news 2024

International research team finds that islands are home to around one in three of world's plant species From Tasmania to Madagascar to New Guinea, islands make up just over five per cent of Earth's land. Yet, a study led by Macquarie University, Australia, and Göttingen University, Germany, reveals that islands are home to over 31 per cent of the world's plant species.

The changes scientists expect in the climate could cause the toxic metals naturally occurring in soils to become more mobile, destabilize ecosystems and increasingly enter the human food chain via agriculture. Such scenarios are particularly likely to occur in slightly acidic soils, which make up around two thirds of all soils.

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications examines the use of ochre in southern Africa and shows that the earth mineral has been used there as a dye and for ritual purposes for almost 50,000 years. The researchers analyzed 173 samples from 15 Stone Age sites and reconstructed methods of ochre extraction, the use of ochre, and transportation networks, considering local strategies and long-distance exchange.

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications examines the use of ochre in southern Africa and shows that the earth mineral has been used there as a dye and for ritual purposes for almost 50,000 years. The researchers analyzed 173 samples from 15 Stone Age sites and reconstructed methods of ochre extraction, use and transport networks, with local strategies and long-distance trade playing a role.

Researchers from Bonn uncover how tiny eye movements and the density of our photoreceptors aid in sharp vision Our ability to see starts with the light-sensitive photoreceptor cells in our eyes. A specific region of the retina, termed fovea, is responsible for sharp vision. Here, the color-sensitive cone photoreceptors allow us to detect even the smallest details.

Small bats fly home using environmental features with distinctive acoustic cues as landmarks Echolocating bats have been found to possess an acoustic cognitive map of their home range, enabling them to navigate over kilometer-scale distances using echolocation alone. This finding was demonstrated by researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, the Cluster of Excellence Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour at the University of Konstanz Germany, Tel Aviv University, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Head and neck cancers are among the ten most common cancers worldwide. Head and neck tumors account for about three to five percent of all cancers, with squamous cell carcinomas being the predominant form. They occur in areas such as the oral cavity, pharynx and larynx. An international team of researchers led by Sara Wickström has now developed a new technique that allows the properties of cancer cells and their surrounding tissue to be analyzed in detail at the single-cell level.

Mushrooms come in a breathtaking variety of shapes, colors and sizes. Especially in autumn, mushroom hunters swarm into the forests to find the tastiest of them, prepare them in a variety of ways and eat them with relish. However, it is well known that there are also poisonous mushrooms among them, and it is vital to distinguish between them.

Analysis of nitrogen isotopes provides evidence of the earliest known photosymbiosis in corals of the Devonian A research team led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz has used nitrogen isotope analysis to demonstrate that 385 million years old corals of the Devonian from the Eifel and Sauerland regions had symbionts.

The mid-embryonic developmental stages are strikingly similar in animals, plants and algae Recent observations in brown algae from researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen and the University of Dundee reveal the same hourglass pattern during embryogenesis as animals and plants. The -hourglass modelof development in multicellular organisms suggests that embryos of the same phylum display differences morphologically and molecularly at the earliest and latest stages but resemble one another at the mid-embryonic period.

Citizen scientists enable Göttingen researchers to analyse effectiveness of protected areas   Member states of the European Union are obliged to designate Special Protection Areas (SPAs) as part of the Natura 2000 network. These areas are designed to guarantee the preservation and restoration of bird populations.

Research team at the University of Münster synthesizes three-dimensional ring structures as a possible alternative to biologically active flat rings Their shape is reminiscent of a cage, and this three-dimensional structure makes them significantly more stable than related flat molecules. Ring-shaped "cage molecules" are therefore a possible alternative to conventional molecular rings from the group of aromatic compounds and are of interest for drug development.

News from Researchers at Leipzig University have examined the complex relationships between obesity, social isolation and mental health in the German adult population. Their findings show that socially isolated obese people are at increased risk of mental illness. Particularly at risk are the elderly, the widowed and men of lower socio-economic status.

Researchers from the University of Bonn have trained an AI process to predict potential active ingredients with special properties. Therefore, they derived a chemical language model - a kind of ChatGPT for molecules. Following a training phase, the AI was able to exactly reproduce the chemical structures of compounds with known dual-target activity that may be particularly effective medications.

The Roman-era temple of Esna, 60 kilometers south of Luxor in Egypt, is undergoing extensive restoration work in an Egyptian-German cooperation project.

One way the -male hormonetestosterone works is by binding to the androgen receptor. Researchers at the Technical University Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence have succeeded in breeding chickens without the androgen receptor for the first time. This allowed them to study how androgen signaling affects development and appearance: animals of both sexes are infertile.

Plants adapt their water consumption to environmental conditions by counting and calculating environmental stimuli with their guard cells. Plant researchers from Würzburg report this in 'Current Biology'. Plants control their water consumption via adjustable pores (stomata), which are formed from pairs of guard cells.

New imaging data reveal that the follicle expands, contracts, and finally releases the egg Approximately 400 times in a woman's life, a mature egg makes the -leap. It is released into the fallopian tube, ready for fertilization by the sperm. Researchers led by Melina Schuh, Christopher Thomas, and Tabea Lilian Marx from the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences have now succeeded in visualizing the entire process of ovulation in mouse follicles in real-time.

Recently, there have been major breakthroughs in X-ray fluorescence imaging for biomedical applications. In cooperation with Audi Hungaria, Hungary, a University of Hamburg team will expand the innovative method to include questions in nondestructive materials testing-another example of research-driven technology exchange.

Psychopathic people have great difficulty or are even unable to show empathy and regulate their emotions. According to a new study by Matthias Burghart, a Max Planck researcher in Freiburg, this could be because these people suffer from alexithymia, also known as emotional blindness. The term alexithymia is an amalgam of the Greek prefix a- (without) and the words lexis (reading) and thymos (emotion).