It’s been done already often enough. Harnessing the power of the sea to generate energy. Yet these mainly concern tidal power stations. Where there is also the risk that they may have a negative impact on marine life. The German startup Sinn Power has come up with a totally new concept....
How do self-driving cars handle potholes on the road? As just stay driving ahead or spontaneously around them aren’t an option. You have to take the bull by the horns, that’s what the founders of vialytics were thinking. They designed a system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to...
Have you always wanted to write a pop music classic? Good news! Prof. Dr. Stefan Kölsch and PhD student Vincent Ka Ming Cheung from the Max-Planck-Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig have decoded part of successful music’s DNA. Songs like James Taylor’s Country Road,...
The worst thing a person with osteoarthritis can do to their joints is place too heavy a load on them. Excessive joint load often results in too much strain on the joints and weeks of pain. On the other hand, however, completely relieving those joints is not helpful either. That’s according...
After Greta Thunberg made her sustainable trip across the Atlantic with the Malizia II racing yacht as an alternative to flying, the carbon hull of the yacht was much discussed all over the world because this material anything but sustainable. However, it is still the safest and best choice for...
A hacker attack on autonomous vehicles could be catastrophic. A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) and the University of Tübingen has now demonstrated that a simple patch of color could completely disrupt autopilots. And this splotch of color could be...
Gone are the days of boring screen displays – now we are all sitting up and paying attention. The Munich-based start-up Apicbeam, a spin-off from TUM, has designed a holographic technology that helps bring collective ideas midair to the fore digitally. As a result, every user sees things...
Whether with a pram or in a wheelchair – anyone who travels in snow with small wheels has a hard time. Moving around becomes an immense effort. Patrick Mayer demonstrates how ingeniously this problem can be solved. The former snowboard professional was himself bound to a wheelchair for a...
Apart from climate change deniers, no one else is indifferent as to where climate change is heading. Experts and a growing number of citizens agree that it is high time we stopped climate change. Recently, the German federal government announced a climate package aimed at achieving Germany’s...
Scientists surrounding Prof. Gordon Cheng from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) recently gave the robot H-1 a biologically inspired artificial skin. With this skin, (which is the largest organ in humans by the way), the digital being will now be able to feel its body and its environment...
Hand on your heart, dear reader: how thorough are you when you wash your hands? Do you take 20-30 seconds to do it? By the way, that’s as long as it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice … And do you use enough soap? Do you really clean your whole hands? Do you dry your...
Gone are the days when artificial climbing walls were turned into towering peaks. As from now, there are revolving climbing routes. Your advantage: thanks to the sensor, the climber will always be provided with another type of grip. The flexibility of the vertical treadmills also makes them...
Everyone is familiar with it: how at some point the battery in your smartphone loses power and needs to be replaced faster than the device itself. This is now a thing of the past with the batteries from the start-up High Performance Battery. Founders Prof. Günter Hambitzer, Sebastian Heinz and...
Long waiting periods for lab results could soon be over. An interdisciplinary research team led by Wolfgang Ensinger, Professor of Materials Science, and Helmut Schlaak, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, both of TU Darmstadt, are now working with Ivana Duznovic,...
Geothermal energy is considered to be regenerative energy. Its advantages: The heat stored in the earth can be used for heating and cooling and also to generate electricity. Scientists at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the Consejo Superior...
“Please hold, you are next in line …” – who is not familiar with this irritating announcement, which – according to statistics – makes us spend almost 43 days of our lives on hold? With the help of e-bot7, lengthy customer service will in future be a thing of...
The dream of many children could come true thanks to this writing trainer: in the future, a smart pen will point out and help children correct spelling mistakes while they are writing, instead of them having to look these up. At least this is one of the research goals of Julia Knopf, Professor of...
Whereas other plants (such as grapes) respond swiftly to changes in climate, alpine plants seems to take their time to adapt. It is true that they are gradually creeping upwards so as to avoid earlier rising temperatures. But according to a study carried out by ecologists at the University of...
As of September 19, 2019, the busy Berliner Straße des 17. Juni has become a 3.6-kilometer test circuit for automated and network-enabled transport. The digital infrastructure required for this was developed by TU Berlin. For the first time ever, autonomous driving can now be researched and...
An international team from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and the Aachen Graphene & 2D Materials Centers recently developed the world’s smallest accelerometer. This might prove to be a sensational breakthrough in sensor and navigation technology. The team used the...
Conventional brake discs are made of cast iron containing graphite. They do have some advantages. These include good thermal conductivity and a very good capacity to store heat. They are also reasonably inexpensive. But their disadvantage is that they are prone to severe corrosion and excessive...
How does a vintner know that the grapes are ripe? By the traditional method, they taste the grapes themselves. Like this: put the grape in your mouth, bite into it, let the juice run out and in doing so determine the sugar and alcohol content. And it is precisely the latter that could become an...
Fresh flowers are really a wonderful way to decorate. And of course there are always occasions when you can express your thanks with a gorgeous bouquet. For those who want to be sustainable, it is best to buy flowers with the FLP label or a box of roses. The latter are packaged at the time of...
The International Motor Show (IAA) will take place in Frankfurt from the 12th to the 22nd of September. Most of it will revolve around the mobility of the future. In addition to the range of self-charging electric vehicles, Fraunhofer ISE is now also bringing the subject of optics into play: the...
Nowadays, hardly any of us can work without digital media any more. After all, smartphones, laptops and co offer the option of being able to access a large volume of information at will. Needless to say, we are also able to act promptly. But that’s exactly where the crux of the matter lies:...