Life is a specific characteristic of our planet. The diversity of life, biodiversity, is one of the most fascinating phenomena. We know some 1.8 million different species, but all extrapolations show that probably 20 million or more species exist: We know less than 10% of the plants, animals and micro-organisms living on the planet Earth. The editors, who are both biologists, are well acquainte...

Transfer of energy occurs endlessly in our universe by means of radiation. Compared to energy transfer (ET) in free space, in solid state materials the transfer of energy occurs in a rather confined manner, which is usually mediated by real or virtual particles, including not only photons, but also electrons, phonons, and excitons. In the present review, we discuss the recent advances in optica...

Nitridosilicates are structurally built up on three-dimensional SiN4 tetrahedral networks, forming a very interesting class of materials with high thermomechanical properties, hardness, and wide band gap. Traditionally, nitridosilicates are often used as structural materials such as abrasive particles, cutting tools, turbine blade, etc. Recently, the luminescence of rare earth doped nitridosili...

Rare earth (RE) Tb(3+)-doped high quality ZnSe nanocrystals (NCs) were synthesized by a facile chemical hot-injection method. ZnSe:Tb(3+) nanocrystals exhibited broadband absorption below the first excitonic absorption peak. Photoluminescence spectra showed Tb(3+) emission lines in the visible spectral window at room temperature when excited by UV radiation below the band-edge of the host ZnSe ...

The increasing worldwide energy consumption calls for the design of more efficient energy systems. Thermoelectrics could be used to convert waste heat back to useful electric energy if only more efficient materials were available. The ideal thermoelectric material combines high electrical conductivity and thermopower with low thermal conductivity. In this regard, the intermetallic type-I clathr...

In the light of an expected supply shortage of rare earth elements (REE) measures have to be undertaken for an efficient use in all kinds of technical, medical, and agricultural applications as well as—in particular—in REE recycling from post-use goods and waste materials. Biologicallybased methods might offer an alternative and supplement to physico-chemical techniques for REE recovery and rec...

Diffusion is an essential process in chemistry, physics and biology. The investigation of these processes is mostly accomplished by measuring a large number (ensemble) of the diffusing species. Therefore, diffusion dynamics, such as the diffusion coefficient, are obtained by averaging over the properties of many particles measured at the same time. Recently, single molecule (SM) experiments, wh...

The effects of the sorption of environmental applications by various source materials of natural organic matter, i.e., bone powder, was examined. Sorption capacities and subsequent rare earth element retention characteristics of all metals tested were markedly increased by ionic task-specific. In this study, the abilities of three models' isotherms widely were used for the equilibrium sorption ...

The mining of material resources requires knowledge about geogenic and anthropogenic deposits, in particular on the location of the deposits with the comparatively highest concentration of raw materials. In this study, we develop a framework that allows the establishment of analogies between geological and anthropogenic processes. These analogies were applied to three selected products containi...

Four diatomaceous earth formulations and one calcium carbonate formulation were evaluated in combination with high temperature as a control method for the adult stage of the red ̄our beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst). At 348C, exposure to the insecticidal dusts for 15 or 30 min did not increase mortality relative to beetles not exposed to the dusts. However, at 508C, exposure increased morta...