A new study led by the University of Tasmania – with the participation of the University of Bonn – discovered the oldest marine DNA in deep-sea sediments of the Scotia Sea north of the Antarctic continent. The material could be dated to one million years. Such old material demonstrates that sedimentary DNA can open the pathway to study long-term responses of ocean ecosystems to climate change. This recognition will also help assessing current and future change of marine life around…
The National research center for Cybersecurity ATHENE has found a way to break one of the basic mechanisms used to secure Internet traffic. The mechanism, called RPKI, is actually designed to prevent cybercriminals or government attackers from diverting traffic on the Internet. Such redirections are surprisingly common on the Internet, e.g., for espionage or through misconfigurations. The ATHENE scientist team of Prof. Dr. Haya Shulman showed that attackers can completely bypass the security mechanism without the affected network operators being…
The ceramic-based material could be used for highly efficient actuators for aircraft or other uses, with minimal moving parts. Shape-memory metals, which can revert from one shape to a different one simply by being warmed or otherwise triggered, have been useful in a variety of applications, as actuators that can control the movement of various devices. Now, the discovery of a new category of shape-memory materials made of ceramic rather than of metal could open up a new range of…
Deep valleys buried under the seafloor of the North Sea record how the ancient ice sheets that used to cover the UK and Europe expelled water to stop themselves from collapsing. A new study published this week has surprised the research team, who discovered that the valleys took just hundreds of years to form as they transported vast amounts of meltwater away from under the ice and out into the sea. This new understanding of when the vast ice sheets…
Despite decades of medical advances, children who develop the pediatric eye cancer retinoblastoma often lose their vision or an eye due to a lack of specific, targeted therapies and a poor molecular understanding of the cancer. Now researchers at UT Southwestern and the University of Miami have discovered that a molecule – estrogen-related receptor gamma, or ESRRG – becomes hyperactive and promotes tumor cell survival in retinoblastoma. Blocking ESRRG, the team reported in Science Advances, kills retinoblastoma cells. “Our discovery could…
Exoplanet hunters should check for N2O. Scientists at UC Riverside are suggesting something is missing from the typical roster of chemicals that astrobiologists use to search for life on planets around other stars — laughing gas. Chemical compounds in a planet’s atmosphere that could indicate life, called biosignatures, typically include gases found in abundance in Earth’s atmosphere today. “There’s been a lot of thought put into oxygen and methane as biosignatures. Fewer researchers have seriously considered nitrous oxide, but we…
… discovered at the Korean Artificial Sun, KSTAR. ‘FIRE mode’ expected to resolve operational difficulties of commercial fusion reactors in the future. Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KFE) and Seoul National University (SNU) research team announced that they have discovered a new plasma operating mode that can improve plasma performance for fusion energy based on an analysis of plasma operations with ultra-high temperatures over 100 million degrees (Celsius) at the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR). To generate energy through…
… for extreme conditions. An innovative research project of the Chair of Ceramic Materials at the University of Bayreuth in cooperation with the SKZ Plastics Centre is investigating the transformation of additively manufactured green bodies into high-quality ceramics. A recently launched research project is investigating a novel process route to produce ceramics more cost-efficiently, sustainably and with greater geometric freedom. The special feature of the chosen approach is that a thermoplastically processable material is used for green body production. In…
Making the mobility of the future safe. Practical and environmentally friendly, e-scooters offer great flexibility. It is no wonder that more and more people are using this form of transport. However, this rise in popularity has been accompanied by an increase in accidents resulting in severe injuries. The risk associated with these speedy runabouts is widely underestimated. In response to this, Fraunhofer researchers studied a typical accident scenario and the associated injuries as part of the HUMAD project. The experts…
Assessing nanoparticles with medical engineering. What happens when we breathe in nanoparticles emitted by a laser printer, for example? Could these nanoparticles damage the respiratory tract or perhaps even other organs? To answer these questions, Fraunhofer researchers are developing the “NanoCube” exposure device. The Nanocube’s integrated multi-organ chip set up in the laboratory of the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) and by its spin-off organization “TissUse” detects interaction between nanoparticles and lung cells, the uptake of nanoparticles into the…
… in Ottobrunn/Taufkirchen, Germany. The next milestone for the Technical University of Munich (TUM) Hyperloop research program has been achieved. The groundbreaking for the 24-meter-long TUM Hyperloop test segment took place on September 30, 2022 at the Ottobrunn/Taufkirchen site. The event was attended by Bavaria’s Minister President Dr. Markus Söder and the Bavarian Minister of Science and the Arts Markus Blume. The test segment is the first of its kind in Europe. Almost two years after the beginning of the…
Progress has been made on the path to sunlight-driven production of hydrogen. Chemists from Würzburg present a new enzyme-like molecular catalyst for water oxidation. Mankind is facing a central challenge: it must manage the transition to a sustainable and carbon dioxide-neutral energy economy. Hydrogen is considered a promising alternative to fossil fuels. It can be produced from water using electricity. If the electricity comes from renewable sources, it is called green hydrogen. But it would be even more sustainable if…
Self-driving vehicles. People use their eyes and ears to pick up on traffic situations involving potential hazards. For self-driving vehicles to do the same thing, they need a whole host of sensors. As the number of sensors they contain increases, however, so too does the amount of space required to fit them in – something that is often incompatible with the vision of designers. Now, researchers at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft have discovered a method of integrating certain sensors discreetly. Their solution…
The world’s whitest paint – seen in this year’s edition of Guinness World Records and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” – keeps surfaces so cool that it could reduce the need for air conditioning. Now the Purdue University researchers who created the paint have developed a new formulation that is thinner and lighter – ideal for radiating heat away from cars, trains and airplanes. “I’ve been contacted by everyone from spacecraft manufacturers to architects to companies that make clothes and shoes,” said Xiulin Ruan,…
Adaptive imaging technique for materials science and structural biology. A new technique that combines electron microscopy and laser technology enables programmable, arbitrary shaping of electron beams. It can potentially be used for optimizing electron optics and for adaptive electron microscopy, maximizing sensitivity while minimizing beam-induced damage. This fundamental and disruptive technology was now demonstrated by researchers at the University of Vienna, and the University of Siegen. The results are published in PRX. When light passes through turbulent or dense material,…
Scientists measure the proton’s electric and magnetic polarizabilities using the High Intensity Gamma Ray Source (HIGS). The Science The proton is a composite particle made up of fundamental building blocks of quarks and gluons. These components and their interactions determine the proton’s structure, including its electrical charges and currents. This structure deforms when exposed to external electric and magnetic (EM) fields, a phenomenon known as polarizability. The EM polarizabilities are a measure of the stiffness against the deformation induced by EM…
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