Neat News - Neat things do happen

At the centre of most galaxies - including our own - there are super big black holes. Black holes can grow by absorbing surrounding mass, but once that is gone they normally do not find additional material to feed on. So how did the super big black holes form in the first place? There is a new possible answer which assumes that at the beginning of the universe fast gas streams were moving through the universe feeding these black holes.

In a fable Aesop discusses birds' ability to understand that stones can displace water and that it is possible this way to raise a water level by dropping stones into the water until the water is reachable. Scientists have now studied raccoons in order to see whether they are able to learn this. Most of the participants in the study were.

A patient who has been in a vegative state for 15 years reacted and gained some level of awareness after receiving electric brain stimulation.

Botanical Gardens form together a great biodiversity and a third of all known plant as well as 40% of all endangered plants can be found in them. As such they play a significant role in the conservation of endangered plants.

Four people from the USA, India, Azerbaijan, and Ethiopia have been given the 2017 Right Livelihood Award for their exemplary fights for the rights of victims of chemical pollution, for human rights of the most vulnerable pople in India, against corruption in her native country, and for the rights of people with disabilities, respectively.

On the German island of Sylt a Viking treasure has been found consisting of together around one kilogramme of silver. The jewellery is supposed to be of the 10th century.

A new antibody against HIV can treat 99% of the HIV strains. It has been successful in tests with primates and the first tests in people are to take place in 2018. There is great hope that it will form an effective additional treatment of AIDS.

A tiny robot has been built which has a size of a millionth of a millimetre and can build molecules.

There has been debate which type of physical activity is best for health. Research found now that it does not matter and that any activity of at least 30 minutes a day has a protective effect against cardiovascular disease as long as it raises the heart rate. The type of activity does not matter.

The conservation effort to save sea turtles seems to pay off and in general the number of the different species are all increasing. It is an example that conservation efforts can work.

Artificial photosynthesis has been improved to the point that it is more efficient than natural photosynthesis. This offers a route to carbon neutral fuels.

When blood is sent to a lab for analysis the result may take days. A new blood testing approach is under development which allows to make some tests based on sound waves. The results could be available within 10 minutes.

In a study a roadmap has been worked out how in 139 countries (among them the biggest CO₂ polluters) the energy supply can be transformed to 100 percent renewable energy production (that is, energy from wind, water, and solar). This will also create 24 million long-term jobs.

Writers probably knew it all along, but now there is psychological evidence. Expressive writing about a stressful task can reduce the actual stress in the upcoming task and people worry less about their performance.

The introduction of zero plays an important role in the history of mathematics. In a 1800 year old Indian text now the probably oldest known written zero has been detected. This means that zero has been in use for 500 years more than previously thought.

Squirrels use sophisticated strategies to hide nuts so that they can find them again but that they are still hidden from other squirrels. They also distinguish between different quality ranges for their nuts.

Some exemplars of a giant tortoise, chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, thought to be extinct since 2012, have been found on some Galapagos island. There is now another chance for their survival.

Listening to happy music seems to stimulate creativity. In psychological experiments 155 participants were split in groups listening to happy, calm, sad, or anxious music, or to silence. Those listening to happy music performed best in certain tasks and came up with the most creative solutions.

A tiny power generator has been built which is able to generate electricity from the flow of blood in blood vessels.

Scientists have succeeded to transform standard human skin cells into motor neurons without having to go through a stem cell state. This may lead to a treatment of motor neuron related illnesses such as spinal muscular atrophy.

Scientists managed to extend the lifespan of fruitflies by taking out damaged mitochondria (power cells) in middle aged fruitflies. Potentially this could be transfered to humans and the onset of age-related illnesses such as Altzheimer's disease could be delayed.

Bacteria are often viewed as isolated beings. However, as has been found out they live often in colonies and can even communicated with each other using electrical signal based on potassium ions not unlike the communication between neurons in a human brain. The findings may lead in the long run to new ways of treating bacterial infections.

A new cooling system is under development which works by sending heat of liquids by radiation into space. This is more energy efficient than traditional cooling with electricity.

When operating a surgeon wants to remove all of the cancerous cells but as few of the healthy ones as possible. A new pen which makes use of a mass spectrometer can determine with an accuracy of 96% whether cells are cancerous or not in 10 seconds.

The zika virus has been found effective against aggressive tumours in mice. The virus that causes bad brain damage in babies may offer a new treatment against hard-to-treat brain cancer in adults.

In brains affected by Alzheimer's disease, abnormal tau proteins lead to an influx of calcium in the neurons, which then does serious damage also by making more tau proteins abnormal. There is now some understanding why this cascade of bad events can be stopped by HDAC6 inhibitors. This understanding may lead to an effective medication against Alzheimer's disease.

Wind energy is not only clean but also cheap. It can currently be produced at 2 US cents per kilowatt-hour and prices are still falling.

A 1800 kg bomb of World War II, which was found earlier the week, has successfully been defused in Frankfurt, Germany. More than 60,000 people had to leave their homes during the defusion, since if it had gone wrong, the explosion would have been very big and destroyed many houses.

Bats are known for using echolocation. However, as has been studied now humans are also able to learn echolocation by making clicking sounds with the mouth and listening to the reflected sound waves.

A new X-ray laser which is in a more than 3km long tunnel and cost around one billion Euros has been taken into operation in Hamburg, Germany. It will be able to take pictures with a very high precision of tiny objects such as proteins.