Through a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 500 wheat varieties, researchers of the Julius Kühn-Institut have identified 14 gene loci that are consistently associated with low yield losses due to infection by Wheat dwarf virus. These QTL (quantitative trait loci) could be used for breeding new virus resistant wheat cultivars. If the leafhopper Psammotettix alienus pierces a wheat plant to suck plant sap, the consequences may be fatal: The leafhopper can transmit the Wheat dwarf virus (WDV) through its saliva….
INRS researchers and international partners have succeeded in looking at spin inside rare earth materials, using a tabletop ultrafast soft-X-ray microscope, for the first time. Sharing real-time information requires complex networks of systems. A promising approach for speeding up data storage devices consists of switching the magnetization, or the electrons’ spin, of magnetic materials with ultra-short femtosecond laser pulses. But, how the spin evolves in the nanoworld on extremely short time scales, in one millionth of one billionth of a…
Research team led by Göttingen University describes fundamental principle of enzyme catalysis. It is well known in physics and chemistry that equal charges repel each other, while opposite charges attract. It was long assumed that this principle also applies when enzymes – the biological catalysts in all living organisms – form or break chemical bonds. It was thought that enzymes place charges in their “active centres”, where the chemical reactions actually take place, in such a way that they repel…
KyotoU drills into unexpected rupture pattern of active fault in southwestern Japan. The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes shocked inhabitants of the western island of Kyushu, causing hundreds of casualties and serious damage to vital infrastructure. The epicenter of the quake was traced to the Futagawa fault in a region neighboring Mount Aso, an active volcano in Kumamoto Prefecture that last erupted in October 2021. An investigation of earth displaced by the series of quakes has offered potentially new clues into seismic activity in…
… can help in monitoring environment and diagnosing cancer. When a high-power ultrashort pulse of light interacts with a material such as a glass optical fibre, a range of highly nonlinear interactions take place that cause complex changes in both the temporal and spectral properties of the injected light. When taken to the extreme, such interactions can lead to the generation of a rainbow laser of light commonly referred to as a supercontinuum light source. Since its first demonstration in…
KIT researchers use polymer membranes coated with titanium dioxide for photocatalytic cleaning – results are reported in Nature Nanotechnology. Wherever people are living, hormones used in e.g. contraceptives or agriculture enter the wastewater. Steroid hormones, such as sex hormones and corticosteroids, may accumulate in the environment and adversely affect humans and animals, as they impair behavioral development and fertility. Sex hormones, for instance, may cause male fish to develop female sexual characteristics. It is therefore important to remove hormones, together…
Stanford University researchers have developed a key experimental device for future quantum physics-based technologies that borrows a page from current, everyday mechanical devices. Reliable, compact, durable, and efficient, acoustic devices harness mechanical motion to perform useful tasks. A prime example of such a device is the mechanical oscillator. When displaced by a force – like sound, for instance – components of the device begin moving back-and-forth about their original position. Creating this periodic motion is a handy way to keep…
A protein that allows the fungus which causes white mold stem rot in more than 600 plant species to overcome plant defenses has been identified by a team of U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service and Washington State University scientists. Knowledge of this protein, called SsPINE1, could help researchers develop a new, more precise system of control measures for the Sclerotinia sclerotiorum fungus, which attacks potatoes, soybeans, sunflowers, peas, lentils, canola, and many other broad leaf crops. The damage…
Burns allow fungi, bacteria to transform redwood forests. New UC Riverside research shows fungi and bacteria able to survive redwood tanoak forest megafires are microbial “cousins” that often increase in abundance after feeling the flames. Fires of unprecedented size and intensity, called megafires, are becoming increasingly common. In the West, climate change is causing rising temperatures and earlier snow melt, extending the dry season when forests are most vulnerable to burning. Though some ecosystems are adapted for less intense fires,…
A team of scientists led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) has made a major breakthrough in detecting changes in fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions more quickly and frequently. In a study published today they quantified regional fossil fuel CO2 emissions reductions during the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020-2021, using atmospheric measurements of CO2 and oxygen (O2) from the Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory, on the north Norfolk coast in the UK. The estimate uses a new method for separating CO2 signals…
New technique enables precise measurement of electrostatic properties of materials. Physicists at the University of California, Irvine have demonstrated the use of a hydrogen molecule as a quantum sensor in a terahertz laser-equipped scanning tunneling microscope, a technique that can measure the chemical properties of materials at unprecedented time and spatial resolutions. This new technique can also be applied to analysis of two-dimensional materials which have the potential to play a role in advanced energy systems, electronics and quantum computers….
Imaging method measures particle size and position with nanometer precision. Researchers have developed a new measurement and imaging approach that can resolve nanostructures smaller than the diffraction limit of light without requiring any dyes or labels. The work represents an important advance toward a new and powerful microscopy method that could one day be used to see the fine features of complex samples beyond what is possible with conventional microscopes and techniques. The new method, described in Optica, Optica Publishing…
Oxford University researchers have developed a sensor made of sapphire fibre that can tolerate extreme temperatures, with the potential to enable significant improvements in efficiency and emission reduction in aerospace and power generation. The work, published in the journal Optics Express, uses a sapphire optical fibre – a thread of industrially grown sapphire less than half a millimetre thick – which can withstand temperatures over 2000°C. When light is injected onto one end of the sapphire fibre, some is reflected…
Air pollution heating up the Southern Ocean. New research has identified a lesser-known form of ozone playing a big role in heating the Southern Ocean — one of Earth’s main cooling systems. Ozone is a gas composed of three oxygen atoms. Many studies have described ozone in the stratosphere, and its role in shielding people from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. Closer to ground level, in the troposphere, ozone is harmful to humans. New research led by UC Riverside scientists…
Team on the research vessel Neil Armstrong extracts core from the bottom of the Puerto Rico Trench. A team of scientists, engineers, and ship’s crew on the research vessel Neil Armstrong operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) recently collected a 38-foot-long cylindrical sediment sample from the deepest part of the Puerto Rico Trench, nearly 5 miles below the surface. The sample core is breaking records as the deepest ever collected in the Atlantic Ocean, and possibly the deepest…
A research team co-led by chemists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Imperial College London (Imperial College) has developed new, highly efficient and stable perovskite solar cells. The breakthrough invention is expected to greatly accelerate the commercialisation of perovskite photovoltaic technology, providing a promising alternative to silicon solar cells. Traditional solar cells are made of silicon, which has high power conversion efficiency and good stability. But they are relatively expensive and are reaching their practical and economic photovoltaic…
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