Atmospheric clouds play a crucial role in defining the local weather and global climate. When cloud aerosols grow to a certain size by collecting water, scientists call it activation. The activation of cloud aerosols, such as mineral dust, soot particles, pollutants, acid molecules and ions, impacts the life cycle of a cloud. Therefore, a detailed understanding is necessary for reliable climate prediction and weather forecasting. Out of many…

However, placing honey bee or bumble bee colonies next to the field does not guarantee that they will visit the desired plants since there may be other plant species flowering at the same time that prove more attractive. A team from the University of Göttingen, together with researchers from the University of Applied Sciences Mittweida and the Julius Kühn Institute, used innovative molecular biological methods and traditional microscopy to…

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 forms tiny droplets to multiply effectively inside infected cells. Researchers at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry have discovered this phenomenon. It may offer starting points for drug development. The coronavirus carries its genome – in the shape of the so-called RNA – in its interior; however the viral genome is not ‘naked’, but…

Tröpfchen und Aerosole gelten als Hauptübertragungsweg des Corona-Virus. Sie sind wenige Mikrometer klein und entstehen beim Atmen, Sprechen, Husten und Niesen. Während größere Tröpfchen schnell zu Boden sinken, können Aerosole in der Luft schweben und sich in geschlossenen Räumen verteilen. Eine Mund-Nase-Bedeckung verringert dies deutlich. Diese Erkenntnis unterstreicht die Notwendigkeit, sie im Zug zu tragen und möglichst Abstand zu…

Ensuring global food security is a key challenge, especially because of the challenges of climate change and increasing demand from a population expected to reach almost ten billion. A high diversity of crops can help ensure food security in agriculture. But this diversity alone is not enough. It also depends on ‘asynchrony’ or how the timing to sow or harvest crops differs in its distribution across the seasons, writes a research team with the…

Many people are familiar with turbulent flows from their own experience, for example from a stormy fall walk or from a flight to their vacation destination. However, turbulence also plays an important role in the formation of rain, electrical power fluctuations in wind farms or mixing processes in the atmosphere and the oceans. Unfortunately, turbulent flows are still difficult to calculate and predict today. This is a consequence of the highly…

Every day we effortlessly make countless grasping movements. We take a key in our hand, open the front door by operating the door handle, then pull it closed from the outside and lock it with the key. What is a natural matter for us is based on a complex interaction of our eyes, different regions of the brain and ultimately our muscles in the arm and hand. Neuroscientists at the German Primate Center (DPZ) - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research…

25 years ago, the space probe SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory), a joint project of ESA and NASA, was launched. Since then, it has been orbiting around our star synchronously with Earth and, thanks to its uniquely unobstructed and multifold view, has shaped our current understanding of the Sun. Despite the increasing competition from more modern space observatories and despite a few technical aches and pains, SOHO's continuous data stream…

The German Research Foundation (DFG) will be funding a new Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) at the University of Göttingen to start 1 January 2021: ‘Mathematics of Experiment: the challenge of indirect measurements in the natural sciences’. CRC 1456 comprises 16 scientific projects in which researchers from mathematics and natural sciences work together to analyse specific experimental data. The total funding amounts to around nine million…

The sensor JEI (Jovian Electron and Ion Sensor), which scientists and engineers at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) developed and built for ESA's JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer) mission to Jupiter, has reached a further milestone on its way into space. Together with other sensors of the PEP (Particle Environment Package) instrument package, JEI has now arrived safely at Airbus Defence and Space GmbH in Friedrichshafen.…