Designing solutions for a healthier world has always been one of the great challenges of science. The goal is to make a healthy life possible for each human being and for the growing world population as a whole. Food, plants and marine algae can have a positive effect on health similar to that of conventional medicine. However, scientists first have to identify and isolate bioactive substances and explore their safe application through transdisciplinary cooperation between geo science, life sciences, physics and chemistry.
Antibiotic resistance poses a major challenge for medicine. Many substances that could potentially kill bacteria are known. However, the question of how they can penetrate the pathogens in order to render them harmless is often unresolved. Dr. Ulrich Kleinekathöfer, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Jacobs University Bremen, is working on improving a method for identifying successful antibiotic molecules in a new research project. It is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with 200,000 euros over a period of three years.
Thinking beyond national borders is important – especially in science. Every year, renowned scientists from abroad decide to spend a research stay at Jacobs University. According to the recently published Humboldt Rankings, the international university in Bremen is one of the most popular universities among researchers from abroad. The English-speaking Jacobs University ranked an outstanding seventh place in the Germany-wide comparison.
233 million years ago, a series of massive volcanic eruptions in present-day Canada provoked a climate change. These events led to the creation of new ecosystems, such as coral reefs, and favored the rapid spread of dinosaurs. This is the conclusion drawn by an international, interdisciplinary team of scientists in a new study comprising researchers from Jacobs University Bremen and the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT).
An international team of scientists, under participation of Jacobs University Bremen, has found evidence for the existence of several subsurface water bodies hidden under the south polar cap of Mars. Liquid water is the prerequisite for life. In a study now published in the journal "Nature Astronomy", the scientists report on their discovery.
Most research in the Center for Resource & Environmental Studies at Jacobs University Bremen focuses on rocks, ore deposits and various environmental systems. From this basic research the team at Jacobs University has developed a convenient application that allows the beverage industry to evaluate the quality of the water used in their products and check for the presence of microcontaminants such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products.
From ecological systems it is known that events like the extinction of an entire population can come as a surprise, so that countermeasures are late. These phenomena call for explanations, in order to create a deeper understanding of their causes. What are the conditions for maintaining biodiversity as a stable state if even a relatively small fluctuation in the population size can suddenly shift the whole system into another dynamical regime, in which, for example, the diversity is drastically reduced? Fluctuations that have such a drastic effect are rare, but not too rare to actually occur.
Precious metals such as platinum, palladium, gold, rhodium or iridium can be found in a variety of everyday products, for example in catalytic converters of cars, in mobile phones and laptops as well as in solar cells. They are particularly interesting for chemists because of their low reactivity with other elements. A team of researchers, led by Professor Ulrich Kortz at Jacobs University Bremen, now wants to develop a new class of materials containing precious metals and investigate their possible applications. "These materials will be very exciting not only for catalysis, but also for quantum computers and data storage," says Prof. Kortz. The project is funded by the German Research Foundation with around 200,000 euros.
In a joint study, scientists from Jacobs University Bremen, the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) and the University of Bremen have for the first time predicted the vulnerability of tropical coral reef habitats to measurable environmental factors. According to the study, 94 percent of the world's coral reef habitats must be considered endangered, whereas only six percent of the habitats can be considered as reef refugia, as largely unaffected areas. The study was recently published by the Bremen scientists in the renowned journal "Global Change Biology".
One of the world’s most renowned university rankings has again impressively confirmed the high quality of research and teaching at Jacobs University Bremen. In the World University Ranking 2021 of the British magazine "Times Higher Education" (THE), Jacobs University was placed among the 300 best universities. In terms of international orientation, it was ranked first place among German universities. More than 1,500 universities worldwide are represented in the THE Ranking this year.
A large part of the rainfall in the tropics is the result of several thunderstorm cells merging to form a large thunderstorm complex – known in technical terms as a mesoscale convective system. A new study by researchers from the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Jacobs University and the University of Copenhagen now provides further insight into the processes involved in the formation of large thunderstorm accumulations. The results of the model simulation have recently been published in the journal 'npj Climate and Atmospheric Science'.
A cooperation between Jacobs University and Kaesler Nutrition GmbH, which is doing research in Bremerhaven, could lead to a saving of several ten thousand tons of phosphorus emissions. The aim of the research project is the more environmentally friendly production of the enzyme phytase and its optimization. Phytase is used to produce feed for aquaculture. The research project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the state of Bremen through the BIS Bremerhavener Gesellschaft für Investitionsförderung und Stadtentwicklung mbH (Bremerhaven Economic Development Company). The total funding amounts to 740.000 euros.
Cleaning the seas from plastic waste cannot be achieved with technologies such as the Dutch “Ocean Cleanup” project. The private initiative aims to clean up the oceans by using floating barriers which are supposed to collect the plastic waste and bring it ashore. However, this contribution to cleaning up the ocean surface is very small, according to a recently published scientific study. "Technologies such as those proposed by the ‘The Ocean Cleanup’ project will not help us to solve the plastic problem," said Agostino Merico, researcher at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Bremen and Professor of Ecological Modeling at Jacobs University Bremen.
Rare earth elements are the black gold of the 21st century. Without them, modern high-technologies such as wind turbines, electromobility and medical diagnostics would be much less efficient. But the more important they become, the more they are released into the environment. The distribution and origin of the rare earth elements in waters and marine organisms of Norwegian fjords will now be investigated in detail by an international research consortium.
The coronavirus threatens and changes our lives in many ways: It attacks individual cells, influences the value system of humans and has massive economic consequences. At Jacobs University, scientists from a wide range of disciplines are researching its effects. "We want to contribute to a better understanding of the virus and to its successful control. In doing so, it is important to us to draw lessons for the future," says Prof. Thomas Auf der Heyde, Provost at the international university.
The network of brain areas and their connections is one of the key examples of research on complex networks. Using this human connectome as an example, systems biologist Professor Marc-Thorsten Hütt from Jacobs University Bremen and his colleague Dr. Paolo Moretti from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg have developed a mathematical method for predicting propagation patterns in networks. It paves the way for a better classification of the dynamic behavior of networks. The results of this basic research have recently been published in the renowned U.S. scientific journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" (PNAS).