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Game On! Leagues Let Fans Feel the Action with Touch Technology
For sports fans with blindness and low vision, a new way to experience the game is on the horizon. Imagine feeling the excitement of a match through your fingertips instead of watching it with your eyes. This innovative technology is becoming a reality thanks to companies like OneCourt, whose 'haptic display' allows users to feel real-time sports action through vibrations. In tennis, basketball and baseball, fans can track the movement of the ball and players using this tactile technology. The haptic information is conveyed through vibrating motors on a handheld device or magnetic ring, providing a unique way to follow the game. OneCourt CEO Jerred Mace explains that haptic technology complements audio descriptive commentary (ADC) by offering a different sensory experience. Users can listen to radio broadcasts while feeling the game through their hands, enhancing their overall enjoyment. Additionally, spatialized soundscapes are being developed to provide more immersive audio experiences for sports fans with vision impairments. Action Audio, created by AKQA in partnership with Tennis Australia, uses designed sound effects to represent in-game actions like ball movement and shot types. The future of sports entertainment may lie beyond sight as haptic technology and augmented audio continue to evolve. With data infrastructure improving and leagues embracing these innovations, fans could soon have access to these technologies in their own homes.
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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.
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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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Score (95)
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.
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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.
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Virtual Reality Games are Revolutionizing Dental Visits, Distracting Patients With Fun And Ease
For anyone who’s ever dreaded the dentist’s chair — especially kids — a Canadian startup is hoping to make the experience a lot less scary. Paperplane Therapeutics, based in Montréal, has raised $1.5 million CAD in seed funding to expand its virtual reality platform that helps patients manage pain and anxiety during medical procedures. The idea: turn uncomfortable appointments into immersive, distraction-filled adventures. The company’s games are designed primarily for children and feature friendly virtual monsters to keep them engaged. Patients wear VR headsets loaded with these games while undergoing dental work, and a device called “Headstill” keeps their head stable — critical when dealing with sharp instruments or needles. Paperplane’s technology is already being used in 30 dental clinics and 20 hospitals across North America, including top names like the Mayo Clinic, Cedars-Sinai, and Toronto’s SickKids Hospital. The company plans to expand across North America and into Europe. “As an emergency physician, I have seen firsthand the lack of options available for managing pain and anxiety,” said Dr. Jean-Simon Fortin, Paperplane’s co-founder and CEO. “Today, I’m proud to see our VR technology filling that gap, providing healthcare professionals with a more effective way to support their patients.” The company’s approach builds on years of efforts by dentists and orthodontists to distract patients — from noise-canceling headphones to ceiling-mounted TVs. But Paperplane’s use of fully immersive VR offers a new level of engagement. Michael Goodman of Glen Ventures, one of the startup’s funders, said Paperplane is changing how clinicians think about patient care. “Their VR solutions not only enhance patient comfort but also contribute to more efficient clinical workflows,” he said. “We are proud to support a company that is raising the standard of patient care while pushing the boundaries of medical innovation.” The investment will help Paperplane grow its team, improve its technology, and reach more clinics — one headset at a time.
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Darts Phenom Brings Joy To Young Patients At UK Hospital
World darts champion Luke Littler made a special stop this week — not at a tournament, but at the children's ward of Warrington Hospital, where he lifted spirits and handed out early Christmas gifts to young patients. The 18-year-old, who grew up in the Cheshire town, spent time chatting and playing darts with kids on the ward, gifting them magnetic dartboards, signed shirts, and player cards. He also posed for selfies and shared a few laughs over some friendly dart throws. “Warrington is my home, and the support from people here means everything,” Littler said. “If I can bring a tiny bit of happiness to families and patients going through tough times then it makes it all worthwhile.” Parents and staff said his visit made a big impact. “It was so lovely that Luke took the time to speak with all the children and make them feel included,” said one mum. “Ezra loved playing darts with him and I’m sure he’ll now want to follow in his footsteps!” After the visit on Thursday, Littler took to social media to praise the hospital staff. “I know myself the amazing job the staff do there and how important it is to show support in any way we can,” he wrote. “Thank you for everything you do, it is life changing.” Warrington Hospital also thanked Littler, calling his visit a welcome and uplifting distraction. “Luke’s warm and approachable nature provided a welcome distraction for those on the ward, creating moments that will stay with them long after their hospital stay,” the hospital said in a statement. Helen Higginson, the hospital trust’s head of fundraising, added: “His visit brought a real smile to the faces of children who need it most. We are extremely grateful for his kindness, generosity and for taking time out of his busy schedule.” She said it meant a lot for young patients and staff alike to meet someone from their own hometown who’s risen to become one of the sport’s biggest stars. “It was a very special visit,” Higginson said. “And we would like to thank him for his kind donations.”
