Jean-Baptiste Lamarck would have been delighted: geneticists no longer dismiss out of hand his belief that acquired traits can be passed on to offspring. When Darwin published his book on evolution, Lamarck's ...

Biology - Evolution

Sep 20, 2011 5 / 5 (4) 2 |

Cocaine is one of the most commonly used (and abused) drugs, but we have almost no modern information on how plants produce this complex alkaloid. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Jun 06, 2012 5 / 5 (2) 9 |

The speed at which the calcium concentration in the cell changes controls the swimming behavior of sperm. They can calculate the calcium dynamics and react accordingly.

Biology - Plants & Animals

Mar 07, 2012 4 / 5 (1) 1 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new mechanism will make it possible to switch data storage in the future. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle use a short electric pulse to change ...

Physics - Condensed Matter

Mar 01, 2012 5 / 5 (2) 0 |

(Phys.org) -- As the interface between the cell and its environment, the cell membrane, which consists of fats and proteins, fulfils a variety of vital functions. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

May 05, 2012 4.6 / 5 (14) 3 |

Many crop plants worldwide are attacked by a group of fungi that numbers more than 680 different species. After initial invasion, they first grow stealthily inside living plant cells, but then switch to a highly destructive ...

Biology - Biotechnology

Aug 12, 2012 not rated yet 0 |

(Phys.org) -- The interior motions of the Sun are much slower than predicted. Rather than moving at the speed of a jet plane (as previously understood) the plasma flows at a walking pace. The result of this ...

Space & Earth - Space Exploration

Jul 20, 2012 4.9 / 5 (15) 29 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Damaged human heart muscle cannot be regenerated. Scar tissue grows in place of the damaged muscle cells. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim ...

Chemistry - Biochemistry

Jan 30, 2012 not rated yet 0 |

Pulsars are the compact remnants from explosions of massive stars. Some of them spin around their own axis hundreds of times per second, emitting beams of radiation into space. Until now, they could only ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Oct 25, 2012 5 / 5 (7) 0 |

(Phys.org)—What sounds like science fiction is actually reality: using the 30m-telescope of the Institute for Radio Astronomy for astronomical observations in the millimetre range of wavelengths, astronomers ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Nov 26, 2012 5 / 5 (9) 12 |

Nuclear fusion is a virtually inexhaustible source of energy, and for decades now scientists have been working on exploiting it. A process that continues to present difficulties in laboratories on Earth has ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Nov 03, 2011 5 / 5 (4) 4

Human beings have the ability to convert complex phenomena into a one-dimensional sequence of letters and put it down in writing. In this process, keywords serve to convey the content of the text. How letters ...

Other Sciences - Mathematics

Jul 17, 2012 5 / 5 (2) 0 |

There is now one less mystery in chemical production plants. For many decades industry has been producing methanol on a large scale from a mixture of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as hydrogen. ...

Chemistry - Materials Science

Apr 26, 2012 5 / 5 (1) 0 |

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany, are now using a procedure which brings forward ecological research on insects: They study gene functions in moth larvae by manipulating ...

Biology - Biotechnology

Feb 02, 2012 5 / 5 (2) 1 |

The eye is not just a lens that takes pictures and converts them into electrical signals. As with all vertebrates, nerve cells in the human eye separate an image into different image channels once it has been ...

Medicine & Health - Neuroscience

Nov 10, 2010 5 / 5 (7) 0 |