gigantic, Ganja White Night, and LSDREAM, SSBD is making it known that they are well-positioned to welcome thousands of Lucidity ticket-holders from September 27-29,” writes EDM.com.
“The enchanting festival will also feature sunrise-to-sunset DJ sets, a Vegas-inspired casino pop-up experience, yoga sessions, mindfulness workshops, and much more.”
As July and August come around after a hard, half-year of work, the thought may arise that you need a vacation. A team of scientists has proposed that this is actually true—and that your life may very well depend on it.
Their paper investigates how travel and tourism positively affects human health through the movement of the body into a “low entropy state”.
Entropy: a fundamental law of physics, and one rarely seen in travel literature, promotional material, or blog posts. Originating from thermodynamics, this principle describes the natural tendency of systems to move towards disorder or chaos, a process that is irreversible but can be mitigated.
A team of Chinese scientists publishing through Australia’s Edith Cowan University proposes that health is defined as a state of good order in four key systems of the body. These include the system of self-organization, self-defense, self-repair, and the anti-wear-and-tear system. If one or more of these systems are disrupted or disorganized, the others tend towards the same—in other words, a high-entropy state.
“It perfectly reflects the fundamental process from health to illness and eventually death in humans, and this law has been utilized in health science to explain human disease and aging,” says Fangli Hu, a doctoral candidate in Philosophy at Edith Cowan.
“While this fundamental process of the life course is irreversible, it can be mitigated through various measures, with tourism possibly being one of them. Tourism could induce entropy changes: positive tourism experiences, such as exposure to new stimuli, engaging in social interactions, and participating in physical activities, may help counteract entropy increase and enhance health,” she told WaL.
Travel exposes the “biosociopsycho” organism to a panoply of environmental and social forces that when examined individually are generally thought to be wellness-promoting.
In the West, and America especially, health-conscious people tend to become fixated on singular aspects of healthy living, whether that’s the inclusion of a single nutrient (like omega-3 fatty acids, for example), a single exercise modality (yoga), or a single lifestyle adjustment (intermittent fasting). Travel, Hu and her authors write, exposes the organism to potentially dozens of these at the same time.
Travel usually places a human being outdoors in fresher air and sunlight. It requires them to spend a lot of time walking or any of the myriad of physical activities that travel sometimes entails like cycling, hiking, or swimming. This glut of activities typically prevents them from overeating, and exhausts them such that sleep comes on fast and easy.
All of these are vital to the self-repair, self-organization, and anti-wear-and-tear systems. On top of this template for a day of tourism, there is the constant exposure to novelty: unfamiliar streets, strange customs, novel landscapes, and a non-native environment of microorganisms.
This jolts the self-defense and self-organizational systems into focus, as novelty corresponds to increases in stress vital to a well-maintained immune system.
“Novel settings can stimulate stress responses and elevate metabolic rates, positively influencing metabolic activities and the body’s self-organizing capabilities,” the authors write in the meat of their letter, published in the Journal of Travel Research. “These contexts may also trigger an adaptive immune system response. This reaction improves the body’s ability to perceive and defend itself against external threats; put simply, the self-defense system becomes more resilient”.
“Hormones conducive to tissue repair and regeneration may be released and promote the self-healing system’s functioning. Leisurely travel activities might help alleviate chronic stress, dampen overactivation of the immune system, and encourage normal functioning of the self-defense system”.
Again, the entropy concept reappears. Cells must be able to sense and adapt to their surroundings to maintain normal functioning.
“A dense interplay of physiological and environmental factors regulates cellular activities,” the authors write. “Based on cells’ sociomateriality, the environment assumes an imperative role in modulating cell responses. The environment therefore affects essential cell activities such as self-organization, repair, and regeneration”.
In 2024, no one is receiving a research grant to explore how exercise affects human health, but travel-affected wellness doesn’t necessitate exercise.
