All Research News 2009

The "Climate Report for the Metropolitan Region of Hamburg" was put together within the framework of the Cluster of Excellence CliSAP at the University of Hamburg's KlimaCampus. The report presents knowledge about the climate, climate variability and climate change in this region. Go to climate report...

The portal "Immunology Hamburg" provides information about the entire spectrum of immunology research in Hamburg, particularly in the areas of infection, immunobiology, allergies, autoimmune illnesses and tumors as well as transplantation. The portal pools the activities and expertise of cooperating partners and creates the foundation for a successful scientific and economic network. Activities at the Universities of Hamburg, Kiel and Lübeck as well as at external institutions and medium-sized business are summarized at the site. "Immunology Hamburg" is a University of Hamburg program initiated by the Office of Knowledge and Technology Transfer (AWiTT). More...

Today, the German Research Foundation authorized a new collaborative research center (SFB 841) at the University of Hamburg. The center will research infections of the liver. In the next four years, approximately 10 million euros will go towards the funding of long-term cutting-edge research. The new center's spokesman is Dr. Ansgar W. Lohse, Director of the First Medical Clinic at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).
Basic researchers and physicians from the medical center and the Bernhard Nocht Institute will work together with research groups from the Christian Albrecht University in Kiel and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, respectively. to research liver function. They aim to better understand infections, inflammation and tumors in this central metabolic organ. In particular, the researchers want to find out how confrontations between pathogens and the immune system harm the liver and cause cirrhosis of the liver or malignant tumors.
Liver infections are the most common chronic infections in the world. In Germany, illnesses of the liver are also common and the trend is increasing. More...

How has the climate changed throughout the centuries and the millenia? How do oceans, land and the atmosphere change? And what conclusions can we draw for the future? Convincing predictions using climate models constitute the key research area of the Cluster of Excellence Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction (CLISAP) at the University of Hamburg. A further core activity is the investigation of regional effects and risks as well as the effects of climate change on cities.
Can human beings limit climate change to bearable proportions? If so, can society create the necessary conditions? In Hamburg, natural scientists, economists, social scientists and humanities scholars work closely together. The Cluster is comprised not only of University members; other participants include the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg and the Institute for Coastal Research Geesthacht. The German Climate Computer Center is also a partner for highly-complex calculations. The Hamburg "KlimaCampus" has grown up around this cluster. As an international center for climate research, Hamburg is increasingly prominent.
See the CliSAP Video...

A study conducted jointly by scientists from the University of Hamburg, Italy and the United States yielded surprising results: microscopic, tube-like formations made of carbon, known as carbon nanotubes, demonstrate different frictional features along and perpendicular to the nanotube axis. These findings can contribute to more effective use of the extraordinary properties of nanotubes, for instance, by integrating them into especially light-weight materials in plane construction or artificial muscles.
Molecular nanotubes made of carbon are known for their outstanding thermal, mechanical and electrical properties. Little was heretofore known, however, about their frictional properties. Investigations have shown that it is not only the elastic distortion of stiff carbon-carbon bonds which play a role, but a much softer total movement of carbon tubes similar to a "hindered roll". This "softness" is the source of additional transverse frictional loss and consequently of increased friction.
This information contributes to our understanding of the mechanical properties of nanotubes and the exploitation of their thermal, mechanical and electric properties. The carbon nanotubes can initiate production procedures in many areas of material application such as medical technology, plane construction and electronics. More...

Long before industrialization, human beings had an effect on the climate. By transforming forests into farmland, they significantly increased atmospheric CO2. A new study now reveals that land-use had already produced a third of today's atmospheric carbon dioxide by 1850 - in short, a "miniature climate change."
The study in the trade magazine "Global Biogeochemical Cycles," which has now been published in advance on-line, was conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology on the KlimaCampus at the University of Hamburg. For the first time, the climate researcher Julia PONGRATZ and her colleagues used a model by which the global circulation of carbon in the last century could be calculated. They used this model in connection with a world map of land use. In a previous study, the scientist reconstructed the conversion of the earth's entire surface to land-use and arable land for all of last century (see: http://www.dkrz.de/dkrz/gallery/vis/land)
Result: A third of today's atmospheric carbon produced by land-use arose between 100 and 1850. Fifty-three of today's 161 giga-tons of carbon released by forest clearing and husbandry (effects from fossil fuels were not considered in this study) already had an affect upon the atmosphere's make-up and led to increase in its carbon dioxide. At the same time, these early emissions constitute a substantial share of total emissions (including fossil fuels): about 320 giga-tons of carbon.
"We have never been able to describe the effects of human beings on the pre-industrial climate in such detail," said Pongratz. "For the first time, for example, we could mathematically determine whether certain historical events had an effect upon the total climate."
The climate researcher thus discovered that the plague, the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the Mongolian invasion led to significantly less carbon production. Fewer people, less farming and of course the re-naturalization of de-populated areas put the brakes on local emissions. More...

