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  • 8/18/2019 Revista Oldenburg

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    60

    EDITION 2015

    RESEARCH MAGAZINE

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    2 EINBLICKE 2015

    Are you “lazy”? Tis is the termscientists use to describe people whomove their heads very little duringconversation. Naturally it is not meant judgementally, but merely denotesscientic interest – at least rom thepoint o view o the researchers in theCluster o Excellence Hearing4all. Teyare working, among other things, onthe question o how the space-aware,intelligent hearing device o the uturecan adjust to the wearer‘s behaviour.And different behaviours during con-versation – whether this involves headnodding or not – play a key role here.

    In our Focus article on the Clustero Excellence we report on the challen-ges that the researchers in Volker Hoh-

    mann‘s team ace on the path to de-veloping a dynamic hearing aid. In ourinterview with Christiane Tiel andBirger Kollmeier you can nd out howmuch progress has been made threeyears a ter the Cluster o Excellence began its work and what its urthergoals are. And in the accompanyingphoto series we show how Oldenburgresearchers in Ste an Debener‘s teamare miniaturising EEG technology andmaking it mobile.

    Editorial

    Dear Readers,

    [Anzeige]

    Hearing also eatures, albeit indi-rectly, in the “Research Update” sec-tion. Musicologist Melanie Unseldtalks about the legacy o singer anddrawer Celeste Coltellini, or whomMozart also composed a numbero arias. Her legacy provides a new,“non-Mozart-centred” perspectiveon the music culture around 1800.In another article in the “ResearchUpdate” section sociologist TomasAlkemeyer and sport scientist MirkoBrandes examine the phenomenono sel -tracking, looking at the be-nets and risks o people obsessivelycollecting data about themselves andtheir bodies.

    In our portrait o psychologist Ute

    Koglin you will also meet her closestco-workers, Ferdi, Finn and Lobo –three hand puppets that Koglin takesinto kindergartens to research social-emotional skills in children. We alsoportray musicologist Gunter Kreutzwho, together with the Pius-Hospi-tal Oldenburg, has set up a choir orpeople su ering rom chronic lungdiseases. In this article you can indout more about what motivates themusicologist.

    In a guest contribution historianMalte Tießen outlines the history ovaccination and “immunity” as emb-lematic o the contradictory modernera. What ears and hopes uelled vac-cinations, he asks. And how have theychanged perceptions o risk and sa ety?

    Legal theorist Volker Boehme-Neß-ler, on the other hand, is interested inwhy the legal world hardly ever usesimages; why, in act, it seems to activelydislike images. And yet the increasingpower o images is undoubtedly havingan impact on legal thought. Does thismean that the law and society are dri -ting too ar apart?

    And as i that wasn‘t enough vari-

    ety, a number o scientists rom ourUniversity tell us about their variousmissions abroad, each in their veryown style.

    We wish you a most pleasurable read!

    Yours,the EINBLICKE editors.

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    4 5EINBLICKE 2015

    List of Contents

    Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all: Where does it stand?Musical Culture: The Legacy of Celeste Coltellini8 16

    3 Editorial

    7 The Number Twelve Articial Islands

    Research Update

    8 “The focus was not on Mozart” An important legacy with sketchbooks:

    An interview with musicologist Melanie Unseld

    10 News

    14 I track, therefore I am Sociologist Thomas Alkemeyer and sport scientist

    Mirko Brandes on the benets and risks ofself-tracking.

    Cover Topic

    16 Combining hearing devices with smartphones The Hearing4all Cluster of Excellence: How far on is

    the research? What are the goals? An intervi ew withChristiane Thiel and Birger Kollmeier

    21 Smart rather than just rational Volker Hohmann is working on the hearing device

    of the future

    24 Photo series Measuring brainwaves on the go: Stefan Debener

    is making EEG technology mobile

    28 Mission: To convey emotions How children learn to feel emotions? Ute Koglin,expert in educational psychology

    32 “I am giving singing a lobby”How music can trigger a sense of well-being:Gunter Kreutz, expert in systematic musicology

    34 Research across the globe Scientists report on their research stays abroad

    38 The age of immunity What we can learn from the history of vaccination

    about changes in modern societies. By Malte Thießen

    44 How pictures change the law What does the dominance of the visual mean for

    legal thought? Legal theorist Volker Boehme-Neßlerprovides answers

    46 UGO, Imprint, Photo credits

    48 New Appointments

    53 Doctorates/Habilitations

    Malte Thießen: The History of Vaccination How do children learn to feel emotions?28 38

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    6 7EINBLICKE 2015

    [Anzeige]

    On six of the articial islands the expeplanted common saltmarsh-grass,sea purslane and sea-lavender, plantsthat are native to the Spiekerooger saltmarshes.

    THE NUMBER

    „We expose the salt-marsh plants on ourarticial islands to the stress of oodingto study how they cope with changes inenvironmental conditions.“

    The articial islands are set at different heights to simulate thedifferent ood zones of the salt marshes and ensure variations inthe frequency with which the plants are exposed to the North Seasalt water. In this way the scientists analyse changes in the sealevel and how they affect the vegetation.

    Prof. Dr. Michael KleyerInstitute of Biology and Environmental Sciences

    12 is the number of articial islandsOldenburg scientists have constructedon the tidal ats off the East FrisianIsland of Spiekeroog.

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    "The focus isnot on Mozart"Musicologist Melanie Unseld talks about the legacy of singer and drawer Celeste Coltellini –and what it says about the classical music scene in the period around 1800

    Research update

    "So the question of whether it is a picture of Mozart is the wrong question": Prof. Dr. Melanie Unseld with a reproduction of severalheads in prole featured in Coltellini´s Vienna sketchbook.

    Celeste Coltellini was a famous sin-ger in her time. She lived from 1760to 1828 and was part of Vienna‘sclassical music scene in the periodaround 1800 that we now associateso heavily with Mozart. But Coltel-lini was not just a singer, she alsomade a lot of drawings. Researchershave now been given access to her ar-tistic legacy for the rst time. Whatexactly does that legacy comprise?At the core is a particularly interestingcollection o six sketchbooks. Te a-

    mily, which so generously gave me ac-cess to the legacy, always made a pointo documenting the act that its emalemembers had been artistically acti-ve across several generations. CelesteColtellini was one o them. We havenow been able to evaluate her sketch- books. Carola Bebermeier, a doctoralcandidate in my department, wrote herdissertation on the subject.

    Can pictures also serve as musicolo-gical sources?

    Yes, absolutely. But this requires anexchange between disciplines. Hereat the University the work on the the-ory and history o art is highly advan-ced and raises new questions aboutapproaches to visual culture. It is basedon the premise that the visual is notimmediately evident, but rather thatimages "allow something to be seen".However, they can also conceal things.It is an approach that doesn‘t aim to

    ully interpret pictures but to see themas part o the cognitive process. Tis is

    also productive or historical musicolo-gy because here too, it is important notto use pictures in a purely illustrationalway but to see them as valuable in theirown right.

    And you are using this approach withthe sketchbooks too. What signi-cance does this discovery have for your research into music history? Te sketchbooks provide insightsinto the very specic music cultureo the period around 1800. Coltelli-ni was very well connected – and weare given glimpses into her everydayli e as a singer and cultural media-tor because or a long time she was aprima donna in Naples, and she alsoper ormed in Vienna. Inspired by mu-sicological gender research we ask:what really means "music" and whatmeans "musical culture"? Becausethe sketchbooks reveal a very di e-rent assessment o the importanceo the people who were active in this

    environment. Te ocus is not on thecomposer but rather on the opera asan event in which many different peo-ple participate. So here we see that theopera phenomenon is not con inedto the actions o amous composers, but that those composers are activewithin a whole group o people. Musicis there ore more than just what thecomposer puts down on paper.

    Can you name an example?Tere is one drawing by Coltelliniwhich shows the composer GiovanniPaisiello listening to Coltellini singingas she sits at the harpsichord. Anotherunidentied person is also listening.But in this picture the composer ispart o a sphere o activity in whic h thesinger plays an equally active role. Andthat is the point here: not to ocus onthe work but on the event, whether it‘sa rehearsal or a stage per ormance inwhich everyone plays their part – thesingers, the conductor, the compo-ser, the librettist, the impresario whomakes sure everyone does what theyare supposed to, the stage hands andso on.

    Did Mozart and Coltellini ever meet?Yes, and there is proo o it. CelesteColtellini was an opera buffa singer.For ten years she was the undisputedprima donna in Naples. Joseph II, ho-wever, was always on the lookout ortalented singers or his Viennese stagesand he brought her in straight romItaly‘s best stages. So Coltellini came toVienna and her rst season there wasvery success ul. She was also in Vien-na or a second season, but it was lesssuccess ul. Te precise circumstancesare a little unclear. She arrived late inthe city and missed some rehearsals.Te sources don‘t provide sufficientdetails. But we do know that the twowere in contact with each other duringthat season because Mozart composed

    or Coltellini.

    "Music is more than whatthe composer puts downon paper "

    What do you mean by that? Te event o opera staging in 18th cen-tury never entirely goes out rom thescore. It was the singers, and above allthe primo uomo and prima donna,who had a great inuence on what wassung. Tis was because on the one handthe parts were specically written orparticular singers by the composer,and secondly because the singers wereallowed to add their own arias to anopera, which meant that composersconstantly received requests to compo-se them. Coltellini also came to Mozartwith such a request, and he composedseveral ensembles or operas that sheper ormed in Vienna. But in order towrite those parts or her he would haveto have been very amiliar with hervoice. So they did meet. And perhapsMozart – like Paisiello – even sat nextto her at the harpsichord.

