The chemist Professor Lutz Ackermann from the University of Göttingen receives the SCF French-German Georg Wittig-Victor Grignard Prize 2022. The Société Chimique de France (SCF) awards this prize to outstanding chemists who have enriched research in both countries through their work. Ackermann receives the prize for his research in the field of catalytic activation of reaction-carrying C-H bonds by transition metal catalysis. The prize also…

ARHGAP11B - this complex name is given to a gene that is unique to humans and plays an essential role in the development of the neocortex. The neocortex is the part of the brain to which we owe our high mental abilities. A team of researchers from the German Primate Center (DPZ) - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, and the Hector Institute for…

The research project FAIR CHARM aims to apply findings from basic scientific research to clinical applications with the aid of high-resolution, real-time imaging. The EU is funding the project with six million euro. The range of expertise is covered by an interdisciplinary consortium of six international universities and research institutions as well as three enterprises. Also involved is a team headed by Frauke Alves at the Max Planck Institute…

Living together in groups entails constant interactions between individuals. Individuals need to permanently assess the behavior of others and to respond flexibly to it. Primates and other animals regulate and coordinate their interactions predominantly by vocal, visual, tactile, and olfactory signals. However, it is unclear what social or ecological factors influence the number of signals and the evolution of the various signaling modalities.…

An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has detected novel quantum effects in high-precision studies of natural double-layer graphene and has interpreted them together with the University of Texas at Dallas using their theoretical work. This research provides new insights into the interaction of the charge carriers and the different phases, and contributes to the understanding of the processes involved. The LMU in Munich…

Jan-Peter Toennies, former director of the Max Planck Institute for Flow Research (today: Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, MPI-DS) and his Italian colleague Giorgio Benedek from the University of Milan have good reason to celebrate. Together, they have been honored for their "pioneering studies of the atomic-scale dynamics at solid surfaces through the development of high-resolution helium-atom scattering spectroscopy".…

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) has honored Prof. Dr. Sami K. Solanki, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, with a high distinction: the AAS Solar Physics Division (SPD) has named the Göttingen researcher this year's recipient of the George Ellery Hale Prize, which distinguishes selected scientists for their long-standing and ground-breaking contributions to solar research. The award ceremony…

Bacteria and other unicellular organisms developed sophisticated ways to actively navigate their way, despite being comparably simple structures. To reveal these mechanisms, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) used oil droplets as a model for biological microswimmers. Corinna Maass, group leader at the MPI-DS and Associate Professor at the University of Twente, together with her colleagues,…

The Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP), a panel of the International Science Council (ICS), has honored Dr. Theodosios Chatzistergos of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) with this year's Distinguished Young Scientist Award. With this award, the Committee recognizes the young researcher's contributions to the reconstruction of past solar activity and variability. Among other things, Dr. Chatzistergos…

Researchers from the University of Göttingen are among the first in the world to have analysed rock samples from the asteroid Ryugu. Asteroids are remnants from the very beginnings of our solar system and, at around 4.6 billion years old, are about as old as the solar system itself.  This means they provide a unique insight into the origins of the planets. The data from the Göttingen team show that Ryugu belongs to a special class of asteroids –…