It is generally accepted that the earliest life forms used small organic molecules as building materials and energy sources. However, the existence of such components in early habitats on Earth had not been proven to date. Research at the University of Göttingen has now detected organic molecules and gases trapped in 3.5 billion-year-old rocks. It is likely that solutions from archaic hydrothermal vents contained essential components that formed…

Having a memory of past events enables us to take smarter decisions about the future. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS) and Technical University of Munich (TUM) identify the basis for forming memories in the slime mold Physarum polycephalum - despite its lack of a nervous system. The ability to store and recover information gives an organism a clear advantage when searching for food or avoiding…

When there is a choice, wolves in Mongolia prefer to feed on wild animals rather than grazing livestock. This is the discovery by a research team from the University of Göttingen and the Senckenberg Museum Görlitz. Previous studies had shown that the diet of wolves in inland Central Asia consists mainly of grazing livestock, which could lead to increasing conflict between nomadic livestock herders and wild predatory animals like wolves. The study…

Her expertise is in demand. She advises politicians such as Angela Merkel, gives interviews, writes statements and publishes her scientific work in prestigious journals. For many it is a mystery where Viola Priesemann gets her energy from. Since the beginning of the pandemic, she has been calculating scenarios of how the spread of the Sars-CoV2 coronavirus increases or decreases under different conditions. Not least she has taken up the topic…

How do plants build resilience? An international research team led by the University of Göttingen studied the molecular mechanisms of the plant immune system. They were able to show a connection between a relatively unknown gene and resistance to pathogens. The results of the study were published in the journal The Plant Cell. Scientists from "PRoTECT" – Plant Responses To Eliminate Critical Threats – investigated the molecular mechanisms of the…

The astronomy research instrument CRIRES+ is designed to study planets outside our solar system. It is now in operation at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The Institute of Astrophysics at the University of Göttingen is part of the international research consortium that built the high-resolution infrared spectrograph at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. When a new optical instrument on a telescope begins…

Oxygen deficit, also called hypoxia, in the brain is actually an absolute state of emergency and can permanently damage nerve cells. Nevertheless, there is growing evidence that to a certain extent, hypoxia can also be an important signal for growth. Together with scientists from the University Hospitals of Copenhagen and Hamburg-Eppendorf, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen have shown in mice that…

Researchers from the Thünen Institute of Organic Farming and the University of Göttingen are the first to investigate very early immunocastration in male piglets to prevent ‘boar taint’, which affects the taste of meat from non-castrated animals. Being an alternative to surgical castration, immunocastration induces an immune response against certain hormones thereby delaying sexual maturity. The project team collected extensive data on the…

Primeval forests are of great importance for biodiversity and global carbon and water cycling. The three-dimensional structure of forests plays an important role here because it influences processes of gas and energy exchange with the atmosphere, whilst also providing habitats for numerous species. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has investigated the variety of different complex structures that can be found in…

A higher diversity of flowering plants increases the breeding success of wild bees and may help compensate for the negative effects of insecticides. This is what researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Hohenheim, as well as the Julius Kühn Institute, have found in a large-scale experimental study. The results have been published in the scientific journal Ecology Letters. In their experiment, the researchers investigated how…