Press archive

Heart attack survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder have a clearly higher mortality risk than patients without the disorder. This is the result of a current study of approximately 150 patients who received treatment with a defibrillator after a heart attack or cardiac arrest. The scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, the Technische Universität München and the German Heart Center Munich underscore the need to devote considerably more attention to psychological symptoms than has been...

Fight against Memories – Psychological Health Vitally Important for Cardiac Patients

Extreme weather events have a greater effect on flora than previously presumed. A one-month drought postpones the time of flowering of grassland and heathland plants in Central Europe by an average of 4 days. With this a so-called 100-year drought event equates to approx. a decade of global warming. The flowering period of an important early flowerer, the common Birds-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) was even shortened by more than a month due to heavy rain and started flowering early by almost one month. In a study conducted by the University of Bayreuth and the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) researchers came to this conclusion.

Extreme weather postpones the flowering time of plants

Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany have achieved an important advance in better understanding metabolic pathways in bacteria and their use. Using computer models, the “System and Synthetic Biology” working group, headed up by Vítor Martins dos Santos, calculated the genetic changes that are necessary for increasing the production of biosynthetics in the Pseudomonas putida bacteria.

Biosynthetics production with detours

Helmholtz researchers in Braunschweig calculate how more can be brought out of bacteria. Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany have achieved an important advance in better understanding metabolic pathways in bacteria and their use.

Biosynthetics production with detours

Changes to marine ecosystems caused by climatic conditions show how closely physiological and ecological processes are intertwined. This is described by Prof. Dr. Hans-Otto Pörtner, physiological ecologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, in the current issue of the periodical Science.

In which way does climate change affect the complex interaction in ecosystems? - A perspective for a network of ecological and physiological research

Professor Helmut Dosch will become the new Chair of the Directorate of the Research Centre DESY. Solid-state physicist Helmut Dosch, born in Rosenheim, Bavaria, is at present Director of the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart and professor at the University of Stuttgart. On 1 March 2009, he will replace Professor Albrecht Wagner as Chair of the DESY Directorate who has served as DESY Director since 1999.

New Director-General for DESY

Leading energy research organisations from ten EU countries have formed an alliance to promote energy research in Europe. The Helmholtz Association is the German partner. "The Helmholtz Association is the largest publicly funded energy research organisation in Germany, running projects that cover a whole spectrum of research fields from renewable energy sources to efficient energy conversion and nuclear fusion. This means that we are already a leading partner in many European research projects," says Prof. Jürgen Mlynek, President of the Helmholtz Association.

European Energy Research Alliance

A sustainable energy supply can be achieved, even under conditions of global economic growth - this is the outcome of the updated global energy scenario developed on behalf of Greenpeace International and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) by the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics (Institut für Technische Thermodynamik) of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) in cooperation with over 30 other scientists and institutes.

Global energy scenario shows that sustainable energy supply can be achieved

Back in July 2007, Professor Kasthuri Venkateswaran and his group of American scientists of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) discovered a hitherto unknown species of bacillus. After investigating its genetic makeup, JPL has now arranged for the bacillus species to be registered in specialised databases as "Bacillus horneckiae". It is named after recently retired radiation biologist Dr Gerda Horneck of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR).

The name is Horneckiae, Bacillus Horneckiae

The ceramic matrix composite nose cap for Earth atmosphere re-entry vehicles developed at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) in Stuttgart is now fit for space. It has passed the required final load tests on the ground successfully, so it is now ready for flight. As a central component of EXPERT (European eXPErimental Reentry Testbed), a European experimental re-entry vehicle, the nose cap’s integrated measuring instruments will collect important data during the Earth atmosphere re-entry phase of its 2010 flight.

EXPERT nose cap gets the all clear