All News - Page 36 of 1688 - Good News Network
Home Blog Page 36

Scientists Engineer Yeast to Create Honey Bee Superfood – Colonies Grew 15-Fold

By
Andy Corbley
-
Bees feeding on a synthetic pollen substitute - credit, Caroline Wood, Oxford U news
Bees feeding on a synthetic pollen substitute – credit, Caroline Wood, Oxford U news

A study team from Oxford University has identified a fermentation method that creates the perfect balanced diet for honey bees who can’t get enough natural pollen.

Synthetic pollen substitutes are often fed to bees as a dietary supplement to natural pollen, but until now it’s been difficult to replicate the blend of lipids, called sterols, found in pollen that they need to thrive.

But with Oxford’s bees rearing 15-times more larvae, the scientists from England and Denmark are confident they’ve perfected this sterol recipe.

While it would obviously be preferable for bees to get all their essential nutrients from wildflowers, declines in flowering native plants across Europe are making this harder and harder. At the same time, honey bees aren’t exactly native either, in fact they often crowd native, solitary bee species and other pollinators out of local ecosystems.

If humans are going to unleash thousands of extra pollinators on a pollen-deficient landscape, it’s only right we help provide for their nutrition.

Scientists from Oxford, the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the University of Greenwich, and the Technical University of Denmark, engineered the yeast species Yarrowia lipolytica to produce the 6 essential sterols bees need to thrive, and fed it to a study colony enclosed in a greenhouse.

A control colony was fed a commercially-available synthetic diet.

Oxford University news reported that by the end of the study period, colonies fed with the sterol-enriched yeast had reared up to 15 times more larvae to the viable pupal stage, compared with colonies fed control diets.

Colonies fed with the enriched diet were also more likely to continue rearing larvae up to the end of the three-month period, whereas colonies on sterol-deficient diets ceased brood production after 90 days.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Pollen Replacement Food for Honey Bees Brings New Hope for Struggling Colonies and the Crops They Support

“For bees, the difference between the sterol-enriched diet and conventional bee feeds would be comparable to the difference for humans between eating balanced, nutritionally complete meals and eating meals missing essential nutrients like essential fatty acids,” said study lead author Dr. Elynor Moore. “Using precision fermentation, we are now able to provide bees with a tailor-made feed that is nutritionally complete at the molecular level.”

In order to understand which sterols were missing from the bees’ diet, the team had to employ surgical dissection of individual bees. The authors were then able to identify 24-methylenecholesterol, campesterol, isofucosterol, β-sitosterol, cholesterol, and desmosterol.

MORE POLLINATOR-POSITIVE NEWS: European Orchard Bee is Now a Valuable Pollinator in UK–Since the Weather Got Warmer

Using CRISPR gene editing, they altered a strain of Yarrowia lipolytica yeast to produce these compounds in a sustainable, economic way. Y. lipolytica is already used to produce food-grade products for the supplement industry.

Many commercially-grown fruits require bees and other pollinators to reproduce, and they play a critical role in the supply chains of fruit and nut orchards. Sustaining them with high-quality bee supplement will help guarantee hive resilience and preserve fruit and nut production into the future.

SHARE This Positive News For Bees Hard At Work In Our Orchards… 

“You will never be able to experience everything. So, please, do poetical justice to your soul and simply experience yourself” – Albert Camus

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “You will never be able to experience everything. So, please, do poetical justice to your soul and simply experience yourself” – Albert Camus

Photo by: KAL VISUALS

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

KAL VISUALS

Good News in History, August 27

By
Good News Network
-
William Least Heat-Moon - CC 3.0. Joe Mabel

Happy 86th Birthday to Osage-American travel writer William Least Heat-Moon. His debut novel, Blue Highways, (1982) is a chronicle of a three-month-long road trip that Least Heat-Moon took throughout the United States in 1978 after he had lost his teaching job and been separated from his first wife. He tells how he traveled 13,000 miles, as much as possible on secondary roads, and tried to avoid cities. His second work was River-Horse during which he traveled across the US entirely on waterways. READ more about what he encountered… (1939)

Continue

Australian Woman Shocked When Ohio Social Media Helps Reunite Her with iPad Lost 2 Years Ago

By
Andy Corbley
-
- the location of the woman's iPad, transmitted after the device was powered on
– the location of the woman’s iPad, transmitted after the device was powered on

From the popular social media platform Reddit comes the incredible story of a young woman recovering her iPad lost two years before while traveling in the US.

It started on a forum, called a sub-Reddit on the site, for Columbus Ohio—a 23-year-old Australian woman shared a bizarre personal situation “in hopes of, [I don’t know], a miracle.”

An iPad which she said carried hundreds of photos and a 2D animation project she was working on had suddenly sent an alert to her phone, showing her that it was in Columbus, and had just been turned on for the first time in over a year.

