Expected to improve results for meniscal reconstruction surgery. The knee meniscus is an important tissue that protects the joint; if the meniscus is damaged—by sports injury or aging–it often does not heal on its own. There are two surgical methods for treating a torn meniscus: repair with a suture and graft or removal. Because removing the meniscus leads to further damage, the graft surgery is preferred for meniscus reconstruction. In countries where donated meniscal allograft is unavailable the patient’s own…

… play important roles in geological and environmental processes. Minerals are the fundamental components of Earth. Microbes occupy the majority of the tree of life. In near surficial environments, minerals and microbes co-exist and interact. The studies of mineral-microbe interactions have blossomed in the last two decades, because such interactions drive major geological events and substantially determine the habitability of the Earth. A research team led by Dr. Hailiang Dong from China University of Geosciences (Beijing) has critically reviewed the…

New laser charging system could offer safe cordless power for mobile devices and sensors. Imagine walking into an airport or grocery store and your smartphone automatically starts charging. This could be a reality one day, thanks to a new wireless laser charging system that overcomes some of the challenges that have hindered previous attempts to develop safe and convenient on-the-go charging systems. “The ability to power devices wirelessly could eliminate the need to carry around power cables for our phones…

… for the first time in Bayreuth. Magnetotactic bacteria, or short MTB, have the unique ability to align their movement with the earth’s magnetic field, a surprising feature that makes them increasingly important in research. Prof. Dr. Dirk Schüler, Chair of Microbiology at the University of Bayreuth, is one of the world’s leading experts in this field. From September 4 to 8, 2022, an international conference on magnetotactic bacteria will be held under his leadership, funded by the German Research…

Aphids are one of the least welcome garden visitors. These small insects can cause all the more damage in agriculture. But how do they actually choose their host plants? What are the basic mechanisms behind this? Researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Kassel now present two novel models that can be used to analyze aphid color vision and thus how the animals respond to plants. This opens up new possibilities for future research on this topic – but may…

Device opens the door to applications in optical communications, sensing, and the search for exoplanets. On-chip laser frequency combs — lasers that emit multiple frequencies or colors of light simultaneously separated like the tooth on a comb — are a promising technology for a range of applications including environmental monitoring, optical computing, astronomy, and metrology. However, on-chip frequency combs are still limited by one serious problem — they are not always efficient. There are several ways to mitigate the efficiency…

Professor Sabrina Jabs from the Cluster of Excellence “Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation” (PMI) investigated the function of a new disease gene with international cooperation. The starting point of the research was the search for host factors, that are necessary for RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 to replicate. For this purpose, genome-wide CRISPR/Cas knock-out screens in human cell cultures were used to investigate which cells survive after infection with certain viruses. “In other words, in the cell culture, we switched…

New method converts carbon dioxide into chemical. A team of researchers led by Meenesh Singh at University of Illinois Chicago has discovered a way to convert 100% of carbon dioxide captured from industrial exhaust into ethylene, a key building block for plastic products. Their findings are published in Cell Reports Physical Science. While researchers have been exploring the possibility of converting carbon dioxide to ethylene for more than a decade, the UIC team’s approach is the first to achieve nearly 100% utilization of carbon dioxide…

The results of the international study involving the Cluster of Excellence PMI also point to a previously unknown process in the development of this chronic inflammatory bowel disease. The special features of the study are its size as well as its methodological approach. In order to detect changes in the genome of patients with Crohn’s disease, an international consortium compared DNA samples from around 30,000 people with Crohn’s disease and a control group of 80,000 people without this disease. The…

Advance could lead to more environmentally friendly rocket fuels. Researchers have developed an analytical instrument that uses an ultrafast laser for precise temperature and concentration measurements of hydrogen. Their new approach could help advance the study of greener hydrogen-based fuels for use in spacecraft and airplanes. “This instrument will provide powerful capabilities to probe dynamical processes such as diffusion, mixing, energy transfer and chemical reactions,” said research team leader Alexis Bohlin from Luleå University of Technology in Sweden. “Understanding these…

