Inspiring News Articles
Excerpts of Highly Inspiring News Articles in Major Media
Below are one-paragraph excerpts of highly inspiring news articles from the major media. Links are provided to the original inspiring news articles on their media websites. If any link fails, read this webpage. The most inspiring news articles are listed first. You can also explore the news articles listed by order of the date posted. For an abundance of other highly inspiring material, see our Inspiring Resources page. May these inspiring news 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.
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.
A team of researchers searching for safe, sustainable, and biodegradable alternatives to plastics presented a new type of transparent material at the American Chemical Society (ACS) spring meeting. Unlike previous transparent "wood" designs that sacrifice some biodegradability for strength by including certain types of plastics, the team said its eco-friendly see-through material is made with all natural components. Potential applications for the plastic alternative include electronic device screens, wearable sensors, coatings on solar cells, and transparent wood windows. Bharat Baruah, a professor of chemistry ... said his woodworking hobby led him to research efforts to create transparent wood. He quickly discovered that successfully created transparent wood materials were enhanced with epoxy, a type of plastic, to increase its strength, sacrificing some biodegradability. The professor decided he should see if there were better alternatives. After enlisting Ridham Raval, a Kenneshaw State undergraduate student, to help, the duo used a vacuum chamber, sodium sulfite, sodium hydroxide, and bleach to remove lignin and hemicellulose, two of wood's three components, from a sample of balsa wood. What remained was a paper-like layer of cellulose filled with tiny pores. Instead of refilling the pores with epoxy, the team soaked the cellulose layer in a mixture of egg whites and rice extract. They were "left with semi-transparent slices of wood that were durable and flexible."
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing the Earth and technology for good.
