News from the Göttingen Campus

Research team led by the University of Göttingen analyses complexity of forest structure
Primeval forests are of great importance for biodiversity and global carbon and water cycling. The three-dimensional structure of forests plays an important role here because it influences processes of gas and energy exchange with the atmosphere, whilst also providing habitats for numerous species. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has investigated the variety of different complex structures that can be found in…
Research team led by the University of Göttingen emphasizes the benefits of diversifying flower resources
A higher diversity of flowering plants increases the breeding success of wild bees and may help compensate for the negative effects of insecticides. This is what researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Hohenheim, as well as the Julius Kühn Institute, have found in a large-scale experimental study. The results have been published in the scientific journal Ecology Letters. In their experiment, the researchers investigated how…
New viral variants increase the urgency to consistently reduce Covid-19 case rates across Europe
Scientists from across Europe are calling for an action plan in order to reduce Covid-19 cases in a coordinated manner across Europe. Specifically, they appeal to the European states to aim for a seven-day incidence rate of 10 cases per 100,000 per week or below. Particularly in view of the new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, they consider that a deci-sive and coordinated Europe-wide approach is necessary in order to con-tain the…
Researchers develop robust approach for detecting market manipulation
Social media is increasingly used to spread fake news. The same problem can be found on the capital market – criminals spread fake news about companies in order to manipulate share prices. Researchers at the Universities of Göttingen and Frankfurt and the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana have developed an approach that can recognise such fake news, even when the news contents are repeatedly adapted. The results of the study were published in…
The Hector Foundation honors the Max Planck Director for his outstanding research in the field of gene transcription. Patrick Cramer's research has made a formative contribution to the life sciences and to interdisciplinary collaboration, emphasized laudator Christoph Klein. The prize is endowed with 150,000 euros.
„Patrick Cramers Forschungsarbeiten leisten einen prägenden Beitrag für die Lebenswissenschaften und für die interdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit“, betonte Christoph Klein, Direktor der Kinderklinik Dr. von Haunersches Kinderspital München, in seiner Laudatio.  Im Fokus von Cramers Forschung steht ein zentrales Rätsel der Biologie: die Steuerung der Genaktivität. Mithilfe dieses Kopiervorgangs – der Gentranskription – erstellen lebende Zellen…
Senate and University Foundation Committee vote for 55-year-old physicist
The physicist Professor Metin Tolan will become the next President of the University of Göttingen. The Senate of the University unanimously agreed this decision today. The University Foundation Committee also approved this proposal unanimously. Tolan succeeds Professor Reinhard Jahn, who held the office until 31 December 2020. Since that time, full-time Vice-President Dr Valérie Schüller has been Acting President of the University on an interim…
Research team with participation from Göttingen University use secrets trapped in grains of sand to reveal rock journey and formation
On a remote island in Papua New Guinea, an international research team including the University of Göttingen has made an important geological discovery from a garnet-rich sand. By analysing tiny “inclusions” (minerals trapped inside another mineral during its formation) in the garnet grains, they gained understanding of the recycling pathway from the surface of the Earth to deep within the upper mantle and back to the surface, due to tectonic and…
The research award is one of the most prestigious in Europe and endowed with 500,000 Swiss francs.
With this prize the Louis-Jeantet Foundation honors the director at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry for his pioneering work in the field of gene transcription. Transcription is a copying process enabling living cells to produce transcripts of their genes that then serve as blueprints for making proteins. Cramer’s research focuses on the molecular machines, called RNA polymerases, that control this fundamental process of…
Physicists from Göttingen University develop method in which beams are simultaneously generated and guided by "sandwich structure”
X-rays are usually difficult to direct and guide. X-ray physicists at the University of Göttingen have developed a new method with which the X-rays can be emitted more precisely in one direction. To do this, the scientists use a structure of thin layers of materials with different densities of electrons to simultaneously deflect and focus the generated beams. The results of the study were published in the journal Science Advances. To generate…
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization show that the secret to optimal micro-swimming is out there in the nature. They prove that a microswimmer can increase its swimming efficiency by learning the swimming techniques from an unexpected mentor: an air bubble.
Engineers have spent considerable efforts to improve the fuel economy of aircraft, cars or ships in the past decades. A similar process has been going on in biology, where swimming microorganisms have evolved over hundreds of millions of years to move efficiently. Many biological microswimmers like Paramecium use their small hair-like appendages to “slip” the fluid at their surface and gain locomotion. This general swimming technique however…