Today’s good news comes from the Good News Network

In humans, sauna use is so beneficial that some medical researchers are attempting to add it to the standard of care for those at high risk of heart disease.

Well, researchers in Australia have found that this same leisure activity can save certain species of frogs from the ongoing fungal pandemic called chytrid.

GNN has already reported on chytrid and ways to combat it. Documented as having infected 500 species of frog or more, it’s a massive threat to the amphibiome.

Anthony Waddle at Macquarie University in Australia built a series of “frog saunas” to see if they could help golden bell frogs and green bell frogs native to Australia recover from chytrid. The fungal pathogen thrives in cooler tropical temperatures and is unviable above 84°F (29°C).

Consisting of unshaded black brick structures with narrow holes inside an artificial greenhouse habitat with water and plants, the frogs quickly made themselves at home inside the saunas.

Four healthy frogs were used as controls for a study group of eight frogs, half of which were infected with chytrid. Some habitats were shaded, and others were left uncovered to test a range of temperatures. Infected frogs who frequented the unshaded structure, where temperatures could climb as high as 97 to 100°F, had milder infections, but access to any sauna helped the frogs fight off the disease.

Once they recovered via the saunas, the bell frogs were 23 times less likely to die from a repeat infection with chytrid.

Bell frogs “used to live in people’s toilets and letterboxes and everywhere before chytrid,” Waddle told Science News. “Setting up these habitats where they still persist might give them enough of a boost that you could see a population increase.”

Building these simple structures in a garden could help frogs survive chytrid outbreaks and help the local population develop resistance.

Not all frog species enjoy roasting, however, so saunas are limited to warm-weather species. Another solution needs to be found for those who enjoy cooler temperatures.

The good news in today’s story is that folks are working on eliminating a threat affecting a whole animal species.  Today’s JohnKu talks about those folks. I hope you have a terrific weekend.

Heroes by John W. Howell.© 2024

It’s hard to define,

What actions are heroic . . .

The frogs could tell you.

Today’s good news story comes from the Good News Network.

Pioneering Zero-Emissions Hydrogen Fuel-Cell-Powered Ship Successfully Tested in Japan

A consortium of Japanese firms has successfully demonstrated the first-ever zero-emissions ship above 20 gross tons.

Sailing 30 kilometers between the Port of Kokura and the Shirashima Offshore Wind Farm, the HANARIA was powered entirely by hydrogen fuel cells.

An island nation, 10.25 million tons of carbon emissions from Japan’s transportation sector came from coastal shipping and transport. In 2015, former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga outlined carbon neutrality by 2050 as a major component of Japan’s development strategy, in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, and significant steps must be taken to achieve that.

The Nippon Foundation, a research and development fund dedicated to passing the riches of the sea intact to future generations, worked in tandem with manufacturers and shipping operators to develop a suite of hydrogen-powered, zero-emission vessels for use in shipping and coastal transport.

Hydrogen is manufactured by using an electrical current to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The pure hydrogen can then be used as a substitute for heavy engine fuels like diesel and kerosene in a fuel-cell vehicle. If the hydrogen is manufactured with green energy, it’s known as ‘green hydrogen.’

A passenger ship, HANARIA spans 108 feet (33 meters), weighs 248 gross tons, and is equipped with a hydrogen fuel system. She is expected to transport personnel to the offshore wind farm and conduct site tours.

During the demonstration, she registered zero CO2 emissions using hydrogen fuel from her departure to her arrival and return.

“The realization of a hydrogen society requires not only technological development but also city and social design, and we look forward to moving ahead with all parties involved,” said the project’s chief leader, Yoshihiko Hamamura, who also holds a post at the Toyota Motor Corporation’s Hydrogen Factory which supplied the hydrogen tanks for HANARIA.

The Nippon Foundation has been carrying out the Zero Emission Ships Project since January 2022. The project plans to test two other vessels by the end of fiscal year 2026, including a yacht and a hydrogen-powered tanker.

The executive director of the Nippon Foundation, Mitsuyuki Unno, said that they hope to help Japan lead the world to zero-emissions shipping.

The good news in this story is that real advancements are being made with hydrogen-fueled vehicles. Today’s JohnKu talks about technology advances. I hope you have a great weekend.

Technology by John W. Howell © 2024

Every day, there’s more,

Great minds working to advance . . .

Stewardship of Earth.

Today’s good news is from the Good News Network.

