Author: Lisa Mungovan

Scientists are studying an easy way, to help your body fight viruses. Take a deep breath, and, that’s the answer! Practicing deep breathing, creates a pattern of stretching and relaxing your lungs, which can generate immune responses to viruses. It also strengthens your lungs, so give them some exercise every day, for good health.

An asteroid which struck Earth 66,000,000 years ago, is the most likely cause of the mass extinction of dinosaurs. Paleontologists have found a perfectly-preserved dinosaur leg in North Dakota, killed on that very day. The Thescelosaurus leg still has its scaly skin, and contains debris from the asteroid’s impact.

Barbershop quartets, are groups that sing in 4-part harmony. Celebrate Barbershop Quartet Day, by singing with your pets, because it’s also Pet Day. Your dog can bark the base line, while kitty-cat meows the tenor. If you recorded your song on an 8-track tape, you’d be celebrating 19 60’s technology, for 8-Track Tape Day. Groovy!

Today is Cheese Fondue Day. Get a pot of melted cheese, some hunks of bread or vegetables on sticks, and dive right in! It’s also Submarine Day, so pretend your snack-on-a-stick, is sneaking up on the enemy. The US Navy’s first sub was named Alligator. An earlier Revolutionary War submarine, was named Turtle.

A train in India, carried an unusual passenger. Riders on a crowded commuter train in West Bengal, had to make room for a horse. Apparently, the horse had run a race earlier in the day, so it was probably too pooped out to walk all the way home. I wonder if horses ride free?

Have you ever heard of a dusky pademelon? Sometimes known as a dusky wallaby or a miniature kangaroo, the endangered species is native to New Guinea. England’s Chester Zoo, was excited to announce they’d spotted a new baby pademelon, peeking out of its mama’s pouch. The joey’s been growing in there for 5 months already.

The New Horizons spacecraft sent images of Pluto, back to Earth. Scientists can see that large areas of the dwarf planet’s surface, were formed by ice volcanoes. They believe it’s possible, that the heat from Pluto’s core, could be maintaining an underground ocean of liquid water, beneath the icy surface. Could something live there?

Today is Siblings Day, so thank your brothers and sisters for being born! You might not always get along, but you can always love each other. It’s also International Safety Pin Day. In 1849, Walter Hunt sold the rights to his amazing little invention, the safety pin, to the W R Grace Company for only $400!

Today is Encourage A Young Writer Day, so I’m encouraging you, yes you, to write a story! Use your imagination, to make it as silly, scary, or realistic as you like. It’s also Farm Animals Day, so you could add a talking cow, or a chicken that wears a tutu. Anything is possible!

In the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, indigenous tribes like the Kukama-Kukamiria, raise honeybees. Unlike European honeybees, their bees are stingless. The honey is also different, depending on the bees’ diet. Amazon plants create different chemicals in honey, that make it useful as medicine to treat infections, diabetes, pneumonia, arthritis, and even cancer. That’s a sweet treatment!