A German-polish research team from Augsburg, Münster, Munich and Wroc?aw successfully mixed nanoscale sound waves and light quanta. In their study published in Optica the scientists use an ’artificial atom’ that converts the vibrations of the sound wave to single light quanta - photons - with unprecedented precision. The demonstrated fundamental principle marks an important step toward the development of future hybrid quantum technologies.

The progenitors of the first cells formed more than four billion years ago in the earth’s primeval oceans. A study by the Universities of Augsburg and Munich now proposes a possible mechanism in order to explain how these cells may have divided. This process marks an important milestone on the path to the origin of life.

A material that is particularly toxic when bacteria are present in its environment? Physicists from the University of Augsburg, together with colleagues from Hamburg and Munich, have developed just such an "smart" coating. In the future, it could help prevent complications in the healing of endoprostheses.