Floppy or not: Given a 3D piece of origami, can you flatten it without damaging it? Just by looking at the design, the answer is hard to predict, because each and every fold in the design has to be compatible with flattening. This is an example of a combinatorial problem. New research led by the UvA Institute of Physics and research institute AMOLF has demonstrated that machine learning algorithms can accurately and efficiently answer these kinds of questions. This is…
DITF show new applications at MEDICA. The German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research Denkendorf (DITF) will be exhibiting at the medical technology trade fair MEDICA in Düsseldorf from November 14 to 17 2022. At the joint Baden-Württemberg International Booth, the DITF will be presenting new developments in the field of 3D printing, such as for bone replacements. In their research, the DITF also work with the Arburg Freeformer 300-3X 3D printer, which can process up to three meltable polymers…
Robotics experts from all over the world meet at EnRicH 2023. Planning has already been underway since the summer: For the fourth time, the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE is organising the European Robotics Hackathon (EnRicH) together with the Austrian Armaments and Defence Technology Agency (ARWT). EnRicH will take place in June 2023. For about a week, teams from all over the world will come together near Vienna to check the current development status of their…
Gemini North telescope on Hawai‘i reveals first dormant, stellar-mass black hole in our cosmic backyard. Astronomers using the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, have discovered the closest-known black hole to Earth. This is the first unambiguous detection of a dormant stellar-mass black hole in the Milky Way. Its close proximity to Earth, a mere 1600 light-years away, offers an intriguing target of study to advance our understanding of the evolution of binary systems. Black holes are the most…
Quantum materials enable next-generation photonics and mobile networks in the terahertz regime. Terahertz light, radiation in the far-infrared part of the emission spectrum, is currently not fully exploited in technology, although it shows great potential for many applications in sensing, homeland security screening, and future (sixth generation) mobile networks. Indeed, this radiation is harmless due to its small photon energy, but it can penetrate many materials (such as skin, packaging, etc.). In the last decade, a number of research groups…
KIT researchers and partners suspect that much more plastic is transported in flowing waters than previously assumed and are developing new modelling approaches. Rivers play a key role in the transport of plastic in the environment. “As soon as plastic enters a river, it is transported rapidly and can spread throughout the environment,” says Dr Daniel Valero from the Institute of Water and River Basin Management at KIT and lead author of a new study on plastic transport. “But, depending…
An international team of scientists, including researchers at the University of Adelaide, have gathered new evidence about the energetic core of an active galaxy millions of lights years away by detecting neutrino particles emitted by it. The scientists have found that NGC 1068, also known as Messier 77, in the constellation of Cetus, is a high-energy neutrino emitter. They have observed the particles using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. “We are peering inside active regions of the NGC 1068…
… to gather quantum leaders defining the emerging field on Nov. 14-15. Experts in quantum information science and engineering will come together on November 14-15 in Chicago to share their insights and experiences from the forefront of this growing field. The fifth annual Chicago Quantum Summit, hosted by the Chicago Quantum Exchange, will convene academic, government, and industry leaders in quantum information science and engineering. The Summit’s speakers come from universities, national labs, and Fortune 500 and startup companies, representing…
– YESvGaN project develops competitive GaN process technologies. Can we contribute to the worldwide energy challenge by maximizing the efficiency in power conversion at a low cost? The answer is: YESvGaN! So, the goal of the YESvGaN consortium is to create a new class of vertical power transistors based on Gallium Nitride (GaN), so-called vertical GaN membrane transistors. These novel power devices combine the efficiency of wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductors with the lower cost of the established silicon semiconductor technology. Within…
Early crust on Mars may be more complex than previously thought—and it may even be similar to our own planet’s original crust. The Martian surface is uniformly basaltic, a product of billions of years of volcanism and flowing lava on the surface that eventually cooled. Because Mars did not undergo full-scale surface remodeling like the shifting of continents on Earth, scientists had thought Mars’ crustal history was a relatively simple tale. But in a new study, researchers found locations in…
– surprising observations of X-ray pulsar. Tübingen-led international research team evaluates first direct measurements by IXPE space telescope. An X-ray pulsar is a rotating magnetized neutron star. The very first direct measurement of the polarization of an X-ray pulsar by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) space telescope has challenged previous models of such systems. The degree of polarization of the X-ray pulsar Hercules X-1 was much lower than theoretically predicted, so astrophysicists are now having to reconsider their basic…
Carl Zeiss Foundation supports new research project. New Halocycles project aims to develop a halogen recovery technique contributing to the stabilization of the power grid and the defossilization of the future industrial society. Increasing the recovery of valuable fossil raw materials, avoiding climate-damaging carbon dioxide emission, and stabilizing our energy supply network – these are the three major objectives of a new joint research project of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and TU Kaiserslautern. With their pioneering concept, the two…
Researchers decipher the history and sensitivity of the largest tropical peatland in Congo. When peat swamps dry out they can release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Because they react so sensitively to climate changes, they are also important tipping points. A study published in Nature by an international team, led by researchers from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD, France) and the…
Scientists of the QUEST Institute at PTB have realized and evaluated a new type of optical atomic clock. They report on their results in the current issue of Nature. Optical atomic clocks are the most accurate measuring instruments ever built and are becoming key tools for basic and applied research, for example to test the constancy of natural constants or for height measurements in geodesy. Now, researchers at the QUEST Institute at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), in collaboration with the…
Using images captured by satellites, researchers in the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics and RAL Space have confirmed that the January 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano produced the highest-ever recorded plume. The colossal eruption is also the first to have been directly observed to have broken through to the mesosphere layer of the atmosphere. The results have been published today in the journal Science. On 15 January 2022, Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai, a submarine volcano in the…
Researchers from Dresden, together with Danish and Finnish colleagues, identify a gene that enables beta cells to communicate with each other, helping the pancreas to respond to glucose by insulin secretion. Diabetes, which affects millions of people worldwide, develops when the body either generates insufficient amounts of the hormone insulin– a hormone that maintains healthy blood sugar – or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. When the number of beta cells is too low or they…
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