The British polar research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough has completed its first scientific expedition to the Arctic, with doctoral student Katrin Wagner on board from the University of Bonn Institute of Geosciences. Along with an international team of researchers associated with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Wagner worked in southeast Greenland to study the region’s rapidly melting ice sheet—a phenomenon that is impacting the oceans and the global climate. During the expedition, she reported on her experiences on board the ship, taking questions from interested members of the public.
From infancy and usually for life, some families suffer from broken hair due to a congenital form of hair loss called monilethrix. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn and the University of Bonn have now identified causative mutations in another keratin gene, KRT31. They hope that this will improve the diagnosis of this rare disease. Their results have now been published in the renowned "British Journal of Dermatology".
Nerve cells in the brain receive thousands of synaptic signals via their "antenna", the so-called dendritic branch. Permanent changes in synaptic strength correlate with changes in the size of dendritic spines. However, it was previously unclear how the neurons implement these changes in strength across several synapses that are close to each other and active at the same time. Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn, the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) and the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) assume that the competition between spines for molecular resources and the spatial distance between simultaneously stimulated spines affect their resulting dynamics. The results of the study have now been published in the journal "Nature Communications".
Thousands of light particles can merge into a type of “super photon” under certain conditions. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now been able to use “tiny nano molds” to influence the design of this so-called Bose-Einstein condensate. This enables them to shape the speck of light into a simple lattice structure consisting of four points of light arranged in quadratic form. Such structures could potentially be used in the future to make the exchange of information between multiple participants tap-proof. The results have now been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the University of Bonn have renewed their partnership, reinforcing their commitment to leveraging space technology in response to growing threats from natural and human-made disasters. This five-year agreement, signed today in Vienna, extends the "Spaceborne Earth Observation Applications for Emergency Response and Disaster Risk Reduction" (SPEAR) project, focusing on African nations.
The University of Bonn was represented by some high-level figures at this year’s GAIN Conference in San Francisco. Rector Professor Michael Hoch and Vice Rector Professor Birgit Ulrike Münch attended the congress of the German Academic International Network (GAIN) between August 23 and 25. The conference is the largest networking event for international academic careers in Germany.