A new design principle can now predict the properties of quantum materials that have hardly been explored so far. For the first time, a strongly correlated topological semimetal has been discovered using a computer. How do you find novel materials with very specific properties – for example, special electronic properties which are needed for quantum computers? This is usually a very complicated task: various compounds are created, in which potentially promising atoms are arranged in certain crystal structures and then…

The device could help scientists explore unknown regions of the ocean, track pollution, or monitor the effects of climate change. Scientists estimate that more than 95 percent of Earth’s oceans have never been observed, which means we have seen less of our planet’s ocean than we have the far side of the moon or the surface of Mars. The high cost of powering an underwater camera for a long time, by tethering it to a research vessel or sending a…

A new class of small molecule drugs, now in phase 1 clinical trials, is the first to target circadian clock proteins, which play a key role in the recurrence and spread of the deadly cancer. Glioblastoma, the most common cancerous brain tumor in adults, is an aggressive disease—patients survive an average of just 15 months once they are diagnosed. Despite more than two decades of research on the causes and treatments of glioblastoma, that prognosis has hardly improved. But recent…

Accurate predictions of regional sea-level change are essential in understanding the impact of climate change on coastal areas. Rising sea levels from melting glaciers and ice sheets pose an increasing threat to coastal communities worldwide. A new analysis of high-resolution satellite observations takes a major step forward in assessing this risk by confirming theoretical predictions and computational models of sea-level changes used to forecast climate-change-driven impacts. “Using sea-surface-height observations from satellites in the way we have independently verifies observations of Arctic and…

“I’m a professional pin-in-a-haystack seeker,” geneticist Thijn Brummelkamp responds when asked why he excels at tracking down proteins and genes that other people did not find, despite the fact that some have managed to remain elusive for as long as forty years. His research group at the Netherlands Cancer Institute has once again managed to track down one of these “mystery genes” – the gene that ensures that the final form of the protein actin is created, a main component…

Exoplanet hunters should check for N2O. Scientists at UC Riverside are suggesting something is missing from the typical roster of chemicals that astrobiologists use to search for life on planets around other stars — laughing gas. Chemical compounds in a planet’s atmosphere that could indicate life, called biosignatures, typically include gases found in abundance in Earth’s atmosphere today. “There’s been a lot of thought put into oxygen and methane as biosignatures. Fewer researchers have seriously considered nitrous oxide, but we…

A research network led by the DZNE is investigating whether blood tests can be used to diagnose and predict Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore about 3.000 blood samples will be analyzed. A new examination method could significantly simplify the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. For some time now, there have been data suggesting that the determination of protein changes in the blood could possibly make the examination of the cerebrospinal fluid superfluous. A research consortium led by the DZNE now wants to analyze…

… Achieves New Efficiency Record. Currently heat pump manufacturers are mainly focusing on cost reductions and sustainable refrigerants. In the project “LC150” (Low Charge 150 g), the Fraun-hofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and a consortium of heat pump manufacturers are developing a standardized and refrigerant-reduced propane refrigeration circuit. The team has now succeeded in setting a new efficiency record: A heating capacity of 12.8 kilowatts was achieved with only 124 grams of propane, which results in a specific…

ESnet6 provides over 46 Terabits per second of bandwidth and intelligent network services to support unique data-intensive needs of scientific research. Today, the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) formally unveiled ESnet6, the newest generation of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) high-performance network dedicated to science. The hybrid in person and virtual event was held at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and live-streamed on streaming.lbl.gov. “ESnet6 represents a transformational change in the way networks are built for research, with improved capacity, resiliency,…

New approach creates metamaterials that are light, thin and flexible. Researchers have developed an automatic drawing machine that uses pens and pencils to draw metamaterials onto paper. They demonstrated the new approach by using it to make three metamaterials that can be used to manipulate the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Metamaterials are artificially engineered composite materials that derive their properties from patterned microstructures, rather than the chemical composition of the materials themselves. The exact shape, geometry, size, orientation and…