news 2022

Tiny hairs on cell walls, so-called -cilia-, can move in unison to pump fluid. Now there finally is a physical theory describing these hairs' movements. They are only very simple structures, but without them we could not survive: Countless tiny hairs (cilia) are found on the outer wall of some cells, for example in our lungs or in our brain.

By Birgit Baustädter Discrete mathematics is so much more than just "the language of computer science", as it is often referred to. But it is not "discrete" in the usual sense. Points are particularly discrete. Discrete mathematics derives from the Latin discernere, which means "to separate". "Discrete mathematics is about delimited or clearly separated objects - such as points, lines or sequences of integers," explains Oswin Aichholzer, a computer scientist at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz).