Press Releases

A Center for Indian Studies is being set up at the University of Würzburg. The Federal Ministry of Research and Education is backing the venture with EUR 460,000.

First-graders readily include children from other cultures in their social interaction. This is the outcome of the country’s first study into the integration of migrants in this age group. The study was coordinated by the University of Würzburg.

Sperm swim to egg cells and fertilize them – at least that is what happens in people. In many flowering plants, however, the sperm cells are immobile. So, how do they reach their destination? Researchers from Würzburg and Regensburg know the answer.

At present, cell biologist Ulrike Kutay still works at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). Now she has received the highest-endowed international research award in Germany. Thus, Kutay is soon to continue her studies as Alexander von Humboldt professor at the University of Würzburg.

Tumors disappear if you inhibit the genes responsible for their formation. Previously, any suggestions as to why they behave in this way were nothing more than theories. Researchers at the University of Würzburg now present concrete evidence, confirming a long-held assumption in this matter.

The tiniest fragments of bacteria are enough to trigger a defense response from plants to parasites. Researchers from the universities of Würzburg and Basel are now able to describe the molecular details of this response.

Stimuli that regularly appear in connection with unpleasant situations are rated by people as negative, as would be expected. However, as researchers from the University of Würzburg are now showing, these stimuli can also subconsciously be rated positively – depending on the chronology of events.

Ultrafast operation and high performance: This is what is expected of quantum computers. But there are still some obstacles to the technical implementation of this new type of computer. Physicists of the University of Würzburg report on their progress in this research area in "Nature Photonics".

World first: chemists from the University of Würzburg have, for the first time ever, succeeded in creating a stable triple bond between the elements boron and oxygen. This success is reported in the leading journal “Science”.

The photograph of a lit cigarette arouses a desire for nicotine in smokers. “Not necessarily,” say psychologists from the University of Würzburg. As they found out, some photographs even manage to trigger processes in the brain that are likely to suppress craving for this drug.

When plants protect themselves against drying out, processes take place in which calcium plays an important role, just as it does in muscle contraction in humans. Now for the first time, Dietmar Geiger and Rainer Hedrich from the Department of Molecular Plant Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Würzburg have shed light on exactly what happens.

Electrons in honeycomb structures can switch over to a very rare state, referred to as "spin liquid" by researchers. This has been demonstrated by physicists of the Universities of Würzburg and Stuttgart in a publication in the scientific journal Nature.

The physical laws governing the world of atoms and electrons are different from those applicable to macroscopic phenomena. Scientists intend to make use of these laws, e.g. to develop new methods of storing and exchanging information. The necessary material for this is provided by Würzburg physicists.

Chemists from the University of Würzburg and researchers from BASF SE have developed a new molecule. This molecule allows the manufacturing of high-performance organic thin-film transistors for microelectronics.

With diseases such as multiple sclerosis, cells of the immune system attack nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Scientists from the University of Würzburg have now managed to observe and describe this attack in detail.