Biochemists discover highly selective phage activation based on signal molecule. Bacteriophages are still a relatively unknown component of the human microbiome. However, they can play a powerful role in the life cycles of bacteria. Biochemist Thomas Böttcher from the University of Vienna and PhD student Magdalena Jancheva were able to show for the first time how Pseudomonas bacteria use a self-produced signal molecule to selectively manipulate phages in a competing bacterial strain to defeat their enemy. This targeted control of…
Meiosis is a specialized cell division process required to generate gametes, the reproductive cells of an organism. During meiosis, paternal and maternal chromosomes duplicate, pair, and exchange parts of their DNA in a process called meiotic recombination. In order to mediate this exchange of genetic material, cells introduce double strand breaks (DSBs) into their chromosomal DNA. Scientists from the lab of Franz Klein from the Department of Chromosome Biology at the Max Perutz Labs, a joint venture of the University…
A team at Landshut University of Applied Sciences has developed a low-cost, mobile near-infra-red spectrometer which provides information about different substances; the goal is its further development up to and including the classification of substances. Sugar or sweetener? Cotton or wool? Fake or genuine? At first glance, the average consumer finds it hard to tell the substances that food or textile products actually contain. Equipment which uses infra-red measurement to identify materials can provide quick answers to these questions, though….
Maritime litter is among the most urgent global pollution issues. Marine scientist Nikoleta Bellou and her team at Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon have published an overview study of solutions for prevention, monitoring, and removal in the renowned scientifically journal Nature Sustainability. They found that reducing ocean pollution requires more support, integration, and creative political decisiveness. Plastic bottles drifting in the sea; bags in the stomachs of turtles; Covid-19 masks dancing in the surf: few images are as unpleasant to look at as…
Four planets locked in a perfect rhythm around a nearby star are destined to be pinballed around their solar system when their sun eventually dies, according to a study led by the University of Warwick that peers into its future. Astronomers from University of Warwick and University of Exeter modelling the future of unusual planetary system found a solar system of planets that will ‘pinball’ off one another Today, the system consists of four massive planets locked in a perfect…
Implications for brain repair… Neurons, nerve cells in the brain, are central players in brain function. However, a key role for glia, long considered support cells, is emerging. A research group at the University of Basel has now discovered two new types of glial cells in the brain, by unleashing adult stem cells from their quiescent state. These new types of glia may play an important role in brain plasticity and repair. The brain is malleable well into adulthood. Brain…
Using conventional printing techniques to print flexible supercapacitors is economical, scalable. The demand for flexible wearable electronics has spiked with the dramatic growth of smart devices that can exchange data with other devices over the internet with embedded sensors, software, and other technologies. Researchers consequently have focused on exploring flexible energy storage devices, such as flexible supercapacitators (FSCs), that are lightweight and safe and easily integrate with other devices. FSCs have high power density and fast charge and discharge rates….
Digitization in agriculture … Crop diseases threaten yields in the field. Pests and parasitic weeds cause high crop losses of up to 30 percent every year. In the FarmerSpace project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Ilmenau is working together with partners to investigate the use of digital technologies for crop protection. The aim is to detect leaf diseases and the spread of weeds at an early stage and to initiate targeted protective measures…
A new study conducted by the researchers at the University of Liverpool reveals how the ancient photosynthetic organisms – cyanobacteria – evolve their photosynthetic machinery and organise their photosynthetic membrane architecture for the efficient capture of solar light and energy transduction. Oxygenic photosynthesis, carried out by plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, produces energy and oxygen for life on Earth and is arguably the most important biological process. Cyanobacteria are among the earliest phototrophs that can perform oxygenic photosynthesis and make significant…
Through the biological fixation of the element nitrogen by the enzyme nitrogenase, organisms gain access to molecular nitrogen (N2) in the Earth‘s atmosphere, which is essential for building cellular structures. In addition, a vanadium-dependent variant of nitrogenase can reduce the toxic gas carbon monoxide (CO) to hydrocarbons. These reductions of N2 and CO are among the most important processes in industrial chemistry, as they are used to produce both fertilizers and synthetic fuels. However, researchers have not yet been able…
Small pieces of plastic are everywhere, stretching from urban environments to pristine wilderness. Left to their own devices, it can take hundreds of years for them to degrade completely. Catalysts activated by sunlight could speed up the process, but getting these compounds to interact with microplastics is difficult. In a proof-of-concept study, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces developed self-propelled microrobots that can swim, attach to plastics and break them down. While plastic products are omnipresent indoors, plastic…
New technology could speed cancer diagnosis, ensure surgeons remove 100% of a tumor and inspect drugs for dangerous chemicals. Engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a prototype X-ray scanning machine that reveals not just the shape of an object but its molecular composition. With unprecedented resolution and accuracy, the technology could revolutionize a wide range of fields such as cancer surgery, pathology, drug inspection and geology. Many of the ideas behind the prototype were originally conceived in the pursuit of…
Laser-produced high energy density plasmas, akin to those found in stars, nuclear explosions, and the core of giant planets, may be the most extreme state of matter created on Earth. Now scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), building on nearly a decade of collaboration with the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), have designed a novel X-ray crystal spectrometer to provide high-resolution measurements of a challenging feature…
Collaboration between TU Darmstadt, British and US universities. Research teams from TU Darmstadt, British and US universities are focusing on one possible main process that leads to the death of brain cells – chemical reactions between different proteins in the brain and essential metals such as copper and iron – in their investigation of the causes and mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease. Their results are published in “Science Advances”. Alzheimer’s disease causes tremendous loss of life years and life quality. Tens…
Sponges promote a high diversity… Deep down in the ocean, valuable raw materials are stored, such as nodules of manganese, iron, cobalt and copper. The resources from these nodules could help meeting our increasing demand for rare metals. However, in addition to the nodules, there is another treasure down there: A complex ecosystem that we still barely know and understand. Researchers from Bremen and the Netherlands have now discovered that sponges, which like to settle on the metallic nodules, also…
LZH works on improved lens refilling. In eye surgery for cataract, the lens refilling method could allow to maintain or restore the lens’s accommodation of the lens, i.e. the ability to adjust its refractive power flexibly. So far, however, this method has not yet been clinically successful. The Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) is now working within a new research project with ROWIAK GmbH to advance the method further. In lens refilling, the interior of the lens is replaced with…
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