Galaxies contain black holes weighing between approximately five and 100 solar masses. There are also some with more than 100,000 solar masses. But do medium-mass black holes also develop in galaxies? A study by the Astronomical Institute of Charles University in Czechia, with significant participation from the University of Bonn, shows how medium-mass black holes can frequently form naturally. However, this currently only occurs in the innermost regions of star-forming galaxies similar to our Milky Way. The results have now been published in a “Letter to the Editor” in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics.” 

Cell membranes, such as those found in red blood cells, naturally adopt optimal geometric shapes that maintain low bending energy. In his newly established Emmy Noether Group, Dr. Christian Scharrer at the Institute of Applied Mathematics at the University of Bonn is exploring the geometric phenomena that arise as membrane shapes become increasingly complex. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved €850,000 in funding for the group over a period of up to six years.

The agriculture industry may be producing more food than ever before, but it is also damaging the climate, harming the soil and eroding biodiversity. A team of researchers from the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn has now published a paper in the journal “Agricultural Systems” that explains the key role technological innovations will need to play to make agriculture sustainable in the future and why these will have to be accompanied by shrewd policies and new business models.

The amount of litter floating in the Rhine is many times larger than previously believed. Researchers from the University of Bonn, the University of Tübingen and the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) partnered with the Cologne-based non-profit pollution-fighting organization K.R.A.K.E. to collect and classify macro litter in a floating litter trap—the only one of its kind in Germany—over a period of 16 months. Extrapolation models based on the observed volume indicate that roughly 53,000 items of macro waste debris float past Cologne on the Rhine river every day. Disposable plastic products make up a large proportion of the litter found in the Rhine. The findings have now been published in the scientific journal “Communications Sustainability.”

The human brain must be able to link memory content to the circumstances in which it occurs. Researchers in Bonn have now discovered how the human brain uses two different groups of neurons to store content and context separately. These nerve cell groups work together in a coordinated manner to form memories, rather than mixing signals in the activity of individual cells. The study results have now been published in the renowned journal Nature.

A new Heisenberg Professor has begun her work at the University of Bonn. Professor Laury Sarti, a medieval historian, is investigating the everyday mobility of people in the Middle Ages, considering not only the nobility but also ordinary individuals. Through its Heisenberg Programme, the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) enables researchers to pursue high-level projects and thus burnish their academic reputation even further. Sarti is receiving funding worth around €650,000.

When a maize plant is attacked by the fungus Ustilago maydis, tumor-like tissue growths occur at the site of infection. How the pathogen causes this response in its host has long been unknown. But a University of Bonn study has now shown how the fungus takes over the plant’s function for forming lateral roots. The findings have been published in the journal New Phytologist.

When food prices skyrocket during an economic crisis, it is primarily urban populations and people with low levels of education who are affected. This can have lifelong negative health consequences – such as stunted growth in children. A research team at the University of Bonn has now demonstrated such long-term effects using the example of the "Asian financial crisis" in the 1990s. At that time, turmoil on the financial markets led to a drastic increase in the price of rice, Indonesia's most important staple food, which left measurable traces in the development of children. The study was published in the journal "Global Food Security."