Forum for Science, Industry and Business

No matter where we look, the same rules apply everywhere in space: countless calculations of astrophysics are based on this basic principle. A recent study by the Universities of Bonn and Harvard, however, has thrown this principle into question. Should the measured values be confirmed, this would toss many assumptions about the properties of the universe overboard. The results are published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics”, but are already available online.

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, DFKI, Germany's leading business-oriented research institution in the field of innovative software technologies based on artificial intelligence methods, today announced that NVIDIA has joined the organization as a shareholder. The commitment is a further step in the long-standing successful cooperation between NVIDIA, the leader in accelerated computing, AI and high-performance computing, and DFKI in the area of machine learning and deep learning.

What does it actually look like deep inside our ears? This is has been very difficult to study as the inner ear is protected by the hardest bone in the body. But with the help of synchrotron X-rays, it is now possible to depict details inside the ear three-dimensionally. Together with Canadian colleagues, researchers from Uppsala University have used the method to map the blood vessels of the inner ear.

One year ago the EHT Collaboration published the first image of a black hole in the nearby radio galaxy M 87. Now the collaboration has extracted new information from the EHT data of the far quasar 3C 279: they observed the finest detail ever in the relativistic jet that is believed to originate from the vicinity of a supermassive black hole. In their analysis, led by astronomer Jae-Young Kim from the MPIfR in Bonn, they studied the jet’s fine-scale morphology close to the jet base where highly variable gamma-ray emission is thought to originate. Much of the development of the applied very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) was led by the Radio Astronomy/VLBI-division of the MPIfR.

DSMZ scientist develops innovative strategy for drug screening

New study examines how artificial light from research vessels affects fish counts

The pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) is placing unprecedented restrictions on public life and economy. The global research efforts to fill the knowledge gaps regarding the new pathogen and to develop effective therapies are correspondingly large. In Wuerzburg, too, researchers from the Fraunhofer Translational Center for Regenerative Therapies are working together with the virologist Prof. Dr. Bodem from the University of Wuerzburg to identify active substances against the virus.

For the first time, the cells of fungi can also be analysed using a relatively simple microscopic method. Researchers from Würzburg and Cordoba present the innovation in the journal "Frontiers in Microbiology".

A team of scientists at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has developed a novel mechanical cleaning method for surfaces on the nanoscale. The technique successfully removes even the tiniest contaminants down to the atomic scale, achieving an unprecedented level of cleanliness. The results of this study led by Prof. Dr. Erdmann Spiecker from the Department of Materials Science at FAU have now been published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.

A multidisciplinary team at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston working to combat the COVID-19 virus has a system that will unlock researchers' ability to more quickly develop and evaluate developing vaccines, diagnose infected patients and explore whether or how the virus has evolved.

Long-standing prediction of quantum physics now proven

Novel radiopharmaceutical for the diagnosis of tumor-relevant transport proteins developed

Lead-based perovskites are very promising materials for the production of solar panels. They efficiently turn light into electricity but they also present some major drawbacks: the most efficient materials are not very stable, while lead is a toxic element. University of Groningen scientists are studying alternatives to lead-based perovskites.

New ways to understand the functioning of marine phytoplankton

It does not require any cabling and its supporting structure is at the same time a battery: research teams from Braunschweig and Würzburg are working on such a cleverly constructed small satellite. Tests of the satellite in orbit are planned in 2023.

Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Thorax Clinic at Heidelberg University Hospital, whose collaboration is taking place under the auspices of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), have examined samples from non-virus infected patients to determine which cells of the lungs and bronchi are targets for novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

There is currently no industrial recycling process tailored to fuel cells. As part of the "BReCycle" project, a research consortium led by Fraunhofer IWKS is now developing a recycling management concept specifically for PEM fuel cells.

There is one major challenge in converting our energy system to purely renewable energy sources: winter – or rather the supply gap at this time. The conversion of surplus summer electricity into synthetic gas offers a way of ensuring that renewable energy could be available in sufficient quantities during the winter months. It would also allow to operate long-distance trucks. The Canton of Zurich has great interest in replacing fossil fuels with renewable energies and is, therefore, providing financial support for the Empa's "Power-to-gas" project.

The Belle II experiment has been collecting data from physical measurements for about one year. After several years of rebuilding work, both the SuperKEKB electron–positron accelerator and the Belle II detector have been improved compared with their predecessors in order to achieve a 40-fold higher data rate.

Researchers find the foundations of toxin production in Amanita muscaria, confirming a 50-year old theory

Alexander von Humboldt research fellow Ran Du fabricates various noble metal aerogels (NMAs), and pioneers demonstrating their impressive performance for pH-universal electrocatalysis for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and electrochemical water splitting at TU Dresden. Thus, TU Dresden chemists pave the way for new applications, such as for electrochemical hydrogen production and fuel cells.

Heavy-load vehicle traffic is responsible for 6 percent of the CO2 emissions in the European Union. Solar electricity generated directly on the vehicle can improve this balance by 5 to 7 percent. In the “Lade-PV” project under the direction of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, four industrial companies and two Fraunhofer institutes want to demonstrate the market feasibility of PV applications in the heavy-load transport. The aim is to develop an overall concept that makes the widespread use of integrated PV modules on electrical and other commercial vehicles (over 3.5 tons commercial load) possible.

Although Swiss internet users use online services where algorithms select search results, recommendations and information daily, they know little about their role and function. This leads to uncertainty, a feeling of powerlessness and a desire for more control, as a representative survey of Swiss internet users conducted by the University of Zurich shows.