Volker Roth, a professor of computer science at Freie Universität Berlin, is working in a project called AdLeaks to create a system that would make it possible for an individual to submit data over the Internet while remaining unobserved. The AdLeaks system is currently being checked and tested as part of the EU CONFINE project. A first version of the source code is available as download for interested persons. Unobserved data transfer is relevant, for example, for so-called whistleblowers, persons with inside information who inform the public about corporate or official corruption. Examples of whistleblowers are Mark Klein, and more recently Edward Snowden, who revealed the extent to which the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) monitors the Internet.

The political scientist Dr. Sabine von Oppeln from Freie Universität Berlin was honored with the French Order of Merit in recognition of her contributions to French-German relations. The French Ambassador to Germany, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, on behalf of the President of the French Republic, presented Dr. von Oppeln with the insignia of an officer in the National Order of Merit ("officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite"). The ceremony held at the Embassy on Pariser Platz in Berlin was attended by numerous friends and colleagues. The Order was founded in 1963 by the French President Charles de Gaulle.

To sustain life, processes in biological cells have to be strictly controlled both in time and in space. Research workers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and Freie Universität Berlin have elucidated a previously unknown mechanism that regulates one of the essential processes accompanying gene expression in higher organisms. In humans, errors in this control mechanism can lead to blindness.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is establishing a new International Research Training Group at Freie Universität Berlin that will investigate challenges faced in the realization of human rights. Named "Human Rights under Pressure – Ethics, Law and Politics,” the group is being set up in cooperation with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Researchers from the Human Rights Center at the University of Potsdam as well as the German Institute for Human Rights will also be involved. During the coming years 20 doctoral researchers based in Germany and 20 based in Israel will be trained in the jointly organized doctoral program. This is the first German-Israeli International Research Training Group to receive funding from the DFG.

A team of researchers from Germany, Italy, and the USA have shown that observations of stellar visibility by citizen scientists accurately measure the brightness of the night sky. The researchers published their results Thursday in Nature Publishing Group's open access journal, Scientific Reports. The researchers hope that such data can eventually be used to track changes in artificial night sky brightness, also known as skyglow, worldwide.

The head of the academic committee of the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ), Hanoch Gutfreund, will give a lecture on May 16, 2013, dealing with Albert Einstein’s worldview. In the lecture entitled "The Universal and the Particular in Einstein’s Worldview," Gutfreund, Professor Emeritus in Theoretical Physics at HUJ, will elaborate on Einstein’s attempts to cope with apparent contradictions between the universal and the particular. Gutfreund will refer to both Einstein’s scientific studies on the basic elements of nature as well as his private observations and considerations. The public lecture is part of the Einstein Lecture Dahlem series. The lecture will be given in English. Admission is free.

According to the prestigious QS World University Rankings by Subject, Freie Universität is the best German university in three subjects and among the world’s 50 best universities in five subjects. As announced by QS, Freie Universität leads the German universities in the subjects of history, linguistics, and communication science. In a global comparison, Freie Universität ranked 14 in history, 41 in modern languages and linguistics, 44 in communication sciences, and 48 in sociology.

Freie Universität Berlin performed very well in the most recent university ranking by the Center for Higher Education (CHE). New good results were achieved for the subject of history. In English and American studies, education, German studies, psychology, and Romance languages, Freie Universität’s good performance in the previous evaluation in 2010 was reconfirmed.

The Institute for Latin American Studies at Freie Universität is inviting the interested public to a lecture by the winner of the Humboldt Research Award, Professor Hilda Sabato, on May 22. In her English-language presentation Sabato, an Argentine historian, will explore the political events in Spanish America of the 19th century. An introduction will be given by the historian Professor Jürgen Kocka of Freie Universität Berlin. There is no charge for admission, and advance registration is not required.

A professor in the field of inclusive education, physical activity, and sport at Freie Universität Berlin, Gudrun Doll-Tepper was appointed by UNESCO as rapporteur for the fifth international conference of sports ministers. The MINEPS V (International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport) will take place in Berlin from May 28 to May 30, 2013. According to the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), an organization with which Doll-Tepper has worked closely for years, the results of the working group dealing with "Access to sports as a fundamental right for all" will be analyzed and evaluated. A past president of the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE), Doll-Tepper and ICSSPE are instrumental in organizing and carrying out the world conferences of sports ministers.