Pixabay - Efraimstochter

Pete Kelly

Friday, December 1st, 2023 1:00pm

Charlie Jeffers, a high school senior in California started Pass The Bricks in 2020 to provide kids with LEGO bricks who couldn't afford them. Since then, his team has collected used LEGO bricks, restored them and distributed the bricks to over 3,000 kids in need!

Read more now from Good News Network!

NASA

Pete Kelly

Friday, December 1st, 2023 12:00pm

NASA is developing a new supersonic jet that's considerably quieter and nearly twice as fast as the Concorde! The plane, called the X-59, could fly passengers from New York to London in just 1.5 hours.

Read more from Good News Network!

Pixabay - minka2507

Pete Kelly

Friday, December 1st, 2023 10:00am

The FDA could soon approve an anti-aging drug for dogs that could extend the life of your dog! A biotech company called Loyal has developed an injection to be given every 3 to 6 months for the duration of a dog’s adult life, which would cost an average of less than $100 a month. 

Read more here from Freethink!

Pixabay - Kanenori

Pete Kelly

Friday, November 17th, 2023 4:25pm

From Freethink: MIT and Harvard University scientists have devised an effective method for transforming carbon dioxide into formate, a substance that exists in liquid or solid states. Formate can be utilized similarly to hydrogen or methanol, serving as a fuel source for powering fuel cells and producing electricity. This innovation can be applied both in the atmosphere and in the exhaust emissions from power plants, contributing to the generation of additional electricity.

Pixabay - mkupiec7

Pete Kelly

Friday, November 17th, 2023 4:19pm

From Good News Network: A new study found that 70 to 75% of people can reduce their blood pressure just by reducing the amount of salt they put on their food. Just one teaspoon of salt less per day had the same effect as medication for some participants!

Note: We're not medical experts, so please talk to your doctor before discontinuing any medication.

Pixabay - Storme22k

Pete Kelly

Friday, November 17th, 2023 4:01pm

From Good News Network: Based on a nationwide study conducted by the FDA and CDC, there has been a significant reduction of approximately 25% in smoking rates among teenagers in high school compared to the previous year. The survey indicates that only 12.6% of high school students currently use tobacco products, marking a notable decline from the 21% recorded in 2009.

Pixabay - Pexels

Pete Kelly

Friday, November 10th, 2023 4:40pm

According to MIT and Freethink: A new series of reactors at MIT are being worked on that would create carbon-free hydrogen fuel solely by using the sun! According to the MIT team's concept, it could harness up to 40% of the sun's heat to generate the hydrogen. The best designs at the moment can only harness a fraction of that, and are low-yield and high-cost.

Pixabay - PhotoMIX-Company

Pete Kelly

Friday, November 10th, 2023 4:02pm

From Good News Network: A new toothpaste containing tiny amounts of peanut has been tested to reduce the effect of peanut allergies and build immunity over time! The worst side effect was a slight itch in the mouth. No word yet on when it'll be available. 

Read more here!

Pixabay - Pexels

Pete Kelly

Friday, November 10th, 2023 12:00am

According to Good News Network, a French company has developed generically enhanced houseplants that can remove approximately 30 times more pollutants from your home's air than a normal plant. The plant is expected to cost roughly $200 and is still waiting approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

Pixabay - geralt

Pete Kelly

Friday, November 3rd, 2023 3:00pm

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have engineered a bacteria that can break down plastics into liquids, which could then be used to make makeup, perfumes, medications and more!

YouTube - CBC News: The National

Pete Kelly

Friday, November 3rd, 2023 2:00pm

According to the CBC, Marcel LeBrun sold his successful social media monitoring company and is now using that money to build 99 tiny homes for the homeless in Canada. Each home has a kitchen, a living room and bedroom, a bathroom, and solar panels on the roof. He's even providing jobs on-site to help them further.

YouTube - Central Oregon Daily News

Pete Kelly

Friday, November 3rd, 2023 12:02pm

On Halloween, a group of teenagers in Oregon came across a candy bucket which was empty. Instead of just moving onto the next home, they helped re-fill the bowl with their own candy and encouraged others to help out too! 

