News

Review article on baboon research published

Baboons are widespread in Africa. The six species that exist today have spread from the south over almost the entire continent. In the course of evolution, baboons have developed great ecological flexibility and a wide range of social systems compared to other primate species. This makes them an important model for researchers to study complex evolutionary processes. Long-term studies provide additional insights into the relationship between…

DPZ participates in Europe-wide research program on heart regeneration

The research of new mechanisms of tissue regeneration in heart diseases and their successful transfer into medical applications are the central objectives of the REANIMA project. The Europe-wide research program is coordinated by the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) in Madrid and supported by the EU with eight million euros over five years. Eleven other European research institutions are also working on the project. The …

Göttingen chemists identify the smallest possible ice crystals

Depending on the temperature, water freezes to ice and ice melts back to water. This process, known in science as “phase transition”, is well known in everyday life. However, in order to achieve a stable lattice for ice crystals to form, a minimum number of molecules is required, otherwise the structure is unstable. Up until now, this value could only be roughly estimated. A German-American research team led by the chemist Professor Thomas Zeuch…

University of Göttingen launches new network with eight other universities from all over Europe

The University of Göttingen and eight other universities from all over Europe have formally launched a new network of higher education called “Enlight”. In a letter of intent, the nine partners expressed their commitment to prepare a joint application for the second call of the European Universities Initiative. Among other things, the network wants to promote sustainability and global engagement through higher education transformation. Besides…

International team led by the University of Göttingen investigates environmentally sustainable palm oil production

Environmentally friendlier palm oil production could be achieved with less fertilizer and no herbicide, while maintaining profits. These are the encouraging preliminary results of the first two years of a large-scale oil palm management experiment by an international team of researchers led by the University of Göttingen. The research was published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. The palm oil industry often hits the headlines with…

For women, the biological clock starts ticking by their mid-30s at the latest: Fertility decreases, the risk of miscarriages increases. One of the main reasons behind both are eggs with altered chromosome numbers. It has remained largely unclear, however, why eggs from older women more frequently possess too many or too few chromosomes. A German-English research team has now discovered that certain structures on the egg’s chromosomes age and fall apart, possibly promoting incorrect chromosome distribution.

A new life begins when an egg is fertilized by a sperm. This is when the genetic information of the father and the mother is combined: Sperm and egg each contribute one copy of the 23 chromosomes that carry the genetic information (DNA), so that the newly formed embryo inherits a full set. However, the egg’s precursor cell contains two copies of each chromosome and, therefore, must eliminate half of its 46 chromosomes before fertilization. This…

International research team with participation from Göttingen finds causes lie at landscape level

In many areas, around a third fewer insect species can be found than a decade ago. This is the result of a study by an international research team including scientists from the University of Göttingen. The loss of species mainly affects grasslands that are located in surroundings largely shaped by agriculture – but it also affects forests and protected areas. The results of the study were published in Nature. The research team, led by the…

The „ManyPrimates"-Project publishes first joint study

Large and versatile samples are necessary to investigate evolutionary relationships. In the „Many Primates" project, international scientists have joined forces to investigate the cognitive abilities of as many primate species as possible. Julia Fischer, Department of Cognitive Ethology, and Claudia Fichtel, Department of Ecology and Sociobiology, from the DPZ, are involved in the project. The first study of the project on short-term memory, for…

Göttingen Scientists are on the trail of an alternative erythropoietin receptor

The hormone erythropoietin (Epo) is a well-known doping substance that has a long history of abuse in endurance sports, such as cycling. In addition to promoting red blood cell production (erythropoiesis), which improves the oxygen supply in the organism, Epo also protects nerve cells from cell death. In order to use this effect to cure neurodegenerative diseases, however, the negative effects caused by Epo through the stimulated formation of red…

Liquid crystal droplets as versatile microswimmers

When one imagines a swimmer, their image would probably be of either an Olympian performing the front-crawl, a Salmon fighting upstream, or a shark racing towards its prey. Most of us, however, would not consider Nature’s most common swimmers: single-celled organisms. For example: microalgae that swim towards light sources, or sperm cells that swim towards an ovum. For a physicist, cells are simply biochemical machines, which must obey…

News from the Göttingen Campus

Baboons as a model for human evolution

REANIMA: New approaches in heart research

Fluctuating between solid and liquid

Transformation of higher education

Less fertilizer and no herbicide but same yield?

Why egg cells become error-prone with age

Insect decline more widespread than expected

Worldwide cooperation: Short-term memory in focus

Nerve cell protection free from side effects

Shark fins and owl droplets

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