    Do the sketchbooks make any refe-rence to this meeting? One o the sketchbooks was used by Coltellini while she was working

    in Vienna or the second time. Andthat book contains the address o thehouse where Mozart was living atthe time. Mozart had rented a houseout in the country or a ew months.

    oday, o course, that area is withinthe city. But back then it was a littleoutside the city. Such accommoda-tion was there ore more affordableand spacious.

    Did Coltellini make any drawings ofher meeting with Mozart? Her Viennese sketchbook containsmany pages eaturing several headsin prole. Sketched encounters. Oneo those pages shows a proled headwhich, according to the amily tradi-tion, is a portrait o Mozart. We exa-mined the issue more closely and oundindications that support that assump-tion. Leonhard Posch was a amous me-dallist at the time who made the so-cal-led "Gürtelschnallenrelie " o Mozart.Te similarities b etween Coltellini‘s

    drawing and that relie are remarkable.Tis and other indicators suggest thatit is indeed Mozart in the drawing. Butultimately we can‘t prove it.

    Which is presumably not such animportant aspect for your music his-torical research? Precisely, this is just one small pic-ture in a very large assortment odrawings. I we were to ocus solely onthe question o whether it really i s Mo-zart, Coltellini‘s role as a representativeo her times would retreat into the background again. Perhaps it is a por-trait o Mozart. We have good reason to believe so. But even i we could be sure,naturally it is not Mozart but a pictureColtellini drew o a musician she met inVienna. So the question o whether it isa picture o Mozart is the wrong one todirect at this source.

    Interview: Matthias Echterhagen

    Literature on the subject:

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    Research update

    A new group or young researchersis being set up at the Oldenburg Uni-versity's Institute o Physics. Te Fe-deral Ministry o Education and Re-search will provide Dr. Martin Silieswith around 1.2 million euros in un-ding over a our-year period so thattogether with two colleagues he candevelop an all-optical, nanotransis-tor capable o ultra- ast switching.Everyday electronic devices all eaturetransistors. Nowadays these electro-nic switches measure just a ten-thou-sandth o a millimetre, and millionso them can be incorporated into asingle processor. It is, however, almostimpossible to make them any smaller,and the size o the components limits

    Te University was success ul withnot just one but two applications orproject unding rom the "Science orSustainable Development" undingprogramme o the State o Lower Sax-ony and the VolkswagenFoundation.Oldenburg scientists are also invol-ved in two other research projects onsustainability that were approved or

    unding. Te new programme willprovide around 12 million euros oreight projects in total."Re lexive Responsibilisation. Res-

    ponsibility or Sustainable Develop-ment" is the title o a research projectled by Oldenburg sociologist Pro . Dr.Anna Henkel. Te sociologists, eco-nomists and philosophers involved inthe project aim to uncover obstacles

    Although high-quality wind turbinesare already being produced today, thegoal is continual improvement. Te"ventus efficiens" research project ba-sed at the Universities o Oldenburgand Hannover in the ForWind Center

    or Wind Energy Research, is aimed at boosting efficiency in wind turbines.Te VolkswagenFoundation is provi-ding an initial 3.6 million euros in un-ding or the project.Unlike at the turn o the millennium,when scientists were concentrating

    Making transistors a thousand times fasterthe speed at which a switch can openand close.Silies' research may be able to increa-se current clock speeds o a ew gi-gahertz (several billion cycles per se-cond) by more than a thousand times,which could considerably boost thespeed o main rame computers andother technology in the uture. Te35-year-old scientist's objective is tocontrol specic light particles, calledphotons, with such precision thatthey can be used to operate all-opticaltransistors. In this process the distan-ce between the tips o two extremelyne, converging gold wires is just a

    ew nanometres (one millionth o amillimetre). Silies' research group

    hopes to be able to control the pro-cess o photons crossing this almostinconceivably small distance – thusclosing the switch – at almost uni-maginable rates using dye molecu-les. Depending on these molecules'degree o light saturation they eitherallow a photon to pass or block theshutting o the switch. With his team o doctoral candidatesSilies plans to work initially on the de-licategold antennas into which extre-mely ne lines are carved using heli-um ions. Te lines guide the photons.Te team will also be testing interac-tions between different dye moleculesand potentially also other moleculeson this tiniest o all scales.

    Increasing wind turbine efficiency

    Successful sustainability research

    "Smart cams", small intelligent ca-meras built into everyday objects andpermanently connected to the inter-net, may soon completely digitise li ein public spaces. Legal scholars andsocial scientists at Oldenburg Univer-sity working together with computerscientists rom the university's affilia-ted OFFIS Institute analysed the tech-

    "Smart Cams" and public lifenological opportunities, potential orsocial conict and need or legal regu-lations that come with this technologyin a two-year project called "ChaRiS-ma". Te Federal Ministry o Researchand Education is providing just over400,000 euros in unding or the pro- ject, which is led by pro essor o legalin ormatics Pro . Dr. Jürgen aeger.

    on the path to a sustainable societyand anticipate consequences. "Re-silience o Socio- echnical Systemsexempli ied using the Electricity

    ransport and Actor System" is thetitle o the second project, which is ba-sed in Oldenburg and led by Pro . Dr.Ulrike Feudel, a physicist. Resiliencehere re ers to the ability o a systemto maintain key unctions even whenmal unctions occur. Te energy sys-tems o the uture must or instance be resilient against climate change, but also against uctuations in windenergy input. In this project econo-mists, physicists and sociologists willresearch interactions between com-plex networks.Computer scientists and environ-

    mental economists rom OldenburgUniversity and its affiliated OFFIS Ins-titute are also conducting research onenergy supplies or the uture in theproject "NEDS – Sustainable EnergySupply Lower Saxony", which is basedat the University o Hannover. And inthe project "Sustainable Consumpti-on o In ormation and Communica-tion echnologies (IC ) in the DigitalSociety – Dialogue and rans orma-tion through Open Innovation", basedat Osnabrück University o AppliedSciences, computer scientists specia-lising in the environment and sus-tainability are joined by economis-ts rom Oldenburg in conductingresearch aimed at improving sustain-ability in technology consumption.

    on optimising individual wind turbinesystems, the ocus today is on windenergy production as a whole. Te re-searchers want to improve efficien-cy along the entire production chain:

    rom energy conversion to the bearingstructures and drive trains all the wayto the power grid connections. By re-ducing electricity costs, extending theservice li e o turbines and improvingthe quality o their output the projectis aimed at helping upgrade the Euro-pean energy system.

    Martin Silies is developing tomorrow's technology for use in ultra-fast "optical computers".

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    Research update

    A team of ve researchers and several students participated in the laboratory experiment. The samples were prepared and analysedusing ultra-high resolution chemical methods.

    Bacteria in the ocean: vital for the global carbon cycleHow can organic matter dissolved inthe ocean store carbon over thousandso years and maintain our climate inthe process? o shed light on this ques-tion, marine scientists at the Universi-ty o Oldenburg per ormed a laboratoryexperiment over several years.Te team o ive researchers led byDr. Helena Osterholz and Pro . Dr.Torsten Dittmar o the Institute orChemistry and Biology o the MarineEnviroment (ICBM) published its n-dings in the prestigious journal "Na-ture Communications".Te ocean stores similar amounts ocarbon in dissolved organic matter(abbreviated to DOM) as are present inthe carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth'satmosphere. Te mixture o variouscarbon-containing substances con-sists o the products o metabolism anddecomposition o marine organismssuch as algae. DOM orms the basis orthe survival o marine bacteria, whichduring the degradation o these com-pounds release part o the carbon theycontain into the atmosphere in the

    orm o CO2. However, a large propor-tion o the DOM remains in the sea-water or several thousands o years,some ractions have even been oundto reside in the water or up to 40,000years. Consequently this so-called re-

    ractory DOM - also known as RDOM- unctions as a huge, long-term carbondepot.Te question o whether RDOM is crea-ted through biological processes alone,and i so, o how it can resist bacterialdecomposition or so long orms the basis o the publication. o answerthese questions the researchers mi-xed pure, initially DOM- ree seawaterwater rom the North Sea, includingits natural algae and bacterial assem- blages. aking water samples over aperiod o 1011 days, they were able toobserve algal growth, DOM release anddecomposition processes and per ormdetailed analysis applying ultra-highresolution chemical methods.Te researchers examined whetherthe compounds produced in the la- boratory were o the same molecular

    composition and present at similarconcentrations as those in the deep seaacross the globe. Te result: the mole-cules were or the most part the sameas those ound in marine RDOM, butwere present in very different concent-rations. Te ratios o the different DOMcomponents in the laboratory were notidentical to that o oceanic RDOM.In complex calculations the scientistsdetermined the percentage o RDOMpresent in all the organic material pro-duced in the experiment; it constituted0.2-0.4 percent o the entire xed car- bon. "In this experiment we were ableto experimentally show what has long been suspected: biological processessuffice to keep the amount o carbonstored in the ocean at stable levels,"Osterholz explains.A ragile balance that Osterholz says ishighly relevant or our climate: "In thehistory o our planet even small varia-tions in the concentration o oceanicdissolved organic matter have proba- bly led to global ice ages or interglacialperiods."

