Coronavirus: Information for University Employees

Oil poses a considerable danger to aquatic life. Researchers at the Universities of Bonn and Aachen and the Heimbach-GmbH have developed a new technology for the removal of such contaminations: Textiles with special surface properties passively skim off the oil and move it into a floating container. The scientists used surfaces from the plant kingdom as a model. The study has now been published in the journal "Philosophical Transactions A".

Climate change is affecting the health of agricultural soils. Increased heat and drought make life easy for the pathogenic fungus Pythium ultimum. As an international team of researchers led by the Universities of Kassel and Bonn has shown, the fungus causes almost total crop failure in peas after a hot and dry stress event. Short-term soil recovery seems to be possible only in exceptional cases. The study has now been published in the journal "Applied Soil Ecology".

Nine associations of international top universities have spoken up for open research data. The associations represent more than 160 of the largest and most renowned universities from many parts of the world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, Asia and Africa. The University of Bonn is involved as a member of the German U15 network.

With their translucent bells, moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) move around the oceans in a very efficient way. Scientists at the University of Bonn have now used a mathematical model to investigate how these cnidarians manage to use their neural networks to control their locomotion even when they are injured. The results may also contribute to the optimization of underwater robots. The study has already been published online in the journal "eLife"; the final version will appear soon.

Did the chicks of dinosaurs from the group oviraptorid hatch from their eggs at the same time? This question can be answered by the length and arrangement of the embryo's bones, which provide information about the stage of development. But how do you look inside fossilized dinosaur eggs? Paleontologists from the University of Bonn used the neutron source of the Technical University of Munich at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) in Garching. This showed that oviraptorids developed at different speeds in their eggs and that they resemble modern birds in this respect. The results have been published in the journal "Integrative Organismal Biology".