– New Catalyst Developed at LIKAT. This is the vision: to produce the raw material methanol at the edge of the field or on the farm using renewable energies. In addition to wind or sun, water and CO2 would be needed to produce the raw materials for the green methanol process: Carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2), which react catalytically to form methanol. This is made possible by a new catalyst developed in Rostock. A process based on this completely…
Researchers identify novel risk locus in the genome for ACE inhibitor-induced. Angioedema is a rare but potentially life-threatening adverse reaction to ACE inhibitors. In a joint analysis of eight European study collectives, researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn and the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) for the first time conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) with more than 1,000 affected individuals. They identified a total of three risk loci in the genome….
Future urban air mobility… For the first time, visitors at the 2024 Olympic Games will be able to fly to venues using air taxis. Vertical takeoff aircraft such as drones, multirotors and air taxis will take off from and land on pads known as vertiports. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR are developing an entirely digital sensor network, including a radar sensor, that in the future will be able to closely monitor air…
Max Planck researchers from Dortmund reveal the first-ever detailed structure of the bacterial toxin Mcf1. Insect-killing bacteria typically release toxins to slay their hosts. The bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens, for example, pumps insect larvae full of the lethal ‘Makes caterpillars floppy 1’ (Mcf1) toxin, leading them to first become droopy and then dead. However, it has so far been a mystery how Mcf1 unfolds its devastating effect. Researchers led by Stefan Raunser, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology…
The German eROSITA consortium, which includes researchers from Universität Hamburg, today published the data from its part in the first all-sky survey with the eROSITA soft X-ray imaging telescope on board the Spectrum-RG satellite. The first eROSITA all-sky survey catalog (eRASS1) is the largest X-ray catalog ever published with around 900,000 different sources. Along with the data, the consortium released today a series of scientific papers describing new results ranging from studies of the habitability of planets to the discovery…
Weather and Climate Model ICON published under Open Source License. The scientific and research community in Germany and Switzerland is setting a milestone in climate and weather research: Since January 31, 2024, the renowned climate and weather model ICON has been made available to the public under an open source license. This groundbreaking step contributes to making science and scientific services more transparent. At the same time, it enables further scientific progress in an area from which society can particularly…
The popular Winter School on Planetary Geologic Mapping, co-organized by Constructor University, returned to Constructor for its fourth installment, taking place January 22–26, 2024. Around 600 students and young scientists from around the world participated in the program. Together with Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Dr. Angelo Pio Rossi and his team, attendees focused on the planetary mapping of Venus, Icy Satellites and Small Bodies, supporting current and future planetary missions. As one of the centers for planetary geologic…
To rapidly transmit electrical signals in the brain, the long nerve fibers are insulated by specialized cells called oligodendrocytes. These cells also respond to the electrical signals of active nerve fibers and provide them with energy on demand, as UZH researchers have discovered. If this process, regulated by potassium, is disabled in mice, the nerve fibers are severely damaged as the animals age – resembling the defects of neurodegenerative diseases. Brain function depends on the swift movement of electrical signals…
Photovoltaic (PV) modules based on perovskite silicon tandem solar cells have the potential to achieve significantly higher efficiencies than today’s standard silicon PV modules. A research team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has now produced a PV module using perovskite silicon tandem solar cells from Oxford PV. With an efficiency of 25 percent and an output of 421 watts on an area of 1.68 square meters, it is the world’s most efficient silicon perovskite tandem solar…
Int. research team demonstrates robust light propagation in open systems. An int. cooperation of physicists from the University of Rostock, the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, the Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg and the Indiana University Indianapolis (IUPUI) have shown for the first time that light can propagate without any loss in systems that interact with their environment. Previously, it was assumed that such open systems inevitably would exhibit exponential amplification or damping of light and thus lead to the instability of…
Whether we stay healthy or become seriously ill is determined by our genes. But also, the folding of our genome has a significant influence on this, as the 3D genome organization regulates which genes are switched on and off. Researchers led by Marieke Oudelaar and Elisa Oberbeckmann at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences have now succeeded in recreating the 3D folding of the yeast genome in the laboratory and deciphering the underlying mechanisms. Our body consists of…
A lot of waste is generated in the trade fair and event industry. It makes sense to have furniture that can quickly be dismantled and stored to save space – or simply disposed of and recycled. Paper is the ideal raw material here: locally available and renewable. It also has an established recycling process. The German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research (DITF) and their project partners have jointly developed a recycling-friendly modular system for trade fair furniture. The “PapierEvents”…
…with integrated sensor function. With their high chemical and thermal resistance, metal cushions are a sensible alternative to elastomer components. The elasticity and damping of the wire mesh is based on the interaction of individual wire segments during deformation. Researchers at Fraunhofer LBF have harnessed this effect in the form of a new sensor concept. The new sensor technology can be integrated into existing systems in a cost-effective and space-neutral manner and directly detects vibrations and loads. Processes and bearing…
Research team presents heavyweight champion. Superconductivity is known for more than hundred years and is well understood for so-called conventional superconductors. More recent, however, are unconventional superconductors, for which it is unclear yet how they work. A team from HZDR, together with colleagues from CEA, the Tohoku University in Japan, and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, has now gained new insights. They could explain why a new material remains superconducting even at extremely high magnetic fields…
…unveils high-performance ceramics for extreme environments. Research team identifies hundreds of representatives of a particularly heat-resistant class of materials. An international research team has developed a method for rapidly discovering new types of materials that function at extremely high temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius. These high-performance ceramics could one day form the basis for more robust coatings, batteries and radiation-resistant devices. Dr. Rico Friedrich, research group leader at Dresden University of Technology (TUD) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), made…
Black gold and solar light’s renaissance. In a significant breakthrough, Prof. Polshettiwar’s group at TIFR, Mumbai have developed a novel “Plasmonic Reduction Catalyst Stable in Air,” defying the common instability of reduction catalysts in the presence of air. The catalyst merges platinum-doped ruthenium clusters, with ‘plasmonic black gold’. This black gold efficiently harvests visible light and generates numerous hot spots due to plasmonic coupling, enhancing its catalytic performance. What sets this catalyst apart is its remarkable performance in the semi-hydrogenation…
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