Buzz
If you're feeling a bit down, this list is just what you need to lift your spirits. Here, we highlight only the most positive and motivational stories that made headlines over the past week. If you're in the mood for something quirky, check out this.
This week, we focus on remarkable individuals who made a positive impact on the world. Among them is a man who lifted one million kilograms for charity, a dedicated doctor who went the extra mile for his patient, and a young girl who discovered an ancient sword in a lake.
We also delve into exciting new technologies that spark hope for the future. One breakthrough involves a network that could enable us to communicate using only our minds, while another innovation, a ‘virtual unraveling’ technique, may allow us to decipher historical scrolls previously thought lost.
10. A Million Reasons to Care
A man battling cystic fibrosis lifted an astounding 1 million kilograms (2.2 million lbs) in less than a day to raise both awareness and funds for the condition.
Josh Llewellyn-Jones, hailing from Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, has been dedicated to sports and exercise since childhood to combat the effects of his disease. He also founded CF Warriors, a charity aimed at helping children with cystic fibrosis adopt an active lifestyle. In an effort to raise awareness, the 31-year-old set himself an enormous challenge: to lift a total of one million kilograms in under 24 hours.
Llewellyn-Jones’s workout routine included bench presses, squats, bent-over rows, and leg presses, all with varying weights and repetitions. He repeated these exercises continuously, taking short breaks to eat and recover from muscle soreness. The athlete completed the task in 22 hours and 10 minutes, lifting approximately 700 kilograms (1,540 lbs) per minute. Afterward, he shared that he was so sore it took him five minutes just to walk down the stairs.
9. A Journey Through Nostalgia
A nursing home in Bingley, England, recreated a part of the town as it appeared in the 1950s to help its dementia patients.
A common challenge for people with dementia is that while their short-term memory may be affected, their long-term memory often remains intact. Many individuals with dementia may believe they are in their twenties or thirties and try to relive the activities of their younger years. One effective treatment for this is reminiscence therapy, which encourages patients to take a trip down memory lane. In Bingley, patients have the unique opportunity to do this literally.
The Five Rise Nursing Home created a meticulously detailed artificial street, including a grocery store, barbershop, and post office, all featuring period-appropriate weighing scales. An authentic car and motorcycle are parked on the street, while the bus station even displays the accurate routes on its sign.
The 1950s theme extends throughout the nursing home, with historical objects and photographs adorning the walls. The activities center has even been designed to resemble a 1950s pub.
8. Why Elephants Have Cracked Skin
A recent study published in Nature Communications reveals the reason behind the cracks in elephants' skin. These wrinkles play a crucial role in regulating their body temperature and protecting them from parasites.
Researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) examined various skin samples and identified three key factors that contribute to the cracking of the epidermis: hyper-keratinization, shedding deficiencies, and growth on a lattice of millimetric skin elevations. These characteristics create enough mechanical stress to cause actual cracking, unlike animals like crocodiles, whose skin simply folds.
The primary purpose of these cracks is temperature regulation. African elephants lack sweat and sebum glands to stay cool in hot environments. To prevent overheating, they often bathe in mud or spray themselves with water. The cracks enable their skin to retain up to ten times more liquid than smooth skin would, and the layer of mud also helps shield the elephants from parasites and sun exposure.
Looking ahead, researchers aim to track the development of wrinkled skin in newborn elephants. By doing so, they hope to understand when the cracks first appear, where they emerge, and how long the process takes.
7. The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride
Last Sunday, over 100,000 individuals dressed in their finest attire and took to their classic motorcycles to raise funds for prostate cancer and men’s mental health during the seventh annual Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride.
The charity event originated in 2012 in Sydney, Australia, when Mark Hawwa was inspired by a picture of Don Draper from Mad Men riding a classic bike in a suit. The inaugural ride attracted 2,500 participants across 64 cities. Since then, the event has grown exponentially, with over 110,000 riders in 2018 who raised nearly $6 million through donations and sponsors.
Although the event raises money for men’s health issues and includes the word “gentleman” in its name, everyone is welcome to join, provided they adhere to the style guidelines. Participants are expected to wear elegant outfits like silk waistcoats, tailored suits, or tweed jackets.
A more limited selection of motorcycles are permitted in the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride. Only specific classic styles can participate, including bobbers, trackers, sidecars, and pre-1970s scooters and choppers.
6. Chi Chi Is Hero Dog Of The Year
Chi Chi was named the 2018 American Hero Dog by American Humane. This Golden Retriever, despite being a quadruple amputee, overcame the odds to become a certified therapy dog.
Chi Chi's story begins on a heartbreaking note. She was discovered in a dumpster in South Korea, bound and left to die in a trash bag. Fortunately, animal rescuers found her and saved the dog, although they had to amputate all four of her limbs above the paws.
On top of all her challenges, Chi Chi recently underwent surgery to remove cancerous tumors, making her a cancer survivor as well. Her remarkable story of resilience captured the hearts of the American public. At this year’s Hero Dog Awards, Chi Chi received over a million votes, beating out 265 other dogs to claim the title of American Hero Dog.
