UNITE & DIVIDE
DEAR READERS OF RUPERTO CAROLA,
It is easier to split an atom than to stamp out prejudice” – this quote by Albert Einstein offers an inkling of the extraordinary breadth of topics that you will encounter in the latest edition of our research journal, entitled UNITE & DIVIDE. From the natural sciences and medicine to the humanities and the social sciences, the theme of UNITE & DIVIDE is a focus of research at Heidelberg University. There is widespread concern that the COVID-19 pandemic might have caused a permanent division of our society – with direct implications for science, from an exaggerated belief in the power of science, on the one hand, to the complete denial of scientific findings by another part of the population. How do we handle it when people will only accept facts that confirm their own beliefs, and the willingness to engage in real dialogue seems to wither away? What are the consequences for our social life and for our mental health, when any form of physical proximity is suddenly associated with danger? What happens to a community when some of its members no longer feel bound by rules?
Besides exploring these questions, the 18th edition of our RUPERTO CAROLA re-search journal reports on new findings in the life sciences, in physics and chemistry, and offers insights into topics such as antigypsyism research, corporate law, medical ethics and Middle East research. An interest in science and scholarship, and pleasure in gaining new knowledge – these are traits that the readers of our journal share with the researchers at Heidelberg University. With this in mind, let me wish all of us a stimulating and rewarding reading experience!
Prof. Dr Dr h.c. Bernhard Eitel
Rector of Heidelberg University
- Interview with Christiane von Stutterheim and Matthias Weidemüller: Babel and bubbles. What holds the world together?
- Hilmar Bading: Hoping for separation. A fateful bond
- Jochen Kuhse: The whole and it's parts. The battle against oblivion
- Bernd Bukau: Cellular lines of defence. Molecular chaperones at work
- Beate Ditzen, Monika Eckstein and Thomas Klein: Social distancing. When relationships turn dangerous
- Maike Rotzoll: A constant threat. Places of misery
- Peter Kirsch, Hanno Kube and Reimut Zohlnhöfer: Self-Empowerment. A society divided by mistrust
- Bettina Rentsch and Marc-Philippe Weller: Capital and society. Profit maximisation and the common good
- Edgar Wolfrum: Epochal change. United and yet still divided?
- Henning Sievert and Johannes Becke: So close, and yet so far. Middle East studies in Heidelberg
- Matthias Becker: A war of words. Religious polemics in the pastoral epistles
- Radmila Mladenova and Frank Reuter: Staged otherness. Antigypsyism in the history of cinema
