In 2003, Chicago’s mayor sent bulldozers to carve six giant Xs into an airport runway overnight, stranding 16 planes; 12 years later, the former airfield reopened with 40 acres of prairie, wetlands and wildlife habitat

Meigs Field in 1997 (Image Credit: Wikipedia) When Chicago residents woke up on March 31, 2003, one of the city’s most recognisable small airports had effectively disappeared overnight. Under orders from then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, construction crews arrived at Meigs Field in the early hours and carved six enormous X-shaped gouges into the runway, making…

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Indian father drowns while paddleboarding in Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey during family picnic; he was in an area not supervised by lifeguards

Family picnic turns tragic for New Jersey Indian family as 41-year-old father drowns in lake while paddleboarding. 41-year-old Kaushik Sharma, a father of two, drowned in Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey, where he was paddleboarding during a family picnic. The incident took place on August 16 at around 2.30 pm when bystanders noticed an unattended…

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Mark Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan’s parents fled Vietnam by boat; their daughter became the first in her family to attend college and later pledged millions to scientific research | World News

Priscilla Chan’s journey from the daughter of Vietnamese refugees to a Harvard graduate, paediatrician and major science philanthropist is rooted in a family story shaped by war and migration. Her grandparents put her parents, who were teenagers at the time, on boats to flee Vietnam during the war. Chan grew up in Massachusetts, where her…

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Meet Vallabh Ramesh, the 18-year-old Kentucky student who created a 3D-printable smart gel that solidifies at body temperature and could one day deliver drugs inside the body

Vallabh Ramesh’s work looks at how next generation materials could be used in drug delivery, tissue engineering and other areas of biomedical technology in the future. Science and technology has never failed to surprise humans. Think, what if you could print a material into virtually any shape, respond to temperature, and one day help deliver…

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In 1908, a Boston woman donated 140 acres around Maine’s Beehive and Bowl to stop future development; six years later 5,000 acres had been protected for what became Acadia

Acadia National Park was the first national park created from private lands gifted to the public through the efforts of conservation-minded citizens. Many of the activities surrounding the civic groups that created the park excluded women and people of colour, as per the park’s website. However, there was one woman, a longtime resident Eliza Homans,…

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Meet Lianna Genovese, an 19-year-old Canadian student whose gadget made from straws, sponge and pipes helps people with cerebral palsy rediscover painting; now sells in over 25 countries

An estimated 18 million people of all ages live with cerebral palsy across the globe. Within the United States, this number ranges from 764,000 to 1 million, with about 1 in every 345 children diagnosed, according to the Cerebral Palsy Guide. Most such kids are unable to entertain themselves with the toys and activities that…

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In 1962, five pet mute swans escaped in Maryland; within four decades their descendants neared 4,000 and were eating 10.5 million pounds of Chesapeake Bay grasses a year

The exotic mute swan has increased its population size in Chesapeake Bay to approximately 4,500 since 1962. In 1962, five mute swans escaped from an estate in Talbot County, Maryland. More than four decades later, their descendants had grown to nearly 4,000 in the Chesapeake Bay region. As their numbers rose across the Chesapeake Bay…

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