It looks like a takeout container, but it might be our best bet to fight Zika.

An innovative approach to battling Zika you should know about.

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Soon, the solution to Zika could arrive in something as simple as a takeout box.

Image from Recode/YouTube.

For the past several years, researchers in Australia have been at work trying to develop a way to put a stop to dengue, a virus that — like Zika — is spread by way of a certain breed of mosquitoes.

The result is what's called a Mozzie Box, and Susan Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, recently demonstrated how it works.

The Mozzie Box works by intentionally breeding disease carrying mosquitos, with a twist.

In the Mozzie Box, Aedes mosquitoes — the same kind that transmit diseases like Zika, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and more — are bred.

And how exactly is breeding more mosquitoes the solution to a mosquito-borne illness?

The Mozzie Box mosquito eggs contain a bacteria called Wolbachia, which renders the grown mosquitoes essentially harmless (minus a few itchy bites here and there).

In other words:

GIFs from Recode/YouTube.

When the Mozzie Box mosquitoes fly off into the wild and begin mating, the Wolbachia bacteria is transmitted to their offspring.

That bacteria will then be passed down to future generations.

As time goes on, fewer mosquitoes will have the capability to carry Zika (or those other diseases), and the virus will become much less of an issue.

There are times when science can be so freaking cool, and this is definitely one of them.

The key to stopping Zika might lie in mosquito STDs. How cool is that?

But why is it so important to take steps like these? For one:

The 2016 Summer Olympics are scheduled to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, one of the areas hit hardest by Zika.

A number of athletes, such as Spanish basketball star Pau Gasol, have expressed concern over the virus and are considering skipping the games.

Despite the worry, the World Health Organization has advised against cancelling or moving the Olympics, writing, "Based on the current assessment of Zika virus circulating in almost 60 countries globally and 39 countries in the Americas, there is no public health justification for postponing or cancelling the games."

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.

So even though the Olympics may go on as planned, that doesn't make the virus any less worrisome for the world as a whole.

The virus has been connected with birth defects in children and possible neurological problems in adults.

The most common concern is that mothers who contract Zika may give birth to babies with microcephaly, a condition where a baby is born with a much smaller head than expected.

A mother holds a 3-month-old girl with microcephaly. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.

Help from governments sometimes seems out of reach, making finding a solution in the private sector that much more important.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Tom Frieden delivered an emotional call to the U.S. Congress, pleading for them to take the threat of Zika seriously.

"Imagine that you’re standing by and you see someone drowning, and you have the ability to stop them from drowning, but you can’t," Frieden said. "Now multiply that by 1,000 or 100,000. That’s what it feels like to know how to change the course of an epidemic and not be able to do it."

Frieden speaks about the Zika crisis on May 26, 2016, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.

Maybe Mozzie Boxes will help bring an end to Zika and other dangerous diseases. Maybe they'll inspire others to take up important innovative work. Maybe they'll help make the world a better place, now and for future generations.

There's already been so much progress in how we treat, prevent, and test for dangerous diseases. Here's hoping that such innovation continues.

You can watch Susan Desmond-Hellmann's Mozzie Box demonstration below:

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The problem with a lack of female mentors in business — and one inspiring way to fix it.

A brighter business future for the daughters of the world is in progress...

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Starting a business requires more than just a will to succeed and a great idea.

Ya gotta be ready for the shark tank ... of life. GIF from "Shark Tank."

It takes support, mentors, help, connections, more support, more mentors, more help, more connections, lots of money ... rinse, repeat.

Just like you wouldn't climb Mount Everest without a Sherpa and a backpack, you wouldn't climb the mountain of entrepreneurship without guides and investments.

GIF from "The Simpsons."

Unfortunately, there's one other thing that seems to really help when seeking guides and starting a business: Being a dude.

For example, digital startups founded by men are 86% more likely to be funded by venture capitalists and 59% more likely to be funded by angel investors, compared with female-founded startups in the U.K.

The process of finding guides, making the relationships that pave the way for funding, success, and advice when you need it most is not really working the way it could for ladies.

According to a report by the Kauffman Foundation, of nearly 350 female CEOs, presidents, CTOs, and leading technologists of tech startups in the U.S., almost half reported that "a lack of available mentors or advisors" was one of the top challenges they faced with their ventures.

Would Luke have been successful without Yoda? Probably not. Ya gotta have a Yoda! GIF from "Star Wars."

So, how do you set a goal to create mentors for women? And how do you achieve it?

Gina Romero, founder of The Athena Network Singapore, knows how.

Images from The Athena Network, used with permission.

It's all about knowing a few key people and then strategically bringing them together. In an email to Upworthy, Romero puts it frankly: "Athena gives our members access to the knowledge and skills that small businesses and startups often don’t have — and more importantly collaboration and support."

On top of that, Facebook allows women, particularly in remote areas, an opportunity to connect. As Romero mentioned when we spoke to her, "Facebook is one of the most powerful platforms for community building and, of course, connecting people. Especially when you want to reach people from all walks of life and in remote places. I’m in the Philippines right now, staying in a rural town where people still pump water and cook on wood fires — yet almost everyone is on Facebook. That’s pretty incredible."

