Doctor's reward to boost lifesaving intervention

Doctors Xiao Zhanxiang and Zhang Hong saved an elderly man's life by sucking urine out of his blocked bladder on a China Southern Airlines plane. The hospital where Xiao works awarded him 100,000 yuan ($14,200) for his lifesaving procedure. Xiao is using the funds to help medical staff carry out procedures in life-threatening situations away from hospital facilities. Their intervention went viral after a video filmed on flight CZ399 from Guangzhou to New York on Nov 19 showed Zhang sucking urine, through a catheter, from the elderly man.

Hibernation study underway for Mars mission

The European Space Agency is exploring the possibilities of human hibernation as a means of addressing the problem of sending people into deep space. The agency has assembled a dedicated team to study the feasibility of hibernation for a journey to a planet such as Mars. It will look at the possibility of sending six astronauts to the Red Planet and back in five years, the ESA said.