What's up, sunshine?
Happy Monday.
I'm Koi Wire.
This is CNN 10.
Let's make this a motivation Monday.
Remember, the strongest steel is burned in the hottest coals.
We can learn strength through our struggles and our tough times can make us tougher.
So if you're having a tough time, smell the flowers, cool the soup.
Keep on cooking.
All right.
A lot of news to get to.
Only 10 minutes to do it.
So let's get to it.
Working out in space.
It's not exactly a walk in the park.
It's more like a float in the void.
And while astronauts already exercise in microgravity, they can lose up to 20 percent of their muscle mass in just two weeks and about one to two percent of their bone mineral density every month.
The current gym equipment on the International Space Station is bulky.
Now a british startup though, called physical mind london is testing a new, smaller and more efficient device designed specifically for space.
It's called hi-fi m, short for high frequency impulse, for microgravity.
It allows astronauts to jump, hop and resist train in space, no gravity required.
It's being tested on parabolic flights, where aircraft briefly create weightlessness, giving scientists a chance to take the workout for a spin around the stratosphere.
This is a really unique piece of equipment.
It enables over 300 exercises to take place in space.
What this piece of equipment does, it enables individuals, one, to jump repeatedly in zero gravity.
And that is phenomenal for building bone and muscle mass and cardiovascular for people instantly.
The key challenge is jumping without sending vibrations through a spacecraft.
HiFiM solves that with two moving platforms that balance each other out, canceling the force created during exercise.
Developers hope the technology could help astronauts stay strong on future missions, including those heading to the moon.
Now to an inspiring story in the world of medicine.
A determined medical student racing to help find a cure for a devastating disease that could one day take her life.
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord responsible for making our body's muscles work.
People with the condition usually lose their ability to eat, speak, walk, and ultimately breathe.
Little is known about what causes the fatal disease, and there is currently no cure.
But even after learning that she is a genetic carrier for a rare form of the disease, Gentile Soto Albrecht isn't letting that stop her from finding new ways to treat and potentially cure it.
Our affiliate KYW has more on this remarkable story.
It's a race against time in this research lab for Gentile Soto Albrecht, who's an MD-PhD student at the Perlman School of Medicine.
I'm not sure I'll survive this, but everything I do is towards that goal.
Genetic testing shows the 32-year-old has the same form of ALS Lou Gehrig's disease that killed her father in 2024.
In that year, I was seeing my dad die of ALS the same way that I'm likely to die.
I felt like I had now a a deadline as to like how long I'd be able to live.
And that felt really devastating in the moment.
ALS becomes paralyzing.
Gentile's dad was in a wheelchair at her wedding.
His form of ALS that runs in the family is also linked to a form of dementia called FTD.
My hope is to turn the needle towards making ALS and FTD survivable diagnoses.
Currently, there's no cure and limited treatments.
For Gentile, the future depends on research.
Big help is coming from Dr. Defna Amato, an ALS researcher at Penn who also treated Gentile's dad.
It's a really tough disease.
The research here is focused on developing a gene therapy.
So in ALS, Only motor neurons are affected by that disease.
And that's these guys.
Now together in the lab, the doctor and students share a special mission.
She is just really determined to put a dent in this disease, and we share that determination.
Research that they're hoping will someday be life-saving.
10-second trivia.
Which disease is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide?
Cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, or diabetic retinopathy?
Answer is glaucoma, a group of eye diseases that damage the optic nerve, which sends visual information from the eye to the brain.
According to the World Health Organization, around one out of every 200 people lives with legal blindness.
The Winter Paralympics held their closing ceremony over the weekend and one team of athletes is hard at work to get their sport added to the Summer Paralympic program coming in 2028.
Blind baseball is not currently among the events, but not because the sport can't be adapted.
Rather, because it is not played at an international level in enough countries.
You're about to meet a team of blind athletes who's trying to change that by popularizing the sport.
CNN's Randy Kay has more.
It's the most gratifying feeling ever for a blind person, because somebody told you you couldn't play, that this game wasn't designed for you.
