Global – TheMinotVoice.com

Dog Hired As Assistant Teacher In Reykjavík School

by: MinotVoice | May 18, 2025

In a third-grade classroom in Iceland, the newest teaching assistant has four legs, a wagging tail, and a calming presence. Orka, a Labrador Retriever, is part of an innovative pilot program bringing therapy dogs into schools—not just to comfort, but to contribute. Two days a week, she helps students focus, learn, and feel at ease.

Read & Share sourced from: Reykjavik Grapevine

Iowa State University research dives into connection between social media posts, depression

by: MinotVoice | May 18, 2025

Scrolling through someone’s posts might offer more than a glimpse into their day—it could offer early signs of deeper struggles. At Iowa State University, researchers are training a deep learning model to detect potential mental health symptoms through the language used on social media. Unlike earlier tools that focused on vague mood signals, this model

Read & Share sourced from: Iowa Capital Dispatch

AI Discovers Suspected Trigger of Alzheimer’s, And Maybe a Treatment

by: MinotVoice | May 17, 2025

Alzheimer’s remains one of medicine’s toughest puzzles—but artificial intelligence just helped researchers crack a crucial piece. At UC San Diego, scientists used AI to uncover a hidden role for a gene long linked to the disease. Turns out, it may not just be a symptom—it could be part of the cause. With help from AI

Read & Share sourced from: Science Alert

Can AI help us talk to dolphins? The race is now on

by: MinotVoice | May 17, 2025

Talking with animals may no longer be just a childhood dream. A new AI-powered competition—the Coller Dolittle Challenge—is offering up to $500,000 annually, and a $10 million grand prize, to push the boundaries of interspecies communication. This year’s winner? A team decoding decades of dolphin recordings, identifying unique whistles that may act as names or

Read & Share sourced from: Nature

Watch: World First: US Baby Treated With Personalized CRISPR Gene-Editing

by: MinotVoice | May 16, 2025

When KJ Muldoon was just days old, his future seemed heartbreakingly uncertain. Diagnosed with a rare and often fatal genetic disorder, his options were limited to a liver transplant or an untested gene-editing treatment. His parents chose the unknown. That decision has now made KJ the first person in history to receive a fully personalized

Read & Share sourced from: NPR

Democracy Thrives In The Mess

by: MinotVoice | May 16, 2025

It wasn’t a volcanic eruption or financial collapse that put Iceland in the global spotlight this time—it was a scandal. The resignation of Minister Ásthildur Lóa Þórsdóttir stirred headlines worldwide, but the deeper story isn’t about tabloid drama. It’s about democracy doing what it’s supposed to do: airing uncomfortable truths, debating accountability, and refusing to

Read & Share sourced from: Reykjavik Grapevine

Listen: Sauna village in central Stockholm celebrating the Finnish experience

by: MinotVoice | May 16, 2025

In the heart of Stockholm, a pop-up sauna village is bringing a steamy slice of Finnish culture to the public. Part festival, part homage, it’s a three-day celebration sparked by Finland’s comedy trio KAJ—this year’s Eurovision representatives for Sweden. With birch branches in hand and wood-fired heat at their backs, festival-goers are embracing the humid,

Read & Share sourced from: Radio Sweden

First Norwegian astronaut in space

by: MinotVoice | May 15, 2025

Norway has a new kind of explorer. Jannicke Mikkelsen etched her name in history as the first astronaut with only Norwegian citizenship to reach space, commanding the private SpaceX Fram2 mission. The journey wasn’t just orbital; it soared over both the North and South poles, capturing rare footage of the auroras. Mikkelsen’s mission bridged Norway’s

Read & Share sourced from: The Norwegian American

How Finland Is Harvesting Waste Heat From Data Centers

by: MinotVoice | May 14, 2025

In Finland, a quiet revolution is turning data centers from energy guzzlers into community heaters. Ari Kurvi, a pioneer of this technology, helped transform waste heat from servers into warmth for thousands of homes. Now Microsoft is building the world’s largest heat-recovering data center near Helsinki, expected to heat 100,000 homes. As demand for computing

Read & Share sourced from: Bloomberg

HOLY COW! HISTORY: A Tale of Two Trains; When Friendship Rode the Rails

By: J. Mark Powell, Inside Sources | May 13, 2025

Eighty years ago this spring, Europe was finally quiet. Planes no longer dropped bombs, tanks sat stationary, rattling machine guns fell silent. After six bloody years, World War II was at last over on the continent. But peace alone didn’t mean a return to life as usual. Far from it. Cities were in shambles. Entire

Read & Share sourced from: Inside Sources

Vaccine developed in Nebraska could signal end to annual flu shot

By: Cindy Gonzalez, Nebraska Examiner | May 13, 2025

LINCOLN — A new vaccine strategy developed and tested by a team from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln could signal an end to the annual flu shot routine. The possible breakthrough is laid out in newly published research in Nature Communications. The study, “Epitope-Optimized Vaccine Elicits Cross-Species Immunity Against Influenza A Virus,” describes a vaccine that

Read & Share sourced from: Nebraska Examiner

Pope Leo XIV asks journalists to use communication as a tool for peace

by: MinotVoice | May 13, 2025

In his first address to the press, Pope Leo XIV urged journalists to reject the “war of words and images” and embrace communication as a force for peace. Speaking to thousands at the Vatican, Leo praised the courage of reporters covering conflicts and called for the release of imprisoned journalists worldwide. He also warned of

Read & Share sourced from: NPR

The misleading accounting behind your ‘recycled’ plastic

by: Josh Wolsky | May 12, 2025

A complex accounting method used by plastic producers is under fire for overstating recycled content in products. Mondelez, maker of Triscuits, is using a system called “mass balance” to claim up to 50% of its packaging comes from recycled materials, even though actual recycled content may be much lower. Critics, including environmental groups and a

Read & Share sourced from: Grist

Where in the world are babies at the lowest risk of dying?

by: MinotVoice | May 12, 2025

Measuring which country is safest for newborns isn’t as simple as it seems. Definitions of live births and infant deaths vary, especially regarding extremely premature babies. Using standardized comparisons, Japan, Sweden, and Finland consistently have the world’s lowest infant mortality rates. The U.S. lags behind, with an infant death rate nearly three times higher than

Read & Share sourced from: Our World in Data

The U.S. and China announce a deal to cut tariffs, temporarily easing trade war

by: MinotVoice | May 12, 2025

The U.S. and China have agreed to sharply reduce tariffs after high-level trade talks in Switzerland, easing tensions that had disrupted global markets. U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods will drop from 145% to 30% for 90 days, while China will cut its tariffs from 125% to 10%. Both sides called the talks productive and pledged

Read & Share sourced from: NPR

Intelligence on Earth Evolved Independently at Least Twice

by: MinotVoice | May 11, 2025

We’ve long assumed our big, complex brains set us apart—but birds are rewriting that narrative. From ravens planning for the future to chickadees remembering thousands of seed stashes, bird intelligence rivals that of mammals despite their much smaller, structurally different brains. New research published in Science suggests that birds and mammals evolved complex thinking independently,

Read & Share sourced from: WIRED