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Lancashire Man Sets Sights on World Water Speed Record
A Lancashire man is building a new hydroplane, Longbow, to attempt the fastest ever speed on water. The boat, with two jet engines, will be piloted by RAF Flight Lieutenant David-John Gibbs. The current record of 317mph was set in 1978. Safety is a top priority for builder David Aldred amidst competition from others like Dave Warby. No date set yet for the record attempt in the Lake District. Stay updated with BBC Radio Lancashire and send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk or via Whatsapp at 0808 100 2230.
Score (97)
Volunteers are Creating Artificial Snow Drifts To Save Endangered Seals In Finland
Each winter for the past 12 years, teams of volunteers have bundled up and braved the freezing winds of Finland’s Lake Saimaa — not for sport or adventure, but to help one of the rarest seal species on Earth survive. The Saimaa ringed seal, found only in this icy lake system in southeastern Finland, is critically endangered. For thousands of years, the seals survived harsh winters by burrowing birth dens into the deep, powdery snowdrifts that formed naturally along the shoreline. But in recent decades, climate change has thrown that survival strategy into question. “The seal gives birth in a lair it digs into a snowbank,” said Joonas Fritze, a project officer with WWF Finland. “If there aren’t any snow banks, the pups are born on open ice and don’t have any protection against predators, cold, and human disturbance. Up to half of the pups could die.” To prevent that, volunteers and scientists are stepping in to do what nature no longer reliably can: build snowbanks by hand. Armed with shovels and small snowplows, the teams spend long hours sculpting artificial snowdrifts in secluded areas of the frozen lake. It’s labor-intensive work — but it’s working. Roughly half the Saimaa seal population born since 2014 has come from these man-made shelters, according to MIT Technology Review. That’s around 320 pups that might not have survived otherwise. The Saimaa ringed seal population has rebounded to an estimated 400 individuals, up from a low of just 100 in the 1980s. The recovery has been bolstered not just by snowbank construction, but by strict protections: bans on gill net fishing, an end to hunting, and efforts to reduce pollution in the lake. The artificial snow lairs are part of what researchers are calling “interspecies co-design” — a collaborative strategy between humans and wildlife to adapt to a changing climate. The project involves researchers at the University of Eastern Finland, Metsähallitus (the country’s national parks agency), and WWF, among others. It’s a win for now. But no one is pretending this is a permanent solution. “It’s great that we can help an endangered species like this,” Fritze said. “But at the same time, we need a long-term plan, which includes taking quick action on climate change.” As winters grow shorter and snow becomes less reliable, efforts like this one on Lake Saimaa may become increasingly common — urgent attempts to buy time for species at risk, until larger climate action can catch up. For the Saimaa seal, that time — and those snowbanks — might be the difference between survival and extinction.
Score (98)
These Louisiana Inmates Became 'Dad' Again at a Prison Father-Daughter Dance
At Louisiana’s Angola Prison, the Seminary Lecture Room looked nothing like it usually does. Draped in flowers and filled with music, it had been transformed into a ballroom — and for 29 incarcerated fathers and 37 daughters, it became the setting for something they’d never experienced before: a father-daughter dance. Organized by the nonprofit God Behind Bars, the event brought together families who in many cases hadn’t hugged, danced, or even shared a meal in years. Some fathers hadn’t seen their daughters outside of a visitation room. Others hadn’t embraced them in more than a decade. “For one night,” said Jake Bodine, founder of God Behind Bars, “they were not inmates. They were Dad.” The daughters, ranging in age from five to twenty, were treated to full princess treatment. Makeup artist Jessica Haynes and a team of volunteers curled their hair, painted their nails, and helped them step into gowns worthy of the occasion. The fathers, meanwhile, had been fitted months earlier in custom tuxedos donated by Amor Suits. The first glimpse of the girls entering the room left many of the men in tears. “When I turned around and saw my baby in that dress and she busted out crying... I sobbed, man, and I ain’t no crier,” said Leslie, one of the fathers. “She said, ‘Dad, I finally get a chance to dance with you for the first time.’” Another father, who’s been incarcerated for 15 years, reunited with his teenage daughter that night. “She motivates me so much,” he said. “At this dance, I’ll tell her how much I love her… I hope she forgives me, and I’ll make it up to her with this dance.” It wasn’t just about the dance. The night included a Thanksgiving meal, a choreographed routine prepared by the dads, and personalized moments: every father gave his daughter a handwritten letter and a Bible. Each girl left with a beauty gift bag from T3 Micro and a Bible donated by Hosanna Revival. Angola’s Assistant Warden Anne-Marie Easley said the event was about more than celebration. It was about healing. “It is so important for fathers to be involved in their daughters’ lives, no matter where they are, in order to break the cycle of incarceration,” she said. God Behind Bars called it a night of restoration — one that gave families a new beginning. “Children with incarcerated parents are among the most vulnerable in America,” the organization said. “Events like this matter deeply.” On this night, they did more than matter. They made memories that many of these families had never had before — and might never forget.
