Researchers suspect greater dynamics than previously assumed between the Earth's surface and its mantle / Study published in 'Nature Geoscience' What is the chemical composition of the Earth's interior? Because it is impossible to drill more than about ten kilometres deep into the Earth, volcanic rocks formed by melting Earth's deep interior often provide such information.

Apart from photons, the fundamental quanta of light, neutrinos are the most abundant elementary particles in the universe. As they possess a small non-zero mass, these "light-weights of the universe" play a key role in cosmology and particle physics. The most precise scale for neutrinos in the world is the international experiment "KATRIN" at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in which scientists of the University of Münster are also involved.

Researchers from the University of Stuttgart, ETH Zurich and the Swiss Empa have presented a method with which wood panels themselves bend into a previously calculated shape in a controlled drying process without mechanical force. The procedure, which contributed to the production of the Urbach Tower at the Remstal Garden Show near Stuttgart, was reported on by the renowned scientific journal Science Advances in its issue of 13 September 2019.

How do our senses, like vision, hearing, and touch, work together to create the perception of the world around us' A new study by scientists at Universität Hamburg finds that commonly found associations between shapes and sounds might rely on childhood vision. The results were published in the journal Psychological Science.

Researchers use methods of the natural sciences to uncover geographic origin of archaeological tin artefacts from the Mediterranean The origin of the tin used in the Bronze Age has long been one of the greatest enigmas in archaeological research. Now researchers from Heidelberg University and the Curt Engelhorn Centre for Archaeometry in Mannheim have solved part of the puzzle.

Prospective Students Students and Doctorate Alumni and Supporters Continuing Education Study by Ulm University Medical Center examines effect of asthma medication on athletic performance / Cooperation with Freie Universität Berlin and German Sport University Cologne No 265/2019 from Sep 12, 2019 A new study conducted this year by the Sports and Rehabilitation Medicine Unit at Ulm University Medical Center is examining how asthma medications affect athletic performance in professional athletes.

Prospective Students Students and Doctorate Alumni and Supporters Continuing Education International research team led by Freie Universität publishes results of a two-year study No 263/2019 from Sep 10, 2019 An international team of researchers led by a team from Freie Universität Berlin has excavated a 9,000-year-old grave and its contents in the south of Jordan and interpreted the findings.

A supersolid is a state of matter that can be described in simplified terms as being solid and liquid at the same time. In recent years, extensive efforts have been devoted to the detection of this exotic quantum matter. A research team led by Tilman Pfau and Tim Langen at the 5th Institute of Physics of the University of Stuttgart has succeeded in proving experimentally that the long-sought supersolid state of matter exists.

Cells are the basic building blocks of life - and, as such, they have been the object of intense study since the invention of the optical microscope in the 17th century. The development of mass spectrometry (MS) methods - those which define the chemical composition of cells - represented a further milestone for research in the field of cell biology.

In the quest to prove that matter can be produced without antimatter, the GERDA experiment at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory is looking for signs of neutrinoless double beta decay. The experiment has the greatest sensitivity worldwide for detecting the decay in question. To further improve the chances of success, a follow-up project, LEGEND, uses an even more refined decay experiment.

Scientists at Freie Universität Berlin develop a deep learning method to solve a fundamental problem in statistical physics No 255/2019 from Sep 05, 2019 A team of scientists at Freie Universität Berlin has developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) method that provides a fundamentally new solution of the "sampling problem" in statistical physics.

Biophysics researchers used a free-electron laser to detect light-induced structural changes with the utmost in temporal and spatial precision No 250/2019 from Sep 04, 2019 The process by which light energy translates into a change in protein structure plays a crucial role in many areas of life, from vision to photosynthesis.

New study by the Institute of Virology published in "Nature Microbiology" No 249/2019 from Sep 03, 2019 Researchers from the Institute of Virology at Freie Universität Berlin have studied the effects of switching off the proofreading function of what are known as DNA polymerases - enzymes involved in reproducing genetic information.

Any agreement which entails benefits for both sides is called a win-win situation. This is precisely the result intended for the long-term cooperation and licensing agreement which the Institute of Infectiology at the University of Münster has now signed with an American biomedical company. The objective of the collaboration with Innate Biologics in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is to improve the possibilities for treating inflammatory skin diseases and autoimmune diseases - and, in the long term, to develop new medications.

Implantable defibrillators can save lives, but also harbor risks. A major European study headed by three researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), LMU München and University Medical Center Göttingen has found that a special ECG method can help to identify the patients most likely to benefit from these devices.

For more than 20 years, the staff of the Asia Minor Research Centre at the Department of Ancient History of Münster University has been investigating the cultural legacy of the ancient city of Doliche in south-eastern Turkey. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is now funding the project with around 800,000 euros for a further three years.

They are tiny signalling molecules that play important roles in many processes in living organisms. However, the exact function of these substances is often still unknown, which is why scientists are constantly on the lookout for new methods with which they can further investigate them. Researchers at the Universities of Münster and Nanjing (China) have developed such a method for an important messenger substance in plants, called phosphatidic acid.

08/26/2019 Plants face a dilemma in dry conditions: they have to seal themselves off to prevent losing too much water but this also limits their uptake of carbon dioxide. A sensory network assures that the plant strikes the right balance. When water is scarce, plants can close their pores to prevent losing too much water.

Proteins perform vital tasks in the body, such as regulating metabolism and transmitting signals. Researchers from the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and Heidelberg University have now developed an intelligent neural network that uses algorithms to predict the functions of proteins. The scientists used a trick to observe how the network makes its predictions.

Geologists investigate the stability of the geotechnical barrier bentonite for the final disposal of nuclear waste Even after the official decision to phase out of nuclear power in Germany, one question remains unanswered: Where to store safely the nuclear waste?