Paternity Test Am I or not? A genetic paternity test can provide clarity about the offspring. What technology is behind the legally controversial procedure? Secretly carried out, they remain legally worthless, but in the future they should be easier to do legally:
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Patents from the sea What do algae, barnacles and sharks have in common? They all live in the sea. And they all serve as a treasure trove for scientists to improve modern technology. The world's first international course in bionics at the Bremen University of Applied Sciences specializes in marine life.
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Power from Gel German and American researchers have developed a material from a gel and silicon needles that works like a muscle or nanometer-sized gripping arms. It relies on the simple ability of gels to absorb and release water while doing mechanical work - just like plants can do.
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Chaotic flow creates magnetic field As scientists from a French research collaboration report, not only ordered but also purely turbulent flows in an electrically conductive liquid can produce a magnetic field [1]. The researchers even observed a polarity change, but these results have not yet been published [
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Transgenic hens lay eggs with medicinal substances Researchers at the Scottish Roslin Institute have created genetically modified chickens that produce medicinal substances in the egg white. This is how the hens produce the miR24 antibody in their eggs, which could help against skin cancer, or interferon beta-1, which is used against viruses and to treat multiple sclerosis.
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Light as a feather Santa Claus is still heaving the presents in the sack onto his back. It couldn't be more archaic. Then one of these frame backpacks is better - or even better: one with new bungee technology. This reduces the energy expenditure with each step.
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Island of Stability in sight? The really heavy chunks in the periodic table of the elements usually only have a very short life. Within a few thousandths of a second, the repulsive forces of their many protons blast them apart. Not so with the newly created Hassium-270.
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A power generator for nanomachines? Converting the energy of light into an electrical voltage - photosynthesis works according to this principle, solar cells work and photocopies are created. Reduced to a fine wire with a diameter of just a few molecules, future nanomachines might be able to quench their thirst for energy.
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Global "nuclear winter" also due to regional nuclear war Even a localized nuclear war with around 100 15-kiloton bombs would have catastrophic effects on the global climate - far beyond the actual conflict area. This was the result of the simulations by a research team led by Owen Toon from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
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Information obtained from quantum noise Using a correlation analysis, physicists working with Immanuel Bloch in Mainz have succeeded in examining the quantum noise in images of atomic gas clouds and in gaining information about the original arrangement of the atoms.
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Tiny Bits A single square centimeter hard drive would be enough to store a few thousand films on it - with magnetic vortices in the nanometer range, quite a lot would be possible. But only if its orientation can be changed does the vortex become a bit.
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Know yourself If the unforeseen happens, robots are quickly at their wits end. But if machines learn to form their own image not only of their environment but also of themselves, such problems could soon be a thing of the past. In more and more development laboratories, robots are therefore learning to sharpen their view of the inside.
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German households consume too much energy and space The energy consumption of German households for living increased by 3.5 percent from 1995 to 2005, the living space increased by 13 percent. If the thirst for energy continues to grow, it will be almost impossible to counteract climate change, Federal Environment Agency President Andreas Troge warned:
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Short film with the Molecule Camera Neither a camera nor a light microscope are suitable for taking pictures of the world of atoms - rather intensive, ultra-short laser pulses. With them, a real short film was created: a trillionth of a second from the eventful life of hydrogen.
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Clean hydrogen from renewable raw materials In the game about the energy supply of the future, the cards are being reshuffled. Vegetable oils as a regenerative energy source could make an important contribution - if they didn't tend to form soot and annoying deposits.
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Catch quotas make fish populations more volatile Restricting fisheries to large animals as a protective measure could have the opposite effect: taking away the reproductive fish leads to dangerous population fluctuations, marine biologists from Great Britain and the USA warn.
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"Bucky Egg" laid Scientists at Virginia Technical College have accidentally synthesized an egg-shaped fullerene. Normally fullerenes are spherical or ellipsoidal, an ovoid geometry seemed impossible according to the usual rules.
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Big energy in small pores When things have to be done quickly, batteries and rechargeable batteries can no longer keep up. Taking in or giving off a lot of energy in a short time is not their forte. But it is precisely this ability that modern devices are demanding more and more frequently.
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A sharp look into the nitty gritty At first glance, creative chaos seems to reign in biological cells. Thousands of different proteins whirl around inside and strangely find their destination. A new microscopy technique with almost unprecedented resolution reveals which protein is to be found where.
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News on Priapo's eldest children The ravages of time have meanwhile mostly nibbled at ex alted things that are more than a few hundred million years "image". However, a few sparse remnants can still tell whole life stories when scrutinized with the right methods under the latest magnifying glasses.
