Today’s Solutions: December 17, 2025

Education

Great minds lead to great solutions. Our education section features solutions and innovations directed at strengthening educational systems around the world.

Artist Thomas Dambo’s recycled wood troll sculpture.

This Danish artist creates giant troll sculptures using local trash

Since 2014, a Danish artist by the name of Thomas Dambo has erected dozens of wooden, folklore-inspired trolls in greens-aces and parks around the world: a seated, bearded dude in Copenhagen’s hippie enclave of Christiana; sister and brother trolls “lost” in Florida’s Pinecrest Gardens; a Read More...

Listen to this fascinating pie

Listen to this fascinating piece of ambient music composed by stars

Though we can’t hear them, stars propagate some incredibly soothing soundscapes through the vacuum of space. And for the first time, music composed from the acoustic waves that blast out of these sublime celestial bodies has been made available online. The music is arranged by Brian Eno, the Read More...

Mary W. Jackson: NASA renames

Mary W. Jackson: NASA renames its HQ after first Black female engineer

In Margot Lee Shetterly’s 2016 book Hidden Figures, the author celebrates the pioneering work of Mary W. Jackson, the first Black female engineer at NASA. Now, in tribute to the incredible mathematician, NASA has announced it will rename its Washington DC headquarters after Jackson. “We are Read More...

Black bookstores are flooded w

Black bookstores are flooded with orders for anti-racism titles

Americans have been called upon to educate themselves about racism, their own racial biases, and the history of Black Americans in this country. The call to educate was made—and apparently, the people have listened. Across the country, black booksellers are being flooded with orders for Read More...

These colorful solar panels sh

These colorful solar panels show renewable energy can look beautiful too

There’s beauty in solar panels in that they capture light from our precious sun and convert it into electricity. With that said, the solar panel itself is not necessarily beautiful. To give solar panels an aesthetic boost, designer Marjan van Aubel has created a set of stained glass-style solar Read More...

Scientists are making huge pro

Scientists are making huge progress in mapping the ocean floor

Us humans know more about the surface of the Moon than we do Earth’s oceans, but there’s progress on closing that gap. The Seabed 3030 Project reports that scientists have mapped 19 percent of ocean floors to contemporary standards, or a huge leap over the six percent from Seabed’s launch Read More...

How to build anti-racism into

How to build anti-racism into your way of teaching

Unfortunately, the childhood classroom is one of the earliest places where inequalities, oppression, and racism begin to become ingrained in the lives of students of color. Fighting this cycle of injustice means becoming actively anti-racist, whether you are a parent, fellow student, administrator, Read More...

This nonprofit teaches former

This nonprofit teaches former felons digital media to boost job prospects

Each year, around 8,500 people in New York City are released from prison, more than half of which are rearrested within three years. Of those who have jobs a year after release, the recidivism rate drops to 31 percent. The problem, however, is that for someone who’s just gotten out of prison, Read More...

The founder of Netflix just do

The founder of Netflix just donated $120 million to black colleges

Many prominent public figures have donated towards causes that support racial justice in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, but no donation has gone further than that of Netflix founder Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin. The duo recently put forth $120 million that will be Read More...

MLB organist moves his show fr

MLB organist moves his show from Fenway Park to the world of livestreams

What does a Major League Baseball organist do during a pandemic? While baseball is shut down, Fenway Park’s Josh Kantor is keeping spirits up with live-streamed concerts from his home. Although not as glamorous as playing for a stadium of over 30,000 people, he told the New York Times, “For Read More...