The online magazine of the University of Bern

On the power of bonding

Psychology

The way we love and bond with each other has a lot to do with the family in which we grew up. How does its structure shape us, how does it benefit us in life, and how can attachment patterns be overcome? Developmental psychologist and family therapist Pasqualina Perrig-Chiello knows the answer.

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FOKUS

All articles about love and friendship

What is love?

Philosophy

“Romantic love is preferred over friendship”

The philosopher Sabine Hohl considers it unjustified that a particular form of relationship has a special legal and cultural status. She brings the idea of marriage with friends into play and sees advantages for everyone if friendships and romantic relationships were to be equated.

Essay

Fiction shows us how to love

As literary science is well aware, reality imitates fiction at least as often as the other way round. In love, too, people wanting to express their feelings use the conventional imagery of movies and novels surprisingly often. But do they also have formulas for queer relationships?

Psychology

Why digital relationships are quickly reaching their limits

Whereas it used to be necessary to meet your loved ones at the agreed time in a particular place, today social contacts can be easily maintained online. But friendships hardly succeed without being anchored in real life.

Intercultural knowledge

All articles about intercultural knowledge

Social anthropology

“Failure to conform to the norm is also an act of self-love”

Social anthropologist Serena Owusua Dankwa studied the life stories of women in Ghana who love women. To do so, she left Western notions of sexual identity and the LGBTQ scene behind.

Musicology

Does the music of love sound the same around the world?

The search for musical universals has preoccupied science for over 100 years. Acoustically measurable intervals, such as octaves and fifths, could indeed be detected globally. Strongly functional forms of music, such as dance melodies and lullabies, are also recognized across cultures.

Sustain-
ability

All articles about sustainability

Food

“A diverse, regional food supply makes us more resilient”

Whether global warming, the pandemic, or the war in Ukraine: today’s crises also endanger our food supplies. Sabin Bieri and Theresa Tribaldos of the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) call for a transition away from uniform food production and processing.

Marketing

These are the tricks that motivate us to buy at the supermarket

Claude Messner researches how we can be persuaded to buy healthier and more sustainable food. On a tour of a supermarket, the psychologist explains how marketing influences our consumer behavior.

«One Health»

For healthy soil, plants, animals – and people

One Health is an approach that links the health of humans, animals and the environment. What sounds a little esoteric is a term from scientific circles that operate more with hard facts than with subtle vibrations.

Climate

Tufted grass, bush crickets and climate change

Based in Bern, Suz Everingham coordinates a global research network called the Bug-Network. This is the unusual story of a young biologist who has moved from the ocean in Australia to the River Aare.

Matter and universe

All articles on matter and universe

Space Research

Challenges on the way to Jupiter

Peter Wurz, Nicolas Thomas and Axel Murk have all been involved in the ESA mission Juice from the very beginning. For uniAKTUELL, they look back and talk about the challenges they have already encountered on the way to the largest planet in the solar system and those that still await them.

Astronomy

Bern’s Interstellar Head Chef

Maria Drozdovskaya searches for recipes every day. But not for balanced main courses or fine desserts, but for comets, stars, and planets. In her research, she investigates how astrochemical processes form celestial bodies from dust grains, gases, and ices – and perhaps also life.

Astronomy

"Innovation means creating something from nothing"

Thomas Zurbuchen's latest visit to the University of Bern was all about innovation. On February 28 , the former NASA Head of Science and UniBE alumnus spoke about how innovative thinking and entrepreneurial action can be promoted and why one must never stand still.

Astronomy

How to build a space probe

Administration, design, mechanics, electronics, software development, science and project management: for the construction of space instruments, as with complex puzzles, a wide variety of components must be compiled into a whole. How does this work?

Health and medicine

All articles about health and medicine

Biology

Fit thanks to friends: Collaborating and benefiting

Real friends go through fire and flood for each other. How does this mutual care come about? A journey through the animal kingdom with behavioral ecologist Michael Taborsky shows that cooperation has its origins in biology.

Cardiology

Can a heart really break?

The end of a relationship, an unrequited love or the death of a loved one – they can all break your heart. At least proverbially. But does this emotional pain also manifest itself physically?

Pathology

Bernese Innovation for the Pathology of the Future

Alessandro Lugli and Miryam Blassnigg from the Institute of Pathology at the University of Bern have developed a medical cockpit, called the Pathojet, which is the first of its kind in the world. In an interview, they explain the advantages the device offers for their field and their patients.

Virus research

The University of Bern on the front lines of HIV research

The Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) has been making important contributions to research on the prevention and treatment of HIV infection since 2007. The University of Bern and the University of Cape Town are assigned to the severely affected southern Africa as part of the international research consortium, "International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS" (IeDEA). The research was recently awarded a highly competitive grant and approved for another five years.

University and studies

All articles about university and studies

Couples at the University of Bern

Connected in love and friendship

Girlfriends, bound in their cramming of statistics, starting a family thanks to a degree in sports: The University of Bern is also a platform for meeting new people. Alumni and international students of the University of Bern describe what can result from this, giving us an insight into their personal histories.

Science

Good research can be reproduced and takes us forward

How does science work? In a discussion, Angelika Kalt, Director of the Swiss National Science Foundation since 2016, and Hugues Abriel, Vice-Rector Research at the University of Bern since 2022, talk about good research, the influence of politics and the responsibility of researchers.

Dentistry

From niche to world leader: 100 years Dentistry in Bern

Founded amidst resistance in 1921, the School of Dental Medicine of the University of Bern (ZMK) is today among the most renowned centers of their kind in the world. Hendrik Meyer-Lückel, Executive Director of the ZMK, tells what makes Bernese dentistry unique.

Membrane research

When art conveys science

Researchers from the University of Bern, with students from the School of Visual Arts Bern and Biel, have created a nature trail called "Vitaport" which is open to the public and is about transport routes in the body. As a way of communicating science, art and design have a lot of potential, think scientist Valentina Rossetti and designer Juliane Wolski.

Politics and administration

All articles about politics and administration

World Trade Institute

Farmers in Ukraine need confidence to produce for Africa

Improving global food security is one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. However, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine shows how trade insecurity can destroy food security. The Word Trade Institute (WTI) at the University of Bern has been monitoring Ukraine’s grain exports, which are so important for Africa, since February. Now it is formulating demands.

Politics and economy

Hunger – the everyday tragedy in abundance

Every day, around 25,000 people die from the direct and indirect consequences of hunger. And yet hunger would be the biggest solvable problem for mankind. There is no shortage of food, knowledge or financial resources. The only thing lacking is political will.

Law

Seminars with Johnny Cash

Martino Mona is Professor of Penal Law and the Philosophy of Law at the University of Bern. What he particularly appreciates about his field is that it is not only socially relevant, but also of intellectual and philosophical significance.

Political science

Moving slowly towards an environmental law

What is politics doing to make the environment a better place? Political scientist Karin Ingold is examining which processes and mechanisms lead to a new law. She freely admits that it is often non-political influences that bring about changes in behavior or stricter legislation.

Marketing

These are the tricks that motivate us to buy at the supermarket

Claude Messner researches how we can be persuaded to buy healthier and more sustainable food. On a tour of a supermarket, the psychologist explains how marketing influences our consumer behavior.
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