Polluted air shortens the lifespan of Europeans by about two years

"An important step towards more equal opportunities & compatibility of career & family for our early career researchers": MPG @maxplanckpress increases the annual number of holiday days from 20 to 30 for its #PhD candidates☀️😊https://t.co/0QXl6lhGuk @maxplanckphdnet #10moredays

#mymachineandme: "Radka Haneckova, MPI of Molecular #CellBiology & #Genetics, Dresden @mpicbg 'I built this red light machine that makes planarians lose their pigmentation without harming them. Put back in the dark, they will re-pigment again in a few weeks." @maxplanckpress https://t.co/Sur6TTQTF8

#mymachineandme: Radka Haneckova, PhD student at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden
"My lab is working with Planarians and in order to see processes inside the worm and to look at stem cell viability and differentiation, we need planarians without pigmentation.

Planarians avoid light, but when left in regular white light for a few days, they will lose their pigments. However, in that way they would die soon after. For an unknown reason, red light also causes the loss of pigmentation just as well, but they survive! If the planarians are put back in the dark, they will re-pigment again in a few weeks.

It causes the loss of pigmentation in planarians with red light, but they won’t die. If the planarians are put back in the dark, they will re-pigment again in a few weeks. "

#mymachineandme

This is a cryostat. It can cool down to 7 mK, only 0.007 degrees above absolute zero. Johannes Zirkelbach from Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen utilizes its power to research the interactions between light and matter by investigating single molecules embedded in a crystal.