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A Micro-Muscular Break Through

Berkeley Lab Researchers Make a Powerful New Microscale Torsional Muscle/Motor from Vanadium Dioxide

Vanadium dioxide is poised to join the pantheon of superstars in the materials world. Already prized for its extraordinary ability to change size, shape and physical identity, vanadium dioxide can now add muscle power to its attributes. A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has demonstrated a micro-sized robotic torsional muscle/motor made from vanadium dioxide that for its size is a thousand times more powerful than a human muscle, able to catapult objects 50 times heavier than itself over a distance five times its length within 60 milliseconds – faster than the blink of an eye. (more…)

Intimate yeast: Mating and meiosis

Science

Mating and meiosis – the specialized cell division that reduces the number of chromosomes in a cell – are related, but in most yeasts they are regulated separately. Not so in Candida lusitaniae, where the two programs work in unison, according to a new study in Nature. Comparison with other species suggests that this fusion may support C. lusitaniae’s “haploid lifestyle” of maintaining only one set of chromosomes in each cell. (more…)

Wie kommen Hitze liebende Bakterien in die Arktis?

Environment

Evolutionäre Anpassung oder doch eher passive Verbreitung: Was bestimmt die mikrobielle Diversität in der Umwelt? Ein internationales Team um die Mikrobiologen Albert Müller und Alexander Loy von der Universität Wien und dem Österreichischen Polarforschungsinstitut erforschte die Biogeographie von Sporen Hitze liebender Bakterien im kalten Meeresboden und fand Erstaunliches: Physikalische Verbreitungsbarrieren gibt es auch für einzellige Kleinstlebewesen, und sie beeinflussen die lokale Diversität mariner Mikroorganismen. Ihre Arbeit wurde aktuell in der Fachzeitschrift “The ISME Journal” veröffentlicht.

Eisbären gibt es nur am Nordpol. Geographische Verbreitungsbarrieren haben dafür gesorgt, dass sie nie an den Südpol gelangten – wo sie aufgrund der herrschenden Umweltbedingungen durchaus leben könnten. Solche biogeographischen Verbreitungsmuster sind gut dokumentiert für Tiere und Pflanzen, für Kleinstlebewesen wie Bakterien und Archaeen allerdings nicht. Ursprünglich ging man davon aus, dass Mikroorganismen sehr leicht von einem Ort zum anderen transportiert werden, zum Beispiel über Wasser- oder Luftströmungen, und somit eigentlich überall zu finden sein müssten. (more…)

8 million lives saved since surgeon general’s tobacco warning 50 years ago

Health

A Yale study estimates that 8 million lives have been saved in the United States as a result of anti-smoking measures that began 50 years ago this month with the groundbreaking report from the Surgeon General outlining the deadly consequences of tobacco use. The Yale School of Public Health-led analysis is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study used mathematical models to calculate the long-term effect of the seminal report, and subsequent anti-smoking measures, over the past half-century. These cumulative efforts have significantly reshaped public attitudes and behaviors concerning cigarettes and other forms of tobacco, note the researchers. (more…)

Artificially cooling planet would cause climate chaos, new research shows

Environment

Plans to reverse the effects of global warming by mimicking big volcanic eruptions would have a catastrophic impact on some of the most fragile ecosystems on earth, new research has shown. (more…)

New, Simple Technique May Drive Down Biofuel Production Costs

Environment

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a simple, effective and relatively inexpensive technique for removing lignin from the plant material used to make biofuels, which may drive down the cost of biofuel production.

Lignin, nature’s way of protecting plant cell walls, is difficult to break down or remove from plant materials called “biomass,” such as the non-edible parts of the corn plant. However, that lignin needs to be extracted in order to reach the energy-rich cellulose that is used to make biofuels. (more…)

Kann man über den deutschen Winter wirklich klagen?

Environment

Eigentlich können wir doch ganz zufrieden sein mit dem diesjährigen
Winterwetter in Deutschland. Klar … unter Winter stellt man sich
gemeinhin frostige Temperaturen und zumindest ab und an auch mal
Schnee vor. Sicher … selbst auf den höchsten Mittelgebirgsgipfeln
liegt kaum Schnee. Der Große Arber sticht da mit 35 cm noch positiv
heraus. Auf dem Feldberg im Schwarzwald sind es 14 cm, der
Fichtelberg bringt es auf 10 cm und der Brocken auf 11 cm. Kahler
Asten, Wasserkuppe oder Neuhaus am Rennweg haben erst gar nichts zu
melden. (more…)

Innovative soft robotics technology spawns new products

Technology

The robot gripper invented by researchers at the University of Chicago and Cornell University is now available commercially. Empire Robotics, the company founded to commercialize the invention, is taking orders for the limited first release of its product called VERSABALL, scheduled to ship later this month.

“When we first started with the universal jamming gripper we did not think about industrial applications,” said Heinrich Jaeger, the William J. Friedman and Alica Townsend Professor in Physics at the University of Chicago. “But soon there were inquiries from various companies and in those early days we had to tell them that we are in basic research rather than R&D and that therefore we could not really make robotic grippers for sale.” (more…)