Neat News - Neat things do happen

A fungus has genetically been modified to carry the venom of the funnel-web spider. In a field trial in Burkina Faso, the fungus killed 99 percent of the population of malaria mosquitoes within 45 days. This approach offers an alternative to insecticides in the fight against malaria. This is important since the mosquitoes are becoming resistant against the insecticides.

Early humans reused flints when they broke to create tiny sharp tools. This has been found out from 400,000 year old material found at the Qesem Cave in Israel.

In a UN report it has been found that conservation efforts can learn from indigenous communities. The land of these communities is less effected by degradation due to the biodiversity maintained.

A gel can be applied to patients who need radiotherapy in their treatment of prostate cancer. The gel increases the distance between the prostate and other organs, in particular the bladder and the bowel. This way the side effects can be reduced by 70 percent, potentially making a big difference in the quality of life of a patient.

Origami-inspired devices have been built that can soften the blow on impact of spacecrafts, cars, or gymnasts. The material folds on impact and absorbs part of the force.

In experiments with mice, it has been found that stimulating particular regions of the brain's hippocampus can have an influence on the memory. This could result in a treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety.

Loneliness is a major problem for many in many western societies. Volunteering is one way to overcome this and produce a sense of community.

In experiments, stem cells taken from the placenta regrew into heart cells. This opens the possibility that stem cells can be used to repair hearts damaged in a heart attack.

Scientists managed to build a superconductor that works at a temperature of -23^o Celsius, a temperature around 50 degrees higher than the previous record. However, the material must be put under extreme pressure.

Aspirin thins the blood and as such is a medication against strokes. However, if there is bleeding it may increase it. New research suggests that still a low daily dose dose is beneficial to prevent new strokes for patients who had a stroke caused by bleeding in the brain. More research is needed.

A 56 year old American philanthropist promised to pay the study debt of 400 students, the whole 2019 class of a college, at a cost of around 40 million dollars.

In experiments with rats it has been found that coffee helps the gut to digest the food, in particular to contract. The effect seems not to be linked to the caffeine.

Regularly solving crossword and number puzzles keeps the brain fit in later life. This has been found in a big study with more than 19000 participants.

In a cave in South Africa remains of the oldest known grilled meat and remains of starch have been found. The remains are about 120,000 years old.

In experiments with animals, it has been found that a molecule found in broccoli can reactivate a dormant gene that normally suppresses the growth of some cancers.

Following the success with a combination of drugs in the fight against AIDS, scientists try to find related approaches to combat cancer. This way they want to avoid the current effect that sometimes the nastiest cancer cells survive a chemotherapy. A new therapy may be ready in a decade.

There is better understanding why low humidity makes it hard for the immune system to fight influenza, the virus can more easily get into the body and the repair mechanism of the body is impaired.

There are WHO guidelines to reduce the risk of dementia by a healthy lifestyle. This means primarily to exercise (at least 150 minutes per week), stop smoking, avoid drinking too much alcohol, be social, keep a healthy diet, and avoid high blood pressure and high cholesterol values.

A bacterial infection that was life threatening since the bacteria did not react to antibiotics. By genetic engineering viruses that can infect and kill bacteria it was possible to save the patient.

There is an idea to use the airflow in air conditioning systems to extract the CO₂ from the air and generate hydrocarbon from it. The hydrocarbon can then be used as fuel.

Patients surviving a heart attack may have to live with severe damage to their hearts. However, a new tightly controlled therapy with microRNA may repair some of the damage.

Scientists have now understood why chocolate mixed according to a 140 year old method has a particularly smooth texture. The several hour long process of mixing breaks the ingredients into finer grains.

Schizophrenia seems linked in a bad way to glutamate. However, a certain compound (sulforaphane) from broccoli sprouts can counterbalance the negative effects.

A new method of desalination has been developed that extracts the salt from the water. It does not make use of distillation which is energy intensive. It uses a solvent that extracts the salt from the water and that operates at a temperature of less than 70 Celsius.

Two Reuters journalists who had been convicted to seven years in jail in Myanmar after collecting evidence about the murders of ten Rohingya men by the army have been freed after more than 500 days in prison.

Leaders are more accepted when they show the right level of assertiveness and warmth. While the properties are considered as important for leadership, too much can be seen as being pushy.

There are obvious causes to burnout such as too much work and stress. But there are five possibly less obvious ways to avoid burnout: not applying pressure to achieve, optimism, support by co-workers and supervisors, meaningful social media contact, and income equality.

When schools put solar cells on their roofs it has several advantages, it cuts the energy bills of the school and the air around the school becomes cleaner. The carbon footprint of the education sector can be cut this way by more than a quarter.

In an eight year study of almost 1000 gay male couples of which one is infected with HIV and the other not, it was found that there is zero risk of HIV transmission when the infected man is in antiretroviral therapy.

In South Korea, a city council had seats installed for elderly people who wait at pedestrian lights. This way pedestrians can take it easy and do not have to rush to cross the road thus avoiding accidents.

A new powerful antidote against the deadly box jellyfish has been discovered by genome editing.