Newsroom – Category: Biology & Medicine

Nothing works with incomprehensible code – not even a cell. Patrick Cramer is carrying out research on the enzyme that transcribes the DNA code to enable a protein to be synthesized from a gene. To do so, he relies on high-resolution microscopes and artificial intelligence. more

An interview with Detlef Weigel about his discovery that cells prevent particularly important genes from mutating more

Mathias Grote, science historian and Heisenberg Fellow at Humboldt University, talks with Dieter Oesterhelt about his research more

Fish are his passion. Alex Jordan wants to know why they do what they do. An interview with the behavioural biologist more

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. more

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. more

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 more

Interview with Sönke Zaehle from the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry about the role of nutrients in the decline of biodiversity more

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. more

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 more