98.5% of the Sun is made up of two light chemical elements, hydrogen and helium, while the remaining 1.5% consists of other heavier elements such as carbon, oxygen, and iron. The abundance of these heavier elements in a star is called its ‘metallicity’, and varies from star to star. It now turns out that our Galaxy is home to a stellar structure uniquely made of stars with extremely low metallicity, with a heavy element content 2,500 times lower than that…
During long portions of the past 2.4 billion years, the Earth may have been more inhospitable to life than scientists previously thought, according to new computer simulations. Using a state-of-the-art climate model, researchers now believe the level of ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching the Earth’s surface could have been underestimated, with UV levels being up to ten times higher. UV radiation is emitted by the sun and can damage and destroy biologically important molecules such as proteins. The last 2.4 billion years represents an important chapter in the…
Realized 3D digital holograms by developing a polarization image sensor with no additional polarization filters. Miniaturization of the entire holographic camera sensor module is possible with follow-up research. 3D holograms, previously seen only in science fiction movies, may soon make their way into our daily lives. Until now, 3D holograms based on phase shifting holography method could be captured using a large, specialized camera with a polarizing filter. However, a Korean research group has just developed technology that can acquire…
How much does a country’s vehicle fleet consume on average? How does it change from year to year? With the increasing number of electric vehicles and more and more “crossover” models that can hardly be assigned to one vehicle segment, analysis is becoming increasingly difficult. Empa researchers analyze databases using deep learning methods – and can make precise statements: In which region of the country do the fattest cars drive? What can car buyers do to reduce CO2 consumption? In…
… get into deeper soil layers and onto adjacent areas. The fact that sewage sludge from municipal waste water treatment plants contains a high proportion of microplastics has already been shown in earlier studies. It was suspected that the use of such sludge for fertilising fields could also promote the uncontrolled input of microplastics into the wider environment. Now, studies conducted as part of the project MicroCatch_Balt funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research confirm this assumption….
Empa and Lidl Switzerland have jointly developed a cellulose protective coating for fruit and vegetables. The novel coating is made from so-called pomace – squeezed fruit and vegetable peels. The innovative project can reduce packaging and prevent food waste. Plastic packaging in grocery stores protects fruits and vegetables from spoilage, but also creates significant amounts of waste. Together with the retailer Lidl Switzerland, Empa researchers have now developed a protective cover for fruit and vegetables based on renewable raw materials….
Kiel Trade Indicator 12/2021: Kiel Trade Indicator, Update January 5,2022: In contrast to the first major wave of the pandemic, world trade has so far not shown any negative swings in the face of the Omicron variant rampant in many countries. Following the latest data update, the Kiel Trade Indicator signals a slight increase in global trade (0.8 %). Overall, however, the single indicators continue to show a mixed picture for trade flows. A strong catch-up process is not visible…
The Webb team has completed tensioning for the first three layers of the observatory’s kite-shaped sunshield, 47 feet across and 70 feet long. The first layer – pulled fully taut into its final configuration – was completed mid-afternoon. The team began the second layer at 4:09 pm EST today, and the process took 74 minutes. The third layer began at 5:48 pm EST, and the process took 71 minutes. In all, the tensioning process from the first steps this morning until…
Paper by chemists from Rostock and Olomouc in NATURE CATALYSIS. Hydrogen (H2) is the smallest chemical molecule and a beacon of hope for a more environmentally friendly energy transition in the coming years. In addition, it is already used in a variety of industrial processes – so-called hydrogenations – for the environmentally friendly production of chemical products. For hydrogen to be used both for energy production and in hydrogenations, it is necessary to selectively activate the relatively stable hydrogen-hydrogen bond…
Steroid hormones contribute to the heat stress resistance of plants. Plants, like other organisms, can be severely affected by heat stress. To increase their chances of survival, they activate the heat shock response, a molecular pathway also employed by human and animal cells for stress protection. Researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now discovered that plant steroid hormones can promote this response in plants. It may be hard to remember in winter, but July 2021 was the…
Microscopic electric fields govern a remarkable variety of phenomena in condensed matter and their ultrafast evolutions drive plasmonics, phononics and highspeed nanoelectronics. Access to high-frequency electric waveforms is of crucial importance to diverse disciplines in nanoscience and technology, yet, microscopic measurements are still severely limited. In a new paper published in Light: Science & Applications, a team of scientists, led by Prof. Georg Herink from the University of Bayreuth, Germany, and co-workers from the University of Melbourne, Australia, has introduced…
Aggressive and relatively common lymphomas called diffuse large B cell lymphomas (DLBCLs) have a critical metabolic vulnerability that can be exploited to trick these cancers into starving themselves, according to a study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell’s Ithaca campus. The researchers, whose study was published Dec. 13 in Blood Cancer Discovery, showed that a protein called ATF4, a genetic master-switch that controls the activities of hundreds of genes, has a key role in supporting the fast growth of DLBCLs. The…
Ultrathin nanomaterials, known as MXenes, are poised to make it easier to monitor a person’s well-being by analyzing their perspiration. While they share a similar two-dimensional nature to graphene, MXenes are composed of nontoxic metals, such as titanium, in combination with carbon or nitrogen atoms. With naturally high conductivity and strong surface charges, MXenes are attractive candidates for biosensors that can detect small changes to chemical concentrations. In 2019, Husam Alshareef’s group developed a MXene composite electrode, which they enclosed…
Research team at Göttingen University develops new method to complete genetic data. The use of genetic information is now indispensable for modern plant breeding. Even though DNA sequencing has become much cheaper since the human genome was decoded for the very first time in 2003, collecting the full genetic information still accounts for a large part of the costs in animal and plant breeding. One trick to reduce these costs is to sequence only a very small and randomly selected…
New simulations reveal the mechanism of action and substrate specificity of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2, a biomarker for cardiovascular disease. Membrane-associated proteins play a vital role in a variety of cellular processes, yet little is known about the membrane-association mechanism. Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is one such protein with an important role in cardiovascular health, but its mechanism of action on the phospholipid membrane was unknown. To address this, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine used state-of-the-art…
Liquid-metal experiment provides insight into the heating mechanism of the Sun’s corona. Why the Sun’s corona reaches temperatures of several million degrees Celsius is one of the great mysteries of solar physics. A “hot” trail to explain this effect leads to a region of the solar atmosphere just below the corona, where sound waves and certain plasma waves travel at the same speed. In an experiment using the molten alkali metal rubidium and pulsed high magnetic fields, a team from…
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