… to enhance systemic delivery of cancer immunotherapy. PLGA nanoparticles modified with ATP slowly release anti-cancer drugs and recruit immune cells to fight tumors. Purdue University researchers are developing and validating patent-pending poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid), or PLGA, nanoparticles modified with adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, to enhance immunotherapy effects against malignant tumors. The nanoparticles slowly release drugs that induce immunogenic cell death, or ICD, in tumors. ICD generates tumor antigens and other molecules to bring immune cells to a tumor’s microenvironment….

DFKI and University of Duisburg-Essen test fine motor skills in weightlessness. Fine motor tasks under space conditions are particularly challenging and must first be trained on Earth. Scientists from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) are investigating whether a robotic exoskeleton that can simulate weightlessness is suitable for astronautical training. The team now had the opportunity to participate in the 42nd DLR Parabolic Flight Campaign in Bordeaux, France, to compare the effects…

New instrument for operando battery research with KIT light source. Synchrotrons are particle accelerators that emit electromagnetic radiation such as soft X-rays. Synchrotron radiation enables insights into the internal structure and workings of materials, so it plays an important role in the development of advanced technologies. Soft X-rays (with wavelengths around one to two nanometers) are ideal for research on electrochemical storage systems for the energy transition – but their use has been limited so far: they require a vacuum…

DFKI optimizes system development with hybrid AI and human feedback. Recent developments in robotics have brought the vision of robots taking over complex tasks as personal assistants and interaction partners for humans within reach. Researchers at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) have taken an important step in this direction as part of the M-Rock project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Using innovative approaches based on hybrid AI methods and human feedback,…

Two Hereon studies call for clear framework conditions for CO2 sequestration in coastal areas . A digital twin for projections, an independent body for certification and new legal structures for monitoring. This should help projects for CO2 storage in coastal areas, according to two recent studies with lead authorship or participation of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon. The two papers were recently published in Environmental Research Letters and Elementa. The expertise of the Hereon authors is primarily aimed at politics and business….

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…

Scientists use high-energy heavy ion collisions as a new tool to reveal subtleties of nuclear structure with implications for many areas of physics. Scientists have demonstrated a new way to use high-energy particle smashups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) — a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory — to reveal subtle details about the shapes of atomic nuclei. The method, described in a paper just published in Nature, is…

Nitrate, pesticides, metals, plastic – agricultural soils often contain pollutants. But are there sustainable and climate-friendly ways to restore and promote soil health in agricultural land? Yes, says a research team from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). Specific plant species could be used as cover plants for phytoremediation, i.e. to relief agricultural land from adverse pollutant impacts. In their article published in Trends in Plant Sciences, the researchers summarise the results of more than 100 scientific studies and…

The Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment has produced the most precise measurement yet of theta13, a key parameter for understanding how neutrinos change their “flavor”. Over nearly nine years, the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment captured an unprecedented five and a half million interactions from subatomic particles called neutrinos. Now, the international team of physicists of the Daya Bay collaboration has reported the first result from the experiment’s full dataset—the most precise measurement yet of theta13, a key parameter for understanding…

A new biologic “patch” that is activated by a person’s natural motion could be the key to fixing herniated discs in people’s backs, according to researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the CMC VA Medical Center (CMCVAMC). Combining years of work from many different projects, the “tension-activated repair patches” (TARPs) provide controlled release of an anti-inflammatory molecule called anakinra from microcapsules over time, which helped discs in a large animal model regain the…

The spectrum of research in the field of physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany has been extended to include one of the most important…

Nocturnal moths, such as the tobacco hawkmoth Manduca sexta, rely on their extremely sensitive sense of smell in order to locate their food sources: flowers…

Sixty-five million years ago, a 15-kilometer-sized asteroid wiped out two-thirds of all life on Earth, including the dinosaurs. But it’s probably not this kind…

The hunt for dark matter is one of the most exciting challenges facing fundamental physics in the 21st century. Researchers have long known that it must exist,…

Scientists characterized how these states depend on local chemical composition, narrowing the search for where to look compositionally to enable quantum computing. Scientists characterized how the electronic states in a compound containing iron, tellurium, and selenium depend on local chemical concentrations. They discovered that superconductivity (conducting electricity without resistance), along with distinct magnetic correlations, appears when the local concentration of iron is sufficiently low; a coexisting electronic state existing only at the surface (topological surface state) arises when the concentration…

For the first time, astrophysicists have found compelling evidence for the existence of gravitational waves which oscillate with periods ranging from years to decades. For this, the researchers evaluated data from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves. Prof. Kai Schmitz from Münster University and Dr. Andrea Mitridate from DESY in Hamburg are involved in one of a total of five current research articles. This publication deals with the hypothesis that NANOGrav sees gravitational waves which were produced in…

Structure of an enzyme crucial for tRNA maturation sheds light on cause of neurodegenerative disorders. In all living organisms, the biomolecule transfer RNA (tRNA) plays a fundamental role in protein production. tRNAs are generated from precursor molecules in several steps. The enzyme tRNA splicing endonuclease (TSEN), among other things, catalyzes one step in this process. Mutations in TSEN lead to a neurodegenerative disorder called pontocerebellar hypoplasia, which is associated with severe disabilities and early death. Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt…

Skeletal editing employed to enlarge molecule rings. Molecules with a central ring system play an important role in the search for active ingredients for new pharmaceutical products – and it is important that the rings should have the correct size if the desired product is to be manufactured as efficiently as possible. For this purpose, an international team of chemists led by Prof. Frank Glorius (University of Münster) and Prof. Osvaldo Gutierrez (Texas A&M University, USA) have developed a precise…

A research team from the University of Münster has for the first time discovered anomalous meter-sized rocks on the lunar surface that are covered in dust and presumably exhibit unique properties – such as magnetic anomalies. These findings help to understand the processes that form and change the lunar crust. The study has been published in the “Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets”. Our Earth’s Moon is almost completely covered in dust. Unlike on Earth, this dust is not smoothed…

While the effect of negative performance stereotypes on test-taking and in other domains is well documented, the study by social psychologist Robert J. Rydell…