Homeowner gets renovation for free after mix-up

A homeowner in Harrogate got a free renovation after a decorator let himself into the wrong address. The “bizarre accident” came after the decorator was given the wrong address, said the Daily Star. The workman left a note, which read: “Hi, I’m the decorator that came to yours. I was given the wrong address to go to and [was] told to knock and, if [I was] not answered, to just come in and get on with it.” Although the decorator only completed half the job, they offered to come back and complete it for free.

Dogs can smell when you are upset

Dogs can smell when a person is feeling stressed, a study has found. The research, led by Clara Wilson, a doctoral student at Queen’s University Belfast, appears to “pin down the role played by odour” in dogs’ ability to identify human emotions, showing that dogs can detect the smell that humans emit as anxiety levels rise. The breakthrough could allow dogs to be trained more effectively to help people with conditions such as anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, said The Times.

Wolf cloned in Beijing lab

An Arctic wolf has been cloned in a Chinese lab and born from a surrogate Beagle mother, in a “scientific first that could help save endangered species across the globe,” said The Telegraph. Scientists took skin cells from a 16-year-old female wolf living at Harbin Polarland in north-east China, and inserted them into an egg from the beagle, which had been stripped of its contents. They fused to form an embryo which was then transplanted back into the surrogate – a similar technique that was used to create Dolly the Sheep, in Scotland in 1996.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

For more odd news stories, sign up to the weekly Tall Tales newsletter.