Tributes from friends, colleagues, collaborators and students have poured in for South African academic Professor Tania Samantha Douglas, an internationally recognised scholar, biomedical engineer and innovator. She passed away on 20 March 2021.
She was admired by many and consulted broadly for her unique insights, in-depth understanding of South Africa’s higher education environment, and open-mindedness. Always vibrant, she was able to fully engage with issues in an unbiased manner – sharing her well-considered thoughts in a friendly and practical way.
Tania obtained the second highest grade in the country in her final school exams in 1987. She went on to read for a BScEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT). This was followed by an MS in Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Then came a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, and a postdoctoral fellowship in image proces
Using more than 3.4 million citizen scientist observations of 140 different bird species across the continental U.S., researchers found that common bird species avoided areas with excessive noise. In areas where light and noise pollution both occurred, many additional species avoided backyard feeders. Seasonal patterns and variation in the length of night also influenced how species respond to light pollution.
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The movement of electrons can have a significantly greater influence on spintronic effects than previously assumed. This discovery was made by an international team of researchers led by physicists from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). Until now, a calculation of these effects took, above all, the spin of electrons into consideration. The study was published in the journal Physical Review Research and offers a new approach in developing spintronic components.
Many technical devices are based on conventional semiconductor electronics. Charge currents are used to store and process information in these components. However, this electric current generates heat and energy is lost. To get around this problem, spintronics uses a fundamental property of electrons known as spin. This is an intrinsic angular momentum, which can be imagined as a rotational movement of the electron around its own axis, explains Dr Annika Johansson, a physicist at MLU. The spin
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The Research Training Group (RTG) 2670 Beyond Amphiphilicity: Self-organisation of soft matter via multiple noncovalent interactions has begun its work at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). Amphiphilicity, a fundamental ordering principle for molecules, will be the starting point of the future research projects. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) will provide a first round of funding for the project of around 4.5 million euros until 2025.
Oil and water do not mix; no matter how much they are stirred together they always separate. But by adding a few drops of soap to the mixture, the two liquids are suddenly able to mix, explains Professor Dariush Hinderberger from the Institute of Chemistry at MLU and spokesperson for the new RTG. Soap is an amphiphilic substance, in other words, it is soluble in both fat and water.