News from the Göttingen Campus

Ramisyllis kingghidorahi described by Göttingen University researchers in top 10 New Marine Species
Branching marine worms are extremely rare: bizarre creatures with one head but a body that branches repeatedly into multiple posterior ends. Only three such species are known, and one of these worm species has just been awarded a place in the top-ten marine species from 2022 by the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Named Ramisyllis kingghidorahi after King Ghidorah, Godzilla’s monster enemy, the new species was first described by an…
Humans and monkeys coordinate conflicting interest to maximize their profits
Drama or comedy? Couples who want to spend Sunday evenings together in front of the TV but like different movie genres face this question again every weekend. Do they agree on a movie and watch it together? Or does each one watch "their" favorite movie alone? And when they watch TV together, do they take turns picking? Researchers at the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen have studied how monkeys and…
Mission to Jupiter's moon Europa
Is there life on other planetary bodies? Jupiter's moon Europa could provide an answer to this question: it is believed to harbour an ocean of water beneath its icy surface. But how might an exploration mission to the Jovian satellite be conducted without contaminating the landing site? To find out, researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) in Göttingen have carried out investigations in a unique…
Optical cochlear implants promise to improve the restoration of hearing in hearing loss and deafness.
Optogenetics, the control of genetically modified cells with light, has revolutionized the life sciences and medicine. It allows the activity of cells and their networks to be controlled in a targeted manner via light pulses. This opens up completely new perspectives for the therapy of dysfunctions of sensory systems, such as hearing and vision. The potential of optogenetic treatments for the functional recovery of sensory systems and their…
Convection of salty water creates hexagonal patterns
The honeycomb-like patterns that often occur in salt deserts, including Death Valley and Chile, look like something from another world. A team that included researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, Germany, explain the origin of the mysterious patterns for the first time. Around the globe, honeycomb-like patterns form in salt deserts, for example in the Badwater Basin of Death Valley in…
Göttingen and Heidelberg Universities offer joint Master's degree
Göttingen and Heidelberg Universities will in future offer a joint Master's degree in the interdisciplinary programme "Matter to Life". Göttingen University President Professor Metin Tolan and the Rector of Heidelberg University, Professor Bernhard Eitel, signed an agreement to this effect yesterday in Göttingen. This kind of programme and degree are unique in Germany. Built on the approach of the Max Planck School (MPS) of the same name, from…
Cytomegalovirus infections in primates stimulate production of special natural killer cells that could also play a role in anticancer therapy
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) belongs to the large family of herpes viruses and is distributed worldwide. According to the Robert Koch Institute, around 70 percent of adults in Germany are CMV-positive. Like other herpes viruses, CMV remains in the body for a lifetime after initial infection. In immune-healthy individuals, the disease is unproblematic and manifests itself, if at all, only with cold symptoms. However, life-threatening complications can…
ESA's space probe is on the move: First it heads for the launch site in Kourou - and in April it will begin its long journey to Jupiter and its icy moons.
Approximately three months before embarking on its eight-year-long trek to the Jupiter system, ESA's spacecraft Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) faces a shorter - and much more terrestrial - journey in the coming weeks. In early February, the probe will set off from Toulouse (France) to its South American launch site in Kourou (French Guiana). Already today, JUICE was officially bid farewell at the Airbus premises in Toulouse - and with it the…
New theory on autonomous remodeling of structures
Structures made out of building blocks can shift their shape and autonomously self-organize to a new configuration. The physicists Saeed Osat and Ramin Golestanian from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) revealed this mechanism which may be used to actively manipulate molecular organization. A seed of the novel desired configuration is sufficient to trigger reorganization. This principle can be applied on to…
Göttingen University is a founding member of the international "Nature Positive Universities" network
The "Nature Positive Universities" network was officially launched at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal. More than 500 universities worldwide are involved in the network. Its partners want to systematically record and promote local biodiversity and implement resource-saving measures. The University of Göttingen is one of the founding members of the network, which is led by the United Nations Environment Programme…