Are video games good for our brains?

Parents often worry about the harmful impacts of video games on children, from social problems to missing out on exercise.

But a new study shows that there may also be brain benefits to gaming.

Scientist Bader Chaarani, a professor of psychiatry, is a gamer himself. He and his team worked with around 2,000 nine- and 10-year-olds, who were put into two groups. One group never played games, and the other group played for three hours a day.

Each group was asked to perform tasks. The team found the video gamers performed better. As they did the tasks, the children's brains were scanned. The gamers' brains showed more activity in parts of the brain connected to attention and memory.

Tigers may be returning

Siberian tiger footprints have been found in northeast China. It could mean that work to preserve the environment there may have helped the big cat return to a land it had left long ago.

The 10cm footprints were discovered in Heilongjiang province last week, near a city named Mishan that has done a lot of conservation work.

The authorities warned local farmers to watch out for tigers, but the discovery of the footprints is still thought to be good news. It means the tigers may not go extinct in this part of China after all.

Siberian tigers are one of the most endangered carnivores on the planet. Only about 50 of these large, powerful animals live in the area between northeast China and the far east of Russia.