Searching and researching the good news, ‘Good News Wednesday’ is my favorite blogging day. A travel company for seniors, a floating children’s library, animals I have never heard of, and the largest table in the world set a new record. Ground-breaking medical achievement. Imagine that: an artificial heart and it’s working.
Africa
Senegal
Researchers studying wild chimpanzees at Dindefelo recorded adults—especially mothers—giving sticks, stones and baobab fruit to youngsters learning difficult foraging techniques. Researchers documented 33 transfers and found that youngsters were more likely to use the objects after receiving them.
Mozambique
Mount Mabu, an isolated rainforest mountain known for species found nowhere else, has received formal national protection. The area contains more than 700 documented species, including endemic butterflies, reptiles and plants.
Asia
India
A travel company created specifically for older adults has taken about 350 seniors on more than 40 trips since 2023. Groups are kept small, and itineraries include slower schedules, medical information, and advance checks of hotels and destinations.
Japan
Architect Tadao Ando has designed and donated a floating children’s library for Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. Hon no Mori-go carries about 2,000 picture books, fairy tales and illustrated books to children living on remote islands.
The Fuji Art Festival will turn 17 sites across Yamanashi into exhibition spaces from October 17 to November 15. Venues include temples, historic houses, museums, workshops and a former sake brewery.
China
A Chinese-developed artificial heart has now been implanted in more than 500 people with end-stage heart failure. A newer model weighs 75 grams and can pump up to ten litres of blood per minute.
Australia & Pacific
Australia
A survey at Western Australia’s Mt Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary captured 48 threatened red-tailed phascogales. That is more than twice the 2024 number and the highest count since the species was reintroduced there nine years ago.
Twelve-year-old Dusty Langby completed a 500-kilometre walk from western New South Wales to Canberra. The 16-day walk raised more than A$400,000 for Little Wings, which flies rural children to specialist medical appointments.
Six 300-kilogram bilby sculptures decorated by Queensland artists have been installed around Charleville to raise awareness of the endangered greater bilby. The art trail is planned to grow to 18 sculptures.
University of Queensland researchers combined 30 years of tracking data to map migration routes used by sharks and rays between Australia and neighbouring countries. The maps identify international connections important for protecting migratory species.
New Zealand
New Zealand has launched its first operational flood-inundation forecasting system in Westport. It predicts not only river levels but where floodwater is likely to spread, giving residents and emergency services more detailed warning.
Four new mobile breast-screening units have been delivered across New Zealand as free screening expands. The units increase the number of women who can be screened each year.
Europe
Great Britain
More than 100,000 volunteers counted almost 1.4 million butterflies and day-flying moths in Britain’s Big Butterfly Count. Painted-lady sightings increased 335% from last year, while holly blues and gatekeepers recorded their highest totals since the count began.
Oxford mathematician Allan McRobie tested the long-standing claim that the Parthenon’s curves were deliberately designed to correct optical distortions. His analysis found no evidence for the commonly repeated explanation and traced the idea to a Roman writer centuries after the temple was built.
Portugal
The traditional construction and handling of Azorean whaling boats has been added to Portugal’s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The designation covers boatbuilding and sailing knowledge preserved in Lajes do Pico.
Greece
Athens’ ancient Kerameikos cemetery has reopened after a €4 million accessibility project. The archaeological site now has accessible routes, a new entrance and upgraded visitor facilities.
Italy
Ten children and teenagers receiving pediatric palliative care in Padua participated remotely in a film-dubbing project and provided voices for a short film. The children recorded from their homes or hospital rooms.
Austria
Austria has expanded the use of minority languages in public administration and media, according to a new Council of Europe assessment. Croatian, Hungarian and Slovenian can now be used with additional federal authorities.
Romania
About 20,000 people gathered at a 5,055-metre table in Bucharest, setting a world record. The table was constructed from recycled materials.
Romania
Restoration is under way on an 800-hectare former fish farm in the Danube Delta. Workers have removed waste and are preparing former ponds for reconnection with natural water flows.
South America
Colombia
Indigenous communities are creating new words for dragonfly species in languages in which the insects previously had no individual names. The work combines Indigenous languages with biological surveys and is recording local ecological knowledge alongside scientific species identification.
Canada
The University of Calgary and University of Lethbridge have launched the Southern Alberta Medical Program, with its first students already in training. The program was created to train more physicians for rural and regional communities.
Concordia University student filmmaker Serena Tang has won silver at the 2026 Student Academy Awards.
University of Saskatchewan historian Valerie Korinek received the Royal Society of Canada’s Ursula Franklin Award in Gender Studies. Hydrologist John Pomeroy received the society’s Bancroft Award for work in earth sciences.
United States
Wyoming
Casper College received a $444,059 National Science Foundation grant to bring hands-on quantum science education to all 23 Wyoming counties. The program will distribute 130 portable experiment kits to K–12 schools and establish a quantum science camp.
Colorado
Doctors at the University of Colorado Anschutz performed dual-target focused ultrasound procedures on two people with advanced Parkinson’s disease in single outpatient sessions. Both experienced immediate improvement in tremor, rigidity and slowed movement on one side of the body.
United States
The American Association for Cancer Research reports that the U.S. cancer death rate has fallen 35% since 1991. Its new annual report also records 11 newly approved anticancer drugs and continuing development of cancer vaccines and AI-assisted cancer care.
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