Category: Feature Stories

Have you ever been able to observe the following phenomenon? The alarm clock is set in the morning – after all, you can’t miss the plane or the important meeting the next day under any circumstances. But even before the alarm sounds, your eyes are open. How can this be? There is a scientific reason for this phenomenon. It has something to do with our sleep-wake rhythm. Since the beginning of time, this has helped humans to survive. During darkness, when our eyesight diminishes, and the environment becomes more dangerous,…

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In the fight against growing hunger in the world, development organizations have immediately called for more significant financial pledges from the group of leading economic powers (G20). “We urgently need more emergency aid to curb the worst effects of hunger and malnutrition,” said Fiona Uellendahl, an expert with the children’s charity World Vision, ahead of the G20 summit early next week in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian island of Bali. More than 800 million people already have problems getting enough to eat. Almost 26 million children under the age of…

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According to the latest weather forecasts, December is expected to be unusually cold this year. While energy costs continue to rise and many are already wondering how best to survive the winter months, the latest forecasts are causing further concern among the public. Although the winter weather forecast is still uncertain, most weather experts agree that the likelihood of an extreme cold snap next December is very high. It could get nastyAlthough the autumn months are above average this year and more reminiscent of late summer, this could end as…

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The climate crisis poses increasing health risks for people in Europe and already hard-hit other regions of the world. Without further action on climate change, more Europeans are expected to fall ill or die due to heatwaves or infectious diseases, for example, the EU’s Environment Agency (EEA) warned in a new report on Wednesday. The aid organization Doctors Without Borders called for climate change to also be perceived as a “real health crisis.” For its report, the Copenhagen-based EEA examined the extent to which climate change threatens European health and…

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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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