News

Biologist Alona Prylutska and her colleagues from the “Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center” in Kharkiv work hard every day to save bats. The war is making their work difficult – but they are keeping it up nevertheless. Since November 2022, Alona Prylutska has been continuing her work from Germany, within a research project at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.

Winfried Kretschmann and Petra Olschowski visit the University of Konstanz.

A comparative study conducted at the University of Konstanz of over a thousand bird species comes to the conclusion: the key factor that matters for brain size is parental care.

In research on quantum computers, one aspect that has been mostly neglected until now is the generation of heat. Physicists from Konstanz, Grenoble and Helsinki now focus their attention on heat as an interference factor – and have developed a method to experimentally measure the heat generated by a superconducting quantum system.

Is the core of an animal or plant population always found in the center of its range, as a classic ecological model predicts? In most cases, but not always. Luckily, exceptions from the model are easy to predict, according to the findings of an international research team involving ecologist Trevor Fristoe from the University of Konstanz.

What connects humans and bonobos during collective eating? A conversation about rituals, rules, and feasts with behavioural ecologist Barbara Fruth and health psychologist Britta Renner.

A polyester plastic of great mechanical stability, which is also easily recyclable and even compostable: Stefan Mecking, chemist at the University of Konstanz, and his research group present a new material.

Inhibition of a protein complex in cells of the immune system prevents rejection of transplanted organs – this has been shown in a study by immunologists from the University of Konstanz, the Biotechnology Institute Thurgau (BITg) and Chongqing Cancer University Hospital.

In the largest survey of its kind in Germany – the Student Survey in Germany – about a quarter of respondents reported experiencing discrimination during their studies. Konstanz researchers' analysis of the survey data revealed that women, non-heterosexual students, and students with a migration background face an increased risk of discrimination.