wire - news in brief

The Mars camera CaSSIS on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has returned its first colour images of the red planet.

Construction of the space telescope CHEOPS is finished. The engineers from the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern will package the instrument this week and send it to Madrid, where it will be integrated on the satellite platform.

Chronical allergic diseases of dogs and horses can now be treated with an innovative vaccine. It was developed by an international research team led by he University of Bern and in cooperation with the University of Zurich, together with private enterprise companies. The findings obtained in horses and dogs could lead to similar herapeutic vaccines for humans.

A warming climate will shrink and fragment mountain hare habitat in the Swiss Alps. Populations are likely to decline as a result, concludes an international study led by the University of Bern and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). Specialised species like the mountain hare, adapted to life at high altitudes, are particularly affected by climate change.

Researchers of the University of Bern have shown for the first time in an experiment that also non-human animals exchange different kind of favours. Humans commonly trade different commodities, which is considered a core competence of our species. However, this capacity is not exclusively human as Norway rats exchange different commodities, too.

An international research team headed by the University of Bern and the Netherlands Cancer Institute has developed 3D cell cultures in which genes can be specifically modified. They allow the study of genes that may cause therapy resistance in breast cancer. This knowledge may further improve the use of targeted anti-cancer drugs.

At the 183rd Dies academicus of the University of Bern, the rector Christian Leumann broached the issue of the freedom of teaching and research, and took stock of the first "half-time" in the university's strategy.

The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) supports nine research projects with Bernese investment, which aim to build up a nationally coordinated infrastructure of health data.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) The 2015 Paris Climate Conference was accompanied by extensive media coverage.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) The University of Bern has created a professorship for climate and environmental economics, which can now be expanded thanks to the involvement of the Mercator Foundation Switzerland and the Gebäudeversicherung Bern.

Large crowds on the Grosse Schanze in Bern: visitors immersed themselves in the world of science at the third "Night of Research".

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) Research at the University of Bern is being intensified: Innovative joint projects from different subject areas are being supported with the new Interfaculty Research Cooperations IRC.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) This year, the University of Bern celebrates 50 years of space exploration.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) Tef is Ethiopia's most important staple food crop.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) Artificial light disrupts nocturnal pollination and leads to a reduced number of fruits produced by the plant. This loss of night time pollination cannot be compensated by diurnal pollinators. The negative impact of artificial light at night on nocturnal pollinators might even propagate further to the diurnal community, as ecologists of the University of Bern were able to show.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) Climate scientists will now be able to more accurately study the pattern and causes of global surface temperature chan

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) PLATO, the largest European exoplanet research mission, was adopted on 20 June 2017 by the European Space Agency at the ESA Scientific Programs Committee meeting. The Universities of Bern and Geneva are heavily involved in this mission, which should enable astronomers to discover and characterize planets the size of the Earth and the "super 'Earths" that orbit around solar type stars in their habitable zone.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) An international team of researchers led by the University of Bern and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has revealed a new way to tune the functionality of next-generation molecular electronic devices using graphene.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) Endogenous cannabinoids (endocannabinoids) play an important role in the brain and immune system. Bern researchers from the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) "TransCure" have now found a new way to influence the endocannabinoid system.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) After 60 hours of non-stop work, researchers at the University of Bern being part of an international team reached their hoped-for goal: They were the first to measure the orbital period for the outermost planet of the famous TRAPPIST-1 system which made headlines worldwide.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) The sediments of Lake Van in Eastern Anatolia (Turkey) are a valuable climate archive.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) A new technique makes it possible to cost-effectively analyse genetic material from fossil plant and animal remains. Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL and the universities of Lausanne and Bern have used this technique to examine the DNA of silver fir needles found in lake sediment in Ticino.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) The people in Switzerland were on the move in the High Alps and running alpine pastures 7,000 years ago and therefore much earlier than previously assumed. A study by the University of Bern that combines archaeological knowledge with findings from palaeoecology comes to this conclusion.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) A species of unicellular ciliate has found a special trick to make use of the cellular machinery in seemingly impossible ways.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) Scientists at the Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Bern have developed an in vitro stem cell-based bio

An international team of astronomers has discovered a compact analogue of our inner solar system about 40 light-years away. Brice-Olivier Demory of the Center of Space and Habitability at the University of Bern, analysed the data collected with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and calculated that the newly detected exoplanets all have masses less or similar to the Earth.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) With new methods of reconstruction, climate researchers in Bern have been able to demonstrate that some 9,000 to 5,000 years ago, the Mediterranean climate was considerably warmer than previous studies had suggested. Among other things, previous concerns regarding the reliability of climate models could thus be dispelled.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) The State Council of the Canton of Bern has elected a new Vice-Rector to the Executive Board of the University.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) The first clinical studies for a new type of immunotherapy for leukaemia are beginning at Bern's University Hospital and the Department of Clinical Research (DCR) of the University of Bern. Antibodies discovered in the laboratory should inhibit the growth of tumour cells.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) Peter Messerli, Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Bern, has been selected as co-chair to lead

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) In the course of the 'reproducibility crisis' in biomedical research, scientific rigor in animal reserach, and thus the ethical justification of animal experiments, has also been questioned. Commissioned by the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO), researchers from the University of Bern have assessed scientific rigor in animal experimentation in Switzerland.

MRI data are essential in the treatment of neurological illnesses. Self-learning software from Bern respectively evaluates them so that the imaging of brain tumours, strokes and now also multiple sclerosis can profit from it.

Rosetta's mission is over: After the last signal at 13:20, the spacecraft was crash-landed on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, with the ROSINA instrument from Bern taking measurements right until the very end.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) The more it swarms, crawls and flies the better for humans, who benefit from the varied services provided for free by nature. This is the finding of a study by more than 60 researchers from a number of universities, including the Institute of Plant Sciences at the University of Bern and the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, in Germany.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) The Swiss Polar Institute with articipation of the University of Bern will study the Earth's poles and extreme environments.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) Children in Switzerland and all over Europe made thousands of imaginative drawings of stars, planets, rockets, satellites, and aliens.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) The Executive Council of the Canton of Bern has elected two new Vice-Rectors to serve in the Executive Board of the University of Bern.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) The Paris Agreement of the UN climate change conference is deemed a historic step for climate protection, but its success depends on rapid implementations.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) Scientists from Bern have discovered a mechanism which is responsible for the degeneration of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum in a neurodegenerative disease called Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1. The results of their study open up new avenues for the future treatment of cerebellum associated degenerative disorders.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) Dandelions are troublesome weeds that are detested by most gardeners. Yet dandelions also have many insect enemies in nature. However, they are able to protect themselves with their latex, a milky, bitter-tasting sap. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, and the University of Bern, Switzerland, have now demonstrated that a single compound in the latex protects dandelion roots against voracious cockchafer larvae.

The FASTER software developed in Bern can detect within minutes the areas of the brain that will be left with long-term damage following a stroke.

The Bernese climate physicist Hubertus Fischer is awarded a grant of 2. Million Euro by the European Research Council for research on polar ice cores.

It is now definitely possible to earn a doctorate in Bern at the combined Graduate School of the Arts of the University of Bern and the Bern University of the Arts.

The groin is the usual access point for investigating or treating the heart with a catheter, but using the wrist as access point reduces bleeding and lowers mortality. These findings are from an international study with major involvement from the University of Bern published today in the Lancet. About 46,000 cardiac catheterizations are carried out each year in Switzerland; about 22,000 of involve treatments of coronary vessels.