On August 25th, a geo-physical measuring run with the research ship RV Meteor under the direction of the Institute for Geophysics will set forth in Sao Miguel (The Azores). Together with the Institute for Biogeochemistry as well as Portuguese colleagues from the Azores and Lisbon, the formation and dynamics of the earth's plate borders between Africa and Eurasia will be investigated. Among the 26 researchers there are also 15 students who will spend almost four weeks at sea. See Institute's Homepage...

What role does the North Atlantic Ocean play in the earth's climate? How does global warming affect the circulation of the ocean? Twenty-one scientists, technicians and students from Germany, England, Finland, France and Russia probed these questions during a five-week expedition in the North Atlantic on the Maria S Merian. Led by Professor Detlef Quadfasel from KlimaCampus of the University of Hamburg, the ocean researchers investigated the northern arm of the Atlantic, which plays an extraordinary role in the dynamic system of the earth's climate.
Valuable information about ocean circulation was gathered and three significant elements were examined: the overflow of deep water from the North Sea through the Denmark Strait in the North Atlantic, the influx of surrounding water into this overflow and, finally, the outflow of deep water from the Labrador Sea. Measuring instruments anchored on the ocean floor, including some which have been maintained for over 10 years, provided information about long-term changes in circulation. Measuring probes lowered from board show small areas of overflow and its mixing with surrounding waters. A microstructure profiler developed by the Kalingrad Shirshov Institute for Oceanology was used, making detailed measurements of small-scale turbulence in depths of over 2,5000 meters possible for the first time.
The research ship MARIA S MERIAN, which was launched in 2006, is currently Germany's most modern research ship. It's scientific, technical, logistic and financial maintenance and supervision is overseen by the University of Hamburg. The ship is managed by the Leeraner Reederei Briese GmbH & Co. KG. More...

On the surface of a star approximately 3000 light years away, there are dark spots very similar to those on our sun. These have been observed by astronomers from Hamburg and Tautenburg using the satellite telescope CoRoT, a French-European space mission. The high-resolution view of the surface of the star named CoRoT-2a is only possible because another planet revolves around it, according to researchers in an article which will appear shortly in the journal "Astronomy and Astrophysics".
"The idea behind our observations isn't new," explains Uwe Wolter from the Hamburg observatory. "In order to investigate the star's surface, we rely on the fact that a planet circles the CoRoT-2a.  Seen from earth, this planet passes its central star every two days and slightly darkens it.“
Using the satellite telescope CoRoT, Wolter and his colleagues were able to analyze the resulting missing light more precisely thanobservations from earth permit. Since it is known precisely which parts of the star are covered by the planet, the surface structure of the star can be examined more exactly than it could be with even the world's largest earth-bound telescope. The planet serves, in effect, as a "reading aid" by which the finest structures on the star's surface can be perceived.
(Photo montage: U. Wolter, with the kind permission of SOHO/MDI) More...

Researchers from the Burger working group in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hamburg and Stanford University reported in the recent issue of the journal "Angewandte Chemie" on the discovery of the unusual reactivity of a new iridium-nitride complex which could have an important effect on the development of new Haber Bosch catalyzers for the synthesis of ammonia.
This publication ("Hot Paper"), considered especially significant, describes the up to now unknown hydrogenation of a terminal nitrite unit with hydrogen to the respective metal amido group, which also found mention in the newest issue of "Science". More...

