Inspiring News Stories
Excerpts of Highly Inspiring News Stories in Major Media

Below are one-paragraph excerpts of highly inspiring news stories from the major media. Links are provided to the original stories on their media websites. If any link fails to function, click here. The inspiring news story summaries most recently posted here are listed first. You can explore the same list with the most inspiring stories listed first. See also a concise list providing headlines and links to a number of highly inspiring stories. May these articles inspire us to find ever more ways to love and support each other and all around us to be the very best we can be.

On July 14, 48 students walked through the doors of the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine in Bentonville, Ark. to become its inaugural class. Named after its founder–the world's richest woman and an heir to the Walmart fortune–the school will train students over the next four years in a radically different way from the method most traditional medical schools use. And that's the point. Instead of drilling young physicians to chase symptom after symptom and perform test after test, Alice Walton wants her school's graduates to keep patients healthy by practicing something that most doctors today don't prioritize: preventive medicine and whole-health principles, which involve caring for (and not just treating) the entire person and all of the factors–from their mental health to their living conditions and lifestyle choices–that contribute to wellbeing. Visually, the school lives up to its acronym: AWSOM. The building, with soaring glass walls, is located on Walton family property and includes not just a wellness studio and gym, but a rooftop park, healing gardens where students can study, growing gardens for producing healthy foods, and a reflection pond. Walton is covering tuition for the first five graduating classes. They will get all the science and disease knowledge they need to manage the ‘sick-care' side of things," Walton says. But "I wanted to create a school that really gives doctors the ability to focus on how to keep their patients healthy."

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing our bodies.

Loneliness has become a global public health concern. Countries including Britain and Japan have appointed "ministers of loneliness" to help tackle the problem. In the United States, then-Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued a public health advisory on loneliness, stating that the risk for premature death from loneliness is akin to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. What if, instead of trying to "fix" the individual, strategies focused on shaping the environment in a way that facilitates social connection? Recently, researchers have been trying to leverage nature as a way to bring people together and reduce negative feelings about social isolation. They say living in what is known as a "lonelygenic environment" – one dominated by cars and concrete instead of grass and trees – can cause or aggravate loneliness. Even if you live in a lonelygenic environment, experts say, spending just an hour or two in nature per week ... may help people feel less isolated. One proposed approach for tackling loneliness as a public health issue is through social prescribing, where physicians connect their patients with non-medical services in the community similar to how they prescribe medication. Nature comes in many forms. An ongoing study by [Matthew] Browning and his colleagues investigates the amount of time a representative sample of Americans spends outdoors in nature. "What we find is that nature is, for most people ... watching their kids play soccer outside or grilling in the backyard."

Note: What if the negative news overload on America's chronic illness crisis isn't the full story? Check out our Substacks to learn more about the inspiring remedies to the chronic illness and loneliness crisis! Explore more positive stories like this on healing our bodies and mental health.

What started as a grassroots movement in the United States over a decade ago, park prescriptions have become an evidence-based treatment regimen that helps people confront both mental and physical ailments by spending more time outdoors. In fact, at least nine countries now have nature prescription programs in some form. Park prescriptions fall under an area of medicine called "social prescribing," which encourages doctors to consider non-clinical treatments in primary mental and physical healthcare. "Social prescribing is a model of care delivery that enables health professionals to formally prescribe non-clinical community activities – including the arts, movement, nature, and service (volunteering) – to improve patient health, and at minimal patient cost," Social Prescribing USA's website reads. "Social prescribing is designed to address social determinants of health, including social connection. Built on a foundation of health equity and collaboration across sectors, social prescribing is intended to broaden health professional toolkits, rather than to replace pharmacological measures." Studies show that stress hormone levels drop after just 15 minutes outside; spending time in forests reduces inflammation and risks of lung infections; increasing nature time reduces risks of heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes; and seniors who live near walkable green spaces live longer.

Note: Read our Substack to learn about social and green prescribing along with other inspiring remedies to the chronic illness crisis ravaging the world. Explore more positive stories like this on healing our bodies and mental health.

