Allowing women to give birth in hospital with their pet dog by their side could make them less anxious, one of the first women to use a “birth dog” has said.

Charlotte Beard, 24, who suffers from non-epileptic seizures, was supported through her 50-hour labour by her aid pet Flump, who is trained to detect seizures before they happen.

Flump was prepared for the birth by being played audio tracks of babies crying at home and being introduced to staff at the maternity ward (产房) in Poole hospital. Beard joked. “He was visiting the maternity hospital on a very regular basis, getting to know staff, getting to know the different rooms and the setups.”

It is a legal requirement that assistance dogs are allowed into hospitals, but Beard said a lot of hospitals were not aware of this.

“It would have caused high levels of anxiety if Flump was not there,” she said. “I would have certainly been more concerned about my safety.”

“I am not suggesting that if I were to have a seizure, staff would not have been able to look after me. But no staff member can detect beforehand whether you are going to have a seizure or not. That is something that Flump can do that nobody else can, and it gives them such valuable time to make sure that I am safe and have the right support in place before it happens. Prevention is always much better than treatment.”

Beard got Flump at 10 weeks and has trained him since then. “From a human standpoint I cannot help but think how lovely it is that Flump was there. He was one of the first to see Alfie,” Beard said. “Being present there from the birth and meeting Alfie within moments of him being born, whether it has increased the bond or not, it was such a lovely experience for everyone. Flump was absolutely besotted (痴恋) with Alfie from the moment he first saw him.”

“The pile of ice is so thick; it extends more than 10, 000 feet above the ocean. And if all that ice were to melt and go into the ocean, global sea levels would rise by about 24 feet everywhere around the world,” said Jason Briner, a geologist who studies the ice sheet in Greenland at the University of Buffalo. The ice sheet of the biggest island in the world is melting, and the ice sheet that sits atop it is massive. The ice sheet is melting, of course. But just how much, compared to the past?

Briner’s team did a computer simulation (模拟) of the southwest part of the Greenland ice sheet — which he says is a good indicator for ice melting across the entire ice sheet. The researchers plugged past climate data into that model to “hindcast,” rather than forecast, the past activity of the ice sheet. They then checked the model’s predictions of the past shape and size of the ice sheet by looking at piles of rocks and dirt on Greenland today, which outline the edges of ancient ice. And the simulation was in good agreement with the actual situation.

Using that reconstruction of the ice sheet over time, the team could compare the ice sheet’s historic losses to those happening today under human-caused global warming. And they determined that Greenland is on track to lose more ice this century than during any century in the past 12,000 years — possibly four times as much.

Finally, it’s up to us how much ice actually melts. If the world goes net carbon zero by 2100, for example, Briner says ice loss could stop entirely at the end of the century, according to one model. “That was what kept me from being completely depressed about our study.” Dozens of countries have already announced goals to go net zero by the middle of this century — so far the U. S. is not one of them.

Half a year ago, Lacey Scott was shopping for supplies at a local pet store in Kansas City, Missouri. When she was in that location, a bored face of a little goldfish attracted her attention, and she didn’t stop staring at it the entire time she was there.

Lying at the bottom of a dark fish tank, the sad fish didn’t appear to have much of a wish to survive. Lacey learned from a store clerk that the fish was ten years old and had spent a long time in that depressing tank.

“I couldn’t take my mind off him. I couldn’t bear the thought of a fish who had wasted so much of its life and would end up dying in a pet store,” Lacey said.

Lacey approached the store owner and asked if she could take the small fish home with her.

What no one realized was that the small fish’s best days were still to come: all it needed was a second chance.

Lacey returned home and built a pond out of various materials for the fish she named “Monstro”. She changed his water every day to keep it clean and fresh, and fed him with only the fish food. Monstro, on the other hand, did not appear to be enjoying his new living environment, not even moving to have his meal.

Despite this, Lacey did not give up on him and continued to provide him with specialized care. “I found him swimming for small amounts of time after a month,” Lacey said. “And it was at that point that I realized things began to change.”

Monstro’s body began to change as well. The gray scales (鱼鳞) that made him seem unwell began to change colors. His small body began to shine, showing that his condition had improved greatly.

Lacey put Monstro into a much larger tank once he had fully recovered, where he continues to live in the greatest possible way.