Significant amounts of antibiotic residues and pathogens enter the environment via our wastewater. A German Italian team of researchers has now investigated a novel nanomaterial that has an antibacterial effect and can bind antibiotics at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum. Wastewater could thus be treated more effectively and safely.

Depressive disorders are among the most frequent illnesses worldwide. The causes are complex and to date only partially understood. The trace element lithium appears to play a role. Using neutrons of the research neutron source at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), a research team has now proved that the distribution of lithium in the brains of depressive people is different from the distribution found in healthy humans.

Scientists at Jülich, together with their international colleagues, have now shed light on the switching mechanism of an oxide-based synthetic antiferromagnet. They also showed how this material could enable vertical data transfer, thus making it possible to develop three-dimensional storage elements with high data density. The researchers conducted their studies with the help of the neutron reflectometer MARIA, operated by the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) in Garching, along with similar instruments in other European neutron facilities.