    Interdisciplinary dialogue:the grand opening of the NeSSy research buildingTe new NeSSy research building pro-vides space or 80 researchers wor-king in the "Hearing4all" Cluster oExcellence and those areas where theresearch centres or Neurosensorics

    and Sa ety-Critical Systems intersect.Around hal o the building's 2000square metres o oor space is taken up by laboratories containing high-techinstruments or advancing interdis-ciplinary basic and applied research.Tese include acoustics and hearinglabs as well as neurophysiology labo-ratories.Te scientists' research ocuses on in-

    novations in medical technology andhuman-machine communication. Te building houses extremely valuableresearch instruments such as a mag-netoencelograph scanner, a unctionalMRI scanner and a "3D Virtual Reality"laboratory, as well as a con erence cen-tre. Te ederal government and thegovernment o Lower Saxony sharedthe building's total cost o 15 millioneuros. At the opening ceremony o theNeSSy building guests were given aninsight into the ongoing research in aninteractive tour o the laboratories ea-turing live interviews with scientists.

    Science study:homogenising biological communitiesHumans are introducing increasingnumbers o plant and animal speciesinto new areas. An international teamo researchers led by Pro . Dr. HenriqueMiguel Pereira o the German Centre

    or Integrative Biodiversity Researchin Leipzig has now demonstrated thatthe global anthropogenic trans er ospecies is causing the collapse o inde-pendent dissemination patterns thatevolved over millions o years – withthe result that different ecosystemsare becoming more and more simi-lar. Ecologist Dr. Hanno Seebens oOldenburg University's Institute orChemistry and Biology o the MarineEnvironment (ICBM) was one o themembers o the research team whoauthored the study. ogether withscientists rom Portugal, Austria andGermany he examined 175 species osnails in 56 countries. Te results othis large-scale study were publishedin the renowned "Science" journal. Testudy provides one o the rst analyseso the global homogenisation o eco-systems."We were able to prove that regions that

    are separated by great distances buthave similar climates, like or exampleAustria and New Zealand, have verysimilar communities o non-nativesnails. Tis means that the biologicalcommunities are becoming increa-singly homogenised," Seebens said. Hewent on to explain that whereas in thepast similarity patterns were deter-mined by distance, nowadays climatein combination with global trade arethe decisive actors. Te more intensi-ve the trading between countries withsimilar climates, the more similartheir biological communities become."Tis biological homogenisation couldhave ar-reaching consequenc es," See- bens warned. Te act that humansare introducing new species all overthe world puts many native specieswhich are unable to de end themselvesagainst the intruders under massivepressure, eventually killing them off completely, he explained. "Te studyshows that the introduction o evermore non-native species into newregions must be stopped i we are toensure the survival o our ecosys tems."

    DFG research units tocontinue their workTe Research Unit "Horizontal Euro-peanisation", which analyses how Eu-ropean societies are growing together,has secured unding rom the GermanResearch Foundation (DFG) or another

    three years. Te DFG approved an addi-tional 2.8 million euros in unding orseven sub-projects. Renowned scien-tists rom nine universities are parti-cipating in the Research Unit, which iscoordinated by Oldenburg sociologistPro . Dr. Martin Heidenreich.Tis Research Unit ocuses on so-called"horizontal Europeanisation", whichre ers to the social integration andsocio-cultural assimilation processesthat are transcending national borderswithin the EU. Te sub-projects are re-searching areas such as higher educa-tion systems, asylum administrationstructures, collective wage agreementsand the different dimensions o social

    inequality.Since 2012 the Research Unit "Indivi-dualised Audiology", coordinated byOldenburg University, has pursuedthe goal o improving "hearing or all"with technological and psychoacousticsolutions. Te German Research Foun-dation (DFG) will provide the ResearchUnit, led by Pro . Dr. Dr. Birger Koll-meier and Pro . Dr. Volker Hohmann,with a total o 1.95 million euros in

    unding or another three years. "Tework and results o this Research Unitare among the world's best in the eldo audiology," the letter o approval

    rom the DFG stated. In addition to theDepartment o Medical Physics andAcoustics o Oldenburg University theHör ech Centre o Competence and the Jade University o Applied Sciences, incooperation with the Fraunho er Pro- ject Group Hearing, Speech and Audio

    echnology, are also involved in theproject. Te Unit's research activitiesrepresent the technological core, as itwere, o the "Hearing4all" Cluster oExcellence.

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    I track, therefore I amSelf-tracking is in vogue: more and more people are gathering data about their bodies.Sociologist Thomas Alkemeyer and sport scientist Mirko Brandes are studying thisphenomenon – each from a different perspective

    Research update

    The benets and risks of self-tracking: Prof. Dr. Thomas Alkemeyer (left) and PD Dr. Mirko Brandes.

    How many steps have I taken today?How high is my blood pressure? Howmany calories did I burn while jogging?More and more people are using apps,tness wristbands and smart phonesto collect personal data about themsel-ves and their bodies. Tis sel -measure-ment trend is known as "sel -tracking".Oldenburg sports and social scientistsare among those studying the pheno-menon and its methods.

    A visit to Dr. Mirko Brandes, Pro-essor or Sport and Health at Haaren-

    tor Campus. Te sports scientist usessel -tracking methods or his research.On his desk lies an inconspicuous-loo-king pedometer. It is actually a sta-te-o -the-art device that contains an

    acceleration sensor and a microproces-sor. Te pedometer can be adjusted toprecisely match the test subject's speedparameters.

    Brandes and his team used the pe-dometer in a study on the rehabilitati-on o patients a ter knee and hip jointoperations. Teir research was aimedat determining whether interventionmeasures can help patients with newhip and knee joints to become morephysically active and thus gain morecondence in their new joints.

    In order to nd answers Brandes andhis team equipped their test subjectswith high-per ormance pedometersand monitored them throughout therehabilitation programme. Alongside

    the usual rehab therapy, participantsreceived continual eedback rom thesports scientists. In one-on-one con-versations they evaluated the subjects'movement patterns and the number osteps taken daily. A ollow-up exami-nation o physical activity was carriedout approximately three weeks a tercompletion o rehab, in the subjects'home environment.

    Te rst results o the study, carri-ed out in cooperation with the rehabcentre in Kreyenbrück, showed in the

    ollow-up check in the home environ-ment that subjects who had used thepedometer or the ull duration o thestudy were more physically active thansubjects in the control group. Te latter

    had participated in an identical rehabprogramme but received no eedbackand had only used the pedometer atthe start o the study. Furthermore theresearchers demonstrated that sub- jects who made continuous use o thepedometer had a higher quality o li eand trusted their new knee or hip joints

    more than the other participants in therehab programme.

    Prior to their operation, the sub- jects had o ten experienced permanentpain in their knee or hip joints overthe course o many years, Brandes ex-plains. "Using the tracking methodsthey could see that their new jointscould withstand continuous extrastrain without causing any problems.O course this motivates them to bemore active. And it boosts condencein the new j oint."

    Brandes sees another major advan-tage o sel -tracking methods roma scienti ic perspective. In anotherexperiment, "Te Oldenburg Fitness

    Study", he is analysing whether parti-cularly inactive people who are put onspecially designed tness programmesactually start becoming more active.A key element o the study requiresthe subjects to record how much theymove everyday using a pedometer overa two-week period. "We used to have touse questionnaires to gain in ormati-on about physical activity in everydayli e," the sports scientist explains. Butthis data was subjectively coloured.Subjects tended to record how muchthey wanted to be moving instead ohow much they had actually moved."Trough sel -tracking the data ismuch more precise than it was in thepast," Brandes summarises.

    But what does sel -tracking do topeople? And why are more and morepeople using these methods? Why arethey putting their data online andcomparing it with other participantsin online orums? Are people not con-cerned about privacy? "We are carelesswith our data. We have yet to developa cultural awareness o the ways suchsensitive in ormation can b e used," ex-plains the sociologist Tomas Alke-

    meyer. Alkemeyer sits two offices downrom Brandes on Haarentor Campus.

    He is the spokesman o the postgradu-ate programme "Sel -Making. Practiceso Subjectivation in Historical and In-terdisciplinary Perspective."

    Alkemeyer is interested in how anindividual becomes a subject, and isthus made responsible not only orhimsel but also or the wel are o the"social community". "Sel -tracking isthe attempt to sel -optimise by perma-nently monitoring one's li e throughquantication. Tus the social normo an unlimited capacity or improvingper ormance, health and tness is re-produced on one's own body. Te indi-vidual subjects himsel to this norm,"the sociologist explains.

    One example is the Quanti iedSel movement initiated in 2007 byUS journalists Gary Wol and KevinKelly. On the website quantiedsel .com sel -trackers can discuss the latestdata and developments on sel -mea-surement. By now there are countlessinternet orums where sel -trackersupload their collected data and com-pare such things as tness levels withother sel -trackers. Most well-known

    "It's a never-ending competition"

    sport products brands offer apps thatallow their users to compare data onphysical activity.

    "Subjectivation is a double-edgedsword," Alkemeyer explains. On theone hand sel -tracking helps peoplegain a certain control over their livesand allows them to live a reexive li e.

    On the other hand they are subjectingthemselves to social expectations andentering into a never-ending com-petition with themselves and others.Sel -empowerment comes at the priceo sel -subjugation.

