When people reach for the same object, walk through a narrow doorway, forage for food, or work together on a shared task, they continuously negotiate—often without noticing—how much to cooperate or compete. Unlike classical laboratory games that force players to choose between fixed options in advance, real-life interactions unfold dynamically, with movement timing and subtle cues shaping social behavior from one moment to the next. A…

“Investigating how enzymes, nature’s highly efficient catalysts, utilize electric fields to control chemical reactions rapidly, selectively, and under mild conditions was our goal”, explains project spokesperson Ricardo Mata from the University of Göttingen. While chemical synthetic processes often require extreme temperatures or pressures, enzymes work efficiently and sustainably in aqueous solutions at body temperature. The long-term goal of…

Land use is at the heart of the many emergencies facing our world today: climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice and food insecurity. These – exacerbated by unsustainable practices such as industrial agriculture – combine to create simultaneous and interconnected crises. To overcome these challenges, large parts of the Earth's surface must meet several demands at the same time – from species conservation and food production to human…

Mars is an inhospitable desert planet. Billions of years ago, things were different. In Jezero Crater, for example, fed by a vast river delta, there was probably a considerable body of water roughly the size of Lake Constance. Conditions conducive to life may have prevailed there. For more than four years now, the long-dry Jezero Crater has been the workplace of Perseverance. The NASA rover not only performs scientific measurements on site, but…

The quality of relationships and the social organization of a society, influence the transfer of valuable resources not only in humans but also in other primates. Researchers at the German Primate Center (DPZ) – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen have discovered this using the example of Guinea baboons (Papio papio), which distribute meat according to patterns similar to those of human hunter-gatherer groups. The team analyzed…

Researchers in Göttingen have elucidated the structure and function of otoferlin, a protein that plays a crucial role in the hearing process. Loss of otoferlin or impairment of its function causes a frequent form of congenital deafness. The results, published in the journal Science Advances, mark a milestone after more than two decades of research on otoferlin at Göttingen Campus and contribute to optimizing the first gene therapies for the…

Complex biological systems are more than the sum of their parts – their properties emerge from the dynamic interaction of their components, such as molecules or cells. PhD researchers now have the opportunity to develop their own theoretical perspective on these systems as part of an international Doctoral Network. A European consortium initiated by researchers from the University of Göttingen, the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and…

In the early days of our Solar System, huge oceans of red-hot magma covered each of the four inner planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The heat required to melt the rock came from the decay of radioactive elements or from violent impacts. Gases escaped from the magma, creating the first atmospheres. Such magma oceans and their pristine atmospheres are likely to still exist today on young, still hot exoplanets outside our Solar System. The…

In turbulent fluids, mixing of the components happens easily. However, in more viscous fluids such as those enclosed within cellular compartments, the intermixing of particles and molecules is much more challenging. As time also plays a role in such systems, the slow mixing by molecular movement is typically not sufficient and efficient stirring strategies are thus required to maintain functionality.

Lemurs are among the best-known representatives of Madagascar's animal kingdom. They make up more than 15 percent of all primate species living today – even though the island covers less than one percent of the earth's land surface. An international research team involving the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research (DPZ) has now shown: The species diversity of lemurs is not the result of a single large radiation, as is…