Neat News - Neat things do happen

In the noses of people the immune systems fight bacteria. Researchers have studied this in order to develop a new antibiotic drug, lugdunin, that can be used to treat superbug infections.

By the introduction of a 5p fee for plastic bags the usage of plastic bags has been reduced in seven major supermarkets in England from more than 7 billion bags in 2014 to less than 700 million in the six months after the introduction of the levy.

One of the driest countries in the world, Israel, generates now more than half of its water by desalination. This way, natural resources can be saved and the population can be provided with the much needed water.

Alzheimer disease and Parkinson's seem to be related to the formation of twisted proteins around brain cells. To get rid of those by suitable chemicals could offer ways to treat the deseases.

The example of a Chinese family is given who moved to the US and who were advised to speak to their autistic child only in one language. They selected English in order to improve their child's School chances. However, it is argued that for them speaking Chinese at home and let the child learn English outside the home is a better alternative.

The Solar Impulse, an aircraft propelled by solar energy, has completed its around the world trip by touching down in Abu Dhabi. It began its trip around the world on 9 March 2015. It is the first time for a solar plane to make such a trip, which took it 35,000 km.

In a long term test, 2832 healthy people of 74 years old on average absolved mental training sessions or not. The participants were looked at on regular intervals. Ten years later it was looked how many developed dementia. It was found that those who did the training suffered significantly less often of dementia.

When you have a plan B this can be damaging for achieving your original plan (you may be not as committed to the original plan). This has been established in controlled experiments.

Scientists have mapped the brain much more accurately than before and have indentified 97 new brain areas (in addition to the previously known 83 areas), giving a better understanding of how the different parts of the brain interact.

The hardest known alloy has been produced by melting together gold and titanium. It is four times as hard as titanium on its own. Its biocompatibility makes it suitable for dental and prosthetic applications.

The big eye of the "man in the moon" (the so-called Mare Imbrium) was created by a big asteroid. Scientists have computed this from the positions of the debris following the crash some 3.8 billion years ago.

A new type of air conditioner has been developed that runs on natural gas and produces electricity when running, thereby reducing the total power required to cool buildings.

Greenpeace has found out that outdoor clothing often contains PFCs (poly-fluorinated chemicals). These chemicals are assumed to be hazardous for humans and the environment. After a campaign one company, Paramo, decided to be the first outdoor brand to abandon PFCs.

In a prototype development scientists have developed a method to store information on an atom by atom base. If brought to production this could provide storage devices that can give a storage capacity two to three orders of magnitude bigger than current standard devices such as hard drives.

Researcher try to explain the impression that older people have that times move faster than in their youth by the fact that our memory stores only new experiences and that in retrospect the amount of time is measured by the number of new memories stored.

After the last Ice Age around 10000 years ago, farming developed in south-western Asia and spread rapidly across all of Eurasia. Genetic sequencing has been used now to establish the genetic diversity of the farming communities.

A new solar power plant has been built in the Nevada desert that stores energy in molten salt so that it can supply electricity for 24/7.

Scientists have built a microscope that observes the ecosystems on the floor of the ocean.

A hot bath or a sauna causes the burning of calories and reduces the blood sugar levels. As such it is good for the health but timewise not as efficient as exercising.

Mosquito nets treated with insecticides are effective even if the mosquitoes have some resistance against the insecticide by reducing the lifespan of the mosquitoes and preventing bites.

Children are often told off when they bite their nails or suck their thumbs. However, now it has been found out that these activities can reduce the susceptibility to allergies.

Near Morecambe Bay a burial site from the Bronze Age has been discovered and is currently being excavated.

The WWF presents beautiful images of `Africa's most elusive animals' from Southern Africa.

Los Angeles uses currently gas-burning power plants to provide enough electricity at peak times such as in the afternoon when many people return home. It is planned that in five years' time these power plants will be replaced by the world's largest storage battery.

The vocal patterns that couples use can be evaluated by a computer program to predict partnership problems. This suggests that in a relationship it is more important how you say something than what you say.

After a five year journey the Juno satellite has reached Jupiter and been put into an orbit around Jupiter. NASA wants to use it to explore the composition of Jupiter.

In a lengthy process, Indian doctors succeeded in growing a new nose on a child's forehead a decade after his nose was destroyed by an infection.

Exploiting the way speech is slurred, elongated, or spoken in a more nasal tone, allows a program built by a Boston based company to produce an initial diagnosis. The program can detect tiny anomalities in the voice which are not detectable to the human ear.

To have accurate data on the populations size of tigers is important in conversation matters. Some picture taken this way are shown.

Autoimmune diseases are diseases in which the immune system attacks the own body. There have been successful tests in mice which show that such cells can be turned against each other to fight autoimmune diseases.

In 1987 there was a major breakthrough when the Montreal Protocol was signed to outlaw cholorfluorocarbons - gases used in refrigerators - in order to combat the ozone hole. The ozone layer shields us from dangerous ultraviolet radiation of the sun. The ozone hole occured in particular in the Southern hemisphere. Now the hole is smaller and appears later in the year than ever since. It is a big sign that shows that international agreements can be effective.