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Looks Like Candy Floss, Vanishes Like Magic — This Rare 'Hair Ice' Was Just Spotted in the UK
It looks like something from a fairy tale — wispy white strands of ice, as fine as hair and clinging to rotting branches like spun sugar. But it's not a prop or a prank. It's a rare natural phenomenon known as hair ice, and it's just been spotted in two locations in the UK. Cynthia Dallow was walking through the Forest of Dean near Wenchford on Wednesday when she noticed what looked like a bit of trash in a ditch. “I got really cross,” she said. “But it is rather magical.” On closer inspection, she realized she’d stumbled on something much more special — a delicate, frost-like formation growing out of a dead stick. “It was quite a big clump, five inches wide and up to 10 inches long,” Dallow said. “It looked so delicate and just beautiful, but you couldn't touch it because it would just collapse.” Hair ice is incredibly fragile and forms only under very specific conditions: freezing temperatures, the presence of rotting wood, and a precise range of latitude between 45°N and 55°N, according to the UK’s Met Office. That makes parts of the UK an ideal (if still uncommon) setting for this fleeting winter spectacle. The formations are so thin — just 0.01 millimetres across — that even a gentle breeze or rising temperature can destroy them. “You have to catch it at the right moment,” Dallow said. “It disappears really quickly depending on the air temperature, so I do feel chuffed.” Over in Somerset, a visitor to Wimbleball Lake on Exmoor made a similar discovery. The sighting was confirmed by South West Lakes, which called it “a fleeting phenomenon and a rare spot.” “It’s a stunning delicate formation,” a spokesperson said. “A true winter treasure.” Despite being first recorded in 1918, scientists only uncovered the cause of hair ice a decade ago. In 2015, researchers confirmed that the strands are made possible by a fungus known as Exidiopsis effusa, which inhabits the rotting wood and helps shape the ice as it freezes. Also known as “frost beard,” the effect happens when water in the wood is pushed out through tiny pores, then freezes in fine strands, maintained by the fungus’s role in preventing ice crystals from clumping together. The result is a winter oddity that’s equal parts science and wonder — here one moment, gone the next.
