Scientists just cracked a centuries-old mystery about the narwhal's spiral tusk

Happy Monday. The narwhal has been sold as a unicorn, studied by scientists for centuries, and still managed to keep its biggest secret until now. Today we finally know how that tusk works and the answer involves three particle accelerators across three countries.

We also have Africa's largest renewable energy storage plant switching on in South Africa, a beloved Minneapolis pizza joint getting a neighborhood rescue after a fire, and a gas station outside Albany that went viral for giving 20% off to anyone willing to dance for 15 seconds.

Here's your good news.

—Stephanie S

The narwhal's tusk was so extraordinary that medieval merchants sold it as a unicorn horn. It can grow more than six feet long, spiraling in a way that has puzzled scientists for centuries. It is, technically, a tooth — the left canine — and it has no enamel.

Researchers at Aarhus University used three of the world's most powerful synchrotrons, across Sweden, Switzerland, and France, to map the tusk's interior in three dimensions. What they found is that the outer layer spirals left and the inner layer spirals right, creating a "biological counterbalance" where the two structures meet. This double-spiral architecture allows the tusk to withstand enormous mechanical force without breaking.

The growth pattern is genetically programmed and stays constant across the narwhal's entire 80-year lifespan, preserved layer by layer like tree rings. The team is now investigating whether those rings can be used to read North Atlantic climate history. "The discovery not only solves a centuries-old natural science mystery," said lead author Dr. Adrian Rodriguez-Palomo, "it also provides new insight into how nature constructs advanced materials."

As for what the narwhal actually uses the tusk for, that part remains a mystery.

French energy company TotalEnergies has inaugurated the Hydra Project in South Africa's Northern Cape province, combining a 216-megawatt solar farm with a 500-megawatt-hour battery storage system. It is the largest hybrid renewable energy project on the African continent, generating 400 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year and powering approximately 200,000 homes.

Unlike most solar projects, which generate power only when the sun shines, the Hydra Project supplies a continuous 75 megawatts to the national grid from 5am until 9:30pm under a 20-year power purchase agreement. The battery storage system is what makes that possible, absorbing excess generation during peak hours and releasing it when solar output drops.

"This project reinforces our renewable production capacity in South Africa, the continent's largest power market," said Magali Pailhé, Managing Director of TotalEnergies Southern Africa. Built with South African partners Reatile Renewables and Hydra Storage Holding, it represents a significant step in the country's transition away from coal. Read the full story.

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Jakeeno's Pizza has been on the corner of Chicago Avenue and 36th Street in South Minneapolis for more than 50 years. Sisters Amy and Patty Keegan have run it through the Great Recession, through COVID-19, and through the riots that followed the murder of George Floyd two blocks away. In the early hours of July 11th, a fire broke out beneath the roof membrane and forced the restaurant to close while insurance claims are processed.

A local hospitality entrepreneur named Bob Tinsley set up a GoFundMe to keep the staff's wages going while the restaurant rebuilds. The community showed up immediately, with 291 donors contributing $21,000 so far. Brand pasta sauce and frozen pizzas are also available at local co-ops for anyone who wants to support directly.

"We want them back; we appreciate them," Patty Keegan told CBS News. "We feel terrible that they lost their jobs from this and so we're just trying to keep everybody whole." Read the full story.

Paulina Sirtori is 23 years old, a recent Syracuse University graduate, and the social media manager at Halfmoon Sunoco, a gas station about 25 minutes outside Albany, New York. With gas prices drawing complaints from every customer, she came up with a simple idea: dance for 15 seconds and get 20% off your entire bill. No style requirements. No judgment.

The results were exactly what she hoped. Bill twerked and dropped as low as he could go. Dan popped his hip out and whipped his head around, calling it his "Michael Jackson move." One woman saved $15 showing off her groove. "Just being my goofy self," said Denise Lapointe, a local bus driver who sang her own soundtrack while doing it.