It told her with pretty good precision where the iPad was: an address in Hilliard, a suburb of the state’s capital.

“I’m not sure what to do, I’d feel pretty silly calling the local police as I live in Australia,” she wrote, before adding that she did really want to have it returned to her if possible, because she was still upset about losing it. “I’m wondering if anyone has any advice.”

Humor, good advice, words of encouragement, and friendly welcomes began to flood the post. The early general consensus would be that the “OP” or “original post” author, should file a police report with non-emergency services.

Then, a breakthrough. A local in Hillard found the address. Someone suggested it might be in the self-storage facility nearby that location.

Then, people began to suspect that with the address in Hilliard, the iPad had been found by and was now sitting at e-Cycle, a local repair and recycling shop for devices.

Then, 7 days ago, Kylee, an employee at e-Cycle, found the post.

“My company works with used technology and our office is located right there. I can almost guarantee its in my office,” she said.

“Hey guys update! IM SO OVERWHELMED, I can’t believe the response this has gotten…” the Australian woman said. “An employee (@kyleetheshinystealer) saw this post because apparently it’s a used electronics shop and I’ve sent them through my serial number, who they in turn have sent through to their boss, so my fingers are crossed that they will find it and hopefully we can sort something out that it can get posted and make its way back home!!!! Feels very finding Nemo to me right now.”

E-Cycle came through for her. Their employees found the device, confirmed it to be hers with the serial number, and organized its return.

“It is not uncommon for people to email us, having seen their device show up at our location,” said e-Cycle in a statement to an NBC affiliate. “In those situations, we always work with each person to reunite them with their missing devices whenever we can.”

SHARE This Great Example Of Internet Community Lending A Helping Hand…

He Beached an Old Cruise Ship and Turned it into $18 Million Beachfront Hotel with Love

By
Andy Corbley
-
released by Doulos Phos Ship Hotel
released by Doulos Phos Ship Hotel

It was the oldest passenger ship still floating: he turned it into an unforgettable terrestrial hotel experience.

Long since declared unseaworthy, the MV Doulos Phos is now the 5-star Doulos Phos Ship Hotel at the Bintan resort reclamation project in Indonesia.

But if you’re imagining the ship to be merely a prop, thank again. Her new owner, as nautically enthused as an interview with CNN demonstrated him to be, endeavored to keep intact every ounce of heritage that was possible to preserve, from the defunct engine room to the porthole windows.

“If I didn’t have this project, maybe I’d have a Ferrari and a Lamborghini at home, and I’d be sailing around the world every year with my family,” 74-year-old Eric Saw, a devout Christian Singaporean multi-millionaire, and the owner (captain, maybe?) of the boat and the hotel told CNN.

That project took 15 years and $18 million to complete, along with countless headaches and many inches of nails bitten down in anxiety. It was journey that barely holds a candle to the vessel’s long history.

It was 1914, just two years after Titanic sunk when SS Medina rolled off the shipyard in Newport News, Virginia. Over a career spanning 100 years, she transported agricultural goods, then military personnel during the First World War, then passengers again under the name SS Roma. In the mid-20th century, she swapped her steam engine for a diesel one, and her name (again) to MS Franca C. and set sail as a cruise liner.

Her final conversion came when she was purchased as a missionary vessel and floating library in 1977, and renamed the MV Doulos. She docked at over 100 countries, sailed hundreds of thousands of nautical miles, and was at one point the oldest operating passenger vessel on the seas.

But time ends all romances, and with a mountain of maintenance needs that no one would pay for, she was drydocked in Singapore to await bids for new ownership, 4 years shy of her 100th birthday.

Eric Saw already ran a three-story restaurant inside a Mississippi-style paddle steamer, and felt “a calling from god” to buy and repurpose the ship into a new line of work.

After three years of paying dock fees for the vessel, Saw zeroed in on a place of rest on Bintan island in Indonesia. He was offered 3 acres of reclaimed land; he requested that it form the shape of an anchor.

In October 2015, at 101 years-of-age, the newly-renamed MV Doulos Phos, or “servant of light” in Greek, embarked upon her final voyage from the island of Batam to Bintan. There she would rest upon a bed of concrete undergirded with piles extending 130 feet into the bedrock below the seabed.

OTHER UNFORGETABLE HOTELS: Plan a Trip to Alaska and Stay in These Classic Airplanes Converted into Luxury Accommodations (LOOK)

Inside, the small crew and passenger cabins which were crammed and poorly lit were expanded, but some were left as-is for adventurous visitors. Elevators and fire escapes and other modern building requirements were installed to meet building codes and regs, along with modern electrical and plumbing.

released by Doulos Phos Ship Hotel

Yet every vestige of heritage possible to save was retained, including the four life boats, which still hang from chains along her midship, and tons of material including the original rivets which held her hull together as welding hadn’t been pioneered in shipbuilding in 1914.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Planned Resort Boasts Tents Suspended in the Air Surrounded by Gorgeous Mountains

Perhaps because he saw it as a mission from god, Saw takes a salary of $1.00 a year, while all operating profit is donated to charitable causes—a servant of the light, in name and nature.

