Plants adapt genetically over time to the special conditions of organic farming. This has been demonstrated in a long-term study conducted at the University of Bonn. The researchers planted barley plants on two neighboring fields and used conventional farming methods on one and organic methods on the other. Over the course of more than 20 years, the organic barley was enriched with specific genetic material that differed from the comparative culture. Among other things, the results demonstrate how important it…
In the RhizoTraits joint project, Bayreuth researchers are looking at old crop varieties, researching root characteristics and investigating whether a mixture of varieties can increase yield stability in the climate crisis. The second phase of the project, which has now started, is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with a total of €1.9 million, around half of which is going to Bayreuth. What for? It is undisputed that droughts and heatwaves are increasing due to the…
Zoom is one of the most popular software products for video conferencing in the world. Every day, it is used by millions of users, trusting that their data is secure and that their conversations cannot be intercepted. So far, this depends on the Zoom servers, which also control group access: They verify if all group members are in possession of the meeting password. Now, there is another way of doing this: CISPA-Faculty Professor Dr. Cas Cremers, his postdoc Mang Zhao,…
Researchers at ETH Zurich have, for the first time, made visible how electrons form vortices in a material at room temperature. Their experiment used a quantum sensing microscope with an extremely high resolution. In brief In graphene, electrons behave like a liquid. This can lead to the formation of vortices. Such electron vortices have now been made visible using a quantum magnetic field sensor with a high spatial resolution. Typically, transport phenomena are more easily detected at low temperatures. Thanks…
Astronomers have proposed a new theory to explain the origin of phosphorus, one of the elements important for life on Earth. The theory suggests a type of stellar explosion known as ONe novae as a major source of phosphorus. After the Big Bang, almost all of the matter in the Universe was comprised of hydrogen. Other elements were formed later, by nuclear reactions inside stars or when stars exploded in events known as novae or supernovae. But there are a…
Recently, a research group led by Prof. JIANG Haihe from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) designed a 6-hole micro-structure anti-resonant air-core fiber (AR-HCF) with a larger core diameter of 78 μm. “This is the first time that 2.79 μm high energy pulsed laser has been transmitted with good efficiency at room temperature,” said Prof. JIANG. The relevant results were published in Optics and Laser Technology. Traditional laser medical instruments often face challenges such as complex structures and low efficiency. The AR-HCF…
The hydrogen atom was once considered the simplest atom in nature, composed of a structureless electron and a structured proton. However, as research progressed, scientists discovered a simpler type of atom, consisting of structureless electrons (e– ), muons (μ– ), or tauons (τ– ) and their equally structureless antiparticles. These atoms are bound together solely by electromagnetic interactions, with simpler structures than hydrogen atoms, providing a new perspective on scientific problems such as quantum mechanics, fundamental symmetry, and gravity. To…
Fifteen years ago, human hands touched NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope for the last time. As astronauts performed finishing tasks on the telescope during its final servicing mission in May 2009, they knew they had successfully concluded one of the most challenging and ambitious series of spacewalks ever conducted. But they couldn’t have known at the time what an impact they had truly made. “I had high hopes that Hubble would last at least five years more, and maybe even a little more…
In recent years, micro-optical projectors have become well established for automotive applications. These projectors enable cars to communicate with their surroundings. Researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF have now developed a dynamic indicator light that guarantees maximum visibility in a compact form, even under daylight conditions. The blinker will be presented for the first time at OPTATEC 2024 in Frankfurt (Main) from May 14 to 16. Principle of a conventional micro-optical projector based on apertures…
Nahid Talebi receives Momentum funding of the Volkswagen Foundation for her research about quantum electrodynamics of photon-electron interactions. Being the pioneer of electron-photon interactions beyond non-recoil approximation, Professor Nahid Talebi and her group “Nanooptics” at Kiel University now set for a series of novel experiments and theoretical modeling that have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of how electron wave packets in electron microscopes interact with mater. Particularly, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, QuSensEM (Quantum Sensitive Measurements with Electron Microscope)…
Prof. Achim Hoerauf, Director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology,Immunology and Parasitology at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), and his team have succeeded in collaborating with the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy at the University of Bonn and the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI), to enter into a partnership with the Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai for the further development of the antibiotic corallopyronin A (CorA) as a treatment for the neglected tropical diseases river blindness and lymphatic filariasis…
A recent study by University Medicine Halle shows how sepsis can lead to dysfunction of vascular smooth muscle cells. The researchers found that elevated lactate levels and acidosis, which can occur acutely during sepsis due to metabolic derailment, only have a disrupting effect in synergistic combination. The study, published in the Journal of Biomedical Science, also provides a possible explanation for why some sepsis survivors experience long-lasting impairments. Treating sepsis poses a major challenge worldwide. Early diagnosis is crucial, as…
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology have discovered a new partnership between a marine diatom and a bacterium that can account for a large share of nitrogen fixation in vast regions of the ocean. The newly-discovered bacterial symbiont is closely related to the nitrogen-fixing Rhizobia which live in partnership with many crop plants and may open up new avenues to engineer nitrogen-fixing plants. Nitrogen is an essential component of all living organisms. It is also the key…
Photon-number distributions of various light sources have been studied extensively. However, little is known about the statistical distribution of electrons emitted under the effect of intense light. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have now discovered extreme and highly unusual statistical events in electron-number distributions obtained when nanometer-sized metal needle tips are illuminated with ultrashort pulses of bright quantum light. Optical setup for the generation of bright squeezed vacuum. ©…
Not all magnets are the same. When we think of magnetism, we often think of magnets that stick to a refrigerator’s door. For these types of magnets, the electronic interactions that give rise to magnetism have been understood for around a century, since the early days of quantum mechanics. But there are many different forms of magnetism in nature, and scientists are still discovering the mechanisms that drive them. Now, physicists from Princeton University have made a major advance in…
A study from the Hackett group at EMBL Rome led to the development of a powerful epigenetic editing technology, which unlocks the ability to precisely program chromatin modifications. Understanding how genes are regulated at the molecular level is a central challenge in modern biology. This complex mechanism is mainly driven by the interaction between proteins called transcription factors, DNA regulatory regions, and epigenetic modifications – chemical alterations that change chromatin structure. The set of epigenetic modifications of a cell’s genome…
Feedback