A recent study published in Science offers strong new evidence that the human brain continues to generate neurons in the hippocampus, its key memory region, well into later stages of life. Conducted by researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, the study addresses a long-standing debate about how adaptable the adult brain really is. The hippocampus plays a critical role in memory, learning, and emotional regulation. In 2013, Jonas Frisén and his team at Karolinska Institutet made headlines when they demonstrated that new neurons could form in this region during adulthood. Despite this earlier discovery, questions remained. In particular, scientists lacked direct evidence that the cells responsible for generating new neurons, known as neural progenitor cells, are present and actively dividing in adult human brains. "We have now been able to identify these cells of origin, which confirms that there is an ongoing formation of neurons in the hippocampus of the adult brain," says Jonas Frisén ... who led the research. The newly formed cells were located in a specific area of the hippocampus. This area is important for memory formation, learning, and cognitive flexibility. "This gives us an important piece of the puzzle in understanding how the human brain works," explains Jonas Frisén. "Our research may also have implications for the development of regenerative treatments that stimulate neurogenesis in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders."

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing our bodies.

Ten days after 9/11, Rais Bhuiyan was shot at point blank range by a white supremacist. The near-death experience inspired him to set up World Without Hate, dedicated to breaking the cycles of violence. "As a result of the shooting, I ... lost my home, my job, my sense of security and my fiance," [said Bhuiyan]. "I focused on rebuilding my life slowly getting into restaurant working as a waiter. Many kind and caring Americans came forward to help redo my life. Forgiving my attacker was a multiple-step process. I realized by executing him we were simply losing human life without dealing with the root cause. I began to see him as a human being like me, not just as a killer. And I remember what it feels like to be on the brink the death, begging to God for a second chance. I learned about the verse in the Holy Koran chapter 5, verse 32 where it says that saving a life is like saving the entire mankind and taking a life is like taking the life of entire mankind. I was extremely convinced I needed to go the extra mile to save the life of the man. When we launched our global campaign to save the life of my attacker he heard from his lawyer that's one of his victims was running a campaign to save his life. And he told his lawyer, I do not believe it, I never said sorry, I never apologized and destroyed their lives, especially his life, and now he forgave me and is running a campaign to save my life, he was released to tears, he said I don't deserve that, I'm someone unforgivable. He wrote a letter to me from death row and in one paragraph this is what he said, that my stepfather taught me some lessons that I should have never learned. So when he learned about our campaign he went to tremendous transformation and talked about world peace, mercy, justice, peace, hate crimes and how he was wrong, what went wrong in his life, and how he ended up killing people. He was in peace before he was executed."

Note: Watch Bhuiyan's powerful 17-min PBS interview. For more, watch our latest 20-min video on what can transform a divided world, where you'll hear the powerful words and stories from those at the edge of death, leaders who reached across deep divides, and even a former neo-Nazi who left hate. Explore more positive stories like this on human interest stories and near-death experiences.

I had been a SEAL for five and a half years. After that, I worked as a contractor with the CIA. When that ended, I crashed–hard. I got into sleeping pills. I was using opiates. Eventually, I moved out of the country and started living in MedellĂ­n, Colombia. That's where I got really into cocaine. Eventually, I hit a point where I knew I couldn't keep going. A friend told me about psychedelic therapy, and I decided to try it. The first was Ibogaine. It's a 12-hour experience. I basically watched my entire life play out from a different perspective. After the Ibogaine effects wore off, I did another psychedelic called 5-MeO-DMT, sometimes called the "God molecule." The trip is described as an ego death, or death experience. It was the most intense, intuitive thing I've ever felt. I came out of it seeing the world differently. For the first time in my life, I realized everything is connected. That hit me in a way nothing else ever had. When I came back from that psychedelic experience, I didn't need the pills anymore. I didn't need the vodka. I quit everything. And for the first time in a long time, I was fully present with my family. That experience changed everything. It gave me a second chance. That's why I started talking about this publicly. I wanted other veterans ... to know there's a way out. A lot of them have been through the same thing – addiction, trauma, broken families, suicidal thoughts. When they hear that someone else made it through, they start to believe that maybe they can too.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on psychedelic medicine and healing the war machine.

