In today’s Good News, the world’s endangered pygmy hippo population is up by one with the birth of a female calf at the Toronto Zoo, an arrival heralded as a conservation win. And in Japan, a collaboration between a fireworks company and a chemistry professor could change the future of pyrotechnic shows.

Catherine Garcia
The Week Digital

A successful trial of a “fridge-free” vaccine could reshape how life-saving immunizations are distributed. Most vaccines need to stay refrigerated or frozen before use, and close to 50% are thrown away every year after getting “too hot or too cold,” said the BBC. In its recent trial, Stablepharma reconstituted a tetanus-diphtheria vaccine by adding water to a dry powder right before injection. The immune response was equivalent to traditional vaccines, and participants tolerated the shot well, researchers said.

Researchers have recreated in a lab the “toxic-yet-promising” chemicals found in larkspur and wolfsbane, potentially leading to “improved, naturally sourced therapeutics,” said Michigan State University. The chemicals, called diterpenoid alkaloids, have “mind-bendingly complex structures,” and teams from Michigan State and the Czech Academy of Sciences worked together to painstakingly identify pathways to producing them. Diterpenoid alkaloids can cause paralysis in the “tiniest doses,” but can also be “leveraged for the greater good” to treat pain, malaria and cancer.

The newest addition to the Toronto Zoo is an endangered pygmy hippo calf born last week. Her arrival “represents the critical role modern accredited zoos play in conservation, scientific collaboration and maintaining healthy populations,” said Toronto Zoo CEO Dolf DeJong. The baby, born to 20-year-old Kindia, was “confidently” moving around Little Hippo Hollow within a few hours of birth. Pygmy hippos are native to West Africa, and about 2,000 to 3,000 live in the wild.

A Japanese fireworks company is working with a chemistry professor to develop the world’s first eco-friendly, water-soluble fireworks shells and canisters. After years of trial and error, Kakinoki Fireworks Industry Co. and Ryukoku University Prof. Takahiko Nakaoki decided to coat shells with a resin typically used for agricultural seeds. Once the shells get hot, they become “sloughy like hot caramel” before dissolving, said Good News Network. Since many fireworks shows in Japan take place next to lakes and rivers, “most casings will vanish within hours.”

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