Utrecht geologist unexpectedly finds remnants of a lost mega-plate. Utrecht University geologist Suzanna van de Lagemaat has reconstructed a massive and previously unknown tectonic plate that was once one-quarter the size of the Pacific Ocean. Her colleagues in Utrecht had predicted its existence over 10 years ago based on fragments of old tectonic plates found deep in the Earth’s mantle. Van de Lagemaat reconstructed lost plates through field research and detailed investigations of the mountain belts of Japan, Borneo, the…
A new model demonstrates that chasing interactions can induce dynamical patterns in the organization of bacterial species. Structural patterns can be created due to the chasing interactions between two bacterial species. In a new model, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) describe how interactions on the individual level can result in a global self-organization of species. Their findings provide insights into general mechanisms of collective behavior. In a recent study, scientists from the department Living…
ESA’s Gaia provides many new and improved insights into our galaxy and beyond with the release of five new data products. Among other findings, the mission reveals half a million new and faint stars in a massive cluster. The new Gaia stars revealed in Omega Centauri live in one of the most crowded regions in the sky. Gaia’s third data release contained data on over 1.8 billion stars, building a pretty complete view of the Milky Way and beyond. However,…
Theoretical physicists at PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence present new comprehensive lattice calculations. A group of theoretical physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has once again succeeded in significantly improving their calculations of the electric charge radius of the proton published in 2021. For the first time they obtained a sufficiently precise result completely without the use of experimental data. With respect to the size of the proton, these new calculations also favor the smaller value. Concurrently, the physicists for…
Ideas for Green Electronics Manufacturing… The largest German-speaking congress in the field of electronics and microsystems will be held in Dresden from October 23 – 25, 2023. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary, sustainability and technology sovereignty in particular will be presented in exhibits and conference contributions. Fraunhofer IZM will be presenting possible solutions for resource-efficient microsystems at the joint booth of the Forschungsfabrik Mikroelektronik (FMD) on level 5, booth 14. The globally increasing demand for semiconductors shows how…
– another step towards commercialization on a wider scale. Perovskite-based solar cells, widely considered as successors to the currently dominant silicon cells, due to their simple and cost-effective production process combined with their excellent performance, are now the subject of in-depth research. A team of scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy ISE and the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw presented perovskite photovoltaic cells with significantly improved optoelectronic properties in the journal Advanced Materials and Interfaces….
Turning plastic waste into versatile building blocks for organic chemistry. Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a new chemical process which upcycles polyesters, including PET in plastic bottles, to morpholine amide, a versatile and valuable building block for synthesizing a vast range of compounds. The reaction is high yield, waste-free, does not require harmful chemicals, and is easily scalable. The team successfully break the often costly closed-loop recycling loop of plastic waste, allowing upcycling to more valuable products. Recycling…
… raises concerns. Study finds nearly twice the amount of nitrogen is entering the Reef from groundwater compared to river waters. Scientists using natural tracers off Queensland’s coast have discovered the source of previously unquantified nitrogen and phosphorous having a profound environmental impact on the Great Barrier Reef. The findings, published today in Environmental Science and Technology, indicate current efforts to preserve and restore the health of the Reef may require a new perspective. Composite showing pristine coral alongside eutropohied…
The midbody’s involvement in cell signaling and stimulating cell proliferation has been investigated before, but UW researchers wanted to look inside the midbody remnants to learn more. Once thought to be the trash can of the cell, a little bubble of cellular stuff called the midbody remnant is actually packing working genetic material with the power to change the fate of other cells — including turning them into cancer. It’s a surprise to many people, according to Ahna Skop, a…
The research group of Dr Claudia Keller Valsecchi (Institute of Molecular Biology, Mainz, Germany) and their collaborators have discovered the master regulator responsible for balancing the expression of X chromosome genes between males and females in the malaria mosquito. This discovery helps scientists to better understand the evolution of the epigenetic mechanisms responsible for equalising gene expression between the sexes. The findings may contribute to the development of new ways to prevent the spread of malaria. Most people would agree…
Presidents lay foundation for new lab building on Cabo Verde. The international Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory (CVAO) is being further expanded: The President of the Republic of Cabo Verde José Maria Neves and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier laid the foundation for a new laboratory building on São Vicente, one of the Cape Verde Islands off Africa, on Thursday. The island in the tropical Atlantic has become an international focal point of climate research in recent years. The atmospheric observatory has…
New publication: Researchers simulate past ocean conditions in flume-tank experiments. Ocean currents determine the structure of the deep-sea ocean floor and the transport of sediments, organic carbon, nutrients and pollutants. In flume-tank experiments, researchers from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen have simulated how currents shape the seafloor and control sediment deposition. This will help in reconstructions of past marine conditions. They have now published their results in the Nature journal Communications Earth &…
Astronomers have gotten very good at spotting the signs of planet formation around stars. But for a complete understanding of planet formation, we also need to study examples where planet formation has not yet started. Looking for something and not finding it can be even more difficult than finding it sometimes, but new detailed observations of the young star DG Taurus show that it has a smooth protoplanetary disk without signs of planet formation. This successful non-detection of planet formation…
A team of scientists at the QOT Centre for Quantum Optical Technologies, including a student from the Faculty of Physics (University of Warsaw), made a device capable of the conversion of quantum information between microwave and optical photons. The results of research, published in “Nature Photonics” magazine, highlight a new microwave detection method with possible applications in quantum technologies, as a part of quantum network infrastructure, and in microwave radio-astronomy. Conversion of quantum information Whenever you listen to a song…
H.E.S.S. observatory records 20 tera-electronvolts photons from the Vela pulsar. Scientists using the H.E.S.S. observatory in Namibia have detected the highest energy gamma rays ever from a dead star called a pulsar. The energy of these gamma rays clocked in at 20 tera-electronvolts, or about ten trillion times the energy of visible light. This observation is hard to reconcile with the theory of the production of such pulsed gamma rays, as the international team reports in the journal Nature Astronomy….
Defects can make a material stronger or make it fail catastrophically; Knowing how fast they travel can help researchers understand things like earthquake ruptures, structural failures and precision manufacturing. Settling a half century of debate, researchers have discovered that tiny linear defects can propagate through a material faster than sound waves do. These linear defects, or dislocations, are what give metals their strength and workability, but they can also make materials fail catastrophically – which is what happens every time…
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