The University of Bonn has opened its own supermarket, in which pineapples, canned tomatoes, and toast are neatly lined up on black shelves. The space measuring 55 square meters (approx. 600 square feet) has pretty much everything you’d need in everyday life. The ‘clientele’, however, is very special: they are subjects participating in scientific studies. Here, researchers from the fields of food and resource economics, psychology, economics, and behavioral science are investigating how health- and sustainability-oriented purchases can be encouraged, for example, through product placement and other incentives. Robots are also demonstrating their capabilities here.

Researchers at the University of Bonn have proven yet again that, besides doing their day job, they also know how to party. On Monday evening, the sold-out Haus der Springmaus theater in the city’s Endenich district was transformed into a hotbed of academic mirth. Entitled “The Jeckcellence Initiative” (referencing the Bonner Jecken, or “Fools,” who play a key part in the city’s Carnival), the 21st edition of the Forschologicum offered a pun-packed mix of scientific excellence and Rhineland Carnival.

The remnants of ice that was attached to the coast offer astounding insights into the climate history of past millennia. An international research team led by the CNR Institute of Polar Sciences (Italy) and involving the University of Bonn has applied a groundbreaking method. This uses sediment drill cores to show the climate history of the past 3,700 years in Antarctica. Surprisingly, this is connected to the natural fluctuations in solar activity. The study has now been published in the journal Nature Communications.

An increasing number of people are turning to vegan products. However, when it comes to cheese, this transition is proving difficult. One alternative is precision fermentation, in which microorganisms produce milk proteins to enable the production of genuine dairy products, such as cheese, without the need for cows. But would consumers actually buy such cheese? Researchers from the Department of Agricultural and Food Market Research at the University of Bonn investigated this question. Their study has now been published in the journal ‘Food Quality and Preference’.

The baroque main building of the University of Bonn — the former Electoral Palace — is to undergo extensive renovation and restructuring. In a design competition, the Building and Real Estate Management Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia (BLB NRW) evaluated design concepts for the core renovation and future use of the building. First prize was awarded to Knerer und Lang Architekten (Munich).

Galaxies contain black holes weighing between approximately five and 100 solar masses. There are also some with more than 100,000 solar masses. But do medium-mass black holes also develop in galaxies? A study by the Astronomical Institute of Charles University in Czechia, with significant participation from the University of Bonn, shows how medium-mass black holes can frequently form naturally. However, this currently only occurs in the innermost regions of star-forming galaxies similar to our Milky Way. The results have now been published in a “Letter to the Editor” in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics.” 

Cell membranes, such as those found in red blood cells, naturally adopt optimal geometric shapes that maintain low bending energy. In his newly established Emmy Noether Group, Dr. Christian Scharrer at the Institute of Applied Mathematics at the University of Bonn is exploring the geometric phenomena that arise as membrane shapes become increasingly complex. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved €850,000 in funding for the group over a period of up to six years.

The agriculture industry may be producing more food than ever before, but it is also damaging the climate, harming the soil and eroding biodiversity. A team of researchers from the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn has now published a paper in the journal “Agricultural Systems” that explains the key role technological innovations will need to play to make agriculture sustainable in the future and why these will have to be accompanied by shrewd policies and new business models.