Until recently, oligodendrocytes were primarily thought to be a kind of cellular insulating tape that accelerates the transmission of electrical signals in the brain. A study by the University of Bonn now shows that they are also important for the energy supply of neurons in some brain regions. The findings are published in the journal Cell Reports. The human brain has about as many neurons as glial cells. These are divided into four major groups: the microglia, the astrocytes, the…
Transport processes are ubiquitous in nature but still raise many questions. The research team around Florian Meinert from the 5th Institute of Physics at the University of Stuttgart has now developed a new method that allows them to observe a single charged particle on its path through a dense cloud of ultracold atoms. The results were published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters and are subject in a Viewpoint of the accompanying popular science journal Physics. Meinert‘s team uses…
A project at Landshut University of Applied Sciences is developing a control system for electricity storage in order to reduce power grid losses and support the energy transition. In the course of the necessary energy transition, it is important for the use of renewable sources of energy to be increased. The huge increase in the number of photovoltaic systems, however, means that existing power lines are now reaching their limits, as peak loads are overloading the power grid. That means:…
Test bench proves successful in regular operation The Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES has completed a successful series of accelerated tests on rotor blade bearings at the bearing test bench in Hamburg. Within the scope of research and industry projects, bearings were subjected to dynamic endurance tests to increase their reliability and gain insights into the causes of wear. The first bearing tests were thoroughly successful with both the test method developed by Fraunhofer IWES and the test…
A mathematical framework enables accurate characterization of shapes In nature, many things have evolved that differ in size, color and, above all, in shape. While the color or size of an object can be easily described, the description of a shape is more complicated. In a study now published in Nature Communications, Jacqueline Nowak of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (MPI-MP) and her colleagues have outlined a new and improved way to describe shapes based on a…
Newly identified pathway explains why antihistamine drugs often don’t work to control severe itch. In addition to a skin rash, many eczema sufferers also experience chronic itching, but sometimes that itching can become torturous. Worse, antihistamines — the standard treatment for itching and allergy — often don’t help. New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that allergens in the environment often are to blame for episodes of acute itch in eczema patients, and that the…
Computer simulations of cells evolving over tens of thousands of generations reveal why some organisms retain a disused switch mechanism that turns on under severe stress, changing some of their characteristics. Maintaining this “hidden” switch is one means for organisms to maintain a high degree of gene expression stability under normal conditions. Tomato hornworm larvae are green in warmer regions, making camouflage easier, but black in cooler temperatures so that they can absorb more sunlight. This phenomenon, found in some…
Cell velocity, or how fast a cell moves, is known to depend on how sticky the surface is beneath it, but the precise mechanisms of this relationship have remained elusive for decades. Now, researchers from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) and Ludwig Maximilians Universität München (LMU) have figured out the precise mechanics and developed a mathematical model capturing the forces involved in cell movement. The findings, reported in the journal Proceedings of the…
Taurine, which helps the body digest fats and oils, could offer treatment benefit Scientists studying the body’s natural defenses against bacterial infection have identified a nutrient–taurine–that helps the gut recall prior infections and kill invading bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kpn). The finding, published in the journal Cell by scientists from five institutes of the National Institutes of Health, could aid efforts seeking alternatives to antibiotics. Scientists know that microbiota–the trillions of beneficial microbes living harmoniously inside our gut–can protect…
Images of a protein involved in creating a potent antibiotic reveal the unusual first steps of the antibiotic’s synthesis. The improved understanding of the chemistry behind this process, detailed in a new study led by Penn State chemists, could allow researchers to adapt this and similar compounds for use in human medicine. “The antibiotic thiostrepton is very potent against Gram-positive pathogens and can even target certain breast cancer cells in culture,” said Squire Booker, a biochemist at Penn State and…
Complex production processes in highly flexible and networked manufacturing systems require all processes and distributed systems to be able to exchange their data extremely reliably and with only short delay times. For this so-called “Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communication” (URLLC), the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a worldwide cooperation for the standardization of mobile communication technologies, is developing a new standard for future 5G products. The Fraunhofer-Institute for Production Technology IPT and the Swedish mobile communications supplier Ericsson are…
In a large genome study, a Kiel University research team demonstrates correlations between certain gene variants and the composition of bacterial colonization in the human body For several years, scientists worldwide have been investigating the extent to which microorganisms living in and on the human body influence central life processes and thus health and disease. Today they assume that there is a connection between the totality of the microbial colonization in the human body, called the microbiome, and the development…
How do tumours develop in the cervix? Many new details are now known about this question. This is also thanks to Dr. Cindrilla Chumduri from the Biocentre at the University of Würzburg. Organoids are increasingly being used in biomedical research. These are organ-like structures created in the laboratory that are only a few millimetres in size. Organoids can be used to study life processes and the effect of drugs. Because they closely resemble real organs, they offer several advantages over…
380 million years ago, fish started to crawl out of the water to colonise land. The Australian lungfish – an endangered, air-breathing fish – is one of the few living relatives of these first land explorers. A team of researchers sequenced its giant genome for the first time, unveiling the species’ unique evolutionary history and striking similarities to land-dwelling vertebrates. The study, published in the journal “Nature”, sets a record for the largest animal genome ever sequenced. The Australian lungfish…
Hard X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) have delivered intense, ultrashort X-ray pulses for over a decade. One of the most promising applications of XFELs is in biology, where researchers can capture images down to the atomic scale even before the radiation damage destroys the sample. In physics and chemistry, these X-rays can also shed light on the fastest processes occurring in nature with a shutter speed lasting only one femtosecond – equivalent to a millionth of a billionth of a second….
Fabian Schneider leads the new research group “Stellar Evolution Theory” (SET) at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS). The astrophysicist explores the turbulent life of massive binary stars and their explosive deaths in supernovae. He was awarded an ERC Starting Grant of about € 1.5 million by the European Research Council (ERC). He will use the funds to establish his own junior research group at HITS. Stars are the basic building blocks of the visible Universe. Astrophysicists are particularly…
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