The week's good news: June 8, 2023

1. Saving Spots initiative protects wildcats and cultural traditions in Zambia

Holding the synthetic leopard fur up next to the real thing, it's hard to tell which is which — and that's exactly what the team behind Saving Spots wants to hear. Saving Spots — launched in August 2019 by Panthera, the global wildcat conservation organization, and the Barotse Royal Establishment of the Lozi people — is an initiative in Zambia that aims to protect the country's wildcat populations while preserving the traditions and ceremonies of the Lozi, like the Kuomboka festival. During this annual event, community members wear lipatelo skirts made from leopard and serval fur and mishukwe headpieces topped by lion manes. Panthera developed and designed faux leopard and serval furs called heritage furs to replace this regalia, and they have the endorsement of the Lozi king. This not only reduces demand for wildcat skins but also preserves one of the Lozi people's most important ceremonial events. Since 2019, 1,350 lipatelo and mishukwe made of heritage fur have been distributed, and eventually all of the regalia for every Lozi event will be synthetic.

The Week

2. Experimental drug shown to 'significantly' slow progression of brain cancer

A new study found the experimental drug Vorasidenib "significantly" reduced the progression of brain cancer, slowing the progression of tumors by an average of more than 16 months. Vorasidenib, created by the private drug developer Servier Group, is the first molecularly targeted treatment for diffuse glioma, and study lead author Ingo Mellinghoff called the results, which were published in The New England Journal of Medicine, "a very big finding." Vorasidenib specifically works on Grade 2 gliomas by blocking a specific enzyme mutated in low-grade gliomas, keeping them from progressing and postponing the need for further treatment like chemotherapy. "The results are quite striking and they're statistically highly significant, and more importantly, they're clinically very, very significant," Wake Forest Baptist Health's Dr. Glenn Lesser said. Servier Group is working to get the drug approved by the Food & Drug Administration for use in the U.S.

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Reuters

3. James Webb Space Telescope finds faintest galaxy yet seen

The James Webb Space Telescope has observed the faintest galaxy yet seen in the early universe, giving researchers more clues into a period of time known as the "epoch of reionization" that took place after the arrival of the first stars. In a study published in the journal Nature, researchers wrote that the galaxy, called JD1, is approximately 13.3 billion light-years away. Because of that, the galaxy is being observed as it looked when the universe was just a few hundred million years old, Space.com explained, which is only 4% of its age. "Before the Webb telescope switched on, just a year ago, we could not even dream of confirming such a faint galaxy," study co-author and UCLA astronomer Tommaso Treu said in a statement. The telescope was able to observe JD1 due to its infrared instruments and through gravitational lensing, which Treu said was "a revolution. We are rewriting the book on how galaxies formed and evolved in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang."

Space.com

4. Graduating class surprises head of school with one final fun prank

The class of 2023 at St. Andrews School in Middletown, Delaware, wasn't going to graduate without one last surprise for head of school Joy McGrath. One morning in May, she walked into her kitchen at 6 a.m. and found more than 70 students waiting for her. "I was in shock," she told Today. "They were in every possible corner like sardines. It took me a second to realize, 'This is a senior prank!'" The idea came after senior prom, when McGrath invited the students to her house for breakfast at midnight. "Someone joked that they wouldn't mind going to bed right there in the living room," student KaiChun "Austin" Chuang said. "Then a couple of us glanced at each other like, 'Hmmmm.'" McGrath's husband was in on it, leaving the front door open so the teens could sneak inside at 1 a.m. Chuang filmed the surprise, which quickly went viral online. St. Andrews is a boarding school, and Chuang said McGrath "takes such good care of us. ... She works hard to build trust."

Today

5. Study: Yoga can help cancer patients cut the risk of disease spreading or returning

New studies suggest that for cancer patients, staying active by walking 30 minutes a day and doing yoga can reduce fatigue and lower the risk of the disease spreading, returning, or causing death. At the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, three studies were presented that looked at the role of exercise in the lives of cancer patients. The largest was a randomized control study of more than 500 U.S. cancer patients with an average age of 56, led by the University of Rochester Medical Center. The patients, who received cancer treatment between two months and five years before the start of the study, were split into groups, with one practicing yoga and the other attending health education classes. Blood work taken at the end of the study showed those who did yoga had "significantly lower levels of pro-inflammatory markers" compared to the participants in the other group.

The Guardian