With in-person mentorship plus Facebook, the benefits of explicitly forming female mentorship relationships just take off!

Organizations that are intentional about bringing people (and especially women) together create opportunities for training, development, media training, and so much more.

Listening to Elyse Anne, a personal finance consultant and one member of The Athena Network Singapore, describe its benefits, it's clear this stuff is important. "When I joined Athena my goal was to get more media coverage. ... I closed about $10k in sales in the first year thanks to media coverage. I was able to raise my profile and increase my rates to charge what I'm worth."

Organizations like The Athena Network are vital. They give female entrepreneurs the opportunity to create their own networks, share learnings, and “collaborate for mutual success.”

Romero's trying to change things in Asia, but the lack of mentors is international. Of 318 women from 19 countries and 30 businesses, a whopping 63% had never had a mentor, all the while 67% of that same group listed mentorship as one of their highest priorities.

Something's gotta give.

GIF from "Bridget Jones's Diary."

What's really worth noting is that 65% of women who have been mentored go on to become mentors themselves, according to a Catalyst survey.

Romero is 100% an example of that. As she told Upworthy, "My calling is to connect people. Connecting people in a meaningful way can be very powerful."

Being aware that this problem exists is the first step. Creating more opportunities for female entrepreneurs and more opportunities for mentorship is the next.

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Find out more about The Athena Network Singapore on their website and their Facebook page.

Thumbnail photo from iStock.

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Time waits for no one. How can you plan for the life you want to live?

5 small steps to help you plan for life's surprises.

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Here's the thing about time: We perceive it relative to our age.

The Washington Post dives into a theory originally put forth by Paul Janet in 1897: We perceive the first years of our lives to be much longer than the years that come later because our point of reference for time is smaller when we're younger.

When you've only lived four years, one year is a big chunk of time — it's 1/4 of your life!

Image by Michael Pardo/Flickr.

But when you're 70, a year passes in the blink of an eye. So even though we all get the same 24 hours in every day, it goes by faster and faster as we get older.

That begs the question: What are we doing right now to set ourselves up for a life lived to its fullest as it increasingly seems filled up?

What do you want to look back on when you're 75? What decisions will make you proud? What's the life you want to have lived?

Image by David Hodgson/Flickr.

We can do our best to "plan" our lives, but often, even the best laid plans fall apart or evolve into something you couldn't even have imagined.

Still, there are basics we know we can't escape: Food, water, and shelter are things that we all have to plan and prepare for, regardless of where life's road takes us.

So, what can you do today to prepare for a life that you can only loosely predict? Here are five ways to think about it.

1. Money? Travel? Family? Figure out what success means to you.

What do you consider to be successful? It may be one thing or it may be a combination of things. Either way, defining what success means to you can help you identify what you'll need to achieve in order to believe you lived a "good" life.

Image by 401(K) 2012/Flickr.

2. Beyond "success," have a vision.

Once you know what makes you happy, build on that. Formulate an idea of where you'd like to be in 30 years so that you have a direction to start moving in. Money blogger, Finance Girl, puts it this way:

"Your vision should embody your values and your view of the future without being too generic. Your vision can also change over time. The point is to have one so you know why you're doing what you do, and you're happier doing it."

Having a vision doesn't mean things will work out exactly as you'd planned, but it empowers you to act with intention. To move forward each day, working toward this larger ideal.

3. Take responsibility for your choices. All of them.

Sure, there are a million factors beyond your control that affect your life every single day, but remember that you do play a part in what happens. Ayse Birsel, author of "Design the Life you Love: A Step-by-Step guide to Building a Meaningful Future," says "your choices will determine the kind of life you are designing." As such, they should map back to your vision. You have to own them.

4. Remain flexible. We can only control so much.

As you work toward your goal, be open to change. Don't hold onto things too tightly or life's turbulence will rock you.

Paul B. Brown, co-author of "Just Start: Take Action; Embrace Uncertainty and Create the Future" reminds us to learn each step of the way. He says, "Determine your desire. Take a small step toward it. Learn from taking that step. Take another step. Learn from that one."

Image by SEO/Flickr.

Keep learning. Keep growing. Keep moving forward.

5. Unfortunately, the world does revolve around money. Be prepared.

Think about the things you can control, the factors you'll need to prepare for regardless of your life's ever-shifting trajectory. Money is one of them.

You can put the wheels in motion now so that you're not worrying about your finances at 75. You'll want to have everything as buttoned up as possible long before you're asking yourself where did the time go?

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The internet is loving this side-by-side image of Amy Schumer and Aphrodite.

A criminal organization kidnapped 2 whale sharks. This international team freed them.

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The Indonesian government just busted a high-level criminal ring in a story that reads like some sort of awesome Hollywood spy thriller.

It began with a tip-off that something was amiss back in late 2014; the cast was an international coalition of crime-busters; the plot follows an 18-month investigation; and it ended with an epic conclusion: a bust and the recovery of stolen goods.

What stolen goods were being recovered, exactly? It wasn't famous paintings, diamonds, sunken treasure, or even a certain golden falcon statue.