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Score (96)
These Solar-Lit Fishing Nets are Reducing Sea Turtle Bycatch by 63% in Mexico Trials
Off the coast of Isla el Pardito in Mexico’s Gulf of California, local fishers and U.S. researchers are using the sun to solve a deadly problem — and it’s working. New solar-powered LED buoys designed to attach to gill nets have cut accidental sea turtle bycatch by 63 percent, according to a study published in Conservation Letters. The flashing green lights help turtles spot the nets in the dark, giving them time to swim away. All 67 turtles captured during the experiments — all green turtles (Chelonia mydas) — were released alive. “It’s a win-win,” said Jesse Senko, the study’s lead author and an assistant research professor at Arizona State University’s School of Ocean Futures. “You get a light that lasts significantly longer without the need for disposable batteries, and you also get a proven reduction in bycatch, one of the greatest threats to sea turtles worldwide.” The innovation didn’t just come from a lab. It started in 2018 with a series of workshops that brought marine biologists and veteran fishers together to rethink the way gill nets are used. For decades, efforts to reduce sea turtle bycatch have relied on battery-powered LED lights or chemical glow sticks — solutions that are short-lived, wasteful, and expensive. These new devices use flexible solar panels and rechargeable batteries sealed inside durable polycarbonate casings. Once fully charged, the lights can flash continuously for more than five days — up to 132 hours — without any additional sunlight. The buoys are easy to use, threading directly onto the float lines of gill nets like standard fishing gear. Researchers tested the lights by deploying 28 pairs of 85-meter gill nets overnight for 11 to 12 hours at depths of 7 to 12 meters. Each pair consisted of a regular net and one equipped with solar-powered lights. The illuminated nets caught just 17 turtles, compared to 50 in the unlit control nets. Juan Pablo Cuevas Amador, a fisher from El Pardito who participated in the workshops and co-authored the study, said the project stood out because it centered the knowledge and lived experience of the fishing community. “They took us into account and gave us the freedom to give our opinions and make modifications,” he said. “For us, it’s important that it be done in collaboration because with what they know and what we know, we can do quite interesting things.” The team believes the green flashing lights work because sea turtles are highly sensitive to green wavelengths, and the lights may serve as warning signals in otherwise dark coastal waters. Importantly, the lights didn’t scare away target species like yellowtail amberjack, which continue to swim into the nets. Gill nets are one of the most common tools in small-scale fishing, responsible for nearly half of the global seafood supply. But they pose a serious risk to marine animals like sea turtles, dolphins, and sharks — especially in areas where critical habitats overlap with fishing grounds. The waters off Baja California Sur have some of the highest recorded rates of sea turtle bycatch in the world, especially for green and loggerhead turtles. “Sea turtles play an irreplaceable role in marine ecosystems,” said Senko. “They help maintain the health of seagrass beds and coral reefs. Protecting them isn’t just about saving an iconic species. It’s about ensuring the long-term resilience of our oceans.” Now, the team is working with UK-based fishing gear manufacturer Fishtek Marine to scale up commercial production of the devices, with hopes of having them widely available in the next two to three years. For the fishing communities of the Gulf of California, the technology represents more than just a scientific breakthrough — it’s a symbol of what can happen when knowledge is shared and solutions are built together. As Cuevas put it, “With what they know and what we know, we can do quite interesting things.”
