The day in your ears · 24 September 2026

Welcome to Positive Times, for the twenty-fourth of September, twenty twenty-six. Today we look beneath huge antennas, step inside a school and discover how to protect records of marine life. Then we meet small businesses and a word with a surprising journey. Ready? Let’s start with the flowers.

In Australia, flowers join the radio telescopes

In Western Australia’s Murchison region, an observatory uses huge antennas to study space. But this time, the surprise is on the ground. Winter rain has helped wildflowers grow. On the sixteenth of September, Australia’s science agency, CSIRO, described seeds that had lain dormant for years: waiting in the soil for the right conditions. On the twenty-third of September, NASA published a satellite comparison. The land on the thirtieth of August looks greener than in August twenty twenty-five. From up there, we see vegetation, not every individual flower. This is a good local season, not proof that all dry regions are improving. A thought from our editors: the antennas were listening to space... the flowers would also like a word.

• NASA Earth Observatory · Boom Year for Desert Blooms
• CSIRO · World-leading radio telescopes give space for stunning wildflowers

In Sant’Angelo a Fasanella, a building site becomes a school

From Australia, we return to Italy, to Sant’Angelo a Fasanella. Its lower secondary school has a new home. The council reported this on the twenty-second of September, after the opening of a multipurpose centre. That long word means a building designed for several kinds of activity. The old school had closed for safety reasons. Money had already been provided for the new building, but it remained unfinished for a long time. Now the council announces its completion and handover. It is also intended for the community, although the announcement gives no timetable for those other activities. Here is the practical change: an unfinished building becomes a place for lessons.

• Comune di Sant’Angelo a Fasanella · Inaugurata scuola nel nuovo Centro polifunzionale. La nuova struttura accoglie gli studenti dopo la chiusura del vecchio plesso per motivi di sicurezza

Fiji plans a backup for the sea’s memory

Now, a question: can we make a backup of the sea’s memory? In Fiji, the University of the South Pacific keeps around three thousand seaweed specimens, collected to study marine life. On the twenty-third of September, UNESCO presented a project led by Auckland Museum, working with the university and supported by Japan. It aims to photograph the specimens in detail, keep copies of the pictures in several places and train staff to handle risks. Cyclones and power failures can threaten the collection. Remember: these are the goals, not three thousand pictures already completed. And saving photographs is not enough. The original specimens need protection too.

• UNESCO · Safeguarding Herbarium and Algal Specimens in Fiji

In Mozambique, backing small businesses also means building skills

In Mozambique, we turn to work. A business making maize flour needs machines, money and skills: people who know how to organise its activities. The CONECTA Negócios project combines financial help with training. The World Bank, which supports it, reported results on the twenty-third of September. According to its account, by April twenty twenty-six, more than seven thousand micro-enterprises and around seven hundred small and medium-sized firms had completed courses. These are earlier results being reported now. The institution also reports over nine hundred and sixty new or improved jobs: they are not all newly created positions. In Cabo Delgado, conflict and instability still create difficulties. There is practical support; the crisis is not over.

• World Bank · Beyond Aid: How Small Businesses Are Rebuilding Northern Mozambique

Robot: before the laboratory came the stage

We finish with a little discovery. Think of the word robot. Does a laboratory come to mind? Its story takes us to the theatre! Treccani explains that the Italian word arrived through French, from the name used by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his nineteen twenty play, R.U.R. Its root is robota, connected with work. The Science Museum Group notes its meaning of forced labour. But machines that could move already existed: they were called automata. The museum keeps, for example, a Bontems mechanical bird made around nineteen hundred to nineteen ten. So the name and the machines have different histories. This is a historical discovery for us, not an invention announced today.

• Vocabolario Treccani · Robòt — Significato ed etimologia
• Science Museum Group · From Best in Show to creature comforts: Centuries of robotic animals

That was Positive Times, for the twenty-fourth of September. The podcast page has the articles, sources and transcript. The readings also include a little quiz to see what has stayed with you. Thanks for listening... and keep your curiosity open.