Scientific American

Mathematicians have chased the same question for more than 2,000 years: how many rational points — points whose coordinates are whole numbers or fractions — can lie on a given curve?

It’s an idea that captivated ancient Greek thinkers and has stayed stubbornly out of reach ever since. Curves look simple. They’re just the paths carved out by polynomial equations. But rational points behave in ways that are anything but simple. Some curves have none. Some have infinitely many. And many mathematical breakthroughs, including the foundations of modern cryptography, have come from trying to understand them better.

Now, three Chinese mathematicians have taken a step researchers have dreamed about for decades. In a preprint posted on February 2, they unveiled the first uniform formula that applies to every curve — no matter its shape, degree or quirks — and gives a hard upper limit on how many rational points it can have.

“This really is an amazing result that sets a new standard for what to expect,” said Hector Pasten of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, who was not involved in the work.

To appreciate the leap, it helps to see where mathematicians were stuck. For nearly a century, researchers knew that curves with sufficiently high degree — meaning the powers of x and y in their defining equations — could only have a finite number of rational points. That was Louis Mordell’s conjecture in 1922, finally proved in 1983 by Gerd Faltings, who went on to win the Fields Medal for it.

But Faltings’s theorem came with a catch: it didn’t say how many rational points might exist. The number could be three. It could be a hundred. Mathematicians believed a formula was out there somewhere, but it remained hidden.

The new proof doesn’t give an exact count, but it does set an explicit upper limit — and does so for all curves at once. “This one statement gives us a broad sweep of understanding,” said Barry Mazur of Harvard University.

The formula depends only on two ingredients. The first is the curve’s degree: the higher it is, the weaker the bound becomes. The second is something called the Jacobian variety, a geometric object tied to every curve that acts like a kind of mathematical fingerprint. Jacobians already play a central role in number theory, and the new result gives researchers a fresh way to probe them.

It’s a breakthrough with implications far beyond curves. Rational points are just the beginning. Once you move from curves to surfaces or even higher-dimensional shapes known as manifolds, the questions multiply. These structures sit at the heart of modern mathematics and theoretical physics, shaping ideas about space, time and symmetry.

Progress has been building. Pasten and mathematician Jerson Caro set upper bounds for certain surfaces last year. Other teams have recently delivered new results on rational points for special families of curves. The collective momentum has researchers buzzing.

“This is an exciting, fast-moving area,” Mazur said. “There’s something big happening right now.”

For a field that measures progress in decades or centuries, the arrival of a formula mathematicians once considered out of reach feels like a turning point — the start of a new chapter in one of math’s oldest sagas.

Mathematicians Just Solved a 2,000-Year-Old Mystery On Curves

USA Today

Juan Uribe didn’t join TikTok to post dance videos or jokes. He joined because he was running out of options.

“I'm posting this because I need your help to save my son,” he said in his very first video on Feb. 10. He apologized for being new to social media, but the message was clear. His 15-year-old son Max has a rare blood disorder that could soon develop into a deadly cancer if he doesn’t find a stem cell donor.

Finding that donor is complicated. Max is half-Colombian on his dad’s side and part Italian, British and German on his mom’s. That genetic mix makes matching harder, and minorities remain underrepresented in national registries. The NMDP, the nonprofit that manages what it calls the world’s most diverse stem cell registry, says donor match rates vary widely by ethnicity. Black and African American patients have just a 29% chance of finding a perfect match, compared with 48% for Hispanic patients and 79% for non-Hispanic white patients.

Max’s doctors had searched through 40 million registered donors and found only two potential matches. Neither worked out. Even his twin sister wasn’t a match.

So Uribe turned to the internet. He wondered whether influencers would help spread the word, but instead became one himself. His first post brought in 20.5 million views and 4.3 million likes. Celebrities including Joe Jonas and Meghan Trainor shared his plea. Soon “Team Max” had more than 100,000 followers.

Within 24 hours, 12,000 people had requested cheek-swab kits to join the registry, according to the NMDP. Although only 13% of its members identify as Hispanic, nearly 56% of the people signing up after Uribe’s post were Latino or Hispanic. That uptick amounts to a 40% increase, the organization told USA TODAY.

