The week's good news: September 26, 2019

1. New device helps restore some sight to the blind

Researchers are hopeful that a new device could soon help people who lost their sight be able to see again. A clinical study is underway at UCLA, and one of the volunteers is Jason Esterhuizen, who became blind seven years ago due to injuries sustained in a car accident. For the trial, a device called the Orion was implanted over the visual cortex in Esterhuizen's brain. He wears sunglasses that are equipped with a small camera, and those images are transmitted to the Orion, which converts them into electrical pulses that stimulate electrodes in Esterhuizen's brain. This lets him see patterns of light, which are used as visual cues. Esterhuizen told Inside Edition he's able to do things like sort laundry and take out the trash, as he can now see "little white dots on a black background. It's like looking up at the stars at night."

Inside Edition

2. Hall of Fame golfer celebrates his 100th birthday with a hole-in-one

Herbert Dixon just turned 100, and still plays golf every day, sometimes even getting in two rounds. "I just live day by day," the Bartow, Florida, resident told Fox 13. "I don't worry about what tomorrow is going to bring." Dixon grew up in Bartow, and became a caddy at 14. Because of segregation, blacks weren't able to play at the course, with Dixon only allowed to get a round in once a week on Caddy's Day. Dixon practiced whenever possible, and became an excellent player, winning more than 50 tournaments between 1951 and 1961. He was inducted into the African American Golfers Hall of Fame, and to this day, continues to have fun on the course; this month, he's hit two holes-in-one, including one on Sept. 16, his 100th birthday. That, the father of 10 said, was "icing on the cake."

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Fox 13

3. In a first, drone delivers diabetes medicine to remote island

For people who rely on insulin, it's scary to think about what might happen if they are suddenly unable to pick up their medication. That's one reason why developers at the National University of Ireland, Galway, designed a special drone that can deliver life-saving medications to people on remote islands. Researchers wanted to ensure that if normal delivery channels are down, due to weather or catastrophic events, supplies could still get to people in need. The team said this was the first time an autonomous drone has ever flown across the north Atlantic Ocean, traveling across roughly 11 miles of water from Galway to the Aran Islands. During the 15-minute flight, the drone was connected to the internet, with Irish Aviation Authority's air space regulators in contact, the Irish Times reports. Marion Broderick, a doctor on the Aran Islands, told the Times this technology offers "endless possibilities."

The Irish Times

4. Brothers use candle business to raise money for homeless shelters

Through their candle business, brothers Austin, Collin, and Ryan Gill are able to earn a little extra money, but they also make big donations to local homeless shelters. Austin, 8, Collin, 13, and Ryan, 11, live in the Washington, D.C., area, and after thinking about businesses they could start together, they settled on the idea of launching a candle company. They make their all-natural candles at home, picking out the scents and placing the wicks in the wax themselves. The boys — who named their company Fréres Branchiaux, which means "Gill brothers" in French — make about 10 to 15 batches of candles every day, and sell them at local farmers markets. Once they started turning a profit, they decided proceeds should go to a good cause, and now they donate about $500 to local homeless shelters every month. "The community gives to us, we want to give back," Ryan Gill told CBS News.

CBS News

5. Swedish McDonald's turns billboards into 'bee hotels'

At-risk honeybees in Sweden have a new place to stay: McDonald's billboards. Thirty percent of Sweden's wild bees are threatened by extinction, partly due to habitat loss, according to McDonald's Sweden. To create shelter for honeybees, the company has started drilling holes into some billboards and attaching honeybee houses to the reverse side of others, effectively establishing "bee hotels," Good News Network reports. This effort is in addition to the beehives built on the roofs of various Swedish McDonald's, as well as the "McHive" — a fully-functioning beehive that looks like a McDonald's restaurant, that was auctioned off earlier this year for $10,000, all of which went to charity.

Good News Network