Scientists regularly use remote sensing drones and satellites to record how climate change affects permafrost thaw rates — methods that work well in barren tundra landscapes where there’s nothing to obstruct the view. But in boreal regions, which harbor a significant portion of the world’s permafrost, obscuring vegetation can stymy even the most advanced remote sensing technology. In a study published in January, researchers in Germany and at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute developed a method of using…
Micro-scale depictions solve century-old puzzle of brain energy use and blood vessel clusters. Our brains are non-stop consumers. A labyrinth of blood vessels, stacked end-to-end comparable in length to the distance from San Diego to Berkeley, ensures a continuous flow of oxygen and sugar to keep our brains functioning at peak levels. But how does this intricate system ensure that more active parts of the brain receive enough nourishment versus less demanding areas? That’s a century-old problem in neuroscience that…
Researchers exploring the interactions between light particles, photons and matter find that optical microresonators host quasiparticles made by two photons. Scientists at the University of Bath in the UK have found a way to bind together two photons of different colours, paving the way for important advancements in quantum-electrodynamics – the field of science that describes how light and matter interact. In time, the team’s findings are likely to impact developments in optical and quantum communication, and precision measurements of…
Toward the development of drugs for aging-related diseases In the search for ways to effectively combat age-related human disease, the enzyme sirtuin 6 (Sirt6) has recently become a focus of biochemical research. A targeted activation of Sirt6 could prevent or mitigate such diseases, for example some types of cancer. In a paper for the journal “Nature Chemical Biology”, biochemists from the University of Bayreuth have now shown how the small molecule MDL-801 binds to the enzyme Sirt6 and influences its…
Hurricane resembling those in lower atmosphere observed over Earth’s polar ionosphere. The first observations of a space hurricane have been revealed in Earth’s upper atmosphere, confirming their existence and shedding new light on the relationship between planets and space. Hurricanes in the Earth’s low atmosphere are known, but they had never before been detected in the upper atmosphere. An international team of scientists led by Shandong University in China analysed observations made by satellites in 2014 to reveal a long-lasting…
Using a new method, physicists from TU Bergakademie Freiberg, in cooperation with researchers from Berkeley (USA) and Hamburg, are for the first time analyzing at the femtosecond scale the processes in a model system for organic solar cells in detail. The results can be used to develop high-performance and efficient solar cells. The key are the ultra-fast flashes of light, with which the team led by Dr. Friedrich Roth works at FLASH in Hamburg, the world’s first free-electron laser in…
The agricultural cultivation of the staple food of rice harbours the risk of possible contamination with arsenic that can reach the grains following uptake by the roots. In their investigation of over 4,000 variants of rice, a Chinese-German research team under the direction of Prof. Dr Rüdiger Hell from the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) of Heidelberg University and Prof. Dr Fang-Jie Zhao of Nanjing Agricultural University (China) discovered a plant variant that resists the toxin. Although the plants thrive…
In an exceptionally broad and elaborate study, biologists from the University of Würzburg investigated the biodiversity of flowering fields planted as part of agri-environmental schemes. Due to modern agriculture, biodiversity across many species groups is in decline. Over the last three decades, attempts have been made to counteract this with agri-environmental schemes at various levels – from the national federal state to EU-wide programmes. Not only out of appreciation of nature, but also because many species fulfil important functions for…
Nanoscale sound waves vibrate artificial atom A German-polish research team from Augsburg, Münster, Munich and Wrocław successfully mixed nanoscale sound waves and light quanta. In their study published in Optica the scientists use an ’artificial atom’ that converts the vibrations of the sound wave to single light quanta – photons – with unprecedented precision. The demonstrated fundamental principle marks an important step toward the development of future hybrid quantum technologies. Light and sound waves form the backbone of modern communication…
Just like cellulose, lignin and fats, proteins are renewable raw materials. Their potential for the chemical industry remains largely untapped. Research teams at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV are collaborating with partners to change all this, the idea being to use the promising technofunctional properties of vegetable proteins for industrial applications. The aim of the TeFuProt project is to shift away from petroleum and make more use of renewable raw materials. Although proteins from vegetable sources…
The Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML is developing a new generation of automated guided vehicles. “LoadRunners” use artificial intelligence and communicate via 5G to organize themselves as a swarm and execute jobs independently. Able to sort large quantities of packages, this high-speed transporter can serve booming online and mail-order businesses well. The coronavirus crisis has given Germany’s e-commerce a big boost. More and more consumers are shopping online to avoid the crowds in stores and minimize the…
Plants grow in two directions: the shoots of plants grow toward the light to make the best use of it, and the roots grow toward the center of the earth into the soil. A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), in collaboration with two research groups in Vienna, has now been able to describe in detail how the molecular mechanisms work that control these processes. Plants grow towards the light. This phenomenon, which already fascinated Charles Darwin, has…
International research team identifies how the cell nucleus structures active and inactive DNA. All life begins with one cell. During the development of an organism, cells divide and become specialized, yet each cell nucleus contains the same hereditary material. Our DNA is tightly packed to fit into the nucleus of every cell. From our genetic library, products like RNA and proteins are made and they serve as molecular machines and structural components for many processes happening inside our cells. The…
Fraunhofer IAF starts a project on compact on-chip sources for entangled photons, which are an important component for the realization of industrial quantum technology applications. In the project “QuoAlA”, scientists are researching waveguides based on aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs) as sources for generating entangled photons. AlGaAs enables a particularly compact design and chip integration. The project started in February and is funded by the BMBF within the funding program “Quantum technologies—from basic research to market” as “WiVoPro” (Scientific Preliminary Project)….
In a new publication in the scientific journal “Nature Materials”, researchers of the Institute for Applied Physics at TU Dresden introduce a novel device concept towards high-efficient and low-voltage vertical organic lighting-emitting transistors. With the new device architecture and fabrication technology, the team paves the way for a broad application of efficient OLED active matrix displays. In the group of Prof. Karl Leo, physicists, material scientists and engineers are working jointly on the development of novel organic materials and devices…
… without microplastics and pollutants Sustainable food production in aquacultures entirely without microplastics – that is the long-term goal of a new research project at Hof University of Applied Sciences that will run for two years. The scientists led by project manager Prof. Dr. Manuela Wimmer have now received funding of EUR 220,000 for “BioBioCarrier” from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and as part of the Central Innovation Program for SMEs (ZIM). Plastics in the food chain are…
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