Neat News - Neat things do happen

Using a mathematical model, there has been studied how reputation is established on limited information. The finding is that multiple actions should be looked at in order to see whether they are mostly good or bad. In interactions one should follow a method that can be summarized as "look twice, forgive once" in order foster social cooperation.

related: #cooperation #behaviour

As research shows, people can change their personality traits through intervention. For instance, if somebody often has negative thoughts they can actively change this by consistently making changes to their perspective and actions to take a positive outlook and thereby making lasting changes to their personality.

related: #personality #intervention

The climate crisis needs urgent actions. However, when people experience despair then that may induce a burnout and as a consequence they may disengage from the cause. For this reason, sustained engagement and mutual support are imperative, new research finds.

related: #climate #burnout #action

Warming oceans threaten healthy coral reefs. Scientists found now that corals have different levels of heat that they can tolerate. This allows to selectively breed heat-tolerant parent corals to get offsprings that are better suited for warmer oceans.

related: #coral #heat_tolerance

New research finds that there is a link between gut microbiome and symptoms of Alzheimer's disease on the one hand and colon cancer on the other hand. For instance, by stool transplants from one rodent to another memory impairment can be passed on. Also cancer patients seem to have a risk reduced by a third of developing Alzheimer's.

related: #Alzheimer #microbiome #gut #cancer

There is general advice that we should clean our tongue twice a day in order to reduce the risk of chronic infections by removing microbes and food debris. It can be done as part of the routine brushing the teeth by gently scrubbing it with the toothbrush.

related: #tongue #clean

Scientists have discovered that in some 800 genes the non-coding parts can when mutated promote cancer growth. The research may also help to explain why different patients react differently to the same drug.

related: #cancer #gene #therapy

In the UK an experiment was done selling in pubs instead of pints (568 millilitres) of beer smaller glasses with 2/3 of the content at 2/3 of the price. As a consequence the beer consumption dropped by almost 10 percent, with corresponding health benefits.

related: #beer #consumption

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approves ribociclib, sold as Kisqali, in combination with another drug, NSAI, for some forms of early high-risk breast cancer after the drug showed in tests a statistically significant improvement in patients.

related: #cancer #drug

Decades back a woman in Romania found a 3.5kg stone in a stream bed and used it to keep a door open. After she died in 1991, a relative inherited her home and suspected that the stone may have some value. As it turns out it is the biggest piece of rumanite, a type of amber, ever found, older than 38 million years, and worth around one million euros.

related: #amber #nugget #rumanite

The Nutri-Score system was introduced by France and is recommended by the European Commission and the World Health Organization to communicate in an easy way how healthy a particular food item is. A new study with more than 300,000 participants finds now that participants consuming more food with less favourable Nutri-Score have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction and stroke, demonstrating that the Nutri-Score system is meaningful.

related: #Nutri_Score #cardiovascular_disease

Using the built-in sensors of a standard smartphone (in particular the accelerometer) and the arm length as well as some movement of the arm and thumb it is possible to measure the blood pressure with an error of less than 8 mmHg. This allows people without access to traditional blood pressure devices to monitor their blood pressure, which is important in the light of millions of deaths per year due to high blood pressure.

related: #blood_pressure #smartphone

New research confirms that older people can slow down their cognitive decline and improve their memory by mental activities such as word games.

related: #cognition #mental_activity

Learning is a key activity and also important in order to stay mentally sharp. New research confirms that diversity in learning leads to better, more robust results (but takes longer). This is true for a range of tasks such practising the piano (practice hungry, tired, angry, happy, different pianos, ...) or hitting objects by a ball; and has been studied now in older adults.

related: #learning #variety

Studying medical records, new research found a statistically significant link between light pollution at night during sleep and the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, in particular for people under 65. In other words, blackout curtains can reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's.

related: #Alzheimer #sleep #dark

About 100,000 people suffer from Leber congenital amaurosis due to a mutation in the so-called GUCY2D gene (LCA1). This results in a significant amount of vision loss or even blindness. Now in a small trial of 15 patients a gene therapy has been attempted, their vision was 100 times better after the treatment, two of nine who received the highest dose even had a 10,000 fold improvement.

related: #eye #sight #gene_therapy

While travel is linked to some health risks, new research points in the direction that travel has also positive effects and can even slow down ageing by stimulating the self-defence system of the body.

related: #travel #ageing

Type 2 diabetes patients who take a particular diabetes drug, a so-called SGLT-2 inhibitor, have a 35 percent lower risk to develop dementia than other diabetes patients. Further research is needed to understand the reasons.

related: #diabetes #dementia

The human brain loses plasticity in adulthood and learning becomes much harder for an adult than it is for a child. This is also true for zebra finches, which learn their songs in the first 90 days of their lives. Now researchers managed to switch off inhibitory neurons in adult zebra finches and they started to add new elements to their songs, an expansion of their repertoire, previously not observed. The research may have impacts on human learning. More research, in particular of possible side effects, is necessary.

related: #learning #age #brain #plasticity

Many people have a daily routine that does not give them enough daily sleep with potentially negative consequences for their health. Now new research finds that so-called catch-up sleep on weekends can reduce the risk of developing a heart disease by up to 20 percent.

related: #sleep #health

Paper is a material widely used and has many advantages as packaging material, for instance. Its usage is increasing. In order to save trees a lot of paper is recycled. Now also a method has been developed in which paper is made not from wood, but form leaves.

related: #paper #leaves