A UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country team has successfully produced starch-based pharmaceutical tablets by means of 3D printing. Traditional methods produce medicines with specific parameters, but in many cases without meeting the individual needs of patients. In fact, conventional medicines tend to be based on adult doses, so paediatric and elderly patients require doses tailored to their age. What is more, certain groups of patients also need specific dosage form alternatives to facilitate the oral administration of drugs. In this…
… play important roles in geological and environmental processes. Minerals are the fundamental components of Earth. Microbes occupy the majority of the tree of life. In near surficial environments, minerals and microbes co-exist and interact. The studies of mineral-microbe interactions have blossomed in the last two decades, because such interactions drive major geological events and substantially determine the habitability of the Earth. A research team led by Dr. Hailiang Dong from China University of Geosciences (Beijing) has critically reviewed the…
Stony corals use a refined built-in ventilation system to protect themselves from environmental stressors. Coral reefs are not only one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on our planet; they are also among the most economically important ones. “For example, they’re extremely important for fishing and tourism,” says Moritz Holtappels. “And as wave breakers, they provide essential services for coastal management.” Accordingly, the experts are very concerned about the current status of these valuable undersea cities, which are simultaneously facing a…
Expected to improve results for meniscal reconstruction surgery. The knee meniscus is an important tissue that protects the joint; if the meniscus is damaged—by sports injury or aging–it often does not heal on its own. There are two surgical methods for treating a torn meniscus: repair with a suture and graft or removal. Because removing the meniscus leads to further damage, the graft surgery is preferred for meniscus reconstruction. In countries where donated meniscal allograft is unavailable the patient’s own…
Success in rapid and simultaneous identification of multiple types of food poisoning bacteria by color differences in scattered light from metals. Osaka Metropolitan University scientists have developed a simple, rapid method to simultaneously identify multiple food poisoning bacteria, based on color differences in the scattered light by nanometer-scaled organic metal nanohybrid structures (NHs) that bind via antibodies to those bacteria. This method is a promising tool for rapidly detecting bacteria at food manufacturing sites and thereby improving food safety. The…
The findings may help scientists develop more resilient plants to help withstand climate change. Plants lengthen and bend to secure access to sunlight. Despite observing this phenomenon for centuries, scientists do not fully understand it. Now, Salk scientists have discovered that two plant factors—the protein PIF7 and the growth hormone auxin—are the triggers that accelerate growth when plants are shaded by canopy and exposed to warm temperatures at the same time. The findings, published in Nature Communications on August 29,…
Researchers at the University of Bonn are evaluating a new imaging technique for the diagnosis of posterior uveitis. An estimated five to ten percent of blindness worldwide is caused by the rare inflammatory eye disease uveitis. Posterior uveitis in particular is often associated with severe disease progression and the need for immunosuppressive therapy. In posterior uveitis, inflammation occurs in the retina and in the underlying choroid that supplies it with nutrients. Researchers at the Ophthalmology Department at the University of…
Simple simulation accidentally leads to X-shaped galaxy for first time. When astronomers use radio telescopes to gaze into the night sky, they typically see elliptical-shaped galaxies, with twin jets blasting from either side of their central supermassive black hole. But every once in a while — less than 10% of the time — astronomers might spot something special and rare: An X-shaped radio galaxy, with four jets extending far into space. Although these mysterious X-shaped radio galaxies have confounded astrophysicists…
The EU project ReMade@ARI starts on September 1st under the coordination of the HZDR. According to the European Union’s Circular Economy Action Plan, the industry can determine up to 80 percent of a product’s subsequent environmental impact at the design phase. However, the linear manufacturing pattern offers few incentives to make products more sustainable. The research infrastructure project ReMade@ARI, which deals with innovative materials for key components in various areas such as electronics, packaging or textiles, wants to change this:…
Researchers create organic molecules that spontaneously align on a surface to generate controlled electric fields that could improve OLED performance and lead to new devices. In a molecular feat akin to getting pedestrians in a scramble crosswalk to spontaneously start walking in step, researchers at Kyushu University have created a series of molecules that tend to face the same direction to form a ‘giant surface potential’ when evaporated onto a surface. The researchers hope to utilize the approach to generate…
Device speeds up, simplifies image processing for autonomous vehicles and other applications. As any driver knows, accidents can happen in the blink of an eye — so when it comes to the camera system in autonomous vehicles, processing time is critical. The time that it takes for the system to snap an image and deliver the data to the microprocessor for image processing could mean the difference between avoiding an obstacle or getting into a major accident. In-sensor image processing,…
Physicists from TU Delft, ETH Zürich and the University of Tübingen have built a quantum scale heat pump made from particles of light. This device brings scientists closer to the quantum limit of measuring radio frequency signals, useful in for example the hunt for dark matter. Their work will be published as an open-access article in Science Advances on 26 August. If you bring two objects of different temperature, such as putting a warm bottle of white wine into a…
LunaH-Map is designed to find and map water ice at the Moon’s South Pole. The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map) mission is one of the tiniest NASA planetary science missions but has big science goals. Previous missions and studies have identified the presence of water-ice at the Moon’s poles. However, there are still unanswered questions about how much water-ice is contained within permanently shadowed regions. It is also unknown how much water-ice might be retained at depth throughout illuminated regions…
Improved computer models are needed to build larger wind turbines and to manage wind farms more efficiently. A new research project led by wind physicist Laura Lukassen paves the way for faster innovation – with the help of Artificial Intelligence. Numerical simulation calculations are a crucial tool for planning and operating wind turbines, which are continually growing in size. A new collaborative project led by Prof. Dr. Laura Lukassen, a wind physicist at the University of Oldenburg, aims to improve…
H2Mare is one of three hydrogen flagship projects, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with a total of up to 740 million euros. In H2Mare, the production of green hydrogen and a range of different secondary products with offshore wind power, will be investigated together with around 32 partners from science and industry, over the four year lifetime of the project. With four of its institutes, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon supports technology development for sustainable and…
A Single Protein Controls Aging Signals More Effectively Than In A Team. Scientists have found that the protein CHIP can control life-prolonging signals in the cell better alone than in pairs / Publication in ‘Molecular Cell’. A new study shows that the protein CHIP can regulate the insulin receptor more efficiently alone than in a paired state. In cellular stress situations, CHIP usually appears as a homodimer – an association of two identical proteins – and primarily serves to degrade…
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