In today’s Good News, the votes are in, and a tiny robin that made an extraordinary comeback is being celebrated as New Zealand’s bird of the year. And in Greece, a 400-acre sustainable park built on a former airport site is changing the landscape of the coast near Athens. 

Catherine Garcia
The Week Digital

Analyzing neurons that carry the ERBB4 receptor may reveal key insights about the root cause of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study from the Institute of Basic Science in South Korea. Researchers found that when there’s an “abnormal activation” of this molecule in the brain’s excitatory neurons, it can “initiate several Alzheimer’s-related problems at once,” said The Independent. Using gene-editing technology, the team removed ERBB4 receptors from excitatory neurons in the hippocampus, and that “quieted hyperactive nerve cells” and “corrected several abnormalities.”

Three African wild dogs in Zambia completed a 2,485-mile journey across the continent, marking what researchers believe is the longest recorded movement by an African mammal. Scientists say the mammoth trek, tracked by GPS collars, offers hope that wildlife can still travel across vast distances despite growing human pressures. The findings, published in the journal Ecology, also add “weight to calls to create strips of natural land outside protected areas that connect separate wildlife areas,” said the BBC.

The black robin was voted New Zealand’s 2026 bird of the year, earning the honor after being brought back from the brink of extinction. Also known as the “goth” bird, black robins live on the remote Chatham Islands. Due to habitat loss, only five of the birds, including one breeding pair, remained in the wild in the 1970s. A program that brings in other species to act as foster parents to black robin eggs has helped boost the population to 350 adult birds.

An old airport near Athens is getting new life as Europe’s second-largest city park. The 400-acre Ellinikon Park, set to open next year, is being designed to “maximize thermoregulation of the air temperature” to keep the park 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than asphalt areas, said Good News Network. More than 30,000 trees and 3 million smaller plants will cover the grounds, and misting systems will keep people and greenery cool. Concrete slabs from the airport will also be repurposed for retaining walls.

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