The TikTok video of the dancing customers has amassed over a million views. "We want to bring some enjoyment to people during these hard times," Sirtori said. More discounts are reportedly in the works. Watch the video and read the full story.

🦦 USA: A river otter has been spotted along the Bronx River for the first time in 100 years, documented by the Wildlife Conservation Society as a sign that decades of water quality improvements and urban conservation efforts in New York City are paying off.

🇨🇳 China: Tian Rui, a young Chinese man, has made more than 200 trips to remote mountain villages to connect elderly residents with their children who work far from home, using video calls to reunite families separated by China's massive internal migration.

🐌 UK: Chester Zoo has successfully bred 21 critically endangered Desertas Island land snails from the brink of extinction and returned hundreds of their offspring to a pristine Atlantic island, in a conservation program that brought the species back from just a handful of surviving individuals.

🧠 Global: A study of 86,000 adults across 27 European countries found that speaking four or more languages may leave the brain up to 13 years biologically younger than monolinguals, with starting earlier and achieving high fluency linked to the strongest protective effects. Published in Nature Aging.

🦈 Arctic: Greenland sharks, the world's longest-living vertebrates at up to 400 years, appear to maintain remarkably healthy retinal tissue throughout their extraordinarily long lives, with researchers finding active proteins specially adapted for seeing blue light in the dim Arctic depths, published in Nature Communications.

On August 24, 2016, the European Southern Observatory announced the confirmed existence of Proxima Centauri b, a planet orbiting within the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. At just 4.2 light years from Earth, it is the closest known exoplanet to our solar system. Scientists have spent the decade since investigating whether it could support conditions for life.

The planet is roughly Earth-sized, but likely tidally locked, meaning the same side always faces its star, which would create an extreme climate with only a narrow zone potentially habitable. If an atmosphere exists, it may contain oxygen-bearing gases that could produce auroras visible from Earth. The star's intense radiation remains a significant challenge, but Proxima Centauri b has become the anchor of serious research into our nearest neighboring world.

Other notable August 24 events:

1932: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop, 94 years ago today, completing the journey from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey.

1891: Thomas Edison patented the motion picture camera, 135 years ago today — the Kinetograph, developed with William Kennedy Dickson, which used an electric motor and sprocketed film to create the foundation of modern cinematography.

1991: Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union, 35 years ago today, after decades of occupation.

2019: Victor Vescovo became the first person to visit the deepest points in all five of the world's oceans, 7 years ago today, completing the Five Deeps Expedition when he touched down in the Molloy Deep in the Arctic Ocean.

— Edwin Hubble

Every day brings amazing advances and uplifting moments that remind us just how wonderful the world can be. Here are five reasons why today is the best time ever to be alive:

🧬 Detoxifying the Body at the Cellular Level: Scientists are engineering human liver cells to break down environmental toxins, heavy metals, and industrial pollutants that the body currently has no way to process, potentially opening treatments for the kind of chronic low-level toxic exposure that affects millions of people worldwide.

🔭 We Can Move an Asteroid: The DART spacecraft's deliberate impact with the asteroid Dimorphos proved for the first time in history that humanity can change the trajectory of a near-Earth object, demonstrating a working planetary defense system against the kind of asteroid strike that has previously ended eras of life on Earth.

🌱 Buildings Grown From Fungi: Researchers and companies are growing structural materials, packaging, and leather alternatives from mycelium, the underground root network of fungi, producing products that are fully biodegradable, carbon-sequestering, and require no petroleum to manufacture.

🧠 Rewiring Depression Through the Vagus Nerve: Implanted devices that deliver precisely timed electrical pulses to the vagus nerve, synchronized to the heartbeat, are showing remarkable results for people with treatment-resistant depression, with therapeutic effects that continue long after stimulation ends.

🔬 Clocks That Almost Never Lose a Second: Optical atomic clocks now accurate to within one second over the entire age of the universe are being miniaturized into portable devices, with transformative applications for GPS-free navigation, precision physics research, and financial systems that require exact timing.

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