Research News
An Alliance for Water Research
Water body researchers from the UFZ install a sensor at the Rappbode Dam. They are trying to find the cause for the over the past years continuously increasing amount of dissolved organic carbon in the water. Photo: André Künzelmann/UFZFlood, water pollution and water shortage are global problems that are continuously aggravated by climate change, increasing industrialisation and a growing population world-wide. To safeguard the availability of water as a resource in a sustainable manner, intensified cooperation across all disciplines is required between the various fields of water research. For this reason, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ established the "Water Science Alliance".
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Ticket to a Strange World
Since the outbreak of EHEC in the north of Germany, much could be learned about the pathogenic agent: That it is a dangerous variant of our intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli; that it excretes a cytotoxin and that in addition to bloody diarrhea it can cause life-threatening kidney failure. Now we also know what EHEC looks like - thanks to the...more
Fossil Lizard Revealed as Amphisbaenia Ancestor
The evolutionary genesis of snakes is one of the big riddles of evolution biology. Whereas genetic examination points towards a relationship to iguanas and monitor lizards, snake anatomy more likely indicates a joint origin with other reptiles featuring snake-like body shapes. Hot contestors are in particular the so-called worm lizards or...more
Virtual Assault on the Summit
Now, everybody can climb to the summit of Mount Everest – virtually. For the first time, experts around Frank Lehmann from the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics have captured a three-dimensional impression of the highest mountain range of the world by way of optical satellite data and have created an image with a resolution of 50...more
Simulating the Brain
"The brain is energy efficient, can work with incomplete data, is capable of learning and repairing itself. To imitate these capabilities would revolutionise information technology, medicine and our society", says Prof. Dr Henre Markram from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He heads the 'Human Brain Project' bringing scientists from...more
Research Aircraft Polar 5 Reveals: Arctic Sea Ice Thins Down
During their spring expedition to the Arctic and at icy temperatures of up to minus 30°C, the scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) investigated the sea ice, the distribution of aerosols, the concentration of ozone and the accuracy of satellite measurements.
The researchers were able to determine the...more
Air Show for Science
With their flight, the two barn owls "Happy" and "Tesla" help scientists to improve their understanding of wing beat movements and of the air flow around the wing. In a room at the RWTH Aachen university, the wings of "Happy" and "Tesla" are photographed during flight. By projecting a pattern onto the upper and lower wings, the owl's position in...more
Why Does the Wadden Sea Increase?
Wadden seas originate anywhere in the temperate regions, where the sea floods gently sloping areas in a tidal rhythm and thus deposits sediments. Since 2006, two scientists from the Institute of Coastal Research at the Helmholtz Centre Geesthacht and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research investigate the phenomenon that the Wadden Sea does...more
Plant Extract Hay Fever Relief
In a clinical study, researchers from the Allergy and Environment Centre (Zentrum Allergie und Umwelt - ZAUM) at the Helmholtz Zentrum München showed that a plant extract constitutes an effective remedy against hay fever. They were able to prove that the plant extract Ze 339 (petasol butenoate complex) remedies swollen nasal mucosa faster and more...more
Fast Neutrons for Transmutation
At the Helmholtz Centre Dresden-Rossendorf, scientists around Dr Arnd Junghans create fast neutrons at the neutron source nELBE. For this, they shoot electrons from the electron accelerator ELBE at liquid lead. "This results in the emittance of 200,000 ultra-short neutron pulses per second, a world-wide unique output", says Arnd...more
Facebook for Genes
Many genes feature different variations in different people. In order to detect such variants which may increase the risk of a certain disease, scientists compare the patients' genes with those from healthy control groups. Yet the effect of certain variants in the genetic material often is dependent on whether also other genes are affected. Only...more
Salmonella Strategy
Scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig have discovered a hitherto unknown infection mechanism employed by salmonella when entering into intestinal cells: They let themselves be drawn into these cells via special fibres of their host cells, almost as if by muscle power.
The host cell's actin cytoskeleton...more
Targeting Rice Terraces
The significance of artificially irrigated rice terraces for maintaining diversity is one of the subjects addressed by the research project LEGATO. The aim of the subsidy programme, which is coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ and is funded with a total of 7.5 million Euro over five years, is to develop strategies...more
Soft or Rigid at the Push of a Button
Materials with a memory that can "remember" their original shape are long since used in practical applications. However, materials that change between a soft and a rigid state at the push of a button have not existed until now. Jörg Weißmüller from the Helmholtz Centre Geesthacht has developed such a material together with colleagues...more
Technology Transfer 2011/07-08
First Helmholtz Validation Fund Project Starts
The first four projects of the Helmholtz Validation Fund, the Helmholtz Association's new instrument for funding technology transfer, were selected in May 2011. Over the course of the next two years, these projects will further develop application oriented research results in the fields of medical...more