The Rewilding Europe organization is thrilled to announce the arrival of a small herd of bison in a large valley in Portugal.

Believed to be the key to preventing catastrophic wildfires, invasive species spread, and promoting endemic biodiversity, it’s the first time bison have been present in Portugal since the last Glacial Maximum.

From Poland to Romania to the UK, European wood bison are now firmly recognized as one of the best tools for returning what little wilderness Europe has left to as wild a state as possible.

Once upon a time, all of Europe was covered in forests or scrubland, through which the European bison and the steppe bison roamed. Today, nations across the Old World are trying to reintroduce these large grazers into wild areas to help improve native ecosystems.

In Portugal, a country smaller than Pennsylvania, the gradual abandonment of the Greater Côa Valley has presented an unprecedented opportunity for rewilding.

The government has already set aside a quarter million acres of land for conservation, boasting an exciting mix of natural and semi-natural habitats of scrub, Mediterranean dry forests, and steep gorges.

The Iberian wolf is present on the land in the form of a small pack, and the area acts as a refuge for roe and red deer, wild boar, eagles, and an ancient cattle breed that’s left to roam wild as its ancestor, the mighty auroch, once did across Europe.

The arriving European bison will be managed in cooperation with the Rewilding Portugal team, who received the individuals from the forests of northern Poland, where over 4,000 bison roam wild.

“We are viewing this translocation as a pilot,” explains Rewilding Portugal team leader Pedro Prata. “The bison will be closely monitored to see how they acclimatize to the local landscape and climate. This is the first time the Rewilding Portugal team has managed bison, so it’s also a learning process for us. Members of the team will receive training in bison management.”

It won’t just be new for the team but also for Portugal. The remains of the European bison have never been discovered in the country or on the whole of the Iberian Peninsula.

Scientific evidence has to look back 10,000 years to find a bison in Portugal—the steppe bison—a predecessor of the modern European bison. However, studies of translocated bison in Spain have shown they are at home in the hot, dry climate.

Through their grazing, foraging, trampling, and fertilizing, bison help to maintain biodiversity-rich mosaic landscapes of forest, scrub, and grassland, as well as numerous micro-habitats, which host a wide range of plant and animal species.

Studies in Europe and North America have highlighted this with regard to the related American bison. These same interactions can boost the capture of atmospheric carbon in both vegetation and the soil.

This report is good news since the rewilding of any area is a step closer to the naturalization of the planet. Today’s JohnKu talks about replenishment. I hope you have a super weekend.

Replace by John W. Howell © 2024

Emptying resource,

Is a dangerous action . . .

Replace what you take.

When a severe water shortage hit the Indian city of Kozhikode in the state of Kerala, a group of engineers turned to science fiction to keep the taps running.

Like everyone else in the city, engineering student Swapnil Shrivastav received a ration of two buckets of water a day collected from India’s arsenal of small water towers.

It was a ‘watershed’ moment for Shrivastav, who, according to the BBC, had won a student competition four years earlier on the subject of tackling water scarcity, and armed with a hypothetical template from the original Star Wars films, Shrivastav and two partners set to work harvesting water from the humid air.

“One element of inspiration was from Star Wars, where there’s an air-to-water device. I thought, why don’t we give it a try? It was more of a curiosity project,” he told the BBC.

According to ‘Wookiepedia’ a ‘moisture vaporator’ is a device used on moisture farms to capture water from a dry planet’s atmosphere, like Tatooine, where protagonist Luke Skywalker grew up.

This fictional device functions according to Star Wars lore by coaxing moisture from the air through refrigerated condensers, which generate low-energy ionization fields. Captured water is then pumped or gravity-directed into a storage cistern that adjusts its pH levels. Vaporators can collect 1.5 liters of water per day.

If science fiction authors could devise the particulars of such a device, Shrivastav must have felt he had a good chance of succeeding. In 2019, he and colleagues Govinda Balaji and Venkatesh Raja founded Uravu Labs, a Bangalore-based startup.

Their initial offering is a machine that converts air to water using a liquid desiccant. The desiccant absorbs moisture from the air, and sunlight or renewable energy heats it to around 100°F. The captured moisture is released into a chamber, where it’s condensed into drinking water.

The whole process takes 12 hours but can produce a staggering 2,000 liters, or about 500 gallons of drinking-quality water per day. Uravu has since had to adjust course due to the cost of manufacturing and running the machines—it’s just too high for civic use with current materials technology.

