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Elspeth Ready from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig regularly travels to the Canadian Arctic for research. She tells of magnificent expanses, special culinary delights, and an icy dog sled ride. [more]

Hans-Peter Doerr from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research spent three weeks working at the Big Bear Solar Observatory in California. He explains why the solar telescope stands on the water and tells us about anglers, gun enthusiasts, and alternative ways of transporting data. [more]

Henrik-Alexander Schubert from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, traveled to the Swedish capital, which is one of the top destinations for demographers. The researcher talks about lively parties, productive breaks, and where to get the best cinnamon buns in town. [more]

Researcher Eduardo Sampaio of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Constance sailed around the Cape Verde coast aboard the Captain Darwin. He talks about a diverse but endangered underwater world, the mating behavior of octopuses, and how it is also possible to play a game of cat and mouse with fish. [more]

Andrea Müller from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology has been studying plants that live symbiotically with ants in Peru. Below, she shares her enthusiasm for the rainforest and how, in addition to the coronavirus, protesting coca farmers can jeopardize scientific field work. [more]

Alban Mariette from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam is researching how plants construct their cell walls. He went to Australia as part of the Melbourne-Potsdam PhD Program (MelPoPP). Here, he shares details of his experiences during the lockdown period and about his work-life balance as a PhD student. [more]

Shambhavi Priyam of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods is coordinating an information campaign in northeast India in order to protect people from arsenic-contaminated well water. She reports on culinary delights, the slow wheels of the Indian bureaucracy, and celebrating her birthday in the midst of a pandemic. [more]

Biologist Anna Proß, a PhD student at the MPI for Ornithology in Seewiesen, followed the migratory birds to Ghana in Africa. She reports on early rising, sunrises, animal encounters, culinary revelations and African hospitality. [more]

The physicist Elina Fuchs spent four years conducting research at the Weizmann Institute in Israel after receiving a scholarship from the Minerva Stiftung, a subsidiary from the Max Planck Society. She reports on generous hospitality, unusual public holidays and colleagues who were happy to help. [more]

From cold and wet Hamburg to tropically hot Barbados: Where others go on holiday, meteorologist Theresa Lang was part of the international EUREC4A project. Together with researchers from the MPI for Meteorology and from all over the world, she took a close look at the clouds. [more]

Thomas Turnbull from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin is involved in the project “Mississippi. An Anthropocene River”. As part of this venture, Turnbull paddled down a stretch of the Mississippi. He talks about a river that epitomizes the changes that humans have made to natural systems [more]

Lou Marie Haux from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin spent three months on Ngamba Island in Uganda studying the risk behavior of chimpanzees. In this article, she reports on her behavioral studies, on everyday life on a small island and her most cherished moments. [more]

Psychologist Monika Zaba is a member of the Molecular Psychotraumatology Research Group at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich. As part of her doctoral studies she works in one of Uganda’s largest refugee camps. [more]

Suhrid Ghosh from India spent considerable time in the Himalayas researching hoverflies, and recently took up a doctoral position at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden. The 24 -year-old hopes to one day return to his home country as a teacher. [more]

Empathy researcher Esther Kühn commutes back and forth between the Leipzig-based Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and University College London. She finds this cooperation to be extremely fruitful. [more]

Iranian Adrin Jalali conducts research in the field of computational biology for his doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics. He recounts what it was like for him to move from a city with several million inhabitants to a small town in Germany, and why he never wants to return to Tehran. [more]

Marine biologist Cecilia Alonso spent a number of years in Europe and returned to Uruguay in 2007. Since then, she sees her home country in a new light, and brings her knowledge and new experiences to research operations there. [more]