Not only in the sea, but also in our soils there is "invisible" plastic - nanoplastics to be precise. This is a problem because it can be absorbed by plants and thus enter the food chain. But how much of such plastic is actually hiding in the soil? To find out, Dr. Melanie Braun from the University of Bonn wants to develop a new method. For her innovative project, the junior scientist has now received the Klaus Töpfer Research Prize worth 50,000 euros, which is awarded internally by the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Innovation and Technology for Sustainable Futures" (TRA Sustainable Futures) at the University of Bonn. The prize was named after Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer, former Federal Minister for the Environment and pioneer of climate policy, who was a guest at the award ceremony.
Researchers at the Universities of Bonn and Osnabrück have discovered a protein whose defect causes motor disorders in flies. The protein had also previously been found in human patients with Parkinson's disease. So far, however, it was not known what function it has in the cell. The study now provides an answer to this question. The work, in which the University Hospital Aachen was also involved, has now been published in the journal Science Advances.
How can new and environmentally friendly materials be developed, tested and optimized? And how can primary raw materials be reused in the best possible way? To support industrial and university research groups in these issues, more than 50 research infrastructures in Europe have now joined forces. Among them are researchers from the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) at the University of Bonn. They bring a social science perspective to strategic sustainability research and will receive 317,000 euros. The European Commission is providing a total of 13.6 million euros for the project.
The latest “Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2022,” part of the widely respected Shanghai Ranking, has underlined the University of Bonn’s prowess in not one but several areas: besides taking top spot in Germany for Mathematics and Economics, it has also come third for Agricultural Sciences and Physics. And the University is even among the top 15 in the world in Mathematics, ranking it ahead of such luminaries as Harvard and Columbia.
A team of international experts, renowned for debunking several black hole discoveries, have found a stellar-mass black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbour galaxy to our own. Moreover, they found that the star that gave rise to the black hole vanished without any sign of a powerful explosion. The discovery was made thanks to six years of observations obtained with the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Very Large Telescope (VLT). The study has been published in the journal “Nature Astronomy”.
Roughly 400 guests took part today in a ceremony at the University of Bonn celebrating Bonn physicist Rudolph Clausius. A range of speakers from research and politics hailed the man’s scientific breakthroughs, including his formulation of the second law of thermodynamics, the coining of the term ‘entropy,’ and his prescience in what we today call ‘sustainability.’ To commemorate the occasion, the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry has renamed itself the Clausius Institute. The highlight of the evening: speeches by Nobel Prize winners Professor Jean-Marie Lehn (Chemistry, 1987) and Professor Steven Chu (Physics, 1997).
The University of Bonn's 33,000 students and 7,500 employees represent a substantial “economic footprint” for the region: One in 25 jobs in the city is tied to the University, and it is responsible for one in every 40 euros generated here. This reflects the findings of a study by the Economica Institute, commissioned by the University of Bonn. The researchers also warned about the negative effects of shifting portions of the academic operations from the inner city to the outlying districts.
The flood disaster of July 14 and 15, 2021, claimed human lives and caused immense property damage in large parts of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. Members of the University of Bonn were affected, too. Many were in danger of their lives and had lost apartments and household goods. The readiness to help and the solidarity in the region and beyond was great afterwards. With the campaign "WIR helfen" (We help) initiated by the Rector, the University collected donations and helped unbureaucratically. Now a review took place on the anniversary of the flood.