Cardiovascular diseases, including stroke and myocardial infarction, are the world's leading causes of mortality, accounting for over 18 million deaths a year. A team of KIT researchers has now identified a new cell type in blood vessels responsible for vascular growth.
With the Leopoldina Prize for young scientists 2023, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina honors Dr. Jingyuan Xu, who researches novel heating and cooling technologies for the energy transition at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Currently, the young engineer can boast two more significant awards: the Hector RCD Award as well as admission to the Global Young Academy, an exclusive association of international young scientists.
Membranes of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VaCNT) can be used to clean or desalinate water at high flow rate and low pressure. Recently, researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and partners carried out steroid hormone adsorption experiments to study the interplay of forces in the small pores. They found that VaCNT of specific pore geometry and pore surface structure are suited for use as highly selective membranes. The researchers report in Nature Communications. (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-44883-2)
Less exercise, more time spent in front of screens, higher psychological stress, and reduced physical fitness: These alarming results were obtained by various studies focusing on children and adolescents during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and partners all over Germany have developed a new system for X-ray imaging, which is suited for both living specimens and sensitive materials.
Strontium ruthenate is a superconductor that gives rise to a number of questions. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (MPI CPfS), Dresden, have now found that mechanical pressure enhances superconductivity and, at the same time, facilitates deformation of the material.
Professor Thalappil Pradeep from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT) in Chennai is awarded the first “International Excellence Award of KIT” and the “Fellowship of SCHROFF Foundation”.
The CAIRT satellite mission is becoming increasingly likely. The European Space Agency (ESA) has now selected the concept, that was coordinated by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), as one of two remaining candidates for an Earth observation mission. The final decision for implementation will be made in 2025.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest types of cancers in humans. It is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the western world.
Water and UV radiation rapidly and efficiently degrade crosslinked polymers of diaper liners without needing any chemicals – recycled plastic molecules can be used in various ways
Researchers from KIT and HeiGIT find that land use change can increase both food production and carbon storage capacity
On the way towards climate neutrality, Europe will need large amounts of lithium for battery storage systems. So far, however, its share in the worldwide lithium extraction volume has been one percent only.
Climate change increases the need for artificial irrigation of agricultural areas. When water evaporates, however, salts remain in the upper soil layers and increase the plant’s stress.
Therapy of the dangerous infectious disease of tuberculosis faces the challenge of pathogens frequently being resistant to several common antibiotics. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now developed nanoparticles to deliver new antibiotics directly to the lungs in future. Surfactants ensure that the highly fat-soluble antibiotics disperse very finely in water and can be inhaled. First tests at the Research Center Borstel, Leibniz Lung Center, reveal a high effectiveness and good compatibility of the nanocarriers of antibiotics. The researchers report in ACS Nano. (DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c01664)
Whether in drinking water, food or even in the air: plastic is a global problem - and the full extent of this pollution may go beyond of what we know yet. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with partners from the Netherlands and Australia, have reviewed conventional assumptions for the transport of plastic in rivers.
Managers need to make a consistent impression in order to motivate and inspire people, and that applies even more to video communication than to other digital channels. That is the result of a study by researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). They investigated the influence that charismatic leadership tactics used in text, audio and video communication channels have on employee performance. They focused on mobile work and the gig economy, in which jobs are flexibly assigned to freelancers via online platforms. The results of the study have been published in The Leadership Quarterly. (DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2022.101631)
Whether in drinking water, food or even in the air: plastic is a global problem - and the full extent of this pollution may go beyond of what we know yet. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with partners from the Netherlands and Australia, have reviewed conventional assumptions for the transport of plastic in rivers.
Shade, dirt, or aging considerably reduce the yield of large photovoltaic facilities. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and partners from science and industry have now launched the Solar Park 2.0 project to reduce these losses.
Pumping up thermal water, separating lithium, and using it to produce batteries for electric mobility – the idea of lithium as an environmentally compatible and regionally available by-product of geothermal energy plants appears highly promising. However, it has not been clear so far whether domestic lithium extraction is really worthwhile.
Ever shorter product life cycles and volatile markets force companies to produce high-quality products quickly with new, immature processes.
Printing objects from plastic precisely, quickly, and inexpensively is the goal of many 3D printing processes. However, speed and high resolution remain a technological challenge. A research team from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Heidelberg University, and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has come a long way toward achieving this goal. It developed a laser printing process that can print micrometer-sized parts in the blink of an eye. The international team published the work in Nature Photonics. (DOI: 10.1038/s41566-022-01081-0)
A sustainable energy supply requires the expansion of power grids. However, new transmission lines can also lead to grids becoming more unstable rather than more stable, as would be expected. This phenomenon is referred to as the Braess paradox. For the first time, an international team, including researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), has now simulated this phenomenon in detail for power grids, demonstrated it on a larger scale, and developed a prediction tool, which is to support grid operators in decision-making. The researchers report in the journal Nature Communications. (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32917-6)
Within the KEROGREEN Project, Researchers Developed an Innovative Production Process for Sustainable Aviation Fuel and Built a Research Facility
Synthetic fuels produced from renewable sources, so-called refuels, are deemed potential game changers in fighting climate change. Refuels promise to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90% compared to conventional fuels and they allow for the continued use of existing vehicle fleets with combustion engines and of the refueling infrastructure, from fuel production to transport to sales. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) carried out extensive fleet tests in a large-scale project with industry partners and proved that refuels can be used in all vehicles and produced in large quantities in the foreseeable future. The results of the research project “reFuels – Rethinking Fuels” were presented on Monday, September 19, in Karlsruhe.
