Every day, people protect what matters. These are their stories.
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Parking lots might not seem like climate solutions, but South Korea is proving they can be. Starting this month, any parking lot in the country with more than 80 spaces will be required to install solar canopies or carports. The new requirement applies not only t...
Arts & Culture ‘Incredibly serious and unbelievably funny’ Philip Roth biographer, in Harvard talk, digs into novelist’s contradictions, ‘true loves,’ and recurring themes from lust to Jewish life Liz Mineo Harvard Staff Writer November 12, 2025 5 min read Steven J. Zipperstein speaks at Harvard abo...
Sometimes the answers to seemingly intractable environmental problems are found in nature itself. Take the growing challenge of plastic waste. Jacqueline Prawira, an MIT senior in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), has developed biodegradable, plastic-like materials from fis...
Researchers hope the discovery shines a light on bee conservation Down Under...
Ulrich Eichelmann has seen many rivers over his lifetime as the head of RiverWatch, an organization dedicated to protecting the world’s waterways. He’s spent time on the Tigris floating through Turkey and Iraq, on the Tagliamento in Italy, and traveled along the Danube as it winds across Europe. Yet...
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We’ve poured more than 150 million metric tons of plastic garbage into the ocean since 1950. Plastic bits have turned up in places as remote as the bottom of the Mariana Trench, where scientists recently found an intact plastic bag some 6 kilometers below the ocean surface. So it should come as no s...
Researchers have long speculated that humans introduced spiny-tailed iguanas to Mexico’s remote Clarion Island about 50 years ago. However, a recent study suggests the Clarion iguanas are likely native to the island, arriving long before human colonization of the Americas. Clarion Island is the westernmost and oldest of a small group of islands in Mexico’s […]
From AI breakthroughs to self-driving cars and mainstream green energy, innovation is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. Around the world, new patents and inventions are emerging daily, but a select few regions are ahead of others. The 2025 Global Innovation Index (GII), released by the World In...
Article created by: Dominyka ProškėnaitėOur home is our sanctuary—the place where we spend much of our time and unwind from the outside world. It’s only natural to want to love what we’re surrounded by and to create the kind of atmosphere that feels right. Bringing those ideas to life can be expensi...
Researchers discovered that continents don’t just split at the surface—they also peel from below, feeding volcanic activity in the oceans. Simulations reveal that slow mantle waves strip continental roots and push them deep into the oceanic mantle. Data from the Indian Ocean confirms this hidden rec...
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Some revolutions begin not with technology, but with a feeling. For Gregg Treinish, that feeling was guilt. He was spending years on long wilderness expeditions—crossing ranges, sleeping rough, watching the world’s edges—and began to wonder what any of it added up to. “I was spending years in the wi...
The name "Naruto" is now famous worldwide, forever associated with the popular manga/anime series of the same name. Those better versed in Japanese culture may also recognize the name as that of a delicious delicacy - narutomaki is a type of fish cake that's shaped like a cloud and has a pink spiral...
Animals, much like people, need the basics of survival in order to thrive: food, water, shelter from harsh elements, and some form of companionship. It's not uncommon to see wild animals and not think much about us having similar basic needs, but I also haven't met a person yet who doesn't internall...
A regenerative scheme has shown early promise, with herders hopeful it can restore degraded pastures Ibrahima Ka, dressed in flowing indigo robes, gathers his herd with those of his neighbours before a stretch of lush, untouched pasture. The bellowing, heaving and trampling of 350 impatient zebu cow...
Trash that would otherwise rot in landfills could be converted into 62.5 billion liters of jet fuel per year, with a carbon footprint 80-90% smaller than that of fossil-based aviation fuel, according to a new study (1). Aviation represents 2-3% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is extremely har...
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More than 220 communities in Sierra Leone have signed a benefit-sharing carbon agreement with a developer that will help protect a key mangrove ecosystem. Namati Sierra Leone, a legal advocacy group counseling all involved communities, said the agreement between the communities in the chiefdom of Sittia in Bonthe district and the Africa Conservation Initiative (ACI) […]
1 hour agoPallab GhoshScience CorrespondentGettyDrug tests on rabbits could end by the end of the yearThe government has detailed for the first time how it aims to fulfil its manifesto pledge to work toward phasing out animal testing.The new plans include replacing animal testing for some major......
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For years, headlines have warned that Earth is entering a sixth mass extinction. But new research suggests that this dire picture may be more nuanced, and even somewhat hopeful. A study by Kristen Saban and John Wiens of the University of Arizona s Department of ...
You're probably familiar with the literary classic Moby-Dick by the great Herman Melville. But in case you're not, here's the gist: first published in 1851, Moby Dick is about an enraged sea captain in pursuit of a huge, ancient albino sperm whale, Moby-Dick. There sea captain is called Captain Ahab...
In recent years, museums have expressed their wishes to rethink their pasts, returning looted objects, acknowledging the original inhabitants of the land where they are located, and taking steps to deepen their collections of art by women and artists of color. But a collective of artists and agricul...
