An analysis of the songs of most of the world’s passerine birds reveals that the frequency at which birds sing mostly depends on body size, but is also influenced by sexual selection. The new study from researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and colleagues suggests that habitat characteristics do not affect song frequency, thereby refuting a long-standing theory. Many animals use acoustic signals for communication. These signals have evolved to maximize the effectiveness of the transmission and reception…

New methods enable scientists at IST Austria to take a look at the innermost of cells: high-resolution images of deep-frozen cells show structures that previously could only be guessed at. Temperatures of minus 196 degrees Celsius enable high-resolution imaging of the cell’s interior. Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria are thus able to show for the first time how the active form of a protein complex plays critical roles in cell motility and other important biological…

The wastewater treatment plant is turned into a vegetable farm, bio-based substances recovered from waste are being utilized to prevent oxidative spoilage in food packaging or provide environmentally-friendly and safe water-repellent coatings on functional textiles. In the EVOBIO project coordinated by Fraunhofer IGB, 19 Fraunhofer Institutes are working on solutions for a sustainable economy by developing new concepts that utilize material flows in bioeconomy process cycles to produce optimized materials for innovative products. From environmental pollution to climate change –…

Sixfold increase in risk A research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has quantified the effects of an infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) on the development of cervical cancer. Their results show that the risk of developing cervical cancer is six times higher in women who are infected with HIV. Southern and Eastern Africa are particularly affected. According to WHO statistics, cervical cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer for women. In 2018 an…

Finding reveals potential for spread to humans Reston ebolavirus (RESTV) should be considered a livestock pathogen with potential to affect other mammals, including people, according to National Institutes of Health scientists. The caution comes from a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in which the scientists found that experimental piglets infected with RESTV developed severe respiratory disease and shed the virus from the upper respiratory tract. RESTV can infect humans but is not known to cause…

Computational simulations performed by the Pantazis group combined with spectroscopic studies led to the discovery of a new catalytic intermediate in water oxidation. One of the greatest ambitions of modern chemistry is to reproduce with synthetic catalysts the remarkable feat of water oxidation performed in nature by photosynthetic organisms. Plants use sunlight to split water into oxygen, protons, and electrons. This is the source of the oxygen that we breathe, while the protons and electrons are used in the enzymatic…

Researchers of Münster University reveal mechanobiological function of muscle-specific adhesion protein / Study published in “Nature Communications” The ability of cells to sense and respond to their mechanical environment is critical for many cellular processes but the molecular mechanisms underlying cellular mechanosensitivity are still unclear. Researchers at the University of Münster have now discovered how the muscle-specific adhesion molecule metavinculin modulates mechanical force transduction on the molecular level. The research results have just been published in the journal “Nature Communications”….

Researchers from the Innovation Center Computer Assisted Surgery (ICCAS) at Leipzig University and the National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology (OncoRay) in Dresden have achieved promising results with a new cancer therapy using focused ultrasound (FUS) and ionizing radiation. The results of the research group led by ICCAS director Professor Andreas Melzer have now been published in the journal “CELLS”. SONO-RAY is a collaborative project receiving more than six million euros in funding from the Federal Ministry of Education…

Study reveals new targets for the design of improved antinausea medications. At some point, everyone experiences nausea. Whether it occurs after unwisely eating a week-old slice of pizza or as an accompaniment to a serious infection, that queasy, unsettling sensation centered around the stomach is a signal that something is amiss within the body and typically portends a bout of vomiting. Most of the time, nausea is only temporary. But for some people, such as those on certain chemotherapy regimens,…

Scientists of KIT use advanced methods with hybrid functionals for analysis of active sites – publication in Physical Review Letters. Catalysts are indispensable for many technologies. To further improve heterogeneous catalysts, it is required to analyze the complex processes on their surfaces, where the active sites are located. Scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with colleagues from Spain and Argentina, have now reached decisive progress: As reported in Physical Review Letters, they use calculation methods with so-called hybrid…

A newly developed compound starves cancer cells by attacking their “power plants” – the so-called mitochondria. The new compound prevents the genetic information within mitochondria from being read. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the University of Gothenburg report in their study published in the prestigious journal Nature that this compound could be used as a potential anti-tumour drug in the future; not only in mice but also in human…

In the joint CORSA project, SARS-CoV-2 and further respiratory viruses on surfaces and skin are to be inactivated by using UVC light. The project team is developing special UVC LEDs for this purpose and is investigating parameters such as wavelengths, irradiation doses and virus habitats. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is supporting the three-year project from 2021 with a total of three million euros. Like bacteria and fungi, viruses can be inactivated by UVC light. However, for…

A team of researchers from Russia, the United States, and China led by Skoltech Professor Artem R. Oganov has discovered an unexpected very complex europium hydride, Eu8H46. The paper detailing the discovery has been published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. Superhydrides of rare-earth metals are interesting compounds that form under pressure: some exhibit high-temperature superconductivity that scientists have been chasing for over 100 years, and some possess magnetic properties. Although devoid of superconductivity, europium hydrides are very interesting…

All over the world, research into the development of a vaccine against the SARS-CoV2 virus is running at full speed – the breakthroughs of the last few days have made the headlines. Researchers from Fraunhofer EMFT and the University of Regensburg are working on a new assay concept that could speed up the evaluation of vaccine candidates and at the same time increase their significance. The corona pandemic confronts the world community with challenges never seen before. Despite massive restrictions…

Researchers identify key native plants that stabilize feeding relationships essential for our planet’s health. University of Delaware Professor of Entomology Doug Tallamy published a new research study in Nature that systematically identifies the most critical plants needed to sustain food webs across the United States. Alongside co-authors Kimberley Shropshire and former graduate student Desiree Narango, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the study drills down to the top plants in each county and bioregion, illuminating a…

Researchers led by the University of Tsukuba find that differences in egg structure among stonefly species can provide insight into the evolutionary history of the order. If a creature with eight legs, a large abdomen, and lots of eyes comes crawling your way, even if you have never seen one like it before, you know instinctively that it is a spider. Likewise, an animal with wings, feathers, and a beak is unlikely to be mistaken for anything other than a…