In non-reciprocal active matter, agents act differently on each other, seemingly in violation of Newton’s Third Law. This principle can result in various active matter traits, such as and self-propulsion, molecular regulation, and collective motion. A new model now describes how such non-reciprocal interactions can emerge spontaneously between chemically active vesicles. The physicists from the Department of Living Matter Physics at the Max…

The Andalusian Desierto de Tabernas is a bizarre landscape of impassable sand and scree, steep slopes and dried-up riverbeds. As the only desert on the European mainland, the region provided a striking backdrop for the late 1980s Indiana Jones films and is considered by researchers to be particularly Mars-like: the perfect location for a Mars mission field test. In preparation for operating ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover on Mars from 2030 onwards,…

The fight for survival in the forest is fierce: light, water and nutrients are all limited. This is particularly true in “mast years” – times when trees and shrubs produce an unusually large crop of fruits, nuts, or seeds. Then the race for growth is really on. But can differences in height between trees in their first year of life make a difference to their future, even if these differences are just one or two centimetres? Researchers at the …

With the international symposium “Bioimaging across scales”, the Göttingen Cluster of Excellence Multiscale Bioimaging (MBExC) reflected on eight years of interdisciplinary cutting-edge research. Groundbreaking imaging technologies were developed, molecular structures unveiled, and new insights into the function of the heart and brain achieved. Although the MBExC funding concludes at the end of 2027, the research infrastructure and scientific…

Most primate species have a relatively large brain with a surface marked by pronounced bulges and furrows. This is not the case with common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). The brains of these small monkeys are smooth and virtually unfolded. Researchers at the German Primate Center (DPZ) —the Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen have investigated, in a recent study, which cellular processes during embryonic development cause the…

Climate change is causing many fruit trees to flower earlier, increasing their exposure to damaging late spring frosts. A study led by the University of Göttingen shows that the plant growth regulator ethephon can delay flowering in Kordia – a variety of sweet cherry – potentially protecting blossoms and developing fruitlets from frost. The treatment did not significantly delay flowering in a second sweet cherry or two apple varieties,…

The new collection at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research comprises 4,780 samples from more than 1,932 meteorites. As a research collection, it offers an extraordinary range of different meteorite classes and ranks among the most extensive and diverse in the world. The samples include large slices of iron meteorites weighing hundreds of kilograms, as well as highly porous specks barely a millimeter in size; unimposing chunks as…

Collective motion is commonly observed in nature, such as in groups of animals or also crowds of people. If all individuals follow exactly the same rules for movement, collective motion is quite robust. Yet, real collectives are rarely made of identical agents, as the individual behaviours can be different in strength or even intention. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) investigated how such…

Every pandemic is different. Nevertheless, certain commonalities can be identified across all pandemics. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS), together with an interdisciplinary team of experts, have compiled ten fundamental mechanisms that can be used to describe the development of pandemics. The study brings together insights from epidemiology, sociology, mathematics, physics, political science,…

Researchers from the U.S. National Science Foundation National Solar Observatory (NSF NSO), the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, and the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) in the USA have made a groundbreaking discovery in the field of solar physics. New images of the Sun’s surface taken with the world’s largest solar telescope, the NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, built and operated by the NSO in Hawaii, along…