The EU project “LISTEN” creates a robust, hands-free speech control interface for smart home systems. Best practice examples for the use of EML speech…

Autonomous driving is currently considered the cornerstone of the transportation of tomorrow. Driving without a driver, however, poses major technical, legal,…

Malignant pulmonary effusion (MPE) frequently occurs in patients with metastatic breast or lung cancer. It involves a build-up of excess fluid in the pleural…

The sea-ice extent in the Arctic is nearing its annual minimum at the end of the melt season in September. Only circa 3.9 million square kilometres of the…

In an ocean covered by an up to 15 kilometer thick sheet of ice that is located on Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, in an average distance of 600 million…

Although deep learning algorithms are righteously handled as one of the key aspects of modern Artificial Intelligence (AI), the conclusions of the methods do not offer a high degree of security. Many areas with potential for AI application bear too many risks to be controlled by systems that are not verifiable. The two Bremen-based research departments of the DFKI are working on a new method for system control, combining the advantages of fast self-learning and reliable verification via symbolical models….

Researchers of the Center for Photonics and Two-Dimensional Materials at MIPT, together with their colleagues from Spain, Great Britain, Sweden, and Singapore, including co-creator of the world’s first 2D material and Nobel laureate Konstantin Novoselov, have measured giant optical anisotropy in layered molybdenum disulfide crystals for the first time. The scientists suggest that such transition metal dichalcogenide crystals will replace silicon in photonics. Birefringence with a giant difference in refractive indices, characteristic of these substances, will make it possible to…

Max Planck researchers reveal how immune cells coordinate their swarming behavior to eliminate pathogens effectively together. The body is well protected against invading pathogens by barriers such as the skin. But if you injure yourself and break your skin, pathogens can easily enter your body through the wound and cause severe infections. If this occurs, the innate immune system takes over the first rapid defense with an effective arsenal of cellular weapons infiltrating the wounded tissue in large numbers. As…

System consisting of two Penning traps connected to an electrical resonant circuit transmits the cooling power of laser-cooled ions. For the first time, physicists have succeeded in successfully realizing a new method for cooling protons using laser-cooled ions – in this case beryllium ions. The innovative feature of the new system is that the two particle types are located in spatially separated traps. This means it is now possible to provide the cooling effect with the help of an electrical…

Research team develops for the first time a light field that reflects the structure of four-dimensional space. Researchers have developed a method for structuring light in such a way that a projection from four-dimensional space is created. The results have now been published in the journal Nature Communications. Light is used for various purposes in nowadays applications. For example, data can be transmitted with light and nanoscopic structures can be created by light. To enable such applications, light must be…

Magnetic excitations for information transfer without heat loss. Just as electrons flow through an electrical conductor, magnetic excitations can travel through certain materials. Such excitations, known in physics as “magnons” in analogy to the electron, could transport information much more easily than electrical conductors. An international research team has now made an important discovery on the road to such components, which could be highly energy-efficient and considerably smaller. At present the transport and control of electrical charges forms the basis…

X-ray microscopes are essential for examining components and materials because they can be used to detect changes and details in the material. Until now, however, it has been difficult to detect small cracks or tiny inclusions in the images. By developing a new method, researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon are now able to visualize such changes in the nanometer regime. In particular materials research and quality assurance will profit from this development. The quality must be right. This also applies…

Large-scale project investigates the release of additives in water. Plastic waste in rivers and oceans is constantly releasing chemicals into the water. Until now, it was unknown how large these quantities are and which substances are released particularly strongly. In the large-scale P-LEACH project, experts from four research institutes of the Helmholtz Association have now analyzed the composition and concentrations of many different substances. The main focus was on the question of how sun’s UV radiation increases the release of…

New method developed by researchers of KIT and voxalytic GmbH allows easy elucidation of the spatial arrangement of atoms –tool for drug discovery. The chirality of a molecule refers to its basic structure: Some molecules, so-called enantiomers, occur in pairs and are mirror images of each other. They differ in the way a left and a right glove do. Depending on whether the “twisted” structure of a molecule is left-handed or right-handed, its influence on biochemical and chemical reactions is…

A new iPhone application, created by researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab, enables users to track and report…

View a webcast with the citizen scientists who discovered a rotating pulsar, the Einstein@Home director, and an Arecibo researcher; artist’s simulations of the…

How on earth are busy nerve cells supposed to pick out and respond to relevant signals amidst all that information overload?Somehow neurons do manage to…

“Oxidative stress can cause damage to the building blocks of a cell, resulting in excessive cell proliferation, in the case of cancer or cell death, in the…

A multi-institutional effort led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania is taking steps to develop an effective technique to regenerate photoreceptors cells and restore sight in people with vision disorders. What if, in people with blinding retinal disorders, one could simply introduce into the retina healthy photoreceptor cells derived in a dish from stem cells, and restore sight? It’s a tantalizingly straightforward strategy to curing blindness, yet the approach has been met with a number of scientific roadblocks, including…

A new study has estimated it would cost $15.6 billion per year for 30 years to prevent extinction for 99 of Australia’s priority species.  The research, led by Griffith University’s Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security with WWF-Australia and the University of Queensland, highlights the urgent need for increased funding to combat threats such as habitat destruction, invasive species and climate change. Australia has already lost more than 100 endemic species in the past three centuries, placing it at…