“Tourism’s potential health benefits are not solely reliant on any single element,” Hu told WaL. “Naturally, the more diverse the experiences, the greater the potential for enhanced well-being. While exposure to new environments, social interactions, and physical activities each could contribute to health, it is often the combination of these factors that might produce the most substantial benefits”.
In On the Face of It: A Traveler on His World, published by WaL founder Andrew Corbley, evidence is compiled to show that stepping into a foreign landscape and cultural ecosystem could change fundamental intercommunication within the brain, such that colors become brighter, sounds sharper, and memories more vivid.
Could it be that when we’re traveling, we’re experiencing the world at a higher resolution and capacity because it’s unfamiliar? Does one fall into a lethargic state of cognition when interacting with the same things, people, and places every day, week after week for years and decades on end?
Chaos and disorder, arising from a high-entropy state may impede our ability to remember and fully appreciate one’s life at home, while unfamiliar surroundings cause the body’s systems to snap back into a low-entropy state characterized by resilience and awareness.
Ms. Hu and her co-authors recommend that the concept of entropy increase/decrease in tourism and health be investigated with a variety of observational studies, self-report studies, and randomized controlled trials. These will help broaden and better define the relationship between travel and health, without needing to necessarily use a concept like entropy as a basis.
Who knows, American doctors may be writing prescriptions for a vacation in the not-too-distant future. WaL
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The first and only fungus on a global conservation outfit’s ’25 Most Wanted List’ has been found in the rain-soaked mountains of Chile, almost 40 years after it was first documented.
The big puma fungus is actually quite small, and despite being on the ’25 Most Wanted List’ it’s also rather unremarkable, being slightly greyish brown, and no bigger than a shitake.
GNN is always abreast of updates to the brilliant conservation initiative Search for Lost Species which has rediscovered several wondrous species of plants and animals through collaborative scientific expeditions to look for forms of life not seen in over ten years.
The big puma fungus (Austroomphaliaster nahuelbutensis), an enigmatic species of fungi that lives underground in Chile’s Nahuelbuta Mountains had only ever been found in the wild once.
An expedition team from the Fungi Foundation in Chile set out for the temperate forests of the Nahuelbutas in May 2023 to retrace the footsteps of Chilean mycologist Norberto Garrido, who discovered the big puma fungus and described it to Western science in 1988.
They timed the expedition to coincide with the exact dates in May that Garrido had hiked the mountains more than 40 years earlier.
“It’s possible that the reproductive parts of the big puma fungus—the mushroom—are only fleetingly visible above the soil on the same few days each year, which made the timing of the expedition a crucial factor,” said Claudia Bustamante, a mycologist, and member of the expedition team.
The expedition was captured in a documentary called In Search of a Lost Fungus, in which viewers can see how a last-minute day hike organized near a local Nahuelbutas community led to the big puma fungus’ eventual discovery.
On the last day of the expedition, the Fungi Foundation led a workshop and a community hike to look for fungi in a nearby forest. During that hike, two of the local participants found a group of about four mushrooms that all matched the description of the big puma fungus.
The Nahuelbuta Mountains – credit Rewild, released.
The expedition team carefully collected the mushrooms, leaving the mycelium in the ground, and took the mushrooms to the Fungi Foundation’s fungarium (FFCL). Although the mushrooms matched the physical and microscopical description of the big puma fungus, it was a DNA analysis that eventually confirmed the team had found the correct species.
“We knew it was going to be hard to find the big puma fungus and that the chances of finding the mushrooms were low, considering their colors and how they blend with the fallen leaves,” said Daniela Torres, programs lead at the Fungi Foundation and leader of the expedition.
“It was truly a unique moment when we managed to be in the right place at the right time to see the mushrooms. Understanding the biodiversity that exists and interacts within a specific area helps us comprehend its behavior and its potential to adapt to ongoing changes and underlying threats.”
