Ubuntu Studio’s positive news round-up
Ubuntu Thoughts / 5 Min read
Friday 18th February, 2022
Callum Berry
Content & Media Manager
Content & Media Manager
We’re back, back, back again on the best day of the week to give our readers some interesting and exciting news from around the world! From Sweden (which we seem to be talking about a lot at Ubuntu recently…) to the depths of the ocean, grab a nice cup of your favourite beverage and let us give you the lowdown on the positive news from the past week.
Crowing for treats
We don’t have to look far around our home city of Bristol before we’re met with the sight of cigarette butts littering the streets and alleyways. It’s one of our pet peeves, but an issue that no-matter how much the local authorities try, they can’t seem to get a hold on.
Well, one Swedish city is taking an unorthodox approach and one we would LOVE to be experiencing in the near future…
Rather than pay cleaners to keep on top of waste, officials in the city of Sodertalje are training crows to pick up discarded cigarette butts from the streets and squares of the city near Stockholm. And don’t worry PETA, the birds are (supposedly) taking part voluntarily!
For every butt deposited into a bespoke machine designed by start-up Corvid Cleaning (not to be confused with our friends in COVID cleaning), the winged crusaders receive a tasty treat to compensate them for their hard work.
The initiative was initially put in place as part of a cost cutting scheme. Sodertalje spends roughly 20m Swedish Kroner (£1.6m) on street cleaning, and Corvid Cleaning’s CEO Gunther-Hanssen estimates that his method could save at least 75% of costs centred around picking up cigarette butts in the city.
In a time when focus is often placed on issues facing the planet’s more lucious oases, it’s great to see novel innovation going into protecting urban environments, so we hope to see more of this in the future.
Whether the crows can distinguish between a cigarette on the floor and one in someone’s hand, however, remains to be seen.
Well, one Swedish city is taking an unorthodox approach and one we would LOVE to be experiencing in the near future…
Rather than pay cleaners to keep on top of waste, officials in the city of Sodertalje are training crows to pick up discarded cigarette butts from the streets and squares of the city near Stockholm. And don’t worry PETA, the birds are (supposedly) taking part voluntarily!
For every butt deposited into a bespoke machine designed by start-up Corvid Cleaning (not to be confused with our friends in COVID cleaning), the winged crusaders receive a tasty treat to compensate them for their hard work.
The initiative was initially put in place as part of a cost cutting scheme. Sodertalje spends roughly 20m Swedish Kroner (£1.6m) on street cleaning, and Corvid Cleaning’s CEO Gunther-Hanssen estimates that his method could save at least 75% of costs centred around picking up cigarette butts in the city.
In a time when focus is often placed on issues facing the planet’s more lucious oases, it’s great to see novel innovation going into protecting urban environments, so we hope to see more of this in the future.
Whether the crows can distinguish between a cigarette on the floor and one in someone’s hand, however, remains to be seen.
Secrets of the deep
A new study has revealed that the deep-ocean floor is filled with undiscovered life-forms that help to regulate the Earth’s climate.
Researchers sequenced DNA from deep-sea sediments from all around the world, and found that there is nearly three times more life on the seafloor than near the surface – and that nearly two-thirds of that life has not been formally identified yet!
"It's been known since the 1960s that species diversity is very high in the deep sea," co-author Andrew Gooday, a deep-sea biologist and emeritus fellow at the National Oceanography Centre in England, told Live Science. "What was new about this study was that there was a lot of novel diversity at the higher taxonomic level."
The deep-ocean floor has always been shrouded in mystery due to it being so inaccessible to researchers, but new technology is allowing scientists to (literally) dive deeper and explore the life teeming down there.
It’s not surprising that the seafloor contains so much biodiversity, due to it being a much more complex environment than the realms above it, with microhabitats like coral reefs and underwater volcanoes for species to adapt to.
It never ceases to amaze us that in 2022, there remains so much on this planet we have yet to discover.
Researchers sequenced DNA from deep-sea sediments from all around the world, and found that there is nearly three times more life on the seafloor than near the surface – and that nearly two-thirds of that life has not been formally identified yet!
"It's been known since the 1960s that species diversity is very high in the deep sea," co-author Andrew Gooday, a deep-sea biologist and emeritus fellow at the National Oceanography Centre in England, told Live Science. "What was new about this study was that there was a lot of novel diversity at the higher taxonomic level."
The deep-ocean floor has always been shrouded in mystery due to it being so inaccessible to researchers, but new technology is allowing scientists to (literally) dive deeper and explore the life teeming down there.
It’s not surprising that the seafloor contains so much biodiversity, due to it being a much more complex environment than the realms above it, with microhabitats like coral reefs and underwater volcanoes for species to adapt to.
It never ceases to amaze us that in 2022, there remains so much on this planet we have yet to discover.
Stick insects changing pronouns
The National History museum has announced that an adorable stick insect called Charlie has been identified as being half male and half female.
Known as a gynandromorph, Charlie, a green bean stick insect, showed its true colours after shedding its skin at home in Suffolk to reveal the identifiable bright green body of a female alongside the notable brown wings associated with the male of the species.
Experts at the Natural History Museum confirmed that Charlie was the “first reported gynandromorph” in this species, being a “particularly impressive specimen.” Good job Charlie!
Charlie’s owner Lauren has donated her pet to the museum in London for further scientific research.
There are many examples of variations in sex and genetics in animals, notably certain species that can change their genetic sex, such as grouper fish which contain both male and female sex organs.
Known as a gynandromorph, Charlie, a green bean stick insect, showed its true colours after shedding its skin at home in Suffolk to reveal the identifiable bright green body of a female alongside the notable brown wings associated with the male of the species.
Experts at the Natural History Museum confirmed that Charlie was the “first reported gynandromorph” in this species, being a “particularly impressive specimen.” Good job Charlie!
Charlie’s owner Lauren has donated her pet to the museum in London for further scientific research.
There are many examples of variations in sex and genetics in animals, notably certain species that can change their genetic sex, such as grouper fish which contain both male and female sex organs.
Well that was certainly an enlightening and interesting one to end on. We hope you enjoyed this week's PNR and have a great weekend!
Got an interesting story you’d like us to highlight? Feel free to send in your ideas to callum@ubuntustudio.co.uk and you could be featured in an upcoming PNR!
Got an interesting story you’d like us to highlight? Feel free to send in your ideas to callum@ubuntustudio.co.uk and you could be featured in an upcoming PNR!
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If you're looking to make a change in how you market your business, we'd love to chat. Find out more at ubuntustudio.co.uk.
We appreciate that all life on earth is under threat, so we’re using the resources we have—our business, our investments, our voice and our imaginations—to do something about it. Reducing the negative impact on people and the planet.
If you're looking to make a change in how you market your business, we'd love to chat. Find out more at ubuntustudio.co.uk.
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