WATCH a tour below… 

SHARE The Story Of The Creation Of This Unique Hotel With Your Friends… 

Polish Officers Looking for Teen Hero Who Saved Woman from Bus Stop Attacker

By
Andy Corbley
-
This image of the teenager was used to identify him and confirm he was uinjured - credit, policja.gov.pl
This image of the teenager was used to identify him and confirm he was uninjured – credit, policja.gov.pl

Police in the Polish town of Rybnik are calling this teenager a hero after he reacted when no one else did to a random act of violence and allowed the victim to escape.

Located in the Silesia region, the young man—found through his characteristic ‘Hello Kitty’ t-shirt—was standing at a bus stop along with a woman and another man.

Suddenly the 36-year-old man entered into a state of wild aggression.

“The woman, who was sitting on a bench, was first kicked in the vicinity of her head and then punched multiple times,” a statement from the police read.

“The only person to react was a young man who ran up and pulled the attacker off, giving the woman a chance to escape. In the course of his rescue action, the anonymous hero was himself attacked by the assailant.”

One wouldn’t guess that out of everyone on the street that day, it would be the individual in the ‘Hello Kitty’ shirt to save the day, but it goes to show the old adage about heroes wearing or not wearing capes.

MORE NEWS FROM POLAND: 4 National Guardsmen Save a Man’s Life After Stopping for Lunch in Poland

When police officers arrived on the scene, the teenager was gone, and only this street camera photo of him was available.

According to TVP World, the local prosecutor’s office took the decision to publicize the image, albeit with a blurred face, to see if they could locate the young hero and confirm he was uninjured.

SIMILAR STREETWISE HEROES: New Jersey Teacher Uses Body as Human Shield to Protect Teen from Group Attack

Rybnik police hailed the intervention as a shining example of a recent social campaign by the department dubbed ‘See—react,’ aimed at assisting law enforcement through civilian engagement.

SHARE The Story Of This Small Town Hero In Poland With Your Friends… 

WHO Declares Kenya Free of This Deadly Tropical Parasite After Decades of Suffering

By
Andy Corbley
-
Trypanosoma parasites, the same which cause sleeping sickness, in the bloodstream - credit, CDC public domain
Trypanosoma parasites, the same which cause sleeping sickness, in the bloodstream – credit, CDC public domain

A deadly tropical disease known as sleeping sickness has been eliminated from Kenya in a significant public health triumph.

The East African nation is the 10th on the continent to achieve the milestone, but also the most populous to do so.

Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) results from the parasite Trypanosoma brucei, that spreads to humans through the bites of the tsetse fly. As with many neglected tropical diseases, its hunting ground is rural areas or poor communities with limited access to medical services.

Replicating in the bloodstream and lymphatic system, the mature parasite causes personality changes, confusion, poor coordination, and disrupted sleep cycles that give the disease its name.

“I congratulate the government and people of Kenya on this landmark achievement,” said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Kenya joins the growing ranks of countries freeing their populations of HAT. This is another step towards making Africa free of neglected tropical diseases.”

Sleeping sickness is often fatal if untreated and was a scourge in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s. 40,000 cases were being diagnosed in a year, but an impressive mobilization of human and development capital has seen that number fall 40-fold.

SAFER AND SAFER:

Safer treatments, simpler diagnostic methods, and community awareness building to help villagers detect early signs of the parasite all contributed to the eradication in Kenya, which joins Uganda, Rwanda, Benin, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and Togo which have also eliminated sleeping sickness.

“This validation marks a major public health milestone for Kenya, as we celebrate the elimination of a deadly disease in our country,” said Dr. Aden Duale, Kenya’s Secretary for Health. “The achievement will not only protect our people but also pave the way for renewed economic growth and prosperity.”

SHARE This Impressive Accomplishment With Your Friends… 

“Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.” – Edward Abbey

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.” – Edward Abbey

Photo by: Edu Bastidas for Unsplash+

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Edu Bastidas for Unsplash+

Good News in History, August 26

By
Good News Network
-

234 years ago today, John Fitch was granted a US patent for a boat propelled by steam power which used mechanical paddles to propel it atop lakes and rivers—an invention that revolutionized commercial transportation of both passengers and freight. The American inventor, clockmaker, silversmith, surveyor, entrepreneur, and engineer, also provided beer, rum, and other supplies in 1778 to General Washington’s troops at Valley Forge. READ more about the first steam ship and its inventor… (1791)

Continue

Type 1 Diabetic Produces His Own Insulin After Gene-Edited Cell Transplant

By
Andy Corbley
-
An islet cell (pink) in the midst of pancreas tissue (magenta) - credit CC 3.0. Polarlys
An islet cell (pink) in the midst of pancreas tissue (magenta) – credit CC 3.0. Polarlys

A patient with type 1 diabetes has become the first in the world to produce his own insulin via transplanted cells edited with CRISPR.

