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Life Sciences - 09.09.2022
What excites the Venus flytrap
What excites the Venus flytrap
The Venus flytrap relies on glutamate receptors to catch prey by transmitting corresponding stimuli electrically. A research team at the University of Würzburg has now explained the underlying molecular mechanism. To hunt flies and other small animals, the Venus flytrap has to be faster than its prey.

Life Sciences - 09.09.2022
What excites the Venus flytrap
What excites the Venus flytrap
The Venus flytrap relies on glutamate receptors to catch prey. It transmits the corresponding stimuli electrically. A research team at the University of Würzburg has now explained the mechanism behind this . To hunt flies and other small animals, the Venus flytrap must be faster than its prey. To do this, it has developed a catching organ that can snap shut in a fraction of a second and is controlled by one of the fastest stimulus lines in the plant kingdom.

Paleontology - Life Sciences - 08.09.2022
Previously unknown species of dinosaur identified in south-western Germany
Previously unknown species of dinosaur identified in south-western Germany
When they re-analyzed a skeleton that was discovered in Trossingen in 1922, consisting mainly of the rear of the body, Regalado Fernandez and Werneburg established that many of the bones were not the same as a typical Plateosaurus . For instance, the partial skeleton displayed, among other derived characters, broader and more strongly-built hips with fused sacral vertebrae as well as unusually large and robust long bones - both features implied locomotion on four legs.

Life Sciences - 08.09.2022
Modern humans generate more brain neurons than Neandertals
Modern humans generate more brain neurons than Neandertals
Due to the change of a single amino acid, brain evolution has proceeded differently While both Neandertals and modern humans develop brains of similar size, very little is known about whether modern human and Neandertal brains may have differed in terms of their neuron production during development.

Life Sciences - Social Sciences - 06.09.2022
What attitudes towards outgroups improves
A realistic assessment of our own social group can help improve our attitude towards other groups. This is shown by a new study by the University Hospital of Würzburg. We are us, and others are exactly that - other. The feeling of belonging to a particular group that is clearly different from other groups is probably a human trait that we all share.

Life Sciences - Agronomy / Food Science - 05.09.2022
Aphids and their favorite colors
Aphids and their favorite colors
Researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Kassel present new model for analyzing color vision in aphids Aphids are one of the least welcome garden visitors. These small insects can cause all the more damage in agriculture. But how do they actually choose their host plants? What are the basic mechanisms behind this? Researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Kassel now present two novel models that can be used to analyze aphid color vision and thus how the animals respond to plants.

Environment - Life Sciences - 05.09.2022
Toward Biodiverse Cities: Adopting Insect-Friendly Green Space Management in Urban Areas
Researchers from Freie Universität publish results of a new study in international journal Urban Forestry and Urban Greening A recent meta-analysis study carried out by researchers from Freie Universität Berlin has demonstrated that properly managing green spaces in cities can have a positive effect on the abundance and diversity of insects living there.

Life Sciences - Environment - 05.09.2022
How does nature nurture the brain?
How does nature nurture the brain?
Study shows that a one-hour walk in nature reduces stress-related brain activity After a 60-minute walk in nature, activity in brain regions involved in stress processing decreases. This is the finding of a recent study by the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, published in Molecular Psychiatry .

Life Sciences - Paleontology - 05.09.2022
What fossils reveal about hybridization of early humans
What fossils reveal about hybridization of early humans
Many people living today have a small component of Neanderthal DNA in their genes, suggesting an important role for admixture with archaic human lineages in the evolution of our species. Paleogenetic evidence indicates that hybridization with Neanderthals and other ancient groups occurred multiple times, with our species- history resembling more a network or braided stream than a tree.

Life Sciences - 02.09.2022
New clues about land plants' closest algal relatives
New clues about land plants’ closest algal relatives
Researchers including Göttingen University use genomic data to pinpoint emergences of multicellularity Land plants are an extremely diverse group and, in terms of structure, the most complex organisms that photosynthesize. Their closest algal relatives, the Zygnematophyceae , however, have a more humble body plan: they are simply unicells or just filaments.