    For the sociologist, one o the rea-sons behind this development is thatin modern society although the indi-vidual regards himsel as autonomous,he always eels powerless in the aceo external orces. "School education,vocational training, university – thesethings are less and less a guarantee orthe uture," explains Alkemeyer. "Tere'sno way o knowing whether what I'mlearning today will have any relevance

    tomorrow." At least, Alkemeyer says, thisis how people today perceive their situa-tion. Te shi t rom provision to preven-tion, to a social state that is increasinglyobliging the individual to take responsi- bility or his or her wel are, is the otherkey actor. "Sel -tracking promises thatyou can take charge o your own li e. Itauthenticates in a bodily and sensibleway the modern ideal o being 'master'o your own destiny." (tk)

    Self-tracking: Apps allow users to compare data on physical activity.

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    Cover Topic

    Te starting signal came in Novem- ber 2012 – ve years of funding forthe Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all. Mr. Kollmeier, you are theCluster's coordinator. Where doesHearing4all stand at the half-waymark? Kollmeier: It's always hard to make aninterim assessment. Te sheer num- ber o tasks involved was and still isoverwhelming. But a ter two-and-a-hal years we are able to say that themajority o the problems we wantedto tackle, we have indeed tackled – andin most cases we have already achievedsubstantial success.

    Hearing research in the Cluster ofExcellence can be roughly dividedinto three fields: improving hea-ring aids, basic research for assis-tive audio technology and impro-ving diagnosis to provide betterindividual treatment. What have

    you achieved in diagnostics, for ex-ample, and in what direction is itheaded? Kollmeier: We are looking into howsound is actually processed – romthe perspective o neurobiology, psy-chophysics and neuropsychology orexample. Building on this we have de-veloped new ways o tying up the basicresearch with clinical requirements,the treatment side o things, in otherwords. We have developed diagnosticmethods which already establish in-ternational standards, the "OldenburgSentence est", or example, whichexists in 21 languages.

    Can you give a specic example ofhow you have improved treatmentthrough diagnostics? Kollmeier: Something that has comeon in leaps and bounds recently is com- bining cochlea implants and hearingaids. Either on one ear so that the per-

    son hears high requencies with theimplant and low ones with the hearingaid. Or they have a cochlea implant inone ear and a hearing aid on the other.Tese therapeutic possibilities haveonly been developed in the past threeyears – and we have provided the un-derlying diagnostic basis and criteria

    or this. However it is not yet possible todevelop the right therapy or each andevery patient at the ick o a switch oreven or this to be implemented global-ly as a so tware solution.

    Is this a long-term goal? Kollmeier: Absolutely. We want thestandards we have developed here to be used internationally. Our interna-tionally compatible language tests area particularly important vehicle in thisrespect. By using them other scientistsand partners worldwide draw on ourexperience and we can distribute ourstandards internationally.

    … and at the same time presumablygain access to a much larger amountof data.Kollmeier: Tanks to internationallycomparable tests, all o a sudden datagathered in Russia can be compareddirectly with test-subject groups inother countries. For example a juniorresearcher in Finland translated theOldenburg Sentence ests into Fin-nish and used them on a patient withcochlea implants. Now his indingscan be used as a comparison in 21 otherlanguage areas. Tis sort o thing wasnot possible be ore.

    Ms Tiel, you are not involved withthe Sentence est specically, butas one of the Cluster's principal in-vestigators you also work in diagno-stics. What is your approach there? Tiel: Our goal is to individualise dia-gnostics. So are there actors, beyondsimple hearing loss, that can help ex-

    Combining

    hearingdevices withsmartphones

    The starting signal for the Hearing4all Cluster ofExcellence came three years ago. How much progresshave the scientists made? What are their ultimategoals? Birger Kollmeier, coordinator of the Cluster ofExcellence, and Christiane Thiel, lead researcher, oncombining hearing devices and cochlea implants, theinternationalisation of Oldenburg standards and solu-tions for those for whom a hearing aid is too much, butno hearing aid at all is too little

    Birger Kollmeier und Christiane Thiel: "The broad spectrum of interdisciplinary expertise makes the Cluster unique."

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    cooperating scientists who share the

    same methodology but approach thematter with very different research in-terests. In recent years, or example, thecognitive neuropsychology aspect hasvery much come to the ore. We were blind to this aspect be ore. Ms Tiel andthe other scientists have classied ourtest subjects also according to central

    unctions so that internationally wenow have the best characterised stocko test subjects. Tis means we can runstudies in Oldenburg that simply don'texist in any other locations.

    Te second eld of research is betterhearing devices. What is the currentstatus here? Kollmeier: We set out to demonstra-

    Prof. Dr. Dr. Birger KollmeierPhysicist and physician Birger Kollmeier is coordinator of the "Hearing4all" Clusterof Excellence and also head of the „Medical Physics“ department, the HörzentrumOldenburg GmbH and the Fraunhofer Project Group for Hearing, Speech and AudioTechnology. Kollmeier has received a number of prestigious awards, including theInternational Award of the American Academy of Audiology and the German Presi-dent‘s Award for Technology and Innovation.

    Prof. Dr. Christiane ThielProf. Dr. Christiane Thiel leads the "Biological Psychology" research group and isexamining the role of neurotransmitters in cognitive processes. In the "Hearing4all"Cluster of Excellence she leads the "Functional Characterisation of the Individual"task group, which is researching why individuals process acoustic stimuli differently– and why not everyone benets equally from a hearing aid.

    plain why the quality o hearing in

    patients varies so much? Not everyone benets rom a hearing aid or a coch-lea implant. Not just auditory but alsocognitive actors may well play a role,

    or example, in how well someone isable to direct their attention to a spe-aker or how long their memory spanis. On the one hand I observe thesethings on a purely behavioural levellike other scientists in the Departmento Psychology, but o course we are alsointerested in the extent to which brainactivity potentially contributes here.

    How has your eld developed sin-ce the Cluster of Excellence began?How have the possibilities for yourresearch expanded?

    Tiel: One thing that makes a huge

    impact at this location is our two brainimaging devices – ew institutionshave both in one place, and they openup exciting questions or us. Te MRIscanner that I work with allows us tolocalise processes in the brain. And themagnetoencephalograph provides uswith the temporal resolution. Tis me-ans we can examine the same patientin both machines and gain an optimalcomparison o the temporal and spatialdimensions. Tat is one aspect whichsubstantially strengthens Oldenburgas a scientic location, even beyond theCluster o Excellence.Kollmeier: And as well as about themachines it is also above all about thepeople. We have a very good mix o

    te the principle easibility o betterhearing devices and to improve thesystems technology. Our vision is tohave a bit o Oldenburg in all hearingsystems in ten years' time. Te proto-type development is highly success ul.Using demonstrators we can show theadvantages o binaural – or two-ear –

    hearing and o scalable algorithms. Terst patent has just been registered ora device that that may be turned roman assistive listening system or veryslight hearing impairments right intoa ully unctional hearing aid by buttonpress. Tere have also been technologi-cal advances in cochlea implants.

    What role does individualisationplay? Tiel: Te goal is to adjust the unctiono the hearing device on the basis oindividual diagnosis. For example rese-archers have ound out that when hea-ring-impaired patients use a hearingaid or both ears simultaneously, loudvolumes in particular are heard muchlouder than was previously assumed.Up to now this binaural accumulativeeffect was not taken into account whenadjusting hearing aids. Tey were ad- justed to each ear individually, whichmeant patients would nd the volumetoo loud. So then the whole hearing aidwas turned down – making it too quiet

    at lower volumes. Studies carried outhere in Oldenburg have demonstratedthat binaural hearing must be takeninto account to a ar greater extentthan it has been in the past. It may bepossible to lay the oundations or thisin the next two years.

    And ho w are things going in t hethird eld of research, basic rese-arch into assistive audio technology?Kollmeier: On the one hand we aretrying to nd solutions or people orwhom a hearing aid is too much butno hearing aid at all is too little – and ingeneral to integrate human-machineinter aces into audio systems. In thearea o speech recognition, or instan-ce, we have been very success ul. Butwe are also moving in the direction o brain-computer inter aces, where weare trying to use EEG signals to helpcontrol hearing devices. Once againneuropsychology plays a key role here.Tiel: Tat's Pro essor Ste an Debe-ner's research group, which has de-veloped very interesting measuringtechniques. Basically we're talkingabout mobile measurement o elec-trical brain activity – but in practiceno one would want to walk aroundcampus wearing a conventional EEGcap. So the group is trying to makethese devices smaller and smaller andhas reduced the electrodes to the pointwhere they can simply be stuck behindthe ears. Tis makes them completelyunobtrusive, but they can still measure brain activity.Kollmeier: With that innovation Ste-

    an Debener and his team have taken

    the global lead within just two and ahal years. It's very impressive to thinkthat in the uture we may be able tooperate hearing aids and similar de-vices on the basis o such mobile EEGs.Tiel: Mobile recording techniques areone issue here. But brain-computerinter aces based on EEG technology

    are still very slow and unreliable. Tatmeans we will need a lot more proces-sing power. Tis is why we now haveour own expert on machine learning, Jörg Lücke, who uses algorithms andstatistical classication to analyse the brain signals and deduce what the per-son wants to do.

    What is your vision for this eld ofresearch? What do you want to achie-ve?Kollmeier: Basically we want bothtechnological and systems competen-ce. Systems competence also meansknowing how humans unction andwhat they need, so in the uture wecan radically improve and supportuser- riendliness and practicabilityin hearing-related solutions. Tat me-ans creating and controlling all theprerequisites or us being able to ndsolutions that are not possible today, but are already visible on the horizon.

    Can you name an example?Kollmeier: Hearing devices combinedwith smartphones or example. Ourvision is that in a ew years' time everysmartphone will contain Oldenburgtechnology, in the orm o an app, say,that helps the user to hear speci icthings more precisely.

