Neat News - Neat things do happen

In a new study, it has been found that the brain maintains a high rate of producing new brain cells throughout life. This ability is, however, significantly reduced in patients with Alzheimer's disease. The findings may be useful in finding some treatment against Alzheimer's disease.

A charity offers prisoners the possibility to read bedtime stories to their children. On the one hand, this allows - in particular fathers - to stay in touch with their children and get through a difficult time. On the other hand, children feel that they are not abandoned by their fathers.

By now around 4000 exoplanets, that is, planets outside our solar system, are known. There is indication that many stars have planets and that there habitable ones among those.

By taking 2D scans from different angles it is possible to create three-dimensional models of hearts of unborn babies. This will be done if problems are discovered by a traditional scan. Then help for babies with severe heart problems can be prepared so that informed surgery can be performed as soon as the babies are born.

Team sport seems to stimulate a region of the brain of children resulting in a larger hippocampal volume. According to a study this results in a reduced depression rate in boys aged 9 to 11.

It has been known for long that some animals use the Earth's magnetic field for orientation. Now there is evidence that the brain can detect the Earth's magnetic field and react with particular brain waves to changes.

Legally in many states people become adults on their 18th birthday. New research points in the direction that the process of the maturation of the brain is much more complex and there are fundamental changes in the brain up into the 30s so that full adulthood does not happen suddenly.

Specifically designed nano-particles can be levitated and propelled by light. The technique has the potential to be applied to bigger objects so that one day spacecrafts may be built that can travel to the nearest planet outside our solar system in 20 years, propelled only by light.

An African psychiatrist explains why he is training grandmothers to treat depression. At a rate of about one psychiatrist per one million people in his country there is not the capacity to give every person with depression the necessary attention. Training grandmothers means they can provide much needed help on a friendship bench.

In experiments with mice, there is some indication that a daily extended exposure to sound and light at a particular frequency (of 40 Hz) may keep the development of Alzheimer's disease at bay.

The Friday strikes by students have gone global yesterday. Thousands of students have been on strike in about 100 countries, countries in Europe, India, South Korea, Australia, and the USA.

A 3 1/2 month old polar bear cub in Berlin Zoo has been for the first time outside, well protected by her mother.

Antioxidants in mushrooms may be good against "mild cognitive impairment" (MCI) such as forgetfulness or language problems.

Climate change needs immediate concerted action and we still have a chance to limit the consequences of global warming. These are the results of a new study on climate change.

A two and a half kilometre long coral reef has been detected on the Adriatic coast in the South of Italy near the town of Monopoli in the region of Puglia.

More than a hundred new species of insects have been discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. They are beetles of a few millimetres in length. There may be even more species to be discovered on the island.

NASA has transformed an image of stars taken by the Hubble telescope to sound.

The mass of the Milky Way has been estimated to be 1.5 trillion times the mass of our Sun. It is estimated that it contains around 200 billion stars and contains also a black hole at its centre with a mass of about 4 million times the mass of our Sun. Most of the mass of the milky way is made up by dark matter.

A form of inherited blindness due to a mutation of RPE65 can be treated now by gene therapy. This is the result of a big effort. Contributors describe the work that was necessary and that is needed in order to make further breakthroughs in the future.

Scientists have used sound-induced levitation to understand better how particles cluster. From six objects onwards different interesting clusters are possible.

A new study has confirmed the effectiveness of dieting to deal with type 2 diabetes. In the 2-year study 46 percent of the patients were in remission after the diet.

A patient has received a stem cell treatment with cells from a donor who is resistant to HIV. This way, the patient has gone in remission with both his HIV infection and a subsequent Hodgkin's lymphoma. The treatment was done primarily because of the cancer and is not a general treatment, because of considerable side effects.

Cuddles are very important for babies. However, babies in hospitals need often to be monitored by sensors to check that they are okay. The wires used for this monitoring are in the way of cuddles. Now wireless monitoring has been developed to allow for problem-free parent-baby cuddling.

There is good news for ageing people: There seems to be no clear peak in intelligence related to age. Added knowledge seems to compensate for a decline in some functions of the brain. However, important for keeping up the mental capabilities is a purpose in life.

Predicting earthquakes can save lives. Now machine learning techniques are used to help predict earthquakes by evaluating loads of data that are gathered by seismographic stations.

High intensity interval training can reduce the growth of colon cancer cells. This may mean that exercising can play a role in the treatment of cancer in general.