Author Archive for Sebastian Müller

Lead, follow or get out of the way?

Some of our readers asked us last week about life strategies and philosophies and thus we are starting a series on coping strategies and relate them to famous people. Thomas Paine, an Englishman who was one of the founding members of the United States of America, made a bold statement once: Lead, follow or get [...]

Did the Earth Once Have Two Moons?

The moon has always been an object of mystic interest to humans. Some nights we see it clearly and bright; during full moon and when the sky is clear. Other nights we look for the moon in vain, for instance when the sky is clouded over. Interestingly we only ever see one side of the [...]

Birth Control – a Guy’s Matter?

Some people might argue that certain things should not be interfered with and others may say that it is irresponsible not to control it. In our modern society, raising children has become increasingly difficult and is an increasingly huge responsibility, possibly more than ever before. Things have changed in the last hundred years and families [...]

The Extraordinary DNA of a 115-year Old Woman

Don’t we all wish to live long and healthily without any diseases such as dementia, diabetes or a weak heart? Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, a Dutch woman who passed away in 2005 at the age of 115, lived through three centuries without any health problems and was told to be “as fit as a 60-year old woman” [...]

The Dangers of Cloning – a Popular Myth?

The world of biology was relatively quiet and untainted, whereas other natural sciences such as physics and chemistry had suffered from some bad reputations. Nuclear physics is now associated with the tragedies of Chernobyl and Fukushima and chemistry has been associated with pesticides, dangerous drugs and horrible toxins. But the view on biology changed in [...]

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

“When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one then what had gone before…” The first sentences of the book immediately draw the reader into a world so [...]

Inspirational Quotes

This week, I will present some inspirational quotes again, which will hopefully inspire you, dear reader, to reflect on your life and the relations you have with other people. Often we live one hectic day after the next and forget to sit down and contemplate about what we are doing. Personally, I find it very [...]

Healthy Exercising

Recently we reported on ways to improve your diet and many of our readers have asked us to write some reviews about exercising. This week, our health correspondent Dr. Sebastian Müller (Ph.D.) is reporting on healthy ways to exercise, drawing from his own experience as a high performance rower over several years.  Know your limit [...]

Coping with IBS – Visceral Osteopathy

This week, City Connect has interviewed Dr. Sebastian Müller (Ph.D.) about Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue – something that plagues many people in our society these days in one form or another. He has been collating information from the literature and from health experts and has interesting suggestions, which might be able to help [...]

The Secret

When we open the newspapers in the morning or switch on the evening news on the TV we are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of bad news. Most newspaper articles will focus on the negatives in the world, which will have the same effect on our psyche: stress, disappointment, fear, anxiety and discomfort. Taking in [...]

Ways to a Better Shave

Men often complain about women taking too long in the bathroom when they are getting ready, but the same can be said about men, when they take ages to get ready, groomed and go through their carefully selected shaving ritual. Have you ever suffered from razor bumps and come out of the bathroom all embarrassed? [...]

I Dream and Think, Therefore I Am

Recently I came across the recordings of “Tabaluga”, a German children’s story by the pop star Peter Maffay. It is old now and probably not quite what children are listening to these days, but the central message is powerful and still holds. Tabaluga is a small dragon who is making all sorts of mistakes and [...]

Capitalism Revisited

“The world has changed since 2009″. “Greece is bankrupt”. “The economy is in recession for the second time this year”. “Many European countries lost their top ratings last night …”. Headlines such as the above have been in the newspapers for the past two years and one report after another talks about our looming doom [...]

No Better Shave

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

This week we will continue our music series on famous classical pieces with Beethoven’s masterpiece: Symphony No. 9 (Op. 125). This piece is one of the best known works in the Western classical repertoire and the European Anthem is based on the final movement, the Ode to Joy. Most people in the Western World have [...]

Sleep Sharpens Your Memory

A good night’s sleep is important for many reasons and researches have found another good reason why it is so important to rest calmly during the night. Your memory sharpens during sleep, when your brain puts all the information you acquired during the day in order. This phenomenon has been investigated for years now and [...]

Travel Series Germany – Dresden

Recently, I reported on the city of Leipzig as a travel destination. This week, City Connect is proud to present the world-famous Baroque city of Dresden, one of the culturally richest cities in the Western world. Dresden is about 800 years old and is the capital of the German federal state of Saxony situated at [...]

2013 – How to Manage New Year’s Resolutions

December 31st 2012 – on New Year’s Eve many of us decided on a list of new year’s resolutions, be it to work harder, spend more time with family and friends, loose weight and get fitter and so on. However, after only a few days many of us have forgotten most of these resolutions and [...]

Christmas Thoughts on Society

Christmas is nigh and after the past stressful weeks at work and some frantic shopping sprees, we finally get to sit together with our family and friends, eating copious amounts of turkey, goose or duck, followed by sweet desserts and a plethora of presents. This is the time of year where we talk about peace [...]

Travel Series Germany – Leipzig

Previously, I reported on the German city of Karlsruhe as a recommendation for an ideal city break. This week our travel series Germany will feature the East German city of Leipzig. The city is situated in the federal state of Saxony and has currently about half a million inhabitants, comparable to Glasgow in size and [...]

Browns Cambridge – Dining with Tradition

This week City Connect is reporting on one of the finest and most famous of all Cambridge restaurants: Browns Restaurant. Browns is situated on leafy Trumpington street in central Cambridge and thus easily reachable by anyone from in and outside of Cambridge. Some of our writers went for an evening at this fine establishment and [...]

Requiem for My Friend – Zbigniew Preisner – Part 2

Recently, I reported on the first part of a stunning musical piece by Zbigniew Preisner: Requiem for My Friend. Now I will cover the second half of this piece, which is called Life. Just like the first part, Life, is also divided into nine movements, but the undertone of the music is different to the first [...]

Requiem for My Friend – Zbigniew Preisner – Part 1

Music is a form of art that has always fascinated people. Some of the most stunning classical music pieces are masses in the setting of the Requiem, which is a musical form of art transcending life and death. Zbigniew Preisner, who is very famous for writing the score to the film trilogy “The Three Colours”, [...]

Give Acne a Break

Many of us will have had problems with acne before to varying extents at different stages of our life. It is never pretty and can be a nuisance for us as it itches, can lower our self-esteem and it looks unhealthy. But how can we reduce it? Acne can arise from many different factors and [...]

Mozart’s Requiem

This week I continue my music series on City Connect, reporting on famous classical compositions. This time I will discuss Mozart’s Requiem, one of the most famous classical compositions of all times, which also happens to be my personal favourite of all music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in 1756 in the city of Salzburg [...]

Neanderthal DNA Strengthens Human Immune System

Where do we come from and who are we? Who were our ancestors? Why are we the dominant intelligent species on this planet and what made us be the first organism to create such a technological revolution? Who exactly are we? Who is Homo sapiens? These questions have been occupying us for a long time [...]