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News in brief
News in brief
Bioeconomy
Barley for times of drought
Barley is one of the most important types of grain. Its uses range from beer-brewing to groats, pearl barley, barley flakes and barley flour. However, droughts and climate change are worsening the growing conditions. An international team with Jülich participation has discovered a promising starting point for breeding resistant varieties: the team identified a gene that makes the roots of some rare barley plants grow much deeper downwards than normal. This allows the roots to better access water and nutrients at much further depths in the soil.
– Institute of Bio- and Geosciences –
0million euros
have been awarded to the iNEW research project, short for “Inkubator Nachhaltige Elektrochemische Wertschöpfungsketten” (sustainable electrochemical value chains incubator), by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Among other things, the project coordinated by Jülich deals with the question of how the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide can be used industrially and become an opportunity for a sustainable circular economy. The goal: bringing innovations to market maturity quickly and thus supporting structural change in the Rhineland region.
– Institute of Energy and Climate Research –
Battery research
Boundaries have a positive effect
Safer and better range: solid-state batteries are considered the next generation of mobile energy storage, such as in the case of electric cars. However, these systems still bring many challenges. Take, for example, the electrolyte: in conventional batteries, the charge carriers float through a liquid during charging and discharging. In the solid-state battery, they travel through solid grains, which are “baked together” and covered by a boundary layer. Until now, researchers assumed that this boundary layer was detrimental, so they were trying to minimize it. A team of researchers from Berlin, Munich and Jülich has now been able to show that the layer is actually beneficial. A targeted design could make the batteries last longer.
– Institute of Energy and Climate Research –
Alzheimer’s research
The sourer, the clumpier
They are prime suspects in the search for the causes of Alzheimer’s dementia: the so-called Aβ-oligomers, small aggregations of the body’s own protein amyloid β. However, it is still unclear how and where the protein clumps form. Researchers from Jülich, Düsseldorf and Cologne have found that the clumps form 8,000 times faster in a weakly acidic environment than at neutral pH. The environment is weakly acidic in endosomes and lysosomes, for example, small vesicles inside nerve cells that transport and break down substances.
– Institute of Biological Information Processing –
Brain research
Recognition
The EU has listed the EBRAINS digital platform of the Human Brain Project (HBP) among the strategically important research infrastructure measures, the so-called ESFRI Roadmap. As the first portal of its kind, EBRAINS offers, among other things, access to comprehensive data on the human brain and powerful tools, for example for simulations. An important component is the three-dimensional brain atlas “Julich-Brain”. “We are delighted with this confirmation of the great scientific potential of EBRAINS,” says Jülich brain researcher Prof. Katrin Amunts, scientific research director of the HBP.
– Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine –
Information technology
Exotic property with technological potential
So-called two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals materials are seen as the hope for electronic components of the future. 2D materials are only one or a few atomic layers thick. Eventually, they could render bendable and paper-thin electronic devices possible; these would consume little energy and have both fast computing power and enormous storage capacity. An international research team with Jülich participation has provided evidence for a new property in two of these magnetic 2D materials: certain wave-shaped magnetic disturbances – known as magnons – do not propagate in the entire sample; they only do this along their edges. With these materials, a particularly energy-saving information technology could be realized, since magnons can be used to transmit information without transporting electrical charge.
– Peter Grünberg Institute –
Structural biology
Astonishing similarities
Humans and bacteria are fundamentally different at first glance. There are, however, fascinating similarities. As Jülich and Mainz researchers have discovered, certain membrane proteins of both organisms are similar in structure and function. This surprising finding provides exciting insights into evolution. This was made possible with the help of special electron microscopes that allow specialists to examine snap-frozen biological samples. The equipment belongs to the Ernst Ruska Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons on the Jülich campus.
– Ernst Ruska-Center for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons –
Brain research
Distinction
Prof. Svenja Caspers’ research at Jülich includes changes in the ageing brain. The scientist has now been elected a member of the Leopoldina, Germany’s National Academy of Sciences. Membership is a special honour: only researchers who have distinguished themselves through significant scientific achievements are admitted.
– Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine –
Photos: Forschungszentrum Jülich, Forschungszentrum Jülich/Sascha Kreklau, Mareen Fischinger, era Hiendl, e-conversion (TUM), Benedikt Junglas, Dirk Schneider, Carsten Sachse