Since 2017, the Search for Lost Species has rediscovered 13 of the world’s most wanted lost species. In addition to the big puma fungus, Re:wild, working with partners across the world, has confirmed the rediscovery of Jackson’s climbing salamander in Guatemala, both Wallace’s giant bee and the velvet pitcher plant in Indonesia, the silver-backed chevrotain in Vietnam, the Somali sengi in Djibouti, the Voeltzkow’s chameleon in Madagascar, Fernandina giant tortoise in the Galápagos, Sierra Leone crab in Sierra Leone, the Pernambuco holly tree in Brazil, Attenborough’s echidna in Indonesia, De Winton’s golden mole in South Africa and Fagilde’s trapdoor spider in Portugal.
WATCH the documentary below…
SHARE This Great Nature Story With Your Friends Who Love Mushrooms…
A young woman’s attempted suicide on a bridge in Nashville was interrupted at the last minute by an unlikely hero.
She was halfway there, then “Livin’ on a Prayer” singer Jon Bon Jovi appeared at her side and managed to talk her out of the life-ending decision.
Pardon the pun.
The scene was released in local surveillance camera footage by the Nashville Police Department. Bon Jovi and a small crew were filming a portion of a video for “The People’s House” on the upcoming Bon Jovi album Forever.
That’s when he noticed that a woman had climbed beyond the rails of the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge and was looking down at the long drop into the Cumberland River.
In the video, Bon Jovi and another member of his crew slowly approach before arriving at the young woman’s side. He leans over the railing and begins to speak some more, while his colleague steps behind her and begins to touch her shoulder.
The potential disaster appears to conclude with the young woman turning around and hugging Bon Jovi, before they help her back over the edge.
The event took place on Suicide Prevention Day (Sept. 10th).
The Nashville Fire Department and Metro Nashville Police Department thanked Bon Jovi for his actions, with Police Chief John Drake saying, “It takes all of us to help keep each other safe.”
Quote of the Day: “Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.” – Cicero
Photo by: Ivan Lapyrin
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
T-Bone Walker at the American Folk Blues Festival in Hamburg, 1972 - credit Heinrich Klaffs CC 2.0.
77 years ago today, T-Bone Walker recorded his great hit, which after dozens of renditions by famous bluesmen and musicians from Eric Clapton to the Allman Brothers, is known simply as “Stormy Monday.” When Walker first recorded the blues standard in Hollywood, California, its full track name was “Call it Stormy Monday (but Tuesday Is Just as Bad).” READ more… (1947)
Despite the Central Appalachia ecosystem being historically famous as coal country, under this diverse broadleaf canopy lies a rich, biodiverse world of native plants helping to fill North America’s medicinal herb cabinet.
And it turns out that the very communities once reliant on the coalfields are now bringing this botanical diversity to the country.
“Many different Appalachian people, stretching from pre-colonization to today, have tended, harvested, sold, and used a vast number of forest botanicals like American ginseng, ramps, black cohosh, and goldenseal,” said Shannon Bell, Virginia Tech professor in the Dept. of Sociology. “These plants have long been integral to many Appalachians’ livelihoods and traditions.”
50% of the medicinal herbs, roots, and barks in the North American herbal supply chain are native to the Appalachian Mountains, and the bulk of these species are harvested or grown in Central Appalachia, which includes southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, far-southwest Virginia, and east Tennessee.
The United Plant Savers, a nonprofit with a focus on native medicinal plants and their habitats, has identified many of the most popular forest medicinals as species of concern due to their declining populations.
Along with the herbal supply chain being largely native to Appalachia, the herb gatherers themselves are also native, but because processing into medicine and seasonings takes place outside the region, the majority of the profits from the industry do too.
In a press release on Bell’s superb research and advocacy work within Appalachia’s botanical communities, she refers back to the moment that her interest in the industry and the region sprouted; when like many of us, she was out in a nearby woods waiting out the pandemic.
“My family and I spent a lot of time in the woods behind our house during quarantine,” Bell said. “We observed the emergence of all the spring ephemerals in the forest understory – hepatica, spring beauty, bloodroot, trillium, mayapple. I came to appreciate the importance of the region’s botanical biodiversity more than ever, and realized I wanted to incorporate this new part of my life into my research.”
