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The Collaborative Research Centre ToCoTronics in condensed matter physics will be extended for four more years. The German Research Foundation is funding it with 12 million euros. Topological materials are intensively investigated in the world. This boom started at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg, where the physics professor Laurens Molenkamp realized the first topological insulator in 2007.

Research team at Göttingen University discovers surprising properties of the cytoskeleton Most biological cells have a fixed place in an organism. However, cells can become mobile and move through the body. This happens, for example, during wound healing or when tumour cells divide uncontrollably and migrate through the body.

International study with participation of the University of Bonn also provides new insights into the puzzling Hoyle state What does the inside of a carbon atom's nucleus look like? A new study by Forschungszentrum Jülich, Michigan State University (USA) and the University of Bonn provides the first comprehensive answer to this question.

Paderborn scientists publish results in scientific journal With the development of quantum computers, classical cryptography for secure communication threatens to become obsolete. Quantum cryptography, on the other hand, uses the laws of quantum mechanics to provide unrestricted security. One example is quantum key distribution, which allows two parties to secure a message using a random secret key.

Chemistry and physics, traditionally separate disciplines, are intermeshed in nano-technology The area where physics and chemistry meet lies somewhere in the realm of the minute - in the nano range: where molecules react with one another and the laws of quantum mechanics hold sway. This is the area which physicist Dr. Harry Mönig visualises at the Center for Nanotechnology (CeNTech) - with an atomic force microscope and a dedicated technology perfected by himself and a Münster team.

When fossil fuels, but also biofuels, are burned, large amounts of the energy are lost as waste heat. Thermoelectric materials could convert this heat into electricity, but they are not yet efficient enough for technical application. A team from the Max Planck Institut für Eisenforschung has now increased the efficiency of a thermoelectric material by elucidating the influence of the microstructure on the material and optimizing the material's properties by adding titanium.

Two massive touching stars in a neighbouring galaxy are on course to become black holes that will eventually crash together, generating waves in the fabric of space-time, according to a new study by researchers at University College London and the University of Potsdam. The study, accepted for publication in the journal "Astronomy & Astrophysics", looked at a known binary star (two stars orbiting around a mutual centre of gravity), analysing starlight obtained from a range of groundand space-based telescopes.

A previously unknown form of hydrogel formation has been elucidated: chemists found unusual interactions between polymers. Hydrogels? Many people use these substances without knowing it. As superabsorbents in nappies, for example, hydrogels absorb a lot of liquid. In the process, the initially dry material becomes Jelly-like, but it does not wet.

Tiny pores in the cell nucleus play an essential role for healthy aging by protecting and preserving the genetic material. A team in Germany from the Department of Theoretical Biophysics at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt am Main and the Synthetic Biophysics of Protein Disorder Group at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz has literally filled a hole in the understanding of the structure and function of these nuclear pores.

A few years ago, the image of an orange glowing donut caused a sensation. For the first time, researchers have captured an image of the immediate vicinity of a supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy M87. This galaxy is known for a jet that accelerates matter far out of the galaxy, driven by the central black hole.

Some materials convert photons into more free charges than would be expected. Using an ultrafast film, researchers have now been able to get a picture of this process. Physicists from the University of Würzburg were also involved. Photovoltaics, the conversion of light to electricity, is a key technology for sustainable energy.

Hendrik Weber and Raimar Wulkenhaar from the -Mathematics Münster- Cluster of Excellence work together on mathematical solutions Excellent research is not possible without interdisciplinary working. But, even within one discipline, collaborations crossing the barriers between research areas can lead to new approaches and findings.

A research team of Freie Universität Berlin has shown how hydrogen molecules behave quantum mechanically when they collide with noble gas atoms such as helium or neon. In the study published in the journal "Science," the scientists used simulations to establish a direct link between measurements of atoms and molecules taken in experiments and theoretical models; the study includes both theoretical calculations and data from experiments conducted at the Technical University of Dortmund and the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel).

One of the most widely used plastics in the world is polyethylene terephthalate, or PET for short. It is everywhere in our daily lives in the form of reusable PET drinks bottles. At the end of the lifecycle of a product containing PET, the environmentally friendly reuse of the PET components through the activity of enzymes is an economically and ecologically interesting alternative to incineration, landfill or purely chemical recycling.

Study by Freie Universität quantum physicist Professor Christiane Koch published in "Science" A Freie Universität Berlin research team headed by quantum physicist Professor Christiane Koch has demonstrated how hydrogen molecules behave when they collide with noble gas atoms such as helium or neon. In an article published in the journal Science , the researchers describe how they used simulations to draw connections between data from experiments and theoretical models of quantum physics ( www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.adf9888 ).

Reading time 3 min. FRM II lets scientists look deep inside the structure of biomolecules Neutrons from the Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) can be used to explore the structure of biomolecules. The most recent success: the precise analysis of a promising vaccine against multidrug resistant germs.

The cornerstone for 1000-fold improvement in communication rates for bridging long distances. Diamond is of great importance for future technologies such as the quantum internet. Special defect centers can be used as quantum bits (qubits) and emit single photons. To enable data transmission with practicable communication rates over long distances in the quantum network, all photons must be collected in optical fibers and transmitted without being lost.

Researchers from Paderborn University, the Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (INRiM),Italy's national metrology institute, the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), National Metrology Institute of Germany, have studied sequential infiltration synthesis in nanostructured polymers.

A team from the University of Freiburg and the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt-am-Main identifies anisotropic friction An interdisciplinary research team of the Institutes of Physical Chemistry and Physics of the University of Freiburg and the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt-am-Main has discovered a new, direction-dependent friction in proteins called anisotropic friction.

Scientists at the Universities of Würzburg and Ottawa have solved the decades-old problem of distinguishing between single and multiple light excitations. They present their new method in the journal Nature. The construction of the first laser in 1960 ushered in commercial applications with light that have become an integral part of our everyday lives.