    "Our advantages: entre-preneurial spirit and un-pretentious collaboration"Birger Kollmeier

    "Not everyone benets from a hearing aid or a cochlea implant." A test subject in the hearing lab.

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    Without a hearing device? Kollmeier: Well or example I wouldhave a small button in my ear, similarto a bluetooth headset or listening tomusic, and it would enable me to usehearing device technology withoutit really being distinguishable roma standard consumer audio device.

    So even people with normal hearingwould benet considerably rom thetechnology as they go about their every-day lives, whether it's because it pro-vides a kind o "enhanced reality" thatmakes certain sources more audible or because it gives them access to additi-onal in ormation channels via moreor less conscious control, via gesturesor brain-computer inter aces. So wewould be the leading system address

    or all uture applications related toauditory perception.

    What do you personally enjoy mostabout your work with the Cluster of

    Excellence? Tiel: Te interdisciplinarity. Tis o -ten gives you completely new ideas. Forexample I wouldn't normally go to en-gineering lectures – but there you getto see things rom an entirely diff erentperspective. So it make as lot o sen-se that so many different disciplines

    are involved in the cluster. Tis broadspectrum o expertise makes it unique.

    And your hopes for the future? Kollmeier: I want the cluster to con-tinue to develop stably. Naturally itwould be good i the unding period

    was extended, but that's still open. Wewould like to carry on with the struc-tures that have already been put inplace …Tiel: … and also involve our medicalcolleagues working in the hospitalshere in Oldenburg. When the project began we brought in colleagues rom

    Hannover because we didn't have a me-dical aculty here. Now more and morepro essors are coming to Oldenburgand are expanding the local spectrum.Kollmeier: We don't have the mass otraditional universities with their hugeengineering and medical aculties. Butour advantage is a certain entrepre-neurial spirit and unpretentious colla- boration which quite naturally crossesthe boundaries between different dis-ciplines. Tis is the only way to makeprogress. And preserving it is crucial– also or other areas at the University.

    Interview: Dr. Corinna Dahm-Brey,Matthias Echterhagen, Deike Stolz

    Several members o Volker Hoh-mann's research team recently onceagain spent a large part o their wor-king week in the university ca eteria.Hohmann made no attempt to stopthem – quite the opposite in act. Hoh-mann, Pro essor or Psychoacousticsand one o the leaders o the Olden- burg Research Unit "IndividualizedHearing Acoustics" unded by the

    German Research Foundation (DFG),actually seems delighted. Because theca eteria on Wechloy Campus – in the

    orm o a virtual three-dimensionalmodel, please note – belongs to theteam's research territory. "Every addeddetail brings reality a little bit closer,"Hohmann says.

    So what makes the ca eteria between the Maths and Physics wingsso interesting or hearing research? It

    is a complex audio environment withdiverse sound sources rom differentdirections. o have a conversationthere – potentially with a group o peo-ple – amidst the clatter o cutlery andmobile phone calls, requires excellenthearing. But as long as they unctionproperly almost no one thinks aboutthe complex processes in the ear and brain that trans orm sound sources

    into "heard in ormation", ltering outwhat is important to us.

    Yet almost one in six people has li-mited hearing – and plenty o peoplewho have normal hearing now will becon ronted with hearing impairmentin the uture. Tey all stand to benet

    rom Hohmann's work. ogether withhis team he divides his time betweendeveloping virtual realities (VR) thatsimulate environments like the a ore-

    mentioned ca eteria or a busy train sta-tion with both images and sound in thelaboratory, and ollowing on rom this,developing smart hearing devices thatare able to analyse complex acousticsand also identi y what their wearerswish to hear.

    On a Monday morning in May wemeet at NeSSY, the new research buil-ding on Wechloy Campus. In his office

    on the third oor Volker Hohmann,who is also the leading researcher inthe Cluster o Excellence "Hearin-g4all", lays his cycling helmet on thewindowsill. One o the walls is linedwith boxes o books and olders. Terehas been little time to unpack them inrecent months, as research and settingup the new laboratory rooms have ta-ken priority. A visit to the new buildingprovides a glimpse o the technical

    Smart and space-awarePhysicist Volker Hohmann and his team are working on the hearing devices of the future.And on virtual realities that help put these intell igent, space-aware hearing aids to the test

    In front of the new NeSSy building: "Two large machines – an MRI scanner and a magnetoencephalography scanner – open up newresearch questions for us."

    "We would like to involveour medical colleaguesworking in the hospitalshere in Oldenburg"Christiane Thiel

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    renements on offer at NeSSy – in-cluding a state-o -the-art VR roomwhich the physicist's team is currentlysetting up.

    Tis new high-tech laboratory hasarrived in per ect time or the secondphase o his work in the DFG ResearchUnit, Hohmann explains. "A ter threeyears spent developing new researchtools, it is time to start harvesting the

    ruits o our labour. We are now im-plementing our ndings – like newmethods or testing hearing devices –so that in another three years' time wecan reach a preliminary conclusion orthis phase o the project." Hohmann'saim is to create smart, "space-aware"hearing aids.

    Tree oors down on the groundoor is a corridor ull o laboratories.Te VR room is a particularly interes-

    ting example: an anechoic room linedwith oam wedges to minimise soundreections. On entering you nd your-sel standing on a metal grid belowwhich more oam wedges cover theoor. Loudspeakers are arranged con-centrically around the centre o theroom. A scientist is hanging more romthe ceiling. Te room will eventuallyhold 94 loudspeakers to simulate com-plex audio situations in high quality,

    and these will be visualised simulta-neously on a 180 degree screen.

    Nineteen speakers placed towardsthe top and bottom o the room resp ec-tively will simulate the vertical reecti-on o sounds as well as potential soundsources rom these directions, such asmight arise while taking the escalatorin a multi-storey shopping mall. Temain ring o 48 speakers placed hori-zontally at head height surrounds thescreen and targets directional hearingat the horizontal level, which is notonly more sensitive but is also partic u-larly important in complex conversati-onal situations.

    It is in such situations that conven-tional hearing aids come up againsttheir limits, explains the 52-year-oldHohmann, back in his o ice again:"Tey suppress disruptive sounds andampli y whatever is happening rightin ront o your nose. Tis orces theuser to ixate on the speaker's lips,and even to tilt their head in exactlythe direction they want to hear rom."Tis means that static orward-ori-ented hearing aids actually impair

    the natural conversational behaviourthat people with slight hearing di -culties in particular want to main-tain. What's more, the spatial impres-sions they deliver are poor. "Spatialperception and naturalness – smartdevices should deliver both," Hoh-mann emphasises.

    Tis is precisely what he and histeam hope to achieve, and they are al-ready working on a dynamic hearing

    device. It is gesture-controlled, andas such should be able to recognisewhat each individual wearer wantsto hear by actoring in their eye andhead movements. Tis is considerab-ly more advanced than the binaural– two ear – acoustic analysis whichVolker Hohmann co-developed andwhich won the 2012 German FuturePrize. “Because these devices are o -ten unable to identi y which o all thepossible sources in an environmentthe patient wants to hear at any givenmoment.”

    wo new technical elements areto change that. One is an accelerationsensor, similar to the ones that allowsmartphones to rotate photos on thedisplay in line with the device. In he-aring devices it will register head mo-vements. Te other is another sensor,which, just as electroencephalogra-phy (EEG) measures brain waves, usesso-called electrooculography (EOG) tomeasure the electric elds o the eyes.Oldenburg neuropsychologist and EEGsensor expert Pro . Dr. Ste an Debeneris also involved in this. He is working

    in the lab to rene the technology thatrecognises the direction o a test sub- ject's gaze.

    "Eye and head movements are ac-tually pretty easy to measure – evenin a hearing aid worn behind the ear,"Hohmann explains. "Tey also help totell us what the hearing aid wearer isdoing: Which direction is he lookingin? How is he moving his head?" Andthis is critical when it comes to moving

    beyond the conventional "head-ori-ented" hearing aids to space-awaredevices. Static hearing aids are com-pletely unable to differentiate betweena wearer turning his head and soundsources circling around the wearer'shead.

    Te dynamic hearing device o theuture, however, will be able to adjust

    to the specic behaviour o the personwearing it. Its ability to actor in thedirection o the gaze will be particu-larly use ul to patients who use theireyes in conversation but who barelymake unconscious movements withtheir heads. "We call these people ' lazy',"Hohmann says. He explains that bet-ween these 'lazy' people and those wholiterally hang on the lips o others andare there ore permanently moving

    their heads there are many differentlevels o unconscious, individual con-versational strategies.

    Hohmann's laboratory is increa-singly conducting research into suchstrategies. "We use virtual reality totest hearing devices, but also to ob-serve how test subjects behave. Tisis providing us with a comprehensivepicture o the interaction between userand environment," Hohmann explains.

    Te multidisciplinary approach enri-ches his research – besides computerscientists, acousticians, engineers,physicians and neuropsychologists, adoctoral student rom sociology who iscategorising and systematically analy-sing behavioural observations recently joined the research. "We are adaptingmethods rom other disciplines orour hearing devices. It would makelittle sense to do everyt hing ourselves,"Hohmann stresses.

