|
||||||||||
|
Five good things · Three minutes
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| ||||||||||
|
MEDICINE • ScienceDaily Health
The first drug for a one-in-a-million disease just arrivedA mistake in a mouse lab in the 1990s. Thirty years later, a cure.
The FDA has approved the first drug designed to directly treat Alexander disease, a neurological disorder so rare it affects fewer than one in a million people worldwide. The treatment, called Zanvastro, is the first that targets the underlying disease rather than easing its symptoms. Until now, doctors could only manage the seizures, the loss of movement, and the difficulty swallowing as the condition slowly advanced. The science began three decades ago at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the lab of Albee Messing. He and Michael Brenner engineered mice to overproduce a protein called GFAP and, without intending to, created animals with the exact brain lesions seen in human patients. That accident revealed the genetic cause. In an international trial of 54 patients, those given Zanvastro walked faster after a year, and some regained motor function. "This is a wonderful and long-awaited day for the Alexander disease community," Messing said. The drug reaches the US in the coming weeks. Read the full story → | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
|
KINDNESS • Good News Network
She worked theaters 45 years. Strangers raised $146,000.She hoped for a month's rent. The internet had other ideas.
A 21-year-old moviegoer in Maryville, Tennessee, raised $146,000 for an elderly AMC theater worker after posting a short TikTok of the woman at work. Brooklyn Green had decided on the spur of the moment to catch a film. Inside, she noticed an elderly woman with a bent back pushing a trash cart around the lobby. "I just saw her work ethic. She was just working really hard," Green told local news. She filmed a clip and started a GoFundMe, hoping maybe for a month's rent from family and friends. TikTok had other ideas, raising more than $100,000 in a single day. The woman, Mary, has worked in theaters for over 45 years. According to the shift manager, she worried that stopping now "might make things 'go downhill' for her." Mary wasn't in the day Green returned, but she appeared later at a meet-and-greet. "Thank you so very much to all the wonderful people who have donated money," she said. Read the full story → | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
|
KINDNESS • Google News Human Interest
The horse they gave up 16 years ago came homeShe carried a lock of his hair for 16 years. Then a school called.
A Reddick, Florida, family has been reunited with a horse they gave up 16 years ago, found living a few miles away at an elementary school. Louisa Barton and her daughter, Megan Asencio, parted with Vision, a quarter horse, during financial struggles and had searched for him ever since. The clue came when staff at Reddick Collier Elementary mentioned a 25-year-old quarter horse they had taken in for their equine education program. His name was Vision. "That's a not a name you hear every day, and certainly not for a 25-year-old quarter horse," Barton said. Asencio had carried a lock of his hair for 16 years, convinced she would never see him again. "I've loved him since we parted ways," she said. Vision will now help local students learn how to care for horses. Many of them already own horses, which the family did not realize when they went looking for just one. Read the full story → | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
|
KINDNESS • InspireMore
A kind cashier sent her back to work smiling.She mentioned it in passing. He heard it.
A Trader Joe's checker in Bloomington handed a customer flowers and chocolates last week after she mentioned, in passing, that she was nervous about returning to work the next day. The customer, a woman named Roze, shared the encounter on TikTok. She had been on a leave of absence and said she hesitated when the checker, Tim, asked how she was doing. She told him anyway. They finished ringing up her groceries, and then he said he would be right back. "He comes walking back up with these flowers and chocolates," she said. "I started bawling my eyes out because he didn't have to." The two hugged, and she left the store. She said she planned to carry some of the chocolates to work with her. "When I go to work tomorrow, I'll think of these flowers," Roze said, "and just think about how I'm gonna be okay."
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
|
NATURE • Smithsonian Magazine
Barn owls nested in Manhattan for the first time everIt started with a screech at night. Then a whole family appeared.
A family of barn owls has nested in a water tower on Manhattan's Upper West Side, which experts believe is the first known nesting in the borough in modern history. As many as eight birds, two adults and up to six juveniles, have been spotted at a hole in the tower, drawing birders out into the dark to watch. It started with screeching in September. Resident Elisabeth Williams and her husband kept hearing the same raspy call from their patio and identified the source using the Merlin bird ID app. On October 3, Williams finally photographed the culprit, confirmed it was a barn owl, and named it Scotty. Scotty was not flying solo. Barn owls have declined sharply in New York as development erased their habitat, so the nest matters. "The presence of a nest right in the middle of the country's biggest city is really exciting," says Jessica Wilson of the NYC Bird Alliance. People keep coming to look. Read the full story → | ||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
THE HONEYMAP
Sweet news is everywhere, if you know where to look.
honeyletter+ is open — the whole map, the button whenever you need it, no sponsors ever. Get the whole map →
|
||||||||||
|
With love, The Editor
|
||||||||||
|
honeyletter
|
