A research team at Friedrich Schiller University Jena is developing a high-resolution imaging technique that can be used to determine internal structures in materials and their chemical composition in a non-destructive manner and with nanometre precision Images provide information – what we can observe with our own eyes enables us to understand. Constantly expanding the field of perception into dimensions that are initially hidden from the naked eye, drives science forward. Today, increasingly powerful microscopes let us see into the…
TU scientists are studying clay minerals found on the Red Planet On 18 February 2021, the Mars 2020 Mission will finally land on the Red Planet. The Mars Perseverance Rover is scheduled to touch down at Jezero Crater, a large crater which scientists believe was once a lake. If there ever was any life on Mars, proof could be found here due to the previous habitable conditions provided by the water. The rover will pursue a number of scientific objectives,…
New MHH research collaboration aims to develop novel treatment for bacterial lung infections using universal human stem cells Healing the body with cells – this is the ambitious goal of scientists at Hannover Medical School (MHH). With this in mind, Professor Dr. Nico Lachmann and Dr. Robert Zweigerdt have initiated a research collaboration and license agreement with the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk A/S, to combine academic knowhow with the translational power of the industry. The overall aim of the endeavor…
Geologists have developed a new theory about the state of Earth billions of years ago after examining the very old rocks formed in the Earth’s mantle below the continents. Assistant Professor Emma Tomlinson from Trinity College Dublin and Queensland University of Technology’s Professor Balz Kamber have just published their research in leading international journal, Nature Communications. The seven continents on Earth today are each built around a stable interior called a craton, and geologists believe that craton stabilisation some 2.5…
Over the past years, global data traffic has experienced a boom, with over 12.5 billion connected devices all over the world. The current world-wide deployment of the 5G telecommunications standard is triggering the need for smaller devices with enhanced performances, such as higher speed, lower power consumption and reduced cost as well as easier manufacturability. In search for the appropriate technology, photonic devices emerged as the leading technology for the evolution of such information and communication technologies, already surpassing the…
Measure what fuses The Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 enters human cells by membrane fusion after contact of its spike protein with the ACE2 receptor. New studies provide proof for a second role of the protein in COVID-19: Fusion of body cells. A research team of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut has developed promising assays of how to measure these membrane functions. Smallest amounts of spike protein present in cell culture suffice to allow infected and non-infected cells to fuse and die. Virus particles with spike…
The effects of microplastics on our health and the environment are being rigorously studied all across the world. Researchers are identifying microplastic sources and their potential routes to the environment by examining rainwater, wastewater, and soil. Microplastics have been found in nearly all organisms and habitats everywhere in the world. However, factors contributing to the influx and accumulation of microplastics in water ecosystems aren’t fully understood yet. The focus of microplastics research has, for a long time, been on the…
Nanomaterial developments could lead to computers and phones running thousands of times faster. The tiniest microchips yet can be made from graphene and other 2D-materials, using a form of ‘nano-origami’, physicists at the University of Sussex have found. This is the first time any researchers have done this, and it is covered in a paper published in the ACS Nano journal. By creating kinks in the structure of graphene, researchers at the University of Sussex have made the nanomaterial behave…
– made fast, accurate, and cheap The Wyss Institute’s eRapid electrochemical sensor technology now enables sensitive, specific and multiplexed detection of blood biomarkers at low cost. Many life-threatening medical conditions, such as sepsis, which is triggered by blood-borne pathogens, cannot be detected accurately and quickly enough to initiate the right course of treatment. In patients that have been infected by an unknown pathogen and progress to overt sepsis, every additional hour that an effective antibiotic cannot be administered significantly increases…
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a soft, stretchy skin patch that can be worn on the neck to continuously track blood pressure and heart rate while measuring the wearer’s levels of glucose as well as lactate, alcohol or caffeine. It is the first wearable device that monitors cardiovascular signals and multiple biochemical levels in the human body at the same time. “This type of wearable would be very helpful for people with underlying medical conditions…
Staying long-term Leading space agencies aspire astronaut missions to Mars in the future. These are designed for a long-term stay, which poses new challenges for science: In addition to a habitat, for example, the few materials brought from Earth must be used efficiently and sustainably to equip and feed the astronauts. Humboldt fellow Cyprien Verseux from ZARM at the University of Bremen has now published initial research results at frontiers that indicate that cyanobacteria can reproduce excellently under Martian conditions…
A research team led by Prof. Dr. Maria von Korff Schmising from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ) in Cologne investigated the genetic regulation of spike development in barley and wheat. As reported in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), they discovered different barley mutants with wheat-like spikes. In plants, the ‘meristem’ refers to a type of tissue…
Nanoscientists from Chemnitz and Dresden develop adaptive microelectronics that can move independently according to sensor data and align themselves specifically for activities – possible applications in biomedicine and bioneural interfacing Flexible and adaptive microelectronics is considered an innovation driver for new and more effective biomedical applications. These include, for example, the treatment of damaged nerve bundles, chronic pain, or the control of artificial limbs. For this to work, close contact between electronics and neural tissue is essential for effective electrical…
Researchers at University of Münster and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry have developed a method for determining the arrangement and density of individual proteins in cells. In this way, they were able to prove the existence of an adhesion complex consisting of three proteins. Cells of organisms are organized in subcellular compartments that consist of many individual molecules. How these single proteins are organized on the molecular level remains unclear, because suitable analytical methods are still missing. Researchers at…
A preclinical study at the University Hospital Tübingen shows promising effects in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) caused by non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) At the University Hospital of Tübingen, the preclinical study by Dr. Daniel Dauch and Prof. Dr. Lars Zender, Medical Director of Medical Oncology and Pneumology, led to the extremely positive preclinical results. The research groups pursued a new therapeutic approach, which they themselves refer to as “induced lipotoxicity,” aimed at overcoming treatment resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma. The new study with…
Excitons are quasiparticles which can transport energy through solid substances. This makes them important for the development of future materials and devices – but more research is needed to understand their fundamental behavior and how to manipulate it. Now an international research team involving theoreticians at the MPSD has discovered that an exciton can simultaneously adopt two radically different characters when it is stimulated by light. Their work, now published in Nature Communications, yields crucial new insights for current and…
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