Neat News - Neat things do happen

Scientists have studied the cellular age and its relationship to the diet in women and found that a healthy diet is related to a younger cellular age. They found that restricting the amount of sugar eaten and following a diet related to the Mediterranean diet is particularly useful.

related: #cellular_age #sugar #Mediterranean_diet

A novel way has been found to transform a cubed structure into more than 1000 different configurations using three motors only. The work was inspired by origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.

related: #transformer #origami

In new research it is argued that some elements of randomness in the allocation of a scarce resource (such as access to a medical procedure) may lead to greater fairness. For instance, if many companies used the same machine learning algorithms for inviting candidates to job interviews then a candidate who is ranked low may unfairly never be invited and a random element in the selection process would give them some chance.

related: #fairness #random

In experiments with mice, it has been found that deoxyribose, a sugar that is related to DNA, can help to heal the wounds of mice and make the fur regrow. It is not clear yet whether it will also help with the regrowth of human hair.

related: #baldness #deoxyribose

A new study finds that the walking speed is a good predictor of health in later life. The decline in smoothness and speed of walking can be an indicator of problems such as Parkinson's disease.

related: #walking #health #predict

A new efficient approach to water desalination has been developed which uses 3D printing to create a porous structure simulating plants with a high surface area for evaporation.

related: #desalination

A study found that switching from a gas to an electric induction stove can reduce the hazardous nitrogen dioxide in the house by more than half.

related: #stove #gas #electricity

A new study with mice found that not the calorie intake as such but the calorie balance is important for health matters. For instance, mice living in a colder environment have to spend more calories to keep warm, that is, they should take in more calories.

related: #calorie #health

In experiments with healthy mice, it has been found that injecting them with an antibody of interleukin 11 (IL 11) can increase their lifespan by more than 20 percent by reducing inflammation.

related: #lifespan #IL11 #antibody

More than 130,000 people a year are killed by snake bites, more than 400,000 injured. Now it has been found out in experiments with mice that in many cases of snake bites a drug commonly used to thin blood, heparin, can be an efficient antivenom to reduce the injuries from necrosis, or even prevent death.

related: #snake #heparin #antivenom

New research finds that so-called nature-based solutions to climate change problems (such as restoring wetlands to deal with coastal flooding instead of building a seawall) are cost effective.

related: #climate_problems #nature_based

New research found that already small babies can start to understand complex language and ideas, pointing at the importance of creatively stimulating children already at a very young age.

related: #baby #creativity

A new study concludes that replacing butter by high quality plant oils in the diet can reduce cardiovascular diseases by almost a third and diabetes 2 cases by almost a quarter.

related: #butter #plant_oil #health

Studying the genome of living beings, scientists estimate that the "Last Universal Common Ancestor" (LUCA) lived some 4.2 billion years ago. That is, surprisingly life would have started only a few hundred million years after Earth itself formed some 4.5 billion years ago.

related: #life #Earth

Many of us may have experienced being more hungry after running than after walking the same distance, concluding that running does use more energy than walking. This is indeed mainly true, but why? The main effect is that when running the centre of gravity of the body oscillates more than when walking and this requires more energy.

related: #walking #running #energy

In a double blind trial with lenacapavir and other drugs with 5000 women from Uganda and South Africa, none of the 2134 women who received lenacapavir contracted HIV, whereas the other tested drugs did not have a 100 percent efficiency. The women got every six months an injection with lenacapavir.

related: #HIV #prevention #lenacapavir

A new study in the USA has found that 350,000 cases of diabetes could be avoided over 10 years if the consumption of processed meat were reduced by a third.

related: #meat #diabetes #health

New research using DNA analysis finds that the painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) can use winds to cross the Atlantic Ocean from sub-Saharan Africa to South America. The trip may last five to eight days and covers more than 4200 kilometres.

related: #butterfly #Atlantic

With global warming it is important to find ways to keep cities such as London cool. A new study finds that painting the roofs of houses white or covering them with a reflective coating is an effective measure for cooling and more effective than having vegetation or solar panels on the roofs.

related: #cooling_cities #white_paint #reflective_coating

A new study finds that a good psychosocial safety climate in a company can more than halve the number of days that workers have to take off due to workplace injury or illness. As a consequence, providing such a climate makes also economically sense.

related: #safety_climate #work #injury #illness

A new study found that the damage that chemotherapy does to nerves can be reduced by 50 to 70 percent by doing two 15 to 30 minute sessions of exercise per week.

related: #chemotherapy #exercise

A new study finds that in many situations, perfection is not needed in order to get the job done and that going for sub-optimal solutions can have advantages over trying to come up with a perfect solution.

related: #perfection #job

In Germany the transformation of the electricity generation from fossil and nuclear energy to renewable production is making good progress: in the first half of 2023, 52 percent were renewably generated, in the first half of 2024, 58 percent (24 percentage points on-shore wind, 14 photovoltaic, 9 bio mass, 5 water, 5 off-shore wind, and 1 other).

related: #renewable #electricity #Germany