Life Sciences - Health - 02.09.2022
From Wound Healing to Regeneration
From Wound Healing to Regeneration
Heidelberg scientists demonstrate how injuries are converted to regeneration signals at the molecular level The phenomenon of regeneration was discovered over 200 years ago in the freshwater polyp Hydra. Until now, however, it was largely unclear how the orderly regeneration of lost tissues or organs is activated after injury.

Life Sciences - 01.09.2022
New ant species
New ant species
An international team of scientists has discovered a previously unknown extinct ant species encased in a unique piece of amber from Africa. Using the X-ray light source PETRA III at the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg the researchers, from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the University of Rennes in France, the University of Gdansk in Poland, as well as the  Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon in Geesthacht, Germany, had examined the critical fossil remains from 13 individual animals in the amber and realised that they could not be attributed to any previously known species.

Life Sciences - Physics - 01.09.2022
New ant species
New ant species
An international team of scientists has discovered a previously unknown extinct ant species encased in a unique piece of amber from Africa. Using the X-ray light source PETRA III at the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg the researchers, from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the University of Rennes in France, the University of Gdansk in Poland, as well as the  Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon in Geesthacht, Germany, had examined the critical fossil remains from 13 individual animals in the amber and realised that they could not be attributed to any previously known species.

Life Sciences - 01.09.2022
Dragons and brain evolution
Dragons and brain evolution
A molecular atlas of an Australian dragon's brain sheds new light on over 300 million years of brain evolution These days, dragons are keeping Game of Thrones fans on their toes. But they are also providing important insights into vertebrate brain evolution, as revealed by the work of Max-Planck scientists on the brain of the Australian bearded dragon Pogona vitticeps .

Life Sciences - Health - 31.08.2022
Using nanopores to detect epigenetic changes faster
Using nanopores to detect epigenetic changes faster
A step towards optimizing medical diagnostics Changes known as epigenetic modifications play an important role in cancer development, among other things. Being able to analyze them quickly and reliably could, for example, contribute significantly to the further development of personalized therapy. A research team from the Institute of Physiology at the University of Freiburg has now succeeded in characterizing the chemical changes in proteins that are typical for epigenetic modifications using nanopore analysis.

Life Sciences - Environment - 31.08.2022
The sexuality of flowers is controlled by insect pests
Category: Research Flowers are plant's sexual structures that are normally assumed to have evolved in concert with their mutualistic pollinators, such as bees, butterflies and honeybirds. However, a new study involving the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in collaboration with partners in Brazil, Marburg and Zurich shows that herbivorous insects play a central role.

Life Sciences - Psychology - 30.08.2022
How value shapes the fluctuations of conscious perception
How value shapes the fluctuations of conscious perception
Although visual perception might seem as easy as just opening our eyes and reporting what is out there, the underlying computations are surprisingly complex. One of the more revealing ways to study these computations is by using inputs that are ambiguous or even impossible under normal circumstances (for instance with radically different pictures seen by the two eyes).

Life Sciences - 25.08.2022
Plants can measure the intensity of salt stress
Plants can measure the intensity of salt stress
Biologists at the University of Münster have produced the first description of a calcium signal-controlled switch mechanism for adaptation to varying levels of salt stress / Study published in "Developmental Cell" Unfavourable environmental conditions represent considerable stress for plants. A high level of salt content (sodium chloride, NaCl) in the soil is for example just such a stressor which has a negative impact on plants.

Health - Life Sciences - 24.08.2022
DNA guardians out of control
DNA guardians out of control
Researchers at the University of Bonn discover mechanism that leads to ANCA-associated vasculitis Our own immune system can become the enemy when mechanisms that are actually protective get out of control. In ANCA-associated vasculitis, excessive inflammatory reactions lead to pulmonary hemorrhages that can be fatal if left untreated.

Health - Life Sciences - 23.08.2022
New Players in the Immune Response
New Players in the Immune Response
Lymph nodes trigger very different immune responses - depending on which body tissue they are connected to. Special T cells are responsible for this newly discovered relation. The human body contains 600 to 800 lymph nodes, which are specialised organs that trigger immune responses. To be informed about infections in the body, lymph nodes are connected to the individual organs via lymph vessels.