insightLMU - 2010: Recent Episodes
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
insightLMU is the international edition of the LMU Munich newsletter. Supported by experienced education and science journalists, insightLMU provides up-to-date information on new University developments, and student and faculty achievements. It also features interesting people from across the institution and highlights latest research findings with appealing stories. It aims at LMU’s visiting fellows, partner universities and friends from around the world. insightLMU is published and emailed to subscribers on a quarterly basis. Please take a look at the current issue that LMU makes available below.
Pathogenic viruses are an ever-present threat. Using human herpesviruses as his model, virologist Professor Jürgen Haas has set out to elucidate systematically the complex molecular interactions that determine the outcome of a viral infection. A comprehensive understanding of the interplay between host and viral functions should point the way to more effective therapies for viral diseases.
The human eye is a highly complex organ and much can go wrong with it. For example, various genetic mutations in the cones, one of the photosensory cell types in the retina, result in achromatopsia − the inability to discriminate colors. Using a mouse model system, pharmacologist Professor Martin Biel has shown that the introduction of a functional copy of the defective gene into cone cells corrects the condition, and confers color vision on mutant animals.
Some 6500 languages are spoken around the world, and two-thirds of them are in danger of extinction. Among those threatened are such diverse and distinct idioms as Ob-Ugric in Northwest Siberia and Kurumba in South India. Linguistics Professor Elena Skribnik is working to catalogue and digitally document Ob-Ugric languages, while ethnologist Ulrich Demmer studies the language and customs of the Jēnu Kurumba. In their different ways, both scholars are engaged in an effort to preserve part of mankind’s cultural heritage.
On the threshold of the 19th century a paradigm change occurs. Political theorists begin to search for ways to construct a science of politics based on empirical methods derived from the exact sciences. Practical politics comes to depend more on analyses and forecasts and less on the dictates of religion. These efforts would provoke turbulent debates on what exactly might constitute a secure basis for a science of politics. This quest for a rational model of politics is at the focus of an LMUexcellent project currently being pursued by three LMU historians, Professor Eckhart Hellmuth, Dr. Martin Schmidt and Dr. Iain McDaniel.
Ever since the advent of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the average Web user knows what a wiki is. The term 'semantic wiki', on the other hand, is likely to evoke a quizzical look from most people. It refers to a tool that combines the wiki idea with the advantages of the Semantic Web. To fi nd out what the concept entails and to understand its potential applications, one only needs to take a look at the work of LMU computer scientists Professor François Bry and Klara Weiand.
What's inside:
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LMU among top German universities in world rankings
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A world city and its Games
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Ancestral voices
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Teaching the old web new tricks
Chinese cuisine is as diverse as the country that created it. In his new book Schlafender Lotos, trunkenes Huhn (Sleeping Lotus, Drunken Chicken), Professor Thomas O. Höllmann looks at the rich cultural history of Chinese cooking from various angles. He contrasts the greedy indulgence of the ruling elite with the penury of the majority of the population, traces the routes that brought exotic fruits and vegetables to the country, and explains what went into ancient Chinese beers.
Digging in ancient ruins and searching for sherds of pottery − that’s what most people have in mind when they think of archaeology. But today’s field research in archaeology employs scientific prospecting, surveying and documentation techniques, including satellite-based imaging. Archaeologist Michael Mackensen’s LMUexcellent project gives a good example of the toolkit modern excavators can call upon. Mackensen is investigating a Roman military fort at an remote oasis in the Libyan desert.
Increasing the productivity of an economy means improving the efficiency of its constituent units, but it is not obvious how public policy can promote this goal. What factors determine productivity, and what effects do these have on the environment? With the support of the Anglo-German Foundation, researchers led by Professor Tobias Kretschmer have looked into this question – and come up with some surprising answers.
Research on stem cells is controversial. They promise to provide novel therapies for many degenerative diseases but, so far, the primary source of stem cells is embryonic tissue. Clinical researcher Professor Wolfgang-Michael Franz hopes to use stem cells to repair heart tissue damaged by myocardial infarction. His colleague Professor Hans-Jochem Kolb aims to enhance the effectiveness of bone-marrow transplantation, an established treatment for leukemia, which involves the transfer of hematopoietic stem cells.
