Hypersonic flight is conventionally referred to as the ability to fly at speeds significantly faster than the speed of sound and presents an extraordinary set of technical challenges. As an example, when a space capsule re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, it reaches hypersonic speeds–more than five times the speed of sound–and generates temperatures over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit on its exterior surface. Designing a thermal protection system to keep astronauts and cargo safe requires an understanding at the molecular level of the complicated…
Food engineers in Brazil and France developed gels based on modified starch for use as “ink” to make foods and novel materials by additive manufacturing. It is already possible to produce food with a 3D printer, potentially delivering products that suit consumer preferences regarding taste, texture, cost, convenience, and nutrition. In the near future, it will be possible to produce food with personalized shapes, textures, flavors, and colors considered attractive and healthy for children and the elderly, for example. A…
Instead of inserting a card or scanning a smartphone to make a payment, what if you could simply touch the machine with your finger? A prototype developed by Purdue University engineers would essentially let your body act as the link between your card or smartphone and the reader or scanner, making it possible for you to transmit information just by touching a surface. The prototype doesn’t transfer money yet, but it’s the first technology that can send any information through…
That carbon nanotubes fluorescence is no longer a surprise. Finding a second level of fluorescence is surprising and potentially useful. How does it work? Wait for it. The Rice University lab of Bruce Weisman, a professor of chemistry who led the pioneering discovery of nanotube fluorescence in 2002, found that single-walled nanotubes emit a delayed secondary fluorescence when triggered by a multistep process in a solution with dye molecules and dissolved oxygen. The delay is only microseconds, but it’s enough…
World Soil Day Soil is a sensitive and as a result of intensive agriculture often strained resource. Scientists at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy are therefore developing digital solutions for a resource-saving and environmentally sound soil management. With the World Soil Day on 5 December, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations (UN) are reminding us to stand up for a sustainable management of soil resources. Sometimes a glance from the edge of the…
How can you build neuronal networks that are more complex than anything known today? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, have mapped the development of inhibitory neuronal circuitry and report the discovery of distinct circuit formation principles. Their findings enable scientists to monitor the change of neuronal network structure with time, capturing moments when an individual grows and adapts to its environment. Researchers are starting to better understand the complexity of neuronal networks found…
A new tool that uses light to map out the electronic structures of crystals could reveal the capabilities of emerging quantum materials and pave the way for advanced energy technologies and quantum computers, according to researchers at the University of Michigan, the University of Regensburg and the University of Marburg. A paper on the work is published in Science. Applications include LED lights, solar cells and artificial photosynthesis. “Quantum materials could have an impact way beyond quantum computing,” said Mackillo…
Publication in Science: International team researches the limits of life At what depth beneath the seabed does it become so hot that microbial life is no longer possible? This question is the focus of a close scientific cooperative effort between the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen. An expedition by the drilling program IODP (International Ocean Discovery Program) in 2016 has provided new insights into…
Correctly Delivered and Integrated Heidelberg researchers determine the three-dimensional architecture of a molecular machine that inserts essential proteins into biomembranes Over a quarter of all proteins in a cell are found in the membrane, where they perform vital functions. To fulfil these roles, membrane proteins must be reliably transported from their site of production in the cell to their destination and correctly inserted into the target membrane. Researchers from the Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center (BZH) have succeeded in determining the…
UBER driver data helps track and potentially alleviate urban traffic congestion. A new machine learning algorithm is poised to help urban transportation analysts relieve bottlenecks and chokepoints that routinely snarl city traffic. The tool, called TranSEC, was developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to help urban traffic engineers get access to actionable information about traffic patterns in their cities. Currently, publicly available traffic information at the street level is sparse and incomplete. Traffic engineers generally…
Physicists report accelerated electrons linked with cosmic rays. More than 40 years since they launched, the Voyager spacecraft are still making discoveries. In a new study, a team of physicists led by the University of Iowa report the first detection of bursts of cosmic ray electrons accelerated by shock waves originating from major eruptions on the sun. The detection, made by instruments onboard both the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, occurred as the Voyagers continue their journey outward through…
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have found that graphene-based heat pipes can help solve the problems of cooling electronics and power systems used in avionics, data centres, and other power electronics. “Heat pipes are one of the most efficient tools for this purpose, because of their high efficiency and unique ability to transfer heat over a large distance,” says Johan Liu, Professor of Electronics Production, at the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers. The results, which also…
An international team including MPIfR scientists used the APEX telescope to map an area of more than 80 square degrees in the Southern Galactic plane. Spectral lines emitted from several molecules, including the rare isotopes 13CO and C18O of the carbon monoxide molecule, probed the moderately dense component of the interstellar medium. The resulting survey reveals a wide range of structures, from individual star-forming clumps to giant molecular clouds and complexes. This survey allows us to constrain the large-scale distribution…
The living cells of all organisms contain a cytoskeleton that stabilises their internal structure and external shape. This also applies to magnetotactic bacteria. They produce magnetic nanoparticles which are concatenated into intracellular chains and enable them to orient themselves to the Earth’s magnetic field. Microbiologists at the University of Bayreuth have now discovered a protein in the cytoskeleton of these bacteria which plays a central role in these structuring processes. The protein CcfM influences both the formation of the cellular…
Joint research work between Chemnitz University of Technology and the Technical University of Dresden under Chemnitz leadership reveals ionic defect landscape in metal halide perovskites – publication in renowned journal Nature Communications The group of so-called metal halide perovskites as materials has revolutionized the field of photovoltaics in recent years. Generally speaking, metal halide perovskites are crystalline materials that follow the struc-ture ABX3, with varying composition. Here, A, B, and X can represent a combination of different organic and inorganic…
Device could cut HVAC energy use by nearly 20% in the US. Engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a dual-mode heating and cooling device for building climate control that, if widely deployed in the U.S., could cut HVAC energy use by nearly 20 percent. The invention uses a combination of mechanics and materials science to either harness or expel certain wavelengths of light. Depending on conditions, rollers move a sheet back and forth to expose either heat-trapping materials on one…
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