Physicists of the university of Bonn have found out why beer mats don't fly flat like a frisbee disk and published a scientific study in July 2021. This joint achievement by Johann Ostmeyer, Christoph Schürmann and Prof. Dr. Carsten Urbach from University of Bonn has received the Pinneapple Science Award in the physics category.

After the natural warming that followed the last Ice Age, there were repeated periods when masses of icebergs broke off from Antarctica into the Southern Ocean. A new data-model study led by the University of Bonn now shows that it took only a decade to initiate this tipping point in the climate system, and that ice mass loss then continued for many centuries. Accompanying modeling studies suggest that today's accelerating Antarctic ice mass loss also represents such a tipping point, which could lead to irreversible and long-lasting ice retreat and global sea level rise. The study has now been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Umeå University, and the University of Bonn have identified a new group of molecules that have an antibacterial effect against many antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Since the properties of the molecules can easily be altered chemically, the hope is to develop new, effective antibiotics with few side effects. The findings have been published in the journal PNAS.

Researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Regensburg move packets of energy along a molecular ladder made of hundreds of benzene rings. Such polymers can potentially be used to design new displays based on organic light-emitting diodes, or for solar cells. The extraordinary material is now described in the journal Nature Communications.

With a total of 14 researchers, the University of Bonn is represented this year in the international ranking "Highly Cited Researchers". They are considered to be particularly influential in science.

Fifteen years ago, the African Union decided on an ambitious program: degraded ecosystems in parts of the Sahel are to be successively restored in order to secure food for the people living there and to protect the soil against further degradation. At the same time, the African Great Green Wall is an important contribution to combating climate change. A study by the University of Bonn and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) now shows that it also makes economic sense - although not everywhere in the Sahel. The analysis also shows how much violent conflicts threaten the success of the program. It has now been published in the journal Nature Sustainability.

For almost two years now, the Corona pandemic has been shaping all aspects of our lives. Universities are no exception. A year ago, the University of Bonn had already addressed the impact of the pandemic on university operations in its magazine "forsch" and visualized it with a series of images. The cover motif, which shows students wearing mouth guards in a "hybrid" lecture, has now won 1st place in the nationwide PR-Bild Award 2021.

The ecumenical "Sermon Prize", which is based at the Protestant Palace Church of the University of Bonn and has been awarded since 2000, has a special topicality this year: the prize winner Dr. h.c. Annette Kurschus, Praeses of the Protestant Church of Westphalia, has just been elected chairwoman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). This has been brought to attention by the Dean of the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Bonn, Prof. Dr. Cornelia Richter.