University of Bonn specialist in Scandinavian Studies Valerie Broustin examined the Icelandic cycle of legendary sagas known as the Hrafnistumannasögur in a case study. Her findings could lead to a paradigm shift in researching this literary genre. The results have now been published in a book.

In the Funding Atlas 2024, recently published by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the University of Bonn has improved its standing significantly, surging from 15th out of all universities in 2021 to now stand 6th. The DFG’s Funding Atlas provides a clear yet detailed record of the funding provided by public-sector donors to Germany’s higher-education and research institutions between 2020 and 2022. 

Some sequences in the genome cause genes to be switched on or off. Until now, each of these gene switches, or so-called enhancers, was thought to have its own place on the DNA. Different enhancers are therefore separated from each other, even if they control the same gene, and switch it on in different parts of the body. A recent study from the University of Bonn and the LMU Munich challenges this idea. The findings are also important because gene switches are thought to play a central role in evolution. The study has been published in the journal Science Advances.

The Hausdorff Center for Mathematics (HCM) at the University of Bonn is letting schoolchildren get their first glimpse of the world of research. It recently began inviting young people with an interest in and gift for mathematics to meet there every Monday afternoon under the expert eye of Regula Krapf and Henning Heller to spend time researching together, focusing on questions of elementary mathematics and mathematics education. The group’s findings are expected to feed into academic publications and show the schoolchildren first-hand how mathematical research works in real life. 

The ATLAS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) reported the first observation of top quarks in collisions between lead ions in a talk held at CERN last week. Members of the research group of Prof. Dr. Matthias Schott from the Physikalisches Institut at the University of Bonn have been contributing to this new study. The observation of top-quark pairs represents a significant step forward in heavy-ion collision physics, paving the way for new measurements of the quark–gluon plasma that is created in these collisions and delivering fresh insights into the nature of the strong force that binds protons, neutrons and other composite particles together. 

Rainforest protection is not only good for biodiversity and the climate – it also noticeably improves the health of humans who live in the corresponding regions. This is the conclusion drawn by a current study by the University of Bonn and the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil. In this, the researchers show that measures to combat slash-and-burn techniques significantly reduce the concentration of particulate matter in the air. The number of hospital stays and deaths due to respiratory diseases thus also decreases. The results have been published now in the journal Nature Communications, Earth & Environment.

The University of Bonn has once again demonstrated its excellence as a research institution in the latest Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2024—part of the high-profile Shanghai Ranking. Mathematics and Economics held on to their respective first-place rankings in Germany, enjoyed for several years now. Agricultural Sciences now ranks third nationally.

SMEs and research institutions have increasing need for expertise and computing capacity for their AI research. Prominent academic institutions of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, led by the University of Bonn, have jointly formed the AI service center WestAI to provide AI services and proprietary AI research in support of business and research. The state-of-the-art computing infrastructures of RWTH Aachen and Forschungszentrum Jülich are utilized for the services. As of now, interested outside parties can request computing time for AI projects via the WestAI website. At present the services are provided free of charge thanks to funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).