Press Releases

September 2009

Archive

30 September 2009 - EMBL
Putting the squeeze on sperm DNA
Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and Grenoble, the Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS) and the Institut Albert Bonniot, both also in Grenoble, have been studying the secrets of speedy sperm. Their work, published today in Nature, shows how a protein only found in developing sperm cells, Brdt, directs tight re-packaging of sperm DNA.

28 September 2009 - ESO
The Trilogy is Complete — GigaGalaxy Zoom Phase 3
The third image of ESO’s GigaGalaxy Zoom project has just been released online, completing this eye-opening dive into our galactic home in outstanding fashion. The latest image follows on from views, released over the last two weeks, of the sky as seen with the unaided eye and through an amateur telescope. This third instalment provides another breathtaking vista of an astronomical object, this time a 370-million-pixel view of the Lagoon Nebula of the quality and depth needed by professional astronomers in their quest to understand our Universe.

23 September 2009 - ESO
ALMA telescope reaches new heights
The ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) astronomical observatory has taken another step forward — and upwards. One of its state-of-the-art antennas was carried for the first time to the 5000m plateau of Chajnantor, in the Chilean Andes, on the back of a custom-built giant transporter. The antenna, which weighs about 100 tons and has a diameter of 12 metres, was transported up to the high-altitude Array Operations Site, where the extremely dry and rarefied air is ideal for ALMA’s observations of the Universe.

21 September 2009 - ILL
Magnetic monopoles: 70 years from prediction to observation
An essential feature of a magnet – for example a compass needle – is two poles, commonly called ‘North’ and ‘South’, after the directions they point to on Earth. If such a magnet is broken into smaller pieces, this combination of two poles (a dipole), inextricably linked to each other, remains in the fragments, and continues with further division all the way down to an atomic level.

21 September 2009 - EMBL
To regenerate muscle, cellular garbage men must become builders
In a study published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), EMBL scientists provide conclusive proof that, when a muscle is injured, white blood cells called macrophages play a crucial role in its regeneration and uncovered the genetic switch that controls this process.

21 September 2009 - ESO
Zooming to the centre of the Milky Way — GigaGalaxy Zoom phase 2
The second of three images of ESO's GigaGalaxy Zoom project has just been released online. It is a new and wonderful 340-million-pixel vista of the central parts of our home galaxy as seen from ESO's Paranal Observatory with an amateur telescope.

16 September 2009 - ESO
First Solid Evidence for a Rocky Exoplanet
The longest set of HARPS measurements ever made has firmly established the nature of the smallest and fastest-orbiting exoplanet known, CoRoT-7b, revealing its mass as five times that of Earth's. Combined with CoRoT-7b's known radius, which is less than twice that of our terrestrial home, this tells us that the exoplanet's density is quite similar to the Earth's, suggesting a solid, rocky world. The extensive dataset also reveals the presence of another so-called super-Earth in this alien solar system.

14 September 2009 - ESO
ESO unveils an amazing, interactive, 360-degree panoramic view of the entire night sky
The first of three images of ESO's GigaGalaxy Zoom project — a new magnificent 800-million-pixel panorama of the entire sky as seen from ESO’s observing sites in Chile — has just been released online. The project allows stargazers to explore and experience the Universe as it is seen with the unaided eye from the darkest and best viewing locations in the world.

13 September 2009 - EMBL
How stem cells make skin
Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, in collaboration with colleagues at the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas (CIEMAT) in Madrid, have discovered two proteins that control when and how stem cells switch to being skin cells.

2 September 2009 - ESO
NGC 4945: The Milky Way’s not-so-distant Cousin
ESO has released a striking new image of a nearby galaxy that many astronomers think closely resembles our own Milky Way. Though the galaxy is seen edge-on, observations of NGC 4945 suggest that this hive of stars is a spiral galaxy much like our own, with swirling, luminous arms and a bar-shaped central region. These resemblances aside, NGC 4945 has a brighter centre that likely harbours a supermassive black hole, which is devouring reams of matter and blasting energy out into space.