The richest 50 percent of Germans have doubled their wealth since reunification - the poorest 50 percent have gained practically nothing. This is shown by the new study "The Distribution of Wealth in Germany, 1895 to 2018" by the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute of the Universities of Bonn and Cologne. It is the first comprehensive analysis of the long-run evolution of wealth inequality in Germany. The results are based on historical tax data, studies and surveys as well as rich lists of the last 125 years. The Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz was presented with the study in Berlin.

// Update from April 3, 2020: due to the Coronavirus, this event will not take place in May and is postponed to September 2020. Further details will be announced as they become known. End of update. // The University of Bonn is calling all talented researchers and professionals to showcase their most innovative ideas. Early-career researchers, entrepreneurs and professionals can apply to take part in Falling Walls Lab Rhineland on May 25, 2020, to present their research work - in 3 minutes each. Applications are due April 15, 2020. Selected participants will compete to win a trip to the Falling Walls Lab Finale in Berlin and a ticket to the Falling Walls Conference.

City dwellers take more antibiotics than people in rural areas; children and the elderly use them more often than middle-aged people; the use of antibiotics decreases as education increases, but only in rich countries: These are three of the more striking trends identified by researchers of the NRW Forschungskolleg “One Health and Urban Transformation” at the University of Bonn in a recent study. They evaluated 73 publications on the use of antibiotics in the outpatient sector around the world. The subject is of great importance: Too many antibiotics are still being administered. Possible consequences are resistances: Already there are hardly any effective drugs available against some bacteria. The study will be published in May in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, but is already available online.

Cyanobacteria - colloquially also called blue-green algae - can produce oil from water and carbon dioxide with the help of light. This is shown by a recent study by the University of Bonn. The result is unexpected: Until now, it was believed that this ability was reserved for plants. It is possible that blue-green algae will now also become interesting as suppliers of feed or fuel, especially since they do not require arable land. The results have now been published in the journal PNAS.

The tiny forefoot of a lizard of the genus Anolis was trapped in amber about 15 to 20 million years ago. Every detail of this rare fossil is visible under the microscope. But the seemingly very good condition is deceptive: The bone is largely decomposed and chemically transformed, very little of the original structure remains. The results, which are now presented in the journal "PLOS ONE", provide important clues as to what exactly happens during fossilization.

How do we manage to find our way around our neighborhood even though the streets look so similar? Researchers at the University of Bonn have gained new insights into a mechanism that very likely plays a major role in this ability. Especially interesting: It only seems to work well when our brain is oscillating in a special rhythm. The results have been published in the journal "eLife".

Professor Anna-Katharina Hornidge has accepted the Professorship of Global Sustainable Development at the University of Bonn and has been appointed Director of the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). She will take up these positions on 1 March 2020.

Rising sea temperatures more than 100,000 years ago drove the melting of the Antarctic ice sheets and caused an extreme rise in sea level, as a new international study involving the University of Bonn shows. According to the scientists, the current situation is again moving in this direction. The massive melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet was a major cause of the high sea level during a period known as the last interglacial period (129,000 to 116,000 years ago). The research results are now published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)”.