These players aren't waiting for a lead.
They're building one.
Their goal?
Make blind baseball a Paralympic sport.
The second someone said Paralympics to me, I was like, I will do whatever it takes.
I am Kiana Vian Glanson.
I am 42 and a half.
How would you describe yourself as captain?
I'm a bit of a taskmaster.
Is there someone here that doesn't have something essential?
I see so much potential in my teammates.
Let's go, Janice!
Play ball!
How do they play blind baseball?
The ball itself has a couple of chimes in it, so the players can follow the sound.
And all the players are blindfolded to even the playing field.
They hold the ball themselves, no pitcher.
First base makes a beeping noise to guide them in and there are two sighted coaches on second and third base with special clappers.
The players run toward the noise.
Rumor has it you're like the home run king.
I love, I mean, I love to hit.
Don't be modest.
To be on a baseball field, a place that has always brought me nothing but joy.
It's like heaven.
Some of these players were adults by the time they lost their vision.
So for them, blind baseball is more than a sport.
I'm a proud mom of one phenomenal little girl, my seeing eye daughter.
Our life changed big time.
I felt like my eyes betrayed me.
I did not want this lifestyle.
And I certainly didn't want to be in the blind community.
I smacked that ball for everything that I told myself I couldn't do.
I'm breaking stereotypes and my baby is watching.
Baseball helped Zach Shipp learn to navigate the world again when he lost his sight two years ago very suddenly.
Can you see me right now?
No.
Not at all?
If I'm looking straight at you, no.
And if you turned your head?
If I look this way, yes.
But I'm blurry?
Yes.
The day we found out that my vision was what it was was the hardest day of my life.
I will do whatever I need to do to live the life that I want to live, to do the things that are going to bring me joy and live the fullest, most beautiful life that I want to live.
You lose us a run with your speed, I'll kill you.
God bless you.
Last year the team competed in the Blind Baseball International Cup, featured in this upcoming documentary.
These games raise the profile of the sport, but they need 16 international teams to compete in the Paralympics.
To represent my city, my country, my friends and my family proudly, it would mean everything to me.
Today's story getting a 10 out of 10, some old school tech forging cross-generational connections.
This is the Call a Boomer payphone, and it's exactly what it sounds like.
It automatically connects college students on Boston University's campus with a total stranger at a senior living complex on the other side of the country.
The goal of this unique pop-up is to connect baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, with Gen Zers born between 1997 and 2012.
It's a bid to spread happiness and curb loneliness.
And before you ask, yes, the sister phone in Reno, Nevada is called the Call-A-Zoomer phone.
Both have been big hits and great reminders that sometimes a few kind words can have big impacts.
I love it.
I think younger people and older people, I would argue need to talk to each other more in the same place, but across the country is a good place to start.
We've all forgotten that there are lots of ways to stay in touch and break loneliness and isolation.
Like we always say, even if it's just making someone smile, we have the opportunity to be a spark of joy for someone who needs it each and every day.
We are sending a spark of joy and a whole lot of gratitude all the way to the Philippines.
Kumusta to Mr. Heaney and friends at the International School of Manila.
Thank you for watching us each and every day.
And we have a shout out going to...
Mr. Riedel at Dublin High School in Dublin, California.
Look at these socks.
Dub high, stay fly, rise up.
I will be rocking this at the gym.
Thank you so much.
Hope you have a great start to your week.
We have the power to make it a great week.
So let's do it.
I'm Coy Wire and we are CNN 10.
Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper.
On my podcast, All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities.
You'll hear deeply moving and honest discussions with people who have faced and are living with life-altering losses.
My conversations with Robert Irwin.
Robert grew up in the public eye.
His dad, Steve Irwin, was known around the world as the crocodile hunter.
But one of the greatest gifts in my life is the fact that my entire existence and my childhood, growing up with dad, was all captured on camera.
I mean, it is all there.
And you watch dad for two seconds and you get a pretty good picture of the sort of passionate individual that he was.
Talking grief, building community.
That's what the podcast is all about.
This is all there is.
Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
