Initially, Nadine Felber couldn’t imagine doing a doctoral thesis. But the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on her private life made her change her mind. She’s now looking at the level of acceptance for new technologies in nursing care for the elderly. The question she’s trying to answer: “What is truth”?
You can’t see Mitchell Brüderlin’s work – at least, not with the naked eye. The nanoscientist’s research on bacteria sits at the intersection of biology and physics. When he’s not losing track of time in the basement of the Biozentrum, he can look out from his office over the city where his scientific career began.
Higher aspirations lead to higher achievements. At least, that is true in the context of educational and occupational aspirations, as shown by a new study co-authored by economist Dr. Reto Odermatt of the University of Basel. Unrealistically high aspirations as a teenager, however, can have a negative effect on well-being as an adult.
If evolutionary biologist Carolin Sommer-Trembo is not in her office, it is often because her work has taken her to a place others might think of as a holiday destination: Zambia. She is researching cichlids, which exhibit extraordinary diversity there, and investigating how curious the fish are. Working as a scientist involved turning her back on a career in dance.
The steadily worsening climate crisis caused by the accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere makes the search for ideas to store CO2 increasingly important. Prof. Ben Engel's team at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel together with colleagues from the Universities of Frankfurt and Marburg, has now shed light on the structure of an enzyme that reveals a new way of storing CO2.
Cancer immunotherapy is a successful form of treatment in oncology, but it doesn't work for every patient. One problem may be the lack of a specific type of immune cell in the tumor, researchers in the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel have found. The researchers were able to partially replace the cell's function using a signaling molecule. This may make it possible to overcome resistance to cancer immunotherapy.
In her doctoral thesis, Julia Wartmann examines gender equality efforts in North and East Syria. Her field research provided her with insight into a war-torn society seeking to establish new ways to coexist.
From pandemics to nuclear energy – the world is full of risks. Psychologists at the University of Basel have developed a new method of determining how risk is perceived within a society..
Protecting sensitive information and personal data is fundamentally important for our society. The University of Basel is strengthening this area of research with the appointment of Professor Isabel Wagner as a new professor of cybersecurity.