Comets are fossils from the ancient times and from the depths of our Solar System, and they are relics from the formation of the sun, planets, and moons. A team led by chemist Dr. Nora Hänni of the Physics Institute of the University of Bern, Department of Space Research and Planetary Sciences, has now succeeded for the first time in identifying a whole series of complex organic molecules at a comet as they report in a study published end of…
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have definitively linked the function of a specific domain of proteins important in plant-microbe biology to a cancer trigger in humans, knowledge that had eluded scientists for decades. The team’s findings, published in Nature Communications Biology, open up a new avenue for the development of selective drug therapies to fight a variety of cancers such as those that begin in the breast and stomach. ORNL scientists set out to prove…
Insight into the way the EGF receptor sends signals into cells could help researchers design new cancer drugs that target this protein. Receptors found on cell surfaces bind to hormones, proteins, and other molecules, helping cells respond to their environment. MIT chemists have now discovered how one of these receptors changes its shape when it binds to its target, and how those changes trigger cells to grow and proliferate. This receptor, known as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), is overexpressed…
Study identifies a new signaling molecule that increases the energy consumption of brown fat cells. Normally, fat cells store energy. In brown fat cells, however, energy is dissipated as heat – brown fat thus serves as a biological heater. Most mammals therefore have this mechanism. In humans it keeps newborns warm, in human adults, brown fat activation positively correlates with cardio-metabolic health. “Nowadays, however, we’re toasty warm even in winter,” explains Prof. Dr. Alexander Pfeifer from the Institute of Pharmacology…
Scientists from the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and the University of Stuttgart (Germany) have managed to synthesize and extensively characterize a series of cobalt molecules that exhibit the properties of molecular magnets, an encouraging result for the future of quantum-scale computing. The current demand for the exchange and manipulation of data through information technologies, caused by the massification of electronic devices, has led scientists to reflect about more efficient computation methods. Storing information in binary systems works by switching between…
Star with the shortest orbital period around black hole discovered. A newly discovered star only takes four years to travel around the black hole at the centre of our galaxy / publication in ‘The Astrophysical Journal’. Researchers at the University of Cologne and Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic) have discovered the fastest known star, which travels around a black hole in record time. The star, S4716, orbits Sagittarius A*, the black hole in the centre of our Milky Way,…
Researchers at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at Chemnitz University of Technology have succeeded for the first time in 3D printing and subsequent sintering of housings for power electronic components. Researchers at the Professorship of Electrical Energy Conversion Systems and Drives at Chemnitz University of Technology have succeeded for the first time in 3D printing housings for power electronic components that are used, for example, to control electrical machines. During the printing process, silicon carbide chips are…
Is sustainable human exploration of Mars possible? What are the challenges on the ground and what impact will they have on us humans? Conversely, how will humans affect the new environment? And can Mars teach us lessons for Earth? As part of the “Humans on Mars” initiative, 60 researchers from the University of Bremen and other Bremen research institutes are investigating these very questions. On July 8, 2022, the University of Bremen is set to launch its large-scale initiative “Humans…
Nature in the wrong direction. Physicists observed a strange new type of behaviour in a magnetic material when it’s heated up. The magnetic spins ‘freeze’ into a static pattern when the temperature rises, a phenomenon that normally occurs when the temperature decreases. They publish their findings in Nature Physics on July 4th. The researchers discovered the phenomenon in the material neodymium, an element that they described several years ago as a ‘self-induced spin glass’. Spin glasses are typically alloys where…
15th International Coral Reef Symposium starting. More than 1,000 scientists from over 80 countries will discuss the world’s most important event for coral reefs in Bremen. Host of the 15th International Coral Reef Symposium is the University of Bremen. The conference is being held in Europe for the first time in its more than 50-year history. The focus is on the major threats facing coral reefs and possible solutions to secure the future of these ecosystems. The world remains in…
Joint project involving experimental and theoretical physicists and coordinated by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz is providing greater insight into the pinning effects of skyrmions. We know hurricanes mainly from worldwide weather phenomena, but they have started to occur more frequently also in Europe. However, when researchers use an optical Kerr microscope to zoom in on thin films of magnetic material, they see something related happening in the microcosm, given the right conditions: a sort of micro-scale magnetic hurricane. Physicists call…
Researchers from Kiel and Düsseldorf use the example of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis to investigate the contribution of the microbiome to thermal adaptation of living organisms. All multicellular organisms are colonized by an unimaginably large number of microorganisms and have co-evolved with them from the very beginning of life’s evolutionary history. The natural microbiome, i.e. the totality of these bacteria, viruses and fungi living in and on a body, is of fundamental importance for the organism as a whole:…
For patients with a broken shin bone, a new generation of smart orthopaedic implants is being developed that can not only monitor healing progression at the bone fracture site, but can use controlled micromotions to actively stimulate the repair process. At Saarland University, this innovative medical technology is being developed by an interdisciplinary team of medical specialists, engineers and computer scientists. The team led by Professors Bergita Ganse and Tim Pohlemann has now collated all of the available data on…
… and show drug effectiveness. With no current treatments for hepatitis A, UNC School of Medicine scientists discovered how a protein and enzymes interact to allow hepatitis A virus to replicate, and they used a known drug to stop viral replication in an animal model. The viral replication cycle is crucial for a virus to spread inside the body and cause disease. Focusing on that cycle in the hepatitis A virus (HAV), UNC School of Medicine scientists discovered that replication…
Laser light can radically change the properties of solid materials, making them superconducting or magnetic within millionths of a billionth of a second. The intense light causes fundamental, immediate changes in a solid by ‘shaking’ its atomic lattice structure and moving electrons about. But what exactly is happening at that elementary level? How do those atoms and electrons actually move? Now a theory team at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg has found…
Alternative ship propulsion systems. Shipping is one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gases, and this is leading shipbuilders and operators on a search for environmentally friendly alternative propulsion systems. Researchers at Fraunhofer have joined forces with partners to develop the HyMethShip concept, in which hydrogen is obtained from methanol. This technology does not require large hydrogen tanks to be carried on board, making it much safer. In the future, it may also prove to be an attractive solution for…
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