The Orientation Weeks for international students recently arrived at the University of Bonn start on September 8. Besides exchange students from the Global Exchange Program (GEP), they are also being opened up to Erasmus students and students on international master’s degree program for the first time this year.

Is the Standard Model of particle physics incorrect at key points? Recently there has been an increase in experimental observations that deviate from the predictions of this widely accepted physical theory. A current study by the University of Bonn now provides even stronger evidence for the existence of "new physics". The final version of the paper is now published in the journal Physics Letters B. Lead author Chien-Yeah Seng will present the results in mid-October at the fall meeting of the U.S. Physical Society.

Adelgunde Brenninkmeijer-Werhahn receives an honorary doctorate in theology (Dr. theol. honoris causa) from the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Bonn for her outstanding services to Jewish-Christian dialogue and Christian marriage and family theology. Dean Prof. Dr. Dr. Jochen Sauermeister will present the honor during a ceremony on Friday afternoon.

Based on previous studies of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is known that a specific form of white immune cells, natural killer (NK) cells, make an important contribution to the early antiviral immune response against SARS-CoV-2. An international team led by the University of Bonn has now found that in severe courses of COVID-19, the ability of natural killer cells to prevent pathological proliferation of fibrous tissue in the lungs is often impaired. Major parts of the study were conducted at the University Hospital Bonn and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE). The results have been published online in advance in the reputed journal "Immunity". The print version will appear shortly.

Chemists at Goethe University Frankfurt have developed two new classes of materials in the field of nanomaterials and investigated them together with their cooperation partners at the University of Bonn: For the first time, they have succeeded in producing a nano-ball from silicon atoms and a building block for a diamond-like crystal of the semiconductor elements silicon and germanium. The two new classes of materials have application potential, for example, in the miniaturization of computer chips, in high-resolution screens for smartphones, or in solar cells and light-emitting diodes with maximum efficiency. 

The Greek historian Herodotus described the fertile land in Egypt as a "gift of the Nile". The Nile made life in the desert possible in the first place, and people have also dealt with it culturally for thousands of years. The island Elephantine is located at the mythological place of origin of the river Nile. Why was it associated in ancient Egypt with the image of an elephant splashing water? In his new book, Prof. Dr. Ludwig D. Morenz, an Egyptologist at the University of Bonn, combines the answer to this question with other findings from the region near Aswan.

In the current university ranking of the British magazine Times Higher Education (THE), the University of Bonn has once again improved its position in a global comparison and is ranked 112th among the more than 1,600 educational institutions evaluated worldwide. In Germany, Bonn is in 10th place. For the World University Ranking, various indicators were surveyed in the areas of research, teaching, knowledge transfer and internationality.

For their research on novel "nanobodies" against the SARS-coronavirus-2, the team around Dr. Florian I. Schmidt of the Institute of Innate Immunity at the University of Bonn has been selected as one of ten winners in the Life Sciences category of the Falling Walls Foundation.