TU Freiberg develops new model for pyroelectric reactions Pyroelectricity is a phenomenon in physics in which heat can be converted into electricity via certain crystals or into a voltage that can be used for chemical reactions. While the first application is already used in devices such as motion detectors today, the second application, although well-known, has not yet been sufficiently described on a theoretical basis. A team of physicists at TU Bergakademie Freiberg has now found a way to describe…
According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, cancer is one of the most frequent causes of death, accounting for almost 25% of all deaths cases. Chemotherapy is often used as a treatment, but also brings side effects for healthy organs. Scientists around David Ng, group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, are now trying to take a completely different approach: By means of targeted and localized disruption of the cancer cells’ structure, its self-destruction mechanism can…
Plant and animal species across the world are steadily disappearing due to human activity. A major new IIASA-led study suggests that without ambitious, integrated action combining conservation and restoration efforts with a transformation of the food system, turning the tide of biodiversity loss by 2050 or earlier will not be possible. Biodiversity – the variety and abundance of species, along with the extent and quality of the ecosystems they call home – has been declining at an alarming rate for…
Concept developed by KIT researchers enables ultra-fast wireless communications at low cost — Highest data rate in terahertz transmission transmission so far — Publication in Nature Photonics Future wireless networks of the 6th generation (6G) will consist of a multitude of small radio cells that need to be connected by broadband communication links. In this context, wireless transmission at THz frequencies represents a particularly attractive and flexible solution. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now developed a novel…
Researchers from CeMM Research Center of Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Medical University of Vienna and Stanford University School of Medicine, have found that a module of the immune system, which is best known for causing allergic reactions, plays a key role in acquiring host defense against infections triggered by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. This “allergy module”, constituted by mast cells and Immunoglobulin E, can grant protection and increased resistance against secondary bacterial infections in the…
Invasive alien species are one of the main threats to the biodiversity of natural habitats worldwide. They can cause severe ecological and economic damage and can be a root of biodiversity loss. Artificial man-built maritime canals have long been known as hotspots for invasion by various types of marine organisms. Scientists from the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama have now detected changes in the salinity of Lake Gatún, an artificial…
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used quantum optics to advance state-of-the-art microscopy and illuminate a path to detecting material properties with greater sensitivity than is possible with traditional tools. “We showed how to use squeezed light – a workhorse of quantum information science – as a practical resource for microscopy,” said Ben Lawrie of ORNL’s Materials Science and Technology Division, who led the research with Raphael Pooser of ORNL’s Computational Sciences and Engineering Division. “We…
Light-sensing technology promises to make COVID-19 antibody testing cheaper, easier, faster and more accurate. Robust and widespread antibody testing has emerged as a key strategy in the fight against SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. However current testing methods are too inaccurate or too expensive to be feasible on a global scale. But now, scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have developed a rapid, reliable and low-cost antibody test. The device, described…
Texas A&M researchers have designed a new energy storage device that can store a charge up to 900 times greater than state-of-the-art supercapacitors. In a new study, researchers at Texas A&M University have described their novel plant-based energy storage device that could charge even electric cars within a few minutes in the near future. Furthermore, they said their devices are flexible, lightweight and cost-effective. “Integrating biomaterials into energy storage devices has been tricky because it is difficult to control their…
The “IceCube” neutrino observatory deep in the ice of the South Pole has already brought spectacular new insights into cosmic incidents of extremely high energies. In order to investigate the cosmic origins of elementary particles with even higher energies, Prof. Elisa Resconi from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now started an international initiative to build a neutrino telescope several cubic kilometers in size in the northeastern Pacific. Astronomers observe the light that comes to us from distant celestial…
Scientists from the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have developed a new spectroscopic-microscope, which can be used to observe a single nanoparticle in real time. This enabled the first detection of a nanoparticle’s handedness while it is freely moving in solution. The results of their research paves the way for optical measurements with high detection sensitivities down to single molecules and in samples of ultra-low volumes. Almost all biomolecules, including sugars,…
Extremely hot and dry summers are expected to be much more frequent in the future due to climate change. ICOS, the Integrated Carbon Observation System, has enabled a set of studies showing how nature and crops in Europe respond to extremely dry conditions, such as occurred in the last three summers, 2018-2020. The results published today in Philosophical Transactions B show, for example, that in 2018 the vegetation’s carbon sink function decreased by 18 percent, and crops produced the lowest…
Cooperation within the TopDyn research center paves the way for the investigation of two-dimensional phases and phase transitions In a collaboration between experimental physicists and theoretical physicists in the framework of the Dynamics and Topology (TopDyn) excellence project, a system of many small magnetic whirls could be engineered to form a regularly ordered state. Such a transition from a disordered to an ordered phase is analogous to the well-known crystallization, which, however, occurs here in two dimensions. For the research…
Rice researchers find potentially useful electrical phenomenon in gold nanowires Though the Summer Olympics were postponed, there’s at least one place to see agile hurdlers go for the gold. You just need a way to view these electron games. Using a novel optical detection system, researchers at Rice University found that electricity generated by temperature differences doesn’t appear to be affected measurably by grain boundaries placed in its way in nanoscale gold wires, while strain and other defects in the…
The results show how a particle’s surface and interior influence each other, an important thing to know when developing more robust batteries. The particles that make up lithium-ion battery electrodes are microscopic but mighty: They determine how much charge the battery can store, how fast it charges and discharges and how it holds up over time – all crucial for high performance in an electric vehicle or electronic device. Cracks and chemical reactions on a particle’s surface can degrade performance,…
Researchers identify the principles necessary for designing the core material of large-area solution processable solar cells. Future application as plastic-based photovoltaic paint technology. Researchers in Korea have successfully developed a high-efficiency large-area organic solution processable solar cell by controlling the speed at which the solution of raw materials for solar cells became solidified after being coated. The team led by Dr. Hae Jung Son from the Photo-electronic Hybrids Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced…
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