A new tracking method to quantify skeletal kinematics in freely moving rodents. How can we measure a skeleton’s motion in a furry animal as it moves through its environment? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior have developed a method to quantify skeletal motion in freely moving rodents in a new level of accuracy and detail. It is based around building a skeleton-model that calculates bone joint movement using basic anatomical principles, such as joint rotation limits,…

Insecticides containing flupyradifurone and sulfoxaflor can have devastating effects on honey bee health. The substances damage the insects’ intestinal flora, especially when used in conjunction with a common fungicide, making them more susceptible to disease and shortening their life span. This was recently proven in a study conducted at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), as published in “Science of the Total Environment”. The two insecticides were considered harmless to bees and…

Compact and flexible fiber design ensures efficient focusing and razor-sharp images thanks to 3D printing. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Korea, Australia, Great Britain, and Germany – with participation of Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) – were able for the first time to optimize an optical glass fiber in such a way that light of different wavelengths can be focused extremely precisely. The level of accuracy is achieved by 3D nanoprinting of an optical lens applied to…

Scientists have developed a theory that can explain how flying insects determine the gravity direction without using accelerometers. It also forms a substantial step in the creation of tiny, autonomous drones. Scientists have discovered a novel manner for flying drones and insects to estimate the gravity direction. Whereas drones typically use accelerometers to this end, the way in which flying insects do this has until now been shrouded in mystery, since they lack a specific sense for acceleration. In an…

Pandemic-inspired online lab uses Hexbug toys to study gas behavior and electrical conduction. Although the sudden switch to remote and hybrid learning was seen as an enormous challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic, academic and commercial interest in creative online lab class development has since skyrocketed. In the American Journal of Physics, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Pomona College in California developed an online undergraduate physics lab course using small robotic bugs called Hexbug Nanos (TM) to engage students in scientific…

At the Amyloidosis Centre Lower Saxony, MHH offers diagnostics and therapy to those affected by the disease. Amyloidosis is a rare disease that can affect individual organs and body regions or the entire organism. It is caused by misfolded protein molecules that are deposited in the body. Since the disease has many subtypes and those affected can suffer from very different symptoms, it usually takes a long time until amyloidosis is reliably diagnosed and a targeted treatment can be started….

Direct air capture may be key to saving Earth from the effects of climate change, but there’s a catch: It’s really hard to do.  Direct air capture (DAC) technologies are designed to remove carbon dioxide from the air, although there’s still a lot of room for improvement in DAC materials. Other molecules in the air, especially water, are in much higher concentrations than carbon dioxide, or CO2. They start competing with each other, and ultimately, carbon dioxide isn’t what’s caught …

A new study led by the University of Tasmania – with the participation of the University of Bonn – discovered the oldest marine DNA in deep-sea sediments of the Scotia Sea north of the Antarctic continent. The material could be dated to one million years. Such old material demonstrates that sedimentary DNA can open the pathway to study long-term responses of ocean ecosystems to climate change. This recognition will also help assessing current and future change of marine life around…

What tasks can nanosatellites perform around the moon or even further away from Earth? A new study at the University of Würzburg aims to clarify this. Satellites for communication, navigation or Earth observation do their rounds in near-Earth orbits. But it is becoming apparent that mankind will soon also be using satellites at greater distances from Earth. Nanosatellites about the size of a shoebox are already being used for lunar missions. They act partly autonomously, but also serve to support…

– enabling soft robots that grow like plants. Soft robots can navigate hard-to-reach places like pipes or inside the human body. An interdisciplinary team of University of Minnesota Twin Cities scientists and engineers has developed a first-of-its-kind, plant-inspired extrusion process that enables synthetic material growth. The new approach will allow researchers to build better soft robots that can navigate hard-to-reach places, complicated terrain, and potentially areas within the human body. The paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy…

Dresden research team finds that the cell cortex, a fine network of filaments below the cell membrane, is activated in a controlled way by thousands of short-lived protein condensates. During development, the cells of an embryo divide until a fully functional organism emerges. One component of the cell is especially important during this process: the cell cortex. This fine network of hair-like filament structures (called actin) just below the cell membrane is the main determinant of cell shape and is…

Large study aims to clarify whether therapeutic plasma exchange increases the survival rate of those affected. Sepsis is the most common cause of death in infections. In Germany alone, around 75,000 people die from it every year. The most severe form of sepsis leads to circulatory failure, which experts refer to as septic shock. 60 percent of cases are fatal. So far, there is no specific therapy for septic shock – but that could soon change. An interdisciplinary team of…

The findings could help treat deadly arrhythmias. Electrical signals tell the heart to contract, but when the signals form spiral waves, they can lead to dangerous cardiac events like tachycardia and fibrillation. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and clinicians at Emory University School of Medicine are bringing a new understanding to these complicated conditions with the first high-resolution visualizations of stable spiral waves in human ventricles. “Clinicians have known for decades that spiral waves of electrical activity can…

Today, genome editing is almost as easy as programming software. However, the generation of viral vectors as initial material is still associated with many expensive and error-prone handling procedures. Viruses are generated via complex biological processes that have to be optimised virus-specifically in order to produce high-quality therapeutics. A new method is needed that simplifies and optimises these processes. Fraunhofer IPA is the overall coordinator of the European biointelligence project BioProS, which is funded with over 6 million euros as…

Walking for multi-legged creatures is a lot like slithering, researchers find by comparing ants to robots. The physics of walking for multi-legged animals and robots is simpler than previously thought. That is the finding described by a team of roboticists, physicists and biologists in the Sept. 5 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in a paper titled “Walking is like slithering: a unifying, data-driven view of locomotion.” “This is important because it will allow roboticists to…

In order to achieve the urgently needed climate neutrality in industry and the society as quickly as possible, energy requirements must be reduced and resources used more efficiently than before. Many industrial manufacturing processes will have to change significantly to achieve this. In the “R2R NET” network, 20 European partners from industry and research are further developing roll-to-roll systems and processes for their rapid use in production. On September 21, 2022, the partners will present current developments, success stories and…