UNI NOVA – Research Magazine of the University of Basel

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  Opinion

  Definitions of sex and gender by Walter Salzburger.

  Text: Walter Salzburger / In today’s society, it is widely accepted that there are more facets to gender than just male and female. How is an individual’s sex defined? Answers from the field of evolutionary biology.

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  Opinion

  Definitions of sex and gender by Andrea Maihofer.

  Text: Andrea Maihofer / In today’s society, it is widely accepted that there are more facets to gender than just male and female. How is an individual’s sex defined? Answers from the field of gender research.

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  In pictures

  Bones, seeds and sediments.

  Text: Angelika Jacobs / Researchers perform a rescue mission on hands and knees with spades, sieves and their bare hands. At the future site of a new, large-scale building complex and parking garage located on Zürcherstrasse in the city of Windisch, Switzerland, the Canton Aargau Archaeology Department is working to preserve the remains of the Roman legion camp Vindonissa.

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  Portrait

  The unassailable one.

  Text: Irène Dietschi / During the pandemic, Richard Neher monitored the evolutionary changes in SARS-CoV-2 closely and provided commentary for the media. When doing so, he was careful to avoid being drawn into political or emotional statements – and thereby made himself immune to attack.

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  Opinion

  Is inflation here to stay?

  Text: Sarah Lein / After a long period of tranquility, inflation began to rise again last year. The reasons for this increase are manifold. What can halt this development.

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  Research

  The sounds of silence.

  Text: Yvonne Vahlensieck / Much remains to be understood about how sounds are processed in the brain. In the University of Basel’s Brain & Sound Lab, researchers are slowly coming closer to solving the puzzle.

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  Research

  Stockpiling bacteria.

  Text: Samuel Schlaefli / Our health is highly dependent on the presence of a diverse community of microorganisms in the body, but the diversity of this “microbiome” is in rapid decline. An international research consortium is therefore planning to build a vault for the long-term conservation of particularly valuable microbial communities.

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  Research

  Princess rooms and car-themed palaces.

  Text: Eva Mell / Gender researcher Dominique Grisard is interested in how the design of children’s bedrooms perpetuates gender roles. She explains how much influence middle-class notions still have on today’s parents.

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  Alumni

  In the field for mission “soil fertility”.

  Text: Davina Benkert / What is it that makes good soil good? Biologist Sarah Symanczik is dedicated to finding the answer. She is currently conducting research into European wheat farming to determine what makes soil resistant to climate stress.