Science LinX news

Some photons carry too much energy for the material of solar panels to absorb. These photons produce ‘hot electrons’, and the excess energy of these electrons is converted into heat. Scientists from the University of Groningen have now shown that it may be easier than expected to harvest this excess energy.

Associate Professor Justin Ye, head of the Device Physics of Complex Materials group at the University of Groningen, studied superconductivity in a double layer of molybdenum disulfide and discovered new superconducting states.

Cells invest substantial resources in the process of their division. The question of how they ‘decide’ to initiate division is an important one. Scientists from the University of Groningen and colleagues in Switzerland have discovered a possible trigger for this ‘decision’. Specifically, they have found that immediately prior to the division of budding yeast cells, there is a significant increase in the concentration of the highly unstable Cln3 protein, which is an important regulator of cell division. This increase in Cln3 may serve as a signal that enables the cell to assess whether existing environmental conditions are favourable for protein production, which is important for cell division.

Science LinX newsletter for November 2019

Tijdens het Festival della Scienza vertegenwoordigt Science LinX de Groningse wetenschap met een 12-daags programma voor jong en oud in het Italiaanse Genua.

Migratory sandpipers breeding in Greenland who choose to spend the winter in West Africa instead of elsewhere along the East Atlantic coast have a lower chance of survival, are more likely to skip their first breeding season and arrive later at their breeding grounds. An article in the Journal of Animal Ecology, spearheaded by researcher Jeroen Reneerkens (University of Groningen and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, NIOZ), challenges the widely held idea that the costs of longer migratory flights are inevitably offset by benefits in the winter habitats.

Evolution is resetting the annual clock in migratory birds

University of Groningen scientists have now taken an important step towards transistors that operate using the spin of electrons, rather than their charge.

Enthousiaste scholieren van scholen uit Assen en Groningen zijn op hun vrije zaterdag naar de Zernike Campus gekomen om deel te nemen aan de ‘Astro Data Science Hackathon’.

Scientists from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) and the University of Würzburg (Germany) have investigated a simple biomimetic light-harvesting system.

University of Groningen physicist Dr Kumar Sourav Das created curved spin transport channels. Together with his colleagues, he discovered that this new geometry makes it possible to independently tune charge and spin currents.

Science LinX newsletter for October 2019

Under the leadership of Pavel Mancera Piña (University of Groningen and ASTRON), an international team of astrologists has discovered six dim dwarf galaxies that contain hardly any dark matter. This is rare, as it is expected that most of the dim dwarf galaxies are only held together by means of a large amount of dark matter. The researchers will soon publish their findings in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

A new transmission electron microscope (TEM) allows University of Groningen scientists to study the structure of materials in unprecedented detail. One of its unique abilities is to produce images of both heavy and very light atoms simultaneously. The microscope will be primarily used by the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials (ZIAM) and CogniGron research institutes, but biologists might also take advantage of this new piece of equipment.

After a decade of preparations, it’s finally time: on the evening of 20 September the German icebreaker Polarstern departs from the Norwegian port of Tromsø. Escorted by the Russian icebreaker Akademik Fedorov, she will set sail for the Central Arctic. On board researchers will investigate a region that is virtually inaccessible in winter, and which is crucial for the global climate. They will gather urgently needed data on the interactions between the atmosphere, ocean and sea ice, as well as on the ecosystem. Thanks to the collaboration between international experts, the one-year-long ice drift past the North Pole will take climate research to a completely new level.

Scientists at the University of Groningen have constructed synthetic vesicles in which ATP, the main energy carrier in living cells, is produced. This metabolic network will eventually be used in the creation of synthetic cells.

Physicists from the University of Groningen constructed a two-dimensional spin transistor, in which spin currents were generated by an electric current through graphene.

Science LinX newsletter for September 2019

A phenomenon that is well known from chaos theory was observed in a material for the first time ever, by scientists from the University of Groningen. This ‘spatial chaos’ in a material was first predicted in 1985 and could be used in applications such as adaptable neuromorphic electronics.

University of Groningen scientists, with an international team of colleagues, have now discovered a key mechanism in the tuberculosis bacteria which prevents the immune cells from killing them: the bacteria produce a unique type of antacid which gives the immune cells indigestion.

The arrival of humans in New Zealand, some 700 years ago, triggered a wave of extinction among native bird species. Calculations by scientists from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and Massey University in New Zealand show that it would take at least 50 million years of evolution to restore the biodiversity that has been lost.

On 24 June, Paul Zomer defended his PhD thesis at the University of Groningen. Zomer used the technological know-how that he acquired during his research at the company HQ Graphene, which he co-owns with Niko Tombros.

Chemical & Engineering News (a publication of the American Chemical Society) recently published two articles on papers by Ben Feringa: one about a muscle that is flexed by molecular motors and the other about a new environmentally friendly process that makes useful building blocks for plastic and pills.

Secretary Tineke Kalter was the first UG staff member to hear that Ben Feringa had been awarded the Nobel Prize. The effects are still noticeable a year later. ‘We still receive dozens of requests every day.’

Egbert Boekema has spent almost his entire academic career working on a single problem: elucidating the structure of the proteins responsible for photosynthesis. His official farewell was on 27 September.

The Origins Centre will tackle questions submitted to the National Science Agenda about the origin of life on Earth and in the Universe. A number of scientists from the University of Groningen have a leading role in this Centre. Part 1 of a series: the background to the Origins Centre.

University of Groningen / Science LinX present five images for Nobel-winning motors by Ben Feringa

Ben Feringa is awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry

Science LinX presents three graphene videos.

A short film on a research project by Sijbren Otto, who wants to create life in the lab via chemical evolution.