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The number of working mothers in Germany has been rising for years, however, they find themselves constantly balancing between work and family. Research shows that being employed has a positive effect on a person's health and well-being. However, no research has examined how employment affects the well-being and health of single mothers and cohabiting mothers.

A messenger molecule keeps dendritic cells together on their patrol through the tissue Dendritic cells can be used to predict the course of cancer: the more of them there are in a tumor, the better the prospects for the patient. The cells of the immune system circulate primarily in the blood and migrate into the body's tissues after inflammation.

American mink regrow their brains in a rare reversal of the domestication process Farm animals look different from their wild counterparts in many ways, and one difference is consistent: their brains are smaller than those of their ancestors. From sheep to pigs to cows, domesticated animals have smaller relative brain sizes compared to their wild counterparts - a phenomenon known as the domestication effect.

When stars, similar to the sun, have reached the end of their lifetime, they inflate into red giant stars. The sun, for example, would then have a diameter hundreds of times larger than today. Whether the Earth will survive this final stage of its home star is uncertain. The planet called Halla around a sun-like star near Polaris, however, was lucky.

Once a year, a small forest in Zambia becomes the site of one of the world's greatest natural spectacles. In November, straw-colored fruit bats migrate from across the African continent to a patch of trees in Kasanka National Park. For reasons not yet known, the bats converge for three months in a small area of the park, forming the largest colony of bats anywhere in Africa.

Precise as a clock: pulsars in the Milky Way form large-scale observatory for gravitational waves Astronomical observatories are usually based on Earth and study the extreme processes in the universe by capturing light as an information carrier. But not all processes in the universe produce light. For example, when galaxies merge and black holes orbit each other, they cause ripples in space-time.

Hyenas inherit power from their mothers, but they have to pay dearly for this privilege In many societies, power is inherited. As on a ladder, an individual can rise to the top of the hierarchy - whether through diplomacy, force, or the passage of time. In a hyena clan, however, inherited power is a demotion.

Researchers used Linkedin data to track where professionals want to move within the EU For professionals looking for a new job, Eastern European countries have not been very attractive so far. That's the finding of a study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany, together with a Dutch colleague.

Birds show remarkably similar sleep patterns to humans and may experience flight in their dreams Dreams have been considered a hallmark of human sleep for a long time. Latest findings, however, suggest that when pigeons sleep, they might experience visions of flight. Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum and at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence studied brain activation patterns in sleeping pigeons, using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Researchers have shown that defective myelin actively promotes disease-related changes in Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease, an irreversible form of dementia, is considered the world's most common neurodegenerative disease. The prime risk factor for Alzheimer's is age, although it remains unclear why.

Archaea cultivated in the laboratory are active even at high temperatures and without oxygen The seafloor is home to around one-third of all the microorganisms on the Earth and is inhabited even at a depth of several kilometers. Only when it becomes too hot does the abundance of microorganisms appear to decline.

Children choose a "mystery box" more often than apes, but after a glimpse of a larger reward from the uncertain option, great apes show more curiosity Humans are curious creatures. We are motivated to explore and investigate mysterious or unknown objects, but do other great apes share this innate curiosity?

If other visual cues are missing, ants build higher nest hills to facilitate homing of foraging nest mates Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology report that in the absence of visible landmarks, desert ants increase the likelihood that foraging nest mates will find their way home quickly and safely by elevating their nest entrance.

Resarchers have found new possibilities for targeting cancer genes' RNA with nature-inspired compounds The cancer gene MYC drives unrestrained growth of most human cancers. It has been called the "Mount Everest" of cancer research because of the difficulty of designing medications that can disable it, and the expectation that an effective MYC drug could help so many cancer patients.

Researchers make visible how a nanomachine takes care of cleaning up in the cell To keep our body's cells from overflowing with waste and to keep them healthy, the waste inside them is constantly being disposed of. This cleaning process is called autophagy. Scientists have now, for the first time, recreated in the laboratory the complex nanomachine that starts this process and found that it works quite differently from other cellular machines.

At certain times in the year, more soot particles reach the Amazon rainforest from bush fires in Africa than from regional fires. Up to two-thirds of the soot above the central Amazon rainforest originates in Africa. These are the results of a study that has now been published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment.

New synthetic metabolic pathways for fixation of carbon dioxide could not only help to reduce the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, but also replace conventional chemical manufacturing processes for pharmaceuticals and active ingredients with carbon-neutral, biological processes. A new study demonstrates a process that can turn carbon dioxide into a valuable material for the biochemical industry via formic acid.

More soot particles reach the central Amazon rainforest from brush fires in Africa than from regional fires at some times. Up to two-thirds of the soot over the central Amazon rainforest originates in Africa. This is the result of a study now published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment.

A study in Sweden shows: Many elderly people need intensive care in the year before they die Dying is often associated with extensive health and elderly care. A recent study by Marcus Ebeling from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and colleagues in Swenden came to this conclusion through a new way of analyzing data from the Swedish registry of the entire population.

Researchers discover that many animals have the genes to make these plant sterols Phytosterols are good for your health, but humans and other animals are not able to make them themselves. To acquire phytosterols, humans are increasingly turning to supplements, green smoothies, or a Mediterranean diet with plenty of plant-based foods.