With co-investigator, John Munsell at VA Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, Bell’s project sought to identify ways that Central Appalachian communities could retain more of the profits from the herbal industry while simultaneously ensuring that populations of at-risk forest botanicals not only survive, but thrive and expand in the region.
Bell conducted participant observation and interviews with wild harvesters and is currently working on a mail survey with local herb buyers. She also piloted a ginseng seed distribution program, and helped a wild harvester write a grant proposal to start a forest farm.
“Economic development in post-coal communities often focuses on other types of energy development, like fracking and natural gas pipelines, or on building prisons and landfills. Central Appalachia is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. I think that placing a greater value on this biodiversity is key to promoting a more sustainable future for the region,” Bell told VA Tech press.
Armed with a planning grant of nearly half a million dollars, Bell and collaborators are specifically targeting forest farming as a way to achieve that sustainable future.
Shannon Bell on her own interactive trail of Appalachia – credit Virginia Tech
Finally, enlisting support from the nonprofit organization Appalachian Sustainable Development, Virginia Tech, the City of Norton, a sculpture artist team, and various forest botanicals practitioners in her rolodex, Bell organized the creation of a ‘living monument’ along Flag Rock Recreation Area in Norton, Virginia.
An interpretive trail, the monument tells the story of the historic uses that these wild botanicals had for the various societies that have inhabited Appalachia, and the contemporary value they still hold for people today.
WATCH Bell in her element along the monument trail below…
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From Baltimore M.D. Enoch Pratt Library, CC 2.0. John Matthew Smith, retrieved from Flickr.
From Baltimore M.D. Enoch Pratt Library, CC 2.0. John Matthew Smith, retrieved from Flickr.
The most unmistakable voice in Hollywood, James Earl Jones, recently passed away in his home at the age of 93.
For the children of the Millennial and X generations, his voice was an ever-present feature in their homes, thanks to the popularity of Star Wars, and The Lion King.
Though often remembered for his roles as various leaders, whether of a cult of snake worshipers in Conan the Barbarian, or of a fictional African kingdom in Coming to America, The New York Times eulogized him as “one of America’s most versatile actors in a stage, film, and television.”
The versatility was developed early on in his career following a term of service during (but not in) the Korean War, in which he attended Army Ranger school and became Second Lieutenant of a training unit in the rugged terrain of the Rocky Mountains.
As is so often the case with the most beloved actors in society, Jones dove deep into Shakespeare including roles such as Othello and King Lear, Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Claudius in Hamlet.
The stage would always be a home for Jones, where he performed almost exclusively for more than a decade during which he won the 1969 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play as the starring role of troubled boxer Jack Johnson in The Great White Hope.
In the 1970s, Jones transitioned into Hollywood film, immediately receiving a Golden Globe nomination for his co-starring role in the romantic comedy and social commentary Claudine.
In 1977, Jones debuted in a voiceover role as the charisma behind the mask of the armored, fallen Jedi Darth Vader in Star Wars, a role which he reprised twice more for the following sequels. At first, he didn’t think his name should be listed on the cast credits. He explains why below…
When Linda Blair did the girl in The Exorcist, they hired Mercedes McCambridge to do the voice of the devil coming out of her. And there was controversy as to whether Mercedes should get credit. I was one who thought no, she was just special effects. So when it came to Darth Vader, I said, no, I’m just special effects. But it became so identified that by the third one, I thought, OK I’ll let them put my name on it.
Star Wars was pioneering in so many ways, and several of the lead actors at times felt it was all a little ridiculous, over the top, or even badly written. But thanks to the power and cunning use of his voice, Jones made Vader, as the chief villain, so very believable.
Many fantastic performances followed, including Field of Dreams and Hunt for the Red October, before his voice was utilized again for King Mufasa the lion in Disney’s The Lion King, another pillar of childhood memories for so many American kids.
In tribute of the great man, the Empire State Building was lit up in the shape of Darth Vader’s helmet, and tributes poured in from co-workers like Mark Hammil and other African American stars like Denzel Washington, all recognizing him as one of the greatest American actors.
