Candida albicans is a yeast that colonizes the mucosal surfaces of most healthy humans. Under certain conditions, it can switch to a harmful form and cause infection. Researchers have now identified components of mucus that keep the pathogen from turning destructive, thus laying the foundation for a new class of drugs.
How does a language originate? How does it develop? And how are languages related to each other? The linguist Dr. Michiel de Vaan examines these questions and shares his knowledge and enthusiasm as Lecturer for Historical-Comparative Linguistics at the University of Basel.
The University of Basel’s Faculty of Business and Economics will offer a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance starting in spring 2023. The part-time degree course for professionals, organized together with the TIAS School for Business and Society in the Netherlands, will teach modern finance over the course of 15 months.
Global warming has a particularly pronounced impact on the Alpine region. Like the Arctic, this European mountain range is becoming greener. Writing in the journal Science, researchers from the University of Lausanne and the University of Basel have now used satellite data to show that vegetation above the tree line has increased in nearly 80% of the Alps. Snow cover is also decreasing, albeit so far only slightly.
The University Council has appointed Professor Niklaus Labhardt as professor of clinical epidemiology. In addition, two individuals were promoted to full professors and two professorships were approved at the Faculty of Medicine.
Salad boxes to go, sealed-tray lasagna and apple juice in PET bottles: we encounter packaged food and drink everywhere. A new database shows which packaging contains harmful substances that can be transferred to its contents. It also includes findings from researchers at the University of Basel, who are investigating plastic molecules that were previously unknown or barely known.
In her dissertation, physicist Dr. Natasha Tomm co-developed a super-efficient source of individual photons. Her research could help make data exchange more tap-proof. The Swiss Academy of Sciences has awarded her the Prix Schläfli 2022 in physics.
Signs and symbols are intended to provide orientation in public spaces. Once we’ve understood their message, we take note of it and usually think no more of it. It’s worth taking a closer look, however, as these signs influence the way we live together. Edina Krompák and Stephan Meyer of the University of Basel aim to raise awareness of this aspect, especially in an educational context.
Very thin wires made of a topological insulator could enable highly stable qubits, the building blocks of future quantum computers. Scientists see a new result in topological insulator devices as an important step towards realizing the technology’s potential.