    Instead he actively invites otherexperts to use his tools. "We come to-gether on one level, each person brin-ging their own methods to the table,and we see what this achieves. O ten itproduces concepts that are new to us, but that's what makes it interesting."So his own role – besides programmingacoustic tools and scientic publishing– mostly involves communication withthe participating scientists. "How canwe bring different disciplines togetherand integrate them to achieve the goalo building better hearing devices?"Hohmann sees himsel to a certainextent ollowing in the ootsteps o

    the amous physicist Hermann vonHelmholtz, an acoustics pioneer and19th century polymath who had no

    ear o looking beyond disciplinary boundaries.

    His research group "Auditory Sig-nal Processing or Hearing Devices"consists primarily o engineers andphysicists – and Hohmann is stronglycommitted to mentoring his PhDstudents and working with them on

    individual research plans. "It is a step- by-step process that varies accordingto the individual requirements andqualication interests. Te aim is toeducate young researchers, to openup spaces or them to ll with theircreativity and motivation. Tat is whatuniversities are or," Hohmann says. Asproject manager it is his job, he exp-lains, to combine long-term researchobjectives with the naturally o tenshort-term qualication objectives ohis ellow researchers.

    For Hohmann "Hör ech", the centreo competence or hearing device sys-tems engineering which was co- oun-ded by the university and where heacts as area director or research anddevelopment, is invaluable or con-solidating and utilising the variousndings o his PhD students. His un-ction there, he says, is to bring togetherthe various ndings, or example romdissertations, and integrate them intoa larger whole. "Otherwise you mightget the odd paper, but to integrate allthe work, to be able to say that we havegenuinely improved a hearing device –

    that cannot be achieved through PhDtheses alone. Tat's why we need thistrans er aci lity."

    While Hör ech is constantly wor-king on implementing new ndingsand seeking commercial applications,Hohmann's research with his team atNeSSy is different, he explains: "Wedon't produce hearing devices – wecreate and open up possibilities." Evenon trips to the campus ca eteria. (ds)

    "The aim is to educateyoung researchers, to openup spaces for them. That iswhat universities are for"

    The university cafeteria as research terrain: as virtual reality on a computer terminal in the NeSSy building's foyer and on the screen inthe laboratory, as well as during a quick midday visit by hearing researcher Prof. Dr. Volker Hohmann to the real "terrain".

    "Spatial perception andnaturalness – smart devi-ces should deliver both"

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    The electroencephalogram(EEG) makes it possible to recordbrain activity in humans in a painless

    procedure. This enables us to gain abetter understanding of how the braincontrols cognition processes such ashearing and seeing. One disadvanta-

    ge of the EEG is that uncomfortablecaps are needed to attach the sensorelectrodes to the head.

    In addition, a conductive gel mustbe applied, which means test subjectsmust wash their hair afterwards.

    EEGs are traditionally carried outunder controlled laboratory conditions.Test subjects should move as little aspossible during the procedure.

    Prof. Dr. Debener and his teamare looking for new ways of conduc-ting EEGs that are less disruptivefor everyday life. He has inventedso-called cEEGrids with sensors thatcan be placed around the ears so thathair washing after the procedure is nolonger necessary.

    Debener's team combines the newsensors with a miniature EEG amplie r.Signals are recorded wirelessly, mea-ning cables, computers and caps are nolonger needed.

    Measingbrainwaves

    on the go

    Stefan Debener is makingEEG technology mobile

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    Attaching the cEEGrid sensors is a quick and easy procedure.Signals can be recorded for many hours at a time. The sensors areso comfortable to wear that, like a good pair of glasses, some testsubjects simply forget they have them on.

    The goal is to record EEG signals as unobtrusively as possible.

    Test subjects are barely aware of the cEEGrid in everyday situa-tions.

    Recording the signals is equally uncomplicated – requiringnothing more than a normal smartphone.

    T he mobile EEG technology is a pre requisite for thought-con-trolled, intelligent hearing devices – an ambitious goal of the Hea-ring4All Cluster of Excellence. The technology can also be appliedin basic neurocognition research, neuro-rehabilitation, neurologyand paediatrics.

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    Portrait

    Ute Koglin uses a toy dolphin and snail shell when she applies her scientic concepts.A portrait of an expert in educational psychology

    Ute Koglin's closest colleagues areFerdi, Finn and Lobo. Finn is out andabout at the moment. Ferdi is perchedon the bookshel and Lobo is sitting onan office chair, smiling rather idioti-cally and revealing our sharp teeth."Oh, excuse me, just put him to oneside," says Ute Koglin. Lobo is a brightgreen dragon, a cuddly toy like Ferdiand Finn. When Ute Koglin goes to givea training session at a kindergarten or

    primary school, she always has one oher animals with her. Finn the dolphinis currently with Ute Koglin's studentsat a kindergarten in Oldenburg. "Whata shame, I would have liked to introduceyou to him as well," says Ute Koglin.

    Children love Finn, Lobo and Ferdithe chameleon. Tey stroke the ani-mals and hug them goodbye. "Te bestway to reach children is using handpuppets. It's no different today than in

    the old days. At some point the childrencompletely orget we are there and justtalk directly to the puppets," says Koglin. With the so t toys the children are moreopen and less inhibited than when anadult talks directly to them.

    Such openness is key to Ute Koglin'swork. Ute Koglin is a psychologist. Sheholds the Oldenburg University Chair

    or the Psychology o Special Educationand Rehabilitation Counselling. Koglin

    researches "the social-emotional skillsin children rom kindergarten to ado-lescence," as it says on her website. Shedeals with the question o what cons-titutes "normal" behaviour in childrenand what skills they have at particularages. She tries to determine what isgoing wrong when children are unab-

    le to master certain tasks, when they become aggressive or anxious. And sheworks on methods to promote theseskills. "Te irst step is to recognisethe problems early on and to providea correct diagnosis o the problematic behaviour – only then can you help,"she says.

    Most o her research in recent ye-ars has ocussed on aggression. Herpostdoctoral dissertation addressed"Aggressive Behaviour in Children: Cur-rent Research rends and Methods oPrevention. oday we know a lot abouthow this sort o behaviour develops,"she says. Genetic, psychological andsocial aspects all play a role. Boys tendto be more aggressive than girls; that iscommon knowledge now. Te amily isalso key. Children who are beaten andtyrannised rom an early age quicklylearn that you can achieve your goals by using violence – and they adoptthis behaviour themselves. "Te earlierwe can show children that there arealternatives, the better our chancesare o preventing this behaviour rommani esting."

    Ute Koglin plays some video ootagerom a kindergarten, a role-playing

    game. A boy has deliberately sat downon a girl's chair. Finn steps in. He askshow the children are eeling. He tellsthem to say what they want loudly a ndclearly. "You're sitting on my chair. Iwant you to get up," says the girl, almostwhispering. Te boy does get up butFinn interrupts: "Say that a little bitlouder! Te girl repeats the words, this

    time in a loud voice." "Very good," saysFinn and nods with his little grey head."Well done!"

    Ute Koglin's training sessions dealto a large extent with emotions. Techildren learn rom one another whatit eels like when someone is nasty tothem. Tey understand when and why

    someone is sad. Tis sounds almosttrivial, like basic "common sense". Butthere are children who have difficultieswith such things. Children who haveexperienced a lot o violence at home,

    or example, or who are lonely. Tereare children who suffer rom high levelso anxiety and perceive their surroun-dings as hostile. Markedly aggressivechildren, on the other hand, are almostunable to recognise ear in the aces oothers. Normally an expression o earwill inhibit aggression. But this mecha-nism does not unction in aggressivepeople. And aggressive people o tenperceive even neutral expressions inpeople around them as aggressive – andare up accordingly. Te social trainingsessions in kindergartens and schoolshelp children learn what eelings "look"like and how to resolve conicts peac e-

    ully. Tis is why Ute Koglin re ers to hersocial training sessions as "psychologi-cal vaccinations".

    She reaches or a cardboard box. Itcontains playing cards, emotion cardsshowing children with different acialexpressions. Te children have sh tails– they are mermaid children. Next tothe box are two small plastic bags lledwith snail shells. "Tis is the trainingkit that goes with Finn, everythingrelates to the sea," says Koglin. Finntells stories rom his world. Tis allowshim to deliver important messages to

    the children in a un and easy way. UteKoglin developed the contents o thetraining sessions together with otherresearchers rom Lower Saxony andBremen who also work at the Nord-westdeutsches Präventions orum. Oneo the orum's aims is to pro essionalisepsychological support or children andprovide it with a scientic basis. "Tereare plenty o social training and preven-tion programmes across Germany, but

    some o them are pretty amateurish,"Koglin says. "Tey all mean well butsome lack the scientic underpinnings.Little is gained by investing a lot oenergy in the wrong thing." She usesher own training kits to show nurseryand school teachers how to providechildren with proper psychological

    support. She has developed many othe exercises hersel . In the trainingsessions which she and her studentscarry out personally, she tests the effec-tiveness o these exercises – or example by comparing the children's behaviour;comparing children who have under-gone social training with those who areunschooled. She also organises urthereducation or kindergarten and schoolteachers.

    But group social training sessionsare not enough. Children also need i n-dividual support or their development.Kindergarten teachers are ideally sui-ted to provide this because o the manyhours they spend with the childrenevery day. And in kindergarten childrenare not under pressure to learn, as theyare in school. But here, too, be ore achild can be helped, it is critical to rstpinpoint any developmental decits.

    o this end Ute Koglin worked togetherwith Franz Petermann, a pioneer opsychology in paediatrics at BremenUniversity, to develop teaching kits

    or kindergarten and school teachersthat enable them to accurately assess

    a child's level o development. Teir books or "Observing and DocumentingDevelopment" have become standardtexts. Tey contain a series o tasks –logic problems and skill tests – whichquickly reveal whether a child's level odevelopment is normal or its age andwhich can easily be integrated into re-gular preschool activities. Te teacherscan opt or simpler exercises i a childhas problems and thus quickly deter-

    Mission:To convey emotions

    Her hand puppets, including Finn the dolphin, create a channel of communication with the children – but her own facial expressionsalso reect the emotions under discussion: Prof. Dr. Ute Koglin at a kindergarten in Oldenburg.

