More than 30 previously unknown RNA viruses in sea lice have been identified by University of British Columbia (UBC) researchers. Sea lice are parasitic copepods (small crustaceans) found in many fresh and saltwater habitats, and have been implicated in the decline of wild salmon populations. The research sheds greater light on the types of viruses being carried by sea lice, and how the viruses and host are interacting. “We found many more types of viruses than are known in sea…
– Nature’s secret for holding it together. An obscure aquatic plant has helped to explain how plants avoid cracking up under the stresses and strains of growth. The finding by researchers Dr Robert Kelly-Bellow and Karen Lee in the group of Professor Enrico Coen at the John Innes Centre, started with a curious observation in a dwarf mutant of the carnivorous plant Utricularia gibba. The stems of this floating plant are filled with airspaces and this hollowness means that the…
… aided by deep learning and holographic imaging, can help accelerate vaccine and drug development. In a new paper published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team of scientists led by Professor Aydogan Ozcan from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCLA and an associate director of the California NanoSystems Institute, developed a rapid, stain-free, and automated viral plaque detection system enabled by holography and deep learning. This system incorporates a cost-effective and high-throughput holographic imaging device that continuously monitors…
Successfully reducing animal testing: Scientists at the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) are increasingly using cell cultures to draw conclusions about the consequences of climate change. According to animal experimentation statistics, fish are the second most commonly used group of animals in research after mice. They play an important role in aquaculture and also serve as model animals in various research areas. “Applying the 3Rs principle means reducing, refining and replacing animal experiments to improve ethical standards and…
… and lead to low-cost, flexible displays. Low-cost, flexible displays that use very little energy could be a step closer, thanks to an innovation from the University of Surrey that solves a problem that has plagued source-gated transistors (SGT). SGTs are not widely used because current designs have a problem with how their performance changes with temperature. To solve this problem, scientists from the University of Surrey have developed a new design for the transistor part called the source. They…
The discovery of the quantum Hall effects in the 1980’s revealed the existence of novel states of matter called “Laughlin states”, in honor of the American Nobel prize winner who successfully characterized them theoretically. These exotic states specifically emerge in 2D materials, at very low temperature and in the presence of an extremely strong magnetic field. In a Laughlin state, electrons form a peculiar liquid, where each electron dances around its congeners while avoiding them as much as possible. Exciting…
… as the limits of quantum physics are tested on Earth and beyond. Scientists are to build technologies to use and study nanoparticles in space – pushing the limits of quantum technologies. A UK-wide consortium is developing technologies to use nanoparticles as state-of-the-art sensors on small, shoebox-sized satellites known as CubeSats. The Universities of Warwick, Swansea and Strathclyde have been awarded £250k to further research into nanoparticles and quantum physics in the application of space technology. Recent advances in the…
… and immune system. In the quest to find the origin of the puzzling symptoms in four children, researchers from St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute, the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), and the Medical University of Vienna have discovered a completely new disease, linking disruptions of blood formation, the immune system, and inflammation. This groundbreaking discovery provides the basis for a better understanding of similar diseases. It is a milestone that…
Porous media such as concrete represent a spherical packing of different components. The mechanical properties of such mixtures are difficult to calculate due to their discretized nature. A team led by Prof. Holger Steeb (University of Stuttgart) and Prof. Stefan Luding (University of Twente, The Netherlands) has now been able to investigate an unexpected property of mixtures of granular media consisting of soft and stiff spherical particles. They used a combination of ultrasound investigating and X-ray computed tomographic imaging, allowing…
The Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) will showcase laser technology innovations at LASER World of PHOTONICS from June 27 to 30, 2023 in Hall B3 at Booth 210. In focus: highly specialized lasers, laser components, and individual complete solutions for laser material processing. Optical components for innovative applications, the latest developments in laser material processing, and customized system technology for industry: at the world’s leading photonics trade fair in Munich, the LZH will present current developments from photonic research. The…
Ultra-short pulsed (USP) lasers are versatile tools in laser materials processing, but work even more efficiently when the laser pulses are optimally manipulated in space and time. How important this is for the new high-power sources with 300 W and more could be experienced at the “7th UKP Workshop Ultrafast Laser Technology” in Aachen. Visitors could also see how USP lasers make the electrodes of batteries for electric cars or hydrogen systems significantly more efficient. At the end of April,…
A gel that combines both stiffness and toughness is a step forward in the bid to create biodegradable implants for joint injuries, according to new UBC research. Mimicking articular cartilage, found in our knee and hip joints, is challenging. This cartilage is key to smooth joint movement, and damage to it can cause pain, reduce function, and lead to arthritis. One potential solution is to implant artificial scaffolds made of proteins that help the cartilage regenerate itself as the scaffold…
Taking a cue from the structural complexity of trees and bones, Washington State University engineers have created a way to 3D-print two types of steel in the same circular layer using two welding machines. The resulting bimetallic material proved 33% to 42% stronger than either metal alone, thanks in part to pressure caused between the metals as they cool together. The new method uses commonplace, relatively inexpensive tools, so manufacturers and repair shops could use it in the near term. With…
VIT team presents paper at CVPR 2023. A paper by researchers from the Vision and Imaging Technologies (VIT) department of Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) has been accepted at the CVPR 2023 Workshop for Event-based Vision. The world-renowned workshop covers novel event-based cameras and algorithms that are significantly more energy-efficient, light-sensitive, and dynamic than conventional cameras. The paper, “X-maps: Direct Depth Lookup for Event-based Structured Light Systems” examines the use of event-based cameras to minimize latency in mixed reality environments…
The backbone of the internet is formed by a dense network of fibre-optic cables, each of which transports up to more than 100 terabits of data per second (1 terabit = 1012 digital 1/0 signals) between the network nodes. The connections between continents take place via deep sea networks – which is an enormous expense: a single cable across the Atlantic requires an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars. TeleGeography, a specialised consulting firm, announced that there currently are…
Results from ‘golden measurement’ at RHIC’s PHENIX experiment show the spins of gluons align with the spin of the proton they’re in. A new publication by the PHENIX Collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provides definitive evidence that gluon “spins” are aligned in the same direction as the spin of the proton they’re in. The result, just published in Physical Review Letters, provides theorists with new input for calculating how much gluons—the gluelike particles that hold quarks together within protons and neutrons—contribute to…
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