In today’s Squirrel News, a university student in California designs an app that shortens preparation for cancer treatments, Atlanta neighbourhood residents get together and build a pop-up bike lane for school kids, and endangered gorillas in Uganda are coming back thanks to the tourist economy.
University of Southern California biomedical engineering student Arjun Karnwal has invented an app to shorten the time for doctors designing individual radiation treatments from hours to minutes. An oncologist at one of the nation’s best children’s hospitals says it has eliminated treatment delays.
Only a fifth of UK donors have been able to donate at the time requested for transplants, putting procedures in jeopardy. The new stem cell collection centre in Nottingham aims to reduce this shortage. Now it has started welcoming donors.
The three countries agreed to restore the line stretching from Anatolia through Damascus to the Red Sea as part of a larger push toward transport connectivity backed by Türkiye. Dating from the Ottoman Empire, it was partly destroyed in World War 1, with further recent infrastructure damage in Syria
In Atlanta, a ‘Tactical Urbanism’ initiative lets communities raise funds for a temporary change in public space that the city may make permanent if successful. With a year of planning and two days of building, the Midtown community built a bike lane for safe biking between its middle and high schools.
Demand for secondhand electric vehicle batteries is surging across Australia, as buyers repurpose them for everything from solar storage to off-grid energy systems. About five times as powerful as a typical home energy storage unit, some buyers think they can still get 20 years of usage from them.
Scientists have found that mosquitoes bred to carry a common bacterium are much less likely to spread dengue fever and other tropical diseases. In a trial in Indonesia, the release of mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia reduced new dengue fever infections by 77% and hospitalisations by 86%.
Studies show half of US families with small children cannot afford all the diapers they need, yet food stamps and other assistance programmes do not pay for them. The nonprofit Diaper Dollars has developed a gift card programmed to allow families to spend $40 a month on their brand of choice at major retailers.
Several programmes across the UK help former prisoners learn skills, gain experience and successfully re-enter society. Proof Social Bakehouse and Cafe produces sourdough treats and ‘criminally good beer’; Justice Defenders prepares prisoners and ex-offenders for law degrees; and Inside Out Clothing designs streetwear inspired by new beginnings.
The designer of the globally successful cooperative game ‘Pandemic’ took on group-solving the climate crisis in ‘Daybreak’, a game both soberingly real and surprisingly hopeful, as well as just fun, according to public radio podcasters. What worked for them was the ‘kitchen sink’ method: a little of everything.
Foreign tourists pay high fees to see gorillas in their natural Ugandan habitat, and official revenue sharing from it supports healthcare, water projects and other development in local communities. With jobs created and good income generated, local incentive to protect the animals has led to a dramatic decline in poaching.