The ideal crop plant is tasty and high-yielding while also being resistant to diseases and pests. But if the relevant genes are far apart on a chromosome, some of these positive traits can be lost during breeding. To ensure that positive traits can be passed on together, researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have used CRISPR/Cas molecular scissors to invert and thus genetically deactivate nine-tenths of a chromosome. The traits coded for on this part of the chromosome become “invisible” for genetic exchange and can thus be passed on unchanged. The researchers have reported on their findings in Nature Plants (DOI: 10.1038/s41477-022-01238-3).
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is largely involved in a new battery recycling project. LiBinfinity focuses on a holistic concept for recycling materials of lithium-ion batteries. A mechanico-hydrometallurgical process without energy-intensive process steps will be transferred from the lab to an industry-relevant scale. KIT will then check whether the recycled materials are suited for the manufacture of new batteries. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) funds LiBinfinity with nearly EUR 17 million. Of these, about 1.2 million euros go to KIT.
Managers need to make a consistent impression in order to motivate and inspire people, and that applies even more to video communication than to other digital channels. That is the result of a study by researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
There are two levels of reference for the elementary question of an appropriate remuneration of work: the markets with their structure of supply, demand, and productivity as well as the needs of the employees. Operationally decisive, however, is also what managers are guided by when assessing wages. A study recently published in PLOS ONE by researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) provides new insights into this issue.
Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease are caused by folding errors (misfolding) in proteins or peptides, i.e. by changes in their spatial structure. This is the result of minute deviations in the chemical composition of the biomolecules. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a simple and effective method for detecting such misfolding at an early stage of the disease. Misfolding is revealed by the structure of dried residue from protein and peptide solutions.
Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a prototype for fully scalable all-perovskite tandem solar modules. These modules have an efficiency of up to 19.1 percent with an aperture area of 12.25 square centimeters. This result, the first of its kind reported worldwide, was made possible by improving efficiency with optimized light paths, high-throughput laser scribing, and the use of established industrial coating methods. The researchers present their results in the journal Nature Energy. (DOI: 10.1038/s41560-022-01059-w)
Factory farming for meat production is harmful to the environment. In addition to its direct emissions of methane, its use of liquid manure releases climate-damaging nitrogen compounds such as ammonia and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere and pollutes the groundwater with nitrates. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have analyzed how the liquid manure produced by livestock farming, which is often used as fertilizer, affects its nitrogen footprint. They showed that the nitrogen pollution caused by liquid manure from the production of beef is three times higher than that for pork and eight times higher than that for poultry
Harmful fungi cause enormous agricultural losses. Conventional techniques for combating them involve the use of poisonous fungicides. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), working with partners from Germany, France, and Switzerland on the DialogProTec project, have developed environmentally safe alternatives that trick the pathogens’ chemical communication with plants. Now that the research has been completed, the new technology is ready for use.
Electric drives, batteries, hydrogen technology, autonomous vehicles: the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the industrial supplier Schaeffler have been cooperating on pioneering mobility solutions for many years. Now a strategic partnership aims to strengthen their efforts to develop and deploy new technologies and ideas; the partners signed an agreement in Karlsruhe on July 4, 2022.
Wood as a building material has deep roots in the cultural memory of many regions. A study by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) now shows how much future building with wood opens up. Considering the cultural, technical, and design aspects of building with wood, the study examines how timber construction can make a comeback in cities. Its proposition is that more color is the key to greater acceptance. The reference project for the study is “Vinzent,” a residential and office building with colorful, planted wooden façades in Munich’s Neuhausen district.
In the HyPERiON CRC coordinated by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), researchers from KIT and the universities of Kaiserslautern, Konstanz and Stuttgart are jointly developing technology for compact high-performance magnetic resonance units. In the future, the devices could be used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, in medical practices or at border checkpoints. The German Research Foundation is funding the interdisciplinary group with more than 10.6 million euros for four years starting on July 1, 2022.
Locally available, emission-free and baseload-capable: geothermal energy is an essential component of the energy transition. With GeoLaB, a new and unique underground research infrastructure, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) are looking to expedite research and prepare the technology for broad application. The facility is to be built in the Black Forest or the Odenwald range, with the Helmholtz Association providing 35 million euros in funding.
