Today’s Solutions: January 19, 2025

Education

Great minds lead to great solutions. Our education section features solutions and innovations directed at strengthening educational systems around the world.

happy and smiling Black mom and daughter outside on the beach

Science Moms are on a mission to spread science-based climate optimism

When we feel overwhelmed and hopeless, many of us turn to our mothers or the mother figures we have in our lives for comfort and encouragement. As adults the challenges we face are much bigger than a scraped knee, with wider problems like climate change possibly luring us into despair. Luckily, Read More...

father and son look at phone while grocery shopping

NHS app helps UK families curb the record rise in childhood obesity

Since the beginning of the pandemic, surveys show that parents in the UK have been allowing their children to snack on more unhealthy food, which likely contributes to the record rise in obesity among 10- to 11-year-olds across the nation. Other factors include lockdowns, school closures, and Read More...

Empowered activism is cultivat

Empowered activism is cultivating a marketable skill - A dispatch from Colombia

“Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind.”  – Madeleine L’Engle By Jackie Gilbert We all catch ourselves making remarks like “I’m starving” or “we’re dying of hunger”, but fortunately for most of us in my middle-class Read More...

The

China’s “artificial sun” fusion reactor breaks yet another record

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has exciting news about its fusion reactor that it recently shared in a release. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion reactor successfully sustained a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for 1,056 seconds, effectively Read More...

woman in overalls gardening

Create a refuge for endangered native plant species in your own garden

Here at the Optimist Daily, we never tire of sharing stories that help garden-lovers and green thumbs continue cultivating their gardening habits. Gardening, or even just spending time in a garden, doesn’t just offer people several physical and mental health benefits, but gardens can potentially Read More...

surgeons operate heart transplant

Doctors transplant pig's heart into human patient for the first time ever

A remarkable milestone in medicine was reached by doctors in Maryland who have successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig’s heart into a human patient in a do-or-die situation. David Bennet, a 57-year-old handyman, was the recipient of this life-saving operation. He knew that the Read More...

Study: Goldfish can be taught

Study: Goldfish can be taught to operate a vehicle

This interesting study, carried out by scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, looked at how capable a fish out of water really is. In an effort to understand animals' navigational capabilities the team used a goldfish as a subject, teaching it to drive a Fish Operated Vehicle Read More...

four diverse children play and learn in the forest

Forest Schools surge in popularity in the UK

Around 30 years ago, The Forest School movement was introduced to the UK via Scandinavia, a place where a passion for nature and the great outdoors is a deep-seated part of the culture. Now, Forest Schools are experiencing a revival in the UK. According to a 2021 survey by the Forest School Read More...

Dog looks intelligently at owner

Study proves dogs can distinguish between familiar & unfamiliar languages

A new study published in NeuroImage confirms what many dog owners already know—their furry companions are really quite smart. The study focuses on dogs’ brains and their ability to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar languages. The lead author of the study, neurobiologist Laura Read More...

Teen lying on bed in their room with binder out.

More sleep leads to happier teens

The impact of school closures Due to the pandemic, schools were forced to close in 2020 to decrease the rates of transmission within the population. Although necessary, this protocol hugely impacted adolescents' mental health, with rates of anxiety and depression are seen to be rising in the past Read More...