Digital Tbucket Tank (DTT)

Science tank

Welcome to our “Science Tank” section. In this area of ​​the website, we deal with relevant discoveries from the world of science (physics, mathematics, computer science, medicine and many more) in an interdisciplinary manner. We publish important achievements from around the world with a special focus on the scientific environment in Göttingen. Have fun and stay curious.     

Killing bacteria with lasers. Light copes with antibiotic-resistant pathogens

The world is facing a growing crisis Antibiotic resistance faced. The excessive use of Antibiotics in medicine, the food industry and in cosmetics leads to the occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The penetration of antibiotics into the environment, with concentrations in some rivers exceeding safe levels by 300 times, forces the pathogens to continuously develop antibiotic resistance. Hundreds of bacterial antibiotic resistance genes have even been discovered in the intestines of children. Without new antibiotics or other solutions, the scenario of people dying again from common infections or currently harmless diseases becomes real.

A strategy outside of the chemical repertoire is use physical methods such as ultraviolet light, gamma radiation, or heat. While these methods are effective in inactivating pathogens, they cause severe tissue damage and therefore cannot be used in clinical practice.

It is for this reason that some scientists are interested in this visible light. At low intensity it is gentle on the tissue and at the same time has the ability to inactivate bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. Specialists studying this problem are especially interested in Femtosecond laserthat emit ultrashort light pulses, the duration of which is specified in femtoseconds (1 femtosecond is 1/1 000 000 000 000 000 second).

 Image source: Pixabay / Which

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Bizarre and mysterious patents owned by the US military. Mad, genius or patent troll

The US Navy has a technology to "improve the structure of reality", a compact fusion reactor, an engine that works on the principle of "Inertia mass reduction" works, and many other strange sounding things are patented. The US patent law in the USA allows the application of these so-called "UFO Patents". However, it is claimed that there must have been some prototypes.

At least that is what the website "The War Zone" claims, which is a journalistic investigation of this enigmatic Patent has performed. It has been proven that Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais is behind it. Although his picture is known, journalists write that it is uncertain whether this person really exists. According to Pais, he worked for many different departments in the Navy, including the Naval Warfare Center Aviation Division (NAVAIR / NAWCAD) and the Strategic Systems Programs (SSP). SSP's mission is to provide reliable and affordable strategic solutions for the military. ”Among other things, she is responsible for developing the technology for nuclear submarine missiles of the Trident class.

 Image source: Screenshot Google

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Convolution theory or knot theory in math is not an easy problem? DeepMind does its job quite well

DeepMind based on artificial intelligence and has already helped solve even the most difficult puzzles several times. This time it was about knots mathematicians have been grappling with for many years

The subject of the research was something called a guess, which is an unconfirmed sentence that appears to be correct. Algorithms of the machine learning  have been used before in mathematics to develop such theoretical ideas, but they were not as complex as in this case. The authors of this breakthrough have their success in Nature described.

 Image source: Pixabay / Which

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The biggest launch in history and the most important in 30 years, the James Webb Space Telescope launches today

An Ariane 5 rocket is due to launch between 13.20:13.52 and XNUMX:XNUMX p.m. German time today James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) take off. This will be the largest scientific instrument ever put into space by humans and the most important in the 31 years since the Hubble telescope was launched. Contrary to popular belief, the Webb telescope is not intended to be a replacement for Hubble, but rather a supplement. Scientists from all over the world have great expectations of the observatory, its structure and the NASA the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency are also involved.

The launch of the extraordinary telescope can be seen live on the YouTube channel of NASA be followed.

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Star Trek Today: Alcubierre Warp Metric: Scientists succeed in creating a "warp bubble"

A team of scientists doing research for DARPA accidentally got one "Warp" effect creates a very small object with properties similar to those of the Mexican scientist Miguel Alcubierre in his theoretical work from the 1990s. The "thing" is the result of an experiment with a different purpose carried out by scientists at the Limitless Space Institute.

"When performing analyzes as part of a DARPA-funded project to evaluate the possible structure of energy density in empty Casimir space as predicted by the dynamic model of vacuum," says an im European Physical Journal published article, "a structure was discovered on the micro / nano scale that is negative Energy density distribution signals that comes very close to the requirements of the Alcubierre metric ".

Image source: Pixabay / Which


Star Trek Episode Reference: General / Wrap Drive / Warp Bubble


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Spread of brain tumors explained using principles of fluid physics

Josef Käs from the University of Leipzig and Ingolf Sack from the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin have shown that the spread of Brain tumor cells depends on both their physical and biomechanical properties. According to the researchers, a small change in the elasticity of glioma cells - the most dangerous brain tumor - significantly changes its ability to metastasize.

