Latest News Releases 14 September

The Independent Research Fund Denmark has granted DKK 2.8 million to a new research project at Aarhus University aiming to develop a terahertz-based optical skyrmion sensor able to decode the direction of skyrmion swirls at the speed of light. The project is called OpSky and is based on new findings predicting that skyrmions can oscillate at terahertz frequencies.

An international consortium of researchers from Russia, the USA and Brazil synthesized new compounds to develop potential drugs for yellow fever, a severe viral disease transnitted by mosquitoes. Using machine learning techniques, scientists selected the most promising virtual chemical structures from thousands of molecules, and then obtained or synthesized them before testing in vitro (in a test tube) five promising molecules that would become contenders for a future drug. All five compounds were active, but one showed the most promising activity.

Kazan Federal University has been working on hydrate inhibitors for some time now. Their effectiveness has been confirmed by a wide range of modern methods, including microcalorimeters, high pressure reactors, NMR and IR spectroscopy. In the Laboratory of Dielectric Spectroscopy, a unique measuring cell for hydrate formation was developed. The equipment allows to work in a wide range of temperatures and pressures, as well as to investigate the effectiveness of a wide class of hydrate inhibitors.

- By analysing secondary acute myeloid leukaemias, researchers at IRB Barcelona have detected mutations caused by platinum-based chemotherapies in cells that were healthy at the time of treatment. - Treatment with chemotherapies influences the development of blood cells, favouring clonal hematopoiesis from cells with pre-existing mutations. - The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Geophysicists solve a key problem in physics and provide results that can be applied in such diverse areas as planetary research and 3-D printing / publication in ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’

Researchers from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) were the first in Russia to develop a friction stir welding technology of a new aluminum alloy for a lightweight pedestrian bridge. The engineers intend to implement an innovative approach at the university: they plan to weld the elements, and then connect them into a bridge at the construction site.

UT Southwestern Medical Center will lead the nation’s first study of suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ young adults – a group at higher risk for depression and suicide.

A new study in Scientific Reports by researchers at ASHBi and the University of Sheffield suggests that even if monkeys do not realize they have received a visual signal, they still change their behavior using it.

Whether consuming cocoa, known to be packed with powerful antioxidants that protect our cells from damage, helps us age better, is a question scientists want to definitively answer. They are looking for answers in the blood of 600 individuals age 60 and older who participated in the largest trial ever to assess the impact of a cocoa supplement as well as a common multivitamin, on reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer and other health outcomes, says Dr. Yanbin Dong, geneticist and cardiologist at the Georgia Prevention Institute at the Medical College of Georgia.

Scientists have discovered an important cause of stroke occurring in the womb or just after birth, paving the way for new treatments. The research identified that a low number of platelets (small blood cells known for enabling clotting) in babies, either in the womb or in newborns, could cause bleeding in the brain. These types of bleeds can lead to fatal strokes or permanent neurological conditions, such as cerebral palsy.