People contribute only very little to climate protection, because they underestimate the willingness of others to contribute. This is the central result of a new study by the behavioural economists Peter Andre, Teodora Boneva, Felix Chopra and Armin Falk, members of the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne, published as an “ECONtribute Discussion Paper”.

The University management has asked the students of the University of Bonn to express their interest in a vaccination against the coronavirus. Based on their feedback, a vaccination offer will then be made to them in a timely manner. The University of Bonn is currently in negotiations with various agencies.

Cleft lip and palate is one of the most common congenital malformations. Its causes are mainly genetic. However, it is still largely unknown exactly which genes are affected. A new international study led by the University of Bonn now provides new insights. The results are published in the journal Human Genetics and Genomics Advances, but are already available online.

Jupiter’s clouds have water conditions that would allow Earth-like life to exist, but this isn’t possible in Venus’ clouds, according to the groundbreaking finding of new research led by a Queen’s University Belfast scientist with participation of the University of Bonn. The study has been published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

An innovative idea for training students has earned Prof. Dr. Simon Stellmer, a physicist at the University of Bonn, this year's Fulbright-Cottrell Award, which is endowed with nearly 70,000 euros. The prize goes to the University of Bonn for the first time. The Fulbright-Cottrell Award recognizes researchers in physics, chemistry, and astronomy who combine excellent research and creative teaching in an outstanding manner. An interdisciplinary lab course experiment is being created at the University of Bonn that can be used in both physics and geodesy. Researchers use the method to measure earth rotations, among other things. The project started on July 1 and will be steadily developed over the coming years.

So much for the "age of security": The author Stefan Zweig's description of the period before the First World War seems almost too good to be true - at least if you take a closer look at the political and social conflicts in the German Empire. This was done by Bonn historian Dr. Amerigo Caruso in his study "Blood and Iron Even Within' - Social Conflict, Mass Politics, and Violence in Germany before 1914". One of the results: Reflecting an increased need for security, a modern private security market emerged with guard companies and detective agencies.

The Federal Minister of Education and Research, Anja Karliczek, has visited the University of Bonn. The focus was on the developments in the Excellence Strategy. The University of Bonn had emerged from the current competition of the federal and state governments as the most successful applicant with six clusters of excellence and the status of a University of Excellence.