Good News Notes: “One of archeologists’ most impressive findings so far is the remnants of a 3,000-year-old gold mask, with the outline of its ears and mouth intact. In the No. 8 pit, the largest of all the sacrificial areas, archeologists have unearthed more than 1,800 pieces of relic, including sacred trees, gold artifacts, and…
Category: history
Extinct? Dead wrong! Galapagos turtle species rediscovered 115 years after ‘dying out’
Good News Notes: “A tortoise found in the Galapagos Islands in 2019 has been determined to belong to a species that scientists believed was extinct. DNA testing has confirmed that the female tortoise found on Fernandina Island is a member of the species Chelonoidis phantasticus. It had been “presumed extinct since 1906,” according to the Turtle…
Man blind for 40 years partially regains sight with new gene therapy: “A major breakthrough”
Good News Notes: “Scientists for the very first time say they have partially restored the vision of a man who has been blind for 40 years — and they did it using algae proteins. It marks a major milestone in the treatment of genetic blindness. In a breakthrough study published this week in the journal Nature Medicine,…
Extinct Fish Species That Predates Dinosaurs Found in Indian Ocean
Good News Notes: “A rare fish species believed to have gone extinct with dinosaurs millions of years ago has recently been rediscovered alive in the Indian Ocean. According to a report from Mongabay, a US-based non-profit conservation and environmental science news platform, a group of South African shark hunters recently found the rare coelacanth species (Latimeria chalumnae)…
China lands on Mars in major advance for its space ambitions
Good News Notes: “China landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time on Saturday, a technically challenging feat more difficult than a moon landing, in the latest step forward for its ambitious goals in space. Plans call for a rover to stay in the lander for a few days of diagnostic tests before rolling…
Rare Owl With Bright Orange Eyes Seen for the First Time in More Than 125 Years
Good News Notes: “An easy way to find and identify a bird species is to listen for their unique calls. But Otus brookii brookii, a Bornean subspecies of the Rajah scops owl, hasn’t been observed by scientists since 1892, and its song is unknown, making it that much harder to find. Now, for the first time…
NASA’s asteroid-sampling mission will bid farewell to asteroid Bennu today
Good News Notes: “After more than two years circling a lumpy space rock called Bennu, it’s finally time for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to head back to Earth with a full load precious cargo: pieces of an asteroid. OSIRIS-REx (known formally as Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) collected asteroid samples from Bennu in October. Now…
3,000-Year-Old Submerged Settlement Discovered in Switzerland
Good News Notes: “Archaeologists surveying Switzerland’s Lake Lucerne have discovered the remains of a submerged Bronze Age village. As Swissinfo.ch reports, the new finds suggest that the area around the lake was settled 2,000 years earlier than previously thought. Though researchers have long searched for proof of early habitation in the Lucerne region, a thick layer of mud had obscured…
Florida scuba divers discover 50-pound Ice Age mammoth bone in river
Good News Notes: “Two Florida scuba divers uncovered a mammoth bone possibly dating back to the Ice Age while diving in a local river, according to reports. Derek Demeter and Henry Sadler found the four-foot, 50-pound bone in the Peace River near Acadia last Sunday, calling it an “amazing” discovery. “Henry is my dive buddy,” Demeter, Seminole State Planetarium’s director, told FOX…
Get a glimpse of southern Brazil’s paleoburrows — dug by prehistoric animals
Good News Notes: “A “paleoburrow” is a tunnel made by a prehistoric animal, likely an armadillo or an extinct, giant ground sloth, depending on the size of the hole. These extinct sloths were huge, some the size of a modern-day elephant. They dug very large tunnels. Almost 2,000 paleoburrows have been found across South America, mostly in…