For the first time, NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) has observed the merging of multimillion-degree X-ray spots on the surface of a magnetar, a supermagnetized stellar core no larger than a city. “NICER tracked how three bright, X-ray-emitting hot spots slowly wandered across the object’s surface while also decreasing in size, providing the best look yet at this phenomenon,” said George Younes, a researcher at George Washington University in Washington and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,…
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, researchers at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands have for the first time detected dimethyl ether in a planet-forming disc. With nine atoms, this is the largest molecule identified in such a disc to date. It is also a precursor of larger organic molecules that can lead to the emergence of life. “From these results, we can learn more about the origin of life on our planet and therefore get a better…
… completes trial operation. The world’s first demonstration device for 1,000 tons/year production of gasoline from carbon dioxide (CO2) hydrogenation located in Zoucheng Industrial Park, Shandong province, China has completed its trial operation and technology assessment on March 4. The project was jointly developed by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Zhuhai Futian Energy Technology Co., Ltd. Hydrogenation of CO2 into liquid fuels and chemicals can not only realize the resource utilization of CO2,…
Researchers have made tiny ‘skyscrapers’ for communities of bacteria, helping them to generate electricity from just sunlight and water. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, used 3D printing to create grids of high-rise ‘nano-housing’ where sun-loving bacteria can grow quickly. The researchers were then able to extract the bacteria’s waste electrons, left over from photosynthesis, which could be used to power small electronics. Other research teams have extracted energy from photosynthetic bacteria, but the Cambridge researchers have found that…
Microglia, the immune cells of the brain, are known for eating up unwanted items like germs and debris, much as their counterparts do in the rest of the body. In early childhood, certain microglia remove unneeded connections, or synapses, to shape the adult brain’s organized circuitry. Now, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Linda Van Aelst has found that in mice, microglia also help neurons grow synapses critical to cognitive functioning. “Most immune cells are known to target and eat—let’s call it…
Harvard Wyss Institute’s eRapid sensor technology licensed to Antisoma Therapeutics. The low-cost multiplexed electrochemical biomarker detection platform will be commercialized in point-of-care diagnostics to be put into the hands of patients and primary health practitioners. Today, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Australian biotech company The iQ Group Global Ltd. announced that the Institute’s electrochemical eRapid technology has been licensed to Antisoma Therapeutics Pty. Ltd., a subsidiary of The iQ Group Global. The licensing agreement was coordinated by Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development and…
In motor neuron diseases of the nervous system, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commands can no longer be sent to the muscles. This gradually leads to paralysis. Physicist Dr. Thomas Herrmannsdörfer from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and physician Prof. Richard Funk from the TU Dresden formulated the idea to selectively revive the motor neurons using magnetic fields. Initial laboratory research results have proven them right and are encouraging them to further pursue their project and plan a prototype therapy…
Researchers in biomedical physics and biology have significantly improved micro-computed tomography, more specifically imaging with phase contrast and high brilliance x-ray radiation. They have developed a new microstructured optical grating and combined it with new analytical algorithms. The new approach makes it possible to depict and analyze the microstructures of samples in greater detail, and to investigate a particularly broad spectrum of samples. Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) is an imaging method which generates detailed three-dimensional images of the internal structure of…
Researchers of the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 at the University of Bonn specifically stimulate the RNA receptor RIG-I SARS-CoV-2 viruses can hide from recognition by the immune system. However, the antiviral immune receptor RIG-I can be stimulated, which improves protection against lethal SARS-CoV-2 infections. Researchers led by Prof. Gunther Hartmann from the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital Bonn, in cooperation with other members of the cluster of excellence ImmunoSensation2 at the University of Bonn,…
Insights into the oxidation of hydrocarbons at vanadium pentoxide pave the way for a new catalyst design. The experimental elucidation of the structures at the interface between a working catalyst and the reacting molecules is the key to a fundamental understanding of heterogeneous catalysis. Researchers from the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society have reassigned the vibrational spectrum of vanadium pentoxide, an important catalyst for the synthesis of valuable products through the reaction of organic molecules with gas-phase…
From lab to fab: Q CELLS, a renowned total energy solutions provider in solar, energy storage, downstream project business and energy retail, has set a new world-record tandem cell efficiency of 28.7% in collaboration with researchers at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin using a Q.ANTUM-based silicon bottom cell in combination with a perovskite-based top cell. Q CELLS’ R&D team in Thalheim, Germany, has worked jointly with Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin over the past three years to create a tandem solar cell comprising a silicon-based Q.ANTUMbottom…
Physicists at ETH Zurich demonstrate that vacuum fluctuations can cause a breakdown of topological protection in the paradigmatic integer quantum Hall effect. “Up to 1980 nobody expected that there exists an effect like the Quantized Hall Effect, which depends exclusively on fundamental constants and is not affected by irregularities in the semiconductor like impurities or interface effects.” So spoke the German physicist Klaus von Klitzing on receiving the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was recognised for his discovery, in…
A pulse wave is a wave in which the blood flow – that originates from the heartbeat – is transmitted to the body. It is an important biosignal that indicates cardiovascular health. Analyzing the pulse wave signal can diagnose cardiac conditions including high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis and more. However, conventional pulse wave measuring devices are cumbersome as they require wearing the blood-pressure measuring cuff or stiff tong-shaped sensor and can mostly be performed at hospitals. Recently, a POSTECH research team…
New process for the production of active compounds. A research team at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute (Leibniz-HKI) in Jena, Germany has developed a new method to produce complex natural products in amoebae. These polyketides include various antibiotics but also olivetolic acid, a precursor of the herbal active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The results were published in Nature Biotechnology. Polyketides are natural products with a wide range of therapeutic applications. Among them…
Investigators from Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have discovered how a drug for multiple sclerosis interacts with its targets, a finding that may pave the way for better treatments. The study, published Feb. 8 in Nature Communications, details the precise molecular structure of the multiple sclerosis drug siponimod as it interacts with its target, the human S1P receptor 1 (S1P1), and off-target receptors using a cutting-edge electron microscopy technique called cryo-EM. This knowledge could help scientists develop drugs for the disease that are…
Nanoparticles (which have sizes ranging between 3–500 nm), and sub-nanoclusters (which are around 1 nm in diameter) are utilized in many fields, including medicine, robotics, materials science, and engineering. Their small size and large surface-area-to-volume ratios give them unique properties, rendering them valuable in a variety of applications, ranging from pollution control to chemical synthesis. Recently, quasi-sub-nanomaterials, which are about 1-3 nm in scale have attracted attention because they have a dual nature–they can be regarded as nanoparticles, as well…
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