Three vehicles, including an electric transporter and a small tractor, were destroyed last night in a fire at the University sports facility on Nachtigallenweg. The vehicles had caught fire for as yet unexplained reasons.

The Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and its Faculty of Catholic Theology mourn the loss of its former theology professor, Prof. Dr. Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on December 31, 2022, at the age of 95. "The University of Bonn mourns not only an important figure in contemporary history, but also a great theologian and pope whose work and ministry will remain influential in many ways," wrote Rector Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Hoch and Dean Prof. Dr. Dr. Jochen Sautermeister in a joint obituary for the deceased.

More than 215 million years ago, a large amphibian species lived in floodplains in southwestern Poland: Metoposaurus krasiejowensis. On one of these fossils, Polish and American scientists, with the participation of researchers from the University of Bonn, detected bone cancer for the first time. The results have now been published in the journal BMC Ecology and Evolution.

The Christ Child arrived a few days early this year at the field laboratories of Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Bonn: the Rectorate had invested significantly and approved four new large vehicles for a total of more than 500,000 euros for the sites essential for agricultural research. Only last week, the last of the ordered tractors was delivered and could now be handed over to the users by Provost Holger Gottschalk. In the future, the tractors will benefit research and teaching, and in particular the PhenoRob cluster of excellence.

Programs supporting refugees at the University of Bonn are not only being continued, but expanded. Thanks to financing from the Ministry of Culture and Science (MKW) of NRW as well as the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), funding has been secured for three essential grant programs. “NRWays into Studying” (NRWege ins Studium) and “Integra,” two existing programs, can continue their work. Together they form the foundation for the University of Bonn's existing “Academic Integration for Refugees” (Förderung der Integration ins Studium, FdIS) project, which helps refugees interested in attending university prepare for their studies. This includes intensive language courses, workshops, and excursions.

Nerve cells need a lot of energy and oxygen. They receive both through the blood. This is why nerve tissue is usually crisscrossed by a large number of blood vessels. But what prevents neurons and vascular cells from getting in each other's way as they grow? Researchers at the Universities of Heidelberg and Bonn, together with international partners, have identified a mechanism that takes care of this. The results have now appeared in the journal Neuron. 

What secondary schools do schoolchildren go to? How are they divided up into classes? How do sorting processes like this impact on social inequality and social cohesion? Dr. Hanno Kruse is exploring these and similar questions at the University of Bonn. The sociologist is heading up the “Sorting Decisions and Peer Processes in Schools” (SPINS) Emmy Noether research group, which has secured some €1.5 million in funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

People with chronic epilepsy often experience impaired memory. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now found a mechanism in mice that could explain these deficits. The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) was also involved in the study. The results are published in the journal Brain, but a preliminary version is already available online.