news 2017

Assessing old bridges using modern standards is no mean feat. Studies conducted by TU Wien show that many bridges are actually significantly more stable than might be expected, often rendering costly restoration work unnecessary. Deciding which bridges need to be restored in the near future and which are still in good condition can have extremely expensive repercussions.

Scientists at the University of Vienna have created a new hybrid structure, termed buckyball sandwich, by encapsulating a single layer of fullerene molecules between two graphene sheets. Buckyball sandwiches combine for the first time soccerball-like fullerenes, each consisting of sixty carbon atoms, and graphene, a one-atom thick layer of carbon.

In the quantum world, our intuition for moving objects is strongly challenged and may sometimes even completely fail. Experimental physicists of the University of Innsbruck in collaboration with theorists from Munich, Paris and Cambridge have found a quantum particle which shows an intriguing oscillatory back-and-forth motion in a one-dimensional atomic gas.

Traffic contributes more to nitrogen oxide emissions in Europe than previously thought. This is the result of a current study carried out by scientists from the University of Innsbruck. The research team headed by Thomas Karl shows that even newer air quality models underestimate traffic related nitrogen oxide pollution by up to a factor of 4.

The 'quantized magneto-electric effect' has been demonstrated for the first time in topological insulators at TU Wien, which is set to open up new and highly accurate methods of measurement. A light wave sent through empty space always oscillates in the same direction. However, certain materials can be used to rotate the direction in which the light is oscillating when placed in a magnetic field.

A new way to characterize many-particle quantum systems has been presented in the journal "Nature" by TU Wien (Vienna) and Heidelberg University. Quantum simulators can now be used to take a deeper look at previously unanswered questions. What happened right after the beginning of the universe? How can we understand the structure of quantum materials' How does the Higgs-Mechanism work? Such fundamental questions can only be answered using quantum field theories.

American alligators produce loud, low-frequency vocalizations called "bellows". Cognitive biologists at the University of Vienna, Stephan Reber and Tecumseh Fitch, investigated these vocalizations and found that they reveal the caller's body size. Alligators can use this information to avoid unpromising contests for mates and breeding areas.

Researchers at the Institute of Solid State Physics map out a radically new approach for designing optical and electronic properties of materials in Advanced Materials. Computational materials design is traditionally used to improve and further develop already existing materials. Simulations grant a deep insight into the quantum mechanical effects which determine material properties.

Einstein's "spooky action at a distance" persists even at high accelerations, researchers of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Vienna were able to show in a new experiment. A source of entangled photon pairs was exposed to massive stress: The photons' entanglement survived the drop in a fall tower as well as 30 times the Earth's gravitational acceleration in a centrifuge.

How can we burn natural gas without releasing CO2 into the air? This feat is achieved using a special combustion method that TU Wien has been researching for years: chemical looping combustion (CLC). In this process, CO2 can be isolated during combustion without having to use any additional energy, which means it can then go on to be stored.

A new bioinformatics tool to compare genome data has been developed by teams from the Max F. Perutz Laboratories, a joint venture of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna, together with researchers from Australia and Canada. The program called 'ModelFinder' uses a fast algorithm and allows previously not attainable new insights into evolution.

Graphene is considered as one of the most promising new materials. However, the systematic insertion of chemically bound atoms and molecules to control its properties is still a major challenge. Now, for the first time, scientists of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, the University of Vienna, the Freie Universität Berlin and the University Yachay Tech in Ecuador succeeded in precisely verifying the spectral fingerprint of such compounds in both theory and experiment.

Under the leadership of the Environmental Sciences Research Network of the University of Vienna, the key national actors in long-term ecological research (LTER) join forces to establish a new infrastructure for the collection of environmental data. Funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), the project aims to collect data on the effects of extreme climatic events on the carbon, water and nitrogen cycle in ecosystems by establishing six cutting-edge measurement sites.

How EV batteries behave in detail during crash loads and what influence the previous life of the battery has on its safety is being investigated by TU Graz and partners in the K-project "SafeBattery". Further photographic material available at the end of this text. Safety, range and costs: these are the three big premises of electromobility.

The agent Atglistatin can reduce the level of fatty acid in the blood. Funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency, researchers at the University of Graz and TU Graz want to further develop the agent into a medicine to treat metabolic disorders. Worldwide, some 1.9 billion persons are overweight.

Physicists have searched for deviations from standard quantum mechanics, testing whether quantum mechanics requires a more complex set of mathematical rules. To do so a research team led by Philip Walther at the University of Vienna designed a new photonic experiment using exotic metamaterials, which were fabricated at the University of California Berkeley.

Asphalt does not last forever. At some point, it ages and starts to crumble. This has to do with the bitumen, the sticky binding agent, which holds and keeps the rock content in the asphalt. Bitumen is a petroleum product consisting of several organic components, which undergo a chemical change over time.

Nonlocal correlations are a quantum phenomenon that constitute a stronger form of correlations than quantum entanglement. Researchers at MPQ, ICFO, University of Innsbruck and the Center for Theoretical Physics PAS have developed a new method to show that the low energy states of some physical spin Hamiltonians can exhibit these nonlocal correlations.

Two-dimensional materials, or 2D materials for short, are extremely versatile, although - or often more precisely because - they are made up of just one or a few layers of atoms. Graphene is the best-known 2D material. Molybdenum disulphide (a layer consisting of molybdenum and sulphur atoms that is three-atoms thick) also falls in this category, although, unlike graphene, it has semiconductor properties.

Acute psychosocial stress leads to increased empathy and prosocial behavior. An international team of researchers led by Claus Lamm from the University of Vienna investigated the effects of stress on neural mechanisms and tested the relationship between empathy and prosocial behavior in a new experiment.