news 2018

Novel complex quantum entanglement generated in the laboratory for the first time For future technologies such as quantum computers and quantum encryption, the experimental mastery of complex quantum systems is inevitable. Scientists from the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences have succeeded in making another leap.

350,000 years of climate history hidden in Devils Hole cave: Geologists from the University of Innsbruck study rainfall patterns in the distant past to better understand how deserts in the southwest United States will be impacted by future climate change. Beneath the Amargosa desert of the southwest United States lies a hidden gem for climate research.

A system developed at TU Graz uses water as a storage medium for electricity and thermal energy. It can be used to meet up to 90% of our energy requirements - while producing zero emissions. Additional at the end of the text The idea is simple. A team headed by Franz Georg Pikl, a PhD candidate at the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management at TU Graz, has combined the advantages of pumped storage technology and heat storage using water as a medium to create a "hot-water pumped storage hydropower plant".

How to create nanocages, i.e., robust and stable objects with regular voids and tunable properties' Short segments of DNA molecules are perfect candidates for the controllable design of novel complex structures. Physicists from the University of Vienna, the Technical University of Vienna, the Jülich Research Center in Germany and Cornell University in the U.S.A., investigated methodologies to synthesize DNA-based dendrimers in the lab and to predict their behavior using detailed computer simulations.

An international group of researchers has achieved the world's first multi-qubit demonstration of a quantum chemistry calculation performed on a system of trapped ions, one of the leading hardware platforms in the race to develop a universal quantum computer. The research, led by Cornelius Hempel and Thomas Monz, explores a promising pathway for developing effective ways to model chemical bonds and reactions using quantum computers.

Ethanol can make an important contribution to climate protection: at TU Wien, a diesel engine has been developed that can run on over 70% bioethanol. TU Wien has developed an engine that uses two different types of fuel simultaneously: it uses both bioethanol and diesel, which is used for ignition. A special duel-fuel combustion process has been developed for this purpose, which now enables the use of a large proportion of bioethanol in diesel engines.

A new conjecture causes excitement in the string theory community. Timm Wrase of the Vienna University of Technology has now published much-discussed results on recent new developments. In string theory, a paradigm shift could be imminent. In June, a team of string theorists from Harvard and Caltech published a conjecture which sounded revolutionary: String theory is said to be fundamentally incompatible with our current understanding of "dark energy" - but only with "dark energy" can we explain the accelerated expansion of our current universe.

Astrophysicists calculate the impact probability and crater size of impacts due to minor bodies The astrophysicists Mattia Galiazzo and Rudolf Dvorak from the University of Vienna, in collaboration with Elizabeth A. Silber (Brown University, USA) investigated the long-term path development of Centaurs (solar system minor bodies which originally have orbits between Jupiter and Neptune).

Plants start growing earlier in the spring but, contrary to popular belief, this results in less CO2 absorption. Climate change influences plant growth, with springtime growth beginning earlier each year. Up to now, it was thought that this phenomenon was slowing climate change, as scientists believed this process led to more carbon being absorbed from the atmosphere for photosynthesis and more biomass production.

Researchers from TU Graz have described for the first time the dynamics which takes place within a trillionth of a second after photoexcitation of a single atom inside a superfluid helium nanodroplet. Additional at the end of the text In his research, Markus Koch, Associate Professor at the Institute of Experimental Physics of Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), concentrates on processes in molecules and clusters which take place on time scales of picoseconds (10 -12 seconds) and femtoseconds (10 -15 seconds).

A new, extremely promising microscopy technique called "Nanomechanical scanning absorption microscopy" has been developed at TU Wien, in which sound is measured instead of light. Individual molecules cannot be photographed - if you wish to visualise objects that are smaller than the wavelength of light, you'll need a few special tricks up your sleeve.

In an industrial collaboration project, TU Wien has developed a medication that can alleviate or even completely eliminate the symptoms of celiac disease. It should be available as early as 2021. Celiac disease is a fairly common disease, affecting one to two percent of the European population. It is expressed as a hypersensitivity to gluten, a protein found in cereals such as wheat, barley or rye.

With the help of sophisticated experiments and calculations by the Vienna University of Technology, it has now become possible to measure the duration of the famous photoelectric effect. It was one of the crucial experiments in quantum physics: when light falls on certain materials, electrons are released from the surface.

By Birgit Baustädter The MoreGrasp project is coming to an end and has provided substantial results. The mental control of neuroprostheses can be considerably simplified in the future with the help of reprocessed brain signals. Marcel is paralysed and can only partially move his arms and legs. He cannot grasp glasses and needs support to eat.

The MoreGrasp Horizon2020 research project under the leadership of TU Graz is coming to an end with significant results in the field of thought-controlled grasp neuroprosthetics. A large-scale feasibility study is underway. Additional at the end of the text. The beginning of the MoreGrasp project was marked by the idea of a groundbreaking further development of grasp neuroprosthetics activated by thought control.

By Birgit Baustädter Batteries are a broad field of research. Energy storage systems of the future should be more powerful, more environmentally friendly, smaller and even safer - work is being done on this at TU Graz. Batteries are many things: cylindrical metal capsules with a plus sign at the top and a minus sign at the bottom, small black packs in our mobile phones, silver buttons in all possible sizes, invisibly integrated in our electric toothbrushes or flat and stacked up in a row in our e-vehicles.

String art is a technique for the creation of visual artwork where images emerge from a set of strings that are spanned between pins. Now, at TU Wien (Vienna) this work can be delegated to a robot - an example of a complex task that digital fabrication can solve. The basic idea of string art is simple: hooks distributed on a frame are connected by strings back and forth until they fuse to a perceptible image.

Under certain conditions, an atom can cause other atoms to emit a flash of light. At TU Wien (Vienna), this quantum effect has now been measured. The effect has been predicted theoretically decades ago - but it is very hard to provide experimental evidence for it: "Superradiance" is the phenomenon of one atom giving off energy in the form of light and causing a large number of other atoms in its immediate vicinity to emit energy as well at the same time.

The International Astronomical Union has agreed on a new reference frame for directions in space. TU Wien played an important role in developing this new frame. In future, when spacecrafts are sent to other planets or when the rotation of planet Earth is studied, a new reference frame will be used. On 30 August, at the General Meeting of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Vienna, the new international celestial reference frame ICRF3 was adopted, allowing for more precise directional specifications in space.

The effects of island remoteness from the mainland on the number of species found on islands differs strongly for non-native compared to native species. Numbers of native species on islands decrease with greater remoteness, while numbers of non-native species increase. This surprising finding has been uncovered by an international research team led by Dietmar Moser, Bernd Lenzner and Franz Essl from the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research of the University of Vienna.