Stacking solar cells increases their efficiency. Working with partners in the EU-funded PERCISTAND project, researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have produced perovskite/CIS tandem solar cells with an efficiency of nearly 25 percent – the highest value achieved thus far with this technology. Moreover, this combination of materials is light and versatile, making it possible to envision the use of these tandem solar cells in vehicles, portable equipment, and devices that can be folded or rolled up. The researchers present their results in the journal ACS Energy Letters (DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.2c00707)
Were Earth’s oceans completely covered by ice during the Cryogenian period, about 700 million years ago, or was there an ice-free belt of open water around the equator where sponges and other forms of life could survive? Using global climate models, a team of researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Vienna has shown that a climate allowing a waterbelt is unlikely and thus cannot reliably explain the survival of life during the Cryogenian. The reason is the uncertain impact of clouds on the epoch’s climate. The team has presented the results of its study in the journal Nature Geoscience (DOI: 10.1038/s41561-022-00950-1).
Strong precipitation or extreme drought – the frequency of extreme weather events is increasing worldwide. Existing climate models, however, do not adequately show their dynamics. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) assume that ultrafine particles in the atmosphere have a significant impact on cloud physics and, hence, on weather. Their aircraft measurements confirm an increase in particle number emissions in spite of a decreasing coarse fine dust concentration and blame it to the combustion of fossil fuels in exhaust gas cleaning systems. Their results can be found in Scientific Reports: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11500-5
Being mobile individually, at any time – without owning a car. To facilitate this, public transportation authorities cooperate with service providers for new forms of mobility such as bicycle sharing, car sharing, or ridepooling.
Climate forecasts and risk prevention, data security and artificial intelligence, energy transition and circular economy: These are the topics of the innovations presented by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) at Hannover Messe 2022 from May 30 to June 2. The exhibits and presentations at the two main booths in the "Future Hub" (Hall 2, Booth B40) and at "Energy Solutions" (Hall 13, Booth D62) show how digitality and sustainability are considered in one context by the KIT researchers. The KIT will also present current mobility research projects at the Baden-Württemberg International booth (Hall 12, Booth D15).
Double success for KIT: In its 2021 awarding round, the European Research Council (ERC) has decided to award an Advanced Grant each to computer scientist Mehdi Tahoori and physicist Alexey Ustinov. For their research projects in the areas of technical informatics and quantum physics, the renowned scientists will receive funding in the amount of about 2.5 million and 2.7 million euros, respectively, over the next five years.
Micropollutants in water often are hormones that accumulate in the environment and may have negative impacts on humans and animals. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM) in Leipzig have now developed a process for the photocatalytic degradation of these pollutants when they flow through polymer membranes. It is presented in Nature Nanotechnology. Irradiation with light triggers a chemical reaction, as a result of which steroid hormones are degraded on the membranes coated with titanium dioxide. (DOI: 10.1038/s41565-022-01074-8)
2022_027_Datensicherheit_Mehr Privatsphaere auf dem Smartphone_1_72dpiSECUSO, KIT Weather forecasts or games also work when the principle of data minimization is observed, an example being PFAs. (Photo: SECUSO, KIT) Privacy on the smartphone is possible, as is shown by the Privacy Friendly Apps (PFAs) for Android: Together with students, the SECUSO research group of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has developed more than 30 apps for Android phones. They request authorizations required for functioning only and do not contain any tracking mechanisms. For these PFAs, SECUSO has now been granted the first Digital Autonomy Award by the Digital Autonomy Hub that is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
On Liberty of 1859 is one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. John Stuart Mill repeatedly declared it to be joint work with his wife. Yet, the philosophical canon still credits it to him alone. A computer-assisted study of researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) now reveals that with a high degree of certainty On Liberty was not solely written by him. Long passages were texted either by Harriet Taylor Mill or by both together. The researchers report in Utilitas. (DOI: 10.1017/S0953820821000339)
With the help of the CRISPR/Cas molecular scissors, genetic information in a plant can be modified to make the latter more robust to pests, diseases, or extreme climatic conditions. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now developed this method further to eliminate the complete DNA of specific cell types and, thus, prevent their formation during plant development. This will also help to better understand development mechanisms in plants. The findings are presented in Nature Communications. (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29130-w)
Better protection of humans and the environment requires precise forecasts of extreme weather phenomena, such as winter storms. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now compared methods of statistics and machine learning for forecasts of wind gusts with a view to make the forecasts more accurate and reliable. They found that taking into account geographical information and additional meteorological variables, such as temperature, significantly improves the forecast quality, in particular when using modern AI methods based on neural networks.
Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) were very successful in the 2021 competition for the renowned Consolidator Grants of the European Research Council. For their projects on hydrogen embrittlement, ion dynamics, and digital art, materials researcher Christoph Kirchlechner, physical chemist Lars Heinke, and art historian Inge Hinterwaldner, respectively, will receive up to EUR 2 million each for the next five years.
When used as biocatalysts, enzymes accelerate many chemical reactions. At Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), researchers have now embedded enzymes in metal-organic cages (MOFs). For the first time, they then demonstrated that stabilization by these frameworks is sufficient for use of the enzymes in a continuous reactor. Moreover, the enzymes embedded in the MOFs cannot only be used in aqueous, but also in organic solvents. The researchers report in the journal Angewandte Chemie (DOI: 10.1002/anie.202117144).
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right
