To protect the climate, the aim is to recover CO₂ from combustion processes for use as valuable materials. This is challenging because exhaust gases contain not only CO₂ but also other gases. An international research team led by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuhmann from the Zentrum für Elektrochemie at Ruhr-Universität Bochum has shown how CO₂ can be electrochemically reduced even at low concentrations in order to reuse it. They report on this in the journal “Angewandte Chemie” on December 23, 2024….
Tailored exercise may prolong life in these patients, suggest researchers Muscular strength and good physical fitness are linked to a significantly lower risk of death from any cause in people with cancer, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Tailored exercise to boost muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness in patients with cancer may help boost their chances of survival, suggest the researchers. In 2022 alone, 20 million people were diagnosed…
Salt pollution in freshwater is a growing global concern. Excessive salt harms plants, degrades soil, and compromises water quality. In urban areas, road salts used for de-icing during winter often wash into stormwater systems, posing health concerns and challenges for infrastructure. Specifically, salts can impact the processes like filtration and contaminate retention basins that are used to manage and treat urban stormwater runoff. Megan Rippy, assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering, is on a mission to understand how salt affects plants in…
People with the skin condition psoriasis often have invisible inflammation in the small intestine with an increased propensity for ‘leaky gut’, according to new research at Uppsala University. These changes in the gut could explain why psoriasis sufferers often have gastrointestinal problems and are more prone to developing Crohn’s disease. The study is published in Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Molecular Basis of Disease. Psoriasis is a hereditary, chronic skin condition that can also result in inflammation of the…
Student project uncovers superconductivity in polycrystalline iron nickel zirconide Zirconide: A New Transition Metal Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have discovered a new superconducting material. They combined iron, nickel, and zirconium, to create a new transition metal zirconide with different ratios of iron to nickel. While both iron zirconide and nickel zirconide are not superconducting, the newly prepared mixtures are, exhibiting a “dome-shaped” phase diagram typical of so-called “unconventional superconductors,” a promising avenue for developing high temperature…
People with pockets of fat hidden inside their muscles are at a higher risk of dying or being hospitalised from a heart attack or heart failure, regardless of their body mass index, according to research published in the European Heart Journal. Intermuscular Fat: A Hidden Obesity Threat This ‘intermuscular’ fat is highly prized in beef steaks for cooking. However, little is known about this type of body fat in humans, and its impact on health. This is the first study to…
What will the future of our soils – and thus also the availability of water – look like under the influence of imminent climatic changes? An international study led by Jesse Radolinski and Michael Bahn from the Institute of Ecology at the University of Innsbruck shows how drought, warming and increased CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere change the hydrological balance in the soil and challenge the resilience of ecosystems. The results were published in the journal Science. Grasslands cover almost…
Joule-Thomson optical expansion. Left: The expansion of a dense, warm gas leads to a rapid drop in temperature, in which interactions between the gas particles cause an irreversible energy conversion. Right: Against a similar mathematical background, intense laser beams can ‘clean’ their profile on their own and can even be efficiently combined if they are allowed to propagate into a larger system such as a multi-core optical fiber. (Image Credit: University of Southern California / Giorgos Pyrialakos).Inspired by ideas from…
Quantum chemical calculations at HU enable the development of new porous materials that are characterized by a high absorption capacity for CO2 Climate experts agree: To overcome the climate crisis, we will not only have to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, but also filter the climate-damaging gas directly out of the air and exhaust gases. To do this, scientists are working on so-called “direct air capture” technologies and are looking for suitable materials that bind (adsorb) CO2 molecules well and…
A study led by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL shows that there has been a worrying increase in the number of long droughts over the last 40 years. These affect agriculture, energy production and ecosystems, the research team warns in the scientific journal Science. For fourteen years, northern Chile has been suffering from extreme drought. The southwest of the USA recently experienced eight bone-dry years, and southern Australia three. This accumulation is no coincidence:…
Too Much of a Good Thing… Excessive sugar consumption is linked to several non-communicable diseases, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes. Animals naturally crave sugar, and uncontrolled sugar preferences can lead to high sugar intake, raising the risk of hyperglycemia and metabolic diseases. Gut-Brain Axis and the Regulation of Sugar Cravings Previous research suggests that food cravings in humans are driven by signals from the gut to the brain, highlighting the gut’s crucial role in shaping…
Shell-dwelling cichlids take intense care of their offspring, which they raise in abandoned snail shells. A team at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence used 3D-printed snail shells to find out what happens inside. The young and the mother each follow their own, but synchronized schedules: as soon as the larvae prefer light, they leave the shell on the ninth day after fertilization. The mother, in turn, follows a strict brood-care routine to prevent the young from emerging before…
Researchers have demonstrated new wearable technologies that both generate electricity from human movement and improve the comfort of the technology for the people wearing them. The work stems from an advanced understanding of materials that increase comfort in textiles and produce electricity when they rub against another surface. Amphiphiles: The Key to Reduced Skin Friction At issue are molecules called amphiphiles, which are often used in consumer products to reduce friction against human skin. For example, amphiphiles are often incorporated…
A study by the University of Bern and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the USA concludes that the ocean circulation in the North Atlantic, which includes the Gulf Stream, has not weakened in the past 60 years. These results contradict previous assumptions. We owe Europe’s mild climate to the ocean circulation in the North Atlantic, which not only transports heat northwards from the equator, but also distributes oxygen and nutrients in the ocean. The collapse of this central element…
So-called foraminifera are found in all the world’s oceans. Now an international study led by the University of Hamburg has shown that the microorganisms, most of which bear shells, absorb phosphate from the water that pollutes the oceans to an unprecedented extent. The work has been published in the scientific journal “Nature”. Phosphate Use in Agriculture and Its Environmental Impact Phosphate is one of the main components of many fertilizers. It stimulates the growth of many crops – but is…
Are humans or machines better at recognizing speech? A new study shows that in noisy conditions, current automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems achieve remarkable accuracy and sometimes even surpass human performance. However, the systems need to be trained on an incredible amount of data, while humans acquire comparable skills in less time. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) has made incredible advances in the past few years, especially for widely spoken languages such as English. Prior to 2020, it was typically assumed…
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