Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen are developing a user-friendly method to reconstruct and analyze SSU rRNA from raw metagenome data. First the background: Microbiologists traditionally determine which organisms they are dealing with using the small subunit ribosomal RNA or in short SSU rRNA gene. This marker gene allows to identify almost any living creature, be it a bacterium or an animal, and thus assign it to its place in the tree of life. Once…
“Raise shields!” Researchers from the University of Rostock have developed a novel type of nonlinear photonic circuitry in which intense light beams can define their own path and, in doing so, render themselves impervious to external perturbations. This discovery was recently published in the renowned journal “Science” Researchers from the University of Rostock have developed a novel type of nonlinear photonic circuitry in which intense light beams can define their own path and, in doing so, render themselves impervious to…
Researchers at FAU and the Graz University of Technology are hoping to improve the imaging of cell metabolism using a special technique. The use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in modern medicine allows accurate imaging of the soft tissue in the human body, thus enabling changes such as tumours to be diagnosed. However, several medical conditions cause changes to occur in the cell metabolism before substantial changes to the structure of the tissue can be detected with MRI. A team…
Blue phosphorus, an atomically thin synthetic semiconductor, becomes metallic as soon as it is converted into a double layer. This has been discovered by an interdisciplinary team led by Prof Thomas Heine from TU Dresden and Prof Gabriel Merino from the Mexican research institute Cinvestav Merida. The scientists are first to describe the possibility of constructing nanoscale, highly efficient transistors consisting of only one element. The results of these investigations were published as highlight article in the current issue of…
Researchers at the University of Rochester and Cornell University have taken an important step toward developing a communications network that exchanges information across long distances by using photons, mass-less measures of light that are key elements of quantum computing and quantum communications systems. The research team has designed a nanoscale node made out of magnetic and semiconducting materials that could interact with other nodes, using laser light to emit and accept photons. The development of such a quantum network–designed to…
For the first time, scientists have visualized a new class of molecular gates that maintain pH balance within brain cells, a critical function that keeps cells alive and helps prevent stroke and other brain injuries. These gates, called proton-activated chloride channels (PAC), nest within cell membranes and regulate the passage of small molecules called chloride ions into and out of cells. This allows cells to sense and respond to their environment. “Proton-activated chloride channels have only recently been described but…
In stress situations, bacteria use special ion channels for defense. Understanding how they function provides the basis for combating harmful bacteria. A Würzburg research group in cooperation with ETH Zurich and the University of Oxford has now been able to decipher how two of these channels are structured and how they open up. The results were published in the renowned journal PNAS. If it starts to rain, this can be a dangerous situation for bacteria. Due to the decreasing salt…
The interplay of many individual genetic variants defines the impact of carcinogenic mutations. Random genetic changes in cancer genes can trigger tumors. However, whether they actually lead to the disease is determined by a large number of genes. A Berlin research team has now shown this in mice. It seems paradoxical: there are heavy smokers who stay healthy throughout their lives, while others take great care of their health and eventually develop cancer nonetheless. Does this mean that it is…
The EU research project “Center of Excellence in Combustion” (CoEC), granted with a budget of over 5.6 Million Euro, has started. Eleven partners from eight countries are involved – including the “Institute of Simulation of reactive Thermo-Fluid Systems“ and “Institute for Energy and Power Plant Technology” of TU Darmstadt. With the European Green Deal the EU has set the goal reaching climate neutrality in its energy and transport sector. To make this possible in combustion processes, new innovative concepts on…
Improvement of heat exchange by means of metallized zeolites The heating season in Germany has started again and in terms of a sustainable energy supply, concepts for an effective heat utilization are needed. In this context, thermal storage facilities, which are flexible in use and have high storage capacities, are moving into focus. Thermal storage systems based on zeolite materials offer great potential, but have so far suffered from a lack of efficient heat transfer between storage material and heat…
By means of an innovative bonding technology, high-performance timber-concrete composite elements can be produced faster and more easily. As a result of the new joining technology, which was developed by researchers in a cooperative project involving the Fraunhofer WKI, the composite elements become more competitive in comparison to pure concrete elements. The utilization of the renewable raw material wood can therefore be increased in the construction industry. Timber-concrete composite elements (TCC elements) can be used in multi-story building construction, for…
Physicists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching near Munich have developed the basic technology for a new “quantum modem”, which will allow users to connect to a future quantum internet that is based on the existing fibre optic network infrastructure. The first quantum revolution brought about semiconductor electronics, the laser and finally the internet. The second quantum revolution promises spy-proof communication or quantum computers for previously unsolvable computing tasks. But this revolution is still in its…
The architecture of the brain supports cognitive and behavioural functions and it is extremely complex with connections at multiple layers that interact with each other. However, research efforts are usually focused on a single spatial scale. In a study led by researchers of the Institute of Complex Systems of the University of Barcelona (UBICS), researchers studied the multiscale spatial organization of the brain and observed that, in a geometric network model, the layers at different resolution are self-similar, that is,…
Physicists at Münster University have shown in model simulations that the COVID-19 infection rates decrease significantly through social distancing. For this, they combined the dynamical density functional theory to describe interacting particles and the SIR model, a theory to describe the spread of infectious diseases. Scientists worldwide have been working flat out on research into infectious diseases in the wake of the global outbreak of the COVID-19 disease, caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This concerns not only virologists, but…
We perceive the world relative to our own body from a self-centered perspective. Yet our brain is able to transform this information into a world-centered, cognitive map of the environment, guiding us independent of where we look or the direction we face. The mechanism behind this has remained unsolved for decades. Now scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research and Goethe University Frankfurt discover a neural circuit in the rodent brain that may play a key role in…
Intelligent cameras are the next milestone in image and video processing. A team of researchers at the Chair of Multimedia Communications and Signal Processing at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has developed an intelligent camera that achieves not only high spatial and temporal but also spectral resolution. The camera has a wide range of applications that can improve environmental protection and resource conservation measures as well as autonomous driving or modern agriculture. The findings of the research have been publishedas an open…
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