Negative or fear-framed coverage of AI in mainstream media tends to outnumber positive framings. The emphasis on the negative in artificial intelligence risks overshadowing what could go right – both in the future as this technology continues to develop and right now. AlphaFold, which was developed by the Google-owned AI company DeepMind, is an AI model that predicts the 3D structures of proteins based solely on their amino acid sequences. That's important because scientists need to predict the shape of protein to better understand how it might function and how it might be used in products like drugs. By speeding up a basic part of biomedical research, AlphaFold has already managed to meaningfully accelerate drug development in everything from Huntington's disease to antibiotic resistance. A timely warning about a natural disaster can mean the difference between life and death. That is why Google Flood Hub is so important. An open-access, AI-driven river-flood early warning system, Flood Hub provides seven-day flood forecasts for 700 million people in 100 countries. It works by marrying a global hydrology model that can forecast river levels even in basins that lack physical flood gauges with an inundation model that converts those predicted levels into high-resolution flood maps. This allows villagers to see exactly what roads or fields might end up underwater. Flood Hub ... is one of the clearest examples of how AI can be used for good.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good.

The blockchain is a revolution that builds on another technical revolution so old that only the more experienced among us remember it: the invention of the database. IBM's database model stood unchanged until about 10 years ago, when the blockchain came into this conservative space with a radical new proposition: What if your database worked like a network – a network that's shared with everybody in the world, where anyone and anything can connect to it? Blockchain experts call this "decentralization." Decentralization offers the promise of nearly friction-free cooperation between members of complex networks that can add value to each other by enabling collaboration without central authorities and middle men. In a world without middle men, things get more efficient in unexpected ways. A 1% transaction fee may not seem like much, but down a 15-step supply chain, it adds up. These kinds of little frictions add just enough drag on the global economy that we're forced to stick with short supply chains and deals done by the container load, because it's simply too inefficient to have more links in the supply chain and to work with smaller transactions. The decentralization that blockchain provides would change that, which could have huge possible impacts for economies in the developing world. Any transformation which helps small businesses compete with giants will have major global effects.

Note: This article is also available here. Watch our 13 minute video on the promise of blockchain technology. Explore more positive stories like this on reimagining the economy and technology for good.

Look at the modus operandi of today's internet giants – such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Uber, or Airbnb – and you'll notice they have one thing in common: They rely on the contributions of users as a means to generate value within their own platforms. All of the profits are captured by the large intermediaries who operate the platforms. Recently, a new technology has emerged that could change this imbalance. Blockchain facilitates the exchange of value in a secure and decentralized manner, without the need for an intermediary. With a blockchain, software applications no longer need to be deployed on a centralized server: They can be run on a peer-to-peer network that is not controlled by any single party. These blockchain-based applications can be used to coordinate the activities of a large number of individuals, who can organize themselves without the help of a third party. Blockchain technology is ultimately a means for individuals to coordinate common activities, to interact directly with one another, and to govern themselves in a more secure and decentralized manner. New forms of organizations ... which have no director or CEO, or any sort of hierarchical structure – are administered, collectively, by all individuals interacting on a blockchain. And since there is no intermediary operator, the value produced within these platforms can be more equally redistributed among those who have contributed to the value creation.

Note: This article is also available here. Watch our 13 minute video on the promise of blockchain technology. Explore more positive stories like this on reimagining the economy and technology for good.

No toilets, expensive food of dubious quality, crowded housing. This was the reality for many in 1840s Britain. Something had to change. And the Rochdale Pioneers knew it. The group of 28 artisans and cotton weavers ... wanted to start a co-operative society in order to provide their community with affordable and unadulterated food. Their small grocery shop started by selling only flour, sugar, oatmeal and butter and opened just before Christmas 1844. Any profit was shared among member-owners. With this, the co-operative movement took root. Today, these businesses employ some 280 million people around the world – 10% of the employed population. Approximately 3m co-ops with an astonishing 1.2bn members, more than an eighth of the world's population, exist internationally. Shared Interest is a UK-based social lender that supports farmers and handcraft producers in 47 countries around the world. From sphagnum moss farmers in Peru to coffee farmers in Rwanda, the organisation provides finance for smallholder communities that collectively provide around a third of the world's food but are often stuck in cycles of poverty. Uganda-based coffee producer Bukonzo Organic Farmers Cooperative Union (BOCU), which Shared Interest has supported since 2014 ... negotiates prices, undertakes marketing and manages export on behalf of 13 smaller primary co-ops. Having this tiered system is crucial for small-scale farmers who don't speak English.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on reimagining the economy.

