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The interaction between high-intensity, ultrashort laser pulses and solids has opened up significant technological opportunities in recent years. Laser ablation, for example, allows high-precision materials processing, thereby facilitating the miniaturization of components in medical and telecommunications technologies.

A European research team has developed a novel spectroscopic method that can be used to observe ultrafast dynamic processes of electrons and vibrations within molecules - with atomic resolution and in real time. A team from the University of Jena supported the experimental team in Barcelona in the theoretical description of the processes.

Around 550 million years ago, the Earth's surface was a barren land mass surrounded by oceans. Almost all lifeforms that had evolved up to that point existed exclusively in the oceans. Then, however, the first plants made their way onto land-not only making the Earth greener but also fundamentally transforming the atmosphere, the climate and overall conditions of life on our planet.

In Europe, 1.55 million people die every year due to a poor diet. This is the conclusion of a recent study by Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Economics (INL) and the nutriCARD Competence Cluster. The researchers analysed the importance of nutrition for cardiovascular-related deaths in the period between 1990 and 2019, and have published their findings in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

Environmental changes influence microbial communities, which are crucial for the health of the earth and humans. For instance, altered eating habits with heavily processed foods can lead to disrupted gut flora, or intensive agricultural practices can disturb the carbon cycle in the soil, respectively.

Peptides are organic compounds that play a crucial role in many biological processes, for example, as enzymes. A research team led by Dr Serge Krasnokutski from the Astrophysics Laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy at the University of Jena had already demonstrated that simple peptides can form on cosmic dust particles.

An international research team has investigated the biosynthesis of psilocybin, the main ingredient of hallucinogenic mushrooms. They gained new insights into the structure and reaction mechanism of the enzyme PsiM. It plays a key role in the production of psilocybin. The results of the study were published in the journal "Nature Communications".

The climate crisis, farmers' protests, the rise of right-wing parties, ongoing disputes in government, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East: the crisis is becoming a permanent feature of politics and society. In view of the enormous challenges, does a socio-ecological transformation even stand a chance? The BMBF junior research group "Mentalities in flux" (flumen) at Friedrich Schiller University Jena investigated this question.

Viruses need hosts. Whether it's measles, the flu or coronavirus, viral pathogens cannot multiply or infect other organisms without the assistance of their hosts' cellular infrastructure. However, humans are not the only ones affected by viruses: animals, plants and even microorganisms can all serve as hosts.

Microscopic algae play a significant role in binding carbon dioxide and are therefore of great ecological importance. In nature, microalgae have coexisted with bacteria for many millions of years. Bacteria can either harm algae or promote their growth. A research team at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany has now found a bacterium that forms a team with a green alga.

Candida albicans is a fungus that occurs naturally in the digestive tract of most people. However, the fungus is not always harmless. It can cause mild to severe infections throughout the body. A toxin, Candidalysin, is involved in these infections. It appears to be of central importance in vaginal infections in particular.

The toxin Candidalysin of the yeast Candida albicans is incorporated into an unusual protein structure during an infection, the composition of which has so far been a mystery to scientists. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) have now succeeded in deciphering the function of this unusual arrangement.

Ribosomes, the "translation factories" of the cell, are cellular organelles that play a central role in protein synthesis, a vital process for all living organisms. These tiny structures themselves consist of ribonucleic acid (RNA) and proteins and are essential for the survival and normal functioning of the cell, as the proteins they produce are required for nearly all cellular processes, including structure, function, and regulation.

A diet based on resistant starch promotes a favorable composition of the gut microbiome in obese people. This leads to weight reduction and measurable positive health outcomes such as improved insulin sensitivity. These were the findings of an international research team led by Professor Weiping Jia from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Professor Aimin Xu from the University of Hong Kong and Professor Gianni Panagiotou from Friedrich Schiller University Jena.

In Western Europe, the number of children and adolescents who do not identify with their sex assessed at birth and who therefore seek help is rapidly increasing. A recently published updated systematic review evaluates the current evidence on the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex-hormones in minors with gender dysphoria as insufficient, and therefore emphasizes the particular importance of psychological and psychotherapeutic interventions for this vulnerable group.

Fish are changing how they search for and consume prey in warmer waters, with models suggesting extinctions become more likely due to this behaviour change, according to a new study published in "Nature Climate Change" . Led by researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the researchers found that fish in the Baltic Sea respond to temperature increases by consuming the first prey they encounter.

Felix H. Schacher, Dr Purushottam Poudel, Dr Sarah Walden & Isabelle Staude (l.t.r. Combining Two Established Systems to Create Something New "Both meta-surfaces and light-switchable polymers have been known in principle for decades," explains Sarah Walden from the Institute of Solid State Physics, who now leads a research group in Australia.

The tendency of communities and the species within them to become more similar or more distinct across landscapes - biotic homogenisation and differentiation - are approximately balanced, according to a new study published in ,,Science Advances". Led by researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the researchers analysed 527 datasets collected from ecosystems like grasslands, shrublands, and coral reefs as far back as 500 years ago.

Klebsiella pneumoniae is one of the most common and most dangerous bacterial pathogens impacting humans, causing infections of the gastrointestinal tract, pneumonia, wound infections and even blood poisoning. With the aim of discovering therapeutically exploitable weaknesses in Klebsiella, a research team from the Balance of the Microverse Cluster of Excellence at the University of Jena has taken a close look at the molecular biology of the bacteria and was able to uncover the importance of a small, non-coding ribonucleic acid (sRNA for short) for the gene regulation of K. pneumoniae.

GPT-3, the language model behind the well-known AI system ChatGPT, can also be utilised in chemistry to solve various scientific tasks. This was demonstrated by a team of researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and the Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications (HIPOLE) Jena.