The edits halted his own immune system from attacking the cells, leading to production of insulin in the pancreas as if he never had the disease in the first place.

Unlike the rampant type 2 diabetes, type 1 manifests as an autoimmune disorder whereby the patient’s immune system attacks and destroys a type of cell created in the pancreas to produce insulin, known as islet cells. 9.5 million people worldwide suffer from type 1 diabetes and there is no cure.

The standard of care beyond daily insulin injections involves using donated islet cells to allow a patient’s metabolism to function normally, followed by medications used to prevent the immune system from attacking those cells. These medications have harmful side effects.

A team of biomedical researchers primarily from Uppsala University, Sweden, in collaboration with UC San Francisco, successfully used the CRISPR gene-editing method to take a donor’s islet cells and modify them so as to evade prosecution by the patient’s immune system.

Three changes in total to the genetic code were needed to ensure the transplanted donor cells didn’t trigger an immune response, including changes to cell membrane signal proteins used as a sign of attack by white blood cells.

CRISPR TO THE RESCUE:

As a preliminary study, the man received only a small amount of the donated, modified cells, meaning he still requires daily insulin injections. However the results show that the cells produced their own insulin and remained unperturbed by the immune system.

After 12 weeks, the cells were still producing endogenous insulin, setting the stage for longer-term and more robust experiments in the future.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

SHARE This Big Step Forward To A Potential Cure With Your Friends… 

Arizona Suburb Turned into Mediterranean-style Walking Town Where Temperatures Stay Low

By
Andy Corbley
-
- released as a courtesy by Culdesac
– released as a courtesy by Culdesac

A planned community in Arizona has used time-honored Mediterranean strategies to keep temperatures down and attitudes high.

Western civilization has grown remarkably climate conscious over the last 20 years, but not when it comes to building, civic planning, and especially zoning. Perhaps the interiors of buildings are becoming more climate adapted, and in some cases the facades as well, but in a way that’s a little like inventing a freezer designed to keep ice cream frozen while sitting next to a fire.

Wooden or concrete boxes arranged side-by-side across leveled ground with sprawling, largely treeless gardens and concrete sidewalks alongside wide, blacktop roads is simply a culture of construction that has to be abandoned if living in a world of 2°C or higher annual temperatures is to be tolerable.

Fortunately for Arizonans, change may have finally arrived in the form of a carless, planned community that looks and feels like a Greek island village.

In the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Culdesac has arisen as a 17-acre mixed-use neighborhood from the ground up to stay cool and local, taking the concept of the 15-minute city, where anything a resident might need is only 15 minutes away, and putting a Mediterranean spin on it.

Buildings are tall, thick, and totally white. The residential areas look like they were built atop of the ashes of the Phoenix zoning code burnt in effigy. Crammed together, they create narrow streets and alleys that are almost constantly shaded, through which wind is channeled and accelerated in passing.

Windows open towards each other, allowing wind that enters one building to exit into another, while the total lack of asphalt means that the ground temperatures are a staggering 50-60°F lower than pavements beyond the limits of Culdesac.

No privately-owned cars are allowed to enter the neighborhood, in which electric bikes, robotic mini taxis, and light rail shuttle people around town, to downtown Phoenix, or out to the airport.

The street life is lively—there are no cars to bisect movement between the 21 different businesses and eateries, among which is a James Beard Award-winning Mexican restaurant, DIY ceramic business, and some stores run out of apartments—a big no-no under Phoenix zoning laws.

ARIZONA NEWS: Arizona Teen Returns Lost Wallet Containing $300, Receives Electric Bike He Had Been Saving for

“Once you pull the cars out,” Architect Daniel Parolek who designed Culdesac, told BBC, “there’s so much more opportunity to make a vibrant, thriving community.”

His inspiration was sun-soaked locales like Italy, Greece, and Croatia, where town centers were designed before the automobile and before air conditioning.

Technically speaking, the entire Culdesac neighborhood is one apartment complex, but the paseos, or little alleyways, open up into plazas of open space exactly liked one would expect in a little village in the Cyclades.

LOOK AT OTHER PLACES LIKE THIS: A New Neighborhood is Being Built in Utah That Looks Like a European ‘One-Car Town’

Because no one has to jump in a car to get from place to place, people run into each other, sparking conversations, relations, and breaking through the counterintuitive phenomenon of big city loneliness, which in Phoenix hits particularly hard.

