In a recently published study, scientists led by Prof. Tobias Moser, head of the Institute for Auditory Neuroscience at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) and the Auditory Neuroscience and Optogenetics research group at the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research (DPZ), have characterized the spectral resolution of natural and artificial hearing. In Mongolian gerbils, they compared optogenetic excitation of the…

The European Physical Society has awarded Dr. Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) with this year's Early Career Researcher Prize of the European Solar Physics Division (ESPD). The ESPD honors Chitta's new view of processes enabling the exchange of energy and mass between the visible surface of the Sun and its atmosphere. His research results could help to explain the huge temperature difference…

The seismometer SEIS on board NASA's InSight lander may have recorded the first “marsquake”. The event occurred about two and a half weeks ago on 6 April and was significantly weaker than typical earthquakes. Insight landed on our neighboring planet on 26 November last year. The main objective of the SEIS team, which includes researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen (Germany), is to deduce the planet’s…

Der Bruker Prize der Elektronenspinresonanz (ESR)-Spektroskopie-Gruppe der britischen Royal Society of Chemistry geht in diesem Jahr an Marina Bennati vom Max-Planck-Institut (MPI) für biophysikalische Chemie in Göttingen. Die Fachgruppe ehrt die Physiko-Chemikerin damit für ihre herausragende Arbeit in der ESR-Spektroskopie. Bennati, Forschungsgruppenleiterin am Göttinger MPI und Professorin an der Universität Göttingen, nahm den Preis am 10.…

Between 2014 and 2016, the scientific camera system OSIRIS onboard ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft captured almost 70000 images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. They not only document the most extensive and demanding comet mission to date, but also show the duck-shaped body in all its facets. In a joint project with the Department of Information and Communication at Flensburg University of Applied Sciences, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System…

Rink investigates how flatworms manage to completely regenerate their tissue following injury, and why this ability is an exception rather than the rule in the animal kingdom. Rink moves with his research group from the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden to the Göttingen institute, where he will be heading his own department. “Jochen Rink is a prime example for a highly interdisciplinary scientist. In…

The more plant species live in grasslands and forests, the more insect species find a habitat there. However, the presence of more plant species does not only increase insect species richness, ie the number of species, but also insect abundance, ie the number of individuals. Simultaneously, animal diversity is not only determined by plant diversity, but also by the physical structure of the plant communities. These are the results of an…

An international team, including researchers from the University of Göttingen, argues in a perspective article recently published in “Science” that new plant breeding technologies can contribute significantly to food security and sustainable development. Genome editing techniques in particular, such as CRISPR/Cas, could help to make agriculture more productive and environmentally friendly. The researchers advocate the responsible use and support…

Most of Saturn's 62 moons orbit their giant planet at a great distance outside the main rings. Only slightly more than a handful of small, irregularly shaped bodies, so-called ring moons, are an exception. In the final months of NASA's Cassini mission, the space probe was able to take the most accurate look yet at five of these bizarre, partly ravioli-shaped bodies and the space environment to which they are exposed. The results of these…

How can communities living together in rural areas be developed to ensure that they continue to exist and thrive? Much emphasis has been placed on innovation within urban areas. However, new research shows that rural communities can also play a pivotal role in generating solutions for sustainability.  Using the village of Heckenbeck in southern Lower Saxony as an example, researchers from the University of Göttingen investigated what these…