Press and Media

In a new study by the Universities of Bielefeld and Bremen, scientists are testing how humans can better follow the instructions of a robot. The robots have to adapt their communication. The aim is to improve human-machine interaction. Several researchers from Transregio 318 "Constructing Explainability" and from the University of Bremen are involved in the study.

What role do digital methods play in science and how do they influence various uncertainties in research and also in society? Historian Dr Silke Schwandt is investigating precisely these questions. Two complementary findings emerge: digital methods in science help to navigate through uncertainties and at the same time they can contribute to increasing uncertainties. As part of the interdisciplinary Center for Uncertainty Studies (CeUS) at Bielefeld University, Schwandt is researching how digital tools can reduce uncertainty in science and also what expectations society has of science in dealing with general uncertainty.

Behavioural ecologists from Bielefeld are investigating genetic and social factors. In this new episode of research_tv they draw their conclusion. Genes or the environment: Which has a stronger effect on the development of an individual? A study by behavioural ecologists suggests that the question needs to be asked differently: At what points in life do genes and when does the environment have a stronger influence on the individual? In the new episode of research_tv, the researchers present their study and their surprising findings. The study was published in the journal Microbiome. For the study, the behavioural ecologists cooperated with geneticists from the Centre for Biotechnology (CeBiTec) at Bielefeld University. The study is part of the Bielefeld research on individualisation in changing environments. Bielefeld University cooperates on this topic with the University of Münster—in the joint institute JICE, the research network InChangE funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Collaborative Research Centre NC³ (SFB/TRR 212) funded by the German Research Foundation DFG.

Women's and gender rights are questioned and attacked all over the world - often for political reasons. A research group of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) has been discussing how and why this happens since October 2020. The title of the group: Global Contestations of Gender and Women's Rights. It will present its results at its final conference from 10 to 12 March. The American and gender researcher Professor Dr. Julia Roth explains what the research group dealt with in the new article in the research_tv series.

Biophysicist Professor Dr. Thomas Huser and his team explain their research on ultra-high resolution microscopes. With this nanoscopy, previously invisible processes and structures in body cells can be visualised. For example, it can be used to investigate how individual viruses spread within body cells. Doctors and life scientists often don't get very far with previous microscopes when they want to examine the movements of individual viruses in cells. This is because the movement of individual viruses cannot be visualised with conventional optical microscopes. Huser and his team are working on imaging methods that depict biological systems in high resolution and with many images per second. In addition, together with colleagues from the University of Hong Kong, they have now developed a laser microscope that can magnify molecules in cell samples without having to label the molecules with luminescent substances in advance, as is usually the case.
 

Algae that produce patchouli scent - Professor Dr Olaf Kruse and his team were sure to attract some media attention. But the real interest of the researcher from the Faculty of Biology is not the scents: At the Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec) at Bielefeld University, the focus is on new methods that can help save human lives and tackle important problems of the future. In research_tv, he and his colleague Dr Thomas Baier present the opportunities that microalgae offer as sustainable "cell factories".

Young people in Germany today increasingly want to have their needs heard. This is one of the findings of the 18th Shell Youth Study, published in October 2019. "Young people have pronounced expectations of politics and society - and thus also of the older generations in particular," says Bielefeld political scientist Professor Dr Mathias Albert, who is in charge of the study. The Shell Youth Study has been investigating the attitudes of young people in Germany since 1953.

Professor Dr Oliver Krüger has been researching the buzzard in East Westphalia for 30 years. The long-term study he leads is one of the most extensive in Europe. research_tv accompanies the researchers to the nests. On the one hand, the study shows how the buzzards go about their lives individually, and on the other, how the population as a whole develops over the years and affects other bird species. Behavioural scientist Oliver Krüger and his team know almost all buzzard nests in their observation area of around 300 square kilometres.

When people in Cameroon suffer from malaria and other parasitic infectious diseases, they often cannot afford treatment – the imported synthetic medicines cost a lot of money. The members of the graduate school YaBiNaPA of Bielefeld University and the University Yaoundé I in Cameroon are analysing medicinal plants that are used in traditional African medicine. The goal of the analyses is to find inexpensive plant-based drugs that are effective against parasitic and bacterial diseases. The cooperation also aims to strengthen the interdisciplinary education of doctoral students. This involves also expanding the local experimental infrastructure in Yaoundé. www.uni-bielefeld.de/yabinapa/

You can find more research_tv videos on the YouTube channel of Bielefeld University in the playlist "Forschen".