An expansion of the protected areas by only about 1% would sufficiently protect most remaining primary forests in Europe. This is one of the main results of a study conducted by an international team led by researchers from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU). The study, published in Diversity and Distribution, is the first assessment of the conservation status of Europe’s primary forests. It identifies protection gaps and…
Analytical model from Rice University helps researchers fine-tune battery performance. A simpler and more efficient way to predict performance will lead to better batteries, according to Rice University engineers. That their method is 100,000 times faster than current modeling techniques is a nice bonus. The analytical model developed by materials scientist Ming Tang and graduate student Fan Wang of Rice University’s Brown School of Engineering doesn’t require complex numerical simulation to guide the selection and design of battery components and…
Physicists from Bayreuth develop basic principles for mini-laboratories on chips. Colloidal particles have become increasingly important for research as vehicles of biochemical agents. In future, it will be possible to study their behaviour much more efficiently than before by placing them on a magnetised chip. A research team from the University of Bayreuth reports on these new findings in the journal Nature Communications. The scientists have discovered that colloidal rods can be moved on a chip quickly, precisely, and in…
Coastal erosion in the Lena Delta is contributing to the greenhouse effect The Arctic is warming faster than any other region on the planet. As a result, permafrost that is thousands of years old is now being lost to erosion. As measurements gathered on the Lena River by AWI experts show, the scale of erosion is alarming: every year, roughly 15 metres of the riverbanks crumble away. In addition, the carbon stored in the permafrost could worsen the greenhouse effect….
Measuring magnetic particles on needles reveals particulate air pollution. Every tree, even an evergreen, can be an air quality monitor. That’s the conclusion of researchers at the University of Utah who measured the magnetism of particulate matter on the needles of evergreen trees on the U campus. That measurement, they found, correlated to general air quality, suggesting that analysis of the needles–a relatively simple and low-cost process–could provide a high-resolution, year-round picture of air quality. “Wherever you have a tree…
Scientists from the Institute of Molecular Biology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of British Columbia have discovered a major role of the protein JAGN1 in antibody production and the body’s ability to mount a defense against pathogens, including viruses. The results have been published online today in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Antibodies play a fundamental role in medicine, and antibody-mediated immune response is the ultimate target in the quest for a vaccine to defeat the…
Multiresistant bacteria are a serious problem in hospital and healthcare environments. By forming a biofilm, these pathogens can colonize door handles and light switches and their presence on medical implants can lead to serious cases of post-operative infection. A team of physicists at Saarland University has now shown why hospital germs adhere strongly to surfaces from which water simply rolls off, but bind so poorly to surfaces that are easily wetted by water. These results from studies in both experimental…
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam have developed a green and sustainable approach for selective p-xylene synthesis Lemonade, juice and mineral water often come in PET bottles. While these are practical and functional, their production is complex and not necessarily sustainable. The starting material for terephthalic acid, which is used to produce saturated polyesters such as PET (Polyethylene terephthalate), is p-xylene pXL. To this day, the production of pXL is still based on fossil…
Research team from Kiel University develops new NMR methods for investigating paramagnetic complexes and supramolecular cages Chemistry and structural biology use the standard methods of NMR spectroscopy (NMR = nuclear magnetic resonance) to examine the structure of molecules including large molecules like proteins in solution. The NMR active nuclei, such as hydrogen atoms, are excited using radiofrequency pulses in spectrometers with strong magnetic fields. The different environments of the nuclei can be detected and conclusions about the molecular structure can…
Using the energy from the sun as efficiently as nature does and converting it into chemical energy could drastically reduce global CO2 emissions. A research team from the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena has now come one step closer to this vision. The researchers have developed a chemical system that collects light energy and stores it on a molecule for at least 14 hours. Based on a copper complex, their system thus…
HZDR team develops novel source for quantum light particles Quantum technology holds great promise: Just a few years from now, quantum computers are expected to revolutionize database searches, AI systems, and computational simulations. Today already, quantum cryptography can guarantee absolutely secure data transfer, albeit with limitations. The greatest possible compatibility with our current silicon-based electronics will be a key advantage. And that is precisely where physicists from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and TU Dresden have made remarkable progress: The team…
Understanding how solar cell operation changes as it moves from the lab into the real world is essential for optimizing their design prior to mass production. KAUST researchers show how perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells function in a sunny and hot environment. Silicon dominates commercial solar-cell production. It is abundant and efficient as a converter of light to electricity. But recently, perovskites have emerged as a material with potential for lower cost fabrication using solution-based processes. Their properties can be tuned…
A team of Indian and Japanese physicists have overturned the six-decade old notion that the giant magnetic field in a high intensity laser produced plasma evolves from the small, nanometre scale in the bulk plasma [1]. They show that instead the field actually originates at macroscopic scales defined by the boundaries of the electron beam that is propagating in the plasma. The new mechanism seeks to alter our understanding of magnetic fields in astrophysical scenarios and laser fusion and may…
Scientists have discovered an elegant way of manipulating light using a “synthetic” Lorentz force — which in nature is responsible for many fascinating phenomena including the Aurora Borealis. A team of theoretical physicists from the University of Exeter has pioneered a new technique to create tuneable artificial magnetic fields, which enable photons to mimic the dynamics of charged particles in real magnetic fields. The team believe the new research, published in leading journal Nature Photonics, could have important implications for…
A step forward to understand biomarker molecule An international team of astronomers detected phosphine (PH3) in the atmosphere of Venus. They studied the origin of phosphine, but no inorganic processes, including supply from volcanos and atmospheric photochemistry can explain the detected amount of phosphine. The phosphine is believed to originate from unknown photochemistry or geochemistry, but the team does not completely reject the possibility of biological origin. This discovery is crucial to examine the validity of phosphine as a biomarker….
Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University jointly with international colleagues have found a simple technique to dynamically curve a photonic jet, turning it into a photonic hook. The photon jet effect was discovered in the early 2000s. The jet is an electromagnetic wave focused at the surface of a quartz glass microsphere, which is at lens focus. This jet has a unique transverse dimension, which is less than the diffraction limit. This feature of the photon jet drew the attention of…
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