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Dr. Tsanko Gechev, scientific manager of CropStrengthen, in the greenhouse. Photo: Thomas Hölzel.

The Genome Analysts – New Methods in Plant Breeding

How large can fruits get? How resistant are they to disease? How long can they survive during a drought? The information for all these traits is …

Ancient Languages and the Benefits of Slowness – Classical Philologist Ursula Gärtner

Ursula Gärtner gets carried away when talking about Catullus’ love poems – and her passion is contagious. She talks about how the Roman poet’s use of …
The skeleton of Richard III. Photo: University of Leicester.

The True Richard III – How Professor Michael Hofreiter decodes the DNA of the English King

No, Richard III did not have a hunchback; Lars Eidinger is exaggerating. When the actor prepares for his role as king of England at Berlin’s …
Test setup of XPRAG. Photo: Choonkyu Lee.

I Spy with My Little Eye… – Linguists research how information is processed in the brain when we change our perspective

“I might speak differently to you than I would speak to someone else,” Isabell Wartenburger says. This is how the Professor of …
Walking back to the base camp after a long day of measuring. Photo: Stephan Schennen.

Thaw in the Permafrost – Will the Siberian tundra become a source of carbon emissions?

The permafrost soils of the Arctic are the cold stores of the North. What they shut in over thousands of years is kept safe: plant remains, animal …
Mormyrids in an experimental aquarium. Picture: Karla Fritze

The Electric Code for a Partner – Mormyrids rely on electrical signals to choose partner

How do new species develop? This question has plagued researchers for centuries and remains one of the most topical questions in evolutionary and …
Frank Bösch, Professor of German and European 20th Century History at the University of Potsdam and Director of the Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF). Picture: Karla Fritze

A Direct Detour – What contemporary historian Frank Bösch brought to Potsdam

Frank Bösch’s office is spacious—and necessarily so. A shelf covering a whole wall is filled with countless folders. Books jockey for attention in …
Water flea Daphnia magna. Picture: Christina Schirmer

Eat or Be Eaten – The interplay of biodiversity and ecological dynamics

Biodiversity is rapidly declining worldwide. The reasons are commonly known: climate change, overuse, land-use changes, and pollution. Ecological …
Alexander Kranz, Paul Fröhlich, and Sebastian Szelat (from left to right) are studying the duty diaries. Picture: Karla Fritze

The Forgotten Duty Journals – Historian Prof. Bernhard Kroener and his team are working on an annotated edition of National Socialist duty journals.

A few years ago Prof. Bernhard Kroener of the Institute of History at the University of Potsdam made a very interesting discovery. While doing …
Potsdam biologists are researching the connection between biodiversity and root herbivores on agricultural areas. Photo: Hans Pfestorf.

A Glance Underground – Florian Jeltsch and his team research the connection between biodiversity and root herbivores

What determines the biodiversity of grasslands? Florian Jeltsch and his team have been examining this question for quite some time now. They are …