Neat News - Neat things do happen

Lithium is an important part of batteries and a lot of it is needed for many more electric cars and storage facilities for electric energy. Now it has been estimated that from the waste of a geothermal power plant in California some 600,000 tons of lithium could be produced per year. However, no efficient method to extract it has been developed yet.

related: #lithium #battery

Exposing the eyes to deep red light once a week for three minutes in the morning can significantly improve declining eyesight, a new study finds.

related: #eyesight #red

T-cells can attack and destroy cancer cells. However, cancers often deactivate the T-cells allowing the tumours to grow. Now a particular kind dendritic cells is studied that may reactivate these T-cells. The research may in the long run lead to a new treatment option for some cancers.

related: #cancer #dendritic_cells

In Australia the eastern bristlebird is threatened by extinction due to the catastrophic fires of 2019/20. Now Artificial Intelligence techniques are used to recognize bristlebird calls from other bird calls in order to target rescue efforts to areas where there are survivors.

related: #bristlebirds #AI

A decade long study finds indications that drinking higher amounts of coffee helps against developing Alzheimer's disease. It is not yet clear whether the effect is due only to the caffeine or whether other components play a role.

related: #coffee #Alzheimer

A mosaic from ancient Roman times has been found in Rutland, England. It is assumed to be part of a large villa, occupied between the 3rd and 4th century AD. The 11m times 7m mosaic shows a scene from Homer's Iliad and is considered as one of the most significant finds of its kind in Britain.

related: #roman #mosaic #rutland

NASA has started a space mission to crash a spacecraft into a 160 metre wide asteroid, called Dimorphos, in order to test the feasibility of such an intervention if an asteroid came into collision course with the Earth.

related: #NASA #Dart_mission #asteroid

Seeing related gestures when learning words in a foreign language helps to remember the words, a new study finds. The gestures add to the traditional methods of reading, writing, listening, and repeating.

related: #language #gesture

Archaeologists have discovered a salt kitchen in a peat bog in Belize. It is assumed to be from the Late to Terminal Classic period of the Mayan culture (between 600 and 900). The kitchen contains pottery to boil brine to make salt.

related: #Maya #salt

A new device has been developed that can be put beneath a bandage and monitors whether a wound gets infected using a gel-based sensor. If an infection is found, an alert is sent to a smartphone.

related: #wound #sensor #infection

According to a new study, a diet in which people reduce their calorie intake to about 500 to 700 calories for two days per week seems to be very effective and people like it so that they continue with it.

related: #intermittent_fasting

A new group of molecules has been found that has an effect on antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This may pave the way to the development of new antibiotics in future.

related: #antibiotics

The mortality of Covid-19 in Kenya seems to be about only a twentieth of that in Europe, although the vaccination rate is much lower. A possible explanation of this is that the population was exposed to a virus similar to the Covid-19 virus and that many people have some immunization.

related: #immunization #Kenya

A woman's immune system eliminated her HIV infection. This is only the second documented case of this kind. Scientists hope that if it can be understood how this happened that then a cure for HIV might be developed.

related: #HIV #cure

Fat free chocolate often contains an emulsifier in order to prevent the chocolate from sinking to the bottom. Now a high-pressure jet technology has been developed that increases the viscosity so that no emulsifier is necessary.

related: #fat_free #chocolate_milk

A mineral never seen in nature, but only synthetically created at a pressure of about 200,000 times the atmospheric pressure, called calcium silicate perovskite, has been found as an impurity in a diamond. It is assumed that it was formed between 660 and 900 km deep under the Earth's surface. New insights about the Earth's lower mantle and its crust are expected.

related: #diamond #mineral

In Indonesia, there is a project in which children can lend books when they collect rubbish in return. This way, awareness for the environment is developed and children get a better chance to read.

related: #books #rubbish

In a study, participants were given either no deadline, a deadline of one week, or one of one month. Best results were achieved without a deadline, second best with a short deadline.

related: #deadline

In experiments with mice, scientists succeeded to repair some spinal cord injury so that mice with paralyzed hind legs regrew nerve cells and learned to walk again. This was done by an injection with nanofibres that trigger cells to repair and regenerate nerve cells.

related: #spinal_injury

Diabetes patients have to control their blood sugar levels typically several times a day and do this by pricking their fingers in order to get a drop of blood. Now the jet injection method by which drugs are delivered at high speed without a needle has been adapted for extraction rather than injection, potentially making the pricking obsolete in the future.

related: #needle_free #diabetes

Sponges do not have nerves or neurons. However, certain sponge cells can communicate in a way that looks related to nerve cells. By better understanding sponges, we may better understand the origins of the nervous system.

related: #sponge #nerve

In a study with 88,000 people an association between when going to sleep and heart problems was studied. Going to sleep between 10pm and 11pm seems to be the sweet spot compared to earlier or later bedtimes. However, no causality has been established yet.

related: #bedtime #heart_health

When data are transferred, for instance, to prove the identity of a person withdrawing money without revealing any information, so-called zero-knowledge proofs are used. In order to prevent that any information is leaked and abused in this process now an extension has been developed that prevents this by making use of the hard physical limitation of the speed of light.

related: #relativistic #zero_knowledge_proof

In Spain the ashes of paper are used instead of cement to build a motorway. This way up to 18000 tons of cement may be saved annually in Spain.

related: #paper #motorway

Using night vision scientists recorded every movement of the eight legs of spiders when they worked at night building their webs. The rules that are used by the spiders are quite uniform among many spider species and are hard-coded. Using artificial intelligence techniques the could be understood.

related: #spider_web

In a study it was found that a new antiviral drug against Covid-19, called Paxlovid, can cut hospitalization or death in vulnerable adults by 89 percent.

related: #Covid19 #antiviral_drug

In Cape Verde, a method has been developed to filter wastewater into clean water, on the one hand, and to harvest gas to cook and to produce electricity, on the other hand. This allows to help with the water shortage, to produce energy, and to replace traditional septic tanks.

related: #water_treatment

Ecuador's president announced that the marine protection zone around the Galapagos islands will be extended by 60,000 square km.

related: #Galapagos #marine_protection_zone

On the current Glasgow climate conference pledges were made: Jeff Bezos plans to spend with the Bezos Earth Fund 10 billion dollars on fighting climate change. More than 100 countries pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by the end of the decade compared to 2020. Countries covering 85 percent of the world's forests pledge to end deforestation by 2030.

related: #climate #COP #Glasgow

The German newspaper F.A.Z. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) has decided to plant 16,000 trees in the next three years to compensate for its paper usage. They also increase this year the amount of recycled paper used from 63 to 68 percent.

related: #trees #newspaper