In order to support nature and social projects, the artist Bruno Wilbert, who has been living in Madeira for 5 years, is making a large number of his objects available free of charge for the realisation of international campaigns in favour of selected nature and social projects. As part of his MAXIMINIMALISMUS series, Bruno Wilbert created the compact sculptures entitled TOGETHERNESS a few months ago – the hand-sanded and oiled sculptures with embossed monograms are made of high-quality eucalyptus wood…
Astrophysicists were able to quantify the mass loss of stars via their stellar winds. An international research team led by a researcher from the University of Vienna has for the first time directly detected stellar winds from three Sun-like stars by recording the X-ray emission from their astrospheres, and placed constraints on the mass loss rate of the stars via their stellar winds. The study is currently published in Nature Astronomy. Astrospheres, stellar analogues of the heliosphere that surrounds our…
The meeting point of the stomach and esophagus, the so-called gastro-esophageal junction, is a region of the human body that is not well-suited to the modern lifestyle. Stress, alcohol, nicotine and severe obesity are often triggers for pathological changes to the mucosal membrane in this area, often resulting in esophageal cancer. An international research team has now gained new insights into the development of the cells, their communication with each other, and their regulation at the junction of the esophagus…
How hidden emptiness can define the usefulness of filtration materials. Voids, or empty spaces, exist within matter at all scales, from the astronomical to the microscopic. In a new study, researchers used high-powered microscopy and mathematical theory to unveil nanoscale voids in three dimensions. This advancement is poised to improve the performance of many materials used in the home and in the chemical, energy and medical industries — particularly in the area of filtration. Magnification of common filters used in…
German-Uzbek cooperation brings researchers together. Researchers from 14 countries will meet in Nukus, Uzbekistan, from April 15-22, 2024 for the second Central Asian Dust Conference. The conference is organized in a hybrid format: Of the more than 80 researchers, around 30 will participate online and discuss more than 50 submitted papers. Nukus is the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan, lies south of the former Aral Sea and is frequently affected by intense dust events. The “Central…
Modern biology textbooks assert that only bacteria can take nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into a form that is usable for life. Plants that fix nitrogen, such as legumes, do so by harboring symbiotic bacteria in root nodules. But a recent discovery upends that rule. In two recent papers, an international team of scientists describe the first known nitrogen-fixing organelle within a eukaryotic cell. The organelle is the fourth example in history of primary endosymbiosis — the process…
Chemists in Dortmund have identified the first inhibitors of the cancer-related RNA-modifier METTL16 and have thus taken a first step towards new therapeutic options. Only recently, a new era in medicine began with the first RNA vaccines. These active substances are modified RNAs that trigger immune responses of the human immune system. Another approach in RNA medicine targets the body’s own RNA and its protein modulators by specifically tailored active substances. Scientists around Peng Wu, research group leader at the…
German-French project aims to manipulate tiny magnets with light. Spintronics is considered a seminal research field in physics. It promises faster electronic components, more delicate sensors, and new approaches for quantum computing. Nevertheless, fundamental questions remain to be answered. Starting in April, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf (HZDR) and the Interdisciplinary Center of Nanoscience of Marseille (CINaM) will be looking for answers to these questions in their joint research project Nano-PLASMAG. The focus is on nanometer-sized, regularly shaped cubes of pure…
Many kidney diseases are manifested by protein in the urine. However, until now it was not possible to determine whether the protein excretion is caused by only a few, but severely damaged, or by many moderately damaged of the millions of small kidney filters, known as glomeruli. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn, in cooperation with mathematicians from the University of Bonn, have developed a new computer method to clarify this question experimentally. The results of their work have now…
New study confirms that even the simplest marine organisms tend to be individualistic. Sport junkie or couch potato? Always on time or often late? The animal kingdom, too, is home to a range of personalities, each with its own lifestyle. In a study just released in the journal PLOS Biology, a team led by Sören Häfker and Kristin Tessmar-Raible from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the University of Vienna report on a…
The optical industry almost completely relies on mechanical processes in its process chains. This, however, could soon change. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen is pushing ahead with digitally controlled laser processes that save both time and costs when aspheres and freeform optics are shaped, polished and their final shape is corrected. Fraunhofer ILT will be presenting the laser-based process chains of the future at the OPTATEC trade fair from May 14 to 16, 2024 in Frankfurt…
Insight into molecular motion on surfaces at the nanoscale. Now, using neutron spectroscopy experiments performed at Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) and advanced theorical models and computer simulations, a team led by Anton Tamtögl, from Graz University of Technology, unveiled the unique movement of triphenylphosphine (PPh3) molecules on graphite surfaces, a behaviour akin to a nanoscopic moonlander. In fact, PPh3 molecules exhibit a remarkable form of motion, rolling and translating in ways that challenge previous understandings. This moonlander-like motion seems to be…
In a recent article published in Nature Communications an international team, led by researchers from the Nanodevices group at CIC nanoGUNE, suceeded in voltage-based magnetization switching and reading of magnetoelectric spin-orbit nanodevices. This study constitutes aproof of principle of these nanodevices, which are the building blocks for magnetoelectric spin-orbit (MESO) logic, opening a new avenue for low-power beyond-CMOS technologies. A pathway for magnetic-field-free, voltage-based switching of magnetism has been proposed using magnetoelectric materials that exhibit more than one of the…
A team of researchers at Nagoya University in Japan has discovered that aldehydes are metabolic byproducts associated with premature aging. Published in Nature Cell Biology, their findings reveal insights into premature aging diseases and potential strategies to combat aging in healthy individuals such as controlling exposure to aldehyde-inducing substances including alcohol, pollution, and smoke. A person’s health can be harmed by aldehydes. However, the group’s findings suggest these detrimental effects also include aging. The team who made this discovery included…
FOXO1 is required for memory in T cells and is associated with more durable clinical responses to CAR T cell therapy. CAR T cell therapy has revolutionized the way certain types of cancer are treated, and the longer those CAR T cells live in a patient’s body, the more effectively they respond to cancer. Now, in a new study, researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Stanford Medicine have found that a protein called FOXO1 improves the survival and…
The potential of quantum technology is huge but is today largely limited to the extremely cold environments of laboratories. Now, researchers at Stockholm University, at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics and at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice have succeeded in demonstrating for the very first time how laser light can induce quantum behavior at room temperature – and make non-magnetic materials magnetic. The breakthrough is expected to pave the way for faster and more energy-efficient computers, information transfer…
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