Nationwide, 18 joint projects will begin their work this June within the framework of the German Research Society's focus program "Nano-structured Thermoelectrics: Theory, Model Systems and Controlled Synthesis". The program will be managed by Prof. Dr. Kornelius Nielsch in the Department of Physics at the MIN faculty. In addition to this coordination project, four scientific joint  projects will be carried out at the University of Hamburg.
The focus program "Nano-structured Thermoelectrics" involves aspects of regenerated energies or rather reclaimed energy: It will deal with new questions about the conversion of heat into electrical energy and about heat transport with electrical power.
With the advancement of nanotechnology, thermoelectricity is now experiencing a worldwide renaissance due to a significant increase in efficiency (50-200%). Besides a variety of applications in the area of sensor technology, thermoelectrics make it possible to use almost any wasted heat to produce electrical power. In the long run, thermoelectrics could make, for example, the use of electric generators in automobiles obsolete, which would lead to a 5-10% savings in fuel. Materials with very good heat isolation, but with electrical conductivity such as you find in metal, are to be developed. In doing so, it will connect questions in the areas of physics, nanotechnology and microsystem technology, measurement and energy technology and materials sciences.
The goal of the DFG focus programs is to organize interdisciplinary and national  research networks in the area of basic research which would radiate internationally.
More...

Under the management of Prof. Dr. Anke Grotlüschen from the Faculty of Education, Psychology and Human Movement, the University of Hamburg will carry out a study within the scope of the BMBF focus area "Research and Development Project for the Alphabetization and Basic Education of Adults". It aims at developing quality standards for adult-suitable competency diagnostics.
Adults who cannot  read and write adequately often have a great fear of tests. Using diagnostic means, necessary steps can be pinpointed which can reduce this fear. What is missing, however, are convincing research findings on the general framework of successful diagnostics.
Diagnostic standards are to be developed on the basis of course instructors' experiences and participants' opinions. The focus will be on adults who increase their reading and writing skills in VHS (adult education center) courses.
The acceptance study is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. it is part of the joint project "Continuance Study on the Biographic Development of Former Participants in Alphabetization Courses". The Universities of Berlin, Hannover and Frankfurt are participating with further sub-projects which are being coordinated by the German Adult Education Center Association in Bonn. More...

One million nautical miles, 78 expeditions and countless research assignments in all the world's seas in 23 years. The FS METEOR is celebrating successful cooperation in the service of oceanography. Since 2006, the METEOR has been managed by the renowned Hamburg Shipping company F. Laeisz; the logistic and operational management of the ship's assignments is left to the Control Center at the University of Hamburg. The German Research Society's Senate's Commission for Oceanography is in charge of the scientific planning of the expeditions.
Up to 30 scientists, technicians and students can treavel and work on this well-established German research vessel - 24 hours a day and 340 days a year.  More...

The European Science Foundation (ESF) has made the five-year international joint project  "Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies" (COMSt) possible for the University of Hamburg's Ethiopian Studies Research Unit. This network, to which over 50 scientists from Europe, the Orient and Africa belong, will take up the subject of oriental manuscript studies under the management of the University of Hamburg starting June 1, 2009. The objects of study will be Arabian, Coptic, Syrian, Georgian, Armenian and Ethiopian manuscript cultures. More...

The Hamburg project "Epigraphic Data Base for Ancient Asia Minor" under the management of Prof. Dr. Helmut Halfmann, Department of History of the University of Hamburg, is making his research findings publically accessible on his own  website. For many years the section Ancient History in the Department of History has been compiling an epigraphic full text data base which includes all Greek and Latin inscriptions from different regions of ancient Asia Minor. The data base is a continuation and expansion of the "Princeton Project on the Inscriptions of Anatolia".  More...

The Interdisciplinary Center for Narratology, Hamburg, the Centre de recherches sur les arts et les langages (CRAL), Paris, and the Nordic Network of Narrative Studies have together created the European Narratology Network (ENN). The network's goal, in addition to tightening cooperation among European narratologists, is the establishment of a common communication platform which already has made a variety of digital research aids available: 

• NarrBib – an interactive search and supplementable narratological online bibliography
• NarrDiBi – a narratological online library
• NarrList – a discussion mailing list for the topic of narratology.

More...

Will the Gulf Stream stop? Is a new Ice Age coming? Oceanographers and climate researchers have often answered these concrete questions with "no". But changes can still occur in the European region as a consequence of global climate change; uncertainties exist about the developments in the centuries to come. More...

At the University of Hamburg's Institute of Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf, a long-term project of the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg for the development of a corpus-based electronic dictionary of German sign language will begin in January 2009. 8.5 million euros have been appropriated from the Academy's program for the 15-year project. More...

The new CHE research ranking examined the subjects sociology, economics and business administration. The University of Hamburg was in the top group in all three subjects.  More...

Prof. Dr. Martin Claußen, Professor of Meteorology at the University of Hamburg and Director of the Max Planck Institute of Meteorology, was chosen to be a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. He received his membership certificate on November 21st in Potsdam. More...