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DFG Research: Natural Science

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Overview of the latest five Focus news of the innovations-report:

In the focus: Hubble reveals the Ring Nebula’s true shape

The Ring Nebula's distinctive shape makes it a popular illustration for astronomy books. But new observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the glowing gas shroud around an old, dying, sun-like star reveal a new twist.

"The nebula is not like a bagel, but rather, it's like a jelly doughnut, because it's filled with material in the middle," said C. Robert O'Dell of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

He leads a research team that used Hubble and several ground-based telescopes to obtain the best view yet of ...

In the focus: Going live – immune cell activation in multiple sclerosis

New indicator molecules visualise the activation of auto-aggressive T cells in the body as never before

Biological processes are generally based on events at the molecular and cellular level. To understand what happens in the course of infections, diseases or normal bodily functions, scientists would need to examine individual cells and their activity directly in the tissue.

The development of new microscopes and fluorescent dyes in ...

In the focus: Soft Matter Offers New Ways to Study How Materials Arrange

A fried breakfast food popular in Spain provided the inspiration for the development of doughnut-shaped droplets that may provide scientists with a new approach for studying fundamental issues in physics, mathematics and materials.

The doughnut-shaped droplets, a shape known as toroidal, are formed from two dissimilar liquids using a simple rotating stage and an injection needle. About a millimeter in overall size, the droplets are produced individually, their shapes maintained by a surrounding springy material made of polymers.

Droplets in this toroidal shape made ...

In the focus: Functional films for the displays of the future

Frauhofer FEP will present a novel roll-to-roll manufacturing process for high-barriers and functional films for flexible displays at the SID DisplayWeek 2013 in Vancouver – the International showcase for the Display Industry.

Displays that are flexible and paper thin at the same time?! What might still seem like science fiction will be a major topic at the SID Display Week 2013 that currently takes place in Vancouver in Canada.

High manufacturing cost and a short lifetime are still a major obstacle on ...

In the focus: A New Type of Laser

University of Würzburg physicists have succeeded in creating a new type of laser.

Its operation principle is completely different from conventional devices, which opens up the possibility of a significantly reduced energy input requirement. The researchers report their work in the current issue of Nature.

It also emits light the waves of which are in phase with one another: the polariton laser, developed ...