Neat News 2018-304 (added 2018-10-31)
Electric Device to Support Spine
![]() Public Domain by Henry Vandyke Carter
| Electric spinal implants have been used to support three men with serious damage to their spines to walk again. The implants bridge signals between the brain and the legs that the body cannot send due to the damage. The stimulus also helps the damaged nerves to regrow. |
News seen at: BBC - Health
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Neat News 2018-303 (added 2018-10-30)
Chocolate Known for Long
![]() Public Domain by Medicaster
| Analysing pottery from highlands in Ecuador, archaelogists now date chocolate 1500 years earlier than previously. |
News seen at: BBC - Science & Environment
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Neat News 2018-302 (added 2018-10-29)
Dog can Sniff Malaria
![]() © image by Ute Frevert; false color by Margaret Shear [CC BY2.5]
| Trained sniffer dogs can smell malaria in patients, even from their socks. There is the expectation that this ability can be used in the fight against malaria and its eradication. |
News seen at: BBC - Health
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Neat News 2018-301 (added 2018-10-28)
Cooling Buildings with a Foil
![]() Public Domain by United States Environmental Protection Agency
| By reflecting incoming light from the sun, a new material made from glass and polymers can keep buildings cooler and thereby reducing the energy needed for cooling them. This has potentially a big impact, since around 10 percent of the energy consumption goes into cooling and the percentage is on the rise. |
News seen at: BBC - Science & Environment
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Neat News 2018-300 (added 2018-10-27)
Microscope to Determine Effectiveness of Cancer Drugs
![]() Public Domain by Cecil Fox (National Cancer Institue)
| Drugs against cancer have typically significant side effects and are ideally applied only if they are effective against the particular cancer of a patient. Biophysicists have shown now that a special microscope can be used to determine the effectiveness of drugs on the specific cancer cells of a patient. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Health & Medicine
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Neat News 2018-299 (added 2018-10-26)
New Antibiotics Developed
![]() Public Domain by National Institutes of Health of the USA
| A new antibiotic has been developed as a Trojan horse and has proved successful in initial tests with 448 people with complicated urinary tract infections. It is built in a form that the bacteria let the antibiotic pass through their protective hull and then the antibiotic can destroy the bacteria. It offers a new weapon against bacteria at a time when bacteria develop resistance against antibiotics. |
News seen at: BBC - Health
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Neat News 2018-298 (added 2018-10-25)
Smoke Alarm with Voice
![]() Public Domain by Hiya111
| Smoke alarms can save lives, obviously only when they are heard. Unfortunately, children may not wake up by the noise a smoke alarm makes even when it is very loud. In a study it has now been found that children wake up much more easily when the smoke alarm shouts with their mother's voice. |
News seen at: BBC - Health
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Neat News 2018-297 (added 2018-10-24)
EU Parliament Bans Single Use Plastic
![]() | The European Parliament has backed a ban of single-use plastic across he European Union from 2021. The ban includes food and drink containers and straws. The recycling of plastic bottles is to be significantly increased. |
News seen at: BBC - Science & Environment
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Neat News 2018-296 (added 2018-10-23)
Ageing Delay in Worms
![]() Public Domain by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1546)
| A combination of drugs can almost double the life span of worms. Scientists have the hope that the findings can help one day to slow down ageing in humans. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Top Science News
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Neat News 2018-295 (added 2018-10-22)
Efficiency by Quantum Computing
![]() | Scientists have developed a quantum algorithm that can solve a class of problems using constant depth for which classical computers need to increase the depth of the corresponing search. It is a practical example were quantum computing goes beyond classical computing and can be a test case for future quantum computers. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Top Science News
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Neat News 2018-294 (added 2018-10-21)
Edible Plastic
![]() | Scientists have developed a plastic bag that can be eaten or used as animal fodder. It does not pollute the environment and decomposes quickly. |
News seen at: BCC - News from elsewhere
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Neat News 2018-293 (added 2018-10-20)
Solar Energy by Heat Transfer
![]() Public Domain by Hinode JAXA/NASA
| A new material has been developed that allows to accumulate and store heat from which electricity can be generated. Storing the energy as heat is more effecient than storing it in batteries. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Top Physical/Tech
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Neat News 2018-292 (added 2018-10-19)
Leukaemia Data Collected
![]() | A new big data set with information about therapies against a particular type of leukaemia has been created and is shared among doctors. The hope is that this will lead to a better therapy for patients with the illness. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Top Health
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Neat News 2018-291 (added 2018-10-18)
Link between Corporal Punishment and Youth Violence
![]() Public Domain by unknown
| A study has found that in countries where there is a complete ban on corporal punishment of children there is less violence among young people (31% less in young men and 42% less in young women). |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Top Health
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Neat News 2018-290 (added 2018-10-17)
Physical Exercise against Alzheimer's
![]() Public Domain by Garrondo
| The brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease show a toxic accumulation of plaques. In a new study with mice it has been found that physical exercise can reduce this build-up and this way help to reduce the problems with Alzheimer's. Physical exercise has also a preventive effect against the disease. |
