The Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Göttingen (Germany) has a new director. Cosmochemist and meteorite researcher Prof. Dr. Thorsten Kleine will continue the institute’s long tradition of planetary, cometary, and asteroid research and its contributions to international space missions, but will also add new research methods. He will carry out high-precision laboratory studies of meteorites as well as terrestrial and lunar…

Since 2014, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS) in Göttingen have been studying the behavior of tiny cloud droplets at the Schneefernerhaus Environmental Research Station (UFS). Their aim is to significantly improve the prediction of precipitation. The ‘Seesaw’ - a device equipped with the latest technology that records the drops three-dimensionally – was installed for this purpose. The results of the…

Three metres are not enough to ensure protection. Even at that distance, it takes less than five minutes for an unvaccinated person standing in the breath of a person with Covid-19 to become infected with almost 100 percent certainty. That's the bad news. The good news is that if both are wearing well-fitting medical or, even better, FFP2 masks, the risk drops dramatically. In a comprehensive study, a team from the Max Planck Institute for…

All land plants originated from a single evolutionary event when freshwater algae got a foothold on land, giving rise to an astonishing biodiversity of plants on earth. However, the group of algae that would later give rise to land plants had already been living and evolving in both freshwater and terrestrial habitats for over one billion years. There is a tiny group of these algae still living that are most distantly related to land plants. A…

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has funded a new Collaborative Research Centre for the University of Göttingen and its partners at the Göttingen Campus. The title is "Cognition of Interaction" and the award is worth around 12.5 million euros. Twenty-four scientists from the fields of neuroscience, behavioral and cognitive biology, psychology and data science will investigate the special demands that social interactions place on our cognitive…

After its first orbits around the Sun, ESA's Solar Orbiter spacecraft returns to within just 460 kilometers of Earth next Saturday, November 27. The flyby will change the spacecraft's trajectory and velocity allowing Solar Orbiter to fly within a distance of only 50 million kilometers of the Sun during its next orbit. The maneuver also marks an important mission milestone: the commissioning of the scientific instruments is complete; now the…

Armita Nourmohammad, Max Planck Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS) and Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Washington received the Early Career Award from the American Physical Society (APS), Division of Biological Physics. The annual award recognizes outstanding and sustained contributions by an early-career researcher to biological physics. In choosing Armita Nourmohammad…

One in 500 children is born with hearing impairment, and in 50 to 70 percent of cases a genetic defect is the cause. In a joint research project, the German Primate Center - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, the University Medical Center Göttingen and the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine want to establish a gene therapy that can be used to treat hereditary deafness. The method is to be developed on marmoset monkeys and then…

On November 17, 2021, the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony awarded the researcher of the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS) in Göttingen the prestigious Lower Saxony Science Award in the category "Scientist in an early career phase". With this award, the state of Lower Saxony annually honors scientists, who distinguish themselves through particular professional excellence as well as through their…

Building insulation has become an increasingly important topic in recent years. Good exterior insulation reduces heating costs, which means lower CO2 emissions. Nowadays, sustainable natural insulation materials are already available for the interiors of buildings. But what does sustainability really mean? It means the material should be environmentally friendly and made from renewable raw materials, it must have good thermal insulation and fire…