Score (96)
Local Newspaper Thrives After Opening Cafe, Sees 40% Profit Increase
In an era when local papers are folding and media outlets are ditching print for digital, a small newsroom in coastal Maine is trying something different: pancakes. After being forced to sell off most of his newspaper holdings in 2024, longtime publisher Reade Brower was left with just four local weeklies. Rather than shutter them, he combined them into a single title — The Midcoast Villager — and launched a bold experiment to keep it afloat: open a cafe. Located in Camden, Maine, the Villager Cafe serves as a newsroom hangout, a community hub, and, crucially, a revenue stream for the paper. Since opening in April, profits have jumped 40 percent, according to CBS News. “From the business standpoint, it achieves a sustainability,” Brower said. “The accountability issues and local sports and all that stuff is important to a lot of people. I don’t think that’s enough to sell and keep newspapers alive right now. I think it has to revolve around community.” That idea — that journalism can thrive by serving as a community gathering space — is baked into every part of the cafe. Locals can grab huevos rancheros or blueberry pancakes and chat directly with reporters. There are “editor office hours” where visitors can pitch story ideas. And every Friday morning, regulars gather for “fresh brewed news,” an open discussion about what’s happening around town. Deputy editor Alex Seitz-Wald says the paper and the food have a similar spirit. “It’s good, classic diner food, but a little bit elevated, which is I think kind of like our paper,” he said. He’s at the cafe most Friday mornings, catching up with readers face to face. “Having a place where people can vent, or can say something, and have it be heard, I think is really valuable,” he added. For many of the staff, the dream was never just to run a paper — it was to deepen civic life. “We’ve always imagined the Villager as a vehicle for creating deeper community engagement,” publisher Aaron Britt wrote in a welcome letter. “If we’re doing our jobs, you have the information you need to vote your conscience, you know what’s going on Friday night, you see your neighbor’s kid’s sports feats in print, and you meet someone doing something you didn’t even know you were interested in.” And now, instead of just reading about those neighbors, you might end up sharing a table with them. The cafe is designed to host more than just journalists. Community members are encouraged to use the space to hold their own events. Some come for the coffee and conversation, others just to read the paper — in print, right off the rack. Columnist Glenn Billington summed up the sentiment among the staff: “I’m quite glad that I still have a newspaper to work for.” The Villager Cafe is located at 25 Mechanic Street in Camden, Maine. It’s open to anyone who wants to eat, talk, and maybe put down their phone for a while. “Everyone’s welcome at the Villager Cafe,” Britt said. “So invite an old friend, talk to a stranger, maybe put down your phone, pick up the paper, and dig into our community.”