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Feeling Overwhelmed? Grab a Pen. Writing May Be One of the Brain's Best Tools for Resilience
Whether it’s a rage-fueled text you never send, a messy journal entry, or a perfectly worded op-ed, writing does more than get thoughts out of your head. It reshapes your brain — and helps you cope with stress. According to Emily Rónay Johnston, a writing professor at the University of California, putting your feelings into words can shift your mindset from “overwhelmed” to “clear.” That mental shift is a sign of resilience — not the kind you see in motivational posters or disaster headlines, but the ordinary kind that gets people through daily life. Psychologists define resilience as the process of adapting to life’s challenges. But popular culture often makes it seem like an elite skill — a trait reserved for the hyper-motivated or those who’ve endured massive trauma. Johnston argues that writing is one of the most overlooked ways regular people build that resilience, quietly and consistently. Her students have shown her this for years. Over and over, she’s watched people use writing to name their pain, reflect, and eventually move forward. And there’s science to back it up. In the 1980s, psychologist James Pennebaker pioneered a technique called “expressive writing.” It involves journaling about a painful experience for several days in a row. His research found that doing this helps people reduce stress, make sense of their feelings, and even improve their physical health. Why does it work? Writing things down turns abstract emotions into something concrete. According to brain imaging studies, labeling emotions activates the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain that helps with problem-solving — and calms the amygdala, which triggers the body’s stress responses. So instead of spiraling, your brain shifts from panic to problem-solving. In short: writing helps you respond, not just react. Even simple writing tasks like making a to-do list can help you get grounded. They activate brain areas involved in decision-making, which can restore a sense of control when life feels chaotic. Writing also strengthens memory. By putting your experiences into words, your brain begins to consolidate those memories, giving them structure and reducing their emotional sting. It’s like moving a file from the desktop into the archives — it’s still there, but it’s no longer in the way. That mental reorganization helps people reframe what’s happened and find meaning in it. And meaning is key to resilience. Choosing to write, Johnston explains, is also choosing to act — to interpret, organize, and express your experience. And with that comes a sense of agency. The words themselves become proof that you’ve taken back control. This kind of emotional regulation doesn’t require a book deal or a degree in creative writing. The everyday notes, texts, emails, letters, and journal entries people churn out are already part of the process. If you want to write your way toward greater resilience, Johnston offers five evidence-backed strategies: 1. Write by hand Handwriting uses more areas of the brain than typing. It slows your thinking and helps you process what you’re feeling. 2. Make it a habit A few lines a day — what happened, what you’re feeling, what you’re planning — can help stop thoughts from endlessly looping in your mind. 3. Write before reacting When emotions run high, pause and write first. Keeping a notebook nearby can help you reflect before responding. 4. Write a letter you’ll never send Address it to the person or situation causing distress. You don’t have to share it — the act of writing can be enough to release the pressure. 5. Revise like a writer When you draft and revise, you’re not just improving your writing — you’re practicing perspective-taking and building self-awareness. Resilience isn’t always flashy. Sometimes it looks like scribbles in a notebook, a saved draft in your email, or a crumpled list of goals on your fridge. But behind those words is a brain working hard to adapt, cope, and grow. In Johnston’s words: “The act of writing is adaptation in progress.”
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Kate Middleton Just Launched a New Project Supporting Children's Mental Health
The Princess of Wales returned to familiar ground on Nov. 27, visiting the children's mental health charity Anna Freud in London — a place she's supported for nearly a decade. This time, she brought news of a new partnership aimed at improving early support for families. During her visit, Princess Kate announced a collaboration between Anna Freud and her own Centre for Early Childhood. The goal: to create a development program that boosts the skills of health visitors — the frontline workers who support mothers and babies in the early days after birth across the UK. “It’s been a really important day for us at Anna Freud,” said Professor Eamon McCrory, the charity’s CEO. “The Princess met groups of parents and babies and toddlers and joined a series of discussions with experts. The theme of the day was something that is very close to her heart — the really crucial role of relationships.” McCrory emphasized that strong relationships in childhood lay the foundation for lifelong mental and physical health. “They protect us from future mental health problems, but more importantly, they act as a springboard for lifelong health and wellbeing,” he said. This focus on prevention — not just treatment — echoes Kate’s broader mission. Through her Centre for Early Childhood and initiatives like the Shaping Us campaign, she has been advocating for stronger support during the first five years of life, which research increasingly shows to be the most formative. The new training program developed under the partnership will aim to better equip public health workers and early years professionals to help parents build healthy, nurturing relationships with their children from the very start. “The Princess is continuing to build a societal narrative about the importance of childhood, of relationships and healthy development,” McCrory said. “Her work has moved to a new level where she is seeking to support the workforce, engage business leaders, and share knowledge with parents.” During her visit, Kate joined bonding sessions with parents and toddlers, and reportedly felt right at home. “She sat down and played with the little toddlers and babies that were visiting,” McCrory noted. “It really demonstrated her genuine interest in people and also in her view of relationships really being absolutely key for future prevention.” The visit builds on Kate’s recent speech at the Future Workforce Summit, where she highlighted the importance of “consistent, nurturing relationships” in creating stable, grounded environments for children. That same message was echoed in her discussions at Anna Freud. “At Anna Freud, we’ve been re-imagining mental health care for more than 70 years,” McCrory said, “but the Princess is looking forward to the future in a rapidly changing society. Her recent essay, as well as her recent talk, emphasize how we need to come together to really strengthen the bonds to help protect wellbeing and prevent mental health problems and addictions from emerging in the first place.” Kate’s appearance is the latest step in her growing focus on early intervention and mental health — and signals a deeper investment in the professionals working to support families during those critical first moments of life.
