Scientists are trying to find out what influence the sun has on our climate. It's generally accepted that anthropogenic emissions are causing atmospheric warming. But it's unclear what other factors are responsible for global climate trends. There have been major changes in temperature in the past, long before the industrial age. Researchers study the influence of the sun.
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Climate Change - what role do variations in solar activity play in global warming?
Report by Daniela Renaud
The sun is responsible for life on earth - but is our star also responsible for global warming? One hundred thousand year old ice may help answer that question.
The ice at the earth's poles is a natural archive of climate data in the form of gases trapped inside the frozen water. One substance that is stored in the ice is beryllium-10, a rare radioactive element produced by the action of cosmic rays on our atmosphere. Levels of beryllium-10 are a sensitive indicator of the sun's activity. Swiss environmental physicists have studied ice core samples from Greenland - and their verdict is that the sun is not guilty; they say humans have to take responsibility for global warming.
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Heidelberg Biomedicine - a biotechnology cluster for cancer research
Report by Patrick Benning
Gene therapies, cancer treatment, personalized medicine: more than 100 partners from the research, medical and business sectors have joined forces a research cluster centered in the central German city of Heidelberg.
The BioRN Cluster hopes to speed up the transformation of biomedical research into marketable products. Over the next five years the plan is to bring out 70 new medications that may offer new hope to patients.
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Our viewer's question:
Emmanuel Moiko from Tamale wants to know:
What is the most poisonous animal?
Migraine as Muse - how drawings by patients help neurological research
Report by Christine Daum
Scientists investigating the origins of migraines have taken an unusal approach: studying artworks by sufferers.
Analyses of drawings made by patients before and during migraine attacks seem to give indications of which parts of the brain are especially affected. Data from patients is helping neuroscientists elucidate how the migraine propagates in the brain.
Fowl Smellers - genetic studies show chickens have a keen olfactory sense
Report by Tilman Wolff
The chicken genome has been fully sequenced, but all that genetic data has raised some new questions. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology have found that chickens have 570 olfactory receptor genes, nearly three times as many as some other birds.
They've also found that - unlike in humans - most of those genes are functional. The research shows that chickens and other birds probably have a much better sense of smell than previously thought. The scientists believe that may be important in recognizing predators and partners and in foraging.
