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» Published on 25. April 2018

Population sex ratio influences parental care in plovers

Research results published in the journal “Nature Communications”

The ratio of adult males and females is an important demographic trait in wild populations. In plovers, closely related populations express strikingly different adult sex ratios. This variation is mainly driven by sex differences in the survival of juveniles. Families in populations with biased adult sex ratios were predominantly tended by a single parent – typically the father – whereas in balanced populations, generally both parents take care of the young, suggesting that parental cooperation breaks down under an unbalanced sex ratio. That was found out by a research group around Dr. Luke Eberhart-Phillips. The behavioural scientist did his research about the sex ratio of plovers supervised by Professor Dr. Joseph Hoffman and Professor Dr. Oliver Krüger at Bielefeld University and he’s now Postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Ornithology Seewiesen. The research team, in which also the University of Bath and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology Seewiesen are involved, presents its results today (25.04.2018) in the journal “Nature Communications”.

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» Published on 18. April 2018

One exhibition at three venues: Reinhart Koselleck’s Images of Time

Accompanying programme: Lectures, guided tours and photographic interventions

Reinhart Koselleck (1923-2006) was one of the most important historians of the 20th century. What is less well known is that the Bielefeld-based historian concerned himself closely with images and visual representation. Koselleck explored the question as to the visual dimension to history and research into it – in his photographs, drawings and writing. The exhibition “Reinhart Koselleck’ Images of Time” opens on 18 April at Bielefeld University, ZiF Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Kunstverein Bielefeld, showcasing over 600 photographs and selected exhibits from the historian’s estate. Guests from all over Germany will come to Bielefeld during the exhibition, which runs through July, to present lectures or take part in the panel discussions. Moreover, there will be guided tours and photographic interventions by students over the same period.

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» Published on 17. April 2018

Solving a Rubik’s Cube with the Help of a Smart Workbench

Bielefeld University to exhibit at 2018 Hannover Trade Fair

Bielefeld University, together with the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) and the Research Institute for Cognition and Robotics (CoR-Lab) will attend the Hannover Messe (Hannover Trade Fair), where they will showcase an assistive system that willl help visitors learn how to solve a Rubik’s cube. The system can also be used for production processes in assembly work.

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» Published on 12. April 2018

Children’s Gestures, and What They Mean

New “EcoGest” project at Bielefeld University and Paderborn University

What role does gesturing play as children learn to speak? What gestures do they use to complement their verbal statements? Can computer-assisted models of language acquisition help explain the different types of gestures? In the new project “EcoGest,” researchers are investigating how children’s use of gestures is connected to communication. Researchers from the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), from linguistics at Bielefeld University, and from psycholinguistics at Paderborn University are working together on the project.

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» Published on 26. Februar 2018

Largest molecular spin found close to a quantum phase transition

International research project on the border between physics and chemistry

An international research team headed by Professor Dr Annie Powell, a chemist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and Professor Dr Jürgen Schnack, a physicist at Bielefeld University, has synthesized a new magnetic molecule. The team has confirmed that this reveals the largest ground state spin attained so far. It is publishing its new findings today (26.02.2018) in the new Nature partner journal ‘npj Quantum Materials’. Nine scientists at Bielefeld University, the KIT, the University of Magdeburg, and the Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy) were involved in the studies.

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» Published on 22. Februar 2018

Nobel Prize winner to attend international conference

Bielefeld University organizing international conference on optical nanoscopy (ICON)

The US-American Nobel Prize winner Professor William E. Moerner together with more than 150 researchers and companies from all over the world will be attending the International Conference on Nanoscopy (ICON 2018) in Bielefeld from the 27th of February till the 2nd of March. The latest developments in the field of optical nanoscopy and their application in biology and biomedicine will be discussed at the meeting. Bielefeld University’s Faculty of Physics is organizing the conference together with the Gesellschaft zur Förderung des Forschungs- und Technologietransfers (GFT e.V.) and the company Bionano-Solutions. It will be held in the conference rooms of the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences.

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» Published on 19. Februar 2018

National Action Plan for Health Literacy: Healthcare and academic experts call for a comprehensive strategy

Federal Health Minister Gröhe: “With this roadmap, we can achieve a great deal."

Every second person in Germany has only limited health literacy. It is hard for them to understand and evaluate health-related information. A team of experts from academia and the healthcare field, led by Doris Schaeffer and Ullrich Bauer from the University of Bielefeld, Klaus Hurrelmann  from the Hertie School of Governance and Kai Kolpatzik from the AOK national association (AOK-Bundesverband), want to combat this deficit with a "National Action Plan for Health Literacy". The plan offers 15 concrete recommendations involving all the relevant actors, and aims to make the healthcare system more user-friendly and promote citizens’ health literacy. The "National Action Plan for Health Literacy" is an initiative of the academics and is sponsored by the Federal Minister of Health. The Robert Bosch Foundation and the AOK-Bundesverband funded the work.

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» Published on 26. Januar 2018

The 17 best doctoral theses in 2017

University Society awards Dissertation Prizes

On the 23rd of January, the Bielefeld University Society (UGBi) awarded Dissertation Prizes to young academics at Bielefeld University: the award goes to the best doctoral thesis of 2017 in each faculty. All 17 theses proposed by the faculties had received the highest classification of ‘summa cum laude’. This is the first time so many prizes have been awarded, and also the first time a prize winner has come from the Bielefeld School of Education (BiSED).

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» Published on 5. Januar 2018

First discover the disorder and then find the patients

Bielefeld biochemists confirm cause of initially unclear symptoms 

The sequencing of the human genome has made it possible: nowadays scientists can discover potential disorders for which there are no known patients. Such a disorder is ‘MPS III-E’, originally also called ‘Dierks’s disorder’ after its discoverer. Doctors at the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem (Israel) found consistent symptoms of progressive blindness in three patient families that indicated the presence of a previously unknown genetic defect. Genome analyses at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) delivered a candidate gene on which Professor Dr. Thomas Dierks from Bielefeld University had already published a research article in 2012. Studies by Dierks’ research team now revealed that these patients indeed suffer from ‘MPS III-E’.  The researchers are now presenting their analysis in the journal ‘Genetics in Medicine’, published by the Nature Publishing Group.

 

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» Published on 4. Januar 2018

New initiative giving a chance to refugee researchers

Bielefeld University coordinating pan-European project with six partners

They flee from regions beset by war and crises, and many come to Europe. They are academics in danger. Some find refuge in European academic institutions – including Bielefeld University, where they can continue their academic work. The newly approved project BRiDGE (Bridge for Researchers in Danger Going to Europe) aims to build bridges for these refugee researchers and researchers in danger. The project is supporting 220 refugee researchers, mostly those displaced in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Switzerland, and Germany, but also in all other European countries. Bielefeld University is taking responsibility for coordinating the project.

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