“Culdesac Tempe has shown that people do want to live car-free in the US, even in a metro area like Phoenix that’s often seen as the poster child for car dependency,” says Erin Boyd, Culdesac’s government relations and external affairs lead. “This success has shifted the conversation around what’s possible in American development.”

SHARE This Great Idea For A City With Your Friends On Social Media… 

Postman’s Unusual Act of Kindness Makes Him a Rainy Day ‘Laundry Hero’

By
Andy Corbley
-
Gurpreet Singh on camera at Verrity Wandel residence
Gurpreet Singh on camera at Verrity Wandel residence

From Australia comes the story of a Sikh’s kindness caught on camera when he thought no one was looking.

With the heavens having opened, the man, a postal worker who had arrived at a house to deliver a package, took “one minute” to pull down the client’s laundry and put it next to the door and out of the rain.

Gurpreet Singh on camera at Verrity Wandel residence

Verrity Wandel, the homeowner from the town of Logan, south of Brisbane, came home and felt bewildered as to the absence of the laundry.

“I just had visions of my washing being wrapped round and round the line, or embedded in the garden, and I drove in and there was no washing on the line. And I thought, that’s odd,” she told CNN affiliate 9 News, after the story of her discovery stormed Australian (and Indian) national media.

“Doubting myself I got out of the car and checked the mailbox because I had received notification that one of my orders had been delivered,” she wrote on an Instagram post that went viral in which she revealed the story of the postman’s deed.

“Locked the car, headed down the stairs and there on the bench out of the rain is sitting my parcel and my 99% dry washing.”

“What tha?

How did?”

ALSO CHECK OUT: Massachusetts Mailman Scoops Toddler Away from Traffic After Day Care Escape: ‘Right place at the right time’

“We head in to check the surveillance system and this is what we find. 1 in a million this guy is so cool.”

Gurpreet Singh works for Australia Post, and seemed “genuinely bewildered,” CNN reports, by the attention and focus on his good deed. He summoned up a simple explanation that he thought for a moment about “whether” he could do it, then he did it.

MORE KIND STORIES: Sikh Gas Station Owner Sells Gas 50 Cents a Gallon Cheaper than What it Costs to Help Customers

“It took one minute,” he said.

The story took off across Indian media as well, with the Indian Tribune quickly labeling Singh a “laundry hero,” and the attention catching the eye of Indian megastar Priyanka Chopra who called him a “real life hero.”

WATCH the video below…

KEEP The Spotlight On This Good Guy Mailman Through Your Own Social Media…

Historic Church – All 672 Tons – Is Being Moved Down the Road in Arctic Town

By
Andy Corbley
-
Moving the church by TorbjørnS - Own work, CC BY 4.0 (Wikimedia)
Moving the church by TorbjørnS – Own work, CC BY 4.0 (Wikimedia)

In a “unique in the world” event, a Swedish town is moving its entire historic church, all 672 tons of materials, down the road to a new address.

The move is necessary to protect it from falling into a sinkhole, the result of the expansion of an underground iron mine. The church won’t be alone in its relocation, and in fact dozens of buildings will be moved over the next 10 years.

Kiruna Kyrka was built in 1912 for the Lutheran community of Kiruna. It was designed to look like a “lavvu” or a hut of the Sami People, Europe’s only recognized indigenous group who graze reindeer in the surrounding grasslands.

The state-owned mining company LKAB was granted approval for the mine’s expansion over 20 years ago, and part of the agreement was either the compensation or physical relocation of every building within the part of the town that would be undermined.

For the Kyrka, workers tunneled under the floorplan to place a grid of beams that would fit onto a series of trailers. When it came time to move the first few feet, a remarkable turnout had arrived.

10,000 people lined recently-widened roads to watch the Kyrka inch forward at 0.2 miles per hour, including the King Carl Gustav XVI. Inside, the 2,000-pipe-church organ was specially wrapped and packaged in situ, as was a large pastel centerpiece painted by the king’s great uncle, Prince Eugen.

The bell tower, which is a separate structure, is due to move tomorrow.

Prince Eugen’s centerpiece inside the Kiruna Kyrka – CC Wikimedia commons

An operator stands in front of the church as it moves to control the 224 wheels on the trailers below, a little like a man with a giant, incredibly slow, remote-controlled car.

Although the central part of the move, the Kyrka is just one of 24 cultural buildings in the Arctic town that will be moved. Tens of millions of dollars have been allocated by LKAB for moving and compensation for buildings that remain.