    "Little is gained byinvesting a lot of energyin the wrong thing"

    "The best way to reachchildren is using handpuppets"

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    mine how ar it is lagging behind otherchildren o the same age. Te bookscome with documentation sheets whe-re the teachers can record the children'sdevelopmental steps in detail.

    Koglin and Petermann developedthese exercises on the basis o theso-called developmental milestones– skills which 95 percent o childrenattain at certain ages. Tese milestoneshave been recognised as the officialmeasurement parameters in develop-mental psychology or many years.

    "Tey are also used by paediatricians,"Koglin says. "So now kindergarten tea-chers and doctors use the same basisand can better share in ormation abouta child's development levels – and also better explain to parents where theirchild is having problems." Koglin andPetermann have also developed docu-mentary material or crèches, because

    or some years now parents have beenputting their children into childcare

    at ever younger ages – sometimes onlymonths a ter birth. For many childcareworkers this is a new experience. Sothey are happy to have material to handwhich helps them assess the develop-ment o even very young in ants.

    As soon as they recognise a develop-mental decit the childcare worker canprovide the child with the "right lear-ning opportunity" to practice. "Some-times the problem is not very big atall," says Koglin, "but you just have torecognise it. In one o our studies weobserved that children rom the coun-tryside are o ten unable to climb stairsproperly. Tey can't climb steps one stepat a time. Tis is simply because a lot o

    armhouses only use the rooms on theground oor. So when they come tokindergarten the children have neverpractised climbing stairs."

    Ute Koglin is happy that she endedup in Oldenburg. Here she can per ec-tly combine basic psychological re-search with the practical work o specialeducation. And she also likes workinghands-on with children. She smilesas she speaks – as she talks about howthe children write her letters weeksa ter the training sessions to ask how

    Finn is doing. She is ull o ideas orimproving the training. "Next on theagenda is the teaching material orFinn," she says. A ew months ago shewent diving in the Maldives. She hasalways loved snorkelling, but this timeshe was underwater in ull diving gear."It was incredible. A ray stopped right in

    ront o us to warm itsel in the sun." Butwhat she loved most was the maskedporcupinesh, a small round sh with

    a pouty mouth which raises its spikeswhen it eels threatened. Its eyelids areslightly droopy, which makes it lookrather sleepy. "It's per ect or children. We need to make the drawings we usemuch more detailed, more beauti ul,more true to li e."

    Be ore she came to Oldenburg she

    spent some time as the deputy Chair orDevelopment and Pedagogical Psycho-logy at the University o Bremen. A terthat she could have become a Pro essor

    or Child Health Psychology at BremenUniversity. But she opted or Oldenburginstead – because o the direct access topractical work through her students

    rom Special Needs Education. But shestill lives in Bremen, where she grewup: "It's hard to believe I did my Abiturin Bremen and still managed to make

    something o mysel !" she laughs. Atthe age o 13 she had a poster o an F14ghter jet in her bedroom. Tat's whatshe was into at the tim e. But ultimatelyit was people that interested her.

    When her grandmother no longerwanted to live on her own, Ute Koglin'smother brought her to live with them.Ute Koglin witnessed her grandmo-ther's deterioration. She did not knowthe word dementia at the time. Butwhen one day her grandmother asked,"What's your name then?", it was verydistressing. “Ten came the emotionalroller-coaster o adolescence. I spent alot o time wondering why my riends

    and classmates were behaving the waythey were – I wanted to know what was behind it.”

    And then there was Klaus Berger,who taught psychology at her grammarschool. Berger was actually an econo-mist but his way o explaining psycho-logy was so witty and ascinating thathis pupils were totally captivated. "Hewas such a good teacher that even a terour nal exams we still all turned up

    How does it feel when I'm sad or angry? And how do I recognise these emotions in others? The water nymphs in the training kits help tond answers here.

    or his lessons on time – even thoughthey were on Fridays rst thing in themorning." As time went by Ute Koglin

    ound out that six o Berger's pupilswent on to do PhDs in psychology.

    Ute Koglin went to university in Bre-men. A ter her BA in 1998 she went tothe University o Erlangen-Nuremberg,

    just as the Erlangen-Nürnberger studywas being launched – the rst Germanlongitudinal study o more than 600children, in which psychologists analy-sed the effectiveness o social training.

    Children are the main ocus o herresearch. "I hope I can make a differen-ce by providing support or children atan early age. More money should really be invested in this early support." She'san avid people-watcher. Parents withchildren, and children among them-selves. She nds it amusing that adultssometimes behave just like children– in the train or example, when so-meone cheekily re uses to get up roma seat that is reserved or someone else.Te response is not "I'm going to get myMummy i you don't move," but "I'mgoing to get the inspector" instead. UteKoglin has no children o her own. Butshe does have Gesi, a black-and-whitestriped cat with a thick white stripeacross its nose. Gesi is 18 already andhas been with Ute Koglin throughouther academic career. Tere are endlessphotos o Gesi lying among books. "II'd been working too long, she wouldcome over and lay her paws across thelaptop."

    Gesi in Bremen. Ferdi, Finn and Loboin Oldenburg. And next up the maskedporcupinesh. Ute Koglin's li e is ull oloveable creatures. Ute Koglin likes the

    riendly atmosphere at her department

    in Oldenburg. "No elbows, it's not al-ways that way." But perhaps it's becauseo the way she is that no one eels theneed to use their elbows around her.She takes people seriously, she caresabout other people. On the table in heroffice is a small plate o sweets. Littlechocolate bars and wine gums. Tey'revegan o course, so that during herconsultation hours the students canhelp themselves. (ts)

    "An emotional rollercoa-ster – I wanted to knowwhat was behind it"

    "Now kindergartenteachers and doctorsuse the same basis"

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    play an enormously important rolehere," the researcher says.

    Tese days Kreutz can draw on a broad spectrum o empirical studies.He has researched the psycho-phy-siological e ects o couple dancingand the relation between learning aninstrument and cognitive develop-

    ment in children. ogether with col-leagues at the Bremen Institute orPrevention Research and Social Medi-cine (BIPS) he discovered that pro es-sional musicians are our times morelikely to develop tinnitus than the resto the population. And ew years agotogether with British musicologistsRaymond MacDonald and Laura Mit-chell he published a book titled "Music,Health and Wellbeing" that eaturesinsights by internationally recognisedexperts into the relationship betweenthese three issues rom interdiscip-linary perspectives and presents thelatest ndings rom musicology, psy-chology and medicine.

    When as ked what motivates hiswork, Kreutz points to the numerousquestions that remain unanswereddespite all the progress and the ex-ponential increase in knowledge inrecent years, even in niches such asmusic psychology. He talks about Scan-dinavian studies which have shown

    that music can help combat states oanxiety better than psychopharma-ceuticals. He cites gerontology studiesdealing with dance courses or peoplewith dementia, which showed thatthe subjects' quality o li e improved inthe mid-term. "Music and dance are aunique resource that can help people

    to better manage their everyday livesor particular li e situations. But thesethings take time. Tere's no such thingas a quick x. Project cultures that donot provide long-term nancing or in-terventions destroy potential insteado utilising it consistently. Te cutbackson music lessons in schools do nothingless than rob entire generations o po-tential quality o li e," Kreutz asserts.

    Choir singing in particular has hugepotential in the musicologist's eyes –which is why he also published a bookthis year, "Why Singing Makes YouHappy", an overview o scientic re-search or singers and above all poten-tial singers. "What is the best way tostay healthy? Social contacts, positiveemotions and movement." Singing ina choir is good or all three, he says."It seems that singing makes us moreresilient. It can replenish our reserveso positive energy. And to that end Iwill gladly use my research to lobby orsinging." (tk)

    "I am givingsinging a lobby"In cooperation with the Pius-Hospital Oldenburg he founded "Chordipus", a choir project forpeople with lung diseases. Gunter Kreutz is invest igating why singing makes people happy

    Portrait

    Prof. Dr. Gunter Kreutz: "I felt that the question of what music does actually does with people wasn't getting enough attention."

    In the ca eteria o the Pius-HospitalOldenburg, singers are sitting aroundthe piano. Te choir and chapel master

    Michael Wintering starts the warm-up exercises. Prolonged vowel holdingand hissing sounds ll the room. Teonly unusual thing about this choir isthat many o its members suffer romchronic or irreversible lung diseases.

    Dr. Gunter Kreutz, a pro essor orSystematic Musicology at the Universi-ty o Oldenburg, is sitting in on the choirpractice. He started the choir togetherwith Dr. Regina Prenzel, director o the

    Clinic or Internal Medicine, Pneumo-logy and Gastroenterology. "Chorpidus– community singing or people with

    chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) and other lung problems" is thetitle o this unusual project.

    "In Germany alone, over ve milli-on people suffer rom COPD," Kreutzexplains. "It is very widespread." Sin-ging helps preserve health, accordingto new research. "Singing activatespatients' breathing. Te voice, bre-athing and relaxation exercises used inchoir practice open the lungs and help

    maintain their capacity." At the sametime singers improve their postureand strengthen the musculoskeletal

    system. "We want to use Chorpidus toresearch these actors and observe howsinging contributes to wellb eing."

