A solar radio burst with a signal pattern, akin to that of a heartbeat, has been pinpointed in the Sun’s atmosphere, according to a new study. In findings published in the journal Nature Communications, an international team of researchers has reported uncovering the source location of a radio signal coming from within a C-class solar flare more than 5,000 kilometers above the Sun’s surface. Researchers say the study’s findings could help scientists better understand the physical processes behind the energy release of solar…
In a chemical reaction, molecules in different substances meet one another to form new molecules causing changes in the bonds of their atoms. The molecules collide at an extremely close distance—a nanometer or less—in an extremely short amount of time. This makes investigating the details of chemical reactions at the molecular scale difficult. Most experimental knowledge, used to explain single-molecule reaction dynamics, was obtained by studying reactions in gases. However, the overwhelming majority of chemical reactions take place in liquids,…
… at the German Antarctic station Neumayer-III. Over the next 12 months, the vertical distribution of aerosol particles and clouds in the atmosphere above the German Neumayer III station of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) will be observed from the ground for the first time. These profile measurements are the first of their kind in Queen Maud Land on the Atlantic sector of Antarctica and thus in an area larger than Greenland. The measuring platform OCEANET-Atmosphere of the Leibniz Institute…
MHH gastroenterologist Dr. Bernd Heinrich is seeking new therapies against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a malignant liver tumor. The German Cancer Aid has awarded him the Max Eder Young Investigator Program for this work and is supporting his research with 800,000 euros. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Although viral hepatitis and heavy alcohol consumption are important risk factors, non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFLD) is now one of the main causes of this form of liver cancer…
Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for the treatment of severe blood cancers is the only medical intervention that has cured two people living with HIV in the past. An international group of physicians and researchers from Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, and the United States has now identified another case in which HIV infection has been shown to be cured in the same way. In a study published this week in Nature Medicine, in which DZIF scientists from Hamburg and Cologne…
Eco-friendly underwater cleaning of ship hulls. The settlement of mussels and algae on ship hulls not only increases the fuel consumption of ships but can also threaten ecosystems. The Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) and partners have now developed a laser process to clean ship hulls underwater. Biofouling is the growth of algae, mussels, and other marine organisms on the hull of a ship. The fouling increases the flow resistance of the ship – and thus increases fuel consumption and…
Thanks to a current study with significant participation of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, the distribution of particulate matter in cities can be calculated more precisely. Within the framework of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the indicator 11.6.2 for capturing exposure to particulate matter in cities can be calculated in greater detail. The advantages are the more precise determination of the indicator and the possibility of uniform application throughout Europe. Using Hamburg as an example, the study shows different…
A wireless technique enables a super-cold quantum computer to send and receive data without generating too much error-causing heat. Heat causes errors in the qubits that are the building blocks of a quantum computer, so quantum systems are typically kept inside refrigerators that keep the temperature just above absolute zero (-459 degrees Fahrenheit). But quantum computers need to communicate with electronics outside the refrigerator, in a room-temperature environment. The metal cables that connect these electronics bring heat into the refrigerator,…
Fine-tuning stimulation doses to deficiencies in patient-specific CAR-T cells, using artificial antigen-presenting scaffolds, enables manufacturing of more potent CAR-T cell products. New adoptive T cell therapies — in which T cells, the immune system’s natural hunters patrolling the body for foreign adversaries, are retrieved from cancer-riddled patients, super-charged and amplified outside the body, and then infused back into the same patient — are changing the prospects of cancer patients. Since 2017, when CAR (chimeric antigen receptor)-T cells were green-lighted as…
CO2 hydrogenation with green hydrogen is one of the best processes to combat climate change and can provide a single solution to three challenging problems, i) excessive CO2 levels, ii) the temporal mismatch between solar electricity production and demand, and iii) hydrogen gas storage. However, the CO2 hydrogenation reaction needs very high temperatures, causing quick deactivation of the catalyst. In this work, researchers at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, asked the question, whether this high-temperature CO2 hydrogenation can be…
… imminent past 1.8℃ planetary warming. A study published in Nature Communications by an international team of scientists shows that an irreversible loss of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, and a corresponding rapid acceleration of sea level rise, may be imminent if global temperature change cannot be stabilized below 1.8°C, relative to the preindustrial levels. Coastal populations worldwide are already bracing for rising seas. However, planning for counter-measures to prevent inundation and other damages has been extremely difficult…
In recent years, researchers have highlighted the presence of sensory receptors in unexpected areas of the human body. In lung tissue, for example, taste receptors cause the airways to relax in the presence of a bitter substance. Sweet taste receptors have been found in the brain, heart, kidneys, bladder, or nasal epithelium. But their function is not always clear. “Studies at Harvard University have shown that sensory cells in the skin can help fight infection when bacteria invade subcutaneous tissue,”…
UNC School of Medicine researchers Jack Griffith, PhD, and Taghreed Al-Turki, PhD, found that telomeres at the tips of chromosomes contain sufficient genetic information to produce two small proteins with potentially potent biological properties. Once thought incapable of encoding proteins due to their simple monotonous repetitions of DNA, tiny telomeres at the tips of our chromosomes seem to hold a potent biological function that’s potentially relevant to our understanding of cancer and aging. Reporting in the Proceedings of the National…
The mystery of the spherical kilonova. When neutron stars collide, they produce an explosion that, contrary to what was believed until recently, is shaped almost like a perfect sphere. Although how this is possible is still a mystery, the discovery may provide a new key to measuring the age of the Universe. The discovery was made by an international collaboration with participation of researchers of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt and led by astrophysicists from the University of…
Scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have used the Swiss X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL and the Swiss Light Source SLS to make a film that could give a decisive boost to developing a new type of drug. They made the advance in the field of so-called photopharmacology, a discipline that develops active substances which can be specifically activated or deactivated with the help of light. The study is being published today in the journal Nature Communications. Photopharmacology is a…
… senses when your voice needs a break. Singers, politicians, teachers, coaches could benefit from new smart technology. Vocal fatigue is a common condition caused by overuse Sensors provide awareness around how much wearers use their voices, with the goal to prevent vocal fatigue and further injury Developed by biomedical engineers and opera singers, the small, soft, flexible, wireless device sits on upper chest to monitor vocal activity in real time Using Bluetooth, data is streamed to an app, where…
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