Life on Earth developed from inanimate components. Can we recreate this process in the laboratory, and what tools do we need for this? Using DNA origami, the art of folding at a scale of just a few millionths of a millimetre, we are able to reconstruct individual cellular components. They may be capable of taking over important tasks in our bodies in future.
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Severed nerve tracts are very difficult to treat. If at all, the damage so far can only be repaired through complex operations. At the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, we have developed materials that stimulate damaged nerves into growth. Results from initial tests on mice show that nerve tracts can regenerate this way.
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Jana Wäldchen has played a key role in developing the plant identification app, Flora Incognita. We discussed with her how being able to identify different plants contributes to species diversity, which plant species are particularly under threat and how non-native species are suppressing local plants
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The primatologist Roman Wittig explains in this interview, why he prefers to speak in terms of "spatial” rather than “social” distancing, and how virtual (online) meetings can replace real meetings to a certain extent.
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Daniel Calovi, a postdoc at the Max-Planck-Institute for Animal Behaviour at the department "Collectve Behaviour" of Iain Couzin, is a co-founder of the project “crowdfight covid19”. An initiative from the scientific community to put all available resources at the service of the fight against COVID-19
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