Saturday, May 9, 2026 — Edition No. 85 — The Cornmill Intelligencer

← Past Editions · Edition No. 85 · Saturday, May 9, 2026

Today’s outlook: Marathon hearts, midwives' hands, and a Glasgow student reaching for Saturn

Community

Clydebank Guide volunteer pounds the pavement — and raises £1,400 for flood-hit Brownie House

Cat Heron's Manchester Marathon run brings the Catterburn restoration a giant step closer

By Helen Cooper

When Cat Heron crossed the finish line at the Manchester Marathon last month, she wasn't just collecting a medal. She was carrying a small army of Clydebank Brownies with her — every one of them a step closer to getting their beloved countryside retreat back.

The trainee accountant from Duntocher, who volunteers with the 6th Clydebank Guides at the Tower Centre on Melfort Avenue, took on the 26.2-mile challenge in April to help restore the flood-damaged Catterburn Brownie House in Stirlingshire. By the time the cheering had died down, she had raised more than £1,400 for the cause.

"I had a great time running the marathon," Cat said. "The atmosphere was amazing and it was made so much better knowing I was raising funds for Catterburn. It was worth the pain and the long nights of training to finish the run. I'm so excited to see what the funds raised go towards."

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Health

Tea, toast and 13,000 babies: Glasgow midwives hailed for 'outstanding care'

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde teams praised by parents and bosses alike as Scotland's busiest health board marks International Day of the Midwife

By Helen Cooper

More than 13,000 babies took their first breath in Greater Glasgow and Clyde over the past year — and the midwives who guided them into the world are being thanked in the warmest possible terms.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) delivered 13,150 babies in the last 12 months, the highest figure of any health board in Scotland, according to Public Health Scotland statistics published in November 2025. Behind that number sits a sprawling team working across three maternity hospitals, two community units, a dedicated home birth team and a network of outpatient services.

To mark International Day of the Midwife on 5 May, NHSGGC has shared a stack of testimonials gathered through Care Opinion, the independent platform where patients and families post feedback about their NHS care. The verdict from parents is, more or less, unanimous: these midwives are something special.

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Science

Glasgow research charts a fairer route to Britain's electric future

University of Glasgow study reveals stark regional differences in EV charging needs — and calls for a 'just transition' so no driver is left behind

Science

From Glasgow to Saturn: student's icy moon experiment wins top European aerospace prize

Simon Fraser's tabletop recreation of Enceladus's mysterious plumes — built in a University of Glasgow vacuum chamber — has scooped first place at the prestigious PEGASUS competition

By Henry Davenport

A University of Glasgow student has won one of European aerospace engineering's most coveted student honours for an extraordinary piece of work that recreated, in miniature, one of the solar system's strangest phenomena: the icy plumes that erupt from Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Simon Fraser, a fifth-year MEng student in Aeronautical Engineering, took first prize at the PEGASUS student competition at the Universitat Politècnica de València on 17 April, beating forty of the brightest aerospace Master's students from across the continent.

His winning project, An Experimental Framework to Investigate Icy Plumes on Saturn's Moon Enceladus, tackled a question that has captivated planetary scientists for nearly two decades.

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Science

Glasgow scientists trace the final journey of Scotland's stranded pilot whales

University of Glasgow team uses pioneering stable isotope analysis to map the feeding grounds of the 55 long-finned pilot whales lost on the Isle of Lewis in 2023

By Helen Cooper

When 55 long-finned pilot whales came ashore on the Isle of Lewis in July 2023, it was the largest mass stranding recorded in Scotland in living memory. Now, almost three years on, scientists at the University of Glasgow have pieced together a crucial part of what the whales had been doing in the weeks before they died.

Their answer lies in chemical clues preserved in the animals' skin — and a technique called stable isotope analysis that has, for the first time, revealed where Scotland's pilot whales feed before they strand.

The new study, led by the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) at the University of Glasgow and published in the journal PLOS One, drew on tissue samples from all 55 of the Lewis whales. The research found that in the weeks before the stranding the pod had been feeding along the continental shelf edge and slope — deep, offshore waters known to support rich populations of fish and squid in spring and early summer.

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Community Glasgow

Drumchapel residents call for action as fly-tipping piles up on Belsyde Avenue

Mir Hassan and James O'Connell say bin provision remains inadequate months after the street's only public bin was set on fire

By Damien Day

When Mir Hassan bought his flat on Belsyde Avenue in December, he expected the usual teething troubles of a new home. He did not expect to spend the next five months chasing Glasgow City Council about bins.

"I've been asking about having this problem resolved for months," he told the Clydebank Post. "We don't have enough bins for people to put their rubbish in."

In April, the street's only public waste bin was set on fire, leaving Belsyde Avenue without any provision at all for a time. The council has since replaced the damaged bin and installed two more, but Mr Hassan says residents were originally promised three additional bins on top of the original.

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