News seen at: Scientific American - Health
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Neat News 2018-289 (added 2018-10-16)
Lab-Grown Oesophagus
![]() Public Domain by training.seer.cancer.gov
| In experiments with mice scientists grew an oesophagus from a sceleton food pipe in the lab and implanted it successfully in a mouse. There is hope that the technique can one day be used for humans as well and help people who need a new food pipe. |
News seen at: BBC - Health
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Neat News 2018-288 (added 2018-10-15)
Levitation by Sound
![]() | Researchers have managed to use ultrasound waves to levitate a small object. The waves come from below the object and are suitable directed and focused so that the object is kept in a particular place or moved. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Top Physical/Tech
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Neat News 2018-287 (added 2018-10-14)
Reducing Pain Killers
![]() Public Domain by NEUROtiker
| In addition to having strong side-effects opioids may also get less effective when taken for a long period and the dosage then is often increased. There is a new study that looks in reducing the dosage using meditation, exercise, psychological counselling and non-opioid drugs. |
News seen at: Scientific American - Health
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Neat News 2018-286 (added 2018-10-13)
Fast Camera
![]() © Janeznovak [CC BY 2.5]
| A camera has been developed that can take 1013 (10,000,000,000,000) frames per second. This way it is possible to observe phenomena in extremely slow motion. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Top Physical/Tech
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Neat News 2018-285 (added 2018-10-12)
Human Retina in Dish
![]() Public Domain by Rhcastilhos
| Scientists managed to grow human retinas in a dish. This will allow a detailed study of their development and of colour vision. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Top Health
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Neat News 2018-284 (added 2018-10-11)
Friendship among Chimpanzees
![]() © Thomas Lersch [CC BY 2.5]
| Chimpanzees share food with their friends. A team of researchers have observed wild chimpanzees in Ivory Coast. The sharing seems to happen also in expectation that favours are returned. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Top Science News
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Neat News 2018-283 (added 2018-10-10)
Implant to Support Nerve Regeneration
![]() | A new device has been developed that can be implanted and can generate electrical stimulation to support the regeneration of injured nerves. After a while it dissolves itself. It has been successfully tested in experiments with rats. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Top Science News
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Neat News 2018-282 (added 2018-10-09)
Neighbour Saves two Children
![]() Public Domain by Awesomoman
| Using a ladder, a man in Düsseldorf, Germany, has saved two children aged two and seven years out of a neighbouring flat that was filling with poisonous fumes from a fire while the fire engines were en route. The children were fine and did not have to go to hospital. |
News seen at: Der Spiegel - Panorama (in German)
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Neat News 2018-281 (added 2018-10-08)
Nobel Prize for Economics on Climate
![]() Public Domain by NASA, Robert Simmon
| This year's Nobel Prize for Economics goes to two economists who have developed approaches how to cost climate change and how to direct markets towards a sustainable climate policy. |
News seen at: Scientific American - Policy & Ethics
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Neat News 2018-280 (added 2018-10-07)
Pre-Viking Sword Found in Swedish Lake
![]() Public Domain by Johann Georg Ramsauer
| An eight year old girl retrieved a 1500 year old sword from a lake near Jönköping in Sweden while swimming there during her summer holidays. The sword is from pre-Viking times and now archaeologists search the lake for further finds. |
News seen at: BBC - Europe
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Neat News 2018-279 (added 2018-10-06)
Sleep on it for Better Decisions
![]() | Difficult decisions improve when people take a nap before they make them. This is not only old advice but has also proved correct in a study. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Living Well
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Neat News 2018-278 (added 2018-10-05)
Early Diagnosis for Diabetes 2
![]() Public Domain by International Diabetes Federation
| In a two-year study with more than 27000 people it has been found that before diabetes type 2 is diagnosed, typically there are signs of the onset of diabetes. In addition to the well-known risk factor of being overweight, insulin resistance is a sign which can be acted upon early on, for instance, by changing the diet. |
News seen at: BBC - Health
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Neat News 2018-277 (added 2018-10-04)
Diet from 8000 Years ago
![]() Public Domain by PHG
| The proteins found in 8000 year old bowls and jars from Anatolia in Turkey show that people ate at the time cereals, veg, dairy products, and meat. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Top Environment
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Neat News 2018-276 (added 2018-10-03)
Oldest Bone Knife
![]() Public Domain by José-Manuel Benito Álvarez
| A bone knife found in a Moroccan cave is the oldest known tool of the Aterian culture. It is around 90000 years old. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Fossils &Ruins
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Neat News 2018-275 (added 2018-10-02)
Slow Aging by Vegetables
![]() | Many vegetables contain a substance called Fisetin, which has proved to have positive effects on the health and lifespan of mice. Similar positive effects can be expected for humans. |
News seen at: ScienceDaily - Top Health
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Neat News 2018-274 (added 2018-10-01)
Nobel Prize in Medicine for Immune Therapy against Cancer
![]() Public Domain by Cecil Fox (National Cancer Institue)
| Two scientists received the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their insights in the functioning of the immune system and the resulting therapy against cancer. The new approach can cure people who previously would not have had a chance of beating cancer. |