Smartphone App Helps Tackle Fear of Spiders Using Augmented Reality
Researchers from the University of Basel have developed an augmented reality app for smartphones in order to help people reduce their fear of spiders. The…
University of Basel
More Sustainable Conversion of Sunlight and Luminescent Materials With Manganese
University of Basel researchers have reached an important milestone in their quest to produce more sustainable luminescent materials and catalysts for converting sunlight into other…
Ultrathin Semiconductors Equipped With Superconducting Contacts for the First Time
For the first time, University of Basel researchers have equipped an ultrathin semiconductor with superconducting contacts. These extremely thin materials with novel electronic and optical…
Regular Caffeine Consumption – From Coffee, Cola, or Energy Drinks – Affects Brain Structure
Coffee, cola or an energy drink: caffeine is the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive substance. Researchers from the University of Basel have now shown in…
Environmental Scientists Want to Extract Carbon-Neutral “Biofuel” From Lakes
Lakes could be suitable for the extraction of methane for energy production. Lakes store huge amounts of methane. In a new study, environmental scientists at…
Spooky Quantum Steering at a Distance for More Precise Measurements
Quantum systems consisting of several particles can be used to measure magnetic or electric fields more precisely. A young physicist at the University of Basel…
Global Warming: Alpine Plants Are Losing Their White “Protective Coat”
Snow cover in the Alps has been melting almost three days earlier per decade since the 1960s. This trend is temperature-related and cannot be compensated…
Researchers Discover Molecular Mechanism of Long-Term Memory
Researchers at the University of Basel have discovered a molecular mechanism that plays a central role in intact long-term memory. This mechanism is also involved…
Record-Breaking Source for Single Photons Developed That Can Produce Billions of Quantum Particles per Second
Researchers at the University of Basel and Ruhr University Bochum have developed a source of single photons that can produce billions of these quantum particles…
How to Mitigate the Impact of a COVID Lockdown on Mental Health
The Covid-19 pandemic is impacting people’s mental health. But what helps and hinders people in getting through a lockdown? A new study led by researchers…
Arachnauts: NASA Sends Spiders to Space for Experimentation – Here’s What They Found
Humans have taken spiders into space more than once to study the importance of gravity to their web-building. What originally began as a somewhat unsuccessful…
The New SQUID: A Tiny Instrument to Measure the Faintest Magnetic Fields
David Indolese, a Physicist at the University of Basel, shortly explains the new SQUID – a minuscule instrument able to detect extremely faint magnetic fields….
Spintronics Breakthrough: Efficient Valves for Electron Spins
Researchers at the University of Basel in collaboration with colleagues from Pisa have developed a new concept that uses the electron spin to switch an…
Semiconducting Graphene Ribbons Developed for Electronics and Quantum Computing
A team of physicists and chemists has produced the first porous graphene ribbons in which specific carbon atoms in the crystal lattice are replaced with…
Laser Loop Acts as a Mechanical Spring to Couple Quantum Systems Over a Distance
Quantum technology is currently one of the most active fields of research worldwide. It takes advantage of the special properties of quantum mechanical states of…
Faster Electrons From Flatter Graphene
Bumps on a road slow down our pace, so do corrugations in graphene to traveling electrons. By flattening the corrugations out, we help electrons move…
Corrugated Structure of 2D Material Silicene Precisely Measured
Silicene consists of a single layer of silicon atoms. In contrast to the ultra-flat material graphene, which is made of carbon, silicene shows surface irregularities…
New Strategy for the Synthesis of Complex Natural Products
Chemists from the University of Basel have succeeded in synthesizing two complex natural products from the group of dithiodiketopiperazines (DTPs). For this, they employed a…