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Scientists Say Cats Rise to Household Royalty Was a Lot Slower Than We Imagined.
Cats may rule the internet today, but their rise to household royalty was a lot slower than we imagined. New genetic research suggests that domestic cats only arrived in Europe around 2,000 years ago — thousands of years later than some leading theories have claimed. The findings, published in Science, challenge the widely held belief that cats began their journey alongside humans 10,000 years ago in the Levant or spread to Europe with Neolithic farmers. Instead, researchers found that modern domestic cats are most closely related to African wildcats, not their Levantine cousins, and that Europe’s oldest true domesticated cat DNA doesn’t appear until the first few centuries BCE. “This makes a very strong case that domestic cats didn’t arrive in Europe until the last few thousand years,” said Jonathan Losos, an evolutionary biologist at Washington University in St. Louis, who wasn’t involved in the study. Cracking the cat code The study, part of the ongoing Project Felix, involved analyzing the genomes of 70 ancient cats — collected from archaeological sites across Europe, Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), and North Africa — dating from the 9th century BCE to the 19th century CE. Researchers also compared this data to the genomes of modern domestic cats and wildcats. Their goal: build a more accurate feline family tree and pin down when domestic cats became truly distinct from their wild ancestors. They found that older European cat remains belonged to European wildcats, Felis silvestris, and not to the African wildcat, Felis lybica, from which all domestic cats descend. Even in Turkey and Cyprus, sites long thought to be early hubs of domesticated cats, the evidence now points to wildcats or only loosely tamed animals. The conclusion? While humans and wildcats may have coexisted for millennia, true domestication — and the spread of domestic cats — happened later than we thought. So where did domesticated cats come from? Researchers believe the process likely began in ancient Egypt, around 4,000 years ago, where cats were famously revered. From there, cats may have spread slowly through trade, travel, and urbanization — earning their keep as pest control and eventually evolving into human companions. The study also cleared up a smaller mystery: cats on the island of Sardinia, long thought to be feral pets gone rogue, are in fact more closely related to North African wildcats — likely introduced independently around 2,200 years ago. Domesticated… sort of Unlike dogs, cats didn’t undergo radical changes in appearance or behavior. That’s part of why their timeline has been so hard to trace. Many researchers now consider cats “semi-domesticated,” with some even arguing that they chose us, rather than the other way around. They came for the mice, stayed for the leftovers — and eventually, for the naps in sunlit windows. “Cats haven’t changed much,” said co-authors Claudio Ottoni and Marco De Martino. “So pinpointing when they actually became domestic animals is incredibly tricky.” What’s next? Despite the breakthrough, many questions remain. DNA from ancient Egyptian mummies could help bridge the gap — but these samples are notoriously difficult to sequence. Still, the researchers say they’re pushing ahead with plans to analyze older feline remains from North Africa and the Middle East. “The big remaining question is when Felis catus truly emerged from Felis lybica,” Losos said. “We’ll need even older DNA to solve that.” However and whenever it happened, the human-cat alliance seems to be one of history’s more enduring (and cuddly) partnerships. And while science may not yet have the full story, one thing’s certain: we didn’t domesticate cats. We just gave them a good reason to stick around.