Good morning! 🌞 

A haiku is a traditional Japanese poem with three lines, often capturing a moment, feeling, or observation in nature. It leaves room for interpretation, much like life itself.

Life’s full of questions we’re constantly trying to answer. Sometimes, the search is just as meaningful as the answers themselves.

Here’s a haiku to ponder today:

Life’s a mystery
We search for answers every day
Few are ever found

World News

Ultra-Rare Roman Coin

A rare Roman gold coin, believed to be the first of its kind ever found in Britain, sold for $6,000 at auction after being discovered by an amateur metal detectorist. Ron Walters, a 76-year-old retired welder from Kingswinford, uncovered the nearly 2,000-year-old coin in a farmer’s field near Dudley, West Midlands. He had been searching the same plot of land for six years during planting off-seasons. The coin, a gold aureus dating to 69 AD, is associated with Emperor Aulus Vitellius and marks a significant historical find, being the first of its type recorded in the British Isles.

Walters said he nearly skipped his usual outing that day but was encouraged by his wife to go. While scanning the field, he received a faint signal and began digging. After briefly losing the signal, he located it again a couple of feet away and cracked open a clump of earth, revealing the gold coin in his hand. “My heart was racing,” Walters recalled. He immediately went home, aware that what he had found could be highly significant.

Fieldings Auctioneers, who handled the sale, confirmed the coin’s rarity and historical importance. Senior coin specialist Mark Hannam described the find as “a unique piece of history,” emphasizing how unusual it is to recover coins from the first century, particularly in such well-preserved condition. Most Roman coins discovered in Britain date to the third and fourth centuries. Walters will split the proceeds of the sale with the landowner, as is standard practice under UK treasure-hunting laws.

World News

13-Year-old Outsmarts Einstein

A 13-year-old girl from the UK has been invited to join Mensa after earning a top-tier IQ score of 162—the highest possible for her age and higher than the estimated scores of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. Sofia Kot Arcuri achieved the result without any prior test preparation. Her mother, Cecylia Kot Arcuri, said she’s always known her daughter was bright but didn’t expect a perfect score. “She’s always throwing out random facts,” she said, adding that Sofia has been a top student since starting school.

Beyond academics, Sofia is a well-rounded teenager with a wide range of interests. She’s active in ballet, musical theater, and plays the piano. She also excels in computer science and plans to pursue a career in coding. According to her mother, Sofia once came home and casually mentioned she’d solved a coding bug that had stumped her teacher. Her natural aptitude for logic and problem-solving has set her apart both in and out of the classroom.

The family believes Sofia’s abilities may be inherited. Her grandfather, Antoni Kot, was a respected mathematician and head teacher in Poland who tutored students well into his 80s. “His mind stayed sharp to the end,” Cecylia said, “and we believe Sofia inherited his love of math and coding.” With her Mensa membership, Sofia joins a global network of over 150,000 high-IQ individuals, including figures like Isaac Asimov and astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Environment

Super Rats

Most people see rats as pests, but in a Tanzanian clinic, they’re lifesaving colleagues.

The African giant pouched rat is smart, trainable, and a key player in detecting tuberculosis (TB). These rats have helped prevent an estimated 400,000 TB cases, using their exceptional sense of smell to identify the disease more effectively than standard tests. In Tanzania, where human-led TB detection can be only 20–40% accurate, a rat like Ms. Carolina—who worked for seven years with APOPO—boosted detection rates by 40%. She could screen in 20 minutes what took scientists four days. When she retired last November, the clinic celebrated with a cake and a party.

Despite being the world’s deadliest infectious disease, TB is often overlooked. APOPO’s work not only saves lives but also challenges negative perceptions of rats. “Once people see what they can do, they fall in love with them,” said Tefera Agizew, the nonprofit’s head of tuberculosis. APOPO also trains rats for landmine detection, tackling another major but underreported global threat. One rat, Magawa, found 39 landmines and 28 unexploded bombs, clearing an area the size of 20 football fields.

If you started out skeptical about rats, Carolina and Magawa might just change your mind.

Mind Stretchers

❓️ 

I dance on paper with thoughts untold,
I’m sharp when I’m needed, but dull when I’m old.
I can’t speak, yet I help you to say,
What am I that you use every day?

Yesterday’s Mind Stretchers:

I tame the wild chaos, not with might but with teeth. I create order in a storm of strands. What am I? - comb! Chris Hostetler got this early! 🌻 

Be the first to send us the correct answer for today’s mind stretcher for a shout-out with the answer tomorrow. Just send us the answer and your name to [email protected]

If you have any uplifting stories and experience you might want to share, send those over to [email protected] for the chance to be featured.