uni.news

» Published on 2. März 2015

Preventing the spread of cancer with copper molecules

Chemists at Bielefeld University develop anti-tumour agent  

Chemists at Bielefeld University have developed a molecule containing copper that binds specifically with DNA and prevents the spread of cancer. First results show that it kills the cancer cells more quickly than cisplatin – a widely used anti-cancer drug that is frequently administered in chemotherapy. When developing the anti-tumour agent, Professor Dr. Thorsten Glaser and his team cooperated with biochemists and physicists. The design of the new agent is basic research. ‘How and whether the copper complex will actually be given to cancer patients is something that medical research will have to determine in the years to come,’ says the chemist.

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» Published on 13. Februar 2015

New: Temporary Main Entrance and new pedestrian routes

Fencing off for the first construction phase

From Monday 16 February, both the Main Entrance to the Main Building of the university and the previous women’s car park will be closed. From this date to the end of March, the site will be prepared for the first construction phase. Extensive fencing will be erected around the outside of Sections A, B, K, S, and R. As a result, many of you will have to change the ways you enter and leave the university. Part of the first modernization phase is to provide the university with a completely new entrance area over the next few years.

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» Published on 20. Januar 2015

Square Kilometre Array: The Cosmology Engine

Astronomers prepare to map the Universe with largest radio telescope ever built

An international team of scientists including Hans-Rainer Klöckner from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn and Dominik Schwarz from the University of Bielefeld have joined forces to lay the foundations for an experiment of truly astronomical proportions: putting together the biggest map of the Universe ever made. The experiment will combine signals from hundreds of radio dishes to make cosmic atlas. In a series of papers published today on the arXiv.org astrophysics pre-print website, an international team of researchers set out their plans for the mammoth survey.

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» Published on 13. Januar 2015

The Sound of Chirping Birds in the Control Centre

Computer scientists develop a method for monitoring by listening in factories, operating rooms, and postal logistics centres

When the alarm light starts blinking in the control room of a factory, the problem has already occurred. Computer scientists at the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interactive Technology (CITEC) at Bielefeld University and the University of Vienna have developed a method that allows control room staff to monitor several processes at the same time, which enables them to take preventative action. The trick: processes are coded with sounds. Workers hear, for example, whether there is enough material on the conveyor belt and can react before the supply is used up. 

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» Published on 23. Dezember 2014

International demand for Bielefeld mathematicians

Visiting professor in China and academy member in Lithuania   

Two Bielefeld mathematicians have just received exceptional international honours: Professor Dr. Friedrich Götze has been elected as a foreign member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and Professor Dr. Michael Röckner has been awarded a 3-year visiting professorship at the Chinese Jiangsu Normal University.

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» Published on 16. Dezember 2014

First steps for Hector the robot stick insect

Scientists at Bielefeld University apply technology inspired by examples in nature

A research team at Bielefeld University has succeeded in teaching the only robot of its kind in the world how to walk. Its first steps have been recorded in a video. You can watch them in Bielefeld University’s latest posting on ‘research_tv’. The robot is called Hector, and its construction is modelled on a stick insect. Inspired by the insect, Hector has passive elastic joints and an ultralight exoskeleton. What makes it unique is that it is also equipped with a great number of sensors and it functions according to a biologically inspired decentralized reactive control concept: the Walknet. By 2017, the walking robot will be equipped with additional abilities in a major project at the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC).

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» Published on 10. Dezember 2014

Filtering pollutants with nanomembranes

Bielefeld University participating in two European research networks 

Bielefeld University’s Faculty of Physics is starting research on nanomembranes in two new projects. Both projects are investigating the use of ultrathin foils as filters. The one project belongs to the European Union’s (EU) flagship research programme on graphene – a flexible and solid material that is only one atom thick. The EU is investing roughly one billion Euros in this flagship project over the next 10 years. The other project is studying the filtering of gases with ultrathin nanomembranes that are very similar to graphene. It is being funded by the ‘M-era.Net’ initiative, a network of partners from 24 European nations and regions.

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» Published on 8. Dezember 2014

Stem cells from adult nose tissue used to cure Parkinson’s disease in rats

Scientists have for the first time used adult human stem cells to “cure” Parkinson’s disease in rats. The finding might someday also lead to therapy prompting a full recovery in human patients for what is considered one of the most severe neurodegenerative diseases, and one that presently has no cure.

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» Published on 21. November 2014

University of Wrocław awards honorary doctorate to Bielefeld physicist

Professor Helmut Satz honoured in Poland

 

Helmut Satz, emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at Bielefeld University, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Wrocław in Poland on 14 November. He has been promoting relations between the two universities for many decades. Starting in 1980, he worked closely together with physicists at the University of Wrocław, gave lectures there, and invited young Polish physicists to come to Bielefeld University.

 

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» Published on 7. November 2014

New long-term research project ‘Niklas Luhmann – A passion for theory’

Five million Euros of funding for the project from the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts  

On the 30th of October, the Joint Science Conference (GWK) announced six new long-term research projects for the Academies’ Programme sponsored by the Federal Government and the States. The research proposal ‘Niklas Luhmann – Theorie als Passion. Wissenschaftliche Erschließung und Edition des Nachlasses’ [Niklas Luhmann – A passion for theory: Academic indexing and editing of the legacy] is a new admission to the Academies’ Programme for the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. It will receive a total of 5,050,000 Euro over a period of 16 years. As a result, the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts is now represented by 15 projects in the largest research programme for the humanities in Germany.

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