A new species of prehistoric winged reptile had been found in Inner Mongolia

Good News Notes: “Adding to the awesome aviary of lofty pterosaurs, a freshly identified species officially named Ordosipterus planignathus has just been identified and detailed in a new report recently published in the online journal China Geology. Unearthed in remote Inner Mongolia, Ordosipterus planignathus thrived in the Early Cretaceous period between 120 and 110 million years ago. This new genus and species…

Will California’s roads soon be made of recycled plastic?

Good News Notes: “Plastic bottles by the side of a road are a common sight, an unseemly reminder of how often consumer products are discarded carelessly. Now some of those bottles may become part of the road. A Northern California company has devised a process that integrates recycled plastic into road repaving, an innovation that…

GM-backed electric truck startup Lordstown Motors is going public

Good News Notes: “One-year-old Lordstown Motors will become a publicly traded company in an effort to bring its commercial electric pickup truck, the Endurance, to market. And it will do this with more support from General Motors than was previously known, according to financial filings. The startup plans to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange…

Scientists reveal how coronavirus lockdowns in China reduced air pollution

Good News Notes: “Researchers have revealed more details of how China’s coronavirus lockdowns reduced air pollution.” “The research is part of a special collection of papers published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the journal Science Advances. The papers examine how pandemics affect – and are affected by – global environmental conditions. The coronavirus first…

Conservation: Glimmer of hope for world’s rarest primate

 Good News Notes: “Ravaged by deforestation and poaching, the ape now lives only in a patch of forest on China’s Hainan island. In the 1950s, there were an estimated 2,000 left in the world, but numbers fell to fewer than 10 in the 1970s. The latest census shows numbers have tripled to more than 30…

Wuhan bans hunting, eating wild animals in response to coronavirus crisis

Good News Notes: “Wuhan, the city at the center of the coronavirus in China, announced Wednesday that eating and hunting wild animals within the city limits has been banned, declaring Wuhan a ‘wildlife sanctuary,’ according to a report. Local authorities in the city of over 11 million have said exotic animals are no longer allowed to be farmed, and breeders…

Patter of tiny paws: Giant panda gives birth at Dutch zoo

 Good News Notes: “A giant panda loaned by China to a Dutch zoo as part of a breeding pair has given birth to a cub, the zoo announced Saturday. The mother, Wu Wen, and her cub ‘are staying in the maternity den and are doing well,’ Ouwehands Zoo said in a statement. The zoo said…

World’s wind power capacity up by fifth after record year

Good News Notes: “The world’s wind power capacity grew by almost a fifth in 2019 after a year of record growth for offshore windfarms and a boom in onshore projects in the US and China. The Global Wind Energy Council found that wind power capacity grew by 60.4 gigawatts, or 19%, compared with 2018, in one of…