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Topics in February

Feb 21, 2018

Mapping the Mines

Industrial gold mine in Burkina Faso.

Researchers from Freie Universität develop an online map providing an overview of mine conflicts in Burkina Faso

The West African nation of Burkina Faso is the fastest-growing producer of gold on the African continent. Still, the country is among the poorest in the world. Many new mining licenses have been granted to multinational corporations and domestic ones alike in Burkina Faso since the mid-2000s.

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Herbonauts on a Deciphering Mission

Herbarium specimens document the wealth of different forms found in nature. The preserved plants store evidence of insecticides used in the 1970s, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the 1980s, and particulate matter found in the present day.

Citizens are invited to contribute to the project “Die Herbonauten,” harnessing their knowledge to tap into the herbarium of the Berlin Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum in scientific terms.

Clad in knickerbockers, botanical specimen containers in hand, the botanists of the 19th century walked along, bent over, with their eyes trained on the turf. Flowering plants, mosses, fungi, algae, ferns, and lichens have been collected in Dahlem since 1819 – and on a grand scale, at that.

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Sleepers inside Cell Nuclei

A childhood disease with consequences: Anyone who has ever had chickenpox carries the herpes virus for the rest of their lives.

Virologists from Freie Universität unlock the tricks of herpes viruses

Do you have herpes? Most likely, yes! Even those who do not suffer from the annoying lip blisters known as cold sores, which are caused by the herpes simplex virus, are probably infected – like more than 90 percent of the world’s population – with one of the other eight human herpes viruses.

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