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Development professionals from over 70 nations meet in Bern

IPDET, the world's leading continuing education programme for evaluations in development work, took place for the second time at the University of Bern. For three weeks, 250 evaluation experts from all over the world gathered under the umbrella of the Centre for Continuing Education at Universities (ZUW). Hlali Kemedi Kgaphola from South Africa is one of them. "uniaktuell" met the young economist.

Innovation Radar Prize: Vote Now

The Quantum Optics Lab of the University of Bern is nominated for the Innovation Radar Prize 2019 of the European Commission. Until Monday, August 26, 2019, the finalists will be selected from the nominees in a public online voting – vote now!

Recommendations for Business Travel

Air travel causes large amounts of climate-damaging greenhouse gases. The Executive Board of the University has therefore issued recommendations on how employees can make business travel more sustainable.

Sediments in Lake Geneva reflect the 2008 financial crisis

An analysis of sediment transport in the Rhône Valley yields surprising results: melting glaciers overcompensated for the effect of the increased number of hydropower plants. A reduction in construction activities due to the 2008 financial crisis could also be seen in the data. This comprehensive study, the first of its kind in Europe, brings important new knowledge, in particular for flood prevention.

Cancer control: Structure of important transport protein solved

For the first time, Bernese researchers have been able to solve the structure of a transport protein and thus to describe the functional mechanism that plays a significant role in the survival of cancer cells. This is an important step towards developing effective inhibitors and fight tumor growth.

Survey shows high levels of employee satisfaction at the University of Bern

On the whole, employees at the University of Bern are very satisfied or mostly satisfied with their work and, in general, have a high level of commitment. This is according to the results of the 2019 staff survey. One aspect which staff particularly enjoy is the diverse nature of their work. An up-to-date analysis of wage equality also yielded positive results: at the University of Bern, men and woman earn the same amount for work which is of equal value.

CAScination wins Swiss Medtech Award

CAScination wins the Swiss Medtech Award 2019 worth 50’000 Swiss francs for its computer-based surgical planning and robotic surgery platform. This technology allows for minimally invasive surgery to restore hearing with a cochlear implant. CAScination was founded in 2009 as a spin-off from the ARTORG Center of the University of Bern.

"Goldilocks" neurons promote REM sleep

It has been a mystery why REM sleep, or dream sleep, increases when the room temperature is "just right". Neuroscientists from Bern show that melanin-concentrating hormone neurons within the hypothalamus increase REM sleep when the need for body temperature defense is minimized, such as when sleeping in a warm and comfortable room temperature. These data have important implications for the function of REM sleep.

"Copying & pasting" a gene allows stickleback to live in freshwater habitats

Since the last ice age, stickleback have managed to emerge from the sea to colonise many freshwater waterbodies. Genetic analysis by Eawag researchers and colleagues from the University of Bern and the National Institute of Genetics in Shizuoka, Japan, now demonstrate that they achieved this thanks to additional copies of a metabolism gene.

Information and language in news impact prejudice against minorities

Researchers at the Institute of Psychology show how news about immigrants and language describing immigrants shape prejudice against immigrants and other social minorities, as part of the project «Immigrants in the Media». For instance, nouns used for describing the ethnicity of immigrants enhance prejudice against immigrants more than adjectives.

Bern Center for Precision Medicine inaugurated

The Bern Center for Precision Medicine (BCPM) of the University of Bern and Inselspital, University hospital of Bern, were officially opened today in the presence of Director of Education Christine Häsler. Häsler described the BCPM as a prime example of the development of new research centers, and strengthening Bern as a center of medicine.