Artificial intelligence (AI) is getting a boost: the German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding a total of eight new AI research units with a total of 31.4 million euros. Two projects from the University of Bonn in the fields of geodesy and precision agriculture are among them. The millions in funding will flow over the next four years. An extension is possible.
A bar of chocolate in the U.S. might have been made in Belgium, with cocoa from the Ivory Coast, almonds from Morocco, vanilla from Madagascar and sugar from Brazil. Were forests cut down for it? Were forced or child laborers involved in the harvest? Were toxins used or rivers polluted? We see similar stories for other products we use daily, such as smartphones, clothes, and cosmetics. These questions cannot be answered easily. That's why companies and corporations should conduct due diligence in their supply chains and pay more attention in the future to the impact of their products on the environment and human rights. Dr. Jorge Sellare, group leader and senior scientist at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and member of the Transdisciplinary Research Unit "Sustainable Futures" at the University of Bonn, has written a commentary on this topic together with other authors in the journal "Nature". The Department of Communications of the University asked him about it.
Visually appealing, high-quality, sustainable with solar panels on the roof—this is what the modular buildings around the University of Bonn’s main building and in the Stadtgarten could look like based on the University’s concept. Artist’s impressions of the planned structures have now been released.
Covid-19, climate change, populism, and not least the Ukraine war make the question of how and whether reconciliation is possible highly topical and relevant. The new Bonner Zentrum für Versöhnungsforschung (Center for Reconciliation Research) at the University of Bonn bundles research on this topic in cooperation with partner organizations. The center’s aim is to analyze reconciliation practices in an interdisciplinary and comparative way looking at different cultural, social and regional contexts. The center has now been ceremoniously opened in the University's Festsaal.
Special distinction for Wulf Amelung: the professor of soil science and soil ecology at the Institute of Crop Sciences and Resource Conservation (INRES) at the University of Bonn and director of the Institute of Agrosphere at Forschungszentrum Jülich has now been admitted to the Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences. Amelung is assigned to the Section of Agricultural and Food Sciences.
The Green Learning Workshop opened its doors in the University of Bonn’s Botanic Gardens. It is set to run age-appropriate programs that will enable children to discover the diversity of plant life in a fun way and embark on their own research projects. The learning workshop will be open all year round, come rain or shine, and will complement the activities of the Green School. Its premises were renovated and fitted out thanks to funding from the University of Bonn Foundation, the University of Bonn and numerous other supporters.
The latest rankings produced by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands has reaffirmed the outstanding academic achievements and internationally significant research of the University of Bonn, a University of Excellence.
How hard can insects bite? Having a strong chewing apparatus makes it easier to crush harder food and to succeed in fights with enemies. Biologists at the University of Bonn now present a mobile system (forceX) for measuring the bite forces of small animals, along with the software forceR to evaluate the data. This allows to understand how bite forces, for example of insects, evolved. The final version is now published in the journal "Methods in Ecology and Evolution".