Remote sensing creates a cost-effective solution to monitoring plastic pollution. A first-of-its-kind study from researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities shows how remote sensing can help monitor and remove plastic debris from freshwater environments like the Mississippi River. The research, published in Nature, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, helps to increase the understanding of plastic debris behavior in freshwater environments. Plastic pollution in oceans continues to be a growing environmental issue, with the United Nations Environment Programme naming it one…
With a processing speed a billion times faster than nature, chip-based laser neuron could help advance AI tasks such as pattern recognition and sequence prediction. Researchers have developed a laser-based artificial neuron that fully emulates the functions, dynamics and information processing of a biological graded neuron. With a signal processing speed of 10 GBaud —a billion times faster than its biological counterparts — the new laser graded neuron could lead to breakthroughs in fields like artificial intelligence and other types…
Just one look in the yellow bin reveals a colourful jumble of different types of plastic. However, the purer and more uniform plastic waste is, the easier it is to recycle. In a new research project, the universities of Jena and Bayreuth, together with the companies BASF, Endress + Hauser Digital Solutions and TechnoCompound GmbH, want to optimise the recycling process for plastics. The Spectroscopic Investigation of the Recycling of Plastic project plans to reliably and precisely identify the composition…
– new calculation confirms standard model of particle physics. Contribution of hadronic vacuum polarization determined with unprecedented accuracy. The magnetic moment of the muon is an important precision parameter for putting the standard model of particle physics to the test. After years of work, the research group led by Professor Hartmut Wittig of the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has calculated this quantity using the so-called lattice quantum chromodynamics method (lattice QCD method). Their result,…
Antibody that Neutralizes Inhibitory Factors Involved in Nerve Regeneration Leads to Enhanced Motor Function after Acute Spinal Cord Injury. Researchers at 13 clinics in Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Spain have investigated this with promising results. For the first time, it was possible to identify patient groups that displayed a clinically relevant treatment effect. A follow-up study will start in December 2024. The latest study results have been published online in the renowned “The Lancet Neurology” journal. Joint press…
How the body’s natural killer cells could fight leukemia. Every year, some 13,000 people in Germany are diagnosed with leukemia. Despite intensive chemotherapy, around one in two of them die. Therapies currently available have severe side effects and inhibit the formation of new healthy blood cells in particular. One alternative is therapy concepts that harness the immune system’s natural power. It is important to note, however, that tumor cells have mechanisms capable of slowing down the immune cells’ attack. Professor…
After several years of service under harsh weather conditions, the rotor blades of offshore wind parks are subjected to degradation and surface erosion, releasing sizeable quantities of particle emissions into the environment. A team of researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute has now investigated the effects of these particle on blue mussels – a species also being considered for the multi-use of wind parks for aquaculture. In the experiment, the mussels absorbed metals from the rotor blades’ coatings, as…
On the morning of December 26, 1999, the winter storm “Lothar” swept across Switzerland, knocking down around 14 million cubic meters of wood, three times the annual logging volume. WSL experts answer numerous questions about how the forest is doing 25 years later. Citations: “Lothar showed us the damage that extreme events can cause. In the Swiss Plateau, the extent of the damage was unprecedented. Today we would say, ‘inconceivable’.” Thomas Wohlgemuth, disturbance ecologist at WSL “A windthrow event shakes…
Wearables such as smart watches or sensor rings are already a routine part of everyday life and are also popular Christmas gifts. They track our pulse rate, count our steps or analyze our sleep patterns. How can they already influence our behavior today and what future developments are possible? In this interview, Can Dincer, who holds a Professorship of Sensors and Wearables for Healthcare at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) offers insights into his research. What do we mean…
Pancreatic cancer (pancreatic carcinoma) remains one of the most challenging forms of cancer to treat, spurring global efforts to explore new therapeutic avenues. One such groundbreaking initiative is the “mikroPank” research network, a collaboration between the University Medical Center Halle and the Institute of Pharmacy at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). This innovative project is setting new standards in the development of realistic tumor models to enhance the effectiveness of treatment strategies. The ambitious scope of “mikroPank” is supported by…
Technique may prevent formation of unwanted waves that siphon off needed energy. Heating plasma to the ultra-high temperatures needed for fusion reactions requires more than turning the dial on a thermostat. Scientists consider multiple methods, one of which involves injecting electromagnetic waves into the plasma, the same process that heats food in microwave ovens. But when they produce one type of heating wave, they can sometimes simultaneously create another type of wave that does not heat the plasma, in effect…
… eco-friendly reactor converts air and water into ammonia. Producing enough ammonia to feed the world comes with a large carbon footprint;. process described in new UB-led study could help fix that. There’s a good chance you owe your existence to the Haber-Bosch process. This industrial chemical reaction between hydrogen and nitrogen produces ammonia, the key ingredient to synthetic fertilizers that supply much of the world’s food supply and enabled the population explosion of the last century. It may also…
An international team of astronomers, led by researchers from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw, have identified a new class of cosmic X-ray sources. The findings have been published in „Astrophysical Journal Letters.” Most people encounter X-rays during medical visits, where they are used to create images of bones or diagnose lung conditions. These X-rays are generated using artificial sources. However, not everyone knows that celestial objects can also emit X-ray radiation. “Some cosmic phenomena produce X-rays naturally,” explains…
Academic and industry scientists collaborate on a new method to characterize research antibodies. Structural Genomics Consortium researchers at The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) of McGill University, in collaboration with scientists from 11 major antibody manufacturers representing approximately 80 per cent of global renewable antibody production, have developed and standardized an Open Science platform to characterize research antibodies. This platform, designed to evaluate antibody specificity, aims to tackle a critical challenge in biomedical research reproducibility. Their approach was published in Nature…
Insights from the first global appraisal of microbiomes in earth’s subsurface environments. Which microbes thrive below us in darkness – in gold mines, in aquifers, in deep boreholes in the seafloor – and how do they compare to the microbiomes that envelop the Earth’s surfaces, on land and sea? The first global study to embrace this huge question, conducted at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, reveals astonishingly high microbial diversity in some subsurface environments (up to 491 meters…
…shows promise in treating serious lung disease. EMBL scientists discover that an FDA-approved, over-the-counter cough syrup ingredient has potential to treat fibrotic lung disease. A common over-the-counter ingredient in many cough syrups may have a greater purpose for people suffering from lung fibrosis that is related to any number of serious health conditions. Scientists from EMBL Heidelberg were part of a collaborative effort to discover an effective treatment for lung fibrosis and found that the best candidate may be one…
Feedback
