Many of us spend a lot of time in chairs, and despite the potential perils of prolonged sitting, we’ll likely continue to. But staying in a seat doesn’t have to mean staying sedentary — there are exercises you can do right where you are that work out the entire body. “Things can get heated while seated!” trainer Sarah Eika Burke told Today. “All from a chair, you can get full-body strengthening, effective cardio, mobility exercises, and proper stretch and flexibility.” Check out 15 chair exercises. — the Nice News team
Featured Story
Polar Bears Are the Stars of These Adorable Conservation Livestreams
Erinn Hermsen / Polar Bears International
Over the summer, we reported on an incredibly adorable conservation endeavor: the beluga boat cam, showcasing the playful white whales making their yearly migration to warmer waters. Now in autumn, we’re sharing another livestream initiative you’ll want to watch. In partnership with Explore.org, Polar Bears International — the nonprofit behind the beluga cam — runs a number of polar bear livestreams. The organization also hosts its annual Polar Bear Week, which runs from today through Nov. 8 this year. The week aims to bring awareness to polar bears and their habitats, both of which are in need of protection. Cam viewers may catch mother bears snuggling with their cubs, young bears venturing out on the ice, and males sparring. Plus, while you watch, you can play Polar Bear Bingo, which has participants scope out and screenshot the bears doing certain activities.
How One American Energy Startup Became a $1 Billion Unicorn
A U.S. startup just hit a $1 billion valuation, joining billion-dollar private companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, and ByteDance. Unlike those other unicorns, you can invest — over 35,000 people already have, as have industry giants like General Motors and POSCO. Why all the interest? EnergyX’s patented tech can recover 300% more lithium than traditional methods. That’s a big deal, as demand for lithium is expected to be 18 times the current production levels by 2040. Now, the company is moving toward commercial production, tapping into over 100,000 acres of lithium deposits in Chile, a potential $1.1 billion annual revenue opportunity at projected market prices. Right now, you can invest at this pivotal growth stage. Become an EnergyX shareholder today.
This is a paid advertisement for EnergyX’s Regulation A+ Offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.energyx.com/.
This Week’s Top Stories
Science
Tiny Eye Implant Restores Vision in Patients With Irreversible Blindness for the First Time
Moorfields Eye Hospital / SWNS
More than 5 million people worldwide are impacted by geographic atrophy due to age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of irreversible blindness. There’s previously been no treatment for the condition — but in a new landmark trial, scientists restored vision to patients for the first time. It’s all thanks to PRIMA, a tiny eye implant half as thick as a human hair. When paired with augmented-reality glasses, the pioneering device is the first to enable people to read letters, numbers, and words with an eye that had lost its sight. “In the history of artificial vision, this represents a new era,” Mahi Muqit, who led the U.K. arm of the trial, said in a news release. “Blind patients are actually able to have meaningful central vision restoration, which has never been done before. Getting back the ability to read is a major improvement in their quality of life, lifts their mood, and helps to restore their confidence and independence.” Learn more about the breakthrough (and see the tiny device).
Environment
Turning Eyesores to Art: Austria Reimagines Power Lines as Giant Animals
Austrian Power Grid
As the saying goes, turn lemons into lemonade — or in this case, transform industrial pylons into public art. That’s the plan underway in Austria, where the metal towers are being reimagined as giant animal sculptures to win over residents who aren’t fans of the way the power lines look. Called Austrian Power Giants, these transmission towers double as art installations designed to symbolize different states across the country. The debut prototypes include a stork to represent the annual stork migration in Burgenland and a deer paying homage to the densely wooded foothills of Lower Austria. “This nature-inspired design is ultimately intended to become a symbol for nature-friendly infrastructure projects, strengthen the economic and tourism location in the regions, and ultimately lead to increased acceptance of grid expansion projects by the general public,” the Austrian Power Grid said in a statement. So far, the project has won acclaim from designers, earning a 2025 Red Dot Award for concept design in electrification and decarbonization. But the real test will be gaining public acceptance, especially in rural and scenic areas. As online magazine Yanko Design wrote: “If a community sees a pylon as a landmark rather than an eyesore, the theory goes, acceptance follows.”
If your best idea of what dinosaurs looked like comes from the Jurassic Park movies, new research out of the University of Chicago is here to provide a clearer picture. Published in Science, the paper describes two duck-billed dinosaur “mummies” discovered in Wyoming that were preserved in such detail they’ve given scientists a newly comprehensive look at their external anatomy — including, for the first time, the presence of hoofed feet. “It’s the first time we’ve had a complete, fleshed-out view of a large dinosaur that we can really feel confident about,” senior author Paul Sereno said in a news release. “The badlands in Wyoming where the finds were made is a unique ‘mummy zone’ that has more surprises in store from fossils collected over years of visits by teams of university undergrads.” So what exactly are the newly excavated dinosaur mummies? They’re not quite the same type of mummy as what you’d find in an Egyptian tomb, as the specimens don’t contain any organic material from the animals, which walked the Earth some 66 million years ago. Rather, in a process called clay templating, a thin layer of clay less than 1/100th of an inch thick coated the carcasses’ skin, leaving impressions that scientists used to create renderings of what the living dinos may have looked like.
Sunday Selections
Deep Dives
What do sheep and sports fans have in common? Ask a scientist studying the physics of crowds
If you aren’t ready to part with the spooky vibes post-Halloween, go down the rabbit hole of why humans love horror movies
In Kansas, a beloved bee festival helps protect the tiny buzzers while promoting “nature optimism”
Most widely known for being the first Black photographer to shoot a cover of Vogue, Tyler Mitchell has trained his lens on people, relationships, landscapes, and the Black experience across the world. In this stunning collection, with a foreword by Anna Wintour, Mitchell’s images are accompanied by works from leading writers who contextualize and meditate on the photographer’s themes of self-determination and the quiet beauty in the everyday. Many of his photos are focused on the American South, specifically his home state of Georgia — scroll through a sampling recently featured in TheNew York Times.
If you’re a fan of ’80s coming-of-age movies, add this warmhearted modern take to your watch list. The comedy follows 16-year-old Simon, who’s frustrated by the expectations set by his religious parents, as he rallies his buddies to follow his crush to Canada after she moves. Naturally, things don’t go quite as the gang of guys hope, but the trip offers each one the chance to confront his own personal insecurities and find himself. You can catch it in select theaters or rent it from AppleTV and Amazon Video.
This Week in History
The First Residential Crew Arrives at the International Space Station
November 2, 2000
NASA / Handout/ Hulton Archive via Getty Images
The 25th anniversary of the arrival of the International Space Station’s first residential crew comes, fittingly, just a week after Japan successfully sent a cargo rocket to the orbiter for the first time. On Nov. 2, 2000, Expedition 1 — which launched from Kazakhstan — delivered NASA’s Bill Shepherd and Russian astronauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev (pictured) to the ISS. The station was still fairly new, as the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, and Europe had just agreed to cooperate together on the project in 1998. That same year, the first parts were sent into orbit, and two years later, it was ready for its new crew. The trio became the first humans to adjust to life in space, followed soon after by three more astronauts in March 2001. As of this year, more than 280 people representing 26 countries and five international partners have visited the space station. Learn more fun facts about the ISS.
Daily Health Digital’s 5-Second Trick for Easing Joint Pain
The culprit behind joint discomfort could be a “joint drought” drying out your joints from the inside. The good news? Daily Health Digital has a 5-second daily solution that addresses this root cause. Over 180,000 older adults have tried it with strong results. A Boston doctor’s video explains exactly how it works — watch it below.
