<p><em><strong>Based on a media release by the University of Bern</strong></em></p> <p><strong>Leipzig/Bern.

For the two candidates in the United States presidential campaign, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, it is hardly worth trying to change voters' minds: this is the view of researchers Dr Alexander Yendell and Professor Gert Pickel from Leipzig University. In a blog post for the University's Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe), the sociologist and religious sociology expert analysed the voting behaviour of US citizens. In our interview, Gert Pickel explains why the role of ultraconservative evangelicals is so important.

Now that the Rectorate has approved the Faculty's application to change its name to 'Fakultät für Geschichte, Kunstund Regionalwissenschaften' in German and to 'Faculty of History, Art and Area Studies' in English, the institution can operate under this name.

Orchids may be decorative, but many orchid species are also threatened by land conversion and illegal harvesting.

The new Bundesliga season kicks off on 18 September. One subject that never fails to spark debate in German professional football is whether the so-called 50+1 rule should be abolished - something favoured by Uli Hoeneß and others. The rule is intended to limit the influence of investors in German professional football and states that the parent club must hold the majority of its own voting rights. Dr Sebastian Björn Bauers from the Faculty of Sport Science at Leipzig University recently received his doctorate on this subject.

As part of a wide-ranging research project, Leipzig scientists have developed a sophisticated coronavirus antibody test that can even be used in the home. The results were presented to Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer and State Minister of Science Sebastian Gemkow this lunchtime at BioCity Leipzig.

It still sounds unlikely today, but declines in insect numbers could well make it a frequent occurrence in the future: fields full of flowers, but not a bee in sight.

At Leipzig University, teaching will not start until next Monday, 26 October 2020. Around 7000 new students will then begin their studies at the University, around the same number as a year earlier. Two thirds of the new German students come from the eastern German states, and one third from western Germany.

With the return of the Polarstern, the largest Arctic expedition of all time has come to a successful end. For more than a year, the German research icebreaker travelled in five cruise legs with more than 400 people from 20 countries to investigate the epicentre of climate change more precisely than ever before. The complex project was also a success from Leipzig's point of view: all seven participants from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) and Leipzig University are back in good health and with valuable climate data.

Minister for Democracy Katja Meier said: "The Else Frenkel-Brunswik Institute will compile studies on anti-democratic attitudes and supplement them with its own research and research assignments on Saxony and individual regions in Saxony.

Ambitious, integrated action combining conservation and restoration efforts with a transformation of the food system. This is the recipe for turning the tide of biodiversity loss by 2050 or earlier, a new study led by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) with participation of researchers from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) suggests.

Zu "News Portal" German polar research aircraft start atmospheric surveys over the Arctic Ocean Following a five-month mandatory delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, yesterday (30 August) the two German polar research aircraft Polar 5 and Polar 6 launched from Svalbard to conduct their first aerial survey flights over the Arctic this year.