Neat News - Neat things do happen

For long it has been known that lizards can regrow their tails. A new study has found that alligators can too. The insight may lead to therapies for regrowing human tissue.

After restoration work, grass-poly, a plant very rare in the UK, has returned to a farmland pond in Norfolk after more than 100 years. It is assumed that when the soil was disturbed some seeds started to germinate.

From 2022 standard single use plastic shopping bags will be outlawed in Germany.

Sitting a lot, e.g., 10 hours per day is linked to a heightened risk of early death. However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), this can be offset by exceeding the recommended levels of weekly physical activities.

A new studies confirms that physical activity is important for psychic health. Even everyday activities such as climbing stairs can make a significant difference.

Even in rich countries there is a significant number of women who struggle to buy period products. The Scottish Parliament has now made a law to make them available for free to everybody who needs them. Scotland will be the first country with such a provision.

A helicopter crew found during a flyover a metal monolith in a desert in Utah. A plausible assumption is that some fan of Stanley Kubrick's classic film "2001: A Space Odyssey" has put it there. Further investigations are under way.

In a new study it has found that there is a significant inverse correlation between antibodies resulting from a measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination and the severity of a possible Covid-19 infection. It may be a clue to the fact that the Covid-19 death rates in different countries vary strongly.

Bees are essential pollinators and there are around 20,000 different bee species on our planet. Now scientists have mapped their distribution in a global map. It is an important tool to recognize what kind of bee protection is needed.

Treating healthy ageing adults with high-pressured oxygen can reverse the ageing process of their blood cells, a new study has found. 35 healthy individuals aged 64 and above were treated in 60 session over a period of 90 days.

Random numbers play a big role in computer science applications such as data encryption, since they allow the generation of (big) numbers that cannot be predicted. Typically computers use pseudo random numbers which are hard to predict, but this cannot be completely ruled out. Now big true random numbers can be generated using DNA synthesis.

50 years after blue whales were locally wiped out around the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia the whales are returning to the region. This is a big success of the corresponding ban on commercial whaling.

As a contribution against climate change, no new petrol or diesel cars can be bought in the UK from 2030.

In a supermarket in Hamburg, Germany, UVC lights have been installed at a height so that the UVC radiation kills most Covid-19 viruses in the aerosols, but does not harm humans. This way the number of Covid-19 viruses in the air can be significantly reduced.

A new study found that healthy sleep habits go with a lower risk of heart problems. Adults with healthy sleep patterns such as sleeping 7-8 hours a day can have an up to 42 percent reduced risk of heart failure compared to people with unhealthy sleep patterns.

Archaeologists have found around 100 sarcophagi, some with mummies inside. The sarcophagi are more than 2500 years old, the Egyptian government announced yesterday. They were found near Saqqara and some of them are in pristine condition.

Many devices in our lives need electricity and providing all of them with batteries is not only cumbersome but also bad for the environment. Some of them such as sensors need only small amounts of power. Traditional solar panels are, however, not well suited at harvesting indoor light. However, a new green material is currently under development that is useful for this purpose.

Doctors do not have many possibilities to treat acute alcohol poisoning. Mainly they stabilize the patient and wait until the liver clears up the poisoning. Now a new method has been tested with a few people in which alcohol levels are reduced via the lungs three times faster by controlled CO₂ stabilizing hyperventilation (to prevent dizziness). More tests are needed.

A new study has found that there is a big potential to reduce over-fertilization by so-called precision farming. In this method it is measured what the plants need and fertilization is applied only to this degree. This way there is no reduction in yield.

In treating a small number of patients suffering from head or neck cancer with a personalized cancer vaccine and an immunotherapy drug, researchers report promising initial results. More tests are necessary.

In order to regrow cells of severed nerves there is the big problem to guide cells to regrow in lines between the broken ends of a nerve. Now a printable neuron-growing ink has been developed that uses the body's electrical signals to grow precisely in the right direction.

In a preliminary analysis with more than 43,000 people a coronavirus vaccine proved effective in that it prevented 90 percent of people from contracting Covid-19. Now the companies involved apply for approval by the regulators. The first doses of the vaccine may be available by the end of 2020/early 2021; 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.

Following a campaign led by 23 year old footballer Marcus Rashford the British government has decided to spend GBP 400m to support poor children during school holidays. Rashford's campaign had already led to free school meal vouchers for 1.3m children in England during the last summer holidays.

A new study found that the fact that Denmark is a global leader in wind energy is mainly due to government policies and not mainly due to technological progress.

The study of a 9000 year old burial side in the Andes Mountains of South America refutes the traditional view that men were the hunters and women the gatherers. The archeological analysis of early burial practices points in the direction that the division of labour was quite equitable.

The International Mineralogical Association recognizes some 5600 minerals. Now they have added one more mineral, called donwilhelmsite, to the list. It has been detected recently in a lunar meteorite.

A problem with over-prescription of antibiotics is that bacteria become resistant. For this reason prescriptions of antibiotics should be reduced. This can be achieved more easily if three or more medical prescribers share the prescription decision.

Vitamin D plays an important role in the human immune system. Now there is new evidence that a sufficient level of vitamin D during the pregnancy is positively linked to a child's neurocognitive development at ages of 4 to 6 years.

A program has been developed that can - with an accuracy of more than 98 percent - identify people with Covid-19 by the sound of their cough. The differences are so small that the human ear cannot spot the difference to a non-Covid-19 cough. In order to develop the program into an app regulatory approval is needed.

There is a growing body of findings that a positive affect such as being enthusiastic and cheerful has a positive effect on people in that they age in a healthy way. A new study finds that such people are less likely to suffer from memory decline in old age.