In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration delivered the first image of a black hole, revealing M 87*—the supermassive object in the center of M87. The EHT team, including a number of MPIfR scientists, has now analyzed archival data sets from 2009-2013, some of them not published before. The contribution of the APEX telescope is very important for the success of this analysis. The results reveal that the shadow was already present in earlier data, although it could not be…
Scientists analyze sunquakes to pinpoint flare energy source, perhaps predict flare severity. Solar flares are violent explosions on the sun that fling out high-energy charged particles, sometimes toward Earth, where they disrupt communications and endanger satellites and astronauts. But as scientists discovered in 1996, flares can also create seismic activity — sunquakes — releasing impulsive acoustic waves that penetrate deep into the sun’s interior. While the relationship between solar flares and sunquakes is still a mystery, new findings suggest that…
New method could jump-start creation of tiny medical devices for the body. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new method of 3D-printing gels and other soft materials. Published in a new paper, it has the potential to create complex structures with nanometer-scale precision. Because many gels are compatible with living cells, the new method could jump-start the production of soft tiny medical devices such as drug delivery systems or flexible electrodes that can…
In addition to being the last horizon for adventurers and spiritual seekers, the Himalaya region is a prime location for understanding geological processes. It hosts world-class mineral deposits of copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver, as well as rarer elements like lithium, antimony and chrome, that are essential to modern technology. The uplift of the Tibetan plateau even affects global climate by influencing atmospheric circulation and the development of seasonal monsoons. Yet despite its importance, scientists still don’t fully understand…
Current practices of the poultry industry have raised ethical and ecological concerns: ethical concerns include the culling of day-old male chicks of egg-laying breeds; ecological concerns include the import of large quantities of soybeans for feedstuff. Now a research team at the University of Göttingen has investigated alternatives such as using a regional protein crop like broad beans (also known as faba or fava beans), and dual-purpose chicken breeds (ie suitable for both meat and egg-laying). They found that using…
International team of researchers finds the region has become greener as warmer air and soil temperatures lead to increased plant growth. As Arctic summers warm, Earth’s northern landscapes are changing. Using satellite images to track global tundra ecosystems over decades, a team of researchers finds the region has become greener as warmer air and soil temperatures lead to increased plant growth. “The Arctic tundra is one of the coldest biomes on Earth, and it’s also one of the most rapidly…
Between relativistic and classical wave regimes, newly discovered memory effect alters the Doppler wave signature. Wave scattering appears practically everywhere in everyday life–from conversations across rooms, to ocean waves breaking on a shore, from colorful sunsets, to radar waves reflecting from aircraft. Scattering phenomena also appear in realms as diverse as quantum mechanics and gravitation. According to Pavel Ginzburg, professor at Tel Aviv University’s School of Electrical Engineering, these phenomena become especially interesting when the waves in question encounter a…
Physicists at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, together with colleagues in Russia and Poland, have managed to achieve ultrastrong coupling between light and matter at room temperature. The discovery is of importance for fundamental research and might pave the way for advances within, for example, light sources, nanomachinery, and quantum technology. A set of two coupled oscillators is one of the most fundamental and abundant systems in physics. It is a very general toy model that describes a plethora…
NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder shows that the 2020 minimum extent, which was likely reached on Sept. 15, measured 1.44 million square miles (3.74 million square kilometers). In winter, frozen seawater covers almost the entire Arctic Ocean and neighboring seas. This sea ice undergoes seasonal patterns of change – thinning and shrinking during late spring and summer, and thickening and expanding during fall and winter. The extent of summer…
Scientists at the Institute of Applied Physics at TU Dresden have come a step closer to the vision of a broad application of flexible, printable electronics. The team around Dr Hans Kleemann has succeeded for the first time in developing powerful vertical organic transistors with two independent control electrodes. The results have recently been published in the renowned online journal “Nature Communications”. High-definition roll-up televisions or foldable smartphones may soon no longer be unaffordable luxury goods that can be admired…
By far the most important process in cell development is how cells divide and then enlarge in order to multiply. A research team headed by Freiburg medical scientist Prof. Dr. Robert Grosse has now discovered that bundled fibers of actin within a cell nucleus play an important part in how they enlarge after division. Fibers of the structural protein actin stabilize the outer form of the cell and transport substances into a cell. The mechanisms that influence the growth of…
Astrophysicists at the University of Jena prove that dust particles in space are mixed with ice. The matter between the stars in a galaxy – called the interstellar medium – consists not only of gas, but also of a great deal of dust. At some point in time, stars and planets originated in such an environment, because the dust particles can clump together and merge into celestial bodies. Important chemical processes also take place on these particles, from which complex…
Researchers present first global analysis of how effective and topographic catchment areas differ Topographically sketched catchment areas are a spatial unit based on the shapes of the earth’s surface. They show how human activities and climate change influence the available quantities of water. Knowledge of these units is fundamental to sustainable water management. However, due to underground connections, some catchment areas accumulate water from areas beyond their topographic boundaries, while others are effectively much smaller than their surface topography would…
3D nonlinear ferro-fluid-based hyperbolic metamaterials may contribute to ultra-fast all-optical hyper-computing. Metamaterials–nanoengineered structures designed for precise control and manipulation of electromagnetic waves–have enabled such innovations as invisibility cloaks and super-resolution microscopes. Using transformation optics, these novel devices operate by manipulating light propagation in “optical spacetime,” which may be different from the actual physical spacetime. According to Igor Smolyaninov of the University of Maryland, “One of the more unusual applications of metamaterials was a theoretical proposal to construct a physical system…
The reactive and piecemeal approach historically used to manage beaches in Hawai’i has failed to protect them. If policies are not changed, as much as 40% of all beaches on O’ahu, Hawai’i could be lost before mid-century, according to a new study by researchers in the Coastal Geology Group at the University of Hawai’i (UH) at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). In an era of rising sea level, beaches need to migrate landward, otherwise they…
Researchers have developed the world’s first photodetector that can see all shades of light, in a prototype device that radically shrinks one of the most fundamental elements of modern technology. Photodetectors work by converting information carried by light into an electrical signal and are used in a wide range of technologies, from gaming consoles to fibre optic communication, medical imaging and motion detectors. Currently photodetectors are unable to sense more than one colour in the one device. This means they…
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