Watch the video below, and read more about it here!

Pixabay - bhumann34

Pete Kelly

Friday, October 13th, 2023 4:04pm

Reported in the Times Union, National Grid predicts that heating bills could drop nearly 20 percent this winter compared to last year! They say due to a combination of a warmer winter, lower natural gas prices and other things will cause bills to drop roughly 18.3 percent! This is expected to save the average customer nearly $30/month.

Read more here from the Times Union.

📷 Pixabay - Tumisu

Pete Kelly

Friday, October 6th, 2023 12:50pm

A small strand of RNA could be crucial to fighting cancer and other diseases using our own immune system. Our bodies have T-cells, which specialize in fighting pathogens like tumor cells. These T-cells can learn how to fight foreign antigens and remember how to fight them for up to 70 years. This is how vaccines work - they train these memory cells to recognize specific enemies.

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts found a tiny molecule called let-7 that helps these memory cells do their job better. When T-cells have more let-7, they're less likely to be tricked by cancer cells and more likely to become powerful memory cells. If we can boost let-7 in T-cells, we might be able to help our immune system remember and fight cancer better. This could lead to better cancer treatments in the future.

Read more now from Good News Network!

📷 MIT

Pete Kelly

Friday, October 6th, 2023 10:25am

With 97% of the world's water undrinkable, this new passive solar-powered desalination device can produce 4-6 liters of drinkable water every hour! Because it requires no electricity, cost estimates put it cheaper than producing tap water and could help water scarcity.

Read more here - Earth.com

Read more here - MIT News

📷 Re:wild/Fred Jordão

Pete Kelly

Friday, October 6th, 2023 9:13am

The Pernambuco holly, a small tree once thought to be extinct, has been rediscovered in northeastern Brazil! This is the 9th species rediscovered from the Search for Lost Species since 2017. The project assistant for the search, Juliana Alencar said,

“Nature surprises us. Finding a species that hasn't been heard of in nearly two centuries doesn't happen every day. It was an incredible moment, and the emotion of it was felt throughout the entire team. When I looked at Professor Milton Groppo, I saw that he had tears in his eyes.”

This can give us hope that things that we thought were once lost, can still be found again!

You can read more here!

📷 Pixabay - Nennieinszweidrei

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 29th, 2023 2:00pm

A study by the University of Chicago tested an oral solution of butyrate, a fatty acid that is produced by bacteria in our stomachs, on mice and found it to prevent an allergic reaction when exposed to peanuts! Researchers have co-founded a company called ClostraBio to further develop and research this into a universal treatment for peanut allergies, and they hope to begin clinical trials in humans within the next two years!

Read more from Good News Network!

📷 NASA

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 29th, 2023 12:00pm

NASA researchers are developing a new solid-state battery pack that could be lighter weight, hold more energy, perform better in stressful environments and don't use any liquids like lithium! This means solid-state batteries wouldn't have the same issues as traditional batteries, including overheating, fire and loss of charge over time. These batteries are primarily being developed for aviation (I mean it's NASA after all) however they could be used in many places current batteries are used, while being safer and potentially more environmentally friendly.

Read more here! (NASA.gov)

📷 YouTube - RMIT University

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 29th, 2023 10:00am

Happy National Coffee Day! According to Good News Network, engineers in Australia have used discarded coffee grounds to strengthen concrete. Nearly 11 million tons of coffee grounds are discarded annually and the grounds can emit gases that are bad for the environment. Including them in concrete can reduce these emissions, and reduce the billions of tons of natural sand required to be mined for concrete every year.

📷 Pixabay | sarangib

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 22nd, 2023 3:10pm

Engineering scientists at the University of Toledo have developed a new strip that can be added to the base of solar panels can melt snow without requiring any power! Tests in Massachusetts and Japan have found this increases efficiency of the panels by 3.4% to 5.1% respectively, and could help in other places that receive snowfall.

Read more here!

