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For the fourth time, New Scientist is looking for scientific talent in the Netherlands and Belgium. The contest is created to put young scientific talent and their work centre stage. AMOLF group leader Bas Overvelde is in the top 25 of scientist competing in this contest.
As evolution is driven by chance, predicting it seems impossible. Nevertheless, scientists from AMOLF in Amsterdam and the ESPCI in Paris have succeeded in making predictions about the evolution of a set of genes in E. coli. When and how genes mutate remains random, but it did appear predictable which gene is more likely to evolve first, or if evolutionary deadlock arises. The results have been published on 13 April in the journal Nature Communications.
Between order and chaos, a mathematical space originally studied to understand the behaviour of avalanches and crystallisation of liquids, scientists are uncovering the rules for the existence of life itself. A small region called the “Edge of Chaos” displays complex behaviour that is both organised and unstable, creating the continuous flux that scientist hypothesise drives the engine of life – evolution – and produces the boundless novelty of the natural world.
Every six years the NWO institutes are evaluated by a panel of independent experts according to the so-called Standard Evaluation Protocol (SEP). An international committee chaired by Søren Keiding (Aarhus University, Denmark) came to Amsterdam in October and gave AMOLF the highest score of ‘excellent/world leading’ for all three assessment criteria (scientific quality, societal relevance and viability).
AMOLF director Huib Bakker: “The visit was very inspiring and we are proud of getting the highest score for all three criteria. The committee was especially interested in our research model and described AMOLF as “a jewel for fundamental research in the Netherlands.”
When E. coli bacteria are physically distressed, they switch to stress mode and postpone cell division. But they still keep on growing, thus forming long filaments. AMOLF researchers discovered that these bacteria ‘know’ how long they are, which enables them to move protein rings to the sites where they will have to divide once the period of stress is over. The researchers involved published their findings in Current Biology, on 1 March 2018.
Spintronics in materials of just a few atoms thick is an emerging field in which the ‘spin’ of electrons is used to process data, rather than the charge. Unfortunately, the spin only lasts for a very short time, making it (as yet) difficult to exploit in electronics. Researchers from the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at TU Delft and the AMOLF group Nanoscale Solar Cells have now found a way to convert the spin information into a predictable light signal at room temperature. The discovery brings the worlds of spintronics and nanophotonics closer together and might lead to the development of an energy-efficient way of processing data, in data centres, for example. The researchers have given an account of their results in Science
AMOLF participates in three new research projects that will start with funding through NWO’s program Materials for Sustainability (Mat4Sus). To enable a smooth transition from fossil fuels to a more sustainable source of energy we need a wide range of materials. The AMOLF groups contribute to the energy transition by enlarging the efficiency of solar cells and developing thinner foils and colored panels.
Former AMOLF PhD student Sander Mann has received an NWO Rubicon award to do research at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center in New York. Mann obtained the cum laude degree for his doctorate research in the Nanoscale Solar Cells group led by Erik Garnett.
On January 2nd, ACS Photonics announced on Twitter that “Single-photon nanoantennas” is their most read publication in 2017. AMOLF group leader Femius Koenderink is the author of this review article.
Erik Garnett has been named professor by special appointment of Nanoscale Photovoltaics at the University of Amsterdam’s (UvA) Faculty of Science. The chair was established on behalf of the Foundation for the Promotion of Atomic and Molecular Physics.
Garnett will continue working at AMOLF as group leader of the Nanoscale Solar Cells group.
NWO has awarded three talented female scientists a WISE grant. Dr Kristina Ganzinger has received an appointment at the Netherlands Institute for the Physics of Functional Complex Matter AMOLF, Dr Larissa Juschkin at the Advanced Research Centre for Nanolithography ARCNL, and Dr Aurora Simionescu at the Netherlands Institute for Space Research SRON. With the WISE program, NWO wants to increase the percentage of female researchers at its institutes.
Bacteria can control where they go using a signaling network of protein molecules. Scientists at AMOLF have developed a microscopy method that allows them to see how individual bacteria use this network to make decisions.They discovered that bacteria are surprisingly diverse in personality and mood. The team publishes its findings in the scientific journal eLife on December 12, 2017.