Welcome to the Good News Roundup for November 17, 2025
School Camp Gets a Front Row Seat to Solar Spectacle
Australian students on a routine school camp lucked into a front row seat to the aurora australis, watching faint white bands turn into vivid greens and purples above them.
The group of students took in the breathtaking views on Maloneys Beach in New South Wales, while others around the country were doing the same, from as far north as parts of Queensland and even well into Western Australia, as the powerful solar cycle delivered a rare, nation-wide light show that aurora chasers called one of the most memorable in years.
With energetic particles from the Sun colliding with Earth’s magnetic field and lighting up oxygen and nitrogen in different colours, the students’ experience doubled as a fun, real world lesson in space weather and solar cycles.
Read the full story and see the photos here
Heart-Healing Patch Offers New Hope
MIT engineers have created a smart, flexible patch that can be placed on the heart after a heart attack to help repair tissue and regrow blood vessels.
The patch delivers drugs on a timed schedule, reducing scar tissue and boosting heart function. In early tests on rats, it cut damage by half and improved cardiac output.
If successful in humans, this innovation could potentially give heart attack patients a stronger, healthier heart and a brighter recovery.
You can read more about this breakthrough here
Washington Set for Major Preschool Boost from former Microsoft CEO
Thousands of families in Washington state are set to benefit from a major philanthropic commitment, with the Ballmer Group pledging up to 170 million dollars a year for free preschool.
The gift, from former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife Connie, could create as many as ten thousand new places in the state’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program, on the condition that the state makes no further cuts.
Governor Bob Ferguson has called the investment transformative, with enrolments expected to begin rising next school year.
You can read more about the initiative here
Free School Breakfast Initiative Making a Big Difference in the UK
A free school breakfast club trial in North Yorkshire has proved far more popular than expected, with more than half of pupils at Saxton Church of England Primary School taking part each morning.
Staff say the club is making a real difference for working families, offering a reliable place for children to eat, socialise and settle in before class. Teachers have noticed new friendships forming, older students supporting younger ones, and children arriving energised and ready to learn.
The school is part of a wider government pilot involving 750 sites, with a national expansion planned for 2026.
You can read more about the breakfast club here
