Using a new analytical method, Empa researchers have tracked viruses as they pass through face masks and compared their failure on the filter layers of different types of masks. The new method should now accelerate the development of surfaces that can kill viruses, the team writes in the journal Scientific Reports. Using high pressure, the apparatus pushes artificial saliva fluid, colored in red, with test particles through a stretched mask. This is how the researchers simulate the process of a…
Nature in city environs has a positive effect on people’s well-being. At the same time biological diversity in urban areas continues to shrink, for example because of increasing building density. In the “Ecolopes” project, researchers led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are searching for specific solutions which will make it possible to create green infrastructure with a higher degree of biological diversity in urban areas. As a key discipline, architecture has a considerable influence on the built areas…
TU Freiberg explains basics of aerosol formation at the vocal folds. Very small exhaled droplets, so-called aerosol particles, play an important role in the airborne transmission of pathogens such as the corona virus. Researchers in the field of fluid mechanics used a model to investigate how exactly the small droplets are formed in the larynx when speaking or singing. The team now reports its results in the current issue of Physics of Fluids by AIP Publishing. The findings can now…
Modern eukaryotic cells contain numerous so-called organelles, which once used to be independent bacteria. In order to understand how these bacteria were integrated into the cells in the course of evolution and how they are controlled, a research team from the Institute of Microbial Cell Biology at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has examined the single-celled flagellate Angomonas deanei, which contains a bacterium that was taken up relatively recently. In the journal Current Biology, the biologists now describe how certain…
New laser systems lay groundwork for solar-system-wide optical communication so that future space missions can transmit more data. Researchers report new results from the NASA Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration project, which develops and tests new advanced laser sources for deep-space optical communication. The ability to perform free-space optical communication throughout the solar system would go beyond the capabilities of the radio communication systems used now and provide the bandwidth necessary for future space missions to transmit large…
Light! We rely upon it in everyday uses and in various applications. Sunlight, candles, light bulbs, light-emitting diode (LED) lamps, etc. are just a few to name sources which illuminate objects for us to inspect surroundings and investigate the world. Those light sources differ in their properties and structure. Whereas the sunlight is incoherent, laser sources produce the so-called coherent light, i. e. when the light displays not only the same color, but also the same phase. For everyday uses, humans…
… promotes 6G and secure wireless communications. A research team co-led by a scientist at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has developed a novel antenna that allows manipulation of the direction, frequency and amplitude of the radiated beam, and is expected to play an important role in the integration of sensing and communications (ISAC) for 6th-generation (6G) wireless communications. The structure and characteristics of traditional antennas cannot be changed once fabricated. However, the direction, frequency, and amplitude of the…
USC researchers Megan McCain and postdoc Megan Rexius-Hall have engineered a microscale model that can replicate key aspects of myocardial infarction and might one day serve as a testbed for new personalized heart drugs. Researchers at the University of Southern California Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering have developed a “heart attack on a chip,” a device that could one day serve as a testbed to develop new heart drugs and even personalized medicines. “Our device replicates some key features…
Oddball gamma-ray burst forces revision of theoretical framework. A long-duration gamma-ray burst observed in late 2021 revealed signatures typically associated with short-duration bursts, forcing puzzled scientists to create a new model for the origin of this unique burst. The mysteries of the cosmos continue to amaze astronomers, and with each new observation comes a chance to deepen – or upend – our understanding of the universe. In the Dec. 7 issue of the journal Nature, an international team of astrophysicists…
Photonics focuses on the use of light with all its possibilities. From light control to laser technologies and data transmission, photonics is used in many fields such as medicine, industry, astronomy, microscopy or traffic safety. One of the leading research institutes in this field is the Dresden Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS. After two years of corona-related absence, it is now presenting some of its latest developments in the field of area light modulators at the International Laser and…
Unconventional computing combines Brownian computing with reservoir computing / First prototype developed. A large percentage of energy used today is consumed in the form of electrical power for processing and storing data and for running the relevant terminal equipment and devices. According to predictions, the level of energy used for these purposes will increase even further in the future. Innovative concepts, such as neuromorphic computing, employ energy-saving approaches to solve this problem. In a joint project undertaken by experimental and…
… and help COVID-19 patients. Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), together with colleagues from Germany and the UK, have found that a commonly used liver drug also affects infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. It causes the number of ACE-2 receptors on the cells to decrease, which makes it harder for the virus to enter the cells. The researchers were able to demonstrate this in various cultured organoids in the laboratory, as well as in living…
When shopping in the supermarket, consumers must be able to rely on food labels. However, are they always correct? In the joint project QSPEC, the AMO GmbH, the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH), the Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH), the TOPTICA Photonics AG, the AMOtronics UG and the German Institute of Food Technology (DIL) want to develop a new analysis method that uses quantum mechanical effects to test food for its ingredients and origin more cost-effectively. Fraud in the labeling of…
For the first cell to develop into an entire organism, genes, RNA molecules and proteins have to work together in a complex way. At first, this process is indirectly controlled by the mother. At a certain point in time, the protein GRIF-1 ensures that the offspring cut themselves off from this influence and start their own course of development. A research team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) details how this process works in the journal “Science Advances”. When a…
Researchers at Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) developed a new glass fiber design that enables exceptionally long observations of a large number of individual, freely moving nanoparticles in a liquid. This allows the size distribution of nano-objects in a sample to be determined with even higher precision. The scientists are thus laying the foundation for even better research into environmental and bioanalytical issues in the future. Whether water analysis, vaccine production or the examination of biological samples –…
Big egos, lack of staff training and policy enforcement are major barriers to island conservation. Published today in the journal People and Nature, a new study is the first to quantify the day-to-day barriers that conservation workers face as they try to conserve and manage island ecosystems around the world. Island nations are noted for their particularly high-levels of biodiversity and endemic species. However, they are also more vulnerable to biodiversity loss, having already experienced 61% of recent global extinctions….
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