How Climate Change Impacts Contaminants in the Sea. Toxic trace elements such as lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium naturally occur in small quantities in coastal seas. However, human activities, such as industry and agriculture, contribute significantly larger amounts. A new study has examined how climate change already affects the distribution and accumulation of these elements and how it could impact them in the future. One of the findings: Climate-related natural events are releasing more contaminants, which pose a risk to…
Plants can extract even the smallest traces of the important nutrient potassium from the soil. A team led by Würzburg biophysicist Rainer Hedrich describes how they achieve this in ‘Nature Communications’. Potassium is one of the nutrients that plants need in large quantities. However, the amount of potassium in the soil can vary greatly: potassium-poor soils can contain up to a thousand times less of this nutrient than potassium-rich soils. To be able to react flexibly to these differences, plants…
Bacteria that cause diseases, so-called pathogens, develop various strategies to exploit human cells as hosts to their own advantage. Together with medical professionals and experts for structure determination and imaging, a team of biologists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has uncovered the attack strategies employed by the bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae (for short: C. pneumoniae). In the scientific journal Nature Communications, they describe which molecular mechanisms the bacterium utilises. Chlamydia infect human and animal host cells. C. pneumoniae, for example,…
Additive Manufacturing, particularly metal 3D printing, has evolved from a promising technology to a serious constituent of industrial production. Dr. Stefan Leuders, head of Technology & Innovation at voestalpine Additive Manufacturing Center GmbH, Düsseldorf, and Dr. Tim Lantzsch, head of Laser Powder Bed Fusion at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, Aachen, discuss the current trends in Additive Manufacturing (AM), analyze the opportunities and risks, and show which industries can particularly benefit. We are delighted to talk to two…
… in Forming and Machining by up to 20 Percent (on average). EmulDan stands for ‘Energy Efficiency in Production through Multivalent Data Usage.’ In this joint project, the Fraunhofer IWU and its industry partners demonstrated that significantly lower consumption process routes are achievable while maintaining component quality, leading even to shorter processing times in some cases. Moreover, when process design is consistently energy-efficient, maintenance efforts for production equipment also decrease. EmulDan focuses on how to collect data, providing valuable insights…
Researchers from Bonn and Aachen elucidate the role of individual brain neurons in human odor perception. We often only realize how important our sense of smell is when it is no longer there: food hardly tastes good, or we no longer react to dangers such as the smell of smoke. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn and the University of Aachen have investigated the neuronal mechanisms of human odor perception for the first time. Individual…
Researchers at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG), Germany, have developed a new method that makes it possible for the first time to image the three-dimensional shape of proteins with a conventional microscope. Combined with artificial intelligence, One-step Nanoscale Expansion (ONE) microscopy enables the detection of structural changes in damaged or toxic proteins in human samples. Diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, which are based on protein misfolding, could thus be detected and treated at an early stage. ONE microscopy was…
Sustainability is a complex problem with many different players and influenced by policies, society, and technical perspective. We are reminded every day in the media of the unnecessary amount of waste that we are generating with pervasive pictures of plastic garbage patches floating in the oceans or stranded on our beaches. Scientists within ASU’s School of Molecular Sciences (SMS) and the Biodesign Institute’s Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Materials and Manufacturing (SM3) are pursuing a multi-pronged approach towards a more circular…
Because it doesn’t need expensive energy storage for times without sunshine, the technology could provide communities with drinking water at low costs. MIT engineers have built a new desalination system that runs with the rhythms of the sun. The solar-powered system removes salt from water at a pace that closely follows changes in solar energy. As sunlight increases through the day, the system ramps up its desalting process and automatically adjusts to any sudden variation in sunlight, for example by dialing…
EMBL Heidelberg and University of Virginia scientists have discovered a curious way in which cells adapt to starvation – a mechanism with potential cancer implications. What can stressed yeast teach us about fundamental processes in the cell? A lot, according to scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). The team studies, among other topics, how cells adapt to stress — such as nutrient deprivation. One of their favourite test subjects is the yeast species S. pombe, for centuries used…
First toroidal micro-robot to swim autonomously in viscous liquids. Researchers from Tampere University in Finland and Anhui Jianzhu University in China have made a significant breakthrough in soft robotics. Their groundbreaking study introduces the first toroidal, light-driven micro-robot that can move autonomously in viscous liquids, such as mucus. This innovation marks a major step forward in developing micro-robots capable of navigating complex environments, with promising applications in fields such as medicine and environmental monitoring. A peek through an optical microscope…
Some genetic factors predisposing people to diabetes might change the way pancreatic cells respond to molecular stress, researchers at The Jackson Laboratory discovered. The cells in your pancreas, like people, can only handle so much stress before they start to break down. Certain stressors, such as inflammation and high blood sugar, contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes by overwhelming these cells. Researchers at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) have now discovered that DNA sequence changes known to increase a…
A team from UNIGE and EPFL has demonstrated how Hsp70 chaperone proteins help proteins move within cells. Proteins control most of the body’s functions, and their malfunction can have severe consequences, such as neurodegenerative diseases or cancer. Therefore, cells have mechanisms in place to control protein quality. In animal and human cells, chaperones of the Hsp70 class are at the heart of this control system, overseeing a wide array of biological processes. Yet, despite their crucial role, the precise molecular mechanism…
Laser direct writing (LDW) employing multi-photon 3D polymerisation is a scientific and industrial lithography tool used in various fields such as micro-optics, medicine, metamaterials, programmable materials, etc., due to the fusion of high-throughput and fine features down to hundreds of nm. Some limitations of technology applicability emerge from photo-resin properties as any material modifications can strongly affect its printability due to applied photoexcitation conditions. In a paper published at Light: Advanced Manufacturing, a team of scientists, led by Professor Mangirdas…
The α-latrotoxin, which is dangerous for humans, causes severe muscle contractions and spasms. Researchers from the University of Münster showed in detail how the molecule is structured and how it affects nerve cells. They used high-performance cryo-electron microscopy and molecular dynamics computer simulations. The black widow spider is one of the most feared spider species. Its venom is a cocktail of seven different toxins that attack the nervous system. These so-called latrotoxins specifically paralyse insects and crustaceans, but one of…
An international research team has gained new insights into the mode of operation of an iron catalyst that can be used to split ammonia into nitrogen and hydrogen. Hydrogen is converted into ammonia to make the energy carrier easier to transport. This means that catalysts are also needed that can subsequently break ammonia down into its starting materials again. A team from the German Ruhr University Bochum, the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI CEC) in Mülheim an…
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