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Physics - 13.07.2020

The moon is younger than previously thought: Planetologists from Berlin and Münster
The Moon formed a little later than previously assumed. When a Mars-sized protoplanet was destroyed in a collision with the young Earth, a new body was created from the debris ejected during this catastrophe - the Moon. Planetologists at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luftund Raumfahrt; DLR) and the University of Münster have used a new numerical model to reconstruct the time at which the event occurred - 4.425 billion years ago.

Physics - Chemistry - 08.07.2020

Rock ’n’ Control
Göttingen Physicists use oscillations of atoms to control a phase transition The goal of -Femtochemistry- is to film and control chemical reactions with short flashes of light. Using consecutive laser pulses, atomic bonds can be excited precisely and broken as desired. So far, this has been demonstrated for selected molecules.

Physics - 22.06.2020

Experimentally Identifying Effective Theories in Many-Body Systems
One goal of science is to find physical descriptions of nature by studying how basic system components interact with one another. For complex many-body systems, effective theories are frequently used to this end. They allow describing the interactions without having to observe a system on the smallest of scales.

Chemistry - Physics - 18.06.2020

Researchers create a photographic film of a molecular switch
Molecular switches - they are the molecular counterparts of electrical switches and play an important role in many processes in nature. Such molecules can reversibly interconvert between two or more states and thereby control molecular processes. In living organisms, for example, they play a role in muscle contraction but also our visual perception is based on the dynamics of a molecular switch in the eye.

Physics - Astronomy / Space Science - 17.06.2020

Surprising Signal in the XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment
Scientists from the international XENON collaboration under participation of the University of Münster announced today that data from their XENON1T, the world's most sensitive dark matter experiment, show a surprising excess of events. The scientists do not claim to have found dark matter. Instead, they say to have observed an unexpected rate of events, the source of which is not yet fully understood.

Physics - 12.06.2020

Radioactive cloud over Europe had civilian background: Isotope measurements on air filters
A mysterious cloud containing radioactive ruthenium-106, which moved across Europe in autumn 2017, is still bothering Europe's radiation protection entities. Although the activity concentrations were innocuous, they reached up to 100 times the levels of what had been detected over Europe in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident.

Health - Physics - 11.06.2020

New Strategies for Virus Inhibition
Highly flexible or spiky nanosystems by Berlin researchers open the door for new antiviral options against influenza viruses No 098/2020 from Jun 11, 2020 Berlin researchers have applied two new strategies based on multivalent nanosystems for making influenza A viruses (IAV) innocuous. The decisive factor in the development of these new strategies against influenza was the cooperation between scientists from different disciplines - chemistry, physics, virology, and imaging - the collaborative partners of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt University Berlin, and the Robert Koch Institute.

Physics - 04.06.2020

’Whispering gallery’ effect controls electron beams with light
Research team led by the University of Göttingen succeeds in coupling free electrons to optical resonators When you speak softly in one of the galleries of St Paul's cathedral, the sound runs so easily around the dome that visitors anywhere on its circumference can hear it. This striking phenomenon has been termed the -whispering gallery- effect, and variants of it appear in many scenarios where a wave can travel nearly perfectly around a structure.

Health - Physics - 29.05.2020

Three Successful Funding Bids for Collaborative Research Centres
Heidelberg University succeeded in gaining funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) in the latest approval round for three, internationally visible collaborative research centres. In physics, the collaborative research centre (CRC) studying isolated quantum systems in experimental and theoretical investigations will continue its work in the second funding period (CRC 1225).

Physics - 12.05.2020

Listening to the molecules in the body
Laser light that cannot be seen, and sounds that cannot be heard: for partygoers this would probably conjure up some boring event - but it brings a sparkle to the eyes of many a researcher. It is precisely this combination that produces something that is all the more visible - images from inside the body that provide information on the processes taking place there.

Health - Physics - 07.05.2020

New x-ray method for Corona diagnosis ready for patient testing
Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed an innovative x-ray method for lung diagnostics, which they now plan to test in one of its first applications for diagnosis of the respiratory ailment Covid-19 caused by Coronavirus. The method could clearly identify abnormalities typical of the illness and involves a significantly lower radiation dose than the computed tomography methods currently in use.

Physics - 06.05.2020

Pioneering work: Prototype of a new fuel
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Framatome are working together on the development of a new fuel for the research neutron source Heinz Maier-Leibniz (FRM II). The fuel shall consist of low-enriched, monolithic uranium molybdenum alloy (U-Mo). The first prototypes are expected to be manufactured in early 2021.

Computer Science - Physics - 29.04.2020

New Active Compounds from the Computer
Open-source platform "VirtualFlow" examines billions of molecules in a very short time / Joint press release issued by Freie Universität Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin No 071/2020 from Apr 29, 2020 The development of new active compounds in medicine can take many years and potentially cost billions of euros.

Physics - Electroengineering - 24.04.2020

Bose-Einstein condensate: magnetic particles behave repulsively
Data transmission that works by means of magnetic waves instead of electric currents - for many scientists, this is the basis of future technologies that will make transmission faster and individual components smaller and more energy-efficient. Magnons, the particles of magnetism, serve as moving information carriers.

Physics - 24.04.2020

Quantum Electrodynamics Experiment
The fundamental laws of physics are based on symmetries that, among other things, determine the interactions between charged particles. Using ultracold atoms, researchers at Heidelberg University have experimentally constructed the symmetries of quantum electrodynamics. They hope to gain new insights for implementing future quantum technologies that can simulate complex physical phenomena.

Physics - Materials Science - 14.04.2020

Nano-scientists get new large-scale equipment
Production of minute structures with gold and silicon ions / 840,000 euros from the German Research Foundation and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia Investigating and developing nanosystems - i.e. structures which are a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair - is something which occupies researchers collaborating from a variety of disciplines at the University of Münster.

Physics - Materials Science - 08.04.2020

A new lightsource for the chip industry
Photonic chips made possible by light-emitting silicon-germanium alloys For the past 50 years, researchers around the globe have been looking for a way to make lasers with silicon or germanium. A team from the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now succeeded in developing a light-emitting, silicon-germanium alloy.

Materials Science - Physics - 24.03.2020

Activating palladium catalysis by light: teaching an old transition metal new tricks
In the production of compounds, chemists have the fundamental goal of finding strategies that are most selective and avoid waste products. Breakthroughs in this area serve, among other things, to drive industrial innovation and drug development. In this context, allylic substitution reactions using catalysts made of so-called transition metals have already led to significant advances in science.

Physics - 27.02.2020

Preserved and fresh
Neutrons show the details of the drying process during freeze drying Freeze drying has provided us with tasty dried fruits in muesli, long-life yoghurt cultures and many other important products. For the first time, using neutron beams from the Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) research neutron source, a team of scientists has now been able to show us the drying process in detail.

Physics - Innovation - 10.02.2020

Quantum technologies: New insights into superconducting processes
The development of a quantum computer that can solve problems, which classical computers can only solve with great effort or not at all - this is the goal currently being pursued by an ever-growing number of research teams worldwide. The reason: Quantum effects, which originate from the world of the smallest particles and structures, enable many new technological applications.