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» Published on 7. November 2014

Bielefeld team wins gold medal at iGEM

Biofuel from CO2 impresses jury  

Last weekend (31 October - 3 November 2014), ten Bielefeld Master’s degree students were rewarded for their hard work in the laboratory over the past six months. At the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition) in Boston, USA, the team received a gold medal for their project “The Transformers - from CO2 to Biofuel”. The students impressed the expert jury with their project to produce a biofuel using electrical energy and carbon dioxide. The iGEM Competition, which started out as an internal competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. Bielefeld University has been participating for 5 years.

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» Published on 4. November 2014

The hopes of Chinese education migrants

Bielefeld University engaging in joint research with universities in England and China

Chinese students are the most mobile in the world. At 20 per cent, they are the largest group of international students in the industrialized countries. They also constitute the majority in Germany: every tenth international student comes from China. In a new research project, Bielefeld University is asking Chinese students what they expect to gain from studying in Europe. The project is also surveying students in China who have to travel a long way from home for their studies both inside China and abroad. Bielefeld is working together with the University of Essex (England) and the University of Tsinhua (China) on the project ‘Bright Futures’ – the first project in the world to study the attitudes and experiences of Chinese students transnationally in Europe and China.

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» Published on 28. Oktober 2014

From CO2 to Biofuel

Bielefeld University students participate in iGEM competition

Ten Bielefeld students are engineering a bacterium which uses surplus electrical energy from renewable energy sources and carbon dioxide (CO2) in order to produce a biofuel. Current problems serve as an incentive for their project: an absence of infrastructure for the storage and transport of renewable energies, increasing CO2 emissions, and the impending scarcity of resources. The students are developing possible solutions with which they are participating in this year’s iGEM (“International Genetically Engineered Machine”) competition. iGEM is an international student competition in the field of synthetic biology, which has been held in Boston, USA, since 2004.

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» Published on 22. Oktober 2014

Cooling with molecules

Researchers at the universities in Bielefeld, Manchester, and Zaragoza present low-temperature experiment in Nature Communications

An international team of scientists have become the first ever researchers to successfully reach temperatures below minus 272.15 degrees Celsius – only just above absolute zero – using magnetic molecules. The physicists and chemists are presenting their new investigation today (22 October 2014) in the scientific journal Nature Communications. It was developed by six scientists from Bielefeld University, the University of Manchester (Great Britain), and the Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain).

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» Published on 16. Oktober 2014

Sperm wars

Evolutionary biologist at Bielefeld University compiles international special issue on sperm competition

Why do male animals need millions of sperms every day in order to reproduce? And why are there two sexes anyway? These and related questions are the topic of the latest issue of the research journal Molecular Human Reproduction published today (16.10.2014). The evolutionary biologist Steven Ramm from Bielefeld University Bielefeld has compiled this special issue on sperm competition.

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» Published on 14. Oktober 2014

How the brain leads us to believe we have sharp vision

Psychologists from Bielefeld University publish study

We assume that we can see the world around us in sharp detail. In fact, our eyes can only process a fraction of our surroundings precisely. In a series of experiments, psychologists at Bielefeld University have been investigating how the brain fools us into believing that we see in sharp detail. The results have been published in the scientific magazine 'Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.' Its central finding is that our nervous system uses past visual experiences to predict how blurred objects would look in sharp detail.

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» Published on 24. September 2014

How experience influences human and animal personality

Conference at Bielefeld University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research

We are not born with a finished personality, and it seems as if animals aren’t either. A ‘reaction norm’ is what biologists call the interplay between environmental and genetic features that determines an individual and how an organism behaves over the course of development. It is within the framework of this reaction norm that behaviour changes over the couse of life. The flexibility this permits, scientists agree, represents a major pacemaker of evolution. From 29 September to 1 October, researchers will be meeting at Bielefeld University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) to discuss how this flexibility leads to changes in various animal species including human beings and whether there are specific periods in life when this is particularly important. The international conference is entitled ‘New Perspectives in Behavioural Development: Adaptive Shaping of Behaviour over a Lifetime?’

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» Published on 22. September 2014

250,000 euros for international research collaboration

Anneliese Maier Research Award granted to renowned expert for sociological inequality research

On 11 September 2014, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation granted the Anneliese Maier Research Award to American sociologist Donald Tomaskovic-Devey. The foundation had announced last December that the academic was one of eight award winners. The 250,000 euro award will be used to fund the research cooperation with the Collaborative Research Centre on social inequalities at Bielefeld University (CRC 882: ”From Heterogeneities to Inequalities” (SFB)). Here, among other things, Tomaskovic-Devey has been involved in building up an international research network on explanations for the causes of social inequalities since June 2014.

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» Published on 8. September 2014

Nationwide Survey: Confidence in times of crisis

Bielefeld University responsible for German part of the European Social Survey

How far do politicians pay attention to what people in Europe actually think? That is just one of the topics covered by the longitudinal European Social Survey (ESS). It will be studying the social and political views of more than 50,000 people in both Germany and roughly 30 other European countries. For the first time, Bielefeld University will be responsible for the sub-study assessing people’s attitudes in Germany. It will be starting this month. The ESS is considered to be one of the largest social-scientific surveys in Europe.

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» Published on 5. September 2014

Religious freedom and human rights in constitutions

Conference at Bielefeld University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF)

Religion and religious freedom are not just a current and pressing topic in countries such as Egypt that are presently drafting new constitutions. When both drawing up and interpreting constitutions, experts also look at those of other countries and the experiences gained there. ‘Constitutional migration’ is the name given to the process by which ideas and concepts from one constitution transfer to another constitution. How this proceeds with reference to relations between the state and religion and particularly with reference to religious freedom is the topic of a conference to be held at Bielefeld’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) from 11 to 13. September.

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