The bidding opens at $9,000. For sale? A Yazidi girl. She is said to be beautiful, hardworking, and a virgin. She's also just 11 years old. This advertisement – a screengrab from an online marketplace used by ISIS fighters to barter for sex slaves – is one of many Abdullah Shrem keeps in his phone. Each offers vital clues – photographs, locations – that he hopes will help him save Yazidi girls and young women like this girl from the militants holding them captive. Shrem was a successful businessman ... when ISIS came and kidnapped more than 50 members of his family from Iraq's Sinjar province. Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled their homes ... while thousands of women and girls were abducted and sold into slavery. Desperate – and angered at what he saw as a lack of support from the international community – he began plotting to save them himself, recruiting cigarette smugglers used to sneaking illicit produce in and out of ISIS territory to help his efforts. So far, he says, his network has freed 240 Yazidis; it hasn't been easy, or cheap – he's almost broke, having spent his savings paying smuggling fees. A number of the smugglers have been captured and executed by ISIS while trying to track down Yazidi slaves. But Shrem insists the risks are worth it: "Whenever I save someone, it gives me strength and it gives me faith to keep going until I have been able to save them all." Once they manage to make contact ... it can take days or even weeks to get safely out of ISIS territory.

Note: A 2021 news article by the CBC about his heroic work reported that he has saved about 400 individuals from ISIS forces. Explore more positive stories like this on healing the war machine and ending human trafficking.

Until 2014, Abdullah Shrem was a beekeeper in Iraq. Then Islamic State forces arrived, announcing their terror in symbols daubed on the doorways of the homes they raided: "They wrote the letter Y on our homes and on our stores and built a barrier like the Berlin Wall – N for the Christians, and Y for the Yazidis. S for the Sunnis, and Sh for the Shi'ites," Shrem recalls. The Yazidis met the worst fate: men were marched into mass graves and shot, while women were separated – young from old, mothers from children, wives from virgins. The younger were taken to a "marketplace" to be sold as sex slaves or sabaya; the older were killed or sold as domestic slaves. Shrem's response was extraordinary: he left beekeeping to create a network of rescuers – modelled on the female-led fortress of the beehive – who would return the kidnapped women to their families. "I cultivated a hive of transporters and smugglers from both sexes to save our queens," he tells Dunya Mikhail, an American-Iraqi journalist, whose book is centred on the women Shrem rescues. The women form the book's heart. Their stories, however courageous, read like a litany of horrors, some painfully detailed. What is striking is the unaugmented record of experiences, transcribed in first-person testimonies and knitted together with Shrem's words. The multiplicity of voices creates a verbatim record – a chorus of experience – rather than following the ... narrative arc of heroic exceptionalism.

Note: A 2021 news article by the CBC about his heroic work reported that he has saved about 400 individuals from ISIS forces. Explore more positive stories like this on healing the war machine and ending human trafficking.

For 13 years, the Brazilian government has offered its incarcerated citizens a simple deal: read a book, serve less time. This "Remission for Reading" program is now serving as a template to other nations, and prison populations are enjoying similar deals in countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. With a recidivism rate of more than 80% and the 15th highest imprisonment rate on the planet, the Brazilian criminal justice system was for decades failing its 1984 mandate which states that prisoners must have access to programs that will help prepare them to reenter society. Remission for Reading works by offering all Brazilian prisoners regardless of literacy skill or mental faculties access to the prison library, which includes books in Braille and audiobooks for those with poor eyesight. Once a book is checked out, the inmate has 21 to 30 days depending on the page count to finish it, and then 10 days to complete a written book report to demonstrate their knowledge of the text. Assistance is offered to those who speak different languages or who are intellectually impaired. For each report, the prisoner's sentence is commuted by 4 days. An inmate can submit up to 12 reviews per year, which if maxed out equates to 48 days of commuted sentence. According to a study conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics, Brazilian prisoners read nine times more than the national average of five books per year.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on repairing criminal justice.

