TU Graz researchers discover new sediment archive for historical climate research. Geological investigations of low-temperature young deposits on the Styrian Erzberg provide paleoclimatology with new data on the earth’s history and its development. How has the climate changed in the course of the earth’s history? Which climatic processes have influenced the earth and its atmosphere? Paleoclimatology seeks answers to such questions in order to better understand climate changes and to derive forecasts for future climate scenarios. So-called sedimentary archives serve…
MIPT researchers Leopold Lobkovsky and Raissa Mazova, and their young colleagues from Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University have created a model of landslide-induced tsunamis that accounts for the initial location of the landslide body. Reported in Landslides, the model reveals that tsunami height is affected by the coastal slope and the position of the land mass before slipping. The highest and most devastating waves result from onshore landslide masses. This realization will make future predictions of tsunamis more accurate, as…
Use of nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture causes an increase in nitrous oxide concentration in the atmosphere – Comprehensive study with KIT participation in Nature. Concentration of dinitrogen oxide – also referred to as nitrous oxide – in the atmosphere increases strongly and speeds up climate change. In addition to CO2 and methane, it is the third important greenhouse gas emitted due to anthropogenic activities. Human-made nitrous oxide emissions are mainly caused by the use of fertilizers in agriculture. Growing demand…
Neurons in a visual brain area of zebrafish are arranged as a map for catching prey. Spotting, pursuing and catching prey – for many animals this is an essential task for survival. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology now show in zebrafish that the localization of neurons in the midbrain is adapted to a successful hunting sequence. Far away, in the periphery of its visual field, a tiny zebrafish larva detects a small dot moving sideways. Is it…
Changing the surface chemistry of electrodes leads to the preferential growth of a novel electroactive bacterium that could support improved energy-neutral wastewater treatment. To grow, electroactive bacteria break down organic compounds by transferring electrons to solid-state substrates outside their cells. Scientists have utilized this process to drive devices, such as microbial electrochemical systems, where the bacteria grow as a film on an electrode, breaking down the organic compounds in wastewater and transferring the resultant electrons to the electrode. Scientists are…
CAR-T biotherapeutics company Carina Biotech and researchers at the University of South Australia have developed a novel approach based on microfluidic technology to “purify” the immune cells of patients in the fight against cancer. UniSA’s Future Industries Institute PhD student Mona Elsemary has developed a microfluidic approach to purify chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) cells, the bioengineered immune cells that are the basis of groundbreaking cellular immunotherapy – a transformative cancer therapy that harnesses the power of a patient’s immune system…
Decades-old data is being used to describe the propagation of tiny droplets; now a fluid dynamics team has developed new models: Masks and distancing are good, but not enough. Wear a mask, keep your distance, avoid crowds – these are the common recommendations to contain the COVID-19 epidemic. However, the scientific foundations on which these recommendations are based are decades old and no longer reflect the current state of knowledge. To change this, several research groups from the field of…
The Polish-Israeli team from the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw and the Weizmann Institute of Science has made another significant achievement in fluorescent microscopy. In the pages of the Optica journal the team presented a new method of microscopy which, in theory, has no resolution limit. In practice, the team managed to demonstrate a fourfold improvement over the diffraction limit. The continued development of biological sciences and medicine requires the ability to examine smaller and smaller objects….
Sandia developed new device to more efficiently process information. The development of a new method to make non-volatile computer memory may have unlocked a problem that has been holding back machine learning and has the potential to revolutionize technologies like voice recognition, image processing and autonomous driving. A team from Sandia National Laboratories, working with collaborators from the University of Michigan, published a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Materials that details a new method that will imbue computer chips…
Nearly every organism hosts a collection of symbiotic microbes–a microbiome. It is now recognized that microbiomes are major drivers of health in all animals, including humans, and that these symbiotic systems often exhibit strong daily rhythms. New research led by University of Hawai’i at Manoa scientists revealed that, in the mutually beneficial relationship between with the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, and the luminescent bacterium, Vibrio fischeri, an immune protein called “macrophage migration inhibitory factor” or “MIF,” is the maestro…
In situ sequencing enables gene activity inside body tissues to be depicted in microscope images. To facilitate interpretation of the vast quantities of information generated, Uppsala University researchers have now developed an entirely new method of image analysis. Based on algorithms used in artificial intelligence, the method was originally devised to enhance understanding of social networks. The researchers’ study is published in The FEBS Journal. The tissue composing our organs consists of trillions of cells with various functions. All the…
The happiness neurotransmitter serotonin can act as a growth factor for the stem cells in the fetal human brain that determine brain size. During human evolution, the size of the brain increased, especially in a particular part called the neocortex. The neocortex enables us to speak, dream and think. In search of the causes underlying neocortex expansion, researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, together with colleagues at the University Hospital Carl…
The way DNA is organized in the cell nucleus is very important for the normal development and function of the cell. A mutation that affects the packaging of the genetic material in the cell nucleus can lead to developmental disorders or diseases such as cancer. A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute in Münster, the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences in London and the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona has developed a method for automated analysis…
AWI long-term time series shows: due to changed winds and currents in the Southern Ocean, more heat is transported from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to the depths of the Weddell Sea Over the past three decades, the depths of the Antarctic Weddell Sea have warmed five times faster than the rest of the ocean at depths exceeding 2,000 metres. This was the main finding of an article just published by oceanographers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar…
The QuApps conference deals with the state of the art and the development of quantum technology. The international event will take place from March 1 to 3, 2021 as a hybrid conference at Düsseldorf Airport, Germany. Participation in the technical presentations and panel discussions will be possible both on site and in a purely virtual environment. The technology offers previously undreamed-of potential for future innovations in business and science. The topics include quantum computers, cryptography and quantum sensors. In more…
Researchers from Osaka University use non-destructive acoustic monitoring to identify the earliest stages of failure in silicon carbide power electronics, which will help in the design of more-durable power devices. Power electronics regulate and modify electric power. They are in computers, power steering systems, solar cells, and many other technologies. Researchers are seeking to enhance power electronics by using silicon carbide semiconductors. However, wear-out failures such as cracks remain problematic. To help researchers improve future device designs, early damage detection…
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