The surge gave the family hope, but the clock hasn’t stopped. “With my son's timeline, it's crunch time,” Uribe said. Doctors estimate Max has only weeks before his condition worsens. “We're in a little bit of a race against the clock, because of the progression.”

Max’s health problems began when he was six. His platelets and blood cell counts were far too low, though doctors ruled out leukemia. Years of testing followed. In late 2024, his counts dropped again. In August 2025, a bone marrow biopsy revealed what doctors called “pink flags” — signs that made one specialist tell the family, “You should add a transplant doctor to Max's care team.”

“That made us realize that this is super serious,” Uribe said. Doctors still don’t know what caused Max’s disorder, but they now agree that without treatment, it will become MDS, a group of blood cancers that can progress to acute myeloid leukemia. A transplant remains his only cure.

Uribe’s mission has grown far beyond his own home. Families across the country have reached out with their own stories — a 3-year-old in Utah with Cambodian and Norwegian heritage, a 22-year-old with Haitian and Irish roots, even another child in Max’s school community. Many face the same problem: ethnic background plays a major role in finding a match.

“This is more widespread than you think,” Uribe said. “There's lots of other patients that are searching and struggling and don't want to be public identified.”

That’s why he’s pushing hard to bring one million new people into the registry by April 1. He talks about Max like any proud father would — how he stands up for bullied kids, how he looks after his sister, how he splits his time between sports and composing his own piano music on Spotify.

Uribe knows that even if a match for Max doesn’t come in time, thousands of other lives could be changed by the wave of new donors. “Everyone should really get added to the registry as quick as possible,” he said. “It's the easiest way to save a life.”

For anyone interested in joining the registry, NMDP offers free, mail-in cheek swab kits at https://go.nmdp.org/formax.

A Father Joined TikTok To Save His Son’s Life. Millions Answered His Call

BBC News

Two baby otters are on the mend after being rescued from a waterlogged field in Stoke by Clare, West Suffolk. The cubs, found earlier this month by a passerby, were weak and unable to crawl. Rescuers believe their mother was lost after floods washed them away from her side.

Now under the care of South Essex Wildlife Hospital, these young otters are making significant progress. Sue Schwar, who founded the wildlife hospital 36 years ago, shared insights into their recovery journey. "They've had coccidia, a common parasitic illness," Schwar said. Thanks to the efforts of vets Tom and Alda, the pair is responding well to treatment.

The otters arrived at the hospital in Orsett, Essex, on 12 February in poor condition—subdued, hypothermic, and underweight. Initial treatments involved gentle warming and fluid therapy to boost hydration levels. The staff noted a quick turnaround as they began eating well within hours.

Caring for otters comes with its own set of challenges. Schwar explained that while seals have an easier diet consisting of mackerel or herring, otters prefer trout—a more challenging dish to source. Despite these hurdles, the team remains committed to their care.

The plan is for these cubs to stay at the hospital for about a year until staff can find a suitable river location for their release back into the wild. "Then we will try to find a good bit of river for them to be released into," Schwar said.

South Essex Wildlife Hospital takes on around 12,000 animals annually and relies heavily on volunteers and donations. Its founder started it while she was still working as a police officer, dedicating her life to animal welfare.

These two otters remain unnamed but have captured the hearts of those caring for them. The story highlights both the dangers wildlife face during extreme weather conditions and the dedication of those who work tirelessly to rescue them.

These Orphaned Baby Otters Found In a Field Are Finally On The Mend

euronews

Colossal Biosciences arrived at last week’s World Governments Summit in Dubai with a pitch that sounded equal parts futuristic and urgent. The company best known for its attempts to revive species like the woolly mammoth and the dodo unveiled a new tool it says will help protect life on Earth right now: “bio vaults.”

Founder and CEO Ben Lamm said the idea isn’t just to bring back extinct animals, but to prevent today’s species from meeting the same fate. “I think the most exciting thing in 2026 is bringing back extinct species and also protecting them through bio vaults, which we're launching here at the World Governments Summit,” he told Euronews.

Lamm argued that many people don’t grasp the scale of the crisis. “I do not believe that people understand the extinction crisis we're in,” he said. “But we are in the sixth mass extinction, which is being accelerated by man.”