Could baby poop and fungi work together to tackle landfill waste? That's the idea behind a new product launched by an Austin, Texas-based startup that sells disposable diapers paired with fungi intended to break down the plastic. Each of Hiro Technologies' MycoDigestible Diapers comes with a packet of fungi to be added to the dirty diaper before it is thrown in the trash. After a week or two, the fungi are activated by moisture from feces, urine and the environment to begin the process of biodegradation. An estimated 4 million tons of diapers were disposed of in the United States in 2018, with no significant recycling or composting. Diapers take hundreds of years to naturally break down. That means the very first disposable diaper ever used is still in a landfill somewhere. To tackle this, Hiro Technologies turned to fungi. These organisms - which include mushrooms, molds, yeasts and mildew - derive nutrients from decomposing organic matter. In 2011, Yale University researchers discovered a type of fungus in Ecuador that can feed on polyurethane, a common polymer in plastic products. They figured the fungus, Pestalotiopsis microspora, would be capable of surviving on plastic in environments lacking oxygen, like landfills. Hiro Technologies co-founder Tero Isokauppila, a Finnish entrepreneur who also founded medicinal mushroom company Four Sigmatic, said there are more than 100 species of fungi now known to break down plastics.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on microplastic solutions and healing the Earth.

Hemp is one of the most sustainable materials available to manufacturers because it's cheap to grow, uses little water, doesn't need any toxic pesticides, and can absorb more carbon than trees. Hemp batteries have their own advantages, too. These batteries use lighter and more widely available materials like sulfur, boron, and hemp instead of the heavy metals used in traditional lithium-ion batteries. Some EVs use a device called a supercapacitor, which stores energy through static electricity rather than a chemical reaction, like in conventional batteries. In these batteries, a material called graphene is used. But graphene is expensive. To create ... "cannabis cars," scientists use hemp bark – a waste product created by cannabis plants – and cooked it to make a substance that resembles graphene. Hemp lasts longer than graphene. It also stores more power and is easy to source. Son Nguyen, Bemp Research's founder, told EnergyTech that the company's lithium-sulfur battery can help solve shortages in the EV battery supply chain. "Sulfur is very abundant. Boron is also relatively abundant, with the biggest boron mine being in California," Nguyen said. "Being an American company, our focus right now is to make batteries for American electric vehicles, and we do not see any supply chain problems. Bemp batteries are less reliant on rare earth metals from around the globe and thus will help U.S. national security."

Note: Read about why architects are choosing hemp walls for their superior insulation, resistance to mold and moisture, and environmentally friendly, biodegradable design. Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good.

An unlikely natural ally in the fight against microplastics has been discovered. Researchers in China have found that invasive water hyacinths are adept at absorbing microplastics without harm to the plant itself. Experiments against a control group showed that plastics were mostly trapped on the outside of the water hyacinth's root systems. The few that get inside the plant are quickly separated before nutrients get to the leaves. Typically, plants exposed to microplastics suffer ill effects. Water hyacinths are native to South America. Two plants were able to produce 1,200 daughter plants in four months, according to one study. Any given population of water hyacinth can double in size in six days. Once dropped into a new foreign habitat, invasive species ... can squeeze out native species, reduce biodiversity, and eliminate vital ecosystem services. Not long ago, Arkansas had to issue a statement on the threat water hyacinths posed to agriculture. On the flip side, microplastics are a scourge. They'll often end up in the fish we catch, and once eaten by humans, they can cause problems with the endocrine, immune, and reproductive systems. Despite their rapid proliferation, it may still be worth strategically deploying water hyacinths. Other studies have shown that water hyacinths can also absorb heavy metals and agricultural runoff. Meanwhile, enterprising individuals have been able to take the excess biomass of the plants and turn it into briquettes and bioplastics.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on microplastic solutions.

Dan Mancina has been a skateboarder since the age of seven, but when he was 13, he was diagnosed with rhinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease that rendered him almost completely blind by 22. He hit pause on his skateboarding for a couple of years in his early 20s, but decided to pick it back up again, now using a white cane to shred more confidently. Now almost 38, he's a professional skateboarder, relearning tricks, and even completing the course at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. About seven years ago, he started dreaming of creating the world's first adaptive skatepark right in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Finally, the park is a reality. Called "The Ranch," the 5,000-square-foot skatepark is completely accessible, allowing both seasoned low-vision boarders to take it for a spin and newcomers to the sport to feel welcome. In a recent video, blind content creator Anthony S. Ferraro, who reviews and documents his experiences in accessible environments ... on TikTok, showed off the park's features. Features include rollers, bank ramps, and ledges, with manual pads and platforms, all designed to be easier to navigate for people with vision impairments or in wheelchairs. Auditory cues are also placed throughout the park in the form of beepers, which warn a skater about a dangerous drop or guide them to a particular obstacle. "Thanks for building this park, Dan, [you're] a true pioneer." Next up, he plans to host workshops and camps for other visually impaired skaters who want to learn how to skate with a white cane. "It's been so inspiring to watch this come to reality. I've never had a place where I can skate with full confidence," Ferraro ends his video.

