Neat News - Neat things do happen

The German parliament has made a law that from 2024 big German companies will be responsible that human rights and environmental standards are applied in all the companies which are in their supply chain. In particular, no child labour will be allowed in the supply chain.

related: #supply_chain #ethics

Initial animal experiments to create a vaccine that is effective against a wide range of coronavirus infections (such as SARS, MERS, and Covid-19) were encouraging. If confirmed there could be a vaccine that is effective also against yet unknown coronaviruses.

related: #vaccination #coronavirus

Taking breaks from practice - for instance when learning to play a new song - is important to learning, since the brain rapidly and repeatedly replays faster versions of the activity just practised during the breaks.

related: #breaks #learning

Looking through soil and microscopic fossils in it, researchers found that indigenous people lived in the Amazon Rainforest for 5000 years without causing detectable species losses or disturbances, a model for modern people.

related: #Amazon #sustainability

For the first time in 20 years a new drug against Alzheimer's disease has been approved in the USA. It is to target a protein that forms abnormal clumps in the patients' brains. The efficacy is not yet fully established, however.

related: #Alzheimer_drug

Increasingly it is possible to grow organoids in a dish. Bones have been particularly difficult, but now a new technique allows to grow bones by applying stresses that shape bones in a human body. These stresses trigger bone marrow stem cells into producing proteins that are needed for growing bones.

related: #bone #organoid

Multinational companies sometimes minimize their tax by moving their profits into low tax countries. The G7 group of economies proposes a general minimal tax rate of 15 percent on profits to reduce this unfair tax evasion.

related: #tax_evasion #minimal_tax

Using nano-technology, new filter membranes have been developed that are efficient at filtering out many air-borne and water-borne viruses. The membranes are made from environmentally friendly materials.

related: #filter #virus #nano

The stimulation of neurons in the brain is used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease and other brain disorders, but typically requires the implantation of a device. Now a new technique involving focused ultrasound can stimulate specific types of neurons in the brain without any implantation.

related: #neuron_stimulation #ultrasound

The US government has suspended oil and gas leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reversing a decision by the previous administration. The 78,000 sq km big nature reserve is described as America's last great wilderness.

related: #Alaska #nature_protection

In a big study it has been found that people that go to bed and get up one hour earlier have a depression risk that is 23 percent lower than that of others.

related: #early_riser #depression