ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

With the advent of genome-scale sequencing, molecular phylogeny, which reconstructs gene trees from homologous sequences, has reached an impasse. Instead of answering open questions, new genomes have reignited old debates. The problem is clear, gene trees are not species trees, each is the unique result of series of evolutionary events. If, however, we model these differences in the context of a common species tree, we can access a wealth of information on genome evolution and the diversification of species that is not available to traditional methods. For example, as horizontal gene transfer (HGT) can only occur between coexisting species, HGTs provide information on the order of speciations. When HGT is rare, lineage sorting can generate incongruence between gene trees and the dating problem can be formulated in terms of biologically meaningful parameters (such as population size), that are informative on the rate of evolution and hence invaluable to molecular dating. My first goal is to develop methods that systematically extract information on the pattern and timing of genomic evolution by explaining differences between gene trees. This will allow us to, for the first time, reconstruct a dated tree of life from genome-scale data. We will use parallel programming to maximise the number of genomes analysed. My second goal is to apply these methods to open problems, e.g.: i) to resolve the timing of microbial evolution and its relationship to Earth history, where the extreme paucity of fossils limits the use of molecular dating methods, by using HGT events as “molecular fossils”; ii) to reconstruct rooted phylogenies from complete genomes and harness phylogenetic incongruence to answer long standing questions, such as the of diversification of animals or the position of eukaryotes among archaea; and iii) for eukaryotic groups such as Fungi, where evidence of significant amounts of HGT is emerging our methods will also allow the quantification of the extent of HGT.

1 453 542 €

Start date: 2017-07-01, End date: 2022-06-30

In today’s electronics, the information storage and processing are performed by independent technologies. The information-processing is based on semiconductor (silicon) devices, while non-volatile data storage relies on ferromagnetic metals. Integrating these tasks on a single chip and within the same material technology would enable disruptively new device concepts opening the way towards ultra-high speed electronic circuits. Due to the unique versatility of its electronic and magnetic properties, graphene has a strong potential as a platform for the implementation of such devices. By engineering their structure at the atomic level, graphene nanostructures of metallic, semiconducting, as well as magnetic properties can be realized. Here we propose that the unmatched precision and full edge orientation control of our STM-based nanofabrication technique enables the reliable implementation of such graphene nanostructures, as well as their complex, functional networks. In particular, we propose to experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of (1) semiconductor graphene nanostructures based on the quantum confinement effect, (2) spin-based devices from graphene nanostructures with magnetic edges, as well as (3) novel operation principles based on the interplay of the electronic and spin-degrees of freedom. We propose to demonstrate the electrical control of magnetism in graphene nanostructures, as well as a novel switching mechanism for graphene field effect transistors induced by the transition between two magnetic edge configurations. Exploiting such novel operation mechanisms in graphene nanostructure engineered at the atomic scale is expected to lay the foundations of disruptively new device concepts combining electronic and spin-based mechanisms that can overcome some of the fundamental limitations of today’s electronics.

1 496 500 €

Start date: 2016-07-01, End date: 2021-06-30

There is no other field that is more controversial in psychology than that of human reasoning. This project advances a novel theoretical framework focused on the nature and the origins of rationality and could potentially resolve some of these controversies. Theories targeting the mechanisms that allow rational inferences have defined rationality as a function of how much reasoning adheres to formal rules of probability calculus and logic. Classical research with adults and older children collected a large amount of data both in favor and against human rationality, suggesting that reasoning abilities follow a slow maturation. Recent findings on infants’ probabilistic reasoning, including my own earlier research, however, do not support this view. Already preverbal infants seem to form expectations about probabilistic events in accordance with Bayesian rules of inference (Téglás et al, 2011). Here I argue for a similar paradigm change in a related domain, that of deductive reasoning. In contrast to earlier accounts, I propose that even preverbal infants may possess a core set of logical operations that empower them with sophisticated inferential abilities. First, I focus on the representational precursors of this competence. I argue that infants recruit specific abilities to exploit the conceptual structure of specific event categories that enable them to form logical representations. Thus, information could be stored in a format that can potentially serve as input for subsequent inferences. Further, I will investigate infants’ core logical operations and test how they integrate multiple steps of inferences. This system - indispensable for integrating different bits of knowledge - helps infants to discover information that was not actually present in the input. Such investigations, informed also by adequate neuropsychological evidence would thus contribute to understand the unique nature of human rationality.

1 498 137 €

Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31

Sustainable development in information technology calls for an ever increasing information processing and storage capability. A promising route to maintain exponential growth capability, i.e. to keep on the Moore's roadmap, is to turn to the electron spins as information carriers rather than their charge. This field, spintronics, has enormous potential whose exploitation requires solid knowledge in the fundamentals of spin dynamics and spin transport. Herein, novel nanomaterials are suggested for spintronics purposes, such as graphene and single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). These, fundamental two- and one-dimensional carbon allotropes are promising candidates for such purposes, carbon being a light element with a low spin-orbit coupling which results in a long spin coherence. There are several fundamental open issues, e.g. the dominant spin orbit coupling mechanism in graphene, whether bulk electron spin resonance can be observed for this material, and the length of the spin diffusion length. For SWCNTs, the ground state of isolated metallic tubes is known to be the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL), which greatly limit the spin coherence, but it is at present open whether this state is destroyed when an ensemble of interacting metallic tubes is studied. The decay time and spin symmetry of optical excitations (excitons) in semiconducting SWCNTs is yet unknown. Our goal is to pursue electron spin resonance in graphene and carbon nanotubes and to perform optically detected magnetic resonance in carbon nanotubes. We will commission a magnetoptical spectrometer with a substantial added value. The expected results are characterization of spin transport capabilities of these materials and understanding of the spin decoherence mechanisms. The PI leads magnetic resonance studies of these materials, shown by his more than 300 citations to this field (the total being over 470) and his 15 Physical Review Letters papers in this field (of which for 9 he is main Author).

1 230 000 €

Start date: 2010-11-01, End date: 2015-10-31