The cultivation of vanilla in Madagascar provides a good income for small-holder farmers, but without trees and bushes the plantations can lack biodiversity. Agricultural ecologists from the University of Göttingen, in cooperation with colleagues from the University in Antananarivo (Madagascar), have investigated the interaction between prey and their predators in these cultivated areas. To do this, they experimentally released dummy prey in…

A crucial resolution barrier in cryo-electron microscopy has been broken. Holger Stark and his team at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry have observed single atoms in a protein structure for the first time and taken the sharpest images ever with this method. Such unprecedented details are essential to understand how proteins perform their work in the living cell or cause diseases. The technique can in future also be used to…

Die Erkennung und Diagnostik des Coronavirus ist eine der wichtigsten Maßnahmen zur Bekämpfung der Pandemie. Allerdings ist die bisher genutzte Technologie bei Weitem noch nicht so schnell, präzise und verfügbar wie es wünschenswert wäre. Die VolkswagenStiftung fördert nun im Rahmen ihrer Anti-Corona-Initiative ein Projekt an der Universität und Universitätsmedizin Göttingen (UMG), in dem Nanosensoren zur schnellen optischen Erkennung des Virus…

Worldwide demand for food from the tropics that meets higher environmental and social standards has risen sharply in recent years. Consumers often have to make ethically questionable decisions: products may be available to the global market through child labour, starvation wages or environmental destruction. Building on an interdisciplinary project in Peru, an international research team with the participation of the University of Göttingen has…

In 1834, the University of Göttingen received, via the then reigning royal house of the United Kingdom, two Toi moko (preserved Māori tattooed heads) originally from New Zealand. These Toi Moko are now returning there: on Thursday 15 October 2020, the two Toi moko were handed over to the Māori and to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (known as Te Papa) during a ceremony at the University of Göttingen. The two Toi moko have been part of…

More than two billion people worldwide suffer from micronutrient malnutrition due to deficiencies in minerals and vitamins. Poor people in developing countries are most affected, as their diets are typically dominated by starchy staple foods, which are inexpensive sources of calories but contain low amounts of micronutrients. In a new Perspective article, an international team of scientists, involving the University of Göttingen, explains how…

The growing global demand for palm oil has led to a rapid spread of oil palm monoculture plantations in South East Asia. This is often associated with the loss of natural habitat and biodiversity. Oil palm monocultures are uniformly structured and therefore offer little space for different species. Diversification using indigenous tree species can contribute to maintaining biodiversity. A research team from the University of Göttingen (Germany)…

On its way to Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, the European-Japanese space probe BepiColombo will change course again on Thursday, 15 October. Following the Earth flyby in April this year, the first of two Venus flybys is now imminent. It will take the spacecraft, which was launched into space two years ago, past our neighboring planet at a distance of 10720 kilometers. Some of the scientific instruments on board, to which the Max Planck…

The trans-Neptunian object Arrokoth, also known as Ultima Thule, which NASA’s space probe New Horizons passed on New Year's Day 2019, may have changed its shape significantly in the first 100 million years since its formation. In today's issue of the journal Nature Astronomy, researchers led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) suggest that the current shape of Arrokoth, which resembles a…

Die Corona-Pandemie stellt das Gesundheitssystem, die Entscheidungsträger*innen und die Bürger*innen vor neue und enorme Herausforderungen. Ziel ist es, das Wissen um bestmögliche Strategien zu erhöhen. Dafür haben sich alle 36 Universitätskliniken bundesweit zum nationalen Forschungsverbund „Netzwerk Universitätsmedizin“ (NUM) zusammengeschlossen. Ziel des Netzwerks Universitätsmedizin ist es, gemeinsam mit anderen Akteuren des…