news 2022

We, you, it: everyday, each one of us uses pronouns, but how do we use them when? Now a team of researchers wants to find out and is receiving funding from the German Research Foundation to do so. The group Praktiken der Personenreferenz: Personal-, Indefinitund Demonstrativpronomen im Gebrauch will receive roughly €2 million over a period of 4 years.

The distribution of microplastics and nanoplastics in the environment, the potential of human exposure and particle uptake, and the absorption of these particles into tissues are topics that are being intensively researched worldwide. An international research group of the EU project "PlasticsFatE" under the leadership of Christian Laforsch at the University of Bayreuth has evaluated international research literature on these issues.

Researchers at Freie Universität Berlin took part in a new study on chiral molecules recently published in "Science Advances" In a recent study, researchers at Freie Universität Berlin, the DESY research center in Hamburg, Kiel University, and Kansas State University have shown how light can turn a planar molecule into a chiral molecule with just one particular handedness, providing a solution to the long-standing problem of absolute asymmetric synthesis.

How intensive agriculture turned a wild plant into a pervasive weed Agriculture is driving rapid evolutionary change, not just on farms, but also in wild species in the surroundings. New research shows how the rise of modern agriculture has turned a North American native plant, common waterhemp, into a problematic agricultural weed by mutations in hundreds of genes related to drought tolerance, rapid growth, and resistance to herbicides.

Researchers showed participants videos of human, dog, and macaque pairs to determine how well humans assess social interactions As a species, humans are constantly interpreting signals to assess social situations and make predictions about what could happen next. Being able to tell if someone else, whether human or animal, is happy with us, about to get aggressive, or even paying attention, can have major evolutionary advantages.

Absence of evidence for neurotropism and neuroinvasion of several SARS-CoV-2 variants including Omicron A common symptom of COVID-19 is a partial or complete loss of smell. The virus infects sustentacular cells in the olfactory epithelium and is thought to impair thereby the activity of the sensory neurons in this epithelium.

Unconventional computing combines Brownian computing with reservoir computing / First prototype developed A large percentage of energy used today is consumed in the form of electrical power for processing and storing data and for running the relevant terminal equipment and devices. According to predictions, the level of energy used for these purposes will increase even further in the future.

Major ice streams can shut down, shifting rapid ice transport to other parts of the ice sheet, within a few thousand years. This was determined in reconstructions of two ice streams, based on ice-penetrating radar scans of the Greenland ice sheet, that a team of researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, in which the University of Tübingen is also involved, has just presented in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Patient study demonstrates benefits of dark-field X-ray technology A research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has, for the first time, produced dark-field X-ray images of patients infected with the corona virus. In contrast to conventional X-ray images, dark-field images visualize the microstructure of the lung tissue, thereby providing additional information.

Antiferromagnets are suitable for transporting spin waves over long distances Smaller, faster, more powerful: The demands on microelectronic devices are high and are constantly increasing. However, if chips, processors and the like are based on electricity, there are limits to miniaturization. Physicists are therefore working on alternative ways of transporting information, such as about spin waves, also called magnons, for example.

Study by the University of Bonn elucidates important mechanism in the brain Nerve cells can regulate their sensitivity to incoming signals autonomously. A new study led by the University of Bonn has now discovered a mechanism that does just that. The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior were involved in the work.

Miniature device enables scientist to record nerve cell activity in all cortical layers in lit environments Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior have developed a miniature microscope small enough to be carried on the head of freely a moving mouse and capable of measuring neuronal activity in all cortical layers, even the deepest ones.

Interdisciplinary team at the University of Freiburg studies freely moving individuals using 3D tracking An interdisciplinary research team at the University of Freiburg has found important clues about the functioning of the sensorimotor cortex. The new findings on neuronal activities in this brain area could be helpful for the further development and use of so-called neuroprostheses.

The livelihood of one in three people on earth depends on livestock and pastoralism. Especially in arid regions, which account for more than 40 percent of the planet's land area, grazing is essential for survival. Despite this importance for humans and nature, until recently there had been no global field study on the impact of pasture management on dryland performance.

Basic researchers at Leipzig University have solved a puzzle in the evolution of bacterial enzymes. By reconstructing a candidate for a special RNA polymerase as it existed about two billion years ago, they were able to explain a hitherto puzzling property of the corresponding modern enzymes. Unlike their ancestors, they do not work continuously and are thus significantly more effective - these pauses in activity constitute evolutionary progress.

In the futuere the metal could store energy from renewable sources, for example for transportation Energy from sun or wind is weather-dependent and lacks an efficient way to store and transport it. Scientists from the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung and TU Eindhoven are investigating iron as a possible energy carrier.

Researchers at Freie Universität Berlin Publish Study in the Journal Astrobiology. In the future, space missions would be at least technically capable of detecting DNA, lipids, and other components of bacteria on ocean moons in our solar system - if such building blocks of life exist outside Earth. This has now been demonstrated in laboratory experiments by an international team led by scientists from the Planetary Science and Remote Sensing Research Group at Freie Universität Berlin.

Study shows positive perceptions of aging can benefit sexual satisfaction among older adults. Researchers have long known that having a positive outlook can benefit a person's health. Now, a new study by the University of Missouri has found older adults who feel positive about aging have a healthier sex life - a finding that didn't surprise the researcher, who's been studying the benefits of the positive perceptions of aging.

It would be technically possible for future space missions to detect DNA, lipids, and other bacterial components on ocean moons in our solar system - provided that these building blocks of life do exist beyond Earth. This is the conclusion that has now been reached by an international team of scientists, led by the Planetary Sciences and Remote Sensing research group at Freie Universität Berlin.

Modern solar cells work with thin layers of semiconductors that convert sunlight into electrical energy. The key to increasing their efficiency even further lies in the composition and structure of the material. Due to the way the material is manufactured, it can have defects that have a disruptive effect.