Score (91)
An AI-powered robot is Helping Restore Coral Reefs on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
As coral reefs face increasing pressure from rising ocean temperatures, Australian scientists are turning to artificial intelligence for backup — and it’s already making a difference. At the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), researchers have developed a robotic assistant called the Deployment Guidance System (DGS), designed to help restore sections of the Great Barrier Reef damaged by recent bleaching events. The system uses deep-learning algorithms to scan the seafloor and pinpoint the best spots to deploy coral larvae, ensuring each new coral has the highest chance of survival. “The system is not so much one technology as many, brought together in a workflow that improves the yield for our coral seeding efforts,” said Dr. Ben Moshirian, the project’s lead engineer. After the autumn coral spawning season, scientists collect and breed coral larvae in tanks. When they’re ready for deployment, the DGS kicks in. It identifies the most promising areas for coral growth and drops small ceramic coral analogues within about 3 feet of the targeted zone. These ceramic pieces are specially designed to protect young corals as they mature into adults. What makes the DGS particularly powerful is its ability to make decisions based on years of oceanographic and ecological data. Its guidance is informed by deep-learning models trained on previous seafloor observations, which help it adapt to changing reef conditions and increase the precision of every drop. “This technology is not about machines replacing humans,” said Moshirian. “It is about humans working with machines, to give our science impact at a scale which was difficult to achieve previously.” Coral seeding — the practice of breeding and planting coral to restore reef systems — has gained momentum over the last two decades, as scientists have figured out how to capture spawning events and grow coral in controlled environments. But deploying those corals back into the wild, with accuracy and scale, has remained a major challenge. That’s where the DGS comes in. Looking ahead, AIMS envisions the DGS being mounted onto autonomous vessels, allowing it to work around the clock. There’s also potential for the technology to be adapted for use on boats operated by tour companies, divers, and Indigenous communities, turning everyday reef users into active participants in reef restoration. In a time when the future of coral reefs is uncertain, this fusion of marine science and machine learning offers a promising path forward, one ceramic coral at a time.
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Stray-Turned Therapy Dog Wins American Hero Dog Award for Comforting Students After School Tragedy
Sgt. Bo’s journey began on the streets — but it’s ended in hearts across the nation. The Nashville-based mixed breed has just been named the 2025 Hero Dog Award winner by the American Humane Society, honored for his work comforting children after a tragic school shooting. Once a stray rescued in Florida in 2022, Sgt. Bo now stands as a national symbol of healing and hope. Just three months after becoming a certified therapy dog, Sgt. Bo was called into service following the devastating shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, where six lives were lost. At the reunification site, he boarded buses, lay quietly next to shaken students, and stayed with families until the last child went home. Since then, Sgt. Bo has continued his work visiting schools across the city, providing emotional support and a gentle presence for kids navigating anxiety, trauma, or just a hard day. “We are thrilled to name Sgt. Bo as American Humane’s latest Hero Dog,” said Dr. Robin Ganzert, president and CEO of the American Humane Society. “During profoundly difficult times, their presence served as a powerful beacon of hope and safety, exactly the qualities this award seeks to recognize.” Sgt. Bo works alongside former police officer Faye Okert, who now serves as a Nashville School Resource Officer. It was Faye who first saw potential in the scruffy, allergy-prone mutt — even though she admits she had doubts early on. “I worried how kids might react to him,” she said. “But we bonded quickly, and he became my partner — and a perfect reminder that appearances can be deceiving.” Together, the duo not only helped comfort children after tragedy, they also championed a program that trains homeless dogs to become therapy animals in local schools. Earlier this year, Sgt. Bo tore his ACL and was officially retired from the police department. Faye chose to retire soon after, not wanting to continue without him. But the work hasn’t stopped. Now living the good life with Faye and her husband, Sgt. Bo still visits Covenant School weekly and other local schools every month. He continues to help children open up, bringing comfort to those who need it most — with just a wag of his tail. Sgt. Bo and the other finalists will be honored at the 15th Annual American Humane Hero Dog Awards Gala in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 9.
