News — University of Bonn

Meat import ban in Africa hurts local population

The EU regularly exports large quantities of poultry meat to West African countries. These exports have been criticized for harming importing countries in West Africa and exacerbating poverty there. The reason: Cheap imports depress the local price of chicken, making life difficult for local smallholders. Researchers at the Universities of Bonn and Göttingen have now used the example of Ghana to calculate the effects that would result if the country were to significantly increase its import tariffs for poultry meat or even stop imports completely. The result: Prices would indeed rise domestically, but most local households would not benefit. The study has been published in the journal Food Security.

European Football Championship with side effects

The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, which was played in 2021, had a very different impact on the infection dynamics of the coronavirus pandemic in different participating countries. The extent to which the rates of infection and death from Covid-19 increased depended primarily on the pandemic situation in the country at the start of the championship. This was concluded by physicists in an analysis of epidemiological data. The study involved the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich, as well as the Universities of Bonn and Göttingen and the PUNCH4NFDI consortium in the German national research data infrastructure NFDI. The study was published in Nature Communications.

Physical effect also valid in the quantum world

Physicists at the University of Bonn have experimentally proven that an important theorem of statistical physics applies to so-called "Bose-Einstein condensates." Their results now make it possible to measure certain properties of the quantum “superparticles” and deduce system characteristics that would otherwise be difficult to observe. The study has now been published in Physical Review Letters.

Glial cells help memory along

There are two fundamentally different cell types in the brain, neurons and glial cells. The latter, for example, insulate the "wiring" of nerve cells or guarantee optimal working conditions for them. A new study led by the University of Bonn has now discovered another function in rodents: The results suggest that a certain type of glial cell plays an important role in spatial learning. The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) was involved in the work. The results have now been published in the journal Nature Communications.

First selection round successfully completed:

The Cologne/Bonn Academy in Exile (CBA), founded in the summer of 2022 supports researchers from Ukraine, who have fled the war in their country. It additionally supports researchers from Belarus and Russia, who had to flee their countries due to their opposition to the war. The researchers have been invited to continue their scientific work at the Universities of Cologne and Bonn. Considering the potential of Ukraine to become a member of the European Union in the future, the work of the researchers and the academy will focus on the expansion of regional specific knowledge and European integration, as well as their incorporation and that of their research into the European scientific community while preserving national ties.

Three vehicles on fire at University sports facility

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.

University and Faculty of Catholic Theology mourn Benedict XVI.

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.