Neat News - Neat things do happen

It can make a big difference to the achievements of students when their lecturers encourage them and believe in their ability to learn. In particular, a racial achievement gap can be much reduced by inspiring and motivating the students.

Sleep is important for health. Getting enough sleep helps to reduce cardiovascular problems and the production of inflammatory cells.

The same drug that reduces hunger in humans also reduces hunger in mosquitoes and makes them less aggressive in sucking the blood of humans. This may be a way to reduce the transmission of malaria.

Interval training where periods with high-levels of physical activity are interleaved with recovery periods seems to be more effective for weight loss than continuous training at a medium level for the same time.

Artificial leaves have been built that are ten times as efficient as natural leaves. They may be used to take carbon dioxide out of the air and produce fuel using the sunlight.

In experiments with mice, researchers managed to rejuvenate brains of mice by a chemical that can repair damaged neurons. The approach is to target potential problems with the so-called blood-brain barrier.

As seen on satellites, in China and India the green areas have increased by five percent since the early 2000s - this is an area corresponding to the Amazon rainforest. This is due to farming and tree-planting. The effect helps to slow climate change.

In studies it has been found that sufficient amounts of sleep are important for students' academic performance. The easiest to achieve that they sleep more is to have a later start of school in the morning.

There is information that suggests that physical activity helps against Alzheimer's disease. From experiments with mice, there is now some indication why this may be so. Exercising results not only in the production of endorphins, the so-called feel-good hormone, but also in the production of irisin, a hormone that may help to improve memory and protect neurons against Alzheimer's disease.

Angola has passed a law that not only decriminalizes homosexuality, but also bans discrimination based on sexual orientation.

In experiments, bees were rewarded by some sugar for taking the right choices in a maze, where the right choices were linked to correctly solving some easy arithmetic tasks encoded by colours. This way researchers could establish that (at least some) bees are able to perform cognitive processes that correspond to easy arithmetic.

A new ethylene-based material has been developed. It has some properties of self-healing. Since the material exhibits elastic properties as well as liquid-like properties, it can - when exposed to physical damage - repair itself to a certain degree.

Research has been carried out to make rain forests future proof for orangutans with respect to climate change. It is suggested to plant particular species of trees so that they survive climate change and provide a habitat for orangutans.

In a new process a particular form of plastic, polypropylene, can be converted into fuel to a large degree. This way a major rubbish problem could be solved.

In a study, engineers managed to build a small device that can harvest enough energy from the heart to power implantable devices such as a pacemaker. This has the potential to save many people a surgery to replace batteries.

Breathing techniques and exercises (such as slow and deep breathing, standing up, abdominal breathing, and rhythmic breathing) can reduce stress and anxiety. They can help to attain a good sleep and have a good influence on the health in general.

Archaeologists have discovered 40 mummies from a time of 323 BC to 30 BC, in Minya, 260 kilometres south of Cairo, Egypt. Among the newly discovered mummies are 12 of children and 6 of animals.

A blood test is under development that can determine the risk of blocked arteries. Certain chemicals seem to accumulate in the blood after a treadmill stress test if patients have the condition.

There are some ideas why animals and humans need sleep, but we do not have any deep understanding yet. There is some new information about a protein that prolongs sleep in case of sickness for some flies. Sleep seems to play in important role in healing and fighting off microbes.