Because negative news often dominates NU.nl, positive news sometimes gets buried. Therefore, we compile a list of cheerful news items every week.
Man without arms and legs can play games thanks to implant
A man without arms and legs can still play computer games. In March, he received a brain implant, allowing him to control electronic devices through signals from his brain.
The man lost all four of his limbs thirteen years ago in a high-voltage accident. A few weeks after the procedure, he was able to play racing and chess games on the computer thanks to some brain training. He can also control other programs via the chip. “It feels like I can move the way I want again,” he says.
China says it is the second country after the United States to have successfully completed this clinical trial. China and the US are closely following each other in the so-called ‘brain implant race’. For example, the American company Neuralink recently used a brain implant to show a monkey something that was not physically present.
Reusable mailbags to combat millions of packages
Dutch households receive a total of approximately 371 million packages per year. This results in millions of kilograms of plastic, cardboard and paper being thrown away. According to Okke de Jonge, something had to be done about this. In 2021, he started his company BOXO, which makes reusable bags for packages.
These are bags that are used by online stores to send products to customers. “It’s a kind of large envelope that you can unfold,” says De Jonge to Omrop Fryslân. “We have them in two sizes: from something that can fit through the mailbox to two shoeboxes large.”
“We have now made approximately fifteen thousand mailbags. About ten thousand of them are in circulation,” De Jonge thinks. “If you see that web shops send a million packages daily, that is of course nothing. We have to expand considerably in the coming period to make a profit with this.”
Bus takes children to green areas where they learn in the open air
In the municipality of Heusden, children have been taken to ‘green places’ by the BosbessenBus for a year. The idea of the BosbessenBus comes from the BosbessenSchool, an educational approach that teaches children outdoors more often.
“The BosbessenSchool has two outdoor classrooms where classes can go occasionally,” explains teacher Marie-José Berendsen from primary school De Groene Bogen to Omroep Brabant. “The teachers can use special teaching boxes. There is everything to be found in them: from water experiments to microscopes.”
According to Berendsen, there are many advantages to being taught in the open air. “Children who are taught outdoors more often not only know more about nature, they also have better motor skills, can plan better and concentrate better. Enough reasons to go outside often.”
Freezing tumor cells seems promising in recurring thyroid cancer
Freezing tumor cells is promising in patients with recurrent thyroid cancer. Doctors at Maastricht UMC+ have successfully applied the treatment method to the first Dutch patients. After treatment, the tumor had shrunk by at least a quarter or even disappeared, reports the Maastricht hospital.
It concerns the cryoablation treatment. The tumor is frozen using a thin needle. The freezing destroys the cancer cells. Diseased tissue is also treated accurately. So it is an operation, without having to cut.
The choice for cryoablation is made when re-operation is complicated. This can be due to, for example, scar tissue or if the tumor is close to the trachea or nerves.