Sack is a chemist and Käs is a physicist. Both specialize in cancer research, but from different perspectives. Sack studies the mechanical properties of fabrics and has the technology of Magnetic resonance elastography developed a combination of low frequency vibrations and Magnetic resonance. It is used to track the progress of diseases. Käs, on the other hand, works with one optical trap, in which soft miniature objects such as cells can be deformed with the help of lasers to create their elasticity and to investigate deformability.

 Image source: Pixabay / Which

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An optical oscilloscope was developed. Will it make the internet 10 times faster?

At the University of Central Florida became the first optical oscilloscope the world developed. The device could do the Communication technologies revolutionize, from smartphones to the internet. The device developed at UCF measures the electric field of light by converting light oscillations into an electrical signal.

So far, the measurement of the electric field of light due to its enormous Vibration speed a big problem. The most advanced measurement techniques used in electronic and telecommunications equipment allow the measurement of frequencies on the order of gigahertz. This includes the radio and microwave spectrum of the electromagnetic radiation. However, light vibrates at a much higher frequency. So it is possible to put in a lot more information than we do today. However, we do not have the appropriate tools. Current oscilloscopes perform averaged measurements within a light pulse. You cannot distinguish between individual valleys and wave crests. If we could measure individual valleys and mountains, we could encode information into them.

 Image source: Pixabay / Which

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Congratulations to Silent High-Tech Solutions - SOTOS

Digital Think Tank warmly congratulates the StartUp Silent Ht Solutions under the leadership of PD Dr. Martin Friedrich for the third prize in the “Starter Prize 2021”! We wish you continued success with the innovative product. For those who want to see a short sketch of the project, here is a video:.

Enjoy! 

Click here for the video

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Gravitational waves can help explain the asymmetry between matter and antimatter

People, earth or stars came into being because more in the first second of the universe's existence matter and Antimatter was produced. This asymmetry was extremely small. For every 10 billion particles of antimatter there are 10 billion + 1 particles of matter. This minimal imbalance led to the creation of the material universe, a phenomenon that modern physics cannot explain.

Because from the theory it follows that exactly the same number of matter and antimatter particles must have arisen. A group of theoretical Physiker has determined that it cannot be ruled out that we are able to produce non-optical solitons - Q-balls - to discover, and that their discovery would enable us to answer the question of why more matter than antimatter arose after the Big Bang.

Physicists currently assume that the asymmetry of matter and Antimatter formed in the first second after the Big Bang and that the emerging universe rapidly increased in size during this time. However, verifying the theory of cosmological inflation is extremely difficult. To test them, we would have to have huge ones particle Accelerator and supply them with more energy than we can generate.

 Image source: Pixabay / Which

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Molecular light transformer: seeing what you couldn't see before

Researchers from several European universities and the Chinese Wuhan Institute of Technology have developed a new method to detect light in the deep infrared range by using it frequency convert into that of visible light. The device can see the "field of view" of sensitive detectors for visible light up into the Infrared range expand. The discovery, described as groundbreaking, was made in the magazine Science published.

The Frequency changeover is not an easy task. Because of the Conservation of energy the frequency of light is a fundamental property that cannot easily be changed by reflecting light off a surface or directing it through a material. At lower frequencies, the energy transported by light is insufficient to generate the Photoreceptors to activate in our eyes and in many sensors, which is a problem, since a lot takes place in the frequency range below 100 THz, ie in the mid and far infrared. For example, a body with a surface temperature of 20 ° C emits infrared light with frequencies of up to 10 THz, which can be "seen" with the help of thermal imaging. In addition, chemical and biological substances have pronounced absorption bands in the mid-infrared range, which means that we can use them with the help of the infraredspectroscopy identify non-destructively.

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Don't galaxies need dark matter? Growing gap between theory and observation

An international team of researchers led by scientists from the Netherlands reports that they are in the Galaxy AGC 114905 found no traces of dark matter. It is now widely accepted that galaxies can only exist thanks to dark matter, the interaction of which holds them together.

Two years ago, Pavel Mancera Piña and his team from the University of Groningen reported that they had found six galaxies with little or no dark matter. At that time they were told by their colleagues that they had better look, then they would find out that they had to be there. Now, after 40 hours of observation with the Very Large Array (VLA), the scientists confirmed what they had previously established - the existence of galaxies without dark matter.

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