Over three days, leading researchers will discuss the development and application of scientific models in an increasingly interconnected research environment. The upcoming conference, ‘Building Models of Change: Bridging Sciences and Humanities’ comes in, is bringing together leading researchers from diverse disciplines from 12 until 14 March at Bielefeld University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF). 

A team of researchers from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) has developed an innovative technique that allows the production of regular oil lenses of uniform size on the surface of water in a simple and reproducible fashion. The technique will facilitate the study of the behaviour of oily substances dispersed on water surfaces. This discovery is crucial for understanding the dispersion of some liquids floating on water and could have many applications in oil spill mitigation, food and textile industries.

The microalga Nannochloropsis oceanica holds potential as a valuable source of sustainably produced nutrients such as protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin K2. A new study from DTU shows that cultivation conditions, particularly temperature and light, play a significant role in the yield.

A research group at Umeå University has developed new advanced light-controlled tools that enable precise control of proteins in real time in living cells. This groundbreaking research opens doors to new methods for studying complex processes in cells and could pave the way for significant advances in medicine and synthetic biology.

The electronics of the future can be made even smaller and more efficient by getting more memory cells to fit in less space. One way to achieve this is by adding the noble gas xenon when manufacturing digital memories. This has been demonstrated by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, in a study published in Nature Communications. This technology enables a more even material coating even in small cavities. 

By using optically active liquid crystals as reaction sites, researchers at University of Tsukuba have successfully achieved the living polymerization of polymers with aligned helical structures. In this process, optically inactive monomers adopt the chiral (mirror-image) structure in liquid crystals as they grow, resulting in optically active polymers. This breakthrough represents a pioneering achievement in both asymmetric chemistry and polymer chemistry.

NIST scientists have developed a new method for measuring temperature extremely accurately by using giant “Rydberg” atoms. This atomic thermometer provides accurate measurements “out of the box,” without needing initial factory adjustments, because it relies on the basic principles of quantum physics. By using Rydberg atoms’ sensitivity to environmental changes, this technique could simplify temperature sensing in extreme environments, from space to high-precision industries.