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These days, summer camp isn't just for kids. In a bid to create new bonds, an increasing number of grown-ups around the country are packing their bags to have fun with their peers at adult sleepaway camps. Get that story and more in today's podcast episode!

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Must Reads

• A meteor as "bright as the moon" lit up Japan's sky — see the striking natural phenomenon​

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• Delta wants members to pick its European destination for next summer

Culture

Centuries Later, Choir Gives Voice to Long-Lost Monastic Chants

Hidden for centuries within the walls of England's Buckland Abbey, a 500-year-old manuscript containing long-lost monastic chants has resurfaced, offering a rare glimpse into the country's religious musical heritage before Henry VIII's break with the Catholic church.
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"Those leaves contained pieces of chant — text and notation," historian James Clark, who serendipitously found the book while conducting research, told The Guardian. "Though there were 800-plus monasteries in medieval England, you can count almost on one hand pieces of music that survived. … The Tudor state scrapped Latin worship, and the lyrics and music that went with it were largely discarded. Most of this stuff is lost. But there it was, shoved into the back of the book."
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With this lost history brought to light, researchers from the National Trust and the University of Exeter transcribed the music and reconstructed the songs' rhythms, which were absent from the original pages. And last weekend, the university's Chapel Choir breathed life back into the chants by performing them in the very place they were composed — marking the first performance of the music at Buckland Abbey in centuries.
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"It's an extraordinary rich, textured sound," said Clark. "They're all singing together but following different melodies. It's a sort of melodious cacophony of sound." Listen to the chants.​

Together With Vero3

Wyoming Is on the Verge of Becoming a Lithium Powerhouse

America needs five times more lithium by 2035, but no new mines have opened since 1967. Meanwhile, current extraction methods are slow, waste massive amounts of water, and emit loads of carbon.
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So Vero3 devised a way to cleanly produce lithium, generate clean water, and permanently store carbon in the process — all from the same 14,000-acre Wyoming site.
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This first-of-its-kind project is already validated by $25 million in historical funding and projects $183 million in annual profit.
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This unique project offers exposure to three different markets, each covering a critical need for America. And shares are now open to the public ahead of commercial trials and a targeted 2028 Nasdaq IPO.
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​Become a shareholder in Vero3 while you can.

This is a paid advertisement for Vero3 Limited's Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular at https://invest.vero3.com/. Timelines are subject to change. Listing on the NASDAQ is contingent upon necessary approvals, and reserving a ticker symbol does not guarantee a company's public listing.

Science

"Love Hormone" Affects Platonic Relationships Too, Prairie Vole Study Finds

Platonic relationships tend to take a back seat to romantic ones, but the two may have more in common than you think — at least if prairie voles are any indicator.
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In a recent study, researchers looked to the mouse-like rodents known for forming lasting social bonds to see if oxytocin (aka the "love hormone") played a role in making and keeping friends. In romantic relationships, oxytocin is known to enhance trust, bonding, and empathy.
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Sure enough, they found that voles genetically modified to lack oxytocin receptors took longer to form friendships compared to unmodified voles. In group settings, the genetically modified animals were also more likely to socialize with voles they didn't know, while regular voles tended to stick with their friends.
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"We found that oxytocin is essential for building and keeping these bonds, and that it also shapes how voles interact with strangers," study co-author Markita Landry explained to Popular Science, adding: "This broadens the view of oxytocin from being just the 'love hormone' to a more general 'social relationship' hormone that supports both romantic and platonic connections."
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In the spirit of honoring the Woody to your Buzz (or Thelma to your Louise, Joey to your Chandler), explore the seven types of friendships we all need.

Humanity

Seniors Teach "Lost" Life Skills to Students at Intergenerational Summer Camp

Cooking and sewing aren't often taught in school these days — but at a youth summer camp in California, seniors are serving up lessons with a side of intergenerational bonding. Throughout July, students learned skills like these from members at Olive Community Services in Fullerton, a nonprofit that offers programs and support services for older adults.
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It was a high schooler who got the ball rolling on the collaborative camp. Leena Albinali, a 14-year-old who lives with her grandmother, founded the Golden Connections Club to offer her peers an opportunity to learn from their elders, and to help combat loneliness in seniors. What started out as monthly lunches uniting the two age groups blossomed into a four-week summer camp last month, during which students ages 8-14 received lessons in what the Associated Press dubbed "lost skills," including card making, embroidery, clay jewelry making, Instant Pot cooking, and fruit bouquet making.
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"These younger generations are really eager to learn the basic skills that we are able to teach them," Shameem Syed, a volunteer at Olive Community Services who taught and facilitated some of the classes, told Nice News in an email, adding that the instructors "never saw a cell phone" in the students' hands thanks to their engagement and interest.
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And the experience was just as valuable for the seniors. "Their inspiration gave us hope and a purpose," she said, acknowledging that "it was a fairly overwhelming experience for me. It just brought me back my old memories [of] how I used to spend time with my grandmother, and it was just totally amazing."

Global Good

🇩🇰 Denmark plans to scrap its book tax in a bid to get more people reading (read more)
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🇰🇷 Seoul, South Korea, was crowned the favorite city of Gen Z and millennial travelers — see the other top spots (read more)
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🇦🇺 In a world first, surgeons in Australia used two robots to remove a throat tumor and save a patient's voice (read more)
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🇨🇱 Desert bloom in Chile: The "driest place on Earth" is poised to come alive with stunning flowers next month (read more)
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🇵🇭 370 acres off the coast of the Philippines are now protected, the result of an 18-year advocacy effort (read more)

Something We Love

Lovevery
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​A friend gifted me the 0-12 month subscription as a gift for my daughter when she was born. The kits are really well made and Lovevery sends a new box for each "stage" with developmentally appropriate toys. Some are still in our rotation two years later!

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​– Kenny Freeman, Director of Partnerships

Inspiring Story

Full circle

Life is full of pinch-me moments — and this is one of those. Ellie Koerner and Dawson Nailor reunited at medical school 17 years after both were treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the same hospital as 4-year-olds. "I kept looking at her and I was like 'I know this girl from somewhere,'" Nailor said. See them in their white coats.​

Photo of the Day

On Wednesday, Hungary celebrated its National Day — and the country went all out. The sky above Budapest lit up with what's being called the largest fireworks display in Europe, a 30-minute show with more than 45,000 pyrotechnics launched over the Danube River. Watch a snippet of the spectacle.​

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Up This Weekend

1. U.S. Open: The final Grand Slam tournament of the year is scheduled to kick off on Sunday following the qualifying rounds — here's everything to know about the 2025 U.S. Open
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2. Notting Hill Carnival: Each year, more than 2 million people attend this weekend-long Caribbean celebration, one of the world's longest-running street parties
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3. Burning Man: The storied event, in which attendees gather in the Nevada desert and erect a temporary city filled with art and music, begins Sunday and runs through Sept. 1
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The Nice News merch collaboration with Because Weekend is all about celebrating optimism and making every day feel like the weekend. To help us spread that ethos beyond the inbox, shop our collection of T-shirts and sweatshirts here.

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Odds & Ends

🍔 In-N-Out is continuing to expand beyond the Golden State
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🤓 The evolution of the word "nerd"
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🆓 A list of freebies that are actually worth having*
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👣 Could your feet benefit from toe spacers?
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​*Indicates a Nice News brand partnership or affiliate

Quote of the Day

"Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed towards the sun, one's feet moving forward."

– NELSON MANDELA