Fertilization of an egg by sperm is the beginning of new life. The maternal and paternal genetic information, that collectively store the body plan of the living being, are combined after fertilization. However, the DNA is still in an inactive state in the cell nucleus at this early stage of life. While the first division of the fertilized egg cell functions with the help of maternal factors stored in the egg, for further development of an embryo the synthesis of…
A new model explains that water evaporating from the Arctic Ocean due to a warming climate is transported south and can lead to increased snowfall in northern Eurasia in late autumn and early winter. This information will allow for more accurate predictions of severe weather events. Rising air temperatures due to global warming melt glaciers and polar ice caps. Seemingly paradoxically, snow cover in some areas in northern Eurasia has increased over the past decades. However, snow is a form…
Inexpensive catalyst uses energy from light to turn ammonia into hydrogen fuel. Rice University researchers have engineered a key light-activated nanomaterial for the hydrogen economy. Using only inexpensive raw materials, a team from Rice’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics, Syzygy Plasmonics Inc. and Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment created a scalable catalyst that needs only the power of light to convert ammonia into clean-burning hydrogen fuel. The research is published online today in the journal Science. The research follows government and industry investment to create infrastructure and markets…
Researchers at the University of Bonn have developed a method that allows the water level of rivers to be monitored around the clock. The cost-effective sensor is for instance suitable for area-wide flood warning systems. The study has been published in the journal Water Resources Research. There is a wide range of methods to determine the level of a watercourse – from very simple ones (by yardstick or staff gauge) to advanced radar solutions. But they all have a catch:…
Development of new antibody therapies necessary. Are the currently approved antibody therapies used to treat individuals at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease also effective against currently circulating viral variants? A recent study by researchers at the German Primate Center (DPZ) – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research and Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg shows that the Omicron sub-lineage BQ.1.1, currently on the rise worldwide, is resistant to all approved antibody therapies (The Lancet Infectious Diseases). As a result of an infection with…
Automatic voice monitoring for the ship’s bridge. Many accidents at sea are due to errors in communication between seafarers. An automatic voice monitoring system for the ship’s bridge will ensure greater safety. With the speech recognition system and support from Fraunhofer IDMT in Oldenburg, Germany, ELNAV, a start-up company based in Split, Croatia, is developing what it calls a “Helm Order Monitor”. November 23, 2022. Communication in the maritime environment is important for safety but does not always run smoothly….
Test link for quantum communication explores highly secure communication. As the crow flies, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF is 1.7 kilometers away from the Stadtwerke Jena (engl.: public utilities Jena). Over this distance, the institute is using a test link to research the exchange of quantum keys via free beams, i. e. through the air. With the help of this technology, our communication should become highly secure in the future. During the “Lange Nacht der…
Physicists at the University of Basel have experimentally demonstrated for the first time that there is a negative correlation between the two spins of an entangled pair of electrons from a superconductor. For their study, the researchers used spin filters made of nanomagnets and quantum dots, as they report in the scientific journal Nature. The entanglement between two particles is among those phenomena in quantum physics that are hard to reconcile with everyday experiences. If entangled, certain properties of the…
Invented in 1970 by Corning Incorporated, low-loss optical fiber became the best means to efficiently transport information from one place to another over long distances without loss of information. The most common way of data transmission nowadays is through conventional optical fibers – one single core channel transmits the information. However, with the exponential increase of data generation, these systems are reaching information-carrying capacity limits. Thus, research now focuses on finding new ways to utilize the full potential of fibers…
Pulse radiolysis experiments help reveal how unpaired electrons at one end of a molecule can initiate chemistry at ‘distant’ locations. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory helped measure how unpaired electrons in atoms at one end of a molecule can drive chemical reactivity on the molecule’s opposite side. As described in a paper recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, this work, in collaboration with Princeton University, shows how molecules containing these so-called free radicals…
Hollow spheres made of MYC proteins open new doors in cancer research. Würzburg scientists have discovered them and report about this breakthrough in the journal “Nature”. MYC genes and their proteins play a central role in the emergence and development of almost all cancers. They drive the uncontrolled growth and altered metabolism of tumour cells. And they help tumours hide from the immune system. MYC proteins also show an activity that was previously unknown – and which is now opening…
Ancient, dormant sequences in the genome impact embryonic development in unexpected ways. The mammalian genome contains retroviral sequences that are in an undead but mostly “harmless” state. An international research team recently discovered how some of these retroviral gene fragments affect embryonic cells if they are unleashed. Unexpectedly, not the viral proteins, but rather copies of the genetic material itself generate an imbalance in the cell. Over thousands of years of evolution, countless viruses have embedded themselves in our genome….
An international group of scientists including astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy presents new observations of the first quasar ever identified. Its name is 3C273 and it is located at a distance of approx. 1.9 Billion light years in the Virgo constellation. The new high-resolution radio images trace the jet down to the jet formation region and show how the width of the jet varies with distance from the central black hole. Active supermassive black holes emit…
The Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES has successfully completed a boulder detection campaign off the coast of the island of Rügen in the German Baltic Sea on behalf of 50Hertz. In order to allow efficient planning of the grid operator’s new offshore platform seismic measuring techniques have been employed to detect boulders below the sea-floor in. This innovative process allows identification of large rocks up to 100 m below the seafloor. That enables planning of windfarms and platforms…
Researchers from the Bremen Institute for Measurement Technology, Automation and Quality Science (BIMAQ) at the University of Bremen are working together with RWTH Aachen University and industry partners on an automated unmanned flight system that will significantly increase the yield of wind turbines. The three-year project, called AutoFlow, is now underway with funding worth 1.8 million euros from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. How much energy a wind turbine produces depends not only on the wind,…
… new compounds of lanthanum and hydrogen. All superconductors known today that are used in research and industry are superconducting only below 150 degrees Kelvin (around minus 120 degrees Celsius). Materials that have this property at higher temperatures are therefore being sought worldwide. Based on theoretical modeling, hydrides have increasingly come into focus. An international research team led by scientists from the University of Bayreuth now reports in “Nature Communications” on new compounds of lanthanum and hydrogen synthesized under high…
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