Colossal has made headlines for its de-extinction work, and Lamm leaned into that reputation. “Colossal is the world's first de-extinction and species preservation company,” he said. “Most people just know us for the Woolly Mammoth, the Dire Wolf, the Dodo bird and others.”

He pushed back on doubts that the science is real. “We actually engineered the world's first woolly mouse last year,” he said. “We engineered the traits from a mammoth into those of a mouse.” He went further, describing another project: “We actually then took a 73,000-year-old skull and made puppies and brought dire wolves back, which had been extinct for 12,000 years,” he said.

The conversation shifted to whether well-loved species overshadow lesser-known ones that also need help. Lamm said attention can be split. “This is not an either-or; this is an and,” he said. “We do need a de-extinction toolkit because we're going to lose up to 50 per cent of all biodiversity between now and 2050.”

That’s where bio vaults come in. The first facility, launched at the summit, is designed to store genetic material from a wide range of species, not just the charismatic ones that attract headlines. “That’s why building bio vaults is so critical to our success,” he said.

The inaugural vault is opening at Dubai’s Museum of the Future, and Lamm said the location was intentional. “We're launching it at the Museum of the Future so that we can bring people in and wrap educational content around it for kids.”

He linked the effort directly to climate change. “I think species go hand in hand with climate change,” he said. “If we can save and preserve biodiversity, they will actually help us with our climate crisis.”

The summit brought global officials face to face with the pitch. Lamm said leaders immediately began asking how the tools could help their own countries. “People from Malaysia, people from Africa have come up to me after my talk saying, oh my gosh, how can we apply these technologies to save my critically endangered X or Y?” he said. “So, I think launching at the World Governments Summit was the perfect place to do it.”

The company’s bold claims have always invited debate, but in Dubai, Lamm made it clear he sees the goals as linked: revive what’s gone, protect what’s left and convince world leaders that both can happen at the same time.

Colossal Biosciences Unveils Bio Vaults to Combat Extinction Crisis at World Governments Summit

Stockholm rolled out something unusual on its waterways in late 2024, and commuters didn’t take long to notice. An electric ferry that lifts out of the water as it moves started shuttling riders between Ekerö and the city centre. A year later, Sweden’s transport regulators say the pilot didn’t just work, it exceeded expectations.

They found the boat cut emissions by up to 94 percent compared with similar diesel ferries. It also cut the travel time almost in half, dropping a 55-minute trip to roughly 30 minutes. For a city built across 14 islands and stitched together by more than 50 bridges, that kind of time savings is hard to ignore.

Diesel ferries haven’t helped the region’s climate goals either, accounting for nearly half of public-transport emissions. The hope was that Candela’s P-12 Shuttle could show another way.

The early results made local leaders call the project a possible “paradigm shift” for how Stockholm moves people across the water.

The boat itself is different from anything the city has seen. Candela describes the P-12 as the world’s fastest electric passenger vessel in service, and it works by rising above the surface once it picks up speed. Carbon fibre foils tucked underneath act like underwater wings. When they lift the hull clear of the water, drag drops sharply. Less drag means the boat can travel farther and faster on battery power.

A computer system handles all of the adjustments. Sensors read the water conditions in real time and constantly tweak the angle of the foils to keep the ride steady while the boat “flies.”

The design also has a side benefit that matters in crowded waterways. The ferry creates a wake about the size of a small dinghy’s, according to the government report. Smaller waves mean less shoreline erosion, fewer disturbances to sensitive habitat and a smoother ride for the people on board. Sound readings showed it was as quiet as a car travelling at 45 kilometres per hour and barely noticeable from 25 metres away.

Because the wake is so small, authorities granted the ferry a speed exemption. Stockholm normally caps vessels at 12 knots, but the P-12 can run its route at about 25 knots. That lets the electric shuttle take full advantage of its design.

Ridership responded. Passenger numbers on the Ekerö line rose by 22.5 percent during the trial, suggesting that commuters and tourists were more than willing to swap the slower trip for the faster electric option.

The report also pointed out something city planners tend to watch closely: cost. Charging upgrades for the P-12 were relatively modest compared with what conventional electric ferries typically require. Paired with lower maintenance and no fuel costs, the economics looked promising.