WATCH a tremendous best-of compilation below…
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The recent discovery of Australia’s most endangered reptile surviving in colder temperatures has inspired conservationists in Perth to continue trying to save the species thought to have only 400-500 individuals remaining in the wild.
Introductions of the Western swamp tortoise into other areas are now on the docket, as scientists look to find a suitable home for the animal while its natural habitat dries up.
But in terms of risk, their environment remains intact, whilst that of the Western swamp tortoise is rapidly drying out. In the state of Western Australia, in the southwestern reaches, wildlife managers recently found a juvenile tortoise 280 miles south of Perth in the town of Northcliffe—the site of a tortoise relocation project dating back to 2016.
Here, water temperatures fall to levels below the recognized minimum for these cold-blooded reptiles to stay active—about 14°C or 57°F. However, herpetologists at the time told national broadcaster ABC News that the continuous flow of the water would allow them to continue foraging. Just in case, other tortoises were released in an area farther north so that growth rates could be compared.
“It’s a pretty significant project because it’s one of the first examples of the assisted colonization of species outside their habitat because of a concern about the climate,” Nicki Mitchell, senior lecturer in animal biology at the Univ. of Western Australia, said at the time.
With only hundreds of these tortoises remaining in the wild, Southern Forests Wildlife official Pauline Hewitt was understandably excited when she found that turtles around the Northcliffe release area survived the cold climates. She found one individual in particular with a cracked shell who was taken to the Perth Zoo for rehabilitation, before being personally released back into its traditional habitat.
“It was really exciting to see her come home and just to see her flapping her legs as we went to put her down in the water,” Pewitt told ABC.
“We didn’t have certainty that the colder temperatures were something that the species would adapt to so well and it now looks like they’re quite capable of good growth rates in southern locations,” Mitchel again told the broadcaster, looking back at the results of the trial which concluded in 2019.
A new experimental population has been released in Augusta, about 60 miles east of Perth, and not so chilly.
The motive for the original experiment, as Mitchell alluded to, was that a 50 to 100-year weather pattern model for Western Australia predicts the current habitat of the Western swamp tortoise drying up to a dangerous degree. They would need to be transplanted into similar, but wetter ecosystems, and Northcliffe was identified as one such place.
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In Los Angeles County, a new, low-emissions commuter train is helping combat local and global smog by powering itself with hydrogen fuel cells.
Liquid or gaseous hydrogen is considered the best green alternative to the heavy fuels that power society’s largest machines, and this ZEMU train is just a few months away from starting routine service from San Bernadino and Redlands to LA proper.
ZEMU stands for zero-emissions multiple units, and possesses several advantages over other decarbonized rail transport. Electric trains recharge via overhead powerlines, but these require millions in funding to install and maintain and aren’t practical for long distances.
“The reality is it can be used anywhere existing rail happens now,” says Tim Watkins, chief of legislative and public affairs at the San Bernardino County Transit Authority, the agency behind the project. “It doesn’t require a new capital investment into infrastructure.”
Manufactured by the Swiss company Stadler, ZEMU trains take on hydrogen fuel that is split into hydrogen molecules, generating energy that recharges an electric battery that powers the train’s motors. The battery is also recharged by braking, and the only emission of any sort is water vapor.
“I think it’s going to enable a lot of places to decarbonize without having to make extremely expensive investments in infrastructure,” Watkins told Fast Company Magazine.
Currently undergoing the final testing phase on local tracks, service is slated to begin in early 2025. At the moment, the trains use hydrogen that’s been created via fossil fuels, so while the localized emissions are still zero, the trains still have a carbon footprint.
Green hydrogen, made using renewable energy sources, is expected to be available in the not-too-distant future, but even if the trains lead to CO2 entering the atmosphere, as Adele Peters at Fast Company details, San Bernadino needs zero-emissions transport fast.
The area was recently given an ‘F’ grade for air quality by a leading air quality index survey, and suffers from more days of smog than almost any other city in America.
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