The compact pilot plant used in the SOLETAIR project is designed for decentralized production, fits into a shipping container, and can be extended modularly. (Photo: VTT)

Pilot plant produces first synthetic fuel from solar power and the air’s carbon dioxide/KIT spin-off ineratec supplied key component. Production of liquid fuels from regenerative electric power is a major component of the energy turnaround. The first 200 l of synthetic fuel have now been produced from solar energy and the air’s carbon dioxide by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis under the SOLETAIR project. Here, INERATEC, a spinoff of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), cooperates with Finnish partners...

In the new dark matter model, the Higgs particle has different properties to those in the standard model of particle physics. The figure shows the energy of the Higgs particle as a function of the model parameters.
Credit: Ill./©: Michael Baker, JGU

Theoretical physicists present an alternative to the WIMP paradigm. Very little is known about dark energy, but there are many theories and experiments on the existence of dark matter designed to find these as yet unknown particles. Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany have now come up with a new theory on how dark matter may have been formed shortly after the origin of the universe. This new model proposes an alternative to the WIMP paradigm that is the subject of various experiments in current research.

Dark matt...

Blue large-amplitude pulsators as a new class of variable stars. Nature Astronomy, 2017; 1 (8): 0166 DOI: 10.1038/s41550-017-0166 Image: Paweł Pietrukowicz

Discovery of new class of variable dwarf star. In the middle of the large Chilean Atacama desert, a team of Polish astronomers are patiently monitoring millions of celestial bodies night after night with the help of a modern robotic telescope. In 2013, the team was surprised when they discovered, stars that pulsated much faster than expected. In the following years, the team that included Dr. Marilyn Latour, an astronomer from the Dr...

MIT researchers have demonstrated a new way to reverse memory loss by blocking an enzyme known as HDAC2. Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT

Study suggests a new approach to developing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. In the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, many of the genes required to form new memories are shut down by a genetic blockade, contributing to the cognitive decline seen in those patients. MIT researchers have now shown that they can reverse memory loss in mice by interfering with the enzyme that forms the blockade. The enzyme HDAC2, turns genes off by condensing them so tightly that they can’t be expressed.

For several years, scientists and pharmaceutical companies have been trying to develop drugs that block this enzyme, but most of these drugs also block other HDAC family membe...