Score (98)
This Breakthrough Exoskeleton Technology is Helping Children Walk For The First Time
At a wellness center in Regina, Saskatchewan, a $100,000 piece of technology is giving children a shot at something many were told they’d never do — walk. The device is a Trexo exoskeleton, a robotic walker built for children with developmental disorders, spinal cord injuries, or conditions like cerebral palsy. The center, First Steps Wellness, received the device as a donation — a gift they say is changing lives. One of those lives is Leo’s. Born with a rare genetic condition, Leo was never expected to walk. But strapped into the Trexo at First Steps, he’s doing exactly that — taking steps and building muscle strength that doctors once said would be out of reach. “He can walk. He can be part of like everybody else; walk like other kids,” his mother, Anna Begelfer, told CBC News. “I have butterflies, I’m like, I can’t believe.” The machine uses sensors at the hips and knees to detect movement in the child’s lower body, then activates small motors to either assist or complete each step. Unlike some gait-training machines, the Trexo lets children’s feet actually touch the ground — a crucial feature for balance, sensory feedback, and bone development. “It’s better for the bones, it’s better for feedback for the child,” said Andy Schmidt of First Steps Wellness. “Imagine if you or I were wandering around on clouds of air — it wouldn’t give much feedback.” The Trexo was developed by Manmeet Maggu and Rahul Udasi, two friends from the University of Waterloo. After Maggu’s nephew in India was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, they discovered no suitable exoskeletons existed for children. So they built one. The early versions didn’t work. But after countless prototypes and 3D-printed parts, Maggu returned to Delhi, where he watched his nephew walk for the first time using their device. Today, there are only six Trexo units in use — mostly because of their high cost and the lack of insurance coverage. Maggu and Udasi have been able to market it as a therapeutic and exercise tool to speed up its availability, making leasing or rentals possible for some families. For kids like Leo, the benefits go far beyond exercise. “It’s a miracle,” said his mother. “And you can’t put a price on a miracle.” The Regina center is encouraging families to come try the device, hoping more children will experience what Leo now can: the feeling of walking on their own two feet.
Score (91)
How A Bouquet From Beyond Inspired a Daffodil Movement in British Columbia
Six months after Stephen Cudmore passed away, a bouquet of daffodils showed up at his wife Marilyn’s doorstep. It was a birthday gift he’d arranged in advance — a final surprise from a man who knew he wouldn’t be there to give it in person. The card simply read: “Hello beautiful! Happy birthday, Steve.” The flowers reminded Marilyn of the last peaceful hours they spent together, sitting quietly in their sunroom. Stephen had spent most of that final day gazing out the window and smiling at the daffodils just beyond the glass. That memory sparked an idea. Marilyn decided to plant a few in his honor. She bought several hundred bulbs from local shops and began planting them along her street in East Sooke, a quiet town west of Victoria on Vancouver Island. What started as a personal tribute quickly became something bigger. Members of Marilyn’s book club noticed what she was doing and didn’t want her to garden alone. They began showing up to help — and eventually gave themselves a name: the Spade Maids. Each year on October 26 — Stephen’s birthday — the group gathers to plant a new round of bulbs, adding hundreds more daffodils to the road near Marilyn’s home. Their hope is to one day cover the entire stretch of East Sooke Road in yellow blooms. “I’d love for people to be able to drive down East Sooke Road in March and April and just see the blooms,” Marilyn told Saanich News. “It’s turned from a memorial into something that brings joy to everyone.” That joy has taken root. What began as a small act of remembrance has grown into a community ritual. Locals anticipate the annual bloom, and passing drivers often slow down to admire the sea of daffodils lining the road. And every year, like clockwork, Marilyn still receives her birthday bouquet from Steve — a floral message from the past that keeps blooming into the future. As long as the Spade Maids keep planting, and the flowers keep blooming, Stephen’s smile lives on — not just in memory, but in color, kindness, and rows of daffodils brightening a Canadian roadside.
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Can Diet Partly Reverse Brain Protein Changes Caused By Aging?
As we age, our brains become more vulnerable to disease — but new research out of Germany suggests some of those changes might be slowed, or even partially reversed, by what we eat. Scientists at the Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute studied how protein regulation shifts over time in the brain. Focusing on a process called ubiquitylation, which chemically tags proteins for recycling, they discovered that these tags start piling up in older brains, signaling a breakdown in the brain’s ability to manage and dispose of aging proteins. “Ubiquitylation acts like a molecular switch,” said molecular biologist Alessandro Ori, one of the study’s lead researchers. “It determines whether a protein remains active, changes its function, or is degraded.” Using mass spectrometry, researchers compared young and old mouse brains and found dramatic differences in the way proteins were tagged. These tags are part of a quality-control system that, in a healthy brain, marks worn-out proteins for destruction. But as brains age, the tags accumulate faster than the brain can clear them, particularly due to a slowing of the proteasome — the system responsible for cleaning up those damaged proteins. Roughly one-third of the changes, the team found, were directly tied to that slowdown. What’s especially promising is that they didn’t just identify the problem — they also tested a possible fix. When older mice were placed on a calorie-restricted diet for four weeks and then returned to normal feeding, some of the faulty protein tagging returned to a younger, healthier state. Not all protein types responded to the change, but the shift suggests that diet can play a role in reversing at least part of the brain’s aging process. “Our results show that even in old age, diet can still have an important influence on molecular processes in the brain,” Ori said. “However, diet does not affect all aging processes in the brain equally: some are slowed down, while others hardly change or even increase.” The findings, published in Nature Communications, offer a more detailed look at how protein management systems deteriorate with age — and how restoring balance could help protect the brain against age-related conditions like Alzheimer’s, where protein buildup plays a critical role. To be clear, these results are from mice, not humans, and the underlying mechanisms are still being explored. But the work represents a leap forward in understanding how chemical processes in the brain can shift — and be influenced — long after youth has faded. There’s still much to uncover, but one message is clear: even late in life, the brain might still be listening to what we feed it.
Score (97)
He Thought It Was Gold — It Turned Out To Be a 4.6-Billion-Year-Old Meteorite
When David Hole went searching for gold in Australia’s Maryborough Regional Park back in 2015, he found something even rarer — he just didn’t know it at the time. Armed with a metal detector and prospecting in the historic Goldfields region near Melbourne, Hole stumbled upon a strange, reddish rock buried in yellow clay. It was unusually heavy, and he was convinced he’d found a gold nugget encased in a rough shell. He brought it home and tried everything to crack it open: a rock saw, a grinder, a drill, even acid. He eventually took a sledgehammer to it — and still couldn’t make a dent. That’s because it wasn’t a gold nugget at all. Years later, still curious, Hole brought the mystery rock to the Melbourne Museum. That’s when he finally got his answer: it was a meteorite, one of the rarest ever found in the Australian state of Victoria. “I’ve looked at a lot of rocks that people think are meteorites,” Melbourne Museum geologist Dermot Henry told Channel 10 News. “After 37 years at the museum and thousands of rocks, only two have turned out to be real meteorites. This was one of them.” The meteorite weighs a whopping 17 kilograms (37.5 pounds) and was named Maryborough, after the nearby town where it was discovered. Researchers used a diamond saw to slice a small section off the rock and confirmed it was an H5 ordinary chondrite — a type of stony meteorite with high iron content and embedded metallic crystals known as chondrules. “That's formed when they come through the atmosphere,” Henry explained. “They are melting on the outside, and the atmosphere sculpts them.” Carbon dating suggests the meteorite landed on Earth sometime between 100 and 1,000 years ago. Researchers believe it likely originated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter before getting knocked loose by a collision and eventually crashing to Earth. Historical meteor sightings between 1889 and 1951 may even line up with its arrival. The Maryborough meteorite is now officially one of only 17 ever found in Victoria, and the second-largest chondritic mass in the state’s history — the largest weighed 55 kilograms and was identified in 2003. “Meteorites provide the cheapest form of space exploration,” Henry said. “They transport us back in time, providing clues to the age, formation, and chemistry of our Solar System — including Earth.” Some meteorites, he added, even contain amino acids, the building blocks of life. Others hold stardust older than the solar system itself. By scientific standards, Hole’s find is far more valuable than the gold he was hoping for. As Henry put it: “There’s been thousands of gold nuggets found. Only 17 meteorites.” It’s not the first space rock to go unrecognized for years. In 2018, another meteorite made headlines after spending 80 years being used as a doorstop. So if you ever come across a strange, heavy rock that refuses to break, it might be worth more than you think — not in dollars, but in planetary history.