The Swedish Transport Administration ran the numbers on what a scaled-up service could do. Replacing two diesel ferries with six P-12 vessels could raise capacity by about 150 percent, allow departures every 15 minutes instead of once an hour, and generate an estimated SEK 119 million in socioeconomic benefits. That’s roughly €12 million.

Gustav Hasselskog, Candela’s founder and CEO, said the data affirms the company’s bet on hydrofoils. “The Candela P-12 can transform urban waterways,” he said. “By combining high speed, minimal energy use, and near-zero emissions, we can unlock faster, cleaner, and more cost-efficient waterborne transport for cities worldwide.”

Cities are paying attention. Berlin and Mumbai, along with destinations in the Maldives and Thailand, have announced plans or orders for similar vessels starting in 2026.

For Stockholm, the agency recommended expanding exemptions so more routes can use the technology. If that happens, the city known for its bridges may start to rely a little more on the space between them.

Stockholm’s Flying Ferry is Cutting Commute Times In Half And Emissions Almost Entirely

Science Daily

A skeleton pulled from the cliffs near Golden Cap more than two decades ago has turned out to be something paleontologists didn’t think they would find again on the UK’s Jurassic Coast: a brand new species of ichthyosaur.

The dolphin-sized marine reptile, now named Xiphodracon goldencapensis and nicknamed the “Sword Dragon of Dorset,” is the only known specimen of its kind. Researchers say it helps close a major gap in the ichthyosaur fossil record and marks the first new genus of Early Jurassic ichthyosaur identified from the region in more than a century.

Dorset collector Chris Moore uncovered the fossil in 2001. It has taken until now for scientists to fully analyze it, and the wait was worth it. Preserved in almost perfect three-dimensional detail, the skeleton includes a long, blade-like snout and a skull with a huge eye socket. At roughly 3 meters long, the reptile likely hunted fish and squid. There may even be remnants of its last meal preserved inside. Researchers say no other prehistoric reptile from the Pliensbachian period has been found in such complete condition.

An international team led by ichthyosaur specialist Dr. Dean Lomax conducted the research, with findings published in Papers in Palaeontology. Lomax remembered his first look at the fossil in 2016. “Back then, I knew it was unusual, but I did not expect it to play such a pivotal role in helping to fill a gap in our understanding of a complex faunal turnover during the Pliensbachian,” he said. He described Xiphodracon as a “missing piece of the ichthyosaur puzzle,” because it shows closer ties to species that evolved later than expected.

That evolutionary timing matters. Ichthyosaurs from the Pliensbachian, roughly 193 to 184 million years ago, are extremely rare. Scientists have long known that species before and after this period were sharply different despite having similar ecological roles. But they have struggled to pinpoint when that shift occurred. “Thousands of complete or nearly complete ichthyosaur skeletons are known from strata before and after the Pliensbachian,” said co-author Professor Judy Massare. “The two faunas are quite distinct, with no species in common. Xiphodracon helps to determine when the change occurred, but we still don’t know why.”

The fossil also offers a more personal look at life — and danger — in the ancient seas. Co-author Dr. Erin Maxwell said several limb bones and teeth show signs of serious injury or illness. The skull appears to have been bitten by a much larger predator, possibly another ichthyosaur. “The skull appears to have been bitten by a large predator — likely another much larger species of ichthyosaur — giving us a cause of death for this individual,” she said. “Life in the Mesozoic oceans was a dangerous prospect.”

Beyond helping settle an evolutionary mystery, the species stands out for its unique anatomy. One of the strangest details is a pronged bone near the nostril, unlike anything seen in other ichthyosaurs. Naming rights came with the discovery, and Lomax leaned into two centuries of calling ichthyosaurs “sea dragons.” Xiphodracon combines the Greek xiphos, for sword, and dracon, for dragon.

The fossil now belongs to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, which has one of the world’s largest ichthyosaur collections. It is expected to go on public display after the study’s release.

The Jurassic Coast has produced ichthyosaur fossils since the days of Mary Anning, but finds like this remain rare. This one reached across 190 million years to answer questions researchers have been asking for decades — and raised a few new ones along the way.

New ‘sword Dragon’ Fossil From Jurassic Coast Fills a 190-Million-Year Gap

Most people know their daily commute a little too well. Keith Allen knows his so well he had it inked into his skin. The 53-year-old National Express driver from Brockworth, near Gloucester, now carries a tribute to the 444 service on his forearm: “444. 4better. 4worse. 4ever.”

