In cosmic comparison, the Sun is a bore. While the brightness of some other stars with similar characteristics fluctuates strongly, the Sun’s variations are much more moderate. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, from the Turkish-German University and Boğaziçi University in Turkey, and from Kyung Hee University in South Korea, have now investigated how exactly sun- and starspots affect this…

Researchers at the University of Göttingen have been conducting a nationwide consumer survey since mid-April to find out how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting shopping, eating and cooking behaviour. In mid-June, at a time of low infection rates and increasing relaxation of pandemic-related restrictions in Germany, the same consumers were surveyed again. A comparison of the data shows partly a return to behaviour patterns back to the levels…

Tropical forest soils play a crucial role in providing vital ecosystem functions. They provide nutrients for plants, store carbon and regulate greenhouse gases, as well as storing and filtering water, and protection against erosion. Scientists at the University of Göttingen and the University of Minnesota in the USA have investigated how the properties and ecosystem functions of tropical soils change when forests are cut down, and whether…

The Lower Saxony State Service for Cultural Heritage (NLD) and the University of Göttingen carry out research into the oldest wooden weapons that have ever been found. The project, under the leadership of Professor Thomas Terberger, NLD and Department of Prehistory and Early History, and Professor Holger Militz, Head of the Department of Wood Biology and Wood Products at the University of Göttingen, have been awarded a grant from the German…

About one third of the payments received by farmers are linked to specific “greening measures” to promote biodiversity. The cultivation of nitrogen-fixing legumes is very popular. However, these measures have been criticized because the benefits for biodiversity are unclear. Now a team from the University of Göttingen, the Julius Kühn Institute and the Thuenen Institute in Braunschweig has investigated whether the cultivation of the faba bean (Vi…

Who was Paul de Lagarde? A research team from the Department of Egyptology and Coptic Studies at the University of Göttingen, in collaboration with the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies in Potsdam (MMZ), has been working on a historical re-assessment of the life and work of the Göttingen Orientalist (1827-1891). In their work, the researchers have focussed on the political and ideological aspects of the scholar's œuvre, and in…

The drought that hit central and northern Europe in summer 2018 had serious effects on crops, forests and grasslands. Researchers from the European Research Infrastructure Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS), including researchers from the University of Göttingen, are showing what effects this had and what lessons can be learned. The results of 16 studies that are currently underway have been published as a special issue in the journal Ph…

The research report “Border Experiences and Practices of Refugees” by the EU project “Multi-level Governance of Mass Migration in Europe and beyond (RESPOND)” provides a unique documentation of the experiences of refugee-migrants with the borders of Europe. The events in 2015, which were labelled as the “European refugee crisis”, are still affecting the European public and politics. There has been much discussion about the 2015/2016 migratory…