“We had to shift to commercial consumption applications as they were ready to pay us, and it’s a sustainability driver for them,” Shrivastav explained. This pivot has so far been enough to keep the start-up afloat, and they produce water for 40 different hospitality clients.

Looking ahead, Shrivastav, Raja, and Balaji are planning to investigate whether the desiccant can be made more efficient. Can it work at a lower temperature to reduce running costs, or is there another material that might prove more cost-effective?

They’re also looking at running their device attached to data centers in a pilot project that would see them utilize the waste heat coming off the centers to heat the desiccant.

The good news in this article is that smart people are exploring ideas that seem more fiction than reality to solve real problems. Today’s JohnKu talks about the potential of the human brain. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Ingenuity by John W. Howell © 2024

An idea born,

From a sci-fi writer’s brain. . .

Is now feasible.

Today’s good news story comes from the Good News Network.

The Number of Fish on US Overfishing List Reaches an All-Time Low Led by Mackerel and Snapper

According to a recent federal report, the US seafood industry has never been more sustainable, with the fewest overharvested fish stocks ever recorded.

The report, ‘Status of the Stocks,’ was published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It also shows the strength of an industry worth $8 billion a year.

According to the report, 94% of fish stocks in US oceanic and Gulf waters are not being overfished, an all-time high after the number climbed slightly from last year.

NOAA keeps a list of all the fisheries in the country that are subject to overfishing, and the agency said it has recently removed several species: the Gulf of Maine and Cape Hatteras stocks of Atlantic mackerel and the Gulf of Mexico stocks of Cubera snapper.

2022 saw the removal of the Atlantic Coast bluefish and a Washington Coast stock of coho salmon.

“By ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks, we are strengthening the value of U.S. fisheries to the economy, our communities, and marine ecosystems,” said Rick Spinrad, NOAA’s administrator.

GNN recently reported that after decades of overfishing in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, hake fisheries off the coast of Spain are as large as ever thanks to timely and targeted conservation measures.

Additionally, Maine’s Penobscot River recently saw record numbers of Atlantic salmon returning to spawn, but the real trendsetters that far north have been blueback river herring and alewives, which entered the Penobscot in numbers that more than double the previous record.

The good news in this story is that by working together the fishing industry is helping to sustain itself for many years to come. Today’s JohnKu talks about human endeavor. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Hard Work by John W. Howell © 2024

Building back resource,

Is very hard work indeed . . .

Conservation – easy.

Today’s good news story comes from the Good News Network.

To be a drug-sniffing dog, you have to be impassionate, which is exactly what this golden retriever was not.

Though Roger flunked out of the Kaohsiung City police academy in Taiwan, his career in public service was not over. He has now captured the hearts of his people with his rescue efforts during Taiwan’s recent earthquake.

Striking the northern part of the island with a magnitude of 7.4, it caused a landslide in a popular national park that destroyed several buildings and claimed a dozen victims.

8-year-old Roger was quickly deployed to the area, where his exuberance and independent streak put him in good stead for locating the body of a 21-year-old victim who hadn’t been found.

Whether Chen Chih-san, captain of the rescue dog unit of the Kaohsiung Fire Department, has other dogs that assisted in the rescue efforts, only Roger captured the island nation’s hearts because of his earlier career setback and subsequent redemption arc.

“I’m not saying he was not good or that he didn’t get along with others. But the requirement for narcotic detection dogs is that they can’t be too restless and independent,” Chen said. “But (these attributes) are what we want in rescue dogs.”

These attributes were perfectly on show when he lunged for the reporter’s microphone as his handler was being interviewed by Taiwan’s official Central News Agency.

Having participated in 7 rescue organizations throughout his career, which included his being certified by the International Rescue Dog Organization in 2022, an accolade last achieved by a Taiwanese rescue dog in 2019, Roger’s retirement is fast approaching.

CNN reports that he will have a wonderful home suitable for an active, precocious dog like him. However, before he puts his paws up for his golden years, one family will have the closure of laying a loved one to rest because of his excellent nose and personality.

The good news in this story is that just because a body is not best equipped for one job doesn’t mean all jobs are out of reach. Today’s JohnKu talks about careers. I hope you have a great weekend.

Careers by John W. Howell ©2024

One job may not work,

But giving up on the rest . . .

May be a mistake.