news 2022

Hollow spheres made of MYC proteins open new doors in cancer research. Würzburg scientists have discovered them and report about this breakthrough in the journal "Nature". MYC genes and their proteins play a central role in the emergence and development of almost all cancers. They drive the uncontrolled growth and altered metabolism of tumour cells.

International team observes the innermost structure of the jet of 3C 273 At the core of almost every galaxy is a supermassive black hole. But there are many different types. Quasars, for example, are one of the brightest and most active varieties of galactic centers. An international group, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, presents new observations of the first quasar ever identified.

Measurement method developed at the University of Bonn could be suitable for flood warning systems Researchers at the University of Bonn have developed a method that allows the water level of rivers to be monitored around the clock. The cost-effective sensor is for instance suitable for area-wide flood warning systems.

A team from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena has set up a new streak camera on ID16B, which can measure very fast kinetic phenomena present in light emission after receiving an X-ray pulse. The camera is now available to the user community to study complex carrier dynamics with spatio-temporal resolutions.

Study by the University of Bonn: Surgical tissue indicates rare secondary disease In severe epilepsies, surgical intervention is often the only remedy - usually with great success. While neuropsychological performance can recover in the long term after successful surgery, on rare occasions, unexpected declines in cognitive performance occur.

Neutrons from FRM II expose crystal structure of carbonic acid The existence of carbonic acid has long been the subject of debate: theoretically real, but practically impossible to detect. That is because the compound decomposes at the Earth's surface. A German-Chinese team of researchers working at the FRM II Research Neutron Source at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now made the crystalline structure of carbonic acid molecules visible for the first time.

Ancient dormant sequences in the genome impact embryonic development in unexpected ways The mammalian genome contains retroviral sequences that are in an undead but mostly "harmless" state. An international research team recently discovered how some of these retroviral gene fragments affect embryonic cells if they are unleashed.

New method for determination of past climate data on land applied comparatively for the first time / Ice Age summers in Central Europe were at times warmer than previously known Scientists from an international research project led by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have applied a new method to reconstruct past climate.

Over the last few decades, the number of obesity sufferers has continued to increase and is now one of the leading causes of death worldwide - 650 million adults are classified as obese. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines obesity as the accumulation of excess fat in the body, which poses risks to healthy living.

Physicists at JGU discovered: Antiferromagnets are suitable for transporting spin waves over long distances Smaller, faster, more powerful: The demands on microelectronic devices are high and continue to rise. However, if chips, processors and the like are based on electric current, there are limits to miniaturization.

A team of German and Spanish researchers from Valencia, Münster, Augsburg, Berlin and Munich have succeeded in controlling individual light quanta to an extremely high degree of precision. In the "Nature Communications" journal, the researchers report how, by means of a soundwave, they switch individual photons on a chip back and forth between two outputs at gigahertz frequencies.

A global database helps explore the complex history of our genes and languages Does the history of our languages match the history of our genes? Charles Darwin thought yes, others said no. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the University of Zurich and Harvard University has put together GeLaTo, a global database linking linguistic and genetic data.

Ancient fish teeth discovered at the archaeological site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Israel provide earliest evidence of our prehistoric ancestors deliberately cooking foodstuff Nutrition and the ability to prepare foodstuffs helped facilitate the evolution of the human species. Considered particularly relevant to the development of the genus Homo in this context are the processes of cooking.

Numerical simulation representing the curvature of spacetime during the merger of the two black holes. When black holes collide in the universe, the clash shakes up space and time: the amount of energy released during the merger is so great that it causes space-time to oscillate, similar to waves on the surface of water.

In chemicals used in agriculture, as well as in pharmaceuticals and a variety of materials, pyridines are often found as so-called functional units which decisively determine the chemical properties of substances. Pyridines belong to the group of ring-shaped carbon-hydrogen (C'H) compounds ("heterocycles"), and they contain a nitrogen atom (N).

The protein medin is deposited in the blood vessels of the brains of Alzheimer's patients along with the protein amyloid-β. DZNE Re-searchers have discovered this so-called co-aggregation. They have now published their observation in the renowned journal Na-ture. "Medin has been known for over 20 years, but its influence on diseases was previously underestimated.

The risks pesticides pose to insects and other small animals in waters in protected areas are almost comparable to those in waters outside protected areas - even if the concentrations of pesticides in waters in protected areas are lower. This was found by scientists at the University of Koblenz-Landau in a recent study.

We already know that a urine test can establish whether someone has an infection of the urinary tract or has taken illegal drugs. But there are lots more traces to be found in urine - if you know how to read them. Developing and refining techniques to get pointers to a person's eating habits or to harmful substances in their urine is one of the pet projects being pursued by food chemist Prof. Hans-Ulrich Humpf and his working group at the University of Münster.

Accurately predicting possible post-surgical effects on speech Can surgeons quantify the risk of aphasia when removing a brain tumor? To find out, researchers at Klinikum rechts der Isar of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are analyzing the brain as a network. In a current study with 60 patients, they already achieved an accuracy rate with three quarters of their predictions.

International research team led by Göttingen University use advanced machine learning to model biodiversity Why are there more plant species in some places than in others? Why is diversity highest in the tropics? What is the connection between biodiversity and environmental conditions? To help answer these questions, an international team led by researchers at the University of Göttingen has reconstructed the distribution of plant diversity around the world and made high-resolution predictions of where and how many plant species there are.