Note: Watch a deeply inspiring video about how Dan Mancina learned how to skateboard after losing his sight. Explore more positive stories like this on inspiring disabled persons.

California has introduced a first-in-the-nation online public platform to help bridge silos. The platform, called Engaged California (EC), enables and encourages the direct engagement of citizens with government and with each other. Engaged California is not glorified polling and is more than a town hall gathering. It is a three-way tool that enables policymakers and administrators to listen at scale to average citizens outside of election cycles and be responsive; it invites citizens to directly voice their concerns and proposals on an ongoing basis; and it is a platform for Californians from all walks of life to interact with each other to find common ground. Audrey Tang ... helped craft California's program ... modeled on the pioneering online deliberative platform she created as Taiwan's first digital minister. Tang's vTaiwan platform engages thousands of citizens at a time to weigh in on social issues or policy propositions. In essence, as each participant formulates a position on an issue, others chime in with their own versions. Extreme positions fall to the margins with minimal support, and more consensus views aggregate in the middle. In turn, legislators, parties and administrators can formulate policies in full knowledge of where the public stands. Housed in the state's Office of Data and Innovation, Engaged California is meant to become a permanent feature of governance going forward that will be used for the public to deliberate a range of concerns and proposals

Note: Read more about how vTaiwan is changing the game. Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and technology for good.

Rajabai Sawant used to pick and sort waste on the streets of Pune with a sack on her back. The plastic she collected from a public waste site would be sold for some money that saved her children from begging. Today, dressed in a dark green jacket monogrammed with the acronym Swach (solid waste collection and handling) over a colourful sari, the 53-year-old is one among an organised group of waste collectors and climate educators who teach residents in urban Pune how to segregate and manage waste, based on a PPPP – a pro-poor private public partnership. Swach was set up in 2005 by a trade union of waste pickers, Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), which was ... envisioned a scheme that enhanced waste collectors' work instead of displacing them. These [PPPP] partnerships are contracts between the state or local authority and a group of private individuals that aim to provide a public service while simultaneously alleviating poverty. Of the waste generated by the city, Swach sorts and recycles about 227 tonnes a day (82,891 tonnes a year) that is diverted away from landfills. It saves the city Ł10m that would have been needed for processing, transportation and human resources. Today, Swach has more than 3,850 self-reliant waste picker members, who provide daily doorstep waste collection services to citizens of Pune who pay a small monthly fee. Under the PPPP, each member is a shareholder and earns about 16,000 rupees (Ł140) a month.

Note: Explore more positive stories on reimagining the economy.

For 4.4 billion people, the only water available is unsafe to drink. In the early 1990s, I was working as a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ("Berkeley Lab") when I heard about a devastating cholera outbreak in my home country. I started to study waterborne pathogens with the aim to develop a new way to make water drinkable that would be affordable and effective in rural areas of low income countries. In a short few years, and later on with funding support from the Energy Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, I came up with an invention – the UV Waterworks – that met all my goals. It was inexpensive, efficient, portable and effective. Roughly the size of a microwave, the device sanitizes water using UV light to kill harmful bacteria, viruses and molds. It can purify approximately four gallons of water per minute and provide a year's worth of potable drinking water for just seven cents per person. The University of California, which runs the lab, filed the initial patent. I helped found WaterHealth International, which exclusively licensed the UV Waterworks technology from the university in 1996. In the time since, the invention has benefited tens of million people across India and Africa. Roughly 80% of our customers live below the poverty line in their home countries.

Note: Read about the ecologist who used sunlight, plants, and pond life to turn toxic sewage into clean drinking water–proving that nature can heal what industry has broken. Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good.