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Physics - Life Sciences - 13.02.2024
New Nanosensors Make Diagnostic Procedures More Sensitive
The nanosensors can be used to track reactions with invisible light, saving materials and time. The Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS and Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have developed a process that enables a new form of signal amplification for diagnostic tests. Through the advanced use of luminescent single walled carbon nanotubes in bioanalytics, test procedures can be carried out more sensitively, quickly and cheaply.
Life Sciences - 13.02.2024
Desert Ants: The Magnetic Field Calibrates the Navigation System
Desert ants find their way during an early learning phase with the help of the Earth's magnetic field. The associated learning process leaves clear traces in their nervous system. This is shown in a new study by a Würzburg research team. They are only a few centimeters tall and their brains have a comparatively simple structure with less than one million neurons.
Life Sciences - 09.02.2024
Rainwater significantly reduces damage from lightning strikes to the head
Research carried out by the Technische Universität Ilmenau has shown that rainwater on the scalp can reduce the damage caused by direct lightning strikes to the head. In comparison to dry scalps, wet scalps are less severely struck and the wetness also reduces the electrical current to which the brain is exposed.
Life Sciences - Pharmacology - 08.02.2024
Pharmacological Inhibitor Protects Nerve Cells in ALS Disease
Heidelberg neurobiologists successfully test novel drug principle in a mouse model and in brain organoids of ALS patients A new pharmacological inhibitor can intervene in a central cell death mechanism that is responsible for the death of motor neurons and hence important for the progression of the motor neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Social Sciences - Life Sciences - 06.02.2024
More food helps orangutans learn better
The adage "necessity is the mother of invention" is often used to describe the origin from which our cultural development springs. After all, necessity in times of scarcity has forced humans to constantly invent new technologies that have driven the remarkable cumulative culture of our species. But an invention only becomes cultural when it is learned and spread by many people.
Health - Life Sciences - 05.02.2024
Bacteria increase risk of skin inflammation during radiotherapy
Cancer treatment: possible trigger for radiodermatitis identified During radiotherapy, some cancer patients develop radiodermatitis, a severe inflammation of the skin. A recent study suggests that skin bacteria play an essential role in this: Breast cancer patients whose skin microbiome was disturbed prior to treatment also developed radiodermatitis.
Life Sciences - Health - 05.02.2024
The Influence of the Cellular Environment on Vision
The environment of retinal nerve cells plays a crucial role in the processing of visual signals. The processing of visual information begins with a targeted and balanced communication between nerve cells in the retina via synapses. Proteins in the vicinity of nerve cells play an important role in the development, maturation, and function of these synapses.
Health - Life Sciences - 01.02.2024
Neuromodulation: Ultrasound Leads to Braver Behavior in Situations of Mental Conflict
Psychologists at the University of Würzburg have investigated the extent to which neuromodulation of the brain with ultrasound waves influences people's behavior. The results can also be used as a basis for therapeutic purposes. When a new opportunity opens up for people, there are some who tend to take the pessimistic view: "It's no good anyway!".
Life Sciences - Health - 01.02.2024
Zebrafish Navigate to Find Their Comfortable Temperature
Researchers from Bonn and Munich also find "thermostat" in the animals' brains Zebrafish are smaller than your little finger, with a brain no more than half the size of a pinhead. Yet these animals possess an efficient navigation system that enables them to find their way back to spots in the water where the temperature suits them.
Pharmacology - Life Sciences - 31.01.2024
Detecting Hepatitis Viruses in Wastewater
Researchers have identified genetic traces of hepatitis E viruses in almost 73 percent of wastewater samples from North-Rhine Westphalia. Findings on drug-resistant variants are of particular value. Hepatitis E is widespread among the population worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates that around 20 million people are infected with it every year.
Life Sciences - 31.01.2024
Time travel through genomics
Viruses adapt quickly to new conditions, which is accompanied by a change in their genome. This also applies to a special group of viruses, the bacteriophages. A research team from Poland, the Netherlands and Germany has now successfully reconstructed numerous old phage genomes. These include a genome that is around 1,300 years old and is very similar to the modern "Mushuvirus mushu", which infects intestinal bacteria.
Life Sciences - Health - 31.01.2024
News on drug-induced skin swelling
Bonn researchers identify novel risk locus in the genome for ACE inhibitor-induced angioedema Angioedema is a rare but potentially life-threatening adverse reaction to ACE inhibitors. In a joint analysis of eight European study collectives, researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn and the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) for the first time conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) with more than 1,000 affected individuals.
Life Sciences - Health - 31.01.2024
Bacterium uses toxin to kill insects
Max Planck researchers from Dortmund reveal the first-ever detailed structure of the bacterial toxin Mcf1 During infection insect-killing bacteria typically release toxins to slay their hosts. The bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens , for example, pumps insect larvae full of the lethal 'Makes caterpillars floppy 1' (Mcf1) toxin, leading them to first become droopy and then dead.
History / Archeology - Life Sciences - 31.01.2024
Homo sapiens already reached northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago
The arrival of Homo sapiens in cold northern latitudes took place several thousand years before Neanderthals disappeared in southwest Europe An international research team reports the discovery of Homo sapiens fossils from the cave site Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany. Directly dated to approximately 45,000 years ago, these fossils are associated with elongated stone points partly shaped on both sides (known as partial bifacial blade points), which are characteristic of the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ).
Physics - Life Sciences - 29.01.2024
Using active microparticles for artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence with neural networks performs calculations digitally with the help of microelectronic chips. Physicists at Leipzig University have now realized a form of neural network that does not work with electricity but with so-called active colloidal particles. Their publication in the renowned journal "Nature Communications" deals with the use of these microparticles as a physical system for artificial intelligence and the prediction of time series.
Life Sciences - Earth Sciences - 24.01.2024
New pieces in the puzzle of first life on Earth
Research team discovers complex microbial communities in ecosystems over 3 billion years ago Microorganisms were the first forms of life on our planet. The clues are written in 3.5 billion-year-old rocks by geochemical and morphological traces, such as chemical compounds or structures that these organisms left behind.
Life Sciences - Chemistry - 24.01.2024
Networkers in cramped conditions
More than 1,000 players are involved in a cell when genetic information is translated into proteins. A new German-Israeli research project is now working on systematically identifying their respective tasks. When genetic information in human cells is transported from the cell nucleus into the cytoplasm and translated into proteins, one particular molecule plays a central role: mRNA, or messenger RNA.
Life Sciences - Environment - 22.01.2024
Complex green organisms emerged a billion years ago
Research team led by Göttingen University investigates the emergence of multicellularity Of all the organisms that photosynthesize, land plants have the most complex bodies. How did this morphology emerge? A team of scientists led by the University of Göttingen has taken a deep dive into the evolutionary history of morphological complexity in streptophytes , which include land plants and many green algae.
Health - Life Sciences - 19.01.2024
Antibiotics highjack bacterial immunity
Bacteria have an immune system that protects them against viruses known as bacteriophages. A research team from the Universities of and Würzburg has now shown how this immune system enhances the effect of specific antibiotics against the cholera pathogen Vibrio cholerae . The immune system is the reason why this bacterium is particularly sensitive to one of the oldest known classes of antibiotics - the antifolates.
Life Sciences - Health - 18.01.2024
Exploding kamikaze bacteria
"Soldier" bacteria filled with toxins sacrifice themselves for the benefit of their conspecifics, giving them pathogenic properties For their invasion pathogenic bacteria target the host's defense mechanisms and vital cell functions with toxins. Before these deadly substances can attack host cells, bacteria must first export them from their production site - the cytoplasm - using dedicated secretion systems.