Elephants & Butterflies

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.

Financial mathematician Peter Friz specializes in one of the most promising fields of mathematics: the theory of rough paths. Developed to a large extent in Berlin, this theory has the potential to make financial markets more stable. 

Philosopher Alva Noë believes that we perceive using our whole body. He brings together dancers and natural scientists to explore the transformative power of art, and contest neurocentric views of the mind.

Emotions inhabit an interstitial world. Julia Weber analyses experimental literature in order to explore their affective nuances which can help enrich our emotional spectrum

Our brain effortlessly distinguishes words from noise – but how does this work? Neuroscientist David McAlpine studies the neural basis of hearing.

Mathematician Gary Froyland uses observational data and models of dynamic systems to understand the evolution of complex processes.

Are nerve cells self-willed? To better understand their information processing, Susanne Schreiber develops mathematical models and tracks down their biophysics.

Cognitive neuroscientist Roberto Cabeza is tracking down memory in the brain, looking for the moment when new connections between stored information spark creativity.