How your body and mind can benefit from dark chocolate
For more than 3,000 years, chocolate has been used for its healing properties. Flash forward to today, and scientists are finding scientific evidence for the healing properties of chocolate, or at least, dark chocolate. Like green tea and red wine, dark chocolate contains polyphenols, a powerful Read More...
After years of rehabilitation, these manatees are returning to the ocean
Three manatees at the Dominican Republic’s National Aquarium are set to return to the ocean after an extensive rehabilitation process that has lasted years. According to Spanish news agency EFE, two of the manatees— Juana and Pepe —are eight years old and only lived in the ocean for a few Read More...
New power plant uses liquid air to store renewable energy
While batteries are great for short-term energy storage, they are still too expensive to do long-term energy storage. Plus, batteries require minerals that are becoming increasingly scarce as the world moves towards power systems based on variable renewable energy. Fortunately, there is a promising Read More...
This nasal spray may help prevent Covid-19 in remote areas
The problem with any potential Covid-19 vaccine is that they are difficult to distribute in low-income and rural areas. Fortunately, researchers from Columbia University may have an effective alternative in the form of a nasal spray. The spray is a lipopeptide (a lipid and peptide combination) Read More...
Diving program teaches kids to document sunken slave ships
In the quest to create a more complete picture of African-American genealogy, an underwater archaeology group called Diving With a Purpose (DWP) focuses on documenting old slave ships that have sunk to the bottom of the sea. Documenting these ships and other artifacts of the transatlantic slave Read More...
Ecologists discover two new species of fluffy marsupials in Australia
It’s a rare occasion when not one, but two new mammals are discovered by scientists in a single day, yet that’s exactly what happened in Australia this past week. In a new study published in Nature's public access Scientific Reports journal, scientists confirmed that there are actually three Read More...
Rising white shark populations off California signals ‘a healthy ecosystem’
White sharks have long been impacted by humans. Commercial fisheries caught them for decades, and the sharks’ primary food—marine mammals—has been hunted to the brink of extinction. After California moved to protect its white shark population back in 1994, white shark numbers have risen Read More...
Colorado votes to reintroduce wolves to the state
While most of America was paying attention to the messy madness surrounding the presidential elections, environmentalists in Colorado were quietly celebrating a little victory: the passing of Proposition 114, which tasks Colorado Parks and Wildlife with crafting a plan to reintroduce wolves to the Read More...
It’s autumn. Time to enjoy the health benefits of pomegranates
We love eating seasonally at the Optimist Daily. Now that it’s autumn, there’s a special red fruit that is in-season and chock full of antioxidants: pomegranates! Let’s take a dive into the nutritional benefits of pomegranates, shall we? Health benefits of pomegranates Registered Read More...
Study: psilocybin therapy 4 times more effective than antidepressants
In 2020, Oregon voted to become the first state to legalize access to psilocybin for all adults. A study reinforces the idea that voters made a sensible decision. The preliminary human trials investigated the effect of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy to treat the major depressive disorder Read More...