Matter & Energy
Joint European Torus (JET) fusion reactor. © United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority

Breakthrough achievement in JET fusion reactor

The Joint European Torus (JET) in Oxford managed to achieve a thermonuclear reaction lasting five seconds with a record amount of energy produced. This is an important milestone on the path to fusion energy. More than 300 scientists associated with the EUROfusion consortium, including researchers from the Polish Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion in Warsaw (IFPiLM), took part in the experiment, the results of which were presented last week.

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    Human

    Social position linked to health, Polish-Norwegian study shows

    Subjectively perceived social position is strongly related to health. The lower you assess your social status, the higher the risk of developing various diseases and the risk of death from various causes, a researcher from the University of Warsaw says.

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    Space

    Scientists find new source of cosmic dust

    A team of scientists, including Dr. Mariusz Gromadzki from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw, has identified a previously unknown source of cosmic dust, the university reports. The dust was produced by the interaction of the matter ejected during a la supernova explosion with the surrounding circumstellar gas.

  • Reconstruction of Alienacanthus (by Christian Klug). Source: Polish Geological Institute
    Life

    Polish scientists discover unusual fish from 365 million years ago

    Polish scientists have discovered an over two-meter-long predatory armoured fish with an extremely elongated lower jaw in rock sediments from 365 million years ago in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains. The remains do not resemble any other animals from the Devonian.

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    Life

    Bacteria and their viruses: Arms race halted for millennia

    Well-preserved DNA of several hundred species of bacteriophages from over a thousand years ago - viruses that infect bacteria - have been found in samples of human faeces and in the guts of an ancient mummy. It turns out that the genome of one of the species is almost the same as that of modern viruses. Why has the evolution of this species halted for so long?

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    Technology

    Polish researchers build ice battery

    Wrocław University of Science and Technology and two Polish companies have developed an ice battery that stores surplus energy in the form of cold energy - and releases it in the form of heat at a later time, for example when electricity is more expensive. The system can be used mainly by companies that need large amounts of heat energy.

  • Health

    Polish functional bone cements to replace bone defects and accelerate their regeneration

    Scientists and students from the Gdańsk University of Technology are working on injectable bone cements that support tissue reconstruction. The invention, which may be used in orthopaedics and trauma surgery, has been submitted for patent protection.

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    Health

    Scientific work is for the persistent, says brain researcher

    ‘There are successes in a scientist's work, but there are dozens of failures along the way. As much as 70-80 percent of our work ends in failure. However, a successful experiment is the greatest motivation for further work,’ says Dr. Aleksandra Rutkowska, who studies the nervous system, especially the degeneration processes taking place in the brain.

  • The aneurysm is marked in red.. Credit: Zbigniew Tyfa.
    Technology

    Software to support neurosurgeons in aneurysm treatment

    Aneurysms of various shapes and sizes, previously imaged in patients, will be virtually 'operated on' in many possible ways. This will lead to the creation of software that will help neurosurgeons secure them against breaking and growing.

  • Formica cinerea ant rescue operation, during which the rescuer pulls a trapped ant by its leg. Credit: Filip Turza
    Life

    Body size of monomorphic ants does matter

    It turns out that the body size of monomorphic ants does matter and affects their behaviour, say biologists from Kraków. Their latest research on a species living in the Błędów Desert shows that in the case of rescue behaviour, small workers are more persistent.

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Boulder TM 1219 in a wider landscape perspective. Credit: A. Rozwadowski, source: Cambridge Archaeological Journal.

Polish scientists reinterpret petroglyphs of Toro Muerto

The geometric patterns, lines and zigzags that accompany the images of dancers (danzantes) carved in the rocks of the Peruvian Toro Muerto are not snakes or lightning bolts, but a record of songs - suggest Polish scientists who analyse rock art from 2,000 years ago.