With victims numbering in the millions, malaria is an infectious disease caused by the bite of a mosquito carrying the malaria parasite. After penetrating the skin, the pathogen moves with helical trajectories. It almost always turns toward the right, as a team of physicists and malaria researchers from Heidelberg University recently discovered. Using high-resolution imaging techniques combined with computer simulations, the researchers demonstrated that the pathogen uses these right-handed helices to control its motion as it transitions from one tissue compartment to another.

Scientists at the University of Warwick and the National Research Council of Canada have achieved and measured the highest “hole mobility” ever recorded in a silicon-compatible material.

Researchers from ETH Zurich have manufactured organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) on a nanoscale – that’s around a hundred times smaller than a human cell. This not only enables ultra-sharp screens and microscopes, but also opens up entirely novel possibilities for wave optics applications thanks to the extremely minute pixel size.  

A novel magnetic material with an extraordinary electronic structure might allow for the production of smaller and more efficient computer chips in the future: the p-wave magnet. Researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) were involved in its development. The magnetic behavior in the interior of this material results from the way the electron spins arrange themselves – in the shape of a helix. Therefore, the electric current flowing through is deflected laterally. The results are published in the Nature journal. 

Researchers have successfully grown platinum crystals in liquid metal, using a powerful X-ray technique giving rare insight into how these delicate crystals form and grow.

An international study published today in Communications Biology has used unique coral reefs in Papua New Guinea to determine the likely impact of ocean acidification on coral reefs in the face of climate change.

Oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and that acid will dissolve coral limestone. But it’s hard to predict what impact this will have on whole ecosystems from studies using aquariums and models.

The research team, led by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), studied entire coral reefs, locally enriched with CO₂ that is seeping from the sea floor, near some of Papua New Guinea’s remote shallow submarine volcanoes.

Dr. Katharina Fabricius, a coral researcher at AIMS in Townsville and senior author on the paper, says the research has revealed which species can thrive under lifelong exposure to elevated CO₂.

“These unique natural laboratories are like a time machine,” said Dr Fabricius.  

“The CO₂ seeps have allowed us to study the reefs’ tolerance limits and make predictions. How will coral reefs cope if emissions are in line with the Paris Agreement level emissions? How will they respond to higher CO₂ emissions scenarios?”