The Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems publishes for the first time national forest maps of Germany based on current satellite imagery and terrestrial data from the 2012 National Forest Inventory. The Thünen Institute now offers interactive forest maps through the Thünen Atlas (http://atlas.thuenen.de), which provide a nationwide overview of the stocked forest area – i.e. the area on which trees grow – and the dominant tree species. They are not limited to being important sources of information for public authorities,…
Manchester scientists have created a new material, dubbed ‘StarCrete’ which is made from extra-terrestrial dust, potato starch, and a pinch of salt and could be used to build homes on Mars. Building infrastructure in space is currently prohibitively expensive and difficult to achieve. Future space construction will need to rely on simple materials that are easily available to astronauts, StarCrete offers one possible solution. The scientists behind the invention used simulated Martian soil mixed with potato starch and a pinch…
New research could lead to longer-lasting batteries. Whether in an e-car, cell phone, or cordless screwdriver, many devices used on a daily basis now use rechargeable batteries. However, the trend also has its downsides. For example, certain cell phones were banned from being carried on airplanes, or e-cars caught fire. Modern commercial lithium ion batteries are sensitive to mechanical stress. So-called “solid-state batteries” could provide a remedy. These no longer contain a liquid core – the so-called electrolyte – but…
As part of a newly funded NASA Quantum Pathways Institute consisting of a multi-university research team, UC Santa Barbara professor of electrical and computer engineering Daniel Blumenthal will help to build technology and tools to improve measurement of important climate factors by observing atoms in outer space. “We are peering into a universe that we’ve never peered into before,” he said. Led by colleagues at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, Blumenthal and the other researchers will focus on quantum sensing, which involves observing how atoms react to small…
The human immunodeficiency virus HIV-1 is able to infect various tissues in humans. Once inside the cells, the virus integrates its genome into the cellular genome and establishes persistent infections. The role of the structure and organisation of the host genome in HIV-1 infection is not well understood. Using a cell culture model based on brain immune microglia cells, an international research team led by scientists from Heidelberg University Hospital and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) now defined…
Efficient and stable … mRNA-based vaccines have been one of the key elements in the fight against the coronavirus. The technology was originally developed for cancer therapy and can be used to treat many diseases. Together with partners from science and industry, Fraunhofer IPK is now researching how mRNA therapeutics and other medication can be better produced and more effectively applied. A major challenge in using RNA molecules for medical purposes is still that they are very quickly degraded enzymatically….
How can people be prevented from being affected again after a stroke? In order to find new therapeutic approaches for prevention, the international CRESCENDO consortium led by the MHH is conducting research at the molecular level. In Germany, 270,000 people suffer a stroke every year. This can result in severe disabilities: Paralysis, speech disorders and problems walking. Often, it does not remain a one-time event. Many patients experience a recurrence of the stroke and further deterioration of their health. How…
The future of wireless communications is set to take a giant leap with the advent of sixth-generation (6G) wireless technology. A research team at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) invented a groundbreaking tunable terahertz (THz) meta-device that can control the radiation direction and coverage area of THz beams. By rotating its metasurface, the device can promptly direct the 6G signal only to a designated recipient, minimizing power leakage and enhancing privacy. It is expected to provide a highly adjustable,…
The SpaceX Cargo Dragon space shuttle departed from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the International Space Station (ISS) at 2:30 a.m. CET on March 15, 2023. Among others, the shuttle carried an experimental setup that a team of students in the small satellite group KSat e.V. of the University of Stuttgart will use to conduct three experiments. The students were supported by a team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in Aachen, who designed and manufactured…
“Miniature shredders” are at work in each cell, disassembling and recycling cell components that are defective or no longer required. The exact structure of these shredders differs from cell type to cell type, a study by the University of Bonn now shows. For example, cancer cells have a special variant that can supply them particularly effectively with building blocks for their energy metabolism. The results were published online in advance. The final version has now been published in the journal…
Multiple types of beta cells produce insulin in the pancreas, helping to balance blood sugar levels. Losing a particularly productive type of beta cell may contribute to the development of diabetes, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. In the study, published March 16 in Nature Cell Biology, Dr. James Lo, associate professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, and colleagues measured gene expression in individual beta cells collected from mice to determine how many different types…
Underwater waves deep below the ocean’s surface – some as tall as 500 metres – play an important role in how the ocean stores heat and carbon, according to new research. An international team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and the University of California San Diego, quantified the effect of these waves and other forms of underwater turbulence in the Atlantic Ocean and found that their importance is not being accurately reflected in…
Researchers have shown how energy disappears in quantum turbulence, paving the way for a better understanding of turbulence in scales ranging from the microscopic to the planetary. Dr Samuli Autti from Lancaster University is one of the authors of a new study of quantum wave turbulence together with researchers at Aalto University. The team’s findings, published in Nature Physics, demonstrate a new understanding of how wave-like motion transfers energy from macroscopic to microscopic length scales, and their results confirm a theoretical…
Cosmic fireworks, invisible to our eyes, fill the night sky. We can get a glimpse of this elusive light show thanks to the Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which observes the sky in gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. This animation shows the gamma-ray sky’s frenzied activity during a year of observations from February 2022 to February 2023. The pulsing circles represent just a subset of more than 1,500 light curves – records of how…
Researchers create virus-resistant, safely restrained E. coli for medical, industrial applications. In a step forward for genetic engineering and synthetic biology, researchers have modified a strain of Escherichia coli bacteria to be immune to natural viral infections while also minimizing the potential for the bacteria or their modified genes to escape into the wild. The work promises to reduce the threats of viral contamination when harnessing bacteria to produce medicines such as insulin as well as other useful substances, such as biofuels….
When we think of crystals, we think of ice, kitchen salt, quartz, and so on – hard solids whose shapes show a regular pattern. Research performed in the group of UvA-IoP physicist Noushine Shahidzadeh shows that crystals can be quite different: they can be soft and deformable shapes without the familiar facets. The paper where these results were reported was featured as an Editor’s Highlight by the journal Nature Communications. Floppy crystals Crystals are generically hard solids, and are usually…
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