In a study, researchers found a clear link between pupil response and loss of pleasure. This discovery contributes to a better understanding of the physiological mechanisms behind depression. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry measured the pupillary reaction of participants while they were solving a task. In healthy participants, the pupils dilated during the task in anticipation of a reward, but this reaction was less pronounced in participants with depression: “The reduced pupil reaction was particularly noticeable in…
Preclinical findings reported in the journal Cell could lead to a new type of immunotherapy. According to preclinical research published online on Jan. 10 in Cell, one of the world’s premier scientific journals, researchers with City of Hope, one of the largest cancer treatment and research organizations in the United States, have discovered that a type of immune cell in the human body known to be important for allergy and other immune responses can also attack cancer. Furthermore, these cells, called…
Astronomers analyzing 13 years of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have found an unexpected and as yet unexplained feature outside of our galaxy. “It is a completely serendipitous discovery,” said Alexander Kashlinsky, a cosmologist at the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, who presented the research at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans. “We found a much stronger signal, and in a different part of the sky, than the one we were looking for.” Intriguingly, the…
Processing materials on the nanoscale, producing prototypes for microelectronics or analyzing biological samples: The range of applications for finely focused ion beams is huge. Experts from the EU collaboration FIT4NANO have now reviewed the many options and developed a roadmap for the future. The article, published in “Applied Physics Review” (DOI: 10.1063/5.0162597), is aimed at students, users from industry and science as well as research policy makers. “We realized that focused ion beams can be used in many different ways,…
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a neural implant that provides information about activity deep inside the brain while sitting on its surface. The implant is made up of a thin, transparent and flexible polymer strip that is packed with a dense array of graphene electrodes. The technology, tested in transgenic mice, brings the researchers a step closer to building a minimally invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) that provides high-resolution data about deep neural activity by using…
Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, Month Day, Year – Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have unveiled a roadmap for bringing perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells to market, paving the way for a future powered by abundant, inexpensive clean energy in Saudi Arabia and the world. The authors of the article, published in esteemed journal Science, include Prof. Stefaan De Wolf and his research team at the KAUST Solar Center. The team is working on improving solar efficiency to…
When light goes through a material, it often behaves in unpredictable ways. This phenomenon is the subject of an entire field of study called “nonlinear optics”, which is now integral to technological and scientific advances from laser development and optical frequency metrology, to gravitational wave astronomy and quantum information science. In addition, recent years have seen nonlinear optics applied in optical signal processing, telecommunications, sensing, spectroscopy, light detection and ranging. All these applications involve the miniaturization of devices that manipulate…
Current study reveals how machine learning, data integration and AI contribute to better strategies in the fight against pathogens. To combat viruses, bacteria and other pathogens, synthetic biology offers new technological approaches whose performance is being validated in experiments. Researchers from the Würzburg Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research and the Helmholtz AI Cooperative applied data integration and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a machine learning approach that can predict the efficacy of CRISPR technologies more accurately than before. The…
Once upon a cosmic time, scientists assumed that stars apply an eternal magnetic brake, causing an endless slowdown of their rotation. With new observations and sophisticated methods, they now peeked into a star’s magnetic secrets and found it isn’t what they expected. The cosmic hotspots for finding alien neighbors might be around stars hitting their midlife crisis and beyond. This groundbreaking study, shedding light on magnetic phenomena and habitable environments, has been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. In 1995,…
BMBF Funds “FB2-SiSuFest” to Evaluate Novel Storage Material. Novel storage material for solid-state batteries is the focus of the project “FB2-SiSuFest – Evaluation of silicon anodes in sulfide solid-state batteries”. As a promising anode material, silicon nitride-based particles could enable a high storage capacity with stable and safe operation. The research alliance of renowned partners has received funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) amounting to 1.7 million euros as part of the “Clusters Go Industry” funding…
Controllable light pulse pairs from a single fibre laser. In an innovative approach to controlling ultrashort laser flashes, researchers from the Universities of Bayreuth and Konstanz are using soliton physics and two pulse combs within a single laser. The method has the potential to drastically speed up and simplify laser applications. The results of the research have now been published in Science Advances. What for? The timing in the sequence of ultrashort laser pulses is crucial for a wide range…
Beta Pictoris, a young planetary system located just 63 light-years away, continues to intrigue scientists even after decades of in-depth study. It possesses the first dust disk imaged around another star — a disk of debris produced by collisions between asteroids, comets, and planetesimals. Observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope revealed a second debris disk in this system, inclined with respect to the outer disk, which was seen first. Now, a team of astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope…
Imagine a world where manufacturing becomes smarter, more efficient, and remarkably innovative. It’s no longer just a vision; it’s a reality with the unveiling of the groundbreaking “SeConRob“ project (Self-configuring Multi-Step Robotic Workflows). This exciting initiative, supported by Horizon Europe, is set to transform the manufacturing landscape from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2026, with a budget of €2,992,178. We are delighted to introduce you to the key players behind this innovation – PROFACTOR GmbH (Austria), Safe Metal (France),…
The world’s first prototype for real-time tracking of moving tumors using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during proton therapy goes into scientific application. On January 9th, 2024, a scientific prototype for MRI-guided proton therapy was inaugurated in Dresden. With this installation, experts from the fields of medicine, medical physics, biology and engineering are embarking on the scientific testing of a new form of radiotherapy for treating cancer. For the first time globally, a full-body MRI device for real-time imaging is combined…
The widely used dry-cleaning and degreasing solvent perc can be converted to useful chemicals by a new clean, safe and inexpensive procedure. The Kobe University discovery using on-demand UV activation may open the path to upcycling perc and thus contribute to a more sustainable society. Organic synthesis is the production of useful chemicals, such as drugs, from other available chemicals. In general, chemists use source materials to create simple building blocks, such as carbonate esters, and combine them to increasingly…
Professor Gernot Friedrichs from Kiel University has developed a new approach for making interfering signals in laser absorption spectroscopy invisible. Laser-based absorption spectroscopy is an important method for determining the concentration of gas components in a sample. Modern devices are highly specialised for detecting very specific gases, such as trace gases in the atmosphere, in combustion exhaust fumes and in technical applications of plasmas. In order to do so, they measure the proportion of light of a specific wavelength that…
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