Allen has been driving coaches for about three decades. He’s worked for several companies, joined National Express in 2010 and has stayed loyal to the same loop from Cheltenham to London Gatwick Airport and back since the pandemic. He says he wouldn’t want it any other way. “I love it, absolutely love it,” he said. “The thing is with me, everyday is different.”

He prides himself on keeping passengers smiling. “When they're not happy you try to make them happy,” he said. “I've done tour work for many years, it's nice to make everybody laugh. That's what it's all about these days.”

He joked to the BBC that he got the tattoo “when his divorce came through,” and teased that his other arm might get similar treatment if another marriage ever ends. He also jokes with his bosses about his future. “I tell my boss ‘I'm going to be here for 20 years, get my gold Rolex and then I'm going to leave’. But I’ll probably never leave. I love the job, as long as they’ll have me.”

Last year brought something unexpected: an adult diagnosis of autism and ADHD. He described it as a relief. “School was a nightmare, I wish I never went to school,” he said. “They told me different things like [I was] hyperactive, didn't know what ADHD was in those days. It’s nice to put a label on something. I'm not crazy or stupid, I'm just me.”

He left school without qualifications, trained briefly as a chef, and cycled through six other jobs before finding what he calls his true fit behind the wheel, travelling long distances with people instead of paperwork. “When you’re single, it’s the job to have,” he said.

Passengers seem to agree that Allen is exactly where he should be. Mark Tucker, a regular on the 444, said Allen is “always accommodating, always happy and friendly and professional.”

For Allen, the job is still fun, still surprising, still worth memorialising in ink. And as long as that loop keeps running, he plans to keep riding it.

Coach Driver Tattoos Beloved Route Number on Arm As a Tribute to His Passion

Before she had millions of followers, brand deals and her own line of sleepwear, Lauren Riihimaki was a kid at the YMCA of Niagara summer camp making embroidered friendship bracelets. She didn’t know it then, but those bracelets would become the blueprint for her earliest YouTube videos and eventually launch her into the first wave of DIY creators at a time when “content creator” wasn’t a career anyone talked about.

Now 32 and living in Los Angeles, the St. Catharines, Ontario native is one of the most recognizable DIY and lifestyle personalities online. As LaurDIY, she has built an audience of more than 8.8 million subscribers across her channels and collaborated with names like Disney, Starbucks, PopSockets and Ardene. She even designed a onesie and sleepwear collection for the Canadian fashion brand.

But her latest videos look nothing like the big production partnerships she’s known for. Instead, they take her back home to St. Catharines, where she decided to revisit the version of herself who created for fun, not analytics.

In one clip, she shared scenes from her childhood and spoke about a time when creativity “was untouched by expectation, analytics or outside judgement.” In an interview with CBC News, she described the life she has now with a mix of gratitude and realism. “I have quite literally the best job in the entire world,” she said. “There is nothing that I would rather be doing, but there is a lot more responsibility tied to it.”

Going home had a grounding effect. She remembered the feeling of walking into art class at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School, where she could experiment freely and never think about whether an algorithm would approve. “It was just an entirely different era of creating here,” she said. “It was just for the love of it and that was, I think, something that I needed to be reminded of. That is St. Catharines for me.”

Her mother, Gail Riihimaki, known to fans as MomDIY, wasn’t surprised her daughter gravitated toward creative work. From colouring books and craft kits to altering clothes and teaching music at the Niagara Conservatory of Music as a teen, Lauren always wanted to make things. “It’s funny because neither my husband nor I are particularly artistic,” Gail said. “Being a social media influencer is a big surprise. Guidance counsellor didn’t talk about that.”

Riihimaki was already thinking creatively long before YouTube existed. In Grade 5, when she was asked what she wanted to be, she picked interior and graphic design. Her family had lived in St. Catharines for three generations, but at 18 she wanted a bigger canvas and moved to Toronto to study graphic communications management at Toronto Metropolitan University.

The excitement of the city didn’t stop burnout from creeping in. The program pushed her, sometimes too hard, and she began looking for outlets that didn’t feel like assignments. “When she just started posting videos for her own pleasure, nobody knew, not even Lauren,” Gail said. “The world didn’t even know at that point that it could eventually turn into a career.”

