Plants, fungi, and bacteria perceive blue light through photoreceptors. Light triggers photochemical reactions that control vital processes in cells. Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have now discovered that certain receptors do not necessarily require a specific glutamine, which was previously thought to be indispensable. Even without this glutamine, blue light can trigger crucial control signals in many organisms, albeit often with reduced efficiency. The results presented in Nature Communications make an important contribution to understanding the mechanisms of photoreceptors and their applications.
Jules Verne could not even dream of this: A research team from the University of Bayreuth, together with international partners, has pushed the boundaries of high-pressure and high-temperature research into cosmic dimensions. For the first time, they have succeeded in generating and simultaneously analyzing materials under compression pressures of more than one terapascal (1,000 gigapascals). Such extremely high pressures prevail, for example, at the center of the planet Uranus; they are more than three times higher than the pressure at the center of the Earth. In Nature, the researchers present the method they have developed for the synthesis and structural analysis of novel materials.
Genes are the carriers of our genetic information. They are read in our cells and used to produce ribonucleic acids (RNAs). During this process, termed transcription, the enzyme RNA polymerase II has a decisive influence on the exact time at which genes are read and on the intensity with which this happens. In their recent Nature Communications article, researchers from the University of Bayreuth have shown exactly how RNA polymerase II is activated in nerve cells, and how this stimulates gene expression, the targeted use of genetic information. Their discoveries contain valuable starting points for further biomedical research.
Engineering students at the University of Bayreuth benefit from a broadly-based research environment with excellent links to industry and small and medium-sized enterprises. They have access to current research projects of great economic-technological relevance at an early stage. At the beginning of their studies, they receive intensive support from researchers and lecturers. For this reason, the University of Bayreuth ranks among the top universities in Germany in the CHE University Ranking 2022 in the field of engineering subjects in the categories "support at the beginning of studies" and "third-party funding per scientist".
Dr. Danilo Di Genova from the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry & Geophysics (BGI) at the University of Bayreuth has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council. His NANOVOLC project will receive funding of around two million euros over the next five years. It investigates magma viscosity, which is of great relevance for assessing hazards that may emerge from active volcanoes around the world.
Polyethylene, a plastic that is both cheap and easy to process, accounts for nearly one-third of the world’s plastic waste. An interdisciplinary team from the University of Bayreuth has investigated the progressive degradation of polyethylene in the environment for the first time. Although the degradation process leads to fragmentation into ever smaller particles, isolated nanoplastic particles are rarely found in the environment. The reason is that such decay products do not like to remain on their own, but rather attach rapidly to larger colloidal systems that occur naturally in the environment. The researchers have now presented their findings in "Science of the Total Environment".
The University of Bayreuth is once again among the top 10 universities in Germany in the subjects of law and economics. In the WirtschaftsWoche University Ranking 2022, it is - as in the previous year - the only smaller university in Germany to achieve a place in the top group in these subjects. The ranking is based on the assessment of HR managers from SMEs and industry, and once again shows that doors on the job market are wide open for Bayreuth graduates.
Stable packets of light waves – called optical solitons – are emitted in ultrashort-pulse lasers as a chain of light flashes. These solitons often combine into pairs with very short temporal separation. Introducing atomic vibrations in the terahertz range, researchers at the Universities of Bayreuth and Wrocław have now solved the puzzle of how these temporal links are formed. They report on their discovery in Nature Communications. The dynamics of the coupled light packets can be used to measure atomic vibrations as characteristic "fingerprints" of materials in an extremely fast manner.
The Bavarian Centre for Battery Technology (BayBatt), a research centre of the University of Bayreuth, is launching into the future at a new location in Bayreuth's industrial north. On four floors with a floor space of around 7,000 square metres, the new building offers plenty of space for researching and developing intelligent, networked, and sustainable energy storage systems – in close cooperation between science and industry. Rooms for teaching events promote the dovetailing of research with innovative courses of study. A ceremonial inauguration is planned for November 2022, to which Minister President Dr Markus Söder is among those invited.
Ditches and small streams at the edge of agricultural land contribute significantly to reducing agricultural pollutants in the water cycle. They promote nitrate reduction by microorganisms and thus have an important influence on nitrogen fluxes towards larger rivers and lakes. A research team led by Prof. Dr. Tillmann Lüders of the University of Bayreuth has now demonstrated this for the first time. The scientists were able to show that the stream water is in intensive exchange with the surrounding groundwater, thus stimulating microbial activities. They present their research in the journal "Water Research".
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