Neat News - Neat things do happen

Amnesty International reports on 30 cases in which "hope overcame fear" in 2017. The cases are about the release of political prisoners, the closure of refugee camps, changes in law for a fairer and juster society, and work to eradicate child labour.

The importance of recycling is becoming ever more prominent for a sustainable future. While for sustainability the durability of products was considered most important this view is shifting and it is now considered more important that the products are designed in a way that they can easily be recycled.

Scientists succeeded to regrow the bone of a dog's leg. Without the new technique the leg would have had to be amputated. The approach proved so successful that there are now plans to try it on humans.

In a study it has been found that old people who have strong social relationships also have better memories. Psychological well-being - linked to having good contact with friends - is positively correlated with cognitive performance.

Plants have to find a balance between repelling herbivores and attracting pollinators. It has now been found out that wild Peruvian tomatoes manage to do that in a way that some plants - at an individual detriment - repel strongly so that others benefit from this and can attract more easily pollinators. As a consequence the species is more resilient to herbivores than previously thought.

In a study it has been found that solar panels can be put in different places such as parking lots, on contaminated or salty land, on rooftops, or have them float on the water so that alone in California so much electricity could be produced that the entire USA could be provided with electricity.

It is beneficial to replace animal based proteins by plant proteins and reduce cholesterol this way. Even substituting one or two servings of animal proteins per day by plant proteins can help preventing cardiovascular diseases.

A new analysis has found that fossils of some algae are one billion years old, photosynthesis is dated to 1.25 billion years.

Eating fish once a week seems to have a positive effect on better sleep and children's IQ. Children who said that they eat fish at least weekly had a score of 4.8 higher than those who did never or seldom. This may be linked to the omega-3 content in fish.

Plants have the potential to take decisions. An example is to decide to try to outgrow neighbouring plants, to accommodate to a more shaded environment, or even to grow away from neighbours. In order to do so they have to take various cues from the environment such as a reduction in brightness or a change in the wavelengths of the light.

The development of more efficient solar cells is very slow since first prototypes must be built and tested. This may take weeks and months for a single test so that the development in total may take many years up to 20 years. In a new process, in which the materials can be tested separately in a standardized form it is possible to make accurate statistical predictions. This way it looks feasible to reduce the development process from 20 to three to five years.

A new approach to treat viral infections has been developed using nanoparticles. Unlike other antiviral drugs, which prevent viruses from entering healthy cells but lose this ability when they are not taken any longer and the concentration in the body falls, the new drug actually destroys the viruses.

The BBC reports about an 84 year old woman who is physically and socially very active and a role model for old people. Following her motto - "A quitter never wins and a winner never quits - and I want to be a winner." - she has a full schedule of sport activities. In a time when more and more people are getting older it is more and more important that old people avoid spending this extra life time in ill health.

In a comparative study between rhesus macaques, capuchin monkeys, and humans it has been found that the monkeys can find a stable solution in a particular game, the Hawk-Dove game. In this game the two opponents have to decide whether they fight or yield; if only one fights this one gets a larger reward and the other a small one, if both fight no reward is given, and if both yield both get a small reward. All primates find a good solution, but only humans were able to come up with the fair solution to alternate the roles of fight and yield.

Radiation is a standard treatment in cancer therapy. There is a dangerous heart condition, so-called the ventricular tachycardia,which can be a consequence of a heart attack. Sometimes this condition does not react to conventional treatment and leaves the patient in a dangerous state. In a small study it has been found that radiation therapy may be effective in such cases.

When drivers keep a constant distance to the car in front and in the back of them then phantom traffic jams, traffic jams which occur without apparent reason, can be avoided and everybody reaches their destination faster than when drivers are tailgating. Since drivers are probably not changing their behaviour soon there is the suggestion to adapt cruise-control accordingly.

Kepler-90 is a star more than 2500 light years away. NASA has established that it has eight planets such as our own solar system. It is the first system we know about which has so many planets.

Haemophilia is a condition in which a protein is missing that is needed to stop bleeding. It may be causing also additional health problems such as arthritis. In a small study 13 patients were given a single injection with a genetically engineered virus, as a consequence 11 of them have now near normal levels of the protein.

Sport and healthy eating with fruit to provide vitamins are a standard recommendation to prevent colds. In addition it is better during winter to put a jumper on in the house than to heat up rooms to summer temperatures, better to prevent a cold, but of course also better for the environment.

Modern working lives mean often that the time when people work and when they are off work are no longer clearly separated. This makes it harder to recover. As a consequence there is some advice to consider to separate the two spheres.

A new drug that kills messenger cells in the brain so that damaged proteins are prevented from being created has proved promising in tests. The drug may lead to the first effective therapy against the disease, which is linked to a genetic condition and often leads to the death of patients within 10 to 20 years.

The world's first electric cargo ship has been launched in China. It has a range of 80 km and the batteries take two hours to recharge, approximately the time to (un)load the cargo while the ship is in the dock.

In a study of the genes of people classified according to their educational status a link to their longevity has been found. Persons with a genetic predisposition towards higher cognitive ability are associated with a longer lifespan.

The UNESCO has added a number of entries to the "List of Intangible Cultural Heritage". Inter alia, the Art of Neapolitan Pizzaiuolo (Italy), the Basel Carnival (Switzerland), Organ craftsmanship (Germany), the Traditional art of Shital Pati weaving of Sylhet (Bangladesh), and a popular music and dance (Ivory Coast) are listed.

In order to repair connections in the brain neuroscientists have developed a fast method - taking weeks rather than months or years - to grow three-dimensional mini-brains from cells. Different cell cultures are grown separately and then combined to speed up the growth process.

Oceans face a big problems with increasing amounts of plastic in them, some of the plastic of a kind that it does not rot. The UN at an environment summit has decided now that any dumping of plastic in the oceans must stop. While this is a positive step neither a commitment on a timetable has been made nor is the resolution legally binding.

By analyzing the cobalt in iron artifacts from the pre-iron age bronze age it has been established that all the pre-iron age iron is from meteorites. Before the iron age the iron ore could not be used to produce iron; all iron came from meteorites and was very valuable.

Asthma attacks can be provoked by cold air. Wearing a scarf warms up the air and helps preventing astma attacks.

In experiments with macaque monkeys it has been shown that focused ultrasound can be used to draw the attention to an object tracked by one hemisphere of the brain rather than another. As a consequence, there is hope that ultrasound might offer a mild non-invasive approach to treating conditions in the brain such as depression.

Methane is found in natural gas and can be used directly as a source of energy. Methanol can also be used as a source of energy, however, it is as a liquid easier to transport. It is also an important basis for the production of chemicals. Transforming methane in methanol was a problem, but now a new method making use of rhodium catalysts allows for a cheap transformation.

A 100-MW battery has been taken into use in South Australia. It is the world's largest lithium ion battery and can power 30,000 homes for one hour, this way it facilitates renewable electricity - in particular solar electricity - in South Australia.