news 2016

A team led by Ferenc Krausz of LMU Munich and the MPI for Quantum Optics, together with theorists from Tsukuba University, has optimized the interaction of light with glass, thus improving the prospects for optically driven electronics. Light waves could in principle be used to drive future transistors.

Using ultrashort laser pulses an international team at LMU Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics has managed to manipulate the positions of atoms in hydrocarbon molecules in a targeted fashion. Laser physicists steer atoms in molecules with light: A laser pulse removed an outer hydrogen atom from one side of a hydrocarbon molecule and directed it to the opposite side, where it reattached.

LMU physicists have developed a way to distinguish the random motions of particles in non-living molecular systems from the motility of active living matter. The method affords new insights into fundamental biological processes. Any system in thermodynamic equilibrium is known to satisfy perfectly balanced forward and backward transitions between any two states.

How bacterial cells divide in two is not fully understood. LMU physicists now show that, at high concentrations, a crucial protein can assemble into ring-shaped filaments that constrict the cell, giving rise to two daughter cells. Above a certain threshold particle density (subunit concentration), the rotational movement of, and collisions between, the curved polymers lead to the formation of clustered ring-like structures.

After a ten-year design and construction period, a new universal device for astronomical observation at the world's largest single telescope, the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona (USA) has been finalised and tested successfully. The highly complex instrument named LUCI allows astronomers to record images and spectra in the infrared with outstanding quality.

Approximately two million years ago a star exploded in a supernova close to our solar system: Its traces can still be found today in the form of an iron isotope found on the ocean floor. Now scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), together with colleagues from the USA, have found increased concentrations of this supernova-iron in lunar samples as well.

Measuring time using oscillations of atomic nuclei might significantly improve precision beyond that of current atomic clocks. Physicists have now taken an important step toward this goal. The experimental set-up that led to the first direct detection of the isomer Th-229m. The various vacuum chambers house (from left to right) the buffer-gas cell containing the uranium isotope U-233, and the instruments dedicated to ion-beam extraction, mass separation and determination of the decay spectrum.

What would Italian pasta be like without Parmesan? No other cheese compares when it comes to flavoring dishes. But why? This is precisely the question that prompted a study by chemists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). They found 31 active flavors that create a chemosensory signature when combined.

The quantum mechanical entanglement of particles plays an important role in many technical applications. To date, however, the effect has been difficult to measure experimentally. Physicists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the University of Innsbruck and the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona have now developed a new protocol to detect entanglement of many-particle quantum states using established measuring methods.

Water electrolysis has not yet established itself as a method for the production of hydrogen. Too much energy is lost in the process. With a trick researchers of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the Ruhr University Bochum and Leiden University have now doubled the efficiency of the reaction.

What exactly are the processes when x-ray photons damage biomolecules with a metal centre? This question has been investigated by a team of scientists at the Institute for Physical Chemistry of Heidelberg University. Using the methods of quantum chemistry, they examined the underlying electronic processes caused by x-ray absorption.

Humans use the time delay between the arrival of a sound wave at each ear to discern the direction of the source. In frogs, lizards and birds the distance between the ears is too small. However, they have a cavity connecting the eardrums, in which internal and external sound waves are superimposed. Using a universal mathematical model, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now for the first time shown how new signals are created in this "inner ear" used by animals for localizing sounds.

Light can be used to control the transport of proteins from the cell nucleus with the aid of a light-sensitive, genetically modified plant protein. Biologists from Heidelberg University and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) working in the field of optogenetics have now developed such a tool. The researchers, under the direction of Dr. Barbara Di Ventura and Roland Eils, employed methods from synthetic biology and combined a light sensor from the oat plant with a transport signal.

Without oxygen, cells cannot survive. If the oxygen supply drops, for example due to a heart attack, long-term damage may result. However, just how serious such damage really is can only be assessed hours or even days later. For the first time now, and using light microscopy, scientists in Münster have observed reduced oxygen supply directly in individual cells.

An international research team has discovered nonclassical superconductivity at extremely low temperatures in a compound of ytterbium, rhodium, and silicon. The project was a collaboration among physicists of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the Walther Meissner Institute of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Garching, the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, Rice University (Houston, USA), and Renmin University (Beijing, China).

Crystal formation plays a defining role in the pathogenesis of a range of common diseases, such as gout and atherosclerosis. LMU researchers led by Hans-Joachim Anders have now elucidated how the insoluble deposits induce cell death. The formation of crystalline deposits in the extracellular medium is a defining feature of several widespread illnesses.

In the production of margarine millions of tons of unsaturated fatty acids are converted from vegetable oils using hydrogen. While searching for improved catalysts for these so-called hydrogenation reactions, a German-American research team made a discovery that puts a 50-year old rule in question: In catalytic particles comprising only a few atoms, shape and size influence reactivity much more strongly then previously thought.

In a laboratory experiment, physicists at the Center for Quantum Dynamics of Heidelberg University have succeeded in determining the equation of state for an atomic gas, which can be used to precisely describe the thermodynamic properties of this physical system. According to Associate Tilman Enss and Selim Jochim, the equation lays the foundation for further experiments using ultracold atoms to better understand the mechanisms of superconductivity, i.e., the lossless conduction of electricity.

In experiments and computer simulations, researchers repeatedly deformed red blood cells, let them "wriggle" and then analysed their behaviour. Three tiny spheres hold the cells in place during the process, while the movements of the cell membrane are measured with the help of a fourth sphere. The "wrapper" of the blood cell consists of a lipid double layer and a cytoskeleton; active forces, produced for example by an ion pump, move the membrane (red arrows) and fluids (green arrows) locally in opposite directions.

Plastic solar cells are light, easy to install, and readily produced using a printer. Nevertheless, the processes that take place on the molecular scale during the production of organic solar cells are not yet entirely clear. Researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now managed to observe these processes in real time.