🌞 Why cuddling is good for you

Happy Sunday!

Well, it’s lovely to swing by and say hello to everyone. Here are three things that made me happy this weekend:

1. The Carriageworks Farmers Market in Sydney - a lovely way to spend a Saturday morning with friends.

2. Watching the Sydney Swans notch up a hard-fought win against Port Adelaide.

3. Winter morning coastal walks in Sydney, trying to spot a whale.

Perhaps I am overcompensating about how much I like Sydney. You’ll figure out why soon.

🏙️ Aussie cities shine

As a proud Sydney ambassador, I’m going to regret this, but a list is a list. Melbourne is the most liveable city in Australia.

This week, the 2025 Global Liveability Index (GLI) was released, and a whopping THREE Australian cities cracked the top ten.

Melbourne (#4), Sydney (#6) and Adelaide (#9) were ranked in the top ten, while Copenhagen took out the top spot.

The GLI is published annually by the Economic Intelligence Unit, and uses a wide range of indicators across stability (crime, civil disorder), healthcare (availability and quality of public and private healthcare), culture and environment (humidity and temperature, social or religious restrictions, censorship, availability of sport, music, food and cultural offerings), infrastructure (the quality and availability of roads, public transport, housing, energy, water and telcos) and education.

Ultimately, it came down to Melbourne’s cultural and environmental credentials to come in at fourth. All three Australian cities received the same score for healthcare, education and infrastructure.

📸 Photo of the week

You’re looking at 11,787 drones, flying together over the sky of Chongqing, China, to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest aerial image ever created by multirotors and drones. A crowd of about 100,000 watched the performance live, which also marked the 28th anniversary of Chongqing’s establishment as China’s fourth municipality. 

🎵 Feel good song of the week

Why cuddling is good for you

A good news story for both big and little spoon - cuddling before going to sleep has been proven to lower physical stress levels and even boost people’s moods in their relationship.

A new study conducted by the International Association for Relationship Research has found that nighttime cuddling lowers couples' levels of insecure attachment and stress. The research was conducted by examining 143 heterosexual “bed-sharing couples” to observe the relationships between “physical closeness at sleep onset, perceived stress, attachment insecurity, and sleep disturbance.”

The results found: “Physical closeness at sleep onset may be a promising and amenable avenue for improving relational and physiological well-being.”

I couldn’t find any research relating to blanket theft during winter and its negative impacts on a relationship, but it’s only a matter of time.

Message from Up

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🧬 Building a much-needed toolkit

For the first time ever, researchers have developed a “genetic toolkit” that can target the exact nerve cells damaged by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), the most common type of Motor Neurone Disease (MND). It’s a step closer to finding a cure for the progressive nervous system disease, which is great news.

Just to clarify the use of both ‘ALS’ and ‘MND’ - outside Australia and the UK, ALS is used as the general name for MND. About 90% of those with MND have the ‘mixed’ MND/ALS form of the disease, which has led to the two terms being used interchangeably across the world. I’ll use the term MND in this piece.

MND affects motor neurons, which are the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord responsible for voluntary movement. Our current Australian of the Year, Neale Daniher AO, is leading a fight against “the beast” to find a cure via Fight MND, and a sea of blue beanies.

Now, scientists at the Allen Institution “have opened a window of hope” by creating what they call “a genetic toolkit” to target the nerves that are destroyed by the disease. Think of a genetic toolkit like a key that is common across those with the condition, which can target the exact nerve cells destroyed by the disease. The hope is that if scientists can successfully target those cells, they are a step closer to treating them.

According to the Institute: “This discovery gives researchers a new way forward. For decades, motor neurons have been largely out of reach, leaving scientists with few research options. With this new genetic toolkit, they have a better roadmap to find answers - and possibly even cures.”

🏠 Sweaty houses keep it cool

A new type of paint has been invented by scientists to ‘sweat’ so that your house can keep cool.

Now I know that sounds weird – but stay with us!

The paint has been designed to reflect sunlight and cool surfaces by holding water and releasing it (just like sweat). Keeping homes cool is a big deal - about 20% of the electricity used around the world is attributed to fans and air conditioning, and that’s expected to rise as the climate continues to warm.

There are some cooling paints already on the market, but they struggle in climates with high levels of moisture and humidity. Now, researchers have developed a substance known as CCP-30, which looks to be able to hold moisture and then slowly ‘sweat it out’ to keep a home cool, even in hot and humid climates.

The success of the paint was put to the test in Singapore – a place known for its (overbearing) humidity. During this trial, researchers noted the paint “demonstrated superior cooling performance compared with commercial white paints.”

No sweat!

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