Leaving some weeds between crops can help to combat pests on agricultural land, according to a new study carried out by the University of Bonn. This step has particularly positive effects in combination with other measures: the cultivation of different types of crops and planting strips of wildflowers. The results have now been published in the Journal of Pest Science.

Some of the country’s leading centers for robotics have joined forces and set up a consortium to develop the new Robotics Institute Germany (RIG), which is set to become its first port of call for the robotics industry. The consortium’s coordinator Professor Angela Schoellig from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and RIG speaker Professor Tamim Asfour from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) unveiled the concept for AI-based robotics at the AI-Based Robotics conference in Berlin entitled. Launching on July 1, 2024, the project is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with €20 million over the next four years, and the University of Bonn is heavily involved. 

In a study with 991 adults, scientists at DZNE show that the most common forms of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) as well as the neurological diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) can be recognised by blood testing. Their procedure is not yet ready for routine medical use, but in the long term it could facilitate disease diagnosis and advance the development of new therapies already now. The findings published in the journal Nature Medicine are based on the measurement of certain proteinsin the blood,  which serve as biomarkers. The study also involved the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and other research institutions in Germany and Spain.

Researchers at the University of Bonn have developed software that can simulate the growth of field crops. To do this, they fed thousands of photos from field experiments into a learning algorithm. This enabled the algorithm to learn how to visualize the future development of cultivated plants based on a single initial image. Using the images created during this process, parameters such as leaf area or yield can be estimated accurately. The results have been published in the journal Plant Methods.

The 2024 edition of the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings, which highlight the impact that universities are having on each of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has recognized the University of Bonn’s strong commitment to sustainability in several categories. The University has even secured first place in Germany for SDG 11—Sustainable Cities and Communities.

As part of its efforts to strengthen top-level research, the German Research Foundation (DFG) funds a number of consortia known as Collaborative Research Centers (CRCs), some of which are implemented by several universities working together. Below are the details of the CRCs involving the University of Bonn for which funding is set to continue.

Thousands of particles of light can merge into a type of “super photon” under suitable conditions. Physicists call such a state a photon Bose-Einstein condensate. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now shown that this exotic quantum state obeys a fundamental theorem of physics. This finding now allows one to measure properties of photon Bose-Einstein condensates which are usually difficult to access. The study has been published in the journal “Nature Communications.”

Dr. Julian Schmitt from the Institute of Applied Physics at the University of Bonn has been presented with the Industrie-Club Düsseldorf’s Science Award for 2024 in recognition of his outstanding work studying quantum gases of photons. The accolade is worth €20,000.