To provide important genomic data to inform research about Europe’s biodiversity, scientists from 48 different countries initiated the "European Reference Genome Atlas" (ERGA) in 2021. Along with over 600 researchers, scientists from the University of Göttingen contribute to ERGA to make up an essential transdisciplinary and transborder community of experts. Together, they want to produce extremely high-quality genome analyses, known as…

Stars like the Sun resonate like a giant water-filled balloon. In addition to these global acoustic oscillations that span the entire star, others are also known: Sunspots, dark regions on the Sun's surface, for example, can be the starting point for magneto-acoustic waves. Using the Dunn Solar Telescope in New Mexico (USA) an international group of researchers including the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) has for the first…

The European Mechanics Society has elected Dr. Olga Shishkina, group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS), as a EUROMECH fellow in the field of fluid mechanics recognizing her seminal contributions in this field. Only three laureates from this field are selected across Europe every other year. The council selected Olga for her profound work on Rayleigh-Bénard convection, which is of fundamental importance…

Viruses are mostly encountered as pathogens. However, virus-based vaccination platforms can also help to provide protection from different diseases. In a mouse model, researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig together with national and international partners including the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research (DPZ), the Technische…

Nearly 20 years after the end of NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter, scientists led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany have unlocked a new secret from the mission's extensive data sets. For the first time, the research team was able to determine beyond doubt that the high-energy ions surrounding the gas giant as part of its inner radiation belt are primarily oxygen and sulfur ions. They are thought to have…

The computational neuroscientist Professor Alexander Ecker from the University of Göttingen and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS) has received a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The ERC has awarded his project "Deep Neuron Embeddings: Data-driven multi-modal discovery of cell types in the neocortex" a total of 1.5 million euros over five years. Ecker and his team want to find out how the…

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Dr. Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta a Starting Grant of about 1.5 million Euros. Over the next five years, the MPS scientist will have the opportunity to pursue one of the great unsolved mysteries of solar research: How does our star heat its outer atmosphere, the solar corona, to unimaginable temperatures of up to 10 million degrees Celsius? With unprecedented observational data from ESA's Solar Orbiter…

Setting your own research priorities and pursuing them with a research group – the first step on the way to an independent research career – is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) with the annually awarded ERC Starting Grants. Successful applicants receive around 1.5 million euros over five years to pursue their research ideas independently of established professors. This year, neuroscientists Raymundo Báez-Mendoza and Michael Heide…

The Göttingen-based Max Planck Institutes (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry and Experimental Medicine have merged as of January 1, 2022. This will establish a new MPI, the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences. It will cover a much broader spectrum of research, thus promoting disciplinary diversity and collaboration. With a total of 16 departments and more than 25 research groups, the MPI for Multidisciplinary Sciences will be the…