The new Hamburg-based Ecco publishing house wants to help women gain a greater presence in the literary world and empower them. It will launch its first program in March and publishes books exclusively by female authors and employs only women. "We want to focus on the female gaze and perspective with our content," Magdalena Mau, producer on the Ecco team, told the press.

Economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria looks set to become the first woman, and moreover the first black woman, to head the World Trade Organization (WTO). Trump had previously blocked her appointment, but Biden has now come out clearly in favor of Okonjo-Iweala. While Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is making history simply by being the first woman - and from Africa to boot - to head the WTO, says Nigeria's Amara Nwankpa, she is not only bringing "diversity and inclusion" to the international stage.

During her second term as finance minister, Okonjo-Iweala was "seen as a driving force behind the development of reform programs that helped improve government transparency and stabilize the economy", according to the US business magazine Forbes, which ranked her among the top 50 Power Women worldwide in 2015. Okonjo-Iweala will thus "bring to the new job impressive negotiating skills and leadership to address key issues facing the planet today", finds Amara Nwankpa of the Nigerian Public Policy Initiative.

185 lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, non-binary and transgender actors and actresses have come out in the current SZ Magazin of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of the biggest German newspapers. "We are here and we are many!" - with these words begins the manifesto of the #actout group. The group emphasizes that there is no incompatibility between one's sexual and gender identity and the ability to embody roles convincingly and believably.

They wanted to initiate a debate, create visibility and break taboos. Actor and director Godehard Giese ("The spoken word counts") emphasized that the group's main concern in the run-up to the event had been to "make themselves visible".

This year's US National Football League final between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs featured several firsts, among them is Sarah Thomas. She is the first woman to referee the Super Bowl final, probably the most important American football game in the world.

In the Super Bowl, Thomas was a so-called down judge on the sidelines. And she wasn´t the only woman. Maral Javadifar and Lori Locust of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the first two full-time female coaches in the final. Javadifar is on the fitness coaching staff, while Locust is an assistant defensive coordinator. A total of eight full-time coaching positions are held by women this NFL season - more than ever before.

For a year now, the road maintenance department in Dingolfing has been using cucumber water instead of liquid salt to make the roads safe in winter. The verdict so far has been very good - the cucumber water works best and is kind to the environment at the same time.

In the future, the use of cucumber water in Dingolfing is expected to replace and thus save up to 1,000 tonnes of road salt. The wastewater from the pickle production of the delicatessen manufacturer Develey now replaces a large part of the liquid brine made from salt for winter road maintenance. For the past year, the water with seven per cent salt content has been converted into 21 per cent brine and then spread on the roads against ice and snow in liquid form by the clearing and gritting vehicles.

A research team from London now writes that apple cider vinegar can also eliminate antibiotic-resistant germs. The researchers have carried out tests with resistant staphylococci and e-coli bacteria. In the tests, the apple cider vinegar penetrated the bacterial cells and stopped the growth processes there. According to the researchers, the effect is comparable to that of certain antibiotics, which are no longer effective against these germs.

Too many scantily clad women in advertising campaigns and Stuttgart is now drawing up a catalogue of criteria on what advertising may contain in future. Sexist and otherwise discriminatory content will not be allowed.

Because new contracts for advertising space will soon be concluded in Stuttgart, the changes will soon be visible in the cityscape.

Researchers at the University of Pretoria in South Africa report that they have found substances that could prevent tmalaria ransmission. They write in the journal Nature Communications that two substances that have been studied for their effectiveness against tuberculosis and cancer can kill malaria parasites - even when it is infectious. For the past year, the WHO fears even more victims because many prevention measures could not be implemented due to the Corona pandemic.

The plant substance capsaicin makes chilies hot and it makes solar cells more effective, as scientists from Sweden and China have now discovered: capsaicin is said to minimize power loss and make solar cells more resistant to water. They have processed capsaicin in a perovskite solar cell.

This type of solar cell is seen as the hope for a new generation of photovoltaic systems. They are easy to manufacture with inexpensive materials. Adding the chili ingredient increased the solar cell's efficiency from 19.1 to nearly 22 percent.

Mainz-based BioNTech is working on an mRNA-based vaccine against multiple sclerosis. The first preclinical studies are promising; the vaccine approach was able to prevent MS disease in mice, and in mice that were already mildly ill, it was able to prevent the disease from progressing and motor functions could even be restored. The study on the mice is so promising that the start of clinical trials on humans is now the next goal, although these cannot begin for at least two years, as the approach must first be tested on human cells in the laboratory.