Shipwrecks in the Atlantic are providing critical habitats for sand tiger sharks
Off the shores of North Carolina is a coastal region known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” In this area, hundreds of shipwrecks are lying in tatters on the ocean floor. Lately, scientists have started to notice that female tiger sharks have developed an affinity to these shipwrecks off the Read More...
Ma Jun is not your everyday environmental activist
There all kinds of ways to do environmental activism. One way, as we pointed out in yesterday’s Optimist Daily, is to take to the streets and be civilly disobedient in the name of climate action. Another more subtle way is to be like Chinese environmentalist Ma Jun. At the age of 50, Ma has Read More...
Lego is making bricks that teach blind students how to read Braille
In one of the newest Lego sets under development, the bumps that hold the toys together have a second purpose: They also help children learn Braille. The series of dots on each brick represents a different letter of the Braille alphabet, the numbers zero through nine, and a handful of math symbols. Read More...
You have to see these images of Holland’s hypnotic tulip fields from high above
The Spring season is the time of the year where nature’s bright colors return after a long winter, and nowhere is that truer than in the Netherlands. Springtime in the Netherlands is synonymous with tulip season when fields of the famous Dutch bulb spring to life in vast arrays of dizzying color. Read More...
Don’t toss your old clothes in the trash! Here’s how to recycle them instead
No matter how much you might want to keep repairing your longtime favorite shirt so you can keep wearing it, at some point, it’s time to let it go. But wait! Don’t throw in the trash. Textile waste, which includes everything from old shirts to carpets and comforters, is an enormous problem. We Read More...
New York City is getting ready to ban new glass skyscrapers
The glass skyscraper was once a symbol of America’s mighty economic power. Perhaps it still is, but to many people nowadays, the glass skyscraper is the epitome of unsustainable architecture. Glass skyscrapers are incredibly inefficient because of all the heat that escapes through the windows, Read More...
Why eating healthy is just a question of scheduling
When we’re not eating a balanced, healthy diet, we often blame it on our lack of time. But maybe we’re looking at it all wrong? Perhaps the struggle to cook meals from scratch and eat them with others is not because we lack time but because we're scheduling it poorly. Not long ago, set Read More...
Pioneering malaria vaccine to roll out in Malawi
Malaria is one of the world’s leading killers, claiming the lives of over 250,000 children in Africa every year. Researchers have been trying for decades to come up with a viable solution to this global health problem, but haven’t made much progress. That is, until recently. This week, the Read More...
A Brazilian couple brought an entire rainforest back to life in 20 years
In the early 1990s, Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado was stationed in East Africa where he was covering the horrific accounts of the Rwanda genocide. Following this traumatizing project, Salgado decided to find solace in the lap of a lush and lively rainforest that surrounded Read More...
Researchers reveal pathway towards achieving 100% clean energy before 2050
In an attempt to show that transitioning to a global 100 percent renewable energy system is no longer a matter of technical feasibility or economic viability, but one of political will, a Finnish university has published a comprehensive global roadmap on how the world can reduce its carbon Read More...