news 2016

Findings of Study by Scientists from Freie Universität Berlin and Utrecht University Published in "Nature Geoscience" ' 444/2016 from Dec 29, 2016 Earth scientists from among others Utrecht University and Freie Universität Berlin have found new clues how water moves inside the Earth's deep subsurface layers and ultimately back to the surface through volcanic activity.

Due to a shortage of natural predators, wild animal populations are often controlled through hunting. Whether a hunter shoots at an animal depends not only on specific hunting criteria, but is also significantly influenced by social factors - such as competition with other hunters. This was demonstrated in a study directed by Florian Diekert, economist at Heidelberg University.

An international team of researchers has shown why a standard treatment for the aggressive blood-cell cancer AML so often fails. The study uncovers a new biomarker that predicts the efficacy of the chemotherapy and identifies a new drug target. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer that is characterized by the uncontrolled proliferation of certain types of white blood cells.

Research news Evidence is continually growing in importance for political, societal, and individual decisions, despite increasing talk of an impending 'post-factual era'. Evidence is based on data that is collected in a scientific fashion, but is also a social phenomenon. How and by whom is it created and used, and what impact does this have? This is what a new research group funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and represented by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has set out to investigate.

Research news Fungal infections are a serious health risk. They can be harmful especially to patients whose immune system is compromised through illness or chemotherapy. A team working at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has discovered an important mechanism in the body's defenses against fungi.

Research news New cancer therapies harness the immune system to fight tumors. One of the main principles behind these therapies is to find out precisely which molecules on cancer cells trigger an immune response. A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry has for the first time identified suitable protein structures directly from patients` tumor cells.

Little is known about the role of the brain's immune system in Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich and the Munich site of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) have now found an early immune response in individuals with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's: their brain's showed abnormal immune reactions as early as about seven years before the expected onset of dementia.

Research news For years, small rechargeable lithium-ion batteries have reliably supplied billions of portable devices with energy. But manufacturers of high-energy applications such as electric cars and power storage systems seek for new electrode materials and electrolytes. Michael Metzger, researcher at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has now developed a new battery test cell allowing to investigate anionic and cationic reactions separately.

A stressful job, trouble with the children and a near-empty bank account. When everything starts to get too much again, it can help to make a fresh start. If cells are under a lot of stress, for example as a result of injuries, they also undergo a fundamental reorganization. It's all about their cytoskeleton, which again and again forms new structures from many individual components in a highly flexible way, for example in order to support the cell or to transport molecular charges.

German Research Foundation Supports New Research Group at Freie Universität Berlin ' 423/2016 from Dec 01, 2016 A new research project at Freie Universität Berlin is dealing with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved a grant for the sub-project "CONNECT: Networking and Influence of International Secretariats Environmental and Disability Policy over Time" at the Division of Educational Research and Social Systems.

Cells of the immune system can distinguish between protein molecules that are "self" and "non-self". ­For example, if we are exposed to pathogens such as bacteria or viruses that carry foreign molecules on their surface, the body reacts with an immune response. In contrast, cells are "tolerant" of the body's own molecules.

With their research on nanomaterials for optoelectronics, scientists from Heidelberg University and the University of St Andrews (Scotland) have succeeded for the first time to demonstrate a strong interaction of light and matter in semiconducting carbon nanotubes. Such strong light-matter coupling is an important step towards realising new light sources, such as electrically pumped lasers based on organic semiconductors.

Heidelberg University has acquired a new research training group in the field of interdisciplinary American studies. The German Research Foundation has approved a grant application worth 3.5 million euros. The group, focusing on 'Authority and Trust in American Culture, Society, History and Politics', is based at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and rests on the shoulders of ten researchers from different disciplines including geography, history, linguistics, literature, political science, and cultural and religious studies.

Research news For a long time, mathematical modelling of social systems and dynamics was considered in the realm of science fiction. But predicting, and at once influencing human behavior is well on its way to becoming reality. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are currently developing the appropriate tools.

Geologists Found Traces of Microorganisms in Rock Layer Several Billions of Years Old / Findings Published in "Geology" ' 389/2016 from Nov 11, 2016 According to a recent study, life on Earth took hold on land at least 3.2 billion years ago - 300 million years earlier than previously thought.

For observations based on sensory data, the human brain must constantly verify which "version" of reality underlies the perception. The answer is gleaned from probability distributions that are stored in the nerve cell network itself. The neurons are able to detect patterns that reflect acquired knowledge.

The ultimate aim in biomedical research is the transfer of results from experiments carried out in animals to patients. Researchers at the Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence (CiM) at the University of Münster have succeeded in doing so. For the first time, they have been able to image ongoing inflammation in the brain of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS).

Research news When light strikes electrons in atoms, their state can change unimaginably quickly. Laser physicists in Munich have measured such a phenomenon - namely that of photoionization, in which an electron exits a helium atom after excitation by light - for the first time with zeptosecond precision.

Scientists at Freie Universität Berlin, City College of New York, and Macquarie Universität in Sydney Present New Findings ' 386/2016 from Nov 08, 2016 A new study indicates that the songs of some birds follow the same rules as human music. The study was done by scientists from Freie Universität Berlin, the City College of New York, and Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

Research news Before RNA copies of genes can program the synthesis of proteins, the non-coding regions are removed by the spliceosome, a complex molecular machine. The correct regulation of the splicing plays a central role for many cellular processes. By means of nuclear spin measurements and single-molecule fluorescence microscopy, a team of scientists has now discovered an unexpected mechanism in the assembly of the spliceosome.