Physicist Professor Immanuel Bloch and his team probe quantum interactions using ultracold atoms confined in optical lattices − crystals made of light beams. The set-up allows them to simulate conditions in real crystalline solids, which are often impossible to study directly. The ability to manipulate atomic behavior in such lattices provides insight into superconductivity and forms the basis for the elements of a quantum computer.
What's inside:
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Picture this - early warning system
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Daughter of Scotland, Mother of ERASMUS
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Atoms under control
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Code of conduct for international student affairs
Many cancer patients find the stresses and side-effects associated with chemotherapy physically debilitating – but their cognitive abilities often appear to be impaired, too. In the multicenter study COGITO, a team of researchers led by the psychologist Dr. Kerstin Hermelink of the Clinic of Gynecology and Maternity Care at LMU Munich has taken a closer look at the phenomenon of the “chemobrain”, and come to some surprising conclusions.
Many organisms can sense the Earth’s magnetic field. They possess a kind of internal compass which enables them to perceive magnetic field lines and use them as cues for orientation. The biogeophysicist Dr. Michael Winklhofer studies the structural basis and biophysical mechanisms of the magnetic sense in animals.
Can the content of online forums provide a reliable picture of public opinion on political topics? Media specialists Professor Hans-Bernd Brosius and Alexander Haas set out to answer this question in a project supported by the LMUexcellent strategy. They analyzed contributions to political discussion forums and compared the results with those of a conventional opinion poll.
The cluster of excellence devoted to the study of “The Origin and Structure of the Universe” draws on the talents of astrophysicists, particle physicists and nuclear physicists from several research centers in Munich, including LMU. The collaboration employs a broad range of approaches to explore the fabric and the evolution of the cosmos. The hot topics range from black holes and supersymmetry to the search for the elusive Higgs boson.
The idea of a “scientific community” is generally thought to have arisen in Europe during the 17th century, but active transmission of scientific knowledge across cultural borders − and whole continents − began long before the dawn of the modern era. In a project financed by the LMUexcellent strategy, mathematician Dr. Benno van Dalen is investigating the links forged between Muslim astronomers and their Chinese colleagues during the 13th century.
What's inside:
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Nanobiotech: Nature goes high-tech
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LMU's paralympic golden girl
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Piercing the fog around the chemobrain
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LMU celebrates Founder's Day - for the 538th time
Some 10 % of cancer patients develop metastases in the brain – often long after successful treatment of the primary tumor. In such cases, the prognosis is generally poor. The mechanisms responsible for the appearance of brain metastases have long been mysterious. Now a research team led by LMU neurologists Dr. Frank Winkler and Professor Jochen Herms has followed, in real time, the multistep process that enables cancer cells to establish metastases, and seen that many of them get stuck along the way.
Schoolteachers are increasingly being expected to bring sophisticated social skills to the classroom. The Teacher Training Center (LBZ) at LMU Munich is responding to this demand, recognizing that teachers need more than a sound knowledge base in their school subjects. According to Professor Joachim Kahlert, Director of the LBZ, “we need to impart to the young a core curriculum that equips them to experience and participate fully in our democratic culture.”
In European history, religion and politics have always been tightly interwoven. After all, religious arguments can be invoked to justify as well as to question the political and social status quo. The historian Professor Martin Schulze Wessel is convinced that the nexus between religion and politics can be adequately treated only if one adopts transnational approaches. In particular, he argues that more attention should be paid to the course of religious history in Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
Theatre studies is reinventing itself. For Professor Jürgen Schläder, theatre is the only truly three-dimensional art form, and the boundaries between drama, music theatre, dance, performance art, film and digital media are becoming less distinct. He and his colleagues at the LMUexcellent-sponsored research center “Sound and Movement“ identify the combination and confrontation of sound and movement as the defining characteristic of innovative and experimental theatre today.
For most dinosaur fans, Tyrannosaurus rex is the undisputed showstopper. But recent work by Dr. Oliver Rauhut and coworkers leaves its popular image as a perfect killing machine looking rather tarnished. The LMU palaeontologist has been able to show that tyrannosaurids were not always kingpins – and rather than tackling colossal herbivores, they preferred to ambush smaller fry.
What's inside:
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Green light for gray matter
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LMU's woman in New York
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Religion and politics
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100 million euro funding for Munich Biotech cluster