Leipzig scientists publish largest meta-analysis on language processing to date. A new study has provided the first clear picture of where language processes are located in the brain. The findings may be useful in clinical trials involving language recovery after brain injury. Dr Sabrina Turker, Dr Philipp Kuhnke and Professor Gesa Hartwigsen from the Wilhelm Wundt Institute of Psychology at Leipzig University and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences conducted the meta-analysis in collaboration with researchers…
MPI scientists reveal how phosphate escapes from actin filaments – a key signal that primes older filaments for disassembly. Actin filaments are dynamic protein-fibres in the cell built from single actin proteins. Many cellular functions, including cell movement, are regulated by constant filament assembly and disassembly. The disassembly phase is initiated by the release of a phosphate group from inside the filament, but the details of this process have puzzled scientists since decades. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of…
A microbial enzyme inspires electrochemistry. Humans continuously emits greenhouse gases, worsening global warming. For example, carbon dioxide (CO2) accumulates dramatically over the years and is chemically very stable. Yet, some microbes capture CO2 using highly efficient enzymes. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen together with the Universities of Geneva and Radboud isolated one of these enzymes. When the enzyme was electronically branched on an electrode, they observed the conversion of CO2 to formate with perfect…
Sensor Technology with Silicon Carbide for Use in Space. When it comes to particularly low-loss semiconductor components and highly efficient power electronics, there is no way around silicon carbide (SiC) today. The wide-bandgap semiconductor material SiC is superior to conventional silicon in many respects and is conquering more and more new areas of application, for example in optoelectronics, sensor technology or solid-state quantum electronics. Even in space, SiC demonstrates its outstanding physical properties: A SiC UV photodiode from the Berlin-based…
Quantum physics deals with the laws of nature in the atomic and subatomic range. Findings gained from this research have, for example, enabled the development of computer chips, nuclear magnetic resonance tomographs or navigation systems. At the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), Professor Dr. Artur Widera and his research group do research on quantum physics. In a current research paper, they present a quantum motor that cannot be described in the classical sense with thermodynamic principles. The drive is based on…
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have illuminated one of the important ways that cells respond to stress. The findings could also be relevant to Alzheimer’s, ALS and other diseases in which this mechanism may be abnormally active. When stressed by heat, toxins or other potentially damaging factors, cells gather many of their messenger RNAs (mRNAs), molecules that carry the instructions for making proteins, into droplet-like compartments called stress granules. These granules sequester affected mRNAs, preventing them from being translated into…
The behavior of electrons in liquids determines a vast range of chemical processes and thus essential processes in organisms and the world as a whole. But electron movements are extremely hard to capture because they take place within attoseconds: the realm of quintillionths of a second. Since advanced lasers now operate at these timescales, they can offer scientists glimpses of these ultrafast processes via a range of techniques. An international team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the…
A UNIGE team shows that disruptions to the circadian clock increase the risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease. Disturbances in sleep patterns and the internal biological clock are frequently associated with Parkinson’s disease. However, the link between biological rhythm and neuronal degeneration remains unclear. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) investigated the destruction of neurons at different times of the day, using the fruit fly as a study model. The scientists discovered that the type of cellular stress…
Direct conversion of methane (CH4) to high value-added chemicals at room temperature, by directly using abundant and low-cost molecular oxygen (O2) as an oxidant, is an ideal route for CH4 utilization. But it remains a challenge owing to the chemical inertness of methane and low activity of O2. Recently, a research group led by Prof. DENG Dehui and Assoc. Prof. YU Liang from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) realized direct CH4 conversion to C1 oxygenates (CH3OH,…
In a multi-year project, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed plasmonic plastic – a type of composite material with unique optical properties that can be 3D-printed. This research has now resulted in 3D-printed optical hydrogen sensors that could play an important role in the transition to green energy and industry. Interest in plasmonic metal nanoparticles and their many different applications has grown rapidly, developing across a broad spectrum over the past two decades. What makes these…
Scientists reveal the root cause of rechargeable battery breakdown. For decades, researchers have assumed that the inevitable filmy buildup on electrodes inside rechargeable batteries is the driver of performance loss. Now, we know that view is backward. The buildup of mossy or tree-like structured lithium metal deposits on battery electrodes is not the root cause of performance loss, but rather a side effect. The first direct measurement of the electrical properties at the boundary between the solid electrode and the…
… is feasible, safe in people. Sonobiopsies generate genetic, molecular data to inform treatment decisions for brain diseases. The blood-brain barrier, the body’s way of shielding sensitive brain tissue from viruses, toxins and other harmful substances in the blood, can pose a problem for physicians caring for patients with suspected brain diseases such as cancer. Molecular and genetic information would be invaluable for confirming a diagnosis and guiding treatment decisions, but such molecules are normally confined to the brain by…
Continuous monitoring of sweat can reveal valuable information about human health, such as the body’s glucose levels. However, wearable sensors previously developed for this purpose have been lacking, unable to withstand the rigors or achieve the specificity needed for continuous monitoring, according to Penn State researchers. Now, the research team has created a novel wearable patch that may be up to the task. Made with a laser-modified graphene nanocomposite material, the device can detect specific glucose levels in sweat for…
Edges cause cilia to quickly synchronize their beating pattern. Border regions can cause cilia to coordinate their motion creating a unidirectional wave that is essential for biological functions. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) in Göttingen proposed a new model describing this synchronized pattern driven by the border region. What do the crowd at a football stadium, the feet of a centipede, and the inside of your lungs have in common? All of these systems…
Earth observation is like a super detective for our planet. It shows us what’s happening on Earth and even influences our daily lives, for example, through more accurate weather forecasts. As part of the EU-funded SURPRISE project, a team of experts has been investigating how Earth observation satellites can be made smarter, but also safer. Using two breakthrough technologies – spatial light modulators and Compressive Sensing – the project has developed a demonstrator for superspectral Earth observation with improved spatial…
X-ray laser shows possible route to substantially increased precision time measurement. An international research team has taken a decisive step toward a new generation of atomic clocks. At the European XFEL X-ray laser, the researchers have created a much more precise pulse generator based on the element scandium, which enables an accuracy of one second in 300 billion years – that is about a thousand times more precise than the current standard atomic clock based on caesium. The team presents…
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