MaxPlanckResearch 3/2025

When addressing the consequences of demographic change, politicians have primarily focused on increasing the birth rate. Unfortunately, this has not yielded any noteworthy success. In addition, research has not been able to answer the question of how to motivate people to have more children. However, there is another factor that could be used to limit the negative impact of demographic change on pensions: better education.

Working with mathematics at the highest level is more of a vocation than a profession. Dennis Gaitsgory has been following his mathematical intuition for decades and has proved the geometric Langlands conjecture in collaboration with colleagues. This outstanding academic achievement has now earned him the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics.

For many people today, botanical knowledge doesn’t go much beyond daisies, buttercups, and dandelions. But an app is changing that. Flora Incognita can identify almost any plant encountered in Central Europe within seconds. Jana Wäldchen of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena has played a key role in developing this AI-based app, which also provides valuable data on the state of nature.

What leads to criminal behavior? At the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg, a team is investigating how virtual reality might help prevent crime. Their conclusion: looking ahead is what makes the difference.

Is there a planet like ours in the vastness of space – not too big, not too small, not too hot, not too cold, made of rock and with an atmosphere that supports life? Laura Kreidberg and her team at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy are searching for a second Earth with the James Webb Space Telescope. The most surprising thing is what they are not finding.

Conferences and business meetings generate substantial CO2 emissions when participants travel by plane. Digital conferences with realistic avatars in virtual space could offer a solution. To make this work seamlessly with a headset when working from home, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken are refining the digital measurement of people – and using it to train artificial intelligence.

Max Planck researchers collaborate with partners in more than 120 countries. Here, they write about their personal experiences and impressions. Jason Hendry, a malaria researcher from the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, documents a two-week trip to Burkina Faso. He is collaborating with researchers from the Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé (IRSS) to help find ways to prevent the spread of drug-resistant malaria.