20 Current news of LMU
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09-07-2012
Fluorine is the most reactive chemical element. That is why it is not found in nature in its elemental form, but only in compounds, such as fluorite – that was the accepted scientific doctrine so far. A special fluorite, the “fetid fluorite” or “antozonite”, has been the subject of many ...
18-06-2012
The continuing trend toward miniaturization in electronics demands the use of new materials. Components made of carbon nanotubes may meet this need – and the properties of single nanotube devices can now be characterized with the required resolution. Given the demand for further ...
Gold nanoparticles detect tiny acoustic vibrations
20-01-2012
How noisy is a walking flea? What sorts of sound waves are caused by motile bacteria? Physicists at the Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM) have managed for the first time to detect sound waves at such minuscule length scales. Their nanoear is a single gold nanoparticle that is kept in a ...
White laser pulses with precisely tailored waveform enable the control of electrons in the microcosm
12-09-2011
An expedition through the fast-paced microscopic world of atoms reveals electrons that spin around at enormous speeds and have gigantic forces are acting on them. Monitoring the ultrafast motion of these electrons requires ultrashort flashes of light. However, in order to control them, the ...
17-03-2011
Physicists of the Laboratory of Attosecond Physics at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics succeeded in the first real-time observation of laser produced electron plasma waves and electron bunches accelerated by them. Flocking behavior does not only exist among birds, insects or ...
In search of a new theory of photosynthetic energy transfer
10-12-2010
Photosynthesis, the formation of energy-rich chemical compounds with the aid of sunlight, is fundamental to life on Earth. In plants, sunlight is collected by so-called antennal complexes, consisting of proteins bound to the green pigment chlorophyll. The chlorophyll captures the light energy ...
06-10-2010
For the first time, baseclick GmbH, a start-up company spun off from BASF SE and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, is making its newly developed process for labeling nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) available to customers. The company recently signed licensing agreements for this technology ...
Mapping the structure of protonated water clusters
26-08-2010
Water molecules are continuously forming short-lived networks called clusters. These can in turn bind positively charged protons, and such clusters can provide active functional groups in proteins. Using infrared spectroscopy, it is possible to determine the bond strengths, geometrical ...
09-08-2010
For the first time ever, physicists from the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics (LAP) at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have observed what occurs inside an atom from which a single electron has been ejected. An international team from the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics, led by ...
International team of researchers observes unexpectedly small proton radius in a precision laser experiment with exotic hydrogen atoms
12-07-2010
The proton - one of the universal building-blocks of all matter - is even smaller than had previously been assumed. This is the result obtained at the Paul-Scherrer-Institut (PSI) in Villigen (Switzerland) by an international research team, including scientists from the Max Planck Institute ...
