Today’s Solutions: February 18, 2026

Health

Finding good health news amidst a pandemic can be quite daunting. That’s not the case with The Optimist Daily, where positive news is in high supply. Our Health section covers the latest good news from the health sector, featuring solutions ranging from mental and physical health to immunity, nutrition, and cutting edge medical research.

Lufa is using tech skills to s

Lufa is using tech skills to scale up urban farming

Rooftop farms are gaining momentum as a solution for providing local and sustainable food to high-density communities. Located on top of a former Sears warehouse in Montreal, Lufa Farms is another innovative urban farming initiative, but with a tech-savvy twist.  Rather than selling their Read More...

The story behind the first suc

The story behind the first successful double hand and face transplant

Car crash survivor Joe DiMeo knew the risks he was facing when he decided to go through with a double hand and face transplant surgery at NYU Langone Health. The two previous times such a complicated procedure had ended in failure, but for DiMeo, the surgery was worth the risk if it meant that he Read More...

Sneaking grapes into your diet

Sneaking grapes into your diet may help protect your skin from UV damage

If grapes are among your staple snacks, then we have good news for you! According to a recent study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, eating these delicious fruits can help protect your skin against damage from ultraviolet light (UV). The findings show that eating around two cups of Read More...

This New Yorker built a new va

This New Yorker built a new vaccine appointment website with less than $50

When New York City began distributing Covid-19 vaccines, senior residents eagerly started trying to make appointments to receive one. Unfortunately, the registration websites were glitchy and confusing, especially for older citizens with limited tech skills. Even Huge Ma, a 31-year-old software Read More...

Why you should enjoy more “t

Why you should enjoy more “tiny” plant-based foods

When it comes to diet, we tend to focus solely on the types of foods we eat, but if you ask functional nutritionist Deanna Minich, Ph.D., she will tell you the size of your food is also very important. In a recent podcast for mindbodygreen, Minich explained that smaller plant-based foods can Read More...

Cultivating school gardens enc

Cultivating school gardens encourages children to eat more vegetables

Many of our eating habits are formed as young children and these become increasingly more difficult to change as we get older. It turns out that cultivating school gardens can increase the daily vegetable intake of elementary school children by offering an opportunity to educate them about Read More...

This technology allows plants

This technology allows plants to communicate with farmers

Scientists at the Swiss deep tech company Vivent have created technology that allows us to know exactly what our plants need. Before this, farmers have relied on secondary indicators for finding problems with their crops, looking, for example, for signs of drought by checking out their roots. But Read More...

A small patch could soon repla

A small patch could soon replace blood tests

Drawing blood is a common component of many medical tests, but this somewhat invasive process may soon be a thing of the past as researchers at the University of Washington have developed a small patch that adheres to the skin to scan for biomarkers and signs of disease.  The patch is the size Read More...

MIT researchers create origami

MIT researchers create origami-like patch to seal internal injuries

MIT researchers have developed a biodegradable medical patch that could soon help robot surgeons mend internal injuries and could ultimately lead to wider use of robots in medicine. Today, bioadhesive patches are already in use for surgeries that intend to seal internal damage, but the problem is Read More...

Unused parking lots in Paris a

Unused parking lots in Paris are becoming underground mushroom farms

Car ownership has been steadily declining in Paris for years, leaving the city with a new problem: thousands of square meters of unused underground parking space. In an effort to repurpose this space, the city began running competitions to find innovative uses for the space. This is how three major Read More...