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Study shows: "Switching to a new battery technology does not automatically open the door to new market players" Batteries are considered a key technology for the global energy and mobility transition. In addition to established lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries are becoming increasingly important, primarily due to their cost advantages and independence from scarce raw materials such as lithium or cobalt.

Chemists synthesise high-tensile ring molecules through photocatalysis / Components for drug development When developing new drugs, one thing is particularly important: finding and producing the right molecules that can be used as active ingredients. The key elements of some drugs, such as penicillin, are small, trior quadripartite ring molecules.

Salt stress stimulates restructuring programme inside plant cells The increasing content of sodium salts in the soil in many places is a problem for feeding the world's population: many plants thrive less well or not at all'on such soils.

Parasitic plants activate feeding organs before they attach to a host / Possible new approach to weed control Parasitic weeds extract water and nutrients from their host plants. But what makes these parasites so successful? A team led by Prof Susann Wicke from the Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity at the University of Münster has now investigated how certain parasitic plants develop their feeding organs (haustoria), which they use to attach themselves to the roots of other plants and extract nutrients from them.

High-pressure and -temperature X-ray diffraction experiments indicate that seismic anomalies in the Earth's core could be due to chemical layering An international research team may have found an explanation for seismic anomalies, i.e., noticeable deviations in the behaviour of earthquake waves, in the Earth's inner core.

Study demonstrates for the first time the effectiveness of adjunctive digital training during inpatient treatment A brief smartphone-based training programme completed by patients with depression alongside their inpatient treatment can lead to long-term reduction in depressive symptoms. This is the finding of a study conducted by psychologists at the University of Münster.

Initial analysis results for the Kindberg chondrite from Austria are now available Five years ago, on 19 November 2020, a meteoroid brightened the sky over parts of Germany, Austria and Italy. The European Fireball Network was quickly able to located the impact site. However, it was not until the summer of 2021 that a 233-gram fragment was found near Kindberg in Styria, Austria.

Hidden genetic variations: biologist Joachim Kurtz talks about a special mechanism of evolution Since the discoveries made by the British naturalist Charles Darwin, one thing is clear: inherited differences between individuals are a decisive condition for evolutionary adaptation in organisms. Via the formation of proteins, they lead to different characteristics.

Combination of fluorescence microscopy and mass spectrometry reveals metabolic differences in tumours Diagnosing cancer and selecting the appropriate therapy depend crucially on how well experts understand the processes in tumours at the microscopic level. Central to this is understanding how cells in tissues communicate and what chemical signals are involved.

Interdisciplinary team develops "Linked-Lives" model for exploring individuality in social contexts / Publication in Nature Human Behaviour Why do individuals - both humans and animals - differ so greatly in how they interact with others? How do social experiences shape these differences? And what consequences do variations in social behaviour have for individuals and communities? An interdisciplinary research team led by psychologists Dr Niclas

Lukas Röseler on the importance and acceptance of replication studies in science The verification of research results by means of replication studies is decisive for safeguarding the reliability of science. However, such replication studies have not so far attracted a great deal of attention from researchers.

University of Münster researchers develop advanced sensitivity technology in search for dark matter XENONnT experiment in Italy can detect particle interactions with nearly no interference In their search for dark matter, scientists from the XENON Collaboration are using one of the world's most sensitive dark matter detectors, XENONnT at the Gran Sasso Laboratory of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics INFN in Italy, to detect extremely rare particle interactions.

New findings from Münster enable personalised decision-making before treatment begins Treatment with interferon or with glatiramer acetate? This question arises for many patients who receive a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) for the first time. Until now, the choice between the two could practically be made at random: both preparations are considered established basic therapies, both have relatively low side effects and both are relatively well tolerated.

Lithium-ion batteries are of central importance in electromobility and energy storage. Recycling is an important step in closing their value chain. But what are the costs involved? A team from the Institute of Business Management in the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Münster has investigated this in a recent study.

A research team has compared different approaches to utilizing end-of-life electric vehicle batteries, using California as a case study When electric vehicle (EV) batteries reach the end of their service life, they can be recycled to recover valuable raw materials for the production of new batteries.

New method enables large networks capable of processing the information of tomorrow The rapid rise in AI applications has placed increasingly heavy demands on our energy infrastructure. All the more reason to find energy-saving solutions for AI hardware. One promising idea is the use of so-called spin waves to process information.

International research team analyses the genetic basis of ant evolution The existence of ant colonies was a mystery even to the famous naturalist Charles Darwin. How could evolution produce workers that cannot reproduce? Darwin assumed that workers increase the reproductive success of their queen, thereby explaining the so-called reproductive division of labour: males provide sperm, which the queens store and use to fertilise eggs throughout their lives.

Laboratory experiments: Chlorine shapes the chemistry of the earth-facing side of the moon - new clues about formation How many halogens, that is volatile elements such as chlorine and fluorine, are present on the Moon and how they are distributed provides vital insights into the origin and evolution of our celestial companion - for instance, how the lunar crust formed and how it chemically changed over time.

University of Münster is involved in the new "Center for Molecular Water Science Water is not only essential for life, it is also a fascinating and complex molecule that forms the basis of all life on earth. In the new "Centre for Molecular Water Science", a European research network, scientists are investigating the molecular properties of water and its compounds.

Chemists at the University of Münster have successfully substituted carbon atoms with nitrogen atoms in pharmaceutical components / New possibilities for drug design Skeletal editing is a modern approach to chemical synthesis. By making precise alterations at the atomic level, researchers are able to directly convert existing drug scaffolds into new, biologically relevant compounds.