In today’s Good News, a personalized treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) that involves genetically engineering a patient’s own T cells is shown to stop painful flare-ups. And in the Philippines, a team of researchers is astonished to find multiple new species of tube-nosed bats, evasive creatures known for their distinctive nostrils. 

Catherine Garcia
The Week Digital

A new T-cell treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) is showing signs of success during a global clinical trial. The Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) therapy is “custom-built for each patient in the lab,” aiming to slow or stop the disease’s progression, said The Independent. Scientists genetically engineer the patient’s T cells, which target infected and damaged cells, so they can hunt the B cells that “allow MS to advance.” Trial participants have reported having more energy and no flare-up symptoms.

Scientists at China’s Shenyang University of Chemical Engineering have created a method for turning cellulose from bamboo into a rigid plastic that is biodegradable and recyclable. Quick-growing bamboo is a renewable resource, and this bioplastic is tough enough to be used in cars, tools and appliances. The plastic is biodegradable within 50 days and keeps 90% of its original strength when recycled, the team said in a recent study published in the journal Nature.

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It works on some of the most dangerous species

An international team of researchers in the Philippines made a surprising discovery: six new species of bats, including five that had been “masquerading” as a different species of tube-nosed bats, said Good News Network. Tube-nosed bats live in Asia and are “notoriously elusive,” making this discovery “deeply satisfying,” said Jodi Sedlock, a professor at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. She said she is “eager” to learn more about these bats and how they use their “tube-like nostrils.”

In Austria, electricity transmission towers could soon be transformed into works of public art. The Austrian Power Grid is working on a project for the country’s nine federal states to each have its own “style of pylon in the form of an animal symbolic to the region’s identity,” said New Atlas. For Burgeland, it would be a stork, “reflecting the bird’s well-known annual visits,” while Lower Austria would have the stag, due to the area’s “densely wooded” Alpine hills.

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