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ePaper created 2013-08-02, 08:40:53 | version 1.25.20
2|2013 Research in Jülich The Zeppelin NT on its way to Finland above the Danish capital Copenhagen NEWS IN BRIEF New Approach to Molecular Magnets Filming Flow Behaviour Self-Purification oftheAtmosphere Institute of Energy and Climate Research | From April to late June, the Zeppelin NT is once again on a mission for climate research. Jülich scientists are employing the airship to collect data from Germany across Sweden to northern Finland that will help them find out more about the atmosphere’s ability to cleanse itself. They are focus- ing on hydroxyl radicals – OH radicals known as the ‘detergent of the atmosphere’ – and suspended particles referred to as aerosols. The measurement campaign is part of the EU project PEGASOS (Pan-European Gas- Aerosols-Climate Interaction Study), which involves 26 partners from a total of 15 countries investigating rela- tionships between atmospheric chemistry and climate change. :: Scattering pattern of a liquid crystal under different mechanical stresses Storing information in mini- mum space: a layer system of cobalt (bottom) and organic molecules (grey-red) ‘filters’ electrons with a specific magnetic state (green arrows). 5 Peter Grünberg Institut/Institute for Advanced Simulation | Jülich scien- tists are involved in an international research team who have discovered a new method for producing molecu- lar magnets. These are molecules that remain magnetized even when an external magnetic field is switched off. The scientists are con- centrating on a thin layer system consisting of the organometallic mol- ecule zinc methyl phenalenyl (ZMP) and cobalt. These molecular mag- nets could pave the way for im- proved data storage as well as faster and more energy-efficient computer processors. The problem is that in order to exploit the effect of molecu- lar magnetism, researchers used to require temperatures far below -200 °C. The new system works even at comparatively high temperatures of -20 °C. The team have published their results in the journal Nature and are already working on optimiz- ing their system. Peter Grünberg Institut/Institute for Ad- vanced Simulation | A group of German and Dutch researchers has filmed the flow behaviour of liquid crystals with a new method. For their project, they used the X-ray radiation source PETRA III at the par- ticle accelerator centre DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron). The device al- lowed the scientists to record how the in- ner structure of a sample changes when it is rotated back and forth. This enabled them to explain why the material flowed or became elastic. Information on flow be- haviour is important for many areas, such as blood vessels and cement mixers, as well as the food and cosmetics industries. The group, which includes scientists from Jülich, have published their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters. ::