SWEDISH STORIES: Sweden Is Trying to Build a Whole City Borough Out of Wood to ‘Show What is Possible’

The company’s chief executive told local reporters that without its historic church, which the Guardian described as one of Sweden’s most beloved antique buildings, there could never be a town of Kiruna. Moving it was the best, only, and imperative option.

SHARE This Wild Exercise In Preservation With Your Friends… 

“All wisdom is rooted in learning to call things by their right names.” – Confucius

By
Good News Network
-
By J Amill Santiago

Quote of the Day: “All wisdom is rooted in learning to call things by their right names.” – Confucius

Photo by: J Amill Santiago

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

A Policing Act of Kindness After Little Boy in Detroit Calls 911 to Chat About Soccer

By
Good News Network
-
Photo by Ken Porter
Photo by Ken Porter

After doing laundry last Saturday, Ken Porter noticed a missed call on his phone from the local police department.

“When I returned the call, I learned that my 4-year-old had called 911 and struck up a conversation about soccer and swimming,” Micah’s father told GNN.

“What sounded like the start of a crisis turned into one of the most unforgettable moments of my two sons’ lives.”

18 police vehicles ended up at their home in Farmington Hills, Michigan, over the next day—a parade of kindness sparked by the child’s enthusiasm.

“Instead of treating it as a misuse of 911, the officers invited my sons, Micah and Mitch, to tour their patrol cars, test the sirens, and speak on the loudspeaker.

During the visit, Micah proudly mentioned that the next day would be his big brother Mitch’s 7th birthday, and one of the officers mentioned he might stop by to celebrate.

“The next morning, as we were leaving for Mitch’s birthday breakfast, nearly ten police cars filled our street.

Credit: Ken Porter

“Officers were waiting in the yard with gifts, and made Mitch an honorary officer with a sticker badge and a toy police hat. Every single officer wished him a happy birthday.”

And the kindness didn’t stop there.

Later that evening, a second shift of officers returned—this time with a soccer goal net that they purchased, ready to play a game. They even introduced Mitch and Micah to the police K9 dog named Kane.

“This simple act of kindness transformed into a story of empathy, joy, and community my sons will never forget,” said Mr. Porter.

“We are deeply grateful to the Farmington Hills Police Department for showing what good policing looks like at its very best.

KUDOS TO THIS OFFICER: Canadian Mountie Sits Down With a Senior–And The Conversation Saved His Life

PASS ON THE KINDNESS By Sharing on Social Media…

Retooled Cancer Drugs Eliminated Aggressive Tumors in ‘Remarkable’ New Trial

By
Good News Network
-

Cancer drugs that have been used for two decades were retooled until they were able to eliminate aggressive tumors in a “remarkable” clinical trial.

Two of the patients—one with the deadliest form of skin cancer called melanoma and another with breast cancer—were told their tumors disappeared completely.

Scientists at Rockefeller University in New York engineered an upgrade to an antibody that improved a class of drugs—called CD40 agonist antibodies—which have struggled to make good on their early promise, but showed great potential.

While effectively activating the immune system to kill cancer cells in animal models, the drugs had only “limited” impact on humans, while also triggering dangerous adverse reactions.

So, five years ago, the team at the New York university engineered an enhanced CD40 agonist antibody so that it improved its efficiency and limited any serious side effects for mice, with the next step being a clinical trial with cancer patients.

The results from the phase 1 clinical trial of the drug, dubbed 2141-V11, showed that six out of 12 cancer patients saw their tumors shrink, including two that saw them disappear completely.

“Seeing these significant shrinkages and even complete remission in such a small subset of patients is quite remarkable,” said study first author Dr. Juan Osorio.

He said the effect wasn’t limited to tumors that were injected with the drug; tumors elsewhere in the body either got smaller or were destroyed by immune cells.

“This effect—where you inject locally but see a systemic response—that’s not something seen very often in any clinical treatment,” said Professor Jeffrey Ravetch who oversaw the study.

“It’s another very dramatic and unexpected result from our trial.”

ANOTHER BREAKTHROUGH: Lung Cancer Drug Elicits Unprecedented Results in 2024 Trial

Oral squamous cancer cell (white) being attacked by two cytotoxic T cells (red) – Credit: NIH

He explained that CD40 is a cell surface receptor and member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor “superfamily”—proteins that are largely expressed by immune cells. When triggered, CD40 prompts the rest of immune system to spring into action, promoting anti-tumor immunity and developing tumor-specific T cell responses.

In 2018, Prof. Ravetch’s lab engineered the 2141-V11, a CD40 antibody that binds tightly to human CD40 receptors and is modified to enhance its cross-linking by also engaging a specific Fc receptor.

It proved to be 10 times more powerful in its capacity to elicit an anti-tumor immune response.

The research team then changed how they administered the drug. When previously given intravenously, too many non-cancerous cells picked it up, leading to the well-known toxic side effects.

