news 2016

Paper is an extremely versatile material and can be used for countless applications. To make the natural all-rounder suitable for its special tasks, it's necessary to know about its inner life. In the new "CD Laboratory for Fiber Swelling and Paper Performance", the individual fibres are measured and analysed in order to design the behaviour of the next generation of paper.

Gaining detailed knowledge about atomic structure and chemical composition is paramount for a deeper understanding of the properties of matter and their potential applications in technology. Electron microscopy thus represents a key tool for the comprehensive characterization of materials at highest spatial resolution in three dimensions.

First experimental quantum simulation of particle physics phenomena Physicists in Innsbruck have realized the first quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories, building a bridge between high-energy theory and atomic physics. In the journal Nature, Rainer Blatt's and Peter Zoller's research teams describe how they simulated the creation of elementary particle pairs out of the vacuum by using a quantum computer.

Viruses smuggle their genetic material into our cells. How this actually works is currently being investigated at TU Wien (Vienna) using a new combination of analysis methods. Cold viruses cause us irritation by penetrating into our cells and transporting their RNA into the cytoplasma of the infected cells.

Being called a "bird brain" should be considered a compliment: An international team of scientists including Tecumseh Fitch of the University of Vienna has found out that birds have a more efficient neural architecture, allowing them to fit many more neurons into smaller brains than can mammals. More neurons means more computing power.

Basic research on brown fat cells could open up more effective therapies for obesity. Juliane Bogner-Strauss and her team yield new findings at TU Graz. Fat cells are not all the same. We possess both white and brown fat cells, and they carry out different tasks in our body. Whereas white fat cells store fats ingested in our food and constantly grow in the case of excess caloric intake, brown fat cells are good "burners".

Virtually all membrane proteins have been reported to be organized as clusters on cell surfaces, when in fact many of them are just single proteins which have been counted multiple times. A method developed at TU Wien (Vienna) can now distinguish between both cases. Light cannot be used to image any structures smaller than half its wavelength - for a long time, this was considered to be the ultimate resolution limit in light microscopy.

In an international first, a research team of experimental physicists led by Francesca Ferlaino and theoretical physicists led by Peter Zoller has measured long-range magnetic interactions between ultracold particles confined in an optical lattice. Their work, published in Science, introduces a new control knob to quantum simulation.

Completely ordinary photos are being transformed into clean, high-resolution 3D worlds thanks to algorithms from TU Wien.

Scientists from TU Wien (Vienna) are proposing a new method for creating extremely strong spin currents. They are essential for spintronics, a technology that could replace today's electronics. A laser pulse hits nickel (green). Spin-up-electrons (red) change into silicon (yellow). Electrons with both spin-orientations change back from silicon into nickel.

When current comes in discrete packages: Viennese scientists unravel the quantum properties of the carbon material graphene. In 2010 the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for the discovery of the exceptional material graphene, which consists of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice.

Scientists from Austria, Finland and Hungary are using laser scanners to study the day-night rhythm of trees. As it turns out, trees go to sleep too. Most living organisms adapt their behavior to the rhythm of day and night. Plants are no exception: flowers open in the morning, some tree leaves close during the night.

The genetic information we receive from our parents in the form of chromosomes are mosaics assembled from the two copies of chromosomes each parent has. This reshuffling of chromosome pieces happens via a cut and paste mechanism. How such cuts - or breaks - in our genetic material are repaired is the research interest of Verena Jantsch and her group at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna.

Elemental carbon appears in many different forms, including diamond and graphite. Their unique structural, electrical and optical properties have a broad range of potential applications in composite materials and nanoelectronics. Within the "carbon family", only carbyne, the truly one-dimensional form of carbon, has not yet been synthesized; although studied for the last 50 years, its extreme instability in ambient conditions has rendered the final experimental proof of its existence elusive.

The new concrete tower construction method, which has been developed by TU Wien, offers significant benefits specifically for wind turbines. More and more wind power plants are producing electricity - but what is the best method for building them? The team led by Prof. Johann Kollegger at the Institute of Structural Engineering at TU Wien has developed a new tower construction method which combines the key benefits of the existing methods.

Despite prevalent myths in public about autism about their lack of empathic concern for others and propensity for condoning harmful behavior, so far the relation between their empathic capacity and moral evaluations remains sparsely studied. New research shows that the seemingly callous attitudes in autism are not a feature of autism per se but are due to an understudied aspect of their personality called alexithymia, which is characterized by emotional processing difficulties.

Researchers at TU Graz's Institute of Applied Geosciences reveal findings on climate change, renewable energy and geological processes on the Erzberg mountain by "questioning" special witnesses. How will the climate change in the future? Questions about the future global climate can be better answered when we know more regional details about climate in the past.

From the coating of electronic or pharmaceutical products to thin plastic films - a new technique developed by TU Wien enables coating processes to be quality controlled in real time. When covering large areas with very thin layers of exactly the right thickness in the micrometre or nanometre range, it is easy to make mistakes.

What is it that walnut leaves, mushrooms and Coreopsis have in common? An enzyme that is also responsible for the browning reaction in bananas or apples is present in all of them in large amounts. For the first time, chemists from the University of Vienna around Annette Rompel have analysed the structure of the enzyme in the leaves of Coreopsis.