We recently shared a ton of science-based info on how summertime benefits your health — but looking at these stunning summer scenes from SmithsonianMagazine’s Photo Contest really drives home the old adage, “a picture is worth 1,000 words.” Hoping you get to partake in some mood-boosting seasonal activities this week (without getting too hot, if possible!).
Featured Story
Man Mows Overgrown Lawns for Free in Heartwarming (and Satisfying) Viral Videos
SB Mowing/Facebook
On a hot summer day, mowing the lawn is the last thing anyone wants to do — and even when temps are cooler, it isn’t exactly an exciting activity. But for people with physical limitations, financial constraints, or mental health struggles, yard work can go beyond being just a tiresome chore and instead become a virtual impossibility. Armed with a stand-on mower and other high-powered landscaping tools, one Kansas man has made it his business to help those who need it most. Spencer B., who asked that we use his first name and last initial only, films himself tackling out-of-control lawns for free and posts the time-lapse footage to his social media accounts.
Looking and feeling your best this summer begins with taking care of your physical health, and for women specifically, the gut is a great place to start. We recommend Nouri’s cutting-edge Women’s Health Daily Probiotic capsules. The supplement supports urinary tract health, promotes healthy vaginal pH, and helps advance digestion and immune function — all things you want to keep in check as you enjoy the active summer months full of sunshine and fun. Just take one capsule per day, with or without food.
In what one conservationist called “the greatest recovery of a cat species ever achieved through conservation,” the Iberian lynx has been brought back from the brink of extinction. Earlier this month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature announced that the rare wild cat species, native to the peninsula of the same name, had been downgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable” on the Red List of Threatened Species. The keystone species’ numbers have grown exponentially, from 62 mature individuals in 2001 to 648 in 2022. Today, the total population, including young, is believed to be over 2,000. That’s thanks to efforts like restoring habitats, increasing the abundance of prey, reducing deaths from human activity, and expanding the lynx’s genetic diversity. “The significant recovery of the Iberian lynx demonstrates that even the most threatened species can be brought back from the brink of extinction through committed, science-based conservation action and provides hope for those working to protect wildlife across the globe,” Sarah Durant, a professor at the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology, said in a statement. Observe the cats in the wild.
Tech
Researchers Developed a Hair-Thin Fabric That Suppresses Noise
There’s no doubt we live in a loud world. Whether you reside on a busy street, live with roommates, or have a mockingbird singing in your yard, noise seems to find a way. However, getting some peace and quiet may become a little easier thanks to a newly developed sound-suppressing silk fabric. In a recent study, MIT researchers created a “hair-thin” fabric that generates sound waves to interfere with unwanted noise — much like noise-canceling headphones. The material was also able to block noise transmission, not just interfere with it. When the silk was held still, researchers found that it could suppress vibrations and reflect sound, similar to a mirror reflecting light, thus preventing noise from going through the fabric. According to the researchers, the fabric has the potential to create quiet in large rooms and cars, rather than just in ears like headphones and earplugs do. Lead author Grace (Noel) Yang said in a statement: “This is just the beginning.” Check out an illustration showing how it works.
Culture
Artwork May Be First Known Portrait Commissioned by a Formerly Enslaved Person
A portrait with once-mysterious origins has gone on display at a Maryland art museum, and historians think it may be the first known commission by a formerly enslaved person in the United States. The subject of the portrait is believed to be Mary Ann Tritt Cassell, and it was believed to be painted by James Alexander Simpson around 1840. Its significance lies in the fact that Cassell’s mother, Henrietta Steptoe, was born into slavery in Virginia. She was freed in the early 19th century and joined a free Black community in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Because the painting of Steptoe’s biracial daughter remained in her family for some time, it can be assumed that the mother likely commissioned it herself. “What sets the painting apart isn’t artistic merit — Simpson was a competent painter, not a great one — but that it appears to represent the earliest instance of a formerly enslaved person having the ambition and means to commission and acquire a luxury like a portrait of her daughter,” author and historian James Johnston wrote in The Washington Post. “The faces and stories of so many of the enslaved and their children have been lost. Mary Ann’s were among them — but now, at last, they are found.” See the painting, now on exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Sunday Selections
Deep Dives
In the years following the birth of photography, these images introduced the American public to their presidents
Taking and giving criticism isn’t easy, but research offers helpful suggestions for doing so constructively
Colorado’s Trail Ridge Road — aka the “Highway to the Sky” — is an utterly majestic drive
Harriet Tubman is an American icon of almost mythical proportions. Underneath the cape and mask of superheroism, however, lived a complex and vulnerable human being. In Night Flyer, written by National Book Award winner Tiya Miles and edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr., Tubman’s early life, connection to the natural world, and kinship with other faith-driven, female freedom fighters are explored in as much detail as her incredible contributions to freeing enslaved people.
The U.S. Track and Field team trials end today, but you don’t have to wait until the Summer Games to get your next fix of the world’s fastest humans. Netflix’s new docuseries chroniclesthe intense journey from the 2023 World Championships to the 2024 Paris Olympics, following athletes like Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson — who just won the men’s and women’s 100-meter dash finals, respectively — as they vye to become the “new face of speed.”
This Week in History
French Fashion Designer Unveils the First Modern Bikini
July 5, 1946
-/AFP via Getty Images
During a fashion show at a popular Paris pool, French designer and former engineer Louis Réard showcased a daring new bathing suit: the bikini. The swimwear, modeled by showgirl Micheline Bernardini, was born in part from necessity, as the world was still experiencing a textile shortage due to World War II, but another timely factor may have played a part as well. “We’ve seen it after many wars,” Kelly Killoren Bensimon, author of The Bikini Book (and former star of The Real Housewives of New York City), told The Washington Post in 2018. “In the safer time to follow, we get these celebrations of freedom and the human body.” See the progression of women’s bathing suits through history.
Nouri Knows Women’s Health
Nouri understands women’s health and the many contributing factors that go into feeling good, day in and day out. The brand’s women’s health portfolio includes the Daily Probiotic capsules, the Menopause Health Daily Probiotic, and the Prenatal Health Daily Probiotic — all science-backed, gut-boosting formulas designed to guide women through every stage of life. Nouri also offers supplements for men — explore those here.*
