Category: Feature Stories

Many allergy sufferers hope that the winter months will be a time of respite. They then wonder why their nose still runs and their eyes water. According to information from the German Allergy and Asthma Association (Deutscher Allergie- und Asthmabund e.V.), the cold season can also cause problems for many allergy sufferers. The worldwide temperature rise has a worrying influence on the course of allergies and asthma diseases: Since the flowering period of early-flowering plants is brought forward and that of late-flowering plants is shifted to the later months, the…

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Archaeologists discovered something estimated to be 7,000 years old. So it’s even older than the pyramids and Stonehenge! Every day there are discoveries, and we keep finding evidence of life before our generation. Now another discovery has come to light. Researchers in Prague have come across a massive round structure called a rondel, which is fascinating. Massive round architectureAlthough construction workers have uncovered the site since the 1980s, scientists have only recently excavated the entire 55 meters (180 feet) of the structure. Live Science reports that the system is a…

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As a result of the Corona pandemic, children and teens are spending significantly more time in front of screens. According to a new study, time spent in front of computers increased sharply due to the pandemic. According to a new study, children and teens sat in front of screens significantly longer during the Corona pandemic. During the pandemic, an increase of an average of 52 percent was determined, writes the author, Sheri Madigan of the university in Canadian Calgary, in the specialized magazine “Jama.” That equates to an average of…

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In November, a unique sky spectacle is waiting for us. The Leonids ensure we can admire countless shooting stars in the night sky. Because in this period, the Earth crosses the orbit of the comet “Tempel-Tuttle”. Fragments of the rock then burn the comet’s orbiter. Most would probably call August a shooting star heyday. But autumn also has the celestial phenomenon to offer. Especially in November, we can expect a long, oversized falling star shower called the Leonids shower. During this shower, the Leonids enter the Earth’s atmosphere at an…

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With a modified protein from bananas, a kind of universal agent against coronaviruses, such as the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen, could be in hand in the future. The compound, called “H84T-BanLec,” can attach itself to unique structures frequently found in flu viruses but not in healthy body cells. A research team with Austrian participation now presented promising data from animal models. Coronaviruses carry complex sugar- vulgo carbohydrate compounds – so-called mannose-rich glycans – on their surface. This is also the case with the spike protein of the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen. Lectins are proteins…

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On Friday, the Chamber of Labor (AK) warned of another rise in electricity costs that could be prevented. As is the case every year, the regulation that determines the costs for the electricity grid is currently being amended. This threatens to increase grid costs by around 36 percent, or a reasonable 100 euros annually, for electricity consumption of 3,500 kWh. According to the AK, this could be prevented with the law instead of an amendment to the ordinance without causing any damage to the network operators. AK warns of a…

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Could consuming a cup of coffee be an effective way to protect against infection with the Coronavirus? What has not yet been proven in practice is at least plausible from the point of view of chemical and biochemical research. This is the conclusion reached – appropriately enough – by a research team from Jacobs University Bremen. The team led by chemists Nikolai Kuhnert, Dorothea Schmidt, and Nicholas Ohl was able to show experimentally – i.e., in the laboratory – that the chemical compound 5-caffeoylquinic acid (trivial name chlorogenic acid), which…

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The Earth is not a disk – but the Milky Way is. Most stars and planets in the Milky Way lie on a plane, just like many other galaxies in a disc shape. Earth is also on this level. That means we can look relatively well up and down into space. But if we point our telescopes toward the edge of the disk, so to speak, we can hardly see anything. The many specks of dust in a milky way prevent light from penetrating. That’s why alien galaxies are not…

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If you’re smart about planning your vacation days around holidays in 2023, you’ll be able to take extra long and frequent days off next year. 2022 may not be over, but many are already planning next year’s vacation. And if you’re smart about it, you can have extra time off because the holidays fall especially favorably in 2023. If you have 43 vacation days open next year, that means you can have a total of 95 days off. If you want to roll that over on your tongue: that’s three…

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