Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have developed a new method for controlling the growth of physical micro-runners. The research results have now been published in the renowned journal “Nature Communications”. What for? The Bayreuth researchers used an external magnetic field to assemble paramagnetic colloidal spheres – i.e. only magnetic due to external influences – into rods of a certain length. Colloidal particles are tiny particles in the micro- or nanometer range that can be used in medicine as carriers…
Through international teamwork, scientists’ on-site weed resistance diagnosis boosts knowledge exchange and sustainable agriculture. Dr. Ulrich Lutz with Arvind Ramburn from the Parmessur team, during a training session in the lab of the Biotechnology department of the MSIRI. (c) Ulrich Lutz A collaborative effort between Dr. Ulrich Lutz from the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen and Dr. Yogesh Parmessur from the Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute (MSIRI) has led to a significant breakthrough in combating herbicide-resistant weeds that are…
An international team of researchers has embedded gold nanorods in hydrogels that can be processed through 3D printing to create structures that contract when exposed to light – and expand again when the light is removed. Because this expansion and contraction can be performed repeatedly, the 3D-printed structures can serve as remotely controlled actuators. “We knew that you could 3D print hydrogels that would contract when heated,” says Joe Tracy, co-corresponding author of a paper on the work and a…
A new study by Prof Dr Guy Fournier and his team shows pioneering developments in European mobility. Even the coronavirus pandemic could not stop this ambitious project. What began as ‘AVENUE’ (Autonomous Vehicles to Evolve to a New Urban Experience) has developed into a milestone for the future of European mobility. Guy Fournier and his team, together with numerous European partners, have presented a comprehensive report outlining the results of the AVENUE project and the transition to the follow-up project…
Successful surgery for a rare congenital heart disease “scimitar syndrome”. Scimitar syndrome, a rare congenital heart disease, involves an anomalous pulmonary venous return where the right pulmonary veins return to the inferior vena cava instead of the left atrium. It is mainly diagnosed in infants, with an estimated prevalence of 1–3 per 100,000 births. Delayed treatment can lead to pulmonary hypertension, right heart failure, respiratory failure, heart arrhythmia, and growth disorders. This syndrome is characterized by anomalous pulmonary venous drainage…
Globally, around 2.6 million children and adolescents are currently living with HIV, the majority of them in Africa. These young people are much more likely to experience treatment failure than adults. Experts long assumed that testing for viral drug resistance could improve treatment in cases where treatment has failed. However, a research team led by the University of Basel now shows that it is much more important to support the patients in taking their medication regularly. The fight against HIV…
OHSU-led research uses innovative vaccine platform to target interior of virus; scientists validate theory using 1918 flu virus. New research led by Oregon Health & Science University reveals a promising approach to developing a universal influenza vaccine — a so-called “one and done” vaccine that confers lifetime immunity against an evolving virus. The study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, tested an OHSU-developed vaccine platform against the virus considered most likely to trigger the next pandemic. Researchers reported the…
How can a chatbot support students in lectures and with assigned exercises? Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed the chatbot Iris, which offers informatics students personalized assistance with programming assignments. A study has now confirmed the chatbot’s success: Iris improves the understanding of programming concepts and represents a valuable complement to human tutors. A packed auditorium with over 1000 students. This is not a rare sight in introductory informatics lectures. To meet the needs of each…
New insights into protein factories in human mitochondria. The “power plants” of living cells, the mitochondria, probably evolved through endosymbiosis: A bacterium migrated into a primordial cell and eventually developed into an organelle that provides the cell with energy, among other things. Mitochondria produce some of the proteins they need themselves – with the help of special protein factories called mitoribosomes, which consist of RNA and proteins. Researchers in Göttingen have now provided a roadmap for how cells assemble human…
Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, have evidence of oceans beneath their ice crusts. A NASA experiment suggests that if these oceans support life, signatures of that life in the form of organic molecules (e.g. amino acids, nucleic acids, etc.) could survive just under the surface ice despite the harsh radiation on these worlds. If robotic landers are sent to these moons to look for life signs, they would not have to dig very deep…
A distinct signaling pathway called TNF-α drives the transformation of epithelial cells into aggressive tumor cells. During cancer progression, cells activate their own TNF-α program and become invasive. This finding could help to improve early detection and treatment of patients with cancers in skin, esophagus, bladder or colon, as UZH researchers state. How does a normal cell in the body develop into an aggressive cancer cell? According to the central tumor model, cancer develops in an evolutionary process. When randomly…
TU Wien (Vienna) has patented a completely new method of dampening vibrations. This is an important step for precision devices such as high-performance astronomical telescopes. When everything shakes, precision is usually impossible – everybody who has ever tried to take a photo with shaky hands or make handwritten notes on a bumpy bus journey knows that. With technical precision measurements, even much smaller vibrations are a major problem, for example with high-performance microscopes or precisely aligned telescope mirrors. Even the…
A collaboration yields a powerful combination of high-throughput computation and precise fabrication techniques to accelerate the discovery of quantum defects. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and several collaborating institutions have successfully demonstrated an innovative approach to find breakthrough materials for quantum applications. The approach uses rapid computing methods to predict the properties of hundreds of materials, identifying short lists of the most promising ones. Then, precise fabrication methods are used to make the…
Cheap, available drug could help reduce impact of snakebites worldwide. Scientists at the University of Sydney and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have made a remarkable discovery: a commonly used blood thinner, heparin, can be repurposed as an inexpensive antidote for cobra venom. Cobras kill thousands of people a year worldwide and perhaps a hundred thousand more are seriously maimed by necrosis – the death of body tissue and cells – caused by the venom, which can lead to amputation….
Researchers have developed soft, stretchable ‘jelly batteries’ that could be used for wearable devices or soft robotics, or even implanted in the brain to deliver drugs or treat conditions such as epilepsy. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, took their inspiration from electric eels, which stun their prey with modified muscle cells called electrocytes. Like electrocytes, the jelly-like materials developed by the Cambridge researchers have a layered structure, like sticky Lego, that makes them capable of delivering an electric…
… to improve their longevity. Borrowing methods from biological imaging, Rochester engineers have developed a way to spot tiny, overheated components that cause electronics’ performance to degrade. When electronic devices like laptops or smartphones overheat, they are fundamentally suffering from a nanoscale heat transfer problem. Pinpointing the source of that problem can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. “The building blocks of our modern electronics are transistors with nanoscale features, so to understand which parts of…
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