PODCAST /
Libraries, telescopes and a pencil mark
Four news stories and one discovery from the 28 October 2026 edition. AI-generated Marin voice; facts, sources and limitations in the linked readings.
A few minutes of good news.
Narrated by an AI-generated voice. The transcript and sources are below.
The full transcript
Good morning. This is Positive Times for the twenty-eighth of October, twenty twenty-six. Today we enter a library, look at a telescope still on Earth, and follow a river more closely. Then we meet a plaster horse and a surprise hidden in a pencil. Let’s begin.
Parma’s Alice Library returns to the Pablo neighbourhood
In Parma, the Alice Library inaugurated its new home in the Pablo neighbourhood on the twenty-seventh of October. The report describes spaces for young children, reading, study and workshops. Families remain a focus, while readers of different ages are welcome. The opening comes with an illustrated-book programme scheduled from October to March. The building has opened; an increase in readership has not yet been measured. Our thought: when a library moves house, its boxes carry other worlds too.
NEO Surveyor’s sunshade makes power while keeping the telescope cool
From books to a very unusual screen. On the twenty-sixth of October, NASA reported progress on NEO Surveyor, the future telescope designed to find near-Earth asteroids and comets. Its sunshade does more than make shade: it carries cells that generate electricity. The structure is about six metres tall, measures two point four metres across its base, and can supply up to two kilowatts. Functional and performance tests of the solar array have been completed. The telescope is not yet carrying out its search in space. This is progress in construction and testing, not a new discovery of dangerous asteroids.
On the Derg, a pilot looks between the monthly water samples
Back to water. In Northern Ireland, a pilot on the River Derg, announced on the twenty-sixth of October, will test the usefulness of more frequent measurements. The environment agency already takes monthly samples at three locations. New equipment can record temperature, dissolved oxygen and other conditions directly in the river. Data will be transmitted remotely or stored locally, depending on equipment and signal. Think of a road: checking it only once a month might miss a short traffic jam. That is an example, not a measurement of the river. The pilot will look for links with recorded incidents. It does not show that pollution has already fallen.
Canova’s colossal horse returns to Bassano, ready for assembly
In Bassano del Grappa, a horse has returned with rather unusual moving requirements. Parts of Antonio Canova’s Colossal Horse reached the Civic Museum on the twenty-seventh of October, following restoration and an exhibition in Milan. This is a large plaster model made between eighteen nineteen and eighteen twenty-one. The museum says it will be presented whole, almost sixty years after being dismantled. But first comes assembly. The museum’s main floor remains closed through the eleventh of December. The announced date for seeing the work in its permanent setting is the twelfth of December, twenty twenty-six. The parts have arrived; that visit is still in the future.
What do you leave on paper when you write with a pencil?
Finally, a question from your desk: what does a pencil leave on paper? Its core contains graphite and clay. Graphite is carbon arranged in layers. Under pressure, thin layers can separate and transfer to the page. Imagine sheets of paper separating: a comparison, not a picture of atoms. A single carbon layer, one atom thick, is called graphene. In Manchester in two thousand and four, two researchers isolated it using sticky tape. Simple equipment still required scientific checks to identify the material. Not every pencil mark is isolated graphene. Compare a light mark with a darker one: you see transferred material, not individual atoms. An everyday gesture holds a material surprise.
The complete readings, with sources, images and explanations, are in the twenty-eighth of October edition of Positive Times. We have separated what has happened from what still needs checking. Thank you for listening. Join us tomorrow for more things worth a closer look.