Photo: National Cancer Institute/Unsplash (CC0)
We’re closing out the week at Squirrel News talking about new ways in which ultrasounds could help in the fight against cancer, the thermal energy storage cooling down buildings without releasing planet-warming emissions, and the rescue dogs (and drones) becoming unlikely allies in marine protection.
Ultrasounds have long been used to help doctors see inside the human body, often to create sonograms during pregnancy. However, a new approach to this tech is helping fight cancer: by concentrating ultrasound waves onto a small area of a tumour to destroy it.
Source: BBC News
Burkina Faso has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with more than 1 in 2 girls married before the age of 18, and nearly 1 in 10 girls married before the age of 15. Now, a new bill has upped the minimum legal age to 18 for both boys and girls.
Source: Girls Not Brides
One of the fashion industry’s most prominent publishers – responsible for magazines such as Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Glamour – has announced that it will no longer feature new animal fur in advertising or editorial content across its titles.
Source: Good Good Good
This particular type of thermal energy storage, in which tanks of ice sustain a network of cold-water pipes keeping rooms at cooler temperatures, is being added to buildings across the US. The method reduces electricity usage and lowers the overall strain on the energy grid.
Source: AP News
When environmental disasters happen, live fungi are being used to quickly clean up dangerous substances, from oil spills to toxic runoff.
Source: Reasons To Be Cheerful
Despite covering just 0.2% of the sea floor, seagrasses account for an estimated 10% of all the carbon stored by the world’s oceans. They’re also able to capture carbon from the atmosphere up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests. Now, restoration projects across North America are seeing their meadows quadruple in size.
Source: Reasons To Be Cheerful
Chinampas are a sustainable agricultural system, consisting of rectangular plots of fertile soil created by layering mud, lake sediment, and decaying vegetation. Although these island farms built by the Aztecs thousands of years ago are under threat, a women-led grassroots campaign to save them is gaining traction.
Source: AP News
In partnership with The Challenge Initiative, the Adamawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency has trained 90 female community mobilisers and nine service providers across nine local government areas of the state to make sure women get the care they need.
Source: Social Voices
In Chester in Northern England, multiple generations are coming together to learn from each other: the children are able to pick up on essential language, attention and vocabulary skills, while the older adults benefit from social activity and a sense of purpose.
Source: BBC News
Out at sea watching the whales is Dr Deborah Giles, an orca scientist, with her colleague, Eba: a brown and white rescue dog with a remarkable nose. Scent-detection dogs like Eba, coupled with new technologies, are expanding the toolkit for non-invasive conservation practices.
Source: The Guardian
