Good News Tuesday

Okay, first, here’s that snazzy new dinosaur fossil:

‘Rare as winning the lottery’: New dinosaur fossil so well-preserved it looks like a statue

This is “the snout-to-hips portion of a nodosaur, a “member of the heavily-armored ankylosaur subgroup,” that roamed during the Cretaceous Period, according to Smithsonian. This group of heavy herbivores, which walked on four legs, likely resembled a cross between a lizard and a lion — but covered in scales.”

Wonderful!

Here’s one that’s welcome news for everyone, but especially for those hoping to have children in the near future:

Zika crisis is over as Brazil declares end to national emergency the virus caused

Brazil had declared a national emergency in November 2015. The threat led to a campaign to eradicate the mosquitoes which carry the virus….New figures showed there were 7,911 cases of Zika from January to April this year, compared to 170,535 cases reported in the same time last year, according to the health ministry.

Whew! That’s great.

So is this:

New UNICEF Report: Child Deaths Cut in Half Since 1990

Further good news: the under-five mortality rate is falling faster than at any other time during the past two decades with a tripling in the annual rate of decline. Thanks to this accelerated progress, almost 100 million children’s lives have been saved over the past two decades, including those of 24 million newborns. These are babies who would have died had mortality remained at 1990 rates.

The leading infectious diseases—pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria—are still the main killers of children, despite significant declines. Together, they contribute to about one-third of all under-five deaths.

With all the violence in the world, it’s easy to lose track of the diseases that are actually the biggest killers. My vote for most important thing governments don’t prioritize: clean drinking water. It would be great to see all three of these issues drop out of the top causes of child mortality in the next twenty years.

One more in the same basic category:

Cancer Facts and Figures: US Death Rate Down 25% Since 1991

The death rate from cancer in the US has declined steadily over the past 2 decades, according to annual statistics reporting from the American Cancer Society. The cancer death rate for men and women combined fell 25% from its peak in 1991 to 2014, the most recent year for which data are available. This decline translates to more than 2.1 million deaths averted during this time period.

Yay! Faster with that! I have always hoped cancer would fade into the past *before* I personally got cancer of any kind. But progress has been spottier and slower than I expected when I was a teenager. Let’s move this along, please, and get there for the Millennials if not for my generation.