Adult education centre events in February 2021

VHS@home - Online events

Thursday, 4 February, 5 to 7.15 p.m.
Settling wild bees
Online participation: free
After registering (by 3 p.m. on 4 February) at www.vhs-chemnitz.de http://www.vhs-chemnitz.de, you will receive an access link by email.

The protection of honey bees and wild bees is important to many people. They are looking for concrete measures to protect them. Unfortunately, many purchased insect hotels do not deliver what they promise. The lecture shows practical solutions on how to build suitable accommodation for bees with the simplest of means, in which the animals actually feel at home. You will also receive valuable tips and advice on how to protect wild bees - even in your own garden.

This series of events is a co-operation between NABU Regionalverband Erzgebirge e. V., SDB e. V. - Netzwerk Sprossachse and the Chemnitz Adult Education Centre.

Thursday, 4 February, 7.30 to 9 p.m.
Beauty of animals - evolution of biological aesthetics
Online participation: free
After registering (by midnight the day before) at www.vhs-chemnitz.de you will receive an access link by e-mail.

In this lecture, Nobel Prize winner and biologist Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard will demonstrate the function of visual attraction in animals. According to Darwin, natural "standards of beauty" are the result and motor of bisexual reproduction. Physical signals - colours, sounds, smells - also have a broader communicative function in the interspecific coexistence of animal and plant species. But how do colours and patterns develop on the surface of the body? Only recently has it been possible to decipher the molecular genetic mechanisms that lead to colour production and distribution. In the second part of her lecture, Nüsslein-Volhard traces the scientific-historical development of recent decades and summarises her pioneering studies on zebrafish - her model organism.

Prof Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard is Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen and has been Chancellor of the Order Pour le Mérite since 2013. She has received numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in 1995, for her discoveries of genes that control the development of animals and humans, as well as for the detection of shape-forming gradients in fly embryos.

This event is part of the series "vhs.wissen live - the digital science programme" as a cooperation between the Chemnitz Adult Education Centre and the Erding and SüdOst Adult Education Centres in the district of Munich as well as the Max Planck Society.

Friday, 5 February, 3.30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Pay the price once? - Cost traps on the net
Online participation: free

At the end of the month, a large amount from an unknown provider appears on your mobile phone bill? Your parents' credit card bill suddenly contains large sums for the app store? Or has a debt collection letter for the use of a streaming service fluttered into your home?

These are often signs that children and young people have bought related content, coins or equipment while surfing or playing online or have accidentally taken out a subscription. This event will explain how this happens and how they can protect themselves from such cost traps in future.

Experts from Verbraucherzentrale Sachsen e. V. and SAEK Chemnitz will be on site.

This event is taking place as a cooperation between the Saxony Consumer Advice Centre, SAEK Chemnitz and the Chemnitz Adult Education Centre as part of the Safer Internet Day 2021 campaign week.

The event will take place online. This link will take you directly to the online course room: https://www.edudip.com/de/webinar/einmal-lehrgeld-zahlen-kostenfallen-im-netz-saek-chemnitz/245200

Tuesday, 9 February, 7.30 to 9 p.m.
What is science?
Online participation: free
After registration (by midnight the day before) at www.vhs-chemnitz.de you will receive an access link by e-mail.

In times of Corona, many people are irritated by fake news and conspiracy theories. Who, if not science, should give us guidance in an age of pandemics and environmental crises? It is also no longer possible to safeguard our livelihoods without science and technology.

What can science do and what can't it do? What methods does it use? What are the possibilities and limits of scientific knowledge? These questions touch on the philosophical foundations of science and technology, but also determine political decisions about the future of mankind.

Prof Dr Klaus Mainzer was Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology at the Universities of Constance, Augsburg and Munich (TUM). He is co-founder of the Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Centre at the University of Tübingen. He is the author of numerous specialised books and a member of national and international academies, such as the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech).

Thursday, 11 February, 7.30 to 9 p.m.
Syria, Libya and beyond - Military interventions and international law
Online participation: free
After registering (by midnight the day before) at www.vhs-chemnitz.de you will receive an access link by e-mail.

International law prohibits states from using force in their relations - but not without exception: states may defend themselves against armed attacks, they may consent to military interventions by external actors and the UN Security Council has the authority to authorise military intervention.

Against the background of these rules of peacekeeping law and the interventions in Libya and Syria, the lecture will address the following questions: Under what circumstances does international law authorise military interventions by external actors? Under what conditions should it authorise them? When are interventions an imperative, when a danger?

PD Dr iur. Paulina Starski has been a lecturer at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law since 2014. She has held professorships at the Universities of Cologne and Berlin (Humboldt) and has been a substitute professor at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg since 2020.

Information from the adult education centre:
Learning is currently exclusively online. However, prior registration for courses and events is still required.

Current information at www.vhs-chemnitz.de