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.
It was a chance meeting with a Tibetan refugee that gave Marc Gold the idea that changed his life. Like most Americans he was shocked by the poverty he saw on his first wide-eyed trip to Asia in 1989. He loved India's temples, elephants and spicy food, but what really got his attention was the grinding misery. It left him feeling demoralized and hopeless. Then he met Tsering Gyatso, the wife of a friend he'd made in the Himalayas. Her family was too poor to consult a doctor about the painful, and life-threatening, ear infection that she had endured for months. Gold was able to put that right in an afternoon with antibiotics costing less than the price of a latte back home in California. A further $30 purchased a hearing aid, and she was able to work again. It was a life-changing moment for both of them. "I thought, wow, this philanthropy stuff is great!" Marc said, He knew plenty of his friends back home would like to help if they could. And that gave him a simple idea. Ask friends, neighbors and colleagues for money -- then give it away, as wisely as possible. His quest has taken him to slums, war zones and refugee camps. He's helped rescue teenage sex slaves in Cambodia, paid for medical treatment for families in the bombed-out ruins of Kabul, Afghanistan, and rebuilt the homes of Thai friends that washed away in the 2004 tsunami. He always looks for people who have slipped through the cracks, those who have received no help from governments or big aid agencies.
Each fall, Marian Diamond walks into UC Berkeley's Wheeler Auditorium holding a round hatbox. What happens next has been watched nearly a half-million times on the university's YouTube channel, where Diamond's introductory anatomy lecture is the most viewed video. Diamond's discoveries in neuroscience have captured international attention and revolutionized how scientists view the brain's potential to develop at any age. Diamond became one of only a few researchers to analyze slices of Einstein's cortex. She found that Einstein had twice as many glial cells as normal males, a 1985 discovery that caused an international sensation. Scientists previously believed neurons were responsible for thinking and glial cells were support cells. Researchers now believe that glial cells play a critical role in brain development, learning, memory, aging and disease. Diamond has spent decades in the laboratory researching how environmental factors can alter the anatomy of the brain. She found that rats living in cages with stimulating objects and challenging activities developed dramatically thicker cerebral cortices than rats living without such stimulation. "I think scientifically she is one of the key people who opened up the field of thought that the brain is malleable in response to environmental exposure," said Dr. Robert Knight, director of UC Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. "Now that work is all the rage." Diamond found another secret to successful aging a decade ago when she established a link between the brain and the immune system.