5. Teddy Bear Operation Is Successful
A neurosurgeon in Canada became an internet sensation after performing an ‘operation’ on his patient’s teddy bear.
Eight-year-old Jackson McKie, who suffers from hydrocephalus—a condition where excess cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the brain—needed surgery to repair a shunt that helps drain this fluid. He visited IWK Health Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Dr. Daniel McNeely, one of Jackson’s main doctors, carried out the operation.
Alongside Jackson was his beloved teddy bear, Little Baby, who had seen better days. Just before surgery, Jackson asked Dr. McNeely if he could also fix his worn-out companion.
Images of the doctor’s spontaneous surgery quickly spread across the internet. The photos showed McNeely carefully placing an “oxygen mask” on his stuffed patient and mending a tear in its underarm. Both procedures were successful, and the two patients are now recovering together.
4. Historical Scroll Deciphered
Researchers at Cardiff University are advancing a groundbreaking technique known as “virtual unraveling.” This method has the potential to unlock the secrets of damaged scrolls that were previously deemed unreadable. They’ve already used it to successfully decipher a 16th-century scroll that was badly burned and had its layers fused together.
While this isn’t the first instance of virtual unraveling, it introduces a fresh, fully autonomous approach that also works on multi-page documents.
The scroll under consideration hails from Diss Heywood Manor in Norwich. It was considered an extremely challenging artifact to handle due to its severe charring, fusion, discoloration, creasing, and soot coverage. Unraveling it physically without damaging it beyond repair would have been an impossible task.
Nonetheless, the researchers employed X-ray tomography to create thousands of thin cross-sectional images, with ink becoming visible as bright spots. Using these, their computer model successfully reconstructed the sections into a flat representation of the scroll.
The scroll contains records from the General Court, documenting land transactions, fines, jurors' names, and disturbances of the peace. While the content itself may not be as riveting as the technique used to uncover it, Cardiff researchers are optimistic that their method can be applied to uncover many other historical documents stored in archives and museums that are too fragile to be examined.
3. All Hail The Queen
An eight-year-old girl was crowned “Queen of Sweden” after retrieving an ancient sword from a lake in Jonkoping County, drawing striking similarities to the legendary tale of King Arthur and his famous sword, Excalibur.
Last summer, Saga Vanecek was playing outside her family’s cabin near Vidostern Lake. While tossing sticks and stones across the water, a drought had lowered the water level significantly, exposing items that had been underwater for centuries. Saga picked up a stick from the mud, only to realize it had a handle and was covered in rust. She quickly recognized it as a sword and brought it to her father.
The sword was roughly 1,500 years old, predating the Viking age. It measured 85 centimeters (33 inches) in length and still had its scabbard made of wood and leather. Archaeologists later visited the lake and also uncovered a brooch from the same era. As for Saga, she has since been dubbed the “Queen of Sweden” by the locals after receiving the sword from the Lady of the Lake.
2. Enter The BrainNet
A team of neuroscientists from the University of Washington and Carnegie Mellon University have created a network that links three brains together, enabling them to play Tetris collectively.
To be clear, this is not mind reading. The brains communicate using a combination of electroencephalograms (EEGs) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). This system is named BrainNet.
During the trial, three participants were linked to BrainNet and tasked with playing a modified version of Tetris. One participant acted as the “receiver,” responsible for determining if the falling blocks needed to be rotated. However, the receiver could not view the bottom of the screen and instead had to rely on mental signals from the two other participants, known as the “senders.”
To convey their decisions, the senders focused on two blinking LEDs: a 17-hertz light indicating “rotate” and a 15-hertz light for “do not rotate.” The receiver experienced these decisions as phosphenes, or flashes of light, with varying intensity. The experiment was conducted 16 times with five different teams, achieving an average accuracy rate of 81.25 percent.
Currently, the system is still quite slow and not entirely reliable. It is also awaiting peer review from the neuroscience community. However, researchers are optimistic that with further development, it could serve as a powerful tool for brain-to-brain interfaces (BBI) that promote cooperative problem-solving. BrainNet might also have significant potential in the medical field, helping those who are unable to communicate by other means.
1. Will Australia Eliminate Cervical Cancer?
A recent report from the Lancet Public Health Journal reveals that Australia is on the verge of becoming the first nation to effectively eradicate cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer is primarily caused by infections with the human papillomavirus (HPV). Over the years, Australia has rolled out several initiatives to combat the disease, starting with a national screening program in 1991 and followed by a vaccination program in 2007. As a result, the country now boasts a cervical cancer rate of just seven per 100,000 people, which is roughly half the global average.
A model developed by the Cancer Council New South Wales forecasts that by 2022, the rate will fall below six cases per 100,000 people, officially deeming it a “rare cancer.” If this trend persists, it’s projected to drop even further, potentially reaching four cases per 100,000 by 2035.
Experts believe that by that point, cervical cancer will be so rare that it could be considered eliminated. Although the World Health Organization has not yet set an official threshold for this definition, Australia is likely to be the first to meet it once it is established.
