Metallurgists have all kinds of ways to make a chunk of metal harder. They can bend it, twist it, run it between two rollers or pound it with a hammer. These methods work by breaking up the metal’s grain structure — the microscopic crystalline domains that form a bulk piece of metal. Smaller grains make for harder metals. Now, a group of Brown University researchers has found a way to customize metallic grain structures from the bottom up. In a…
Cryo-electron microscopy study allows researchers to visualize structural changes in an E. coli enzyme synthesizing ribosomal RNA that shift it between turbo- and slow-modes depending on the bacteria’s growth rate. The enzyme that makes RNA from a DNA template is altered to slow the production of ribosomal RNA (rRNA), the most abundant type of RNA within cells, when resources are scarce and the bacteria Escherichia coli needs to slow its growth. Researchers used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to capture the structures…
As the energy transition progresses, the expansion of the electricity grids is becoming increasingly important. More and more renewable generation plants as well as electrical storage systems are being connected to the grid. This gives power electronics a decisive role, because it is essential to connect these systems to the grid. However, in addition to the mere feed-in or feed-back of electrical energy, power electronics must also perform other grid-supporting tasks. In the “SiC-MSBat” project, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute…
With the help of AI, Landshut University of Applied Sciences wants to optimise internal company logistics and therefore increase the competitiveness of production industries in Bavaria No other technology is changing our society and world of work quite as rapidly as artificial intelligence (AI). To be economically successful in the market, in addition to a good product, optimised and intelligent production processes are of considerable importance. A research team at the Technology Centre for Production and Logistics Systems (TZ PULS)…
New insights to an icon of evolutionary biology Analysis of digitized collection specimens supports an old hypothesis. For a long time, the long neck of giraffes has fascinated evolutionary biologists and anatomists. Despite its enormous length of approximately 2 meters it is made up of only 7 vertebrae, just like in us humans, in tiny shrews and almost all other mammals. New methods help researchers of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) in Germany to find…
New Emmy Noether group at the University of Potsdam conducts joint research with Fraunhofer IAP On January 1, 2021, the new Emmy Noether Group “Next Generation Antimicrobial Polymers” started its work at the University of Potsdam in close cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP. The goal is to develop antimicrobial polymers that can replace antibiotics. “The fight against antibiotic resistance is unfortunately becoming increasingly important. After all, if we as a society lose the ability to…
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization show that the secret to optimal micro-swimming is out there in the nature. They prove that a microswimmer can increase its swimming efficiency by learning the swimming techniques from an unexpected mentor: an air bubble. Engineers have spent considerable efforts to improve the fuel economy of aircraft, cars or ships in the past decades. A similar process has been going on in biology, where swimming microorganisms have evolved over hundreds…
Physicists from Göttingen first to succeed in filming a phase transition with extremely high spatial and temporal resolution. Laser beams can be used to change the properties of materials in an extremely precise way. This principle is already widely used in technologies such as rewritable DVDs. However, the underlying processes generally take place at such unimaginably fast speeds and at such a small scale that they have so far eluded direct observation. Researchers at the University of Göttingen and the…
It’s cool to be small. Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have miniaturized the optical components required to cool atoms down to a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero, the first step in employing them on microchips to drive a new generation of super-accurate atomic clocks, enable navigation without GPS, and simulate quantum systems. Cooling atoms is equivalent to slowing them down, which makes them a lot easier to study. At room temperature, atoms…
Scientists from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and The University of Western Australia (UWA) have set a world record for the most stable transmission of a laser signal through the atmosphere. In a study published today in the journal Nature Communications, Australian researchers teamed up with researchers from the French National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) and the French metrology lab Systèmes de Référence Temps-Espace (SYRTE) at Paris Observatory. The team set the world record for the most stable…
A cascaded dual deformable phase plate wavefront modulator enables direct AO integration with existing microscopes–doubling the aberration correction range and greatly improving image quality. Microscopy is the workhorse of contemporary life science research, enabling morphological and chemical inspection of living tissue with ever-increasing spatial and temporal resolution. Even though modern microscopes are genuine marvels of engineering, minute deviations from ideal imaging conditions will still lead to optical aberrations that rapidly degrade imaging quality. A mismatch between the refractive indices of…
Nerve cells communicate with one another via synapses. Neuroscientists at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich have now found that these connections seem to be much more powerful than previously thought. The larger the synapse, the stronger the signal it transmits. These findings will enable a better understanding of how the brain functions and how neurological disorders arise. The neocortex is the part of the brain that humans use to process sensory impressions, store memories, give instructions to the…
Using mathematical image processing, scientists at the BioTechMed-Graz research cooperation have found a way to create digital twins from human hearts. The method opens up completely new possibilities in clinical diagnostics. Although treatment options are constantly improving, cardiovascular diseases are still one of the most frequent causes of death in Europe. The success of the treatment varies from patient to patient and depends on the individual clinical picture, as Gernot Plank, researcher at the Institute of Biophysics at the Medical…
Fraunhofer LBF identifies potential for lightweight design Increasingly stringent statutory emission limits are pushing the automotive industry toward innovative lightweight design solutions. In this context, the fatigue strength of thin sheet metal structures, especially made from multi-material, is becoming increasingly important. The car manufacturer Opel Automobile GmbH, together with Fraunhofer LBF and SAM of TU Darmstadt, has developed innovative numerical fatigue strength assessment approaches for multi-material joints based on fatigue tests of hybrid joined shear and peel specimens. The method…
In order to help the industry have greater access to raw materials, the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT and Cronimet Ferroleg. GmbH have jointly developed a laser-based sorting process for metal scrap as part of the BMBF-funded “PLUS” project. A new sensor they have developed makes the recycling of metallic raw materials many times more efficient than previously possible. The EU project “REVaMP” goes one step further: In this project, Fraunhofer ILT experts have also been contributing their expertise…
A promising lead halide perovskite is great at converting sunlight to electricity, but it breaks down at room temperature; now scientists have discovered how to stabilize it with pressure from a diamond anvil cell. Among the materials known as perovskites, one of the most exciting is a material that can convert sunlight to electricity as efficiently as today’s commercial silicon solar cells and has the potential for being much cheaper and easier to manufacture. There’s just one problem: Of the…
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