Particularly beneficial for rural U.S. areas, developing countries. Researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso have created a portable device that can detect colorectal and prostate cancer more cheaply and quickly than prevailing methods. The team believes the device may be especially helpful in developing countries, which experience higher cancer mortality rates due in part to barriers to medical diagnosis. “Our new biochip device is low-cost — just a few dollars — and sensitive, which will make accurate…
Made in Lower Saxony l Germany. Resource-efficient, flexible automated production – Newly developed milling kinematics on a linear axis enables versatile and efficient machining of lightweight materials to metals up to steel with a production tolerance of up to 0.1 millimeter. The challenge of the successfully completed Lower Saxony LuFo project “Robots Made in Lower Saxony 2” (“RoMaNi 2”) was to close the gap between industrial robots and machine tools. The result of the R&D work led by Fraunhofer IFAM…
Initial tests at new battery recycling plant at TU Freiberg sucessful. A research team at TU Bergakademie Freiberg is using a new shredder system to investigate how battery cells can be shredded in such a way that as many of the raw materials they contain can be efficiently recovered. In the new plant, the researchers are also capturing highly volatile substances that were previously lost. Sensors and cameras record the processes and send the data to a database for analysis…
Scientists have discovered how the antiviral protein TRIM25 finds and binds viral RNA to activate an immune response. Every second of every day, our body is under attack. The invading agents are viruses, bacteria, parasites, toxins – living and non-living entities that might negatively impact our body’s functioning. What keeps us safe is a squad of patrolling superheroes – proteins that form an essential part of our innate immune system, the body’s first line of defence against invaders. A new…
A new study shows that increasing plant diversity in agriculture can be used to improve the carbon sequestration potential of agricultural soils. As the agricultural sector strives to reduce its carbon footprint, promoting biodiversity in agricultural practices could be the key to more sustainable and climate-friendly food production systems. As agricultural expansion and intensive farming practices continues to degrade soils and release carbon into the atmosphere, finding ways to enhance soil carbon storage is critical. Given that over 40% of…
Fraunhofer IBMT collaborates in new EU-funded research project ENDOMIX. The Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT, with its long-term expertise in cell models and toxicology, contributes to a new EU-funded project on health risks of endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors are chemical substances that may mimic endogenous hormones and thereby interfere with the endocrine system. The EU-funded research project »ENDOMIX«, started in January 2024, aims to comprehensively unravel how exposure to everyday chemicals with endocrine disrupting properties affect human health. The…
REEsilience partners Inserma and Mkango subsidiaries, HyProMag Ltd and HyProMag GmbH, are advancing innovative methods to recover rare earth materials from end-of-life products, reducing the need for virgin Rare Earth Elements (REEs) and minimising environmental impact: To this goal, they have now entered into an agreement to commercialise automated pre-processing of hard disk drives, loudspeakers and electric motors, aiming to deploy this technology globally and create a secure, sustainable supply of REEs. Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are essential components in…
Experiments at KIT show virtually no PFAS emissions when household waste containing Fluoropolymers is incinerated according to European standards. In contrast to fluoropolymers, which are also referred to as “polymeric PFAS” and are considered to be non-mobile and non-bioaccumulative, used e.g. in medical products, semiconductors, aerospace, automotive and chemical processing, “low-molecular PFAS” are integrated in a wide range of dispersive consumer applications. They are found, for instance, as water-repellent impregnation in textiles, garments, paper (pizza boxes, burger boxes, baking backpaper)….
Robotic, Modular and Agile System to Enable Production of Customized Battery Cells in Required Quantities. According to Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, battery cells are gaining in importance as a versatile and efficient means of storing energy. They are a driving force in advancing electromobility, for example, and a key technology of great strategic and economic significance for manufacturing companies. Current demand is mainly met through cost-driven mass production in Asia and North America, which also…
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) imaging instruments on three sun-orbiting observatories have captured sequences of comet C/2023 A3, known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, as it passed between the Earth and the Sun during the beginning of October 2024. The comet, discovered in 2023, traversed the field of view of NRL’s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) telescope between Oct. 7-11. After the nucleus itself had left the scene, its massive dust trail remained visible for several days. LASCO has operated on the…
A team led by chemist Prof Frank Glorius has synthesised so-called heteroatom-substituted cage-like 3D molecules. The innovative structures could help address key challenges in drug design by serving as more stable alternatives to traditional, flat, aromatic rings. As its name suggests, ring-shaped “cage molecules” resemble a cage, and it is this three-dimensional structure that makes them significantly more stable than related, flat molecules. Consequently, they could be of interest to drug developers as they represent a possible alternative to conventional…
A Virginia Tech team has devised a new method for creating soft, flexible electric connections across and through circuit layers, paving the way for advanced soft robotics, wearable devices, and more. If a phone or other electronic device was made of soft materials, how would that change its use? Would it be more durable? If hospital health monitoring equipment was made of less rigid components, would it make it easier for patients to wear? While electronics of that type may…
Researchers from the University of Bonn have trained an AI process to predict potential active ingredients with special properties. Therefore, they derived a chemical language model – a kind of ChatGPT for molecules. Following a training phase, the AI was able to exactly reproduce the chemical structures of compounds with known dual-target activity that may be particularly effective medications. The study has now been published in Cell Reports Physical Science. Anyone who wants to delight their granny with a poem…
Future studies that manipulate this RNA could help treat neurodevelopmental diseases in humans. Study focused on ‘Goldilocks Gene’ CHD2 that causes autism and epilepsy Deletion of long non-coding RNA CHASERR produces too much CHD2 protein in the cell, leaving patients wheelchair-bound, nonverbal and with intellectual delays Patient’s dad from study: ‘We intuitively understood this was a lot bigger than just Emma’ ‘It is mind-boggling that we only know what 1% of the human genome does’ When a gene produces too…
Batteries are a key building block for a successful energy transition, whether for the electrification of transport, the stabilization of the power grid or balancing fluctuations in green electricity. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has been conducting research along the entire battery value chain for many years. With the inauguration of the Center for Electrical Energy Storage on october 22, the institute has access to state-of-the-art laboratories which enable cutting-edge international research. Currently the institute’s research focus…
Scientists from Bremen, Germany, characterize novel enzymes from deep-sea microbes with a key function in the ethane degradation process, revealing surprises in the metabolism of these organisms. Seeps on the deep seafloor naturally emit alkanes, which are pollutants that are potentially dangerous to life and act on global warming. Fortunately, the sediments around the seeps host microbes that act as a biological filter: They consume most of the alkanes before their release into the oceans and our atmosphere. This so-called…
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