New Six-Part Lecture Series ’Microbes and Environmental Chemistry: Invisible Actors of Planetary Change’ Starts October 14, 2021

The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing and Freie Universität Berlin invite you on a scientific voyage of discovery into the world of microorganisms. The interactions of microorganisms and other living organisms with our planet will be the focus of a public lecture series organized by the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing - BAM) together with Freie Universität Berlin. The six talks - which form part of the overarching "Science with Impact" lecture series to celebrate BAM's 150^th anniversary - will kick off on October 14, 2021, with a whole host of internationally renowned experts, offering unique insights from different disciplines. The lectures will be held in English and take place on Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. They can be viewed online free of charge and without prior registration. Although individual microorganisms are invisible to the naked eye, they fulfill extremely important functions for humans and the environment all over the world - from mountains and deserts to oceans and rivers. They influence the cycles of elements, substances, and energy, cause soils to produce food and plants to thrive. Even the landscape - the shape of the Earth's surface - is modulated by fascinating interactions between microbes, other organisms, the climate, and plate tectonics. The relationships between living things and the Earth increasingly face major challenges. For example, has the exponential increase in human-made pollution, such as plastic waste, changed the global microbiome?