news 2020

Declines in the diversity and abundance of decomposers explain reductions in plant decay rates under the influence of chemical stressors, but not added nutrients. These are the new insights of a study published in the open access journal eLife. The global meta-analysis conducted by researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig University (UL) and the University of Namur in Belgium highlights the main anthropogenic effects on the biodiversity and functioning of ecosystems, and thus helps predicting the fate of different ecosystems around the world.

Research Team Led by Freie Universität Designs New Materials No 133/2020 from Jul 29, 2020 Scientists at Freie Universität Berlin, Universität Hamburg, and Universidade Federaldo Ceará in Brazil showed that crystals of tiny gold spheres bind light. The new material shows the strongest coupling to light reported so far.

Researchers develop for the first time light fields using caustics that do not change during propagation / Study in "Nature Communications" Modern applications as high resolution microsopy or microor nanoscale material processing require customized laser beams that do not change during propagation. This represents an immense challenge since light typically broadens during propagation, a phenomenon known as diffraction.

New international research breaks ground for the next generation of biodiversity forecasts No 131/2020 from Jul 29, 2020 Biodiversity's ongoing global decline has prompted policies to protect and restore habitats to minimize animal and plant extinctions. However, biodiversity forecasts used to inform these policies are usually based on assumptions of a simple theoretical model describing how the number of species changes with the amount of habitat.

SAPHiR multi-anvil press solves mystery of the solar system Meteorites give us insight into the early development of the solar system. Using the SAPHiR instrument at the Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), a scientific team has for the first time simulated the formation of a class of stony-iron meteorites, so-called pallasites, on a purely experimental basis.

Research team led by the University of Göttingen analyses design and communication strategies for mass acceptance Coronavirus tracing applications for the detection of infection chains are currently being developed and made available across the world. Such contact-tracing apps are a central component of national strategies for relaxing restrictions.

Adapting maize plants to climate change German researchers decoded the European maize genome. In comparison to North American maize lines, they discovered differences. For cultivation of maize in areas with low yields and for challenges imposed by the climate change these observations of the research team led by Klaus F.X. Mayer, head of the research group "Plant Genome and Systems Biology" at Helmholtz Zentrum München and Chris-Carolin Schön, Professor for Plant Breeding at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) might be of particular interest.

National research data infrastructure: TUM involved in three consortia Genome sequencing produces immense quantities of data. The aim of the German Human Genome-Phenome Archive (GHGA) is to make these data available to science without violating the personality rights of patients. The GHGA will focus initially on data collections pertaining to cancer and rare genetic disorders.

An abandoned space in the middle of Münster: in the historic medicinal plant garden, which hasn't been in use since 2016, nature can pretty much do what it likes. At least, it almost can - anyone who fights their way through an overgrown meadow between Einsteinstraße and Schlossgräfte will come across a clearing, about 50 square metres in size, on which meadow plants are arranged in rows of pots standing on black groundsheets.

Even in science, chance sometimes produces more thrilling discoveries that the most ambitious plans. In 1989, a homeowner was digging a cable trench on his property in Blaubeuren, in the German region of Swabia, when his spade hit a rock measuring 28 by 25 by 20 centimetres. Upon lifting it half a metre to the surface, he found that it was remarkably heavy.

Adaptation of cavefish to low-parasite environment may provide autoimmune disease insight / Study published in "Nature Ecology & Evolution" Cavefish are small, live in tucked away places humans rarely go, and they're common enough that you can find them on every continent except Antarctica. But they also have another characteristic that seems surprising at first glance: They can tell researchers something about the occurrence of autoimmune diseases in humans.

Impairment of sperm formation: male infertility is not only a concern for those affected but is also something which the working group led by Prof. Frank Tüttelmann is researching into. The Reproductive Genetics team at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Münster is running a multitude of projects as it attempts to get to the bottom of further causes of male infertility.

Research team from Göttingen and Halle develops new inhibitors for enzymes With over 1.2 million people affected in Germany alone and over 50 million people worldwide, Alzheimer's disease, also referred to simply as Alzheimer's, is one of the greatest medical and social challenges of our time.

Chemists at the University of Münster develop a bioinspired strategy for the controlled synthesis of polyenes / Study published in "Science" They occur in nature, are reactive and play a role in many biological processes: polyenes. It is no wonder that chemists have for a long time been interested in efficiently constructing these compounds - not least in order to be able to use them for future biomedical applications.

Chiral crystals that have a distinct handedness have recently emerged as one of  the most exciting new classes of topological materials. An international research team from institutions in Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and China has now demonstrated that their crystal handedness directly determines how quasiparticles propagate and scatter at impurities in such materials.

Neuronal circuits in the brain 'sense' our inner state How decisions are made and how behavior is controlled is one of the most important questions in neuroscience. The neurotransmitter dopamine plays a central role in all of this. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), together with researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology, looked into the role that dopamine plays in the decision-making process and in controlling movement.

Noise from wind turbines is a constant source of annoyance, despite compliance with emission control standards. But while some people feel heavily burdened by the noises, others hardly notice them. The Inter-Wind research project (Interdisciplinary Analysis and Mitigation Approaches - Residents' Experience of Acoustic and Seismic Wind Turbine Emissions), in which the University of Stuttgart is also involved, is investigating which factors interact in the noise pollution caused by wind turbines and which approaches for mitigation can be considered.

Research team led by Göttingen University questions link to warmblood fragile foal syndrome Warmblood fragile foal syndrome is a severe, usually fatal, genetic disease that manifests itself after birth in affected horses. Due to the defect, the connective tissue is unstable. Under force, for instance, the skin tears from the tissue underneath and the joints can suffer dislocation.

The Solid Electrolyte Interphase (SEI) inside both lithium-ion and lithium metal batteries is indispensable for successful battery cell operation and at the same time an analytical challenge. Up to now, its analysis has only been possible to a limited extent; knowledge about formation, composition, growth or reactions is incomplete.

Psychological study shows connection between emotional arousal and assignment of sound sequences as well as associative meanings No 123/2020 from Jul 14, 2020 On the basis of psycholinguistic experiments, an international group of researchers including a cognitive neuroscientist at Freie Universität Berlin, has been able to demonstrate that emotions play a central role in the associations between the sounds of words and their meanings.