In today’s Good News, scientists are buzzing over a tasty “superfood” that can be given to bees any time of year, providing all the nutrients they need. And in the Netherlands, one company is working on a sustainable solution to both wind turbine waste and housing shortages.

Catherine Garcia
The Week Digital

The over-the-counter antihistamine azelastine is used to treat seasonal allergies, but a new clinical trial shows that it could also potentially block Covid-19, RSV and influenza infections. The two-month study at Germany’s Saarland University Hospital split 450 adults in their 30s into two groups, with one using azelastine nasal spray three times a day and the other doing the same with a placebo. The placebo group had a 6.7% Covid infection rate compared to 2.2% in the azelastine group. Researchers say more trials are necessary.

A new cancer therapy has shown promise in cats, paving the way for human testing. Researchers at U.C. San Francisco and U.C. Davis treated 20 cats with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, using a drug that aims to block the protein STAT3 and boost the protein PD-1, which “stimulates the immune system’s attack on tumors,” said The Times of London. The treatment controlled the disease in 35% of the cats, increasing the average survival rate by two months.

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A honeybee “superfood” created by Oxford University scientists and fed to several hives resulted in colonies with up to 15 times more babies that made it to adulthood. When eating pollen and nectar, bees get a lipid called sterol. The Oxford team spent 15 years studying sterols, trying to replicate what the bees need for survival. Using gene editing, they created a “breakthrough” yeast that produces six sterols and other necessary nutrients.

The Dutch company Blade-Made is taking pieces from old wind turbines that cannot be recycled and transforming them into benches, playgrounds and tiny homes. Turning a turbine nacelle (protective housing for components) into a 376-square-foot house is “basically the most complex thing you can do with it,” Blade-Made co-founder Jos de Krieger told CNN, but other projects are “easier to imagine and to realize.” Wind turbines are operational for about 25 years, and Blade-Made envisions its innovative upcycling as a solution for tackling turbine waste.

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