Other news

Assis. prof. Anton Gradišek and colleagues published a paper Bumble bee nest thermoregulation: a field study in Journal of Apicultural Research. They studied six bumblebee colonies of different species using a home-made setup. The study focused on the nest thermoregulation, which is important in order for the larvae to develop properly. They identified some thermoregulation strategies that have not previously been reported in bumblebees.

Assistant Professor Anton Gradišek and Professor Tomaž Apih, together with colleagues from Lisbon, Portugal, published a study Observing short-range orientational order in small-molecule liquidsin the journal Scientific Reports. The authors address a phenomenon that has been known for decades in the scientific community, but never systematically addressed. In the isotropic phase of liquid crystals, far from the clearing point, we can still observe short-lived clusters with local ordering. The same phenomenon was observed also in liquids that do not even form a liquid crystalline phase. The analysis was conducted with the use of NMR relaxometry and X-ray diffraction. The findings are important in view of understanding the crystallization process.