Insights

Events, news, and features – discover the work of our researchers and the Foundation.

Enzymes drive reactions that enable life. Einstein Visiting Fellow Professor Wonwoo Nam is researching how metalloenzymes produce oxygen through photosynthesis and how they are used in the body for various vital reactions. This basic knowledge is crucial for the transition towards a green chemistry.

Illustration zum Zufall, mit Würfeln

Chance influences many processes in the real world, such as changes in daily temperatures. Tobias Hurth is working on the mathematical theory needed to make chance manageable.

Further insights

Illustration zur Entstehung liberaler Ideen

The certainties of Western liberalism are falling apart. Political scientist Andrew Hurrell analyzes how liberal ideas have evolved, and how they are contested today.

Illustration zu Stringtheorie und Klavierspiel

Valentina Forini studies the invisible. She uses string theory and mathematics to identify the smallest objects of nature and close the gaps in standard models of physics.

Illustration von Bewegungsmustern von Wassermolekülen

Chris Soulsby investigates isotopes to determine the age of water molecules in order to develop more sustainable resource management methods and climate resilient city planning.

Illustration zur Kommunikation von Nervenzellen

To understand how nerve cells communicate with each other, neurobiologist Benjamin Judkewitz is x-raying the brains of a virtually transparent species of fish.

Illustration zu Zellmutation

Cancer cells often manage to evade drug treatments. Systems biologist Chris Sander creates computational models to predict their game and develop effective therapies.

Illustration zu computergestützten Methoden für die Krebstherapie

Machine learning helps designing better drugs against cancer. Biophysicist John Chodera knows how: He uses computational tools to accelerate therapy discovery.

Illustration zu neuronalen Schaltkreise

Genes and the environment play an important role in the development of the human brain. Neuroscientist Zoltán Molnár studies a transient cell type that helps to build early neural circuits.

Portrait of Chris Sander

AskDifferent #20 – Chris Sander, Professor for Cell Biology from Harvard Medical School and one of the founders of bioinformatics, works to understand the "labyrinth" of cancer growth. The aim of his current research as an Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Berlin Institute of Health is to find out how to block the side doors through which aggressive cancer types manage to escape medical blockage during a treatment. Starting his career as a physicist, it took him some turns to get where he is today. His advice for young researchers: stick with science, look for mentors - and ask the right questions. Photo: Chris Sander/ Sanderlab.org

Portrait of Dorothy Bishop

AskDifferent #19 – Careful work and self-criticism is not rewarded enough in today's accelerated research culture, Dorothy Bishop thinks. A jury member of the 2021 Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research, the Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology at the University of Oxford advocates for evidence-driven, open science practices and a new incentive structure. In the interview, the experienced teacher and mentor shares her ideas how to increase public trust in science and encourages every scholar who encounters systemic problems to try and change them. Photo: Dorothy Bishop

Picture of Vittorio Gallese with two mirror images

AskDifferent #18 – As a social neuroscientist, Vittorio Gallese has a unique understanding of how we live together. Until recently, he headed a research group at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain focusing on the development of socio-cultural identities. Back in Italy, the Professor of Psychobiology from Università di Parma, who is widely known for his discovery of mirror neurons, continues to explore the cognitive structures of empathy and sympathy. An episode about the lockdown experience, the ambivalences of digital media, and the role of effort and coincidence in scientific breakthroughs. Photo: Florian Büttner

Portrait of Richard Samuels

AskDifferent #12 – For a special episode in the wake of the US presidential elections, we spoke with Richard Samuels, Director of the Center for International Studies at MIT, about American national identity and the current role of the United States on the geopolitical stage. Find out why, according to the former Einstein Visiting Fellow anarchy in international affairs is endlessly fascinating, and what he thinks it takes to be a “brave scholar”. Photo: Pablo Castagnola

AskDifferent #11 – Irene Sibbing-Plantholt is passionate about micro-history: the multiple, often relatable stories of everyday life in a past era. As an Assyriologist and research associate at the Einstein Center Chronoi, Sibbing-Plantholt examines textual and archeological findings from Ancient Mesopotamia, mostly letters inscribed on clay tablets, some of them around 5000 years old. When she went to Syria for an excavation in 2004, she got inspired to do further research on ancient concepts of lifetime and death.