Examining how plates move in Earth’s mantle and how mountains form is no easy feat. Certain rocks that have sunk deep into Earth’s interior and then returned from there can deliver answers. Led by the Department of Geosciences at Goethe University Frankfurt, an international team of geologists has now succeeded in analyzing whiteschist from the Alps so precisely by means of computer modeling that it calls a previous theory about plate movement into question. Geoscientists analyze rocks in mountain belts…
Mature spermatozoa are characterized by an head, midpiece and a long tail for locomotion. Now, researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the Transdisciplinary Research Unit “Life & Health” at the University of Bonn have found that a loss of the structural protein ACTL7B blocks spermatogenesis in male mice. The cells can no longer develop their characteristic shape and remain in a rather round form. The animals are infertile. The results of the study have now been published in…
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a 10 million Euro Synergy Grant to the project “UNIVERSE+: Positive Geometry in Particle Physics and Cosmology” led by a collaborative team with Max Planck directors Johannes Henn from the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich and Bernd Sturmfels from the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences Leipzig. “Our team aims to create a new mathematical language” says Johannes Henn, the coordinating principal investigator of the project. “The goal is…
What are the global impacts of an ice-free Arctic? How will the Arctic develop with increasing climate warming? What does an ice-free Arctic mean for our environment and our society? Researchers want to answer these questions with the “i2B – Into the Blue” project, looking back to the past and forward to the future. This project has now been funded with 12.5 million euros by a Synergy Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for six years. The project’s proposers…
New Quantum Effect Demonstrated for the First Time. For the first time, experimental physicists from the Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat have demonstrated a new quantum effect aptly named the “spinaron.” In a meticulously controlled environment and using an advanced set of instruments, they managed to prove the unusual state a cobalt atom assumes on a copper surface. This revelation challenges the long-held Kondo effect – a theoretical concept developed in the 1960s, and which has been considered the standard…
The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has developed and successfully commissioned the world’s first medium-voltage string inverter for large-scale power plants. By feeding power into the medium-voltage grid, the “MS-LeiKra” project team has demonstrated that PV inverters are technically capable of handling higher voltage levels. The benefits for photovoltaics include enormous cost and resource savings for passive components and cables. The device lays the foundation for a new system concept for the next generation of large-scale PV power…
… might be used as a sustainable source of nitrogen. KIT researchers present new system for activation and catalytic transfer of ammonia – catalysis is based on main group elements. The ammonia molecule (NH3), a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, is one of the most frequently produced chemicals worldwide and it is also used for the production of many other nitrogen-containing compounds. If amines could be produced by the simple addition of ammonia to unsaturated hydrocarbons, this would be a…
Astrophysicists scan the Galaxy for signs of life. Astrophysicists from Trinity College Dublin are scanning the Universe for “technosignatures” emanating from distant planets that would provide support for the existence of intelligent, alien life. Using the Irish LOFAR telescope and its counterpart in Onsala, Sweden, the team – led by Professor Evan Keane, Associate Professor of Radio Astronomy in Trinity’s School of Physics, and Head of the Irish LOFAR Telescope – plans to monitor millions of star systems. Scientists have been…
Meltwater that runs along the east coast of Greenland, hardly enters the open ocean before reaching the western side of the island. That is one of the conclusions NIOZ PhD-candidate Elodie Duyck draws in the thesis she is defending today at Utrecht University. In the changing climate, fresh water from Greenland and the Arctic could disrupt the circulation in the Atlantic Ocean. “Understanding where, and how much, of that fresh and light water enters the Atlantic Ocean is critical to…
… nominated on TIME’s 2023 list of Best Innovations. This is the first time for a prototype stemming from a research center based in Italy to be acknowledged in TIME’s prestigious list. The prototype has been realized by Mario Caironi’s group at IIT in Milano; his research is supported by the ERC. From the research lab to TIME’s 2023 list of Best Innovations, IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) makes a hit with the first ever-made rechargeable edible…
Field test finds carbon stored in soils even in dry climates. Adding crushed volcanic rock to cropland could play a key role in removing carbon from the air. In a field study, scientists at the University of California, Davis, and Cornell University found the technology stored carbon in the soil even during an extreme drought in California. The study was published in the journal Environmental Research Communications. Rain captures carbon dioxide from the air as it falls and reacts with volcanic rock…
… with implications for disease control. Mosquitoes and other insects can carry human diseases such as dengue and Zika virus, but when those insects are infected with certain strains of the bacteria Wolbachia, this bacteria reduces levels of disease in their hosts. Humans currently take advantage of this to control harmful virus populations across the world. New research led at UC Santa Cruz reveals how the bacteria strain Wolbachia pipientis also enhances the fertility of the insects it infects, an…
Innovation Center of NanoMedicine (iCONM; Center Director: Kazunori Kataoka; Location: Kawasaki, Japan) has announced with The University of Tokyo that a group led by Prof. Takanori Ichiki, Research Director of iCONM (Professor, Department of Materials Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo), proposed a new property evaluation method of nanoparticles’ shape anisotropy that solves long-standing issues in nanoparticle evaluation that date back to Einstein’s time. The paper, titled ” Analysis of Brownian motion trajectories of non-spherical nanoparticles using…
Sharks have existed for millions of years, rarely develop cancer, and react sensitively to ecological changes. An international study led by Würzburg scientists shows that one explanation lies in the fish’s genes. Sharks have been populating the oceans for about 400 to 500 million years. While our planet and many of its inhabitants have undergone massive changes several times during this period, this basal group of vertebrates has remained somewhat constant. Their body shape and biology has hardly changed since…
It’s viable to produce low-cost, lightweight solar panels that can generate energy in space, according to new research from the Universities of Surrey and Swansea. The first study of its kind followed a satellite over six years, observing how the panels generated power and weathered solar radiation over 30,000 orbits. The findings could pave the way for commercially viable solar farms in space. Professor Craig Underwood, Emeritus Professor of Spacecraft Engineering at the Surrey Space Centre at the University of…
Team of researchers headed by physicists Prof. Wolfram Pernice and Prof. Martin Salinga and computer specialist Prof. Benjamin Risse, all from the University of Münster, has developed a so-called event-based architecture, using photonic processors. In a similar way to the brain, this makes possible the continuous adaptation of the connections within the neural network. Modern computer models – for example for complex, potent AI applications – push traditional digital computer processes to their limits. New types of computing architecture, which…
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