Press Releases

A movement in a clockwise direction feels progressive, as though facing the future. The opposite direction, by contrast, represents a backward focus. This sounds plausible. What sounds surprising, however, is a finding by Würzburg psychologists.

Trap closes, insect dies: the plant known as the Venus flytrap relies on an ingenious mechanism for capturing tiny creatures. Researchers from the University of Würzburg are now providing new insights into how this insect trap works in the magazine PNAS.

A blood test that reliably reveals at an early stage whether a person has contracted a tumour: This is the dream of many a physician. In their quest of such a test, researchers have now taken one step forward. Medical scientists of the Würzburg University Women’s Clinic were also involved.

With the selection and decoration of further excellence scholars and the creation and deepening of contacts to important cooperation partners the collaboration of the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the University of Würzburg in Germany has been extended.

Researchers from Bielefeld, Kaiserslautern and Würzburg have developed a novel high-tech microscope: It magnifies objects a million times and shows movements with a retardation of one million billion times. Reason enough for top magazine "Science" to report on the invention.

The thinnest wire in the world, made from pure gold, is being examined by physicists from the universities of Würzburg and Kassel. Its exceptional electrical conductivity is causing quite a stir: the electrons do not move freely through the wire, but like cars in stop-and-go traffic.

For the first time anywhere in the world, medics from Würzburg University Hospital have managed to relieve a patient of his heartbeat irregularities using a new technique. The new procedure is very precise and gentler on sufferers.

Almost half of young people in Germany did some form of voluntary work last year. However, there are huge differences between the educational groups, in some cases with problematic consequences. This is the finding of a representative study by the University of Würzburg.

Würzburg physicists have created a microlaser with unique properties. They have also succeeded in making the laser behave chaotically. In the future, it may be possible to use this for a new, secure form of data transmission.

Farmers who spray insecticides against aphids as a preventative measure only achieve a short-term effect with this method. In the long term, their fields will end up with even more aphids than untreated fields.

What happens when bees are displaced to unfamiliar locations? Quite a few of them find their way back to the hive even from great distances – provided that a certain condition is satisfied. The relevant details are reported by researchers from Würzburg and Canberra in a new publication.

Rising levels of nitrate and of the hormone abscisic acid signal to a plant that it needs to conserve water. How do these two transmitters achieve their effect? Plant researchers Rainer Hedrich and Dietmar Geiger from the University of Würzburg have found the answer.

Bright yellow with an intense aroma: rape fields dominate whole landscapes in April. Their abundance of flowers is so attractive to bumblebees that wild plants are being increasingly neglected by pollinators, as proven by researchers from the University of Würzburg’s Biocenter.

To date, accumulations of fluid in the brain, which occur after a stroke, have been very difficult to treat. Researchers from the University of Würzburg have now found a solution to the problem. Their work is reported on in the journal Stroke.

Researchers from Würzburg and Braunschweig have deciphered how a particular enzyme naturally constructs large sugar molecules. Armed with this knowledge they can now produce customized sugar for use in the food industry as prebiotics.