    Kreutz is in his element. For morethan teen years he has been rese-arching the effects that listening tomusic, singing, dancing and playingmusic can have on body, mind andsoul. A wide eld o research – which became the ocus o his interest only ashis scientic career progressed. Kreutz

    "What emotions dopieces of music trigger?"

    "Replenishing our reservesof positive energy"

    studied musicology rst in Marburgand later in Berlin. He ollowed theclassic approach o starting with histo-rical musicology. "People always thinko musicology in relation to the work oart. You have a composer who producesmusic – and musicology is dedicatedto this art orm and the arte acts its

    produces. And there's nothing wrongwith that," Kreutz says.Te scientist came to realise, howe-

    ver, that this approach was not or him."What does music actually do withpeople? What do people do with mu-sic? And what effect does music haveon people in return? I elt that thesequestions weren't getting enough at-tention." And so Kreutz decided to stu-dy Systematic Musicology with Pro .Dr. Helga de la Motte, who had just

    ounded the eld o Music PsychologyResearch in Berlin.

    In 1998, as a research associate atthe University o Bremen Kreutz at-tained his PhD with research relatedto musical per ormance. "I wanted toknow what happens when a pianisthammers on the keys," the scientistsays, smiling. "Are the notes arbitra-rily long or short, is playing loudly orquietly a reected decision?" Followingon rom per ormance research, or hispostdoctoral qualication Kreutz exa-mined emotions and their expression."Particularly in the eld o music, rightinto the 2000s emotions were not gi-ven the attention they deserve – or theresearch."

    He began asking choir membersabout their moods and analysing thedifferent emotions that pieces o mu-sic trigger in the listener – also usingmagnetic resonance imaging and EEG.Eventually he discovered that whathe really wanted to work on was well- being and health. "Society is gradu-ally gearing up or serious changes indemographic structure. And culturaltechniques like singing and dancing "It seems that singing makes us more resilient."

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    Globetrotting scientists

    Te "cast off"call or the re-search vessel"Heincke" camein July, when weset off rom Bre-merhaven portor the Norwegi-

    an coast and therondheims jord

    and Sogne ord. In additionto the ship's crew the "we" here

    re ers to scientists o the Instituteor Chemistry and Biology o the Ma-

    rine Environment (ICBM), the Al red Wegener Institute (AWI), the Helm-holtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Centre orMaterials and Coastal Research (HZG)and the Norwegian Norsk Institutt orVann orskning (NIVA). Our goal was

    to learn more about the ormation anddistribution o toxic algae blooms. Tescientists on board had a ull agendato complete within the three weeks itwould take to reach our port o desti-nation, rondheim.

    Coastal areas and ords are highlycomplex marine environments. oxicor highly concentrated algal blooms

    orm here, a process that has been ob-served with increasing requency in

    recent decades. We studied the distri- bution patterns o the poisonous algaeand the underlying mechanisms, inconnection with light availability andnutrients as well as general topographyand hydrodynamics. Building on thesuccess o previous expeditions, wecombined biological, chemical, phy-sics and bio-optical methods to gainan interdisciplinary perspective o thesystem as a whole. We sampled andcharacterised the water column usinga "rosette water sampling system"with a built-in C D probe (conductivi-ty, temperature, depth). On board, thecomposition o algae and dissolvedsubstances in the water were ana-lysed. In addition we measured thelocal underwater light elds in order tocharacterise the light regime available

    to the algae.Tanks to good weather and calmseas we were able to per orm all sta-tions o the study according to plan.In addition to the dominant algae Ce-ratium we also ound cells o the to-xic Dinophysis norvegica. A ter threeweeks at sea, additional laboratorytests and the combination o all theresults were next on the agenda.

    Daniela Voß

    Norway: Poisonous algaeand water columns

    have poor school educations. All SouthA rican universities are called upon toplay an active role in society and to actas motors o regional development – atask which presents an exceptionalchallenge or the NMMU, located inone o South A rica's poorest provinceswith 36 percent unemployment (2011).Tis made the pro essionalism o theresearch institutes at the University– in particular those in the naturalsciences – which took me on as visitingpro essor all the more impressive. Andthe strategy development and imple-mentation throughout the universi-ty in areas o social engagement intownships, sustainability and diversitymanagement is also remarkable.

    During our stay the nal workshopso the Clim-A-Net project (www.clima-net.uni-oldenburg.de) and the DASIKproject (www.dasik.org) took place,as did the opening event o the Eastand South A rican-German Centre oExcellence in Educational ResearchMethodologies and Management

    (CERM-ESA; www.mu.ac.ke/cerme-sa). What is interesting about theseprojects or the South A ricans is aboveall the development and implemen-tation o interdisciplinary structuresand working methods in Oldenburgand the wide-ranging experience inteacher training, business in ormatics,renewable energies and sustainabilityresearch.

    Prof. Dr. Bernd Siebenhüner

    We had already visited South A rica be ore we le t on sabbatical, but to tra-vel to Port Elizabeth with the amilyand a project at the Nelson Mande-la Metropolitan University (NMMU)was something very special. For us

    the long-term part-nership betweenOldenburg Uni-versity and theNMMU was anopportunityto spend timeabroad.

    Both theguest univer-sity NMMU

    and theUniver-sity o

    Johannes- bur g (UJ )

    were created by merg ing

    once white-do-minated research

    universities with themore vocational ech-nikons and institutions o

    the once all-black Vista Uni-versity. Tis type o university

    differs rom the " ormerly advan-taged universities" o Stellenbosch,

    Witwatersrand and the University oCape own (UC ) not only as a resulto integrating different institutions but because the students there mostly

    South Africa: Big challenge for the partner uni

    are used to make new street lamps – asimple but resource-saving idea.

    In addition to my contacts in in-dustry I also met up with PhD student

    Cainos Mukandatsama o the NelsonMandela Metropolitan University(NMMU) again (see photo). We irstmet in Germany at the Summer School"How Efficient is Electromobility?" atthe Hanse-Wissenscha tskolleg In-stitute or Advanced Study (HWK) inDelmenhorst, which organised theCascade Use group together with thePhD programme Renewable Energyat Oldenburg University last June. Iam now looking orward to long-termcollaborations with colleagues andpartners rom South A rica throughmy research activities.Matthias Kalverkamp

    South Africa: Spare partsin Port Elizabeth

    As a PhD candidate in the juniorresearch group "Cascade Use" I'm ortu-nate because we maintain many in-ternational contacts in countries like

    China, Canada and Chile. And in July Itravelled to South A rica, where I metold and new contacts.

    Te researchers o the "Cascade Use"group are studying decisions made atthe end o a vehicle's li e cycle in orderto prolong the use o the materials it ismade o as much as possible. Te goal isto reduce the consumption o primaryraw materials and the environmentaldamage this entails. Within the groupI am examining the acquisition prob-lems in "remanu acturing", or in otherwords how components can be repai-red or reuse or example as spare parts.My trip conrmed the act that this isan issue o interest across the globe.

    In beauti ul Port Elizabeth I took ad-vantage o the opportunity to exchangeviews and in ormation with carmakersat the In ormation echnologies in En-vironmental Engineering (I EE) con e-rence. In addition to visiting Volkswa-gen Group South A rica I met experts

    rom Lumotech Ltd. Lumotech manu-actures headlights or vehicles as well

    as other things and is able to reducethe use o primary raw materials byusing recycled plastic in the productiono street lamps. In this wayle tover materials rom theproduction o car parts

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    Several hundred kilometres in a caron streets whose names no Germancould pronounce, many pleasant en-counters and incredible landscapeseverywhere you look. I travelled to Ice-land or research; I returned captivated by its landscape and the openness oits people.

    What I was actually doing wascollecting marine sediments or myDFG-nanced research on globally dis-tributed microbial populations. Te

    aim o the project is to collect data onthe molecular diversity o cyanobac-teria in the North Sea tidal ats and tocompare these with their distributionin ecologically similar but geographi-cally distant locations. "Is everythingeverywhere and nature selects?" Tisquestion was posed by Martinus Wil-lem Beijerinck (1851-1931), a Dutchmicrobiologist in the 19th century. Un-til now marine benthic cyanobacteria

    A ter giving a keynote at a con e-rence in Brazil the director o the De-partment o Educational Computingand Online Learning at the King SaudUniversity asked me whether I wouldlike to come to his university in Riyadhas a visiting scholar.

    Aside rom the difficult situationor women in Saudi Arabia, the story

    o blogger Rai Badawi was all overthe news at that time, a ter he wascondemned to 1000 lashes or his blogposts criticising strict interpretationso Islam. But I decided to take up theinvitation in spite o all this in order toexperience Saudi Arabia rst hand. It'snot so easy to travel around the countryas it does not issue tourist visas.

    So I spent two weeks in Riyadh du-ring which I gave a workshop or ellowscientists (men only at Kind Saud Uni-versity!) who want to integrate digitalmedia into their teaching. Te pathto becoming a pro essor is obviouslyhighly selective and heavily inuenced by the American system. All colleaguesin the department attained their PhDsin the US on ull scholarships rom theSaudi state. Scheduling the workshopproved tricky because the participantsneeded to t in their prayer times.

    Saudi Arabia: Fitting in prayers

    I also gave a keynote at the Interna-tional Con erence on E-Learning andDistance Education organised by theSaudi Ministry or Higher Education.It


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