– the role of long-chain fatty acids in cellular respiration. Cellular respiration is a complex and highly regulated process that allows cells to draw energy from nutrition. An international team of scientists in Finland, Germany and Poland have investigated the important role of long-chain fatty acids in guiding this process. The findings, published in the Nature Communications journal, will shed light on the understanding of mitochondrial function that involve disruptions in cellular energy metabolism. They are tiny and highly efficient…
SivaS research project: Driver assistance systems and automated driving functions have great potential to improve road safety. Already today, a large number of systems are available in modern motor vehicles that support drivers in driving continuously or in emergency situations. However, there are currently no harmonised European-wide regulations for assessing the safety of highly and fully automated driving functions in the type test, in the regular general inspection and during vehicle operation. On the basis of such an assessment, a…
New research, using ultracold atoms, reveals particular properties of quantum systems. A team of physicists has illuminated certain properties of quantum systems by observing how their fluctuations spread over time. The research offers an intricate understanding of a complex phenomenon that is foundational to quantum computing—a method that can perform certain calculations significantly more efficiently than conventional computing. “In an era of quantum computing it’s vital to generate a precise characterization of the systems we are building,” explains Dries Sels,…
Even if you are not a quantum physicist, you will most likely have heard of Schrödinger’s famous cat. Erwin Schrödinger came up with the feline that can be alive and dead at the same time in a thought experiment in 1935. The obvious contradiction – after all, in everyday life we only ever see cats that are either alive or dead – has prompted scientists to try to realize analogous situations in the laboratory. So far, they have managed to…
– of any size or shape. Researchers have developed next-generation smart textiles – incorporating LEDs, sensors, energy harvesting, and storage – that can be produced inexpensively, in any shape or size, using the same machines used to make the clothing we wear every day. The international team, led by the University of Cambridge, have previously demonstrated that woven displays can be made at large sizes, but these earlier examples were made using specialised manual laboratory equipment. Other smart textiles can…
Human-like intelligence could be physical. An international team led by scientists at the University of Sydney has demonstrated nanowire networks can exhibit both short- and long-term memory like the human brain. The research has been published today in the journal Science Advances, led by Dr Alon Loeffler, who received his PhD in the School of Physics, with collaborators in Japan. “In this research we found higher-order cognitive function, which we normally associate with the human brain, can be emulated in…
Using an ultrafast laser direct writing method, researchers arrange 3D voxels in glass to precisely direct light for various applications. Modern-day technologies like optical computing, integrated photonics, and digital holography require light signals to be manipulated in three dimensions. To achieve this, it is necessary to be able to shape and guide the flow of light according to its desired application. Given that light flow within a medium is governed by the refractive index, specific tailoring of the refractive index…
Simulations with a machine learning model predict a new phase of solid hydrogen. Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is found everywhere from the dust filling most of outer space to the cores of stars to many substances here on Earth. This would be reason enough to study hydrogen, but its individual atoms are also the simplest of any element with just one proton and one electron. For David Ceperley, a professor of physics at the University of…
Unique smart fabric is the first to change both colour and shape in response to two different stimuli. A new smart material developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo is activated by both heat and electricity, making it the first ever to respond to two different stimuli. The unique design paves the way for a wide variety of potential applications, including clothing that warms up while you walk from the car to the office in winter and vehicle bumpers…
Max Planck and Harvard research teams develop DeMAG, a new method shared as an open-source web server (demag.org) to help interpret mutations in disease genes and improve clinical decision-making. Despite the increasing use of genomic sequencing in clinical practice, interpreting rare genetic mutations, even among well-studied disease genes, remains difficult. Current predictive models are useful for interpreting those mutations, but they are prone to misclassify those that do not cause diseases, contributing to false positives. Researchers from the Max Planck…
Fast and effective: The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT has developed a new hybrid process called Simultaneous Machining and Coating (SMaC), which combines laser material deposition with turning, grinding or milling. SMaC allows high-strength coating materials to be applied quickly and efficiently and machined simultaneously. SMaC will enable the industry to produce components with an extended service life and extended operating cycles, an advantage that is highly attractive for the energy industry, the mobility sector and the chemical industry….
The alga Melosira arctica, which grows under Arctic sea ice, contains ten times as many microplastic particles as the surrounding seawater. This concentration at the base of the food web poses a threat to creatures that feed on the algae at the sea surface. Clumps of dead algae also transport the plastic with its pollutants particularly quickly into the deep sea – and can thus explain the high microplastic concentrations in the sediment there. Researchers led by the Alfred Wegener…
New way to entangle high-dimensional quantum systems. Recently quantum computers started to work with more than just the zeros and ones we know from classical computers. Now a team at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, demonstrates a way to efficiently create entanglement of such high-dimensional systems to enable more powerful calculations. In the world of computing, we typically think of information as being stored as ones and zeros – also known as binary encoding. However, in our daily life we…
Built to bounce back… Search and rescue efforts following disasters like the massive earthquakes in Turkey and Syria are a race against time. Emergency response teams need to quickly identify voids or spaces in building rubble where survivors might be trapped, and before natural gas leaks, water main flooding or shifting concrete slabs take their toll. Advanced technology plays a vital role in these recovery operations. Thermal imaging equipment and sensitive listening devices are deployed to seek out signs of…
Car2Car project develops technologies for an optimized recycling of end-of-life vehicles. In the Car2Car project, recyclers and scientists addresses the challenges of closing material loops. The focus lies on increasing the quality of the secondary raw materials from end-of-life vehicles by means of innovative dismantling and automated, accurate detection and processing solutions. The Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, an institute of the HZDR, contributes its expertise in material recognition using spectroscopy-based sensor technology together with efficient data processing solutions….
BMBF Project “MaSSiF” Explores Innovative Battery Concept. A new generation of lithium-sulfur batteries is the focus of the research project “MaSSiF – Material Innovations for Solid-State Sulfur-Silicon Batteries”. The project team dedicates itself to the design, construction and evaluation of lightweight and low-cost sulfur-based prototype cells with high storage capacities. Thanks to high storage capacities and low material costs, the sulfur-based concept potentially enables the construction of very lightweight and cost-effective batteries. Applying silicon as the anode material is also…
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