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By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

Quantum mechanics prohibits any quantum system from achieving a temperature that is equal to absolute zero. However, using Laser cooling, which is a highly efficient spectroscopic technique, atomic samples could be cooled to near absolute zero thus bringing them to their lowest achievable quantum energy state. Scientists have been advancing this technique for decades now and an important question that arose recently is whether carbon molecules, which are an integral component of life on earth, could be laser-cooled.

The right temperature ensures the success of technical processes, the quality of food and medicines, or affects the lifetime of electronic components and batteries. Temperature indicators enable to detect (un)desired temperature exposures and irreversibly record them by changing their signal for a readout at any later time.

Of particular interest are small-sized temperature indicators that can be easily integrated into any arbitrary object and subsequently monitor the objects’ temperature history autonomously, i.e. without power supply. Accordingly, the indicators’ signal readout permits to verify successful bonding processes, to uncover temperature peaks in global supply chains, or to localize hot spots in electronic devices.

Prof. Dr. Karl Mandel (Professorship for Inorganic Chemistry) and his research group have succeeded in developing a new type of temperature indicator in the form of a micrometer-sized particle, which differs from previously established, mostly optical indicators mainly due to its innovative magnetic readout method. The results of the research work have now been published in the journal Advanced Materials (“Recording Temperature with Magnetic Supraparticles”).

NASA director Bill Nelson warned that China’s space program was primarily established to be used as an extension of its military rather than for peaceful or scientific purposes.

By Trevor Filseth L

China’s Foreign Ministry issued a condemnation on Monday of reports from the United States that Beijing intends to pursue exclusive control over the Moon in the future, accusing administrators within the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of ignoring facts and speaking “irresponsibly” about China’s space program.

A group of scientists has developed an entirely new approach to treating eating disorders.

They showed that a group of nerve cells (so-called AgRP, agouti-related peptide neurons) in the hypothalamus control the release of endogenous lysophospholipids, which in turn control the excitability of nerve cells in the cerebral cortex, which stimulates food intake.

In this process, the crucial step of the signaling pathway is controlled by autotaxin, an enzyme that is responsible for the production of lysophosphatidic acid.