Princeton Chemistry’s Scholes Group is reporting evidence that quantum vibrations participate in electron transfer, establishing with ultrafast laser spectroscopy that the vibrations provide channels through which the reaction takes place. Seeking to establish an experimental proof for a highly contested topic – the role of vibrations in processes fundamental to solar energy conversion – Princeton researchers set out to map the progress of a photoinduced electron transfer (ET) reaction. The short laser pulses in ultrafast spectroscopy helped to lock all…
In a step toward making more accurate and uniform 3D-printed parts such as personalized prosthetics and dental materials, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a method of measuring the rate at which microscopic regions of a liquid raw material harden into a solid plastic when exposed to light. NIST’s custom atomic force microscope (AFM) with a nanometer-scale, cylinder-shaped tip revealed that the complex process of curing resins, as they react under light to form…
A new technology, called Artificial Chemist 2.0, allows users to go from requesting a custom quantum dot to completing the relevant R&D and beginning manufacturing in less than an hour. The tech is completely autonomous, and uses artificial intelligence (AI) and automated robotic systems to perform multi-step chemical synthesis and analysis. Quantum dots are colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, which are used in applications such as LED displays and solar cells. “When we rolled out the first version of Artificial Chemist, it…
The research, involving URV researcher Vladimir Baulin, opens the door to the development of new bactericide materials as an alternative to antibiotics. Finding alternatives to antibiotics is one of the biggest challenges facing the research community. Bacteria are increasingly resistant to these drugs, and this resistance leads to the deaths of more than 25,000 around the world. Now, a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, the University of Grenoble (France), the University of Saarland (Germany) and…
Researchers have used AI to control beams for the next generation of smaller, cheaper accelerators for research, medical and industrial applications. Experiments led by Imperial College London researchers, using the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Central Laser Facility (CLF), showed that an algorithm was able to tune the complex parameters involved in controlling the next generation of plasma-based particle accelerators. The algorithm was able to optimize the accelerator much more quickly than a human operator, and could even outperform experiments…
At the end of 2019, the neutron source used for materials research at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) was shut down as planned. Now the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) in Munich is taking over two scientific instruments from the HZB. The Federal Ministry of Science and Research (BMBF) is funding the relocation and adaptation with 5.62 million euros. Currently the MLZ provides its users with 26 scientific instruments for neutron research in Garching. Four more are still under construction. Now, the…
Physicists use antiferromagnetic rust to carry information over long distances at room temperature. Be it with smartphones, laptops, or mainframes: The transmission, processing, and storage of information is currently based on a single class of material – as it was in the early days of computer science about 60 years ago. A new class of magnetic materials, however, could raise information technology to a new level. Antiferromagnetic insulators enable computing speeds that are a thousand times faster than conventional electronics,…
Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland and other institutions in Paris, Hamburg and Basel, have succeeded in setting a new record in X-ray microscopy. With improved diffractive lenses and more precise sample positioning, they were able to achieve spatial resolution in the single-digit nanometre scale. This new dimension in direct imaging could provide significant impulses for research into nanostructures and further advance the development of solar cells and new types of magnetic data storage. Soft…
Mobile, distributed systems that provide medical care to the public can be a crucial addition to the existing healthcare infrastructure in crises and emergencies such as the current Corona pandemic. Six of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s institutes have joined forces under the lead management of the Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg and are developing an integrated system for mobile, distributed medical care in the Demo-medVer project. What makes it special is that all of the complete system’s components are modularized, are closely interconnected,…
The environment is polluted by microplastics worldwide. The tiny particles enter food chains, and thereby the digestive systems of animals and humans; moreover, they can be inhaled. Instead of being excreted, small microplastics can be incorporated into the body tissue. A research team at the University of Bayreuth has now discovered that microplastic particles find their way into living cells more easily if they were exposed to natural aquatic environments, i.e. fresh water and seawater. Biomolecules occurring in the water…
Researchers from the Universities of Tübingen and Bristol show that iron minerals fail to trap the organic carbon; vast source of CO2 and methane not included in global warming forecasts. Around a quarter of the ground in the northern hemisphere is permanently frozen. These areas are estimated to contain about twice as much carbon as the world’s current atmosphere. However, these permafrost soils are increasingly thawing out as the Earth becomes warmer. A University of Tübingen research team led by…
Intelligibility Meter enables objective measurement and display of speech intelligibility in media productions. Scientists at Fraunhofer IDMT in Oldenburg are developing solutions to improve the intelligibility of speech in media. Algorithms for automatic measurement, evaluation and presentation of speech intelligibility facilitate the work of sound engineers in film, game and audio productions. With the implementation of intelligibility technology in Steinberg’s current production solution Nuendo, a traffic light now indicates how well the spoken words will be objectively received by listeners….
High-precision measurements of the strong interaction between stable and unstable particles. The positively charged protons in atomic nuclei should actually repel each other, and yet even heavy nuclei with many protons and neutrons stick together. The so-called strong interaction is responsible for this. Prof. Laura Fabbietti and her research group at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now developed a method to precisely measure the strong interaction utilizing particle collisions in the ALICE experiment at CERN in Geneva. The…
Natural antibiotics produced in wounds increase sleep and survival after injury. When wounded, our body sets off a complex immune response. As part of it, the wound produces small antimicrobial molecules to fight off the pathogens locally. Researchers from the Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) of the TU Dresden and Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in collaboration with the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (CIML) in France have found that these natural antibiotics can also act as long-range molecular messengers. They signal…
First Bend and then Turn The water on Earth makes our planet inhabitable. It absorbs the Sun’s energy and releases it in the form of heat. An international research collaboration headed by the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) has now shown how and how fast the stored energy in the water molecules is released to heat strongly depends on the radiation’s energy. The scientists found that the energy of a bent water molecule can be rapidly released by…
University of Victoria biologists have discovered how some corals managed to survive a globally unprecedented heatwave, in a first-ever study that provides new hope for the long-term survival of coral reefs in the face of climate change. “The devastating effects of climate change on coral reefs are well known. Finding ways to boost coral survival through marine heatwaves is crucial if coral reefs are to endure the coming decades of climate change,” says UVic marine biologist Julia Baum, the study’s…
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