A model of the crystal structure of cristobalite X-I, which had never before been discovered in other materials. This high-pressure phase of cristobalite is made up of two layers (green and blue), each composed of Si?O. Credit: Leonid Dubrovinsky

A research group at the University of Bayreuth has found a long-sought explanation for the apparent contradictions implicit in the composition of lunar and Martian meteorites. In cooperation with the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble and research partners in Lyon and Vienna, the Bayreuth scientists led by Prof. Dubrovinsky were able to demonstrate how meteorites could contain within narrow spaces minerals whose formation conditions are quite different.

When asteroids or co...

The annihilation rates have a signature non-monotonic velocity dependence over and above the resonances, e.g., for DM mass larger than 4 TeV the galactic annihilation rate (solid line) exceeds that in clusters (dashed line) and dwarf galaxies (dot- dashed line).
Credit: Anirban Das, Basudeb Dasgupta

A new theory predicts how dark matter may be annihilating much more rapidly in the Milky Way, than in smaller or larger galaxies and the early Universe. Anirban Das, with his advisor Dr. Basudeb Dasgupta, pursued this possibility because almost all observations made so far indicate no signals of dark matter annihilation anywhere – except the tantalizing signals from the Milky Way seen by the PAMELA and AMS02 detector and the Fermi gamma ray telescope...

Select Antieleptic drugs target mechanisms of epileptogenesis involving amyloid β and tau. Subclinical epileptiform activity in patients with Alzheimer’s disease can lead to accelerated cognitive decline and may be treated with AEDs like Levetiracetam.

Feasibility study suggests suppressing seizure-like activity may help patients. In the last decade, mounting evidence has linked seizure-like activity in the brain to some of the cognitive decline seen in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Patients with Alzheimer’s disease have an increased risk of epilepsy and nearly half may experience subclinical epileptic activity – disrupted electrical activity in the brain that doesn’t result in a seizure but which can be measured by electroencephalogram (EEG) or other brain scan technology.

In a rece...

Artist’s rendition of a quantum thermometer, a micron-scale mechanical device that can provide highly accurate temperature. Credit: Emily Edwards/Joint Quantum Institute

Versatile optomechanical beams have potential applications in biology, chemistry, electronics. In an arranged marriage of optics and mechanics, physicists have created microscopic structural beams that have a variety of powerful uses when light strikes them. Able to operate in ordinary, room-temperature environments, yet exploiting some of the deepest principles of quantum physics, these optomechanical systems can act as inherently accurate thermometers, or conversely, as a type of optical shield that diverts heat.

The potential applications include chip-based temperature sensors for electronics and biology that would neve...