After graduating in 2015, Riihimaki committed to YouTube full time. In 2016 she announced she was moving to Los Angeles to be closer to other creators, explaining the leap in her Draw My Life video.

A decade later, fans still love seeing glimpses of the hometown she left behind. Earlier this month she posted a winter wardrobe video ahead of her trip to St. Catharines, sparking a wave of surprise and local pride. One commenter who “went to Niagara College” said they were “constantly shocked” she was from the region. Another chimed in, “Niagara region girlies unite.”

Riihimaki said she returned home for a family milestone — her cousin’s first baby — and to soak up time with the people she grew up with. Family has become more important as she’s gotten older.

She’s also busy with new creative projects. She has been flipping rooms in her Los Angeles home and, in October, she co-launched Fuzzboy Originals, a line of accessories for dog walkers, with her longtime Toronto friend Dani Roche. “It's been a passion project that I've had on the back burner for so many years,” she said.

For a creator whose channel started with simple bracelets made at camp, going home seems to have done exactly what she hoped: remind her where the spark came from, and why making things still feels like joy rather than pressure.

How LaurDIY Transformed From Kid Crafter In a Canadian Town To an L.A.-Based YouTube Star

ABC News

Conservationists in New Zealand have been trying for decades to keep the kakapo, the only flightless parrot on Earth, from fading out of existence. The bird is hefty, slow and easy for predators to catch. It also prefers to reproduce only when the mood — and the berry crop — is just right. For a long time, many believed the species was destined to disappear.

Yet the numbers are heading in the right direction. After sitting at about 50 birds thirty years ago, the population has now passed 200. This season, conservation workers are cautiously hopeful for a record number of chicks in February thanks to an unusually strong crop of the rimu berries kakapo love most.

Chances to see them in the wild are rare. They live on three remote islands off New Zealand’s southern coast. Even so, one kakapo managed to capture attention well beyond those shores this month through a livestream of her underground nest, where her chick hatched on Tuesday.

Kakapo can live for up to 80 years, and everything about them seems built to stand out. They can weigh more than 3 kilograms. Their faces resemble an owl, and they have whiskers. Their plumage — a mix of green, yellow and black — blends neatly into the forest floor. Their scent does not. “Kakapo also have a really strong scent,” said Deidre Vercoe of the Department of Conservation’s kakapo program. “They smell really musky and fruity — gorgeous smell.”

That distinct aroma, though, became a disadvantage once humans arrived in New Zealand. Rats, dogs, cats and stoats followed, and the country’s flightless birds suffered. Habitat loss and hunting only added to the decline. By 1974, conservationists feared the kakapo was gone. Then, in the late 1970s, a surviving population was found.

Even with that stroke of luck, rebuilding the species has been anything but simple. Their breeding is irregular and famously slow. Kakapo usually only breed every two to four years, triggered by bumper fruit seasons that aren’t fully understood. Vercoe said the birds somehow sense when the native rimu trees are developing a heavy crop. “They’re probably up there in the canopy assessing the fruiting,” she said. “When there’s a large crop developing, they somehow tune into that.”

When the timing is right, male kakapo gather in dug-out bowls on the forest floor, letting out long, low booms that can carry across the island. They follow those booms with noises known as “chings,” likened to rusty bedsprings. The performance is their entire pitch to potential mates. Females raise the chicks on their own and can lay up to four eggs.

This year, a 23-year-old kakapo named Rakiura has become the reluctant star of the breeding season. Her nest on Whenua Hou island has been broadcast through a livestream watched by thousands. She laid three eggs, two of which were fertile. Because the species remains so fragile, technicians replaced her real eggs with fake ones while the originals were incubated indoors. On Tuesday, staff returned the first egg shortly before hatching. Rakiura kept her distance during the quick switch but returned without fuss. The chick arrived just over an hour later.

Saving the kakapo has required measures few other species receive. Each bird has a name. Each wears a small backpack tracker. Every pairing is assessed to protect what remains of their genetic diversity. They live only on closely monitored, predator-free islands. Even with signs of recovery, they are still critically endangered.

“We do what we can to make sure we don’t lose any further genetic diversity,” Vercoe said. “We manage that carefully through having the best matches possible on each island.”

For many New Zealanders, none of this feels excessive. The country’s native birds evolved in isolation, without land mammals other than two types of bat. They filled niches elsewhere occupied by primates, rodents or carnivores, which is why so many of them — kakapo included — turned out unusual, charismatic and unprepared for predators.

“We don’t have the Eiffel Tower or the pyramids, but we do have kakapo and kiwi,” Vercoe said. “It’s a real New Zealand duty to save these birds.”

If the coming breeding season delivers as hoped, the country will get one step closer to pulling the kakapo back from the brink, with a little help from one determined parrot livestreaming her part in the effort.c

Bumper Berry Harvest Sparks Rare Romance Among New Zealand's Flightless Parrots

A baby boy named Hugo came into the world just before Christmas 2025, weighing a little over 3 kilograms, and carrying with him a medical milestone that doctors in the UK had been working toward for decades. His mother, Grace Bell, calls him “simply a miracle.” Doctors call him proof that something once considered impossible may soon be within reach for thousands of women.

Bell, who lives in Kent with her partner, Steve Powell, was born without a viable womb because of MRKH syndrome. She learned at 16 that she would never carry a pregnancy. So when the phone rang one day with news that a womb had become available from a deceased donor, she said she was “in complete shock” and “really excited,” but also deeply aware of what the donor’s family had given her.

“I think of my donor and her family every day and pray they find some peace in knowing their daughter gave me the biggest gift: the gift of life,” she said. “A part of her will live on forever.”

The transplant took place in June 2024 at The Churchill Hospital in Oxford and lasted 10 hours. After months of recovery, IVF treatment followed at The Lister Fertility Clinic in London. An embryo transfer worked. Bell was pregnant. And just before the holidays, at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in west London, Hugo arrived.

Bell remembers the moment she first saw him. “I remember waking up in the morning and seeing his little face, with his little dummy in, and it felt like I needed to wake up from a dream,” she said. “It was just incredible.”

Her son is the first baby in the UK to be born from a transplant using a deceased donor’s womb. It’s part of a clinical research trial in which 10 transplants are planned. Three have been completed so far, but Hugo is the first birth to result from a deceased donor. Earlier in 2025, a girl named Amy was born at the same London hospital after her mother received a living womb donation from her sister.

For the team of surgeons who have spent years preparing for this moment, Hugo’s birth marks a turning point.

Consultant gynaecologist Prof Richard Smith, who has been researching womb transplantation for more than 25 years, was there when Hugo was born. He said “a huge team of people” played a role, from the initial transplant operation to the embryo transfer and the delivery. Bell and Powell thanked him in their own way, giving their son the middle name Richard.

Transplant surgeon and joint team leader Isabel Quiroga described the birth as a step forward for transplantation in the UK. “Very few babies have been born in Europe as a result of their mothers receiving a womb from a deceased donor,” she said. She hopes the ongoing trial will help determine whether womb transplants could one day become a regular treatment option for women who do not have a viable womb.

There are about 5,000 women in the UK with MRKH syndrome. For many, the only path to parenthood has been surrogacy or adoption. Smith said Hugo’s birth shows that girls and women who were once told they would never carry a pregnancy “could now have hope” of doing so.

A baby born following a womb transplant has no genetic link to the donor. More than 100 transplants have taken place around the world, resulting in more than 70 healthy births. Still, womb donation remains unusual. Families must give specific consent even if their relative is already an organ donor, because the procedure differs from traditional organ donation.

The family of the woman whose womb was donated to Bell chose to stay anonymous. They said they feel “tremendous pride” in the legacy their daughter left behind. In addition to the womb that allowed Hugo to be born, she donated five other organs that were transplanted into four people.

“Through organ donation, she has given other families the precious gift of time, hope, healing and now life,” her family said.

Bell and Powell are already thinking about the possibility of a second child. After that, surgeons will remove the transplanted womb so Bell does not have to stay on long-term medication to prevent her body from rejecting the organ.

For now, though, they are focused on their son. And Hugo, at just 10 weeks old, is quietly carrying a story that stretches far beyond his cot: one of generosity, persistence, and the kind of scientific progress that changes lives in ways families feel for generations.

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