Today's Good News | OGN Daily

Celebrating the end of the week with a collection of good news stories from around the world.

'Harvest in Motion'

A farmer balances a towering harvest on two wheels along Tanzania's Swahili coast. The photograph, taken by Wim Demessemaekers from Belgium, has been shortlisted for this year's World Food Photography Awards in the "Bring Home the Harvest" category. OGN will bring you more fabulous images from the contest when more are available.

Released From Debt

In a single transaction with a debt trading company, the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt (formerly RIP Medical Debt) announced it would be paying off $30 billion worth of unpaid medical debt. The sale will benefit an estimated 20 million people, mostly in Texas and Florida, with an average patient debt of $1,100 - though some debt was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. With the massive transaction, millions of people will be protected from being targeted by collectors, reports NPR. While it’s incredibly good news (and so worth celebrating!) that 20 million people will have this burden lifted, so many others still need help.

'Seemingly Impossible'

A roughly 100-year-old western Santa Cruz Galápagos tortoise called Mommy has become a mom for the first time after reproducing with a male of the same age at Philadelphia Zoo. Mommy's exact age is unknown, but she has been at the zoo for more than 90 years. Western Santa Cruz Galápagos tortoises are critically endangered in their native home of the Galápagos Islands, and there are fewer than 50 kept in U.S. zoos. This is the first time Philadelphia Zoo has hatched western Santa Cruz Galápagos tortoises in its more than 150-year history.

Bird Species Seen For First Time Since Darwin: The much studied Galápagos Islands are still offering up wonderful surprises.

Pencil tip next to the world's smallest pacemaker — Credit: John A. Rogers | Northwestern University

Tiny Pacemaker

Scientists have developed the world's smallest pacemaker with tiny hearts in mind. A team of engineers at Northwestern University built a device that’s so small it can be inserted non-invasively via syringe and dissolves when it’s no longer needed. That makes it particularly well-suited for newborns with heart defects, who often only need temporary pacing. Experimental cardiologist Igor Efimov, who co-led the research, added that for most of the roughly 1 percent of children born with congenital heart defects, the heart self-repairs within about a week. “But those seven days are absolutely critical,” Efimov said. “Now, we can place this tiny pacemaker on a child’s heart and stimulate it with a soft, gentle, wearable device. And no additional surgery is necessary to remove it.”

Landmark Trial

Chevron has been ordered to pay more than $740 million to restore coastal wetlands in Louisiana, reports AP. In the first of dozens of pending lawsuits in the state, a jury made a precedent-setting ruling that the company was accelerating land loss across the state’s rapidly disappearing coast. Potentially leaving other oil and gas firms on the hook for billions of dollars in damages tied to land loss and environmental degradation.

The Corleo quadruped robot — Credit: Kawasaki

Robot Horse

Kawasaki Heavy Industries has pulled the covers off a thoroughly bizarre concept vehicle. The Corleo is a two-seater quadruped robot you steer with your body, capable of picking its way through rough terrain thanks to AI vision. But some horses are very cheeky, and have you seen what comes out the back end of those things? Actually, all that'll come out the back of the Corleo robot is fresh, clean water as a combustion product from its clean-burning, 150cc, hydrogen-fueled generator engine. It was unveiled at a preview for the Osaka Kansai Expo (on April 4, not April 1 - and yes, we checked), the Corleo's rear legs appear to have an additional joint in them for improved impact resistance – and also presumably to fling riders off the back, stand up, and take up arms when the robot wars begin.

"If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else." Marvin Gaye