Surprising Science: The Science Portal of the University of Freiburg
Renowned science and research, academic departments steeped in tradition, and the honor of being selected as one of the nine best universities in Germany in the Excellence Initiative—these qualities bear witness to the high caliber of scholarship at the University of Freiburg. We at Surprising Science have taken it upon ourselves to report on these outstanding achievements. The initiative provides transparent accounts of selected projects with practical relevance and actively promotes exchange between researchers, the media, and the interested public.
Current Individual Topics
Whether you are interested in classical philology, mathematics, or engineering: Surprising Science regularly presents current individual topics from all disciplines. Individual topics are marked with a full circle on the homepage. When you position your mouse over the round picture, the title of the research project appears. Then just click on the picture to read the article and information on the project.
Surprising Science Special Features
In addition to reports on individual research projects, Surprising Science presents information packages on special topics. The Surprising Science special features illustrate how researchers at the University of Freiburg are throwing light on topics relevant for our society from various perspectives. The special features are marked on the homepage with rotating blue frames; the title of the latest information package is always visible and is highlighted with a blue background. Clicking on the picture takes you to an overview of the feature.
Research Projects in the Special Features
The overview page shows you what research projects are included in the special feature and which disciplines contributed them. Click on the picture or the border to navigate through the overview of research projects. The “Details” button leads you to a page on which the project is described in detail.
Color Coding of Disciplines
Are you only interested in current research projects from one discipline, for instance medicine? Our color coding system will help you find what you’re looking for right away: Each range of disciplines is marked with a distinct color—whether in an individual research project or as part of a special feature. A legend in the website’s navigation bar shows you which color stands for which range of disciplines.
Texts
The detail pages contain detailed presentations of the research projects, including an article explaining the background of the project, interviews, and a brief portrait of the researchers. If you wish to arrange an interview with the researchers, have a project explained to you on location, or request more information, Surprising Science can put you into contact with the researchers or send you supplementary material.
Printer-Friendly Versions
Above each background article, interview, and portrait is a button which displays the text in a printer-friendly format: Clicking on it opens a PDF document you can print out our save on your hard drive for your research.
Language Selection
All content on Surprising Science, including the printer-friendly versions of the texts, is available in German as well as in English. By clicking on the symbols in the navigation bar on the right hand side of the page you can switch between the two languages at any time.
Different Views
You can switch between different views while browsing the website: By clicking on the “space view” button in the navigation bar (see illustration to the right), you can return to the overview on the main page.
Clicking on the “grid view” button, also in the navigation bar (see illustration to the right), takes you to a page on which the topics are grouped by the range of disciplines they belong to.
We can let you know by e-mail whenever there’s something new to discover on the site: Just click on the envelope symbol on the navigation bar. It will open a small window in which you can enter your name and e-mail address to be placed on the Surprising Science mailing list.
Theme Library
All articles published on Surprising Science are collected in an archive, where readers can find all contents organized by the field of research. The articles are registered in chronological order, placing current texts at the end of each category. Symbols indicate whether an article is part of a bloc of science topics, and whether the category contains further material such as photos. By clicking on a symbol, the reader is immediately guided to the selected topic.
If you are looking for a particular research project, a name, or a keyword, use the magnifying glass button to reach the search page of the website. A real-time search shows you all results for www.surprising-science.de. If you wish to do a more detailed search, you can turn to the comprehensive Expert List or Research Database on the website of the University of Freiburg.
Contact
If you have questions about Surprising Science or wish to request additional information, please feel free to contact us:
Surprising Science
Annette Kollefrath-Persch
Editorial Office and Project Coordination
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Public Relations
Phone: +49-761/203-8909
annette.persch@pr.uni-freiburg.de
