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"Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.” --Pauline R. Kezer
Hello everyone! All around us is an undercurrent of love, deep caring and positive change. New heights have been reached in early medical detection; groves of mangroves are helping to turn the tide on climate change; and, for the first time in 200 years, ospreys have bred successfully in Ireland. In the face of all that is going on in our world, looking outwardly, we witness love and creativity in action. May we remember all the goodness in our world and allow it to inspire and fill our hearts. Wishing you a wonderful week!
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Ksenia Chernaya | Pexels
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While incurable, early detection and treatment of Parkinson's disease could help patients live a long and productive life. UK researchers have identified an AI-based solution that can detect PD in patients seven years before the current diagnostic methods by identifying markers for the disease in human eyes. While more research is needed, the technique could emerge as a fast, scalable, and non-invasive way to diagnose diseases. "This work demonstrates the potential for eye data, harnessed by the technology to pick up signs and changes too subtle for humans to see," said Alistair Denniston, consultant opthalmologist at the University of Birmingham. "Finding signs of a number of diseases before symptoms emerge means that, in the future, people could have the time to make lifestyle changes to prevent some conditions arising, and clinicians could delay the onset and impact of lifechanging neurodegenerative disorders," said Dr. Siegfried Wagner, an eye specialist at University College London.
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Adam Nemeroff | Unsplash
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It was at the end of a week-long school trip to San Antonio that Emily Dickerson, 17, lost a treasured ring filled with her father's ashes. Her paternal grandmother gave her the cremation ring after her father died in 2013 and she always wore it. But when they went to the beach at the end of the trip, Emily put her four rings in her boxed lunch while she swam. When she realized she'd forgotten them in the rush to reboard the bus, she called her mother, Tina Koch, who left a desperate voice mail with the Corpus Christi Parks and Recreation Department Friday evening. When parks operation supervisor Laura Perez heard it first thing Monday, she set out to find the ring. With two other city workers, she sifted through four tons of trash that had been baking in the nearly 100-degree heat. It was when Perez called Koch with the good news that she learned there actually had been four rings. So she went back, found the other three, and shipped them to Iowa. "There is good out there," Emily said. "I'm going to remember this forever."
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Ray Bilcliff | Pexels
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Mangroves could be an excellent nature-based solution in helping to turn the tide on climate change, protecting communities from flooding and preserving our precious natural world, says Abu Dhabi, which is using its expertise to support the conservation and restoration of carbon sink mangrove habitats throughout the world. In the last 20 years, close to 20 million seeds have been planted across Abu Dhabi, increasing its mangrove cover by 6,400 ha. It is using extremely accurate mapping to drop germinated seeds from drones at a rate of 2,000 per ten minutes as part of its COP26 pledge to plant 100 million mangroves by 2030. Globally, intertidal mangrove forests store carbon equivalent to over 21 billion tons of CO2. The Abu Dhabi Mangrove Initiative will develop science-based guidance and cutting-edge planting methods to enhance the success of restoration projects globally.
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Matt Idler | Cowboy State Daily
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Tom Hutchings doesn't remember anything about July 18. All he knows is that he is alive today thanks to an unknown Good Samaritan; and he and his wife Lynn, a senator in the Wyoming legislature, want to say thanks. They were returning separately to Cheyenne from Fort Collins when Tom had a heart attack and his Highlander veered into the median. Someone helped pull Tom from the vehicle and performed CPR. Tom's recovery in hospital was miraculous and within 24 hours of the accident, he was ordering salmon for dinner. No one can recall what the Good Samaritan looked like and the paramedics didn't get the name of the person who had been doing CPR. Lynn recently told the story to a friend, who thanked her for the reminder that "we need to start spending more time with our families, appreciating them, and loving on them. Because in a heartbeat, they could be gone."
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Ulster WIldlife
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A pair of ospreys has successfully bred in Ireland for the first time in 200 years, producing two and possibly three chicks, says Ulster Wildlife. Giles Knight, an environmental farming scheme advisor with the conservation organization, has been observing the pair since they arrived at the site in County Fermanagh in 2021. "With at least two of the chicks fledging this season, this is a huge conservation success story and indicates a healthy wetland ecosystem with plenty of suitable habitat and fish to bring this apex predator back to our skies and plunging into the Fermanagh Lakelands." In Ireland, ospreys are thought to have been driven to local extinction around the late 18th century. Ireland's National Parks and Wildlife Service moved forward this summer with its osprey reintroduction program, which will relocate 50 to 70 chicks from Norway over a five-year period. However, the new breeding pair of ospreys returned by themselves.
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