Neat News - Neat things do happen

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.

Analysing pottery from highlands in Ecuador, archaelogists now date chocolate 1500 years earlier than previously.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Scientists have developed a plastic bag that can be eaten or used as animal fodder. It does not pollute the environment and decomposes quickly.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Scientists managed to grow human retinas in a dish. This will allow a detailed study of their development and of colour vision.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A bone knife found in a Moroccan cave is the oldest known tool of the Aterian culture. It is around 90000 years old.

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.

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.