Neat News - Neat things do happen

In Japan, a social approach of non-intervention in children's social interaction is taken that allows them to handle disagreements on their own and to learn social behaviour through exploration and action. Educators intervene only when the risk of physical harm caused by fighting is greater than the benefit for children to learn on their own.

related: #non_intervention

By 2024, fracking, the controversial way to extract oil and gas by pressure, is to be banned in California. This is seen as part of a move to decarbonize the transport sector in California.

related: #no_fracking #California

Hundreds of thousands of sea birds die each year in fishing nets. Now buoys with big painted eyes are tested to scare the birds away and save them.

related: #sea_bird

A study with healthy men between 50 and 72 found that a training programme that includes exercising, relaxation, sleep, a diet, and supplements, can decrease the so-called DNAmAge by more than three years compared to a control group. More trials are needed.

related: #rejuvenation

A Dutch court has ordered the Shell group to reduce its CO₂ emissions and those of its suppliers by 45 percent by 2030 compared to 2019. This is thought to be the first ruling that a company must cut emissions in line with the Paris climate accord.

related: #climate #global_warming

An increasing amount of energy is used to cool rooms in order to make them comfortable for people. In a new approach, in which objects that surround people are cooled down rather than the air in the room, the energy needed can be reduced by 10 to 45 percent.

related: #cooling #energy_conservation

Light-sensitive proteins were injected into the retina of a man who suffered from a degenerative disease that killed off his photoreceptor cells. This way it was possible to partially restore his sight after 40 years of blindness.

related: #restored_sight

The immune system of patients with diabetes type 1 attacks the insulin producing cells. In a study it was possible to preserve the insulin production in around half of the recently diagnosed patients by injecting a particular protein that acts like a vaccine.

related: #diabetes_1 #protein_treatment

Inspired by photosynthesis, scientists managed to build a new hybrid organic anorganic material that can harvest light with an efficiency of 96.4 percent. A standard solar panel has a typical conversion efficiency in the range of 20 percent. More research is needed to make the research more widely applicable.

related: #light_harvesting #solar

Patients that recover from a heart problem significantly benefit from climbing stairs, whether they do it vigorously or moderately.

related: #heart #stair_climbing

Immunotherapy is mainly used to fight cancer in the blood or blood-producing organs, but it is difficult to use it in solid tumours, since it is difficult to get the patient's T cells into the cancer cells. Now researchers have started to engineer T cells that are better suited for this purpose.

related: #immunotherapy #T_cells

In a test of Air France with Airbus, a flight from Paris to Montreal had 16 percent used cooking oil mixed with the standard fuel, kerosene. This way 20 tons of CO₂ emissions can be saved per flight.

related: #climate #flight #CO2_reduction

Nature is threatened in many ways. To act against this there is a UN programme to formally protect land and marine areas. Since 2010 an area greater than Russia has been given protected status as national parks and conservation areas. Now 17 percent of the land area and 8 percent of marine areas are protected, an increase by 42 percent since 2010.

related: #nature_protection

Dozens of proteins have been detected in the blood of people who develop Alzheimer's disease. The proteins can be found up to five years before symptoms are detected. This knowledge may be used for early therapies and may lead to new therapies.

related: #Alzheimer #blood_test

It is estimated that more than 950 million people need glasses but do not have the money to buy some. OneDollarGlasses has the mission to provide glasses for such people and produce glasses with minimal material cost in order to make glasses affordable.

related: #glasses #affordable

Hepatitis B is the most common cause of liver cancer. Now an immunotherapy has been developed to combat the hepatitis B virus by attacking the virus and stimulating T cells.

related: #immunotherapy #hepatitisB

In the Covid-19 pandemic some supply chains were disrupted and people in the USA, who had the chance, started to produce proteins in their backyard in form of chicken, rabbits, or soy. In comparison, soy is most efficient and can provide a significant part of the protein need of a household and the usage of backyard can make supply chains more resilient.

related: #food_production #soy #resilience

Ethereum 27 year old co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated digital currency valued at one billion dollars to a Covid-19 relief fund in India.

related: #donation #Covid19 #India

Apps that can identify plant species have been extended so that they can also detect changes in biodiversity.

related: #biodiversity

With a brain implant, people with impaired limb movement can write texts formulated in their mind in a time comparable to standard typing. Millions of people worldwide could benefit from the new technology.

related: #mental_handwriting

While big areas of forests were lost due to deforestation, since 2000 also forests have been regrown totalling an area as big as France. This shows that reforestation is possible also in the big.

related: #reforestation

Middle-aged and old people that feel young have a number of health benefits - such as higher well being, less inflammation, longer life - that seem to be linked to being better protected against the damage that stress produces.

related: #feeling_young #stress

In the Grotta Guattari cave near the Italian capital Rome, the remains of nine Neanderthal men were found. They are supposed to have lived 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. The find may shed further light on the early migration in Italy.

related: #Neanderthal

There is conflicting information on the health benefits of alcohol. A new study finds now that moderate alcohol intake is associated with a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases (compared to no or excessive drinking).

related: #alcohol #cardiovascular

A problem for overweight people who want to lose weight is to maintain a weight loss. In a study in which people were divided in four groups - those receiving an obesity medication or a placebo, and those doing an exercise regime or not - it was found that those people who took an obesity medication or did regular exercises kept their reduced weight, people who did neither had a high risk of putting on weight again (with the negative consequences). People who took the medication and did the exercises reduced their weight even further.

related: #weight_reduction

When birds fly they typically do not look straight ahead. For this reason some crash into buildings. In order to prevent this, it is tried to give acoustic and visual signals to warn them of the potential danger. It is not clear yet, however, how it can be achieved that the warnings are not ignored after a while.

related: #birds #collision_protection

Lightning bolts produce a big amount of hydroxyl and hydroperoxyl radicals that can break down molecules in the atmosphere such as the greenhouse gas methane.

related: #lightning #clean_air

Elephants, whales, and humans evolved differently in the comparison of brain and body sizes. However, they seem to have in common that bigger brains follow big disasters and as a consequence may be the result of evolutionary pressures.

related: #brain_size

Some people who have survived malaria have antibodies that block malaria cells from entering red blood cells. Now there is a better understanding how they do this. This may lead to the creation of an antibody that can be used to treat several forms of malaria.

related: #malaria #anti_body

In experiments with rats it has been found that those that fasted every other day had a significantly lower blood pressure than others. They also had a changed composition of their gut microbiota.

related: #fasting #blood_pressure

In China measures are taken to reduce the estimated 18 billion kilogrammes of food waste every year. For instance, when caterers deliver food and on collection big amounts are left over in future, the customer will have to pay a significant penalty.

related: #food_waste_reduction