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Two levels of fluvial terraces overgrown with vegetation. Today’s riverbed lies a few meters lower than during the time the fluvial terraces were formed. Picture: Taylor Schildgen

On Precipices – Landscape Response to Climate Change

Landscapes change over hundreds of thousands, even millions of years. Tectonic events and erosion create mountain ranges and remove them again. The …
“In the past the only possibility to interfere into local politics was to go the polls,” Franzke says. Voter turnout, however, has been continuously decreasing for years now, the researcher point. Picture: Christian Schwier/Fotolia

“Not Without Us!” – New forms of participatory democracy enrich local policy

Water cannons roll, batons are swung, tear gas is in the air. The Stuttgart Palace Gardens have changed into a place of violence, chaos, rage and …
Hönicke has gathered more than 2,500 ticks over the past three years. Picture: Daniel Rolke

Field Research – The influence of environmental parameters on the infection risk of Lyme disease

They aren’t only bloodsuckers. Ticks can also be dangerous, transmitting serious diseases like Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE). The …
Various legal fields - be they criminal, competition, anti-trust, or intellectual property law - fall under the purview of media law. Picture: Sören Stache

New Legal Territory — Legal scholars analyze media-related issues

Her private life has often been disseminated in tabloids, but Caroline von Monaco—Caroline, Princess of Hanover since 1999—has consistently taken …
Stefanie Krüger and Professor Taubert in the lab. Picture: Karla Fritze

SpiderMAEN – Prof. Andreas Taubert and his team of chemists “spin the silk” from gene to material

SpiderMAEN is the current project of Prof. Andreas Taubert – alluding to the well-known comic superhero. The professor and his research group are not …
Their work also turned out to be real field research. After taking a propeller plane from Kathmandu to Dhangadhi, the researchers had to cover 500 km through Nepal’s lowlands and midlands – in a jeep. Picture: Bastian Jantz

A Day’s March to the Midwife – Administrative experts monitor new approach in Nepal’s healthcare system

Scientists from the University of Potsdam recently visited Nepal to monitor the impact of a government program to foster the decentralization of …
An illustration from the book "Kreuz und Quer durch die indische Welt" by John Hagenbeck

RAMPAGE – Professor Heiko Christians puts a current topic in perspective

They are acts of violence triggering exceptional horror and disbelief – shooting rampages often claim many lives. Most victims happen to be in the …
In the “molecule soup” of cells, it is “like on a train platform after a football match. They all bump into each other,” the physicist says. Picture: Adrian Elcock

“Like on a Train Platform after a Football Match” – Researching the inside of cells with statistical mechanics

Beginning where others stop and describing the indescribable indefinable are Ralf Metzler’s passions. Statistical mechanics is his hobbyhorse. The …
Since 2005 researchers have been continuously examining the development of children and adolescents in the PIER study. Picture: Karla Fritze

The Risk Inside – Psychologists examine which traits promote critical development.

The first data was collected in 2005. By now about 3,000 children and adolescents have participated in the PIER (Potsdamer intrapersonale …
A Deceptive Idyll: Zanzibar is struggling with environmental problems. Photo: Birgit Zipf

No More Plastic Bags – Earth and environmental scientists from the University of Potsdam are working with Zanzibar

Torsten Lipp, a geo-ecologist, wasn’t on a holiday trip; he was conducting scientific work on a fact-finding mission in Zanzibar. He worked for one …