news 2020

BRITE Constellation observes complete nova eruption for the first time Satellite images from the BRITE mission with the participation of researchers* from Graz University of Technology and the Universities of Innsbruck and Vienna document for the first time the complete development of a nova - from eruption to maximum brightness and burn out.

By Birgit Baustädter Oswin Aichholzer does basic research - he doesn't invent, he discovers. The theoretical computer scientist is on the trail of basic mathematical rules which he can model and teach the computer. Oswin Aichholzer is wearing a light blue pullover, has a headset on, and is sitting in front of the computer.

One of the central tenets of quantum mechanics is the wave-particle duality. It tells us that even massive objects behave like both particles and waves. A number of previous experiments have shown this for electrons, neutrons, atoms and even large molecules. Quantum theory maintains that this is a universal property of matter.

Researchers at the Universities Vienna and Stuttgart have investigated a version of Maxwell's demon embodied by a delayed feedback force acting on a levitated microparticle. They confirmed new fundamental limits that time delay imposes on the demon's actions which are not covered by the standard laws of thermodynamics.

By Christoph Pelzl Researchers at Graz University of Technology have successfully tested a cost-effective and fully automated pollen sensor prototype and are now making their knowledge freely available and usable for everyone. Additional at the end of the text Pollen: essential for the pollination of many plants, but the bane of allergy sufferers.

Michael Traugott and the spin-off company Sinsoma GmbH, together with the Departments of Zoology and Microbiology at the University of Innsbruck, are developing a new PCR system for the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This new PCR method works with different analytical materials that are easier to obtain and allow high-throughput testing.

By Christoph Pelzl The data analyses of Invenium, a spin-off of Graz University of Technology and the Graz Know Center, help companies to better understand the mobility behaviour of people - and not only in times of the corona crisis. There is an enormous amount of scientific potential in anonymized mobile phone data - as Invenium co-founder Michael Cik recognised as early as 2013.

By Christoph Pelzl Graz University of Technology researchers describe in Physical Review Letters how a molecule moves in the protective environment of a quantum fluid. Additional at the end of the text Markus Koch, head of the research group Femtosecond Dynamics at the Institute of Experimental Physics at TU Graz , and his team develop new methods for time-resolved femtosecond laser spectroscopy to investigate ultrafast processes in molecular systems.

By Christoph Pelzl Researchers at Graz University of Technology have developed a framework by which wireless devices with different radio technologies will be able to communicate directly with each other.

By Birgit Baustädter Security researchers at Graz University of Technology together with an international team have once again uncovered a serious security hole in computer processors. With the new security hole published under the name "Load Value Injection", there is another method to read out sensitive data.

Uranium is not always the same: depending on whether this chemical element is released by the civil nuclear industry or as fallout from nuclear weapon tests, the ratio of the two anthropogenic, i.e. man-made, uranium isotopes 233U and 236U varies. These results were lately found by an international team grouped around physicists from the University of Vienna and provides a promising new "fingerprint" for the identification of radioactive emission sources.

An ultra-fast image sensor with a built-in neural network has been developed at TU Wien (Vienna). It can be trained to recognize certain objects. It has now been presented in "Nature". Automatic image recognition is widely used today: There are computer programs that can reliably diagnose skin cancer, navigate self-driving cars, or control robots.

Today, most quantum experiments are carried out with the help of light, including those in nanomechanics, where tiny objects are cooled with electromagnetic waves to such an extent that they reveal quantum properties. Now, a team of physicists led by Oriol Romero-Isart at the University of Innsbruck and the Austrian Academy of Sciences is proposing to cool microparticles with sound waves instead.

A world premiere in Austria: The new bridge construction technology which was developed at TU Wien has now been successfully applied by ASFINAG during the construction of the Fürstenfeld Motorway There are many different methods for erecting bridges - but the new technique developed by TU Wien, the balanced lowering method, is quite spectacular: the bridge is not built horizontally, as would normally be case, but erected in a vertical position and then rotated into the horizontal position.

By Christoph Pelzl In the FET Open project ARTIBLED, TU Graz protein-designer Gustav Oberdorfer is working together with researchers from Spain and Italy on environmentally friendly and inexpensive light-emitting diodes. Additional at the end of the text The basis for this vision is being laid at the Institute of Biochemistry at Graz University of Technology , where Gustav Oberdorfer and his team are designing proteins with the help of simulation software.

Researchers reconstruct migration movements through ancient DNA A Team around Anthropologist Ron Pinhasi from the University of Vienna - together with researchers from the University of Florence and Harvard University - found out that prehistoric migration from Africa, Asia and Europe to the Mediterranean islands took place long before the era of the Mediterranean seafaring civilizations.

A new analysis suggests that an asymmetry pattern shared with great apes was adapted for lateralized, uniquely human cognitive abilities The left and right side of the brain are involved in different tasks. This functional lateralization and associated brain asymmetry are well documented in humans, but little is known about brain asymmetry in our closest living relatives, the great apes.

By Christoph Pelzl Researchers from Graz University of Technology and the University of Vienna are demonstrating for the first time how the energy flow between strongly interacting molecular states can be better described. Additional at the end of the text Since the 1990s, femtochemistry has been researching ultrafast processes at the molecular level.

Researchers discover a novel checkpoint in immune cells with the potential to treat the cancer cell microenvironment The recognition of bacterial infections or foreign substances is mediated and controlled by the human immune system. This innate and adaptive immune system comprises the most important metabolic and cellulare processes to fight against infections and other diseases.

Actually they had been looking for something completely different, but they found a previously unknown quasi-particle: A bound state of two electrons, two holes and light. In physics, there are very different types of particles: Elementary particles are the fundamental building blocks of matter. Other particles, such as atoms, are bound states consisting of several smaller constituents.