Study by researchers at Bielefeld University, University of Hamburg, and New York University

Without being aware of it, people sometimes wrongly perceive tactile sensations. A new study in the scientific journal “Current Biology” shows how healthy people can sometimes misattribute touch to the wrong side of their body, or even to a completely wrong part of the body. The study was conducted by researchers at Bielefeld University’s Cluster of Excellence CITEC, the University of Hamburg, and New York University.

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University encourages strategic cooperations

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Bielefeld University sent out invitations to important international partners. Last week, representatives of international strategic partner universities visited the university and the city. The guests met their cooperation partners and held talks on the topic of ‘international networking’. On Friday, they attended an evening event at the Rudolf Oetker Hall.
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Analysis of the alpine marmot’s genome

Historic climate change events can have a lasting impact on the genetic diversity of a species, reveals a new study published in Current Biology. This unexpected finding emerged from an analysis of the alpine marmot’s genome. An iconic animal known to tourists and mountaineers, the alpine marmot is a large rodent exquisitely adapted to cold climates. Since the disappearance of its ice-age habitat, the alpine marmot has resided in high-altitude meadows in the Alps. In this new study co-led by the Francis Crick Institute, an international team of scientists sequenced the genomes of alpine marmots living in three sites in the French and Italian Alps, and found that the animal’s genetic diversity is among the lowest of wild mammals. By reconstructing the marmot’s genetic past with the help of fossil records, they discovered that it lost its genetic diversity during the last ice age as a consequence of multiple climate related adaptations. Toni Gossmann is first-author of the paper and researcher at the University of Sheffield and Bielefeld University in Germany.[Weiterlesen]

Particle physicists install 5th generation special purpose computer

The department of physics at Bielefeld University receives a new high-performance compute cluster equipped with state-of-the-art graphics processors. The new facility will be used for research on properties of strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions of temperature and density. Such conditions existed in the early universe for only a fraction of the first second after the big bang but may still exist today in the interior of compact stars. The new high-performance compute-cluster is financed through a 1.9 million Euro grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The new facility will allow to significantly advance research projects which the particle physics group at Bielefeld University currently conducts within the Collaborative Research Center „Matter under extreme conditions“ (CRC-TR 211) – a research program of physicists at Bielefeld University, Technical University Darmstadt and Goethe University Frankfurt which also is funded by DFG. The inauguration of the new compute-cluster will take place on May 20, 2019, at 4pm in lecture hall 6 of the main building of Bielefeld University.[Weiterlesen]

Bielefeld researchers publish study on the flexibility of sensory perception

Hearing, sight, touch – our brain captures a wide range of distinct sensory stimuli and links them together. The brain has a kind of built-in filter function for this: sensory impressions are only integrated if it is necessary and useful for the task at hand. Researchers from Bielefeld University, Oxford University (Great Britain), and Aix-Marseille University (France) investigated this phenomenon of flexibility in perception, and have now published a study on their findings that appears in the scientific journal “Neuron” (29 April 2019). In their publication, the researchers reveal where sensory stimuli are integrated in the brain, and in which area of the brain this flexibility can be located. From Bielefeld University, Professor Dr. Christoph Kayser and Dr. Hame Park from the Cluster of Excellence CITEC were involved in the study.[Weiterlesen]

German schools place markedly less emphasis on political education compared to history or geography in their curricula. This is confirmed in the ‘2018 political education ranking’ presented by Professor Dr Reinhold Hedtke and Mahir Gökbudak from the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University.[Weiterlesen]

The Bielefeld sociologist is studying what happens to society when algorithms predict the future

Computers evaluate data that are then used to make predictions for medicine, insurance, or policing: what effect do these algorithms and their predictions have in society?  The Bielefeld academic Elena Esposito is receiving an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for her sociological research on this topic. This grant is awarded to outstanding researchers who are already established, leading principal investigators in their field of research. It is worth 2.1 million euros over a period of five years. In the eleven-year history of the ERC Grants, Esposito is only the second person to bring an Advanced Grant in this field to Germany.[Weiterlesen]

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International research team confirms twofold ability of molecules

Bacteria, plants, insects, or even fish use antifreeze proteins to protect themselves from the cold. The proteins block the growth of ice crystals. In a new study, a German–Israeli research team has confirmed that these proteins also possess an unusual second property: at low temperatures, they can promote rather than inhibit the growth of ice crystals. The study brought together researchers from Bielefeld University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot (Israel). It is being published today (07.03.2019) in the ‘Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters’.[Weiterlesen]

Bielefeld University coordinates joint project  / Main phase begins

Latin America is confronted with crises – from political unrest in Venezuela, the deforestation of the Amazon, violence against women (“feminicide”), the extreme divide between rich and poor, to the threat of a wall between the USA and Mexico. How do Latin American societies cope with crises? To answer this question, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the CALAS cooperative project with a total of 12 million euros in the six-year main phase starting in March. Bielefeld University coordinates the "Maria Sibylla Merian Center for Advanced Latin American Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences" (CALAS), headquartered at the University of Guadalajara, a strategic partner university of Bielefeld.
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