UAB.edu's Steve Wood

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 22nd, 2023 9:09am

A genetically modified pig kidney has successfully provided "life-sustaining kidney function" over a seven day clinical study! According to Jayme Locke, the lead author of the paper, this is a huge step forward in getting clearance to trial it in a human. 

With kidney disease killing more people yearly than breast or prostate cancer, this could help more than 800,000 Americans who are living with kidney failure and nearly 90,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant.

Read more here!

YouTube | KAKE News

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 22nd, 2023 8:54am

A Kansas farmer surprised his wife for their 50th anniversary by planting 1.2 million sunflowers over 80 acres! He planted them in May with the help of his son, and he was able to keep them a secret until he showed her three months later. The sunflowers have become a local tourist attraction and people have driven to take pictures from miles away.

Read more here!

Pixabay /geralt

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 15th, 2023 3:44pm

According to Freethink, a drug used to treat multiple sclerosis has shown early signs that it could be used to treat Alzheimer's! Early tests in mice have shown a reduction in neuroinflammation in brain activity. Of course this is still in early testing and only on mice so far, but it's an encouraging start to hopefully an effective way to fight against Alzheimer's.

Pixabay / Pexels

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 15th, 2023 12:00pm

Earlier this month, the James Webb Space Telescope identified a planet 120 light years away that appears to have a protective atmosphere and a surface covered in oceans! This planet appears to be nearly nine times larger than Earth and contains many of the elements that allow for life on our planet. 

Read more here!

Pixabay / esudroff

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 15th, 2023 10:00am

A crater in Nevada may hold the largest deposit of lithium ever found! Lithium is a crucial element that's used in batteries and chips for electronics. Most lithium sources are in countries outside of the United States, so having this supply could be crucial to US manufacturing and having control over the supply chain and how the lithium is mined. 

Read more here!

📷 Pixabay / giogio55

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 8th, 2023 10:10am

A new floating barrier called System 03 can clean up the area of a football field in just five seconds! The trash that's removed is sorted by crew members and recycled into new products. The company's mission is to clean up 90% of the plastic in the oceans by 2040. 

This week we had our largest ever extraction from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: 11,353 kg of plastic out of the ocean for good.
As we transition to System 03, we see that increasing system size leads to bigger catches. pic.twitter.com/5UcrpATHbi

— The Ocean Cleanup (@TheOceanCleanup) August 11, 2023

Learn more here!

Read more here!

📷 AMP Robotics

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 8th, 2023 10:02am

With the rise of AI, many people are worried about what that means for our future. Amp Robotics has developed Sorty McSortface & Sir Sorts-a-Lot, a smart sorting team of robots that can use AI to identify different types of materials, including different types of plastic, and quickly with a 99% accuracy rate! It even identifies billions of different shapes and barcodes to identify the items so it knows how to sort each one.

Read more here!

📷 YouTube / ucsfpharmacy

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 8th, 2023 12:00am

Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco have created an implantable, artificial kidney that works like a pacemaker and doesn't cause the body to reject it. Over half a million people in the United States alone require dialysis multiple times a week, so this could help many who struggle with kidney failure. So far it's been tested successfully in pigs, and next is testing it in humans. 

Here's how it works: 

Pixabay /

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 1st, 2023 11:00am

A new kind of bacteria that's never been used to make antibiotics before has been discovered! It can be grown from some soil in North Carolina, and attacks bad bacteria in three different ways, which makes it tough for bad bacteria to resist, while remaining safe to our cells. Because this bacteria has never been used in antibiotics before, no bacteria is resistant to it.

Read more here!

📷 Pixabay / cocoparisienne

Pete Kelly

Friday, September 1st, 2023 10:00am

Researchers at UCONN have developed a new material that they claim is "five times lighter but four times stronger than steel"! The material is built out of DNA which is then coated in glass. Because of the structure, the glass isn't prone to shatter as the pieces are  less than a micrometer thick. There's still more that needs to be done before this can be rolled out commercially, but they have experiments planned that could potentially improve even more on their design!

Read more here!