The prize was two 14-foot whale sharks.

The two whale sharks were being kept in a pen when the Indonesian agencies found them. All photos by Paul Hilton/Wildlife Conservation Society.

On May 27, 2016, Indonesia's Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, with support from the Wildlife Conservation Society's Wildlife Crimes Unit, busted up an operation that had captured the two marine leviathans.

The captured sharks had been destined for the illegal wildlife trade.

One of the whale sharks in a darkened holding pen.

A company known as PT. Air Biru Maluku captured the sharks off the coast of Indonesia. It had previously received government permission to collect and breed ornamental fish.

But whale sharks are not ornamental fish. They are 40-foot-long megafauna. And PT. Air Biru Maluku had no permission to do anything with those.

The company's plans to sell the gigantic fish was nothing short of illegal.

The illegal wildlife trade is a multibillion-dollar industry that turns wild plants and animals into souvenirs, status symbols, pets, and medicine.

The whale shark holding pen.

Rhinos, elephants, and tigers are some of the most famous victims of the illegal wildlife trade, killed for their horns, ivory, and pelts. But thousands of different wildlife species are threatened by the illegal trade, including whale sharks.

Whale sharks can be kept in large aquariums successfully and responsibly; there are places in the United States accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums that whale sharks call home. But given the criminal nature of this particular operation, these sharks were probably not destined for anywhere quite so nice.

Criminals often target endangered species specifically because their rarity makes them more valuable.

The whale shark is the largest fish in the world, listed as a vulnerable species by the IUCN, and a protected species in Indonesia.

One of the captured whale sharks swims in its pen while authorities confront the suspects.

These aquatic behemoths can weigh more than 20 tons. Imagine a giant fish the size and weight of a yellow school bus swimming through the ocean and you'll get a good idea of what getting up close and personal with one would be like.

In fact, swimmers can often approach the giant fish. Though whale sharks are big and have "shark" in their name, their temperament is more like the "whale" part — they're pretty docile. Like their mammalian rivals for the heavyweight title, baleen whales, whale sharks only eat the tiny floating plants and animals known as plankton.

The good news: Thanks the the heroics of the rescue crew, the two captive whale sharks have been returned to the wild.

Divers escorted the giant fish back into the ocean unharmed. We still don't know a lot about the whale shark's life cycle, but it's thought that they might live more than a century, meaning these two may have a long lives ahead of them back in the ocean.

A diver escorting the sharks back into the ocean.

As for the criminals, as of May 27, nobody had been arrested ... yet. But anyone found guilty could face up to six years in prison and over $100,000 in fines.

Thanks to agencies like the Wildlife Conservation Society and governments like Indonesia's, we can help give these magnificent animals a good home and keep them out of criminal hands.

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Thumbnail image from Paul Hinton/Wildlife Conservation Society.

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This comic explains why America needs Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood offers a variety of resources for women's health.

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This comic originally appeared on Tumblr. All images were republished with permission from Tillie Walden and Anna Sellheim. For more information on Planned Parenthood, you can visit the organization's website or call 800-230-PLAN.

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This 22-year-old started a fashion line to fight human trafficking.

Noor Tagouri has always been one for ambitious goals. This is no different.

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Human trafficking is a global problem affecting thousands of men, women, and children each year.

Trafficking is, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the illegal transportation of a person (an abduction, basically) — most often for the purposes of nonconsensual sex work or forced labor. Every year, thousands of individuals are tragically torn from their families, falling victim to this awful act.

Playing cards featuring the faces of missing Chinese children and suspected victims of human trafficking. Photo by China Photos/Getty Images.

While there's lots of attention brought to the issue in the form of traditional fundraisers and ad campaigns, a 22-year-old journalist had a different idea.

Noor Tagouri is best known for her presence on social media where she has a following of more than 200,000 people with the goal of becoming the first hijabi news anchor in America. But now, in the name of drawing attention to human trafficking, she's taken on a new role: fashion mogul.

Tagouri teamed up with Adam Khafif at Lis'n Up Clothing (LSNP) to create a fashion line that both informs the public and helps fund the fight against human trafficking. They call it "The Noor Effect."

Image via Business Insider.

The design features the word "Girl" crossed out and backwards in a nod to one of Tagouri's favorite artists.

The idea was inspired by a quote from artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and it's pretty genius.

Image via Business Insider.

Basquiat's artwork is known for the distortion of the words and images he paints. It's the type of art you could stare at for hours at a time and still miss something that's staring you right in the face. 

That's how Tagouri feels we too often treat human trafficking.

Tagouri and Khafif are donating half of all proceeds to Project Futures, an anti-human trafficking charity.

Project Futures is a charity whose goal is to help fund prevention efforts, offer support services, and empower victims of trafficking. They've been working at it for more than five years, raising more than $2 million in the process. With any luck, Tagouri will help them go even further in pushing their goal of putting an end to human trafficking.

Next time you see an obscured word, take a moment to really look at it. Maybe there's an important message hiding in plain sight.

Image via Business Insider.

To learn more about Tagouri and Khafif's fashion line, check out this video from Business Insider.

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Original video from Business Insider.

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