They instead injected the drug directly into tumors. When they did that, they saw “only mild toxicity”, said Prof. Ravetch.

ALSO CHECK OUT:
• Cancer Vaccine Triggers Fierce Immune Response to Fight Malignant Brain Tumors in Human Patients
• Oxford Breakthrough Could Allow Cancer to be Detected 7 Years Earlier Than Current Methods

The new trial included 12 patients who had various types of cancer, and of those 12, six experienced systemic tumor reduction, of which two had their cancers (notorious for being aggressive and recurring) disappear entirely.

“The melanoma patient had dozens of metastatic tumors on her leg and foot, and we injected just one tumor up on her thigh. After multiple injections of that one tumor, all the other tumors disappeared,” Ravetch said.

“The same thing happened in the patient with metastatic breast cancer, who also had tumors in her skin, liver, and lung. And even though we only injected the skin tumor, we saw all the tumors disappear.”

Tissue samples from the tumor sites revealed the immune activity that the drug stimulated.

“We were quite surprised to see that the tumors became full of immune cells—including different types of dendritic cells, T cells, and mature B cells—that formed aggregates resembling something like a lymph node,” said Dr. Osorio.

“The drug creates an immune micro-environment within the tumor, and essentially replaces the tumor with these tertiary lymphoid structures, which are associated with improved prognosis and response to immunotherapy.”

BRILLIANT: Glowing Dye Clings to Cancer Cells Giving Doctors ‘Second Pair of Eyes’

The team also found TLS in the tumors they didn’t inject.

“Once the immune system identifies the cancer cells, immune cells migrate to the non-injected tumor sites,” said Dr. Osorio.

The findings, published in the journal Cancer Cell, sparked several other clinical trials that the Ravetch lab is currently working on with researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering and Duke University.

The trials are investigating 2141-V11’s effect on specific cancers, including bladder cancer, prostate cancer, and glioblastoma—all aggressive and hard to treat.

Nearly 200 people are enrolled in the various studies that the researchers hope will explain why some patients respond to 2141-V11 and others do not—and how to potentially change that.

SHARE THE AMAZING NEWS With Patients on Social Media…

Pea Plant Virus Creates a Powerful Immune Attack on Cancer—A Cheap Treatment Headed for Clinical Trials

By
Good News Network
-
Immunotherapy vaccine attacks cancer cells
Immunotherapy vaccine attacks cancer cells

A virus that infects the humble black-eyed pea plant is showing great promise as a low-cost, potent cancer immunotherapy—thanks to researchers at the University of California San Diego.

The team led by chemical and nano engineers just published their study in Cell Biomaterials, showing how the cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV), unlike other plant viruses, is uniquely effective at activating the body’s immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.

In preclinical studies, CPMV has demonstrated potent anti-tumor effects in multiple mouse models, as well as in canine cancer patients. When injected directly into tumors, CPMV therapy recruits innate immune cells—such as neutrophils, macrophages and natural killer cells—into the tumor microenvironment to destroy cancer cells.

Meanwhile, it activates B cells and T cells to establish systemic, long-lasting anti-tumor memory—an immune “reawakening” that not only helps clear the targeted tumor but also primes the immune system to hunt down metastatic tumors elsewhere in the body.

“It is fascinating that CPMV—but not other plant viruses—stimulates an anti-tumor response,” said Nicole Steinmetz, at UC San Diego’s Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering and the study’s corresponding author.

“What we found most exciting is that although human immune cells are not infected by CPMV, they respond to it and are reprogrammed towards an activated state, which ultimately trains them to detect and eradicate cancerous cells,” said study first author Anthony Omole, a chemical and nano engineer who works in Steinmetz’s lab.

BREAKTHROUGH: The First At-Home Cervical Cancer Screening Device Was Approved by the FDA, Set to Roll Out This Year

It also offers a unique advantage as a cost-effective immunotherapy. Unlike many other therapies that require complex and costly manufacturing, CPMV can be produced using molecular farming. “It can be grown in plants using sunlight, soil and water,” Omole said.

But what makes this plant virus so effective at fighting cancer?

To investigate, the team, along with colleagues at the National Cancer Institute’s ​​Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory, performed a side-by-side comparison of CPMV with the cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (CCMV), a closely related plant virus that does not exhibit anti-tumor effects. Both viruses form similarly sized nanoparticles and are taken up by human immune cells at similar rates. Yet, once inside, the viruses produce different outcomes.

CPMV, the team found, stimulates type I, II and III interferons—proteins with well-known anti-cancer properties. “This is particularly interesting because some of the earliest cancer immunotherapy drugs were recombinant interferons,” noted Omole.

