UNI NOVA – Research Magazine of the University of Basel

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  Dossier

  The economy benefits from immigration

  Text: Christoph Dieffenbacher / Immigration from the European Union is especially beneficial to highly qualified Swiss nationals, while low-skilled foreigners are among those hardest hit. Economist Ensar Can from Basel has investigated the relationship between immigration and job security.

• Dossier

  A diverse religious heritage

  Text: Urs Hafner / Like other immigrants, many migrants from the former Yugoslavia look to religion – both Islam and Christianity – for a sense of direction. Maurus Reinkowski is an academic specializing in Islamic studies. He stresses the need to take a historically informed view on the role of religion in shaping identity.

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  Dossier

  Vote influences where people choose to live

  Text: Christoph Dieffenbacher / Negative attitudes towards foreigners can influence where they decide to live in Switzerland. This is the conclusion reached by the economists Michaela Slotwinski and Alois Stutzer from Basel University, based on an analysis of the minaret vote and data on where foreigners in Switzerland choose to live.

• University

  Open Auditorium

  Since early 2016, the student association «Open Auditorium» (Offener Hörsaal) has enabled refugees with an academic background who live in the region to attend lectures and language courses.

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  In conversation

  «The university and the Kunstmuseum are both products of this city’s open-mindedness.»

  Interview: Matthias Geering / Josef Helfenstein, who became director of the Kunstmuseum Basel in September, hopes to develop links with the university. He is working closely with researchers from numerous disciplines to prepare a major Chagall exhibition, which will open in fall 2017.

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  Opinion

  Animal-human embryos: monster or marvel?

  Text: David Shaw / Hybrid embryos are created by the addition of human stem cells to animal embryos. What ethical issues are involved?

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  Research

  A cultural history of Switzerland’s dams

  Text: Samuel Schlaefli / Dams are more than just pioneering technical feats. For the valley dwellers who had to move when they were built, they are often associated with life-changing upheavals and the loss of home. The website verschwundene-taeler.ch that has been started up in Basel relates for the first time the cultural history of the construction of Switzerland’s dams.

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  Portrait

  Likes for the lab

  Text: Olivia Poisson / Doing a doctorate can be a lonely business. Not so for Martina Hestericová, a chemist with a passion for making science more accessible on social media.

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  Opinion

  CRISPR/Cas9 – Opportunity or Risk, Rolf Zeller?

  Text: Rolf Zeller / Discovered just a few years ago, the CRISPR/Cas9 method promises new possibilities for editing the genome of living creatures. While some see this as an opportunity, others focus on the risks of this efficient technology.