News from the Physics Department

Science is exciting! These pages keep you up to date on what is happening at the Physics Department: scientists report on research and campus life.

The virus trap

2021-07-15 – To date, there are no effective antidotes against most virus infections. An interdisciplinary research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now developed a new approach: they engulf and neutralize viruses with nano-capsules tailored from genetic material using the DNA origami method. The strategy has already been tested against hepatitis and adeno-associated viruses in cell cultures. It may also prove successful against corona viruses.

Mechanical stimuli influence organ growth

2021-07-13 – In addition to chemical factors, mechanical influences play an important role in the natural growth of human organs such as kidneys, lungs and mammary glands – but also in the development of tumors. Now a research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has investigated the process in detail using organoids, three-dimensional model systems of such organs which are produced in the laboratory.

Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon for Volker Schönfelder

2021-06-24 – On 21 June 2021, the Bavarian State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, Roland Weigert, awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon to Professor Dr Volker Schönfelder, former head of the Gamma Astronomy Group at MPE from 1982 to 2004 and professor at the Physics Department.

New light on making two-dimensional polymers

2021-06-11 – An international research team led by members from the Technical University of Munich, the Deutsches Museum, the Linköping University has developed a method to manufacture two-dimensional polymers with the thickness of a single molecule. The polymers are formed on a surface by the action of light. The discovery paves the way to new ultrathin and functional materials.

Borexino team receives prestigious Cocconi award

2021-06-01 – For their groundbreaking observations of solar neutrinos, with which the fusion reactions inside the sun could be experimentally proofed for the first time, the team of the Borexino collaboration receives the prestigious Giuseppe and Vanna Cocconi Prize. Every two years, the European Physical Society awards it to an outstanding discovery in astro-particle physics and cosmology of the past 15 years.

Making the gray cells happy

2021-05-21 – Depressive disorders are among the most frequent illnesses worldwide. The causes are complex and to date only partially understood. The trace element lithium appears to play a role. Using neutrons of the research neutron source at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), a research team has now proved that the distribution of lithium in the brains of depressive people is different from the distribution found in healthy humans.

Prof. Karen Alim receives international research award

2021-04-29 – Karen Alim, Professor on Theory of Biological Networks at the Technical University of Munich, together with a team of international scientists receives a prestigious research grant from the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), a global program to promote excellent research in the life sciences. The grant is endowed with 1 Mio Dollar for three years.

Windows that generate electricity

2021-03-15 – Electricity from windowpanes sounds like science fiction at first, but it is an application that is possible with organic solar cells. To better understand the active layer of organic solar cells, a team of scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) studied the dynamic behaviour of the active layer at MLZ.

Contactless high performance power transmission

2021-03-12 – A team led by Technical University of Munich (TUM) physicists Christoph Utschick and Prof. Rudolf Gross has succeeded in making a coil with superconducting wires capable of transmitting power in the range of more than five kilowatts contactless and with only small losses. The wide field of conceivable applications include autonomous industrial robots, medical equipment, vehicles and even aircraft.

IceCube detection of a high-energy particle proves 60-year-old theory

2021-03-10 – For the first time, a resonance at ultra-high energies predicted by the eventual Nobel laureate Sheldon Lee Glashow in 1960 was observed. The scientists of the IceCube collaboration identified a particle shower detected in the IceCube Neutrino Observatory as resulting from an interaction of a cosmic electron anti-neutrino with an atomic electron as a long-sought Glashow resonance. The result was published in Nature.

Kick-off event for the Munich Quantum Valley

2021-03-04 – Quantum computers that solve complex problems faster than any supercomputer, infrastructures for the exchange of ideas and technology transfer in the field of quantum science, as well as excellent training and professional education opportunities - these are some of the core goals that scientists will pursue in the Munich Quantum Valley in the future. Today's kick-off event marks the start of this unique initiative.

A memory without a brain

2021-02-22 – Having a memory of past events enables us to take smarter decisions about the future. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and Technical University of Munich (TUM) identify the basis for forming memories in the slime mold Physarum polycephalum – despite its lack of a nervous system.

Captured lithium

2021-02-10 – In our smartphones, our computers and in our electric cars: We use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries everywhere. But their capacity drops after a while. Now a German-American research team has investigated the structure and functionality of these batteries using neutron diffraction: They discovered that the electrolyte fluid’s decomposition products capture mobile lithium in the battery and that the distribution of lithium within the cell is surprisingly uneven.

Clocking the movement of electrons inside an atom

2021-01-18 – Ultrafast science is pursued at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). An international consortium of scientists, initiated by Reinhard Kienberger, Professor of Laser and X-ray Physics several years ago, has made significant measurements in the femtosecond range at the U.S. Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).

Bavaria consolidates quantum technology strengths

2021-01-11 – Quantum computers that make conventional computers look obsolete, interception-proof communication methods and fundamental elements of quantum technology are just some of the core objectives to be pursued in the future by Munich Quantum Valley scientists. Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder, Ministers Hubert Aiwanger and Bernd Sibler and leading Munich research institutes, including the Technical University of Munich (TUM), have signed a statement of intent to that effect.

Information transport via magnons

2020-12-28 – A team of researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim has discovered an exciting method for controlling spin carried by quantized spin wave excitations in antiferromagnetic insulators.

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