Search Latest News

Latest news from laboratory, environment, chemistry, life science and quality control

• An ultrafast X-ray glance into photoacid electronic structure
  Photoacids are molecules that release a proton upon electronic excitation, thus enhancing the acidity of a liquid. Pioneering work by Theodor Förster has shown the direct relationship between the w...
• New CRISPR Element Regulates Viral Defense
  Researchers from Würzburg, Freiburg and Leipzig discover a mechanism for prioritizing the immune response in bacteria. What tasks need to be done today, and which is the most urgent? People hav...
• Eliminating the bottlenecks for use of lithium-sulfur batteries
  Energy storage in lithium-sulfur batteries is potentially higher than in lithium-ion batteries but they are hampered by a short life. Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden have now identifi...
• Catalytic hydrogen generation - without expensive precious metals
  A research team from Friedrich Schiller University Jena has developed a molecular photosystem inspired by nature that generates hydrogen under visible light irradiation. In contrast to other existi...
• New technology to make charging electric cars as fast as pumping gas
  Whether it's photovoltaics or fusion, sooner or later, human civilization must turn to renewable energies. This is deemed inevitable considering the ever-growing energy demands of humanity and the ...
• Member States agree to reduce persistent organic pollutants in waste
  Environment ministers endorsed the Council's mandate to negotiate an agreement with the European Parliament on a regulation that aims to further restrict the presence of persistent organic pollutan...
• Paper discs that can pick up hydrogen peroxide
  Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed a paper-based sensor for detecting even tiny volumes of hydrogen peroxide. This chemical is used widely in household and healthc...
• A "green" catalyst for the synthesis of complex molecules
  RUDN chemists have created a palladium catalyst for the Suzuki reaction for a more economical and safe synthesis of complex molecules for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. It keeps pallad...
• Deep insights into a living fungus
  Light sheet microscopy enables us to examine fungal fruiting bodies on a living object. In order to examine tissues under the microscope, they usually have to be cut into thin slices. But it is ...
• Novel X-ray lens facilitates glimpse into the nanoworld
  PSI scientists have developed a ground-breaking achromatic lens for X-rays. This allows the X-ray beams to be accurately focused on a single point even if they have different wavelengths. The new l...
• The untapped nitrogen reservoir
  Guanidine is one of the most nitrogen-rich compounds. It could be a valuable source of organic nitrogen, but only very few organisms can access it. However, certain bacteria manage to obtain nitrog...
• 'Fingerprint' machine learning technique identifies different bacteria in seconds
  A synergistic combination of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and deep learning serves as an effective platform for separation-free detection of bacteria in arbitrary media. Bacterial identif...
• CO₂ could be stored below ocean floor
  Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity. To combat its potentially catastrophic effects, scientists are searching for new technologies that could help the world reach ...
• A sieve for molecules
  Scientists have long tried to use graphene, which is composed of carbon, as a kind of sieve. But this material doesn't have any pores. Now, a team has found an alternative material which comes with...
• Building precise smaller nanoparticles with templates
  Despite rapid advances of nanoscience, the properties of quasi-sub-nanomaterials with structures falling between molecules and solids remain unrevealed. However, researchers from Tokyo Institute of...
• Advances in micro-computed tomography
  Researchers in biomedical physics and biology have significantly improved micro-computed tomography, more specifically imaging with phase contrast and high brilliance x-ray radiation. They have...
• Seeing through blood with a microscope
  Inflammation of the middle ear is often triggered a cholesteatoma, an aggressive form of chronic otitis media. In order to detect cholesteatomas and bacterial biofilms and to remove them safely, th...
• How potassium and sodium are conducted through ion channels
  Tiny ion channels are responsible for transporting potassium and sodium to our cells. In the process, ions must pass through a bottleneck, referred to as the selectivity filter. Although the str...
• Limits of Measurability of Quantum Jumps Pushed Back
  Correct counting determines our modern life - be it the bits in a computer with their two states, the number of positive coronatests, or generally any system that has countable events. But the f...
• Breaking the black box of catalytic reactions
  Many of the catalytic reactions that drive our modern world happen in an atomic black box. Scientists know all the components that go into a reaction, but not how they interact at an atomic level. ...
• Chemical synthesis yields potential antibiotic
  Chemists at MIT have developed a novel way to synthesize himastatin, a natural compound that has shown potential as an antibiotic. Using their new synthesis, the researchers were able not only to...
• Explore possible links between fracking and water contaminants
  Unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD), commonly known as fracking, has helped Pennsylvania retain its status as a leading energy exporter, but UOGD processes come with a host of environment...
• Molecule snapshot by explosion
  Exploding a photo subject in order to take its picture? An international research team at the European XFEL used this "extreme" method to take pictures of complex molecules. The scientists used...