unibz contributes to the fight against microplastics … In 2017, the UN declared the presence of 51 trillion microplastic particles in the Earth’s seas: “500 times more numerous than all the stars in our galaxy”. A product invented and patented by Marco Caniato, a researcher and lecturer at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, has proved extremely promising in the battle against the environmental dispersion of microplastics. Secondary microplastics, i.e. plastic fragments of less than 5 mm in size resulting from…
New observations and simulations show that jets of high-energy particles emitted from the central massive black hole in the brightest galaxy in galaxy clusters can be used to map the structure of invisible inter-cluster magnetic fields. These findings provide astronomers with a new tool for investigating previously unexplored aspects of clusters of galaxies. As clusters of galaxies grow through collisions with surrounding matter, they create bow shocks and wakes in their dilute plasma. The plasma motion induced by these activities…
The inner workings of a “self-destruct switch” present on human cells that can be activated during an immune response have been revealed. In unprecedented detail, KAUST scientists with collaborators in China report the 3D atomic structure of the human PANX1 protein, which may help underpin new therapies that target the immune system. When cells become infected with a pathogen, the body’s immune system works to destroy the infected cells before they become a threat to surrounding tissues. This form of…
– how T cells detect invaders. T cells use their antigen receptors like sticky fingers — a team from TU Wien and MedUni Vienna was able to observe them doing so. T-cells play a central role in our immune system: by means of their so-called T-cell receptors (TCR) they make out dangerous invaders or cancer cells in the body and then trigger an immune reaction. On a molecular level, this recognition process is still not sufficiently understood. Intriguing observations have…
A curiously yellow pre-supernova star has caused astrophysicists to re-evaluate what’s possible at the deaths of our Universe’s most massive stars. The team describe the peculiar star and its resulting supernova in a new study published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. At the end of their lives, cool, yellow stars are typically shrouded in hydrogen, which conceals the star’s hot, blue interior. But this yellow star, located 35 million light years from Earth in the Virgo…
Common bioprinting methods fail to direct cell orientation at the individual cell level, but a technique can with implications for engineering skeletal muscles, tendons, and ligaments. 3D bioprinting can create engineered scaffolds that mimic natural tissue. Controlling the cellular organization within those engineered scaffolds for regenerative applications is a complex and challenging process. Cell tissues tend to be highly ordered in terms of spatial distribution and alignment, so bioengineered cellular scaffolds for tissue engineering applications must closely resemble this orientation…
– for painless drug delivery with minimal side effects. A recent study from the University of Helsinki monitors the breakthrough progresses in the development of microneedles for immunotherapy and discusses the challenges regarding their production. Researchers suggest using microneedles for immunotherapy due to the high abundance of immune cells under the skin. The aim is to vaccinate or treat different diseases, such as cancer and autoimmune disorders, with minimal invasiveness and side effects. “Our study addresses the recent achievements in…
– pave way for powering chip-sized optical systems. The field of photonics aims to transform all manner of electronic devices by storing and transmitting information in the form of light, rather than electricity. Beyond light’s raw speed, the way that information can be layered in its various physical properties makes devices like photonic computers and communication systems tantalizing prospects. Before such devices can go from theory to reality, however, engineers must find ways of making their light sources — lasers…
Clothing, from tank tops to parkas, helps people adapt to temperatures outdoors. But you can only put on or take off so much of it, and fluctuations in weather can render what you are wearing entirely inadequate. In a new study in ACS’ Nano Letters, researchers describe a high-tech alternative: a reversible textile they designed to trap warmth in the cold and reflect it during hot weather, all while generating small amounts of electricity. Previous attempts to develop such sophisticated…
Coded messages in invisible ink sound like something only found in espionage books, but in real life, they can have important security purposes. Yet, they can be cracked if their encryption is predictable. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have printed complexly encoded data with normal ink and a carbon nanoparticle-based invisible ink, requiring both UV light and a computer that has been taught the code to reveal the correct messages. Even as electronic records advance, paper…
Girls with mutations in the gene EPHB2 may be at increased risk of autism. After reviewing a database of gene mutations in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a team of Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) researchers decided to study a specific gene mutation that likely caused ASD in a girl. They demonstrated that the mutation was damaging to the gene, and that female, but not male, mice lacking a working copy of the gene also showed ASD-associated symptoms….
Hot paper in Angewandte Chemie … How can a highly effective drug be transported to the precise location in the body where it is needed? In the journal Angewandte Chemie, chemists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) together with colleagues in Aachen present a solution using a molecular cage that opens through ultrasonification. Supramolecular chemistry involves the organization of molecules into larger, higher-order structures. When suitable building blocks are chosen, these systems ‘self-assemble’ from their individual components. Certain supramolecular compounds…
Hydrogen technology will also be used on rails in the future. In the future, regional trains will be equipped with fuel cells that convert oxygen and hydrogen into electrical energy. In its “Heat2Comfort” project, funded by the BMWI, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Dresden is contrib-uting to this type of emission-free and low-noise mode of transport. Together with its partners, the Hörmann Vehicle Engineering GmbH, the Wärme-tauscher Sachsen GmbH as well as the Institute…
A new measurement method for 3D shape acquisition has been developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF. With their “MWIR-3D sensor”, they can scan objects three-dimensionally, regardless of whether they are made of transparent plastic or glass. Even objects with shiny metallic or jet-black surfaces can be detected without any difficulties. Combining different materials is also no problem for the new 3D infrared sensor. In the field of 3D sensor technology, this degree…
– an underestimated problem? The images leave no one cold: giant vortices of floating plastic trash in the world’s oceans with sometimes devastating consequences for their inhabitants – the sobering legacy of our modern lifestyle. Weathering and degradation processes produce countless tiny particles that can now be detected in virtually all ecosystems. But how dangerous are the smallest of them, so-called nanoplastics? Are they a ticking time bomb, as alarming media reports suggest? In the latest issue of the journal…
First 3D model with patient cells … Myotonic dystrophy is a hereditary degenerative neuromuscular disease that occurs mainly in adults, affecting about 50,000 people only in Spain. Symptoms range from difficulty walking and myotonia (great difficulty in relaxing the contracted muscles) to severe neurological problems, leading to progressive disability that unfortunately puts many of those affected in a wheelchair. This disease is very heterogeneous among patients (age of onset, progression, hereditary transmission, affected muscles), which makes the development of generic…
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