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29.11.2006
The first sentences in science about the immunodeficiency AIDS barely extend to a couple of pages. In the weekly bulletin of the US health authority CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) on 5 June 1981, Michael Gottlieb from the University of California in Los Angeles, described five young, male homosexuals, who were suffering from an extremely rare pneumonia. By the time the article appeared, two of the patients had already died. At that time, nobody knew that they were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, (HIV). 25 years later, the short essay is acknowledged to be the first scientific contribution to the subject of AIDS.
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01.11.2006
For researchers, biobanks are true mines of information. To date, several German biobanks have been established, which are now being used above all for the storage and analysis of DNA samples. Now, a further project has been initiated: a blood donor biobank.
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09.06.2006
Back in the mid-eighties, the world of molecules and the world of football came unexpectedly together when three chemists made a strange discovery. The trio found a molecule consisting of 60 carbon atoms, spatially organized into twelve pentagons and twenty hexagons – just like a football, only a billion times smaller. In the meantime, American researchers have created a biological twin of this football molecule by copying it from pieces of DNA. To boot, even the air we breathe is not free from football-like shapes. Hence, in 2005, researchers at the GSF research center in Munich discovered a new type of bio-aerosol, which looks like a tiny ball, but in nature serves as a from of raincoat for cicadas.
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