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Belt in the shopping cart In the United States, more than 20,000 children aged 5 years and younger are involved in supermarket shopping cart accidents and require hospital treatment each year. Tips from friendly staff at the building entrance to please seat the children properly in the shopping cart seat and buckle them up, as well as additional incentives in the form of small shopping vouchers, could significantly reduce this number.
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Lattice vibrations important for high-temperature superconductors The heat-induced rattling and shaking of the atoms in a crystal lattice is said to also contribute to the so-called high-temperature superconductors, so that these substances suddenly lose all electrical resistance when they cool down to a comparatively high temperature.
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Sharp view with artificial eye They are not prepared for tomorrow's technology: today's lens systems are large, rigid and vulnerable. Nature shows how it can be done better - with flexible lenses whose focal length can be changed by muscles.
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Americans often too fat for tomography tubes The constant increase in overweight people has consequences for medical diagnosis: In the last 15 years, the proportion of American patients who, due to their stature, require modern imaging methods such as computer, magnetic resonance or positron Emission tomography failed.
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Stack better with heat If the tin is too small for the breadcrumbs, put them in the oven for a moment - then a few more grains could fit in. Because of the expansion of the container, the crumbs slide down from the top and thus compress the content.
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A little friction also stops Smooth soles are slippery, cleated profiles ensure a firm grip. In our world of the big, we have a choice between sled and hook. But at the atomic level of nanotechnology, every surface is rough and granular. Without friction we are missing something.
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Crucial shoot? Power on or power off - current computer models create entire (virtual) worlds with these two states. The electronics of the future should be more diverse and also take into account the torque of the electrons, their spin. But to do this, you first have to be able to distinguish between the particles according to their spin states.
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Sweet competition with oil It took many crises and wars before the western industrial nations realized that they are painfully dependent on oil. New sources of energy and plastics offer a way out that is also more ecologically compatible. Fructose, for example, can do more than just sweeten coffee.
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Gum On Skin Large fires, terror alerts, outbreaks of epidemics: where such catastrophes happen, emergency services often appear in protective clothing. Hardly anyone asks them if they feel comfortable in their gear. People in protective suits are part of the image of modern society.
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Start of "Team Spirit" When "Football King" reigns supreme over the media and regulars' tables, one thing probably gets little attention: the ball itself. But let's assume it rains at the final. "Das Leder" has already completed two strenuous halves and it's going into overtime.
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Soulful In medicine, intuition is often required. That is why the relationship of trust with the family doctor is so important. Scientists are now preparing to let devices develop a similar sensitivity. The cancer check-up, which every adult over the age of 45 should attend regularly, is not a pleasant thing for either the doctor or the patient.
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Powerful Nanomuscles The family of carbon tubes and balls includes members with closed walls surrounding a cavity. If you fill this cavity with a substance and bombard the whole thing with electrons, the carbon skin can contract so much that the pressure inside is a tenth of the pressure at the center of the earth.
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Nanowires are the better transistors Small isn't small enough when it comes to tomorrow's circuits. As the successor to the current silicon-based chip technology, optical elements that work with photons compete with novel electronic conductors such as nanotubes and nanowires.
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Artificial Diesel With dwindling reserves of petroleum, some scientists suspect that future fuel for transportation will come from coal, natural gas and synthetic short-chain hydrocarbons. Before they can be used, however, these molecules would first have to be lengthened to 9 to 20 carbon atoms, which roughly corresponds to the composition of diesel.
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Pen & Co Modern writing instruments seem to have little in common with the slotted bamboo canes of the Egyptians or the quills of medieval monks. And yet they work on the same basic principle: capillary forces draw ink or paste onto the paper.
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Electronic lens as a replacement for glasses? Researchers led by Guoqiang Li from the University of Arizona in Tucson have developed an electronically adjustable lens made of liquid crystal. It is intended to offer an alternative to conventional bifocal lenses.
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One… two… many… Three particles of the same kind can form a unit, even if two of them repel each other. A research team from Austria and the United States has now been able to observe such a system for the first time. Quantum mechanics had vehement opponents for a long time.
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Power Grid Hydrogen is considered the technology of the future. But hydrogen-powered cars are still rare on our roads because there is a lack of efficient tanks. Organic polymers could help here. Fossil fuel resources are finite and burning them has a negative impact on the environment.
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Tsunami observation with microwaves from space For the first time, scientists have now identified the catastrophic tsunami of 2004 by evaluating microwave data from a satellite. With these findings, Yuliya Troitskaya and Stanislav Ermakov of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Nizhny Novgorod hope that in the future tsunamis could be detected from space.
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Folded Nano researchers are constantly enriching their toolbox with new building blocks. Now they've crafted a chain molecule that changes shape when exposed to light. The spatial structure of a protein is decisive for its function.
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