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• Beaming in on Coronavirus details
  User operation resumed at European XFEL end of March, and the first experiments to receive beamtime are those being carried out at the Single Particles, Clusters, and Biomolecules & Serial Femtosec...
• SARS-CoV-2 curtails immune response in the gut
  EMBL scientists, together with collaborators from Heidelberg University, have provided further evidence of the gut's role in COVID-19. In an effort to determine the potential for COVID-19 to beg...
• Large molecules transported into living cells
  It is one of the big pharmacological questions: How do you get large functional biomolecules like proteins or antibodies into a living cell? Linking antibodies or proteins with cell-penetrating pep...
• Fighting harmful bacteria with nanoparticles
  Multi-resistant pathogens are a serious and increasing problem in today's medicine. Where antibiotics are ineffective, these bacteria can cause life-threatening infections. Researchers at Empa and ...
• Mars rover converts CO₂ into oxygen
  The growing list of "firsts" for Perseverance, NASA's newest six-wheeled robot on the Martian surface, includes converting some of the Red Planet's thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen....
• How SARS-Coronaviruses reprogram the human cell to their own benefit
  Coronavirus researchers under Prof. Rolf Hilgenfeld of the University of Lübeck and Dr. Albrecht von Brunn of the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich published a research breakthrough in the hi...
• Toxicity of micro- and nanoplastics
  Particularly fibrous particles of micro- and nanoplastics are suspected of being harmful. They enter the human body via the air we breathe or the food we eat. Initial data indicate that they could ...
• Brain damage caused by plasticisers
  The plasticisers contained in many everyday objects can impair important brain functions in humans. Biologists from the University of Bayreuth warn of this danger in an article in "Communications B...
• A Novel Tunable Force in Electrolyte Solutions
  Solutions that conduct electricity, 'electrolytes', are ubiquitous not only in batteries and capacitors but also in biofluids including blood plasma; of great practical importance is thus to unders...
• First images of cells exposed to COVID-19 vaccine
  New research has for the first time compared images of the protein spikes that develop on the surface of cells exposed to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the protein spike of the SARS-CoV-19 coro...
• Dynamic model of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein reveals potential new vaccine targets
  A key feature of SARS-CoV-2 is its spike protein, which extends from its surface and enables it to target and infect human cells. Extensive research has resulted in detailed static models of the sp...
• The decline of CO₂ fertilization effects on vegetation photosynthesis
  Plants play a critical role in removing part of the excess CO₂ released to the atmosphere from human emissions. This is mainly because photosynthesis by plants has been enhanced by the increasing a...
• Chain length determines molecular colour of fluorescent polymers
  Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed fluorescent polymers whose colour can be easily tuned. Depending on their length, the polymers emit a different colour. Potential applications include biome...
• Detection of viruses, bacteria and toxins in real time
  For their start-up project HyPhoX, the scientists Dr. Patrick Steglich and Prof. Dr. Andreas Mai from the Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics, IHP, in Frankfurt Oder received th...
• High-precision spectroscopic measurements reveal the dynamics of water molecules lying at the surface
  Chemical reactions and physical processes that involve water surfaces will be easier to model thanks to the discovery by an all-RIKEN team of how the molecules at water surfaces lose energy1. Wa...
• Superconductors under strain
  Superconductors are materials where current can flow without resistance below a characteristic temperature. Since its discovery at the beginning of the 20th century, this phenomenon has been matte...
• Viewing the Virus Close Up
  Advancing research into how viruses penetrate and act on human cells requires powerful cell imaging approaches. Soft X-ray microscopy is particularly suitable but has so far not been widely availab...
• Mine water as valuable water resource and important recyclables provider
  Technological progress is not possible without raw materials from mines - e-mobility or digitalization come to mind. However, in order to minimize the subsequent ecological damages of mining, a con...
• Groundwater discharge affects water quality in coastal waters
  Water quality management in the ocean often targets visible pollution sources such as sewage, rivers or ships. A new global study, led by researchers at the University of Gothenburg, reveals that i...
• AI generated proteins will speed up drug development
  Artificial Intelligence is now capable of generating novel, functionally active proteins, thanks to recently published work by researchers from Chalmers. "What we are now able to demonstrate offers...
• Researchers first to link silicon atoms on surfaces
  A team consisting of various working groups from the fields of chemistry and physics are now the first to have linked silicon atoms on surfaces. From silicon polymers, the researchers hope for inno...
• How molecules can help miniaturize electronics in the future
  There are worlds between the Zuse Z3, the first functioning digital computer from 1941, and modern microprocessors - both in terms of speed and size. But the further miniaturization of current sili...