Neat News - Neat things do happen

A new treatment against migraine is based on antibody injections. In tests it resulted for many patients in halving the number of migraine attacs per month.

The Great Barrier Reef has suffered from bleaching and coral eating starfish. However, new research has found that some 100 of the 3800 individual reefs are in a healthy state so that the whole reef can potentially recover assumed conditions are good.

Researchers managed to build actuators (muscle-like components) of a robot that can lift 1000 times their own weight. The material has been inspired by origami, it surpasses materials found in nature.

If a human colony is to survive on the long run on Mars it is important that it gets self-sustained. For this earthworms are important since they allow to recycle dead organic matter such as human excrements. In a study scientists created a Mars like soil condition and added pig manure. Not only did the worms do their job but they also reproduced.

Babies as young as ten months can observe people and tell how much effort a person is putting in something in order to achieve a goal.

There are different approaches to reduce the carbon footprint of flying. Some percentage points may be achieved by basing the ground traffic on renewable energies, some more by adding sustainable aviation fuel to the standard fuel, then weight can be reduced on flights, and engines be made more efficient. Even hybrid-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell technology is under development.

Ten one hour training sessions distributed over six weeks had a positive effect; it reduced the development of dementia in patients by 29% ten years after the training.

Using two huge salt caverns in North Germany it is planned to store enough electricity to serve 100,000 households for one day. The method is related to other batteries insofar that one cavern plays the role of the positive and the other of the negative terminal using electrolytic liquids. Once realized it solves the major problem of storage for the electricity generation by wind and sun.

Intelligence is still not very well understood. Using MRI scans, scientists have now some evidence that the brains of more intelligent people are wired in a different way from less intelligent people. More intelligent people manage to distinguish more easily between relevant and irrelevant information and the information flows only between certain brain regions of the brain but not between others.

Concussion is difficult to diagnose and the diagnosis of concussions in children is often subjective. It may be possible to diagnose it objectively from certain molecules in the spit of patients.

A new device can make hydrogen from water using sunlight and store it. Since this is done cheaply it may be used to create hydrogen for eco-friendly cars. The new device makes use of a third electrode.

A problem in sustainable energy production is storing it at times when there is low demand. Researchers have found now a new way to store thermal energy in a chemical form using PCM (Phase Change Material). In the new material the transition to release the energy is triggered by light. So far there the method has been built as a prototype.

The conservation of seagrass is important for fishing as the grasses give room and provide food for many sea animals and attract also fish.

Trees seem to have a positive effect that people who live in leafy areas are less likely to develop asthma.

20 countries - among them the UK, Canada, France, Finland, and Mexico - have pledged to phase out energy production by coal. The countries want to end the use of coal before 2030.

A company has started to use 3D printer technology to create artificial body parts such as ears and noses. Currently the parts are used for testing drugs, but the goal is to achieve a way to use them as transplants in medicine within 20 years.

In the southeast of Iceland a test has been started to bind CO₂ chemically underground in order to reduce the concentration of the climate gas in the atmosphere.

Bill Gates will invest 50 million dollars in the Dementia Discovery Fund and another 50 million dollars in start-ups working on Alzheimer's research.

Ten years ago a cancer patient received a stem cell therapy in order to treat cancer. Surprisingly, the patient who also suffered from HIV was free of HIV after the therapy. This has neither been understood nor could it be repeated. Now scientists managed to repeat the treatment successfully in a species of monkeys. There is some hope that this may lead to a cure for HIV and other blood-related illnesses in the long run.

In the Inca Empire a form of records was kept which consisted of strings in different colours, fibre types - which can be distnguished by touch -, and directions of ply. It was assumed that the knowledge of the so-called khipus was lost, but from different sources it may be possible to decipher them.

Blue light helps people to relax. In tests it has been found that the relaxation process after a stressful situation can be accelerated by exposure to blue light.

Wounds that have been sustained during daytime need on average 17 days to heal compared to 28 days for those sustained at night. It is assumed that this has to do with the body clock. If the effect is better understood it may result in treatment that makes wounds heal faster.

A boy with a genetic disorder had skin so fragile that without treatment he may have died. Now by a genetic modification using stem cells new skin has been created and implanted. After two years the new skin has grown competely so that he was able leave hospital and can now have a normal life.

Bonobos are helpful and friendly to strangers. It has been observed that they help strangers to get food and do so spontaneously without any immediate payback. This shows that humans are not the only species that can be friendly.

There is the question how life started from chemical compounds. It is assumed that three different substances are necessary to form the first primite life forms. It has, however, been unclear how these three substances - short strands of nucleotides, short chains of amino acids, and lipids - may have come together. Now a single substance, diamidophosphate, has been found which may have led to the generation of these substances.

Strength exercises as recommended by the WHO increase life expectancy and reduce the risk of cancer related death.

Physicists have suspended some 40 particles which can switch collectively behaviour between being crystalline and fluid and go back and forth several times. This was surprising emergent behaviour. It suggests that emergence may be more widespread than thought and lead to life-like behaviour.

The Great Pyramid is some 4500 years old. If contains three big chambers, one in the foundations, the King's chamber, and the Queen's chamber. These have been known for a while, however, now another cavity has been detected which may be 30 metres long and several metres high. It may have been undisturbed all these years. It is currently unclear why it is here. It has been detected by measurements of the density structure of the pyramid.

A population of orangutans has been found on Summatra, Indonesia. It forms a new species of great apes. Unfortunately, the population size is very small and there is the danger that they will not survive.

Chimpanzees cannot only take turns in solving a task jointly, but can also do so spontaneously. Also when working with their mother they take particular care what the mother does in order to learn from her.