MIT engineers report that they have cooked up a material that is 10 times blacker than anything that has previously been described. The material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, or CNTs — microscopic filaments of carbon, like a fuzzy forest of tiny trees, that the team grew on a surface of chlorine-etched aluminum foil. The foil captures at least 99.995 % of any incoming light, making it the blackest material on record.

High-attrition rates during clinical development of new cancer therapies still persist. A new 3D ex vivo microfluidics platform shall now enhance cancer drug screening and early development process by creating cancer models which predict clinical outcomes with significantly increased reliability.

Food is both a basic need and a valuable asset. In Germany, food manufacturers must meet high requirements in terms of safety and product quality. Read about the important contribution microscopic techniques make in quality control and R&D.

The concept of the new agitated reactor by Ekato is intended for multiphase reactions with liquid, gases and solids.

A French-South African collaboration has develop the first reliable method for sex determination, including among children and cases where DNA is missing or too altered.

Corals are shown to recycle their own waste ammonium using a surprising source of glucose — a finding that reveals more about the relationship between corals and their symbiotic algae.

A study conducted by scientist of the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, proves the viability of recovering viral DNA from ancient samples, and shows the hepatitis B virus has been circulating in Europe for at least 7.000 years.

Bremen and MS — both linked by a tradition extending over many years. No surprise, then, that one of the most outstanding MS technologies in recent history has made its way in the world from there. Where will this journey take us next?

Identifying the source of infection is essential for taking action in outbreaks of Legionnaire's disease. The combination of immunomagnetic separation and flow cytometry delivers precise results in less than two hours and knows virtually no limits to the variety of applications.

Gold nanoparticles can be used in a variety of ways, i.e. as active ingredient carriers in medicine. Although their synthesis is already very successful today, it is difficult to predict how the particles interact with the environment and humans. Scientists are therefore intensively investigating the behaviour of nanoparticles in order to make them more efficient and safer.