New study: Microplastic fibers are settling substantially slower than spherical particles in the atmosphere and might even reach stratosphere. How far microplastics travel in the atmosphere depends crucially on particle shape, according to a recent study by scientists at the University of Vienna and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation in Göttingen: While spherical particles settle quickly, microplastic fibers might travel as far as the stratosphere. In the article published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the…
Interdisciplinary team at the University of Jena, Germany conducts further provenance research on items from its own collections. This has led to new findings on the mummy fragments and in particular on the textiles with which the mummies were wrapped or clothed. However, it also shows how difficult provenance research is when there is a lack of information. Researchers at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany have carried out the first comprehensive analysis of some 20 mummy fragments from collections in…
Researchers at Friedrich Schiller University Jena Develop Sustainable Catalyst System for Hydrogen Production Using Light Energy. For hydrogen to be sustainably produced using sunlight, it’s not just an efficient catalyst system that’s needed – it must also be economical, readily available, and resource-efficient. A team led by chemist Prof. Dr Kalina Peneva from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Macromolecular Chemistry at the University of Jena has made a step in this direction. In their research, the group developed dyes…
Phosphorus chemist Prof. Jan J. Weigand from the Dresden University of Technology, in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team, has developed a groundbreaking method to introduce phosphorus and nitrogen atoms into polycyclic molecules. This method holds the potential to pave the way for the development of new materials with specific optoelectronic properties, ideal for applications in organic semiconductor technologies such as OLEDs and sensors. The results of this promising endeavour were published this week in the prestigious journal CHEM. © Jannis…
Universal device will allow transdisciplinary collaboration globally. Spurred by the current climate crisis, there has been a heightened attention within the scientific community in recent years to how past climate variation contributed to historic human migration and other behaviors. Now, an international group of scientists — including archaeologists, historians, climate scientists, paleo-scientists, a volcanologist and others — are calling for a strengthened commitment to transdisciplinary collaboration to study past and present human-environmental interactions, which they say will advance our understanding…
Humboldt fellow Shailja Jain is investigating catalysts for green chemistry. She uses quantum technologies for observing molecules: Computational chemist Shailja Jain is visiting the Institute for Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart for two years as a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow. In the team of Professor Johannes Kästner, she wants to advance the development of a new generation of catalysts for sustainable chemical processes. “I want to shed light on the structures, bonding, and reaction dynamics of metal-free small molecule…
Successful trial installation in Erlangen… The fully automated measurement of the biophysical properties of hundreds of cell samples in just a few days is the goal of the cooperative project “AutoRAPID,” involving scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) in Erlangen and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Automation IPA in Mannheim. For the first time, the biophysicists and automation engineers have assembled their individual components in a setup in Erlangen. Researchers from the…
Dark excitons emerge exclusively at the top layer of bi-layered transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures when the stacking order of the layers is changed. Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors are special materials that have long fascinated researchers with their unique properties. For one, they are flat, one-atom-thick two-dimensional (2D) materials similar to that of graphene. They are compounds that contain different combinations of the transition metal group (e.g., molybdenum, tungsten) and chalcogen elements (e.g., sulfur, selenium, tellurium). What’s even more fascinating…
Bayreuth animal ecologists study the effects on bumblebees for the first time. The decline of insects threatens many ecosystems worldwide. While the effects of pesticides are well researched, there has been a lack of knowledge about the effects of other anthropogenic pollutants. Animal ecologists at the University of Bayreuth have now studied the effects of diesel exhaust particles on bumblebees for the first time. In two new studies, they show that these fine dust particles can significantly damage the organism…
In a new interdisciplinary project between BTU Cottbus and TU Dresden, researchers are investigating the use of novel enzymes to remove micropollutants from municipal wastewater. Medicines are good for our bodies. However, depending on the type of drug, up to 90 percent of the active ingredient is excreted unchanged and thus ends up in wastewater. Improper disposal of pharmaceutical products in toilets and washbasins also leads to residues that can only be partially intercepted in wastewater treatment plants. The remaining…
An interdisciplinary research team from Bochum, Duisburg and Zurich has developed a new approach to construct modular optical sensors which are capable of detecting viruses and bacteria. For this purpose, the researchers used fluorescent carbon nanotubes with a novel type of DNA anchors that act as molecular handles. The anchor structures can be used to conjugate biological recognition units such as antibodies aptamers to the nanotubes. The recognition unit can subsequently interact with bacterial or viral molecules to the nanotubes….
Large collaboration at ISTA yields an unprecedented “live” view into the brain’s complexity. In a new paper published today in the journal Nature Methods, an interdisciplinary team of scientists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has come together to present a new way to observe the brain’s structure and dynamics – in a high resolution and without damaging the tissue. Brain tissue is one of the most intricate specimens that scientists have arguably ever dealt with. Packed…
A clinical trial under MHH leadership is testing a new therapy with immune cells against the JC virus. The aim is to cure the fatal disease PML. Human polyomavirus 2 – formerly called John Cunningham (JC) virus – infects about 70 to 90 percent of all people worldwide without most even noticing it. But once it enters the body, the genetic material of the pathogen remains dormant there. If the immune system is weakened or shut down by a serious…
An interdisciplinary team of clinicians and scientists has published a consensus paper recommending appropriate quantitative imaging techniques for coronary artery stenosis and atherosclerosis related treatment and procedural planning. Quantitative imaging has become increasingly important for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) over the past five years. This is because new quantitative techniques can detect narrowed coronary arteries (coronary artery stenoses) and atherosclerosis, which play a major role in CHD patients. It is important to correctly diagnose and accurately assess…
An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg has gained new insights into how inflammatory mediators of pathogen defense can remotely drive cancer cells into death – an important contribution to improving cancer immunotherapies. Modern immunotherapies boost the body’s own defenses against cancer. They activate killer T cells of the immune system that can specifically recognize and destroy cancer cells. In many patients, however, cancer cells adapt and become invisible to killer T cells so that the…
Reactivating Damaged Motor Neurons Using Magnetic Fields. Motor neurons in healthy individuals send signals to the skeletal muscles. ALS, however, is currently an incurable, neurodegenerative disease in which motor neurons are severely damaged and can therefore no longer transmit these signals. An interdisciplinary team at HZDR has proven in cell experiments that magnetic fields can restore impaired motor neurons. This could serve as the groundwork for an entirely new therapeutic approach in curing neurodegenerative diseases, as currently reported in Cells,…
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