Elephants & Butterflies

Our choices depend on our options. Psychologist Eric Johnson looks at how the design of choices can push us towards decisions that are either good or bad for us. One of his aims is to improve labels that disclose information to motivate sustainable behavior.

Traffic doesn’t have to be chaotic. Mathematician Martin Skutella develops algorithms for faster and more efficient optimization of road traffic and other dynamic networks. This benefits both mathematics and transportation planning.

Biochemist Rudolf Zechner and his team have discovered an enzyme that is a key factor in the breakdown of lipid (triglycerides) in fat cells. In Berlin, he has taken on the task of deactivating this enzyme in order to fight cardiac insufficiency and heart failure.

Halogens important for a wide range of applications, but they can be highly toxic and harmful to the climate. Chemist Sebastian Hasenstab-Riedel tries to minimize their negative sides.

Scientists are much more than brains on sticks. They are as diverse as society. Sociologist Kathrin Zippel looks at how gender is dealt with in academia and how women are fenced off in global science networks.

Homo sapiens’ are far from being a purely rational. Psychologist Elke Weber investigates how calculations, emotions, and social reasons play into human decision making. She uses the findings to design the decision architectures needed to face pressing challenges like climate change.  

During an acute stroke, if untreated, hundreds of millions of brain cells die because the blood flow carrying vital energy is interrupted. Alastair Buchan wants to understand what happens to the cells on the edge of the stroke’s core – and find new ways to bring them back from the penumbra into the light. 

Liver failure is a death sentence. Ludovic Vallier harnesses the liver’s intrinsic potential to repair itself and rise again. He creates mini-livers in a dish to understand the organ’s regenerative mechanisms and find new cell-based therapies that can rebuild the liver from within. 

For decades, a cystic fibrosis diagnosis meant an early death. Marcus Mall has helped develop a treatment that uses three tiny molecules to repair structurally abnormal proteins, allowing affected patients to live longer. 

Global history challenges the certainties enshrined in national historiographies. Michael Goebel explores how migration, world trade, and other global phenomena coalesce to create injustice or spark political upheaval in cities. 

What does it do to people when they live through war? What makes them take to the streets? And how much does freedom mean to them? Gwendolyn Sasse analyzes what makes the societies of Eastern Europe tick.

Mitochondria are the cell’s powerhouses, but they can also drive cells to commit suicide. Neurologist Philipp Mergenthaler is looking for biochemical mechanisms that prevent cell death in stroke patients and people with rare mitochondrial diseases.