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Latest news from laboratory, environment, chemistry, life science and quality control

• Detecting pollutants at ultra-trace levels
  Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (or Spectroscopy), known as SERS, is an advanced analysis method that extends the range of Raman applications to trace analysis such as part per million level dete...
• Adjuvants derived from the soapbark tree
  The medicinal secrets of the Chilean soapbark tree have been laid bare, unlocking a future of more potent, affordable, and sustainably sought vaccines. The evergreen species, Quillaja saponaria has...
• Repairing spinal cord injuries with nanotechnology
  Europe-wide project named "Piezo4Spine" sets the high goal of developing a novel therapy against spinal cord injuries (SCI). Based on the latest findings in materials science, regenerative medicine...
• New oxygen-ion battery - durable, without rare elements or problem of fire hazards
  Lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous today - from electric cars to smartphones. But that does not mean that they are the best solution for all areas of application. TU Wien has now succeeded in dev...
• Measuring the greenhouse effect accurately
  The world as a greenhouse - this is what is shown in the picture on the left: Solar radiation enters the Earth's atmosphere without any hindrance and should normally leave it as heat. Unfortunately...
• Sweets change our brain
  Chocolate bars, crisps and fries - why can't we just ignore them in the supermarket? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, in collaboration with Yale Universit...
• Photosynthesis 'hack' could lead to new ways of generating renewable energy
  Researchers have 'hacked' the earliest stages of photosynthesis, the natural machine that powers the vast majority of life on Earth, and discovered new ways to extract energy from the process, a fi...
• EMBO Press to be fully Open Access
  From 2024 on, all papers published in The EMBO Journal and EMBO Reports and the source data in all European Molecular Biology Organization's (EMBO) Press journals will be freely accessible with CC-...
• windCORES: new infrastructure with data centres in wind farms
  High-performance computing, or HPC, has become a key method in many scientific areas, including pharmaceutical and climate research. However, data centres with energy-intensive supercomputers produ...
• Reactive oxygen impacts carbon cycling in tidal sands
  Reactive oxygen species - very reactive molecules containing oxygen - have a great impact on mineralization processes in tidal sandflats, study finds. Their investigation is thus important for unde...
• How CO₂ affects our oceans
  The behavior of microorganisms is crucial to understand the effects of carbon dioxide input in the oceans. Researchers at Constructor University in Bremen, Germany, in collaboration with colleagues...
• Carbon fibers from lignin - a new process for economical production
  A novel, both environmentally friendly and cost-saving process for the production of carbon fibers from lignin has been developed at DITF. It is characterized by high energy-saving potential. The a...
• Topological properties of driven molecules could enable new applications in chemistry
  The peculiar topological properties of some forms of matter have been researched for decades. Now, researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have discovered topological ...
• Electrocatalysis under the atomic force microscope
  A further development in atomic force microscopy now makes it possible to simultaneously image the height profile of nanometre-fine structures, as well as the electric current and the frictional fo...
• How nanoplastics can influence metabolism
  PET, the plastic used to make bottles, for example, is ubiquitous in our natural environment. In a joint study, scientists from Leipzig University and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Researc...
• New Method to synthesize Menthol
  Menthol and cannabinoids are important for the chemical industry. A team led by Prof. Benjamin List has now found a new way to synthesize both substances - cheaper and more efficient than before. ...
• Software solution for a better circular economy
  Saving energy and raw materials as well as reducing environmental impacts is as urgent as never before. That's why consumers and suppliers alike seek to understand how to get reliable material, pro...
• Using less chemical pesticides: toolbox of good practices
  Controlling pests that damage crops and plants is necessary both to safeguard food security and to ensure viable income to farmers for their production. This needs to be done while minimising the r...
• New method for recycling lithium-ion batteries
  Researchers at Linnaeus University have developed a more environmentally friendly way of retrieving cobalt from used lithium-ion batteries. With a liquid solvent made of readily available substance...
• Economical and resource-saving green hydrogen
  Large quantities of hydrogen will be needed to ensure a successful energy transition. As part of the HighHy project, an international team of researchers from Germany and New Zealand is working on ...
• To new worlds with quantitative spectroscopy
  Astronomers from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and the Vatican Observatory (VO) teamed up to spectroscopically survey more than 1000 bright stars that potentially host exopla...
• Recycling Rare Earths with cyanobacteria
  Rare Earth metals are essential to countless high-tech applications. Working together with the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern, a research team from the Technical University of Munich...
• A quantum switch for the world's lightest mirror
  Researchers at MPQ have created a switchable metamaterial: an atomic array whose optical qualities can be tuned to become either reflective or transparent. The findings, which appeared in Nature Ph...