“CCMV stimulates a set of pro-inflammatory interleukins that do not translate to effective tumor clearance. Another difference lies in how these viruses’ RNAs are processed within mammalian cells. CPMV RNAs persist longer and get delivered to the endolysosome, where they activate toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7), a critical component in priming antiviral—and more importantly—anti-tumor immune responses. CCMV RNAs, on the other hand, fail to reach this activation point.”

The team is working toward advancing CPMV to clinical trials.

MORE BREAKTHROUGHS:
• Fighting Cancer Without Fighting: Scientists Switch Tumor Cells Back to Healthy Ones at ‘Critical’ Moment’
• Simple Supplement Discovered Actually Causes Prostate Cancer Cells To Self-Destruct
• Hope for Patients with Aggressive Breast Cancer: Vaccine Trial Results in 88% Survival Rate After 3 Years

“The present study provides important insights into the mechanism of action of CPMV. We are diligently working toward the next steps to ensure that the most potent lead candidate is selected to achieve anti-tumor efficacy and safety,” Steinmetz said.

“This is the time and we are poised to move this work beyond the bench and toward clinical trials.”

SHARE THE INTRIGUING RESEARCH On Social Media…

Retired ‘Tech Fairy’ Rebuilds Old Computers and Gives Them to Folks Who Can’t Afford One–700 Gifted So Far

By
Good News Network
-

Craig Clark may call himself ‘the oldest computer technician in America’, but everyone else calls him the Tech Fairy because of all the wishes he has granted to strangers.

In his field, as a technician, people sometimes give Craig their old computers after he sets up their new ones.

Then about 8 years ago he began to take those used laptops, rebuild them, and find someone who needs a computer because they can’t afford one. It suddenly became easier to find people in need once Craig discovered Nextdoor—an app and website where neighbors in localities talk to neighbors who live in the same area.

“I began posting pictures on the website of the smiling folks with their “new” laptops,” he told GNN.

“Then somehow I branded myself as the ‘Tech Fairy’. I have no memory as to why I did that, but it turned out to be a stroke of genius.”

People started hearing stories about deserving people who’d received a free laptop from the Tech Fairy—and readers began contacting Craig, who is now 79-years-old, to offer up that old laptop they had in a closet.

After 8 years, he has re-homed over 700 devices around Sarasota, Florida.

He’s received some notoriety, from local news—and nationally too. In 2022, ABC News flew Craig to New York to appear on Good Morning America, along with a family who’d been gifted one of his laptops. All four children now call him ‘Grandpa Craig’, which still makes him cry. (Watch the video at the bottom…)

The smiling faces of those graced with free laptops by the Tech Fairy

“Being the Tech Fairy is a fairly expensive project,” he told GNN. “For security, I install a new SSD hard drive into every computer I rebuild—and new batteries are often required—but the smiles in the pictures I take are worth the investment.”

Most of the pictures are of smiling workers at fast food restaurants or convenience stores. One reason is that his primary career was as an executive for 7-Eleven convenience stores.

“I made good money on the efforts of thousands of terrific store employees making minimum wage. I was making 10 times the money as these folks and they were working much harder than I was.”

But, he’s been steadily giving back ever since—like a Pied Piper of Good Deeds.

KINDNESS RETURNED: Years After She Saved a Magpie Bird it Returns the Favor Saving Her Life After She Fell from Window

“Yesterday I drove to an organization that helps women recovering from addiction. They have 2 women graduating from their program this week, and as they start their new lives each now has a beautiful semi-new laptop to get them started.” (One of them, Amber, is pictured below.)

Amber is graduating from Prodigal Daughters in Sarasota with a “new” laptop to help her get started in her new life – submitted by The Tech Fairy

“I get a lot of credit for this project but I never forget that this effort is possible only because of the selfless folks who donate their used devices to me. It’s a true community project…”

MORE KINDNESS FOR STRANGERS: Dry Cleaner Gives Away his Services to Unemployed Folks Headed to Job Interviews: ‘Just Pay it Forward’

Watch the story from ABC’s Good Morning America, from 3 years ago…

SPREAD THE OPPORTUNITY To Others in Florida By Sharing This on Social Media…

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” – Richard P. Feynman 

By
Good News Network
-
By Daniel Lincoln

Quote of the Day: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” – Richard P. Feynman 

Photo by: Daniel Lincoln

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

By Daniel Lincoln

Good News in History, August 24

By
Good News Network
-
An artist's impression of Proxima Centauri - credit, ESO H. Kornmesser CC 4.0.

9 years ago today, the European Southern Observatory confirmed the existence of Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to Earth orbiting within the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. It’s just over the hedge at 4.2 light years from Earth, and its discovery has led to numerous research activities attempting to establish whether it would harbor conditions for life. READ more about this 10th rock from the Sun… (2016)

Continue
1...353637...1,688Page 36 of 1,688
© Copyright 1997–2025 GNN, LLC