Inhale the present, exhale the past.

Now, let your breath guide you back to the present moment, where peace and mindfulness reside.

Thank you for reading today’s edition of Grateful Gazette 😌

Here’s what to know for Thursday:

• Gene therapy restores hearing in 11-year-old boy

• New York partners with nonprofit to clear $2 billion in medical debt

• Scientists found a huge deep-sea coral reef in North America

11-year old dances into a world of sound

Imagine living in a world of silence, unable to hear your own voice or the sounds around you.

That was the reality for Aissam Dam, an 11-year-old boy who was born deaf because of a rare genetic defect.

But guess what?

Thanks to a groundbreaking gene therapy, he can now hear for the first time in his life. Aissam is one of the first patients in the US to receive the treatment.

How did it work?

They injected a harmless virus into his ear, carrying a missing gene he needed.

This gene is essential for converting sound vibrations into signals that the brain can understand. And it’s considered a significant milestone for the field of gene therapy and hearing loss.

The hospital is part of a global effort to find new ways to restore hearing in people who have genetic mutations that affect their inner ear cells.

His dad, who had never heard his son speak, was over the moon when he saw him react to his voice.

Aissam also started to notice the sounds of cars, birds, and even scissors cutting his hair.

He is now learning to speak with the help of a speech therapist, but he still faces some challenges. For instance, he may never learn to talk fluently, as the brain’s window for acquiring speech closes around the age of five.

Still, Aissam’s story is a remarkable example of how science and medicine can change lives for the better.

His doctors hope that his case will inspire more research and trials on gene therapy for hearing loss.

🕺 A Sundance documentary about love and hope behind bars: Incarcerated fathers and daughters reunited for a daddy-daughter dance 

👨 Jon Stewart is back: The Daily Show legend returns to host Mondays through the 2024 Election

🦏 IVF breakthrough offers hope for saving northern white rhinos

🏙 NYC to erase $2 billion in medical debt for half a million residents

🏢 ‘The Office’ star Rainn Wilson moved by fan’s note at Portland airport

🙀 Tree Climber saves 39 cats with his heroic hobby

You know that coral reefs are beautiful and important for the ocean.

But did you know that some of them live deep in the dark waters, far away from the sun? Well, scientists have just discovered the largest one of these deep-sea coral reefs, and it’s huge!

The reef is located off the U.S. Atlantic coast, from Florida to South Carolina. It covers an area larger than Vermont, or about 6.4 million acres.

The scientists mapped the seafloor and made 3D pictures of the coral hills with special technology.

They saw almost 84,000 coral hills in the area. The reef is made mostly of a type of coral called Desmophyllum pertusum, which can grow up to 16 feet tall and live for hundreds of years.

Unlike the shallow-water corals that get their energy from algae, these corals feed on tiny plankton that drift by in the currents.

Scientists say that this discovery is a big deal for the field of ocean exploration, as it reveals a hidden and spectacular ecosystem that we know very little about.

They also hope that it will help us protect and conserve these precious corals, which are threatened by climate change, fishing, and pollution.

So, next time you think of coral reefs, don’t forget about the ones that live in the deep.

They are just as amazing and important as the ones that sparkle in the sun.

Everybody has that one cat the others use as a pillow, right?

No? Just me? Well, alright then.

- Thank you for reading Grateful Gazette. Remember to breathe deeply to bring your mind back to your body 💜

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