Elephants & Butterflies

Physicist Cecilia Clementi uses statistical methods and AI to explain biological phenomena: for example, how the movement of atoms in proteins determines their function.

Photosynthesis is the most fundamental process of life. Microbiologist Robert Burnap is decoding its mechanisms to take them as a blueprint for artificial catalyst.

German studies scholar Michel Chaouli explores new forms of literary and art criticism that give space to individual experience and break with academic conventions.

Neuroscientist Panayiota Poirazi is creating neural computer models of dendrites to explore their role and train algorithms to learn like humans.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.