We could focus gratitude on some good memories from 2023:
“God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.” – James M. Barrie
I usually feel optimistic about the approaching New Year. & Philosophical. Five recent good news that human creativity/studies have gifted us for going forward:
1. Hope for coral reefs. New research (Oregon): “some coral species [may] be resilient [more than we thought] to marine heat waves by ‘remembering’ how they lived through previous”. The key to this possible ‘memory response’ (& relatively rapid adaptation) is thought likely linked to microbiomes dwelling within the coral reefs.
2. A way forward for dealing with nuclear waste. At a nuclear cleanup site, liquid & solid waste being safely turned into large bricks of glass. A successful test of process produced 30,000 pounds of non-radioactive vitrified glass. Process involves melting/mixing materials at 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. The first scaled melter for this is planned to be operational: 2024.
3. Let’s hope & trust that any problems with EVs get solved quickly. I am confident the challenges are being worked on diligently. & Worldwide, electric vehicles apparently accounted for 15% of new passenger vehicle sales during the first half of 2023.
4. Utilizing a type of AI, MIT researchers “discovered a class of compounds that could kill a drug-resistant bacterium [methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus ‘MRSA’] that causes more than 10,000 deaths in the U.S.A. every year”.
And:
5. Bees might soon get help (the creation of safer corridors) for their safer movement around Europe. A European Commission deal/measure aims to target the bees’ “key adversaries: pesticides, pollution, invasive alien species, changing land use & climate change”.
Let’s reach actively for a better 2024. A glass-half-full thought:
“Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I’m thankful that thorns have roses.” – Alphonse Karr