Healthy people need a healthy planet. As clear as this message is, as complex is the challenge of achieving it. The link between our lifestyle, our individual health and the health of the planet provides the key to a deeper understanding. The exhibition ‘What the Health - Eine Welt. Deine Gesundheit!’ (One World. Your Health!) is a joint project at the Research Museum König, realized by the University of Bonn and partners. The exhibition motivates visitors to rethink their lifestyle and make it healthier and more sustainable in the future. There is something for people of all generations to learn. The exhibition particularly appeals to teenagers and young adults.
Visitors to the exhibition find themselves in a stylised supermarket. In everyday life, we make decisions that affect both our health and that of the planet. This exhibition vividly illustrates these effects and the associated options for action. Various ‘product worlds’ visualise in particular the effects of our diet on people and the environment: what are the benefits of a plant-based diet, what are the consequences of our meat consumption, what contribution does our diet make to diseases of civilisation? The exhibition shows how closely our health and the health of the planet are linked. After all, we bear the consequences of our resource-intensive lifestyle: malnutrition, lack of exercise, excessive consumption.
A far-reaching social transformation towards greater sustainability is necessary. Scientific findings must be communicated in a comprehensible and practical way. This is where the exhibition comes in, in order to create a broad understanding of the connections between people and the environment. Interactive and illustrative elements make it clear that our personal lifestyle can make a significant contribution to overcoming global crises. By making conscious decisions, everyone can strengthen both their own health and that of the planet.
‘The exhibition shows how science can contribute to a deeper understanding of everyday phenomena and contexts. This successful form of science communication is very important to us and should strengthen the public's trust in science,’ emphasises the Rector of the University of Bonn, and ImmunoSensation2 member Prof. Dr. Dr. Michael Hoch.
Prof Bernhard Misof, Director General of the Museum Koenig Bonn of the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, sees the exhibition as ‘an absolute enrichment for our focus on the preservation of our nature and environment. By collaborating with researchers from the University of Bonn, we are giving visitors a fascinating insight into the current state of research.’
ImmunoSensation2 member Prof Dagmar Wachten is the Managing Director of the Institute of Innate Immunity, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bonn, spokesperson for the Metaflammation Collaborative Research Centre and Deputy Chair of the University Foundation, which helped make this project financially possible: ‘Young people are an important target group for our exhibition. They are the ones who bear the brunt of climate change and its consequences. Together with them, we want to explore the connections between lifestyle, environment and health and give them a good basis for making decisions for their own lives,’ adds Prof Dagmar Wachten.
ImmunoSensation2 member Prof Elvira Maß, a developmental immunologist at the University of Bonn who contributed to the exhibition, knows how lifestyle and the environment go hand in hand. In her research, she is investigating, among other things, how nanoplastics can contribute to diseases of the nervous system: ‘Microplastics enter the environment via various routes, such as cosmetics or car tyre abrasion. We are investigating whether microplastics can be absorbed by humans and penetrate the nervous system and thus whether there is a connection between the increased consumption of plastic and human diseases.’
The special exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive programme of lectures, workshops, discussions and science cafés throughout its duration. Further information can be found on the "What the Health?" homepage.
The exhibition will run at Museum Koenig Bonn until 26 October 2025 and will then go on tour throughout Germany.
Realization
The special exhibition is a cooperation between the University of Bonn, Museum Koenig Bonn, the Bonn University Foundation and the Dr Hans Riegel Foundation.
The exhibition is being realised together with the agencies nowakteufel-knyrim, designbauwerk and tinetronics.
Scientific expertise from various research consortia and research institutions at the University of Bonn is being incorporated into the project. These include the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1454 ‘Metaflammation and Cellular Programming’ and the Cluster of Excellence ‘ImmunoSensation2’. Scientists from the environmental and nutritional sciences, for example, are also involved in the project.
The Future Café was conceived together with the Psychologists / Psychotherapists for Future e.V., Bonn branch.
The exhibition is supported by: University Hospital Bonn, SFB / TRR 237 Nucleic Acid Im-munity, TRR 259 - Aortic Disease, Psychologists / Psychotherapists for Future e.V. (local group Bonn), Health for Future (local group Bonn).
Funding
The exhibition was made possible by the financial support of the University of Bonn, the Bonn University Foundation, the SFB 1454 Metaflammation and Cellular Reprogramming, the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation², the Dr Hans Riegel Foundation, the Sattelmühle Foundation, the Gothaer Foundation, the Dr Axe Foundation and the EDEN FOUNDATION.
Contact
Contact for Media:
Dr. Elisabeth Jurack,
Kommunikationsbeauftragte
Medizinische Fakultät der Universität Bonn
E-Mail: e.jurack@uni-bonn.de
Tel. 0049-151-18853496
Project management and contact person for the accompanying events:
Theresa Vonderheit
Projektleitung Healthybition
Institut für Angeborene Immunität
Universität Bonn
Email: theresa.vonderheit@uni-bonn.de
Tel.: 0049-228-287-51222
Team Press and Communication
Museum Koenig Bonn
Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels (LIB)
E-Mail: redaktion@leibniz-lib.de
Tel. 0049 228 9122 105
