Free charge carriers in perovskite solar cells likely have a special form of protection from recombination, researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich have discovered by means of innovative photoluminescence measurements. Highly efficient and relatively inexpensive to produce – perovskite solar cells have been the subject of repeated surprises in recent years. Scientists at Forschungszentrum Jülich have now discovered another special feature of the cells using a new photoluminescence measurement technique. They found that the loss of charge carriers in this type of…
DBFZ publishes database on available resources in Germany and the EU. Biogenic waste and residues hold growing potential for a sustainable and bio-based economy. Until now, freely available and systematically processed data was not fully available. In the revised DBFZ resource database, scientists from the DBFZ present comprehensive data on biomass potentials for Germany and the EU. The database provides detailed information on the availability of various biomasses, including biowaste from private households, cereal straw and industrial residues. The web…
… augment infection of lung cells. The virus has rediscovered an entry pathway into lung cells that has been used by earlier variants and that is important for the development of pneumonia. Despite the end of the pandemic, COVID-19 continues to pose a serious health threat. Most individuals have established robust immune protection and do not develop severe disease but the infection can still lead to marked and sometimes long-lasting disease symptoms. In the late summer of 2023 a new…
New study: Microplastic fibers are settling substantially slower than spherical particles in the atmosphere and might even reach stratosphere. How far microplastics travel in the atmosphere depends crucially on particle shape, according to a recent study by scientists at the University of Vienna and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation in Göttingen: While spherical particles settle quickly, microplastic fibers might travel as far as the stratosphere. In the article published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the…
An international research team including a Bayreuth scientist and her research group has investigated the links between extreme drought, biodiversity and production losses on a global scale. With the help of a worldwide experiment at 100 locations on six continents, they have identified Biodiversity in grassland is an effective protection against crop failure during droughts. The study has now been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Grassland and open land cover more than 40% of the Earth’s…
Be fast, avoid light, and roll through a curvy ramp: This is the recipe for a pioneering experiment proposed by theoretical physicists in a recent paper published in Physical Review Letters. An object evolving in a potential created through electrostatic or magnetic forces is expected to rapidly and reliably generate a macroscopic quantum superposition state. The boundary between everyday reality and the quantum world remains unclear. The more massive an object, the more localized it becomes when being made quantum…
Columbia engineers have built a new AI that shatters a long-held belief in forensics–that fingerprints from different fingers of the same person are unique. It turns out they are similar, only we’ve been comparing fingerprints the wrong way! From “Law and Order” to “CSI,” not to mention real life, investigators have used fingerprints as the gold standard for linking criminals to a crime. But if a perpetrator leaves prints from different fingers in two different crime scenes, these scenes are…
Feldspar is very common in rocks. As atmospheric dust, this mineral contributes efficiently to cloud formation. Researchers at TU Wien have now discovered what happens during this process. Feldspar is a ubiquitous mineral and makes up about half of the Earth’s crust. In the Earth’s atmosphere, feldspars play a surprisingly important role. Fine powder carried by air influences cloud formation. Water molecules adhere better to feldspar dust than to other particles. Tiny feldspar grains, floating in the atmosphere, thus become…
Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found a brown dwarf (an object more massive than Jupiter but smaller than a star) with infrared emission from methane, likely due to energy in its upper atmosphere. This is an unexpected discovery because the brown dwarf, W1935, is cold and lacks a host star; therefore, there is no obvious source for the upper atmosphere energy. The team speculates that the methane emission may be due to processes generating aurorae. These findings are being presented at…
At Photonics West 2024 in San Francisco (USA), the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH) will be presenting novel and advanced diode lasers and UV light-emitting diodes (LEDs). FBH will be participating in both the trade fair (January 27 to February 1, 2024) and the accompanying conferences (January 30 to February 1, 2024) with more than 20 scientific talks. At stand 4205-43 in the German Pavilion, the Berlin-based institute will be showcasing its full range of services ¬– from design and chip development to…
Protein identified that increases the formation of good brown fat. Brown fat cells convert energy into heat – a key to eliminating unwanted fat deposits. In addition, they also protect against cardiovascular diseases. Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the Transdisciplinary Research Area “Life & Health” at the University of Bonn have now identified the protein EPAC1 as a new pharmacological target to increase brown fat mass and activity. The long-term aim is to find medicines that support…
Nanowire contacts push the boundaries for high-performance electronics. Space comes at a premium on electronic chips: Powerful electronics need more and more connections, crammed into smaller and smaller spaces. Established technologies are reaching the limits of what is physically possible. Now, researchers at Fraunhofer IZM-ASSID have teamed up with other partners to level up a connection technology patented by NanoWired GmbH that uses wires at a nanometer scale. The team demonstrated how the novel technology could be used in the…
Decisions on treatment for leukemia patients are based, among other things, on a series of certain genetic features of the disease. IT specialists and physicians at the University of Münster have now published a study showing how a method based on artificial intelligence can be used to predict various genetic features on the basis of high-resolution microscopic images of bone marrow smears. The results have been published in the journal “Blood Advances”. Decisions on treatment for patients with acute myeloid…
Lateral force microscopy reveals previously unseen hydrogen atoms. Study published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”. Researchers at the University of Regensburg and the Graz University of Technology have shown that hydrogen atoms at the sides of molecules lying on a surface can directly be seen. The study, published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”, describes that by looking beside the molecules, the position and presence of the previously-hidden hydrogen atoms could…
A combination of only 11 proteins can predict long-term disability outcomes in multiple sclerosis (MS) for different individuals. The identified proteins could be used to tailor treatments to the individual based on the expected severity of the disease. The study, led by researchers at Linköping University in Sweden, has been published in the journal Nature Communications. “A combination of 11 proteins predicted both short and long-term disease activity and disability outcomes. We also concluded that it’s important to measure these…
In collaboration with 12 partners from 6 countries, Jena University Hospital is establishing the Antivirus Pandemic Preparedness EuropeAn pLatform (APPEAL), a European research initiative aimed at enhancing preparedness for future pandemics. This EU funded collaboration will establish a comprehensive program for the development of broad-spectrum antiviral drugs within a five year time frame ensuring drug affordability and accessibility to low income countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the profound impact of the emergence of dangerous viruses. While the World Health…
Feedback
