The soil is teeming with microorganisms. Researching them is not easy because many of them cannot yet be cultivated in the laboratory. Therefore, researchers often record so-called metagenomes - the entirety of the genes of the microorganisms in a sample. More than 200,000 such metagenomes are available in public databases. But there is a problem: the data sets in them are not subject to a uniform standard, making it difficult to put the data to use.

Potatoes are an important staple in many countries. However, as a result of climate change, harvests are increasingly threatened by extreme weather conditions and pest infestation. Scientists at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences and Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, together with their industrial partners BIOCARE and field seed producer Freudenberger, want to pre-treat the potato seed so that the young plants are more resistant.

CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized molecular biology. The enzymatic system works like scissors that can cut DNA at a defined location to deactivate genes or insert new gene sequences. To make sure that CRISPR-Cas9 finds the right place to cut, it is combined with a target-specific so-called guide RNA. However, even this guide RNA makes a certain percentage of mistakes in finding the target.

Intensive livestock farming causes several environmental problems. One of them is related to the use of soybeans as animal feed. Their high energy and protein content makes them the feed of choice for many livestock species. However, rainforests are destroyed for their cultivation, transport from South America causes high CO2 emissions and, at least in large parts of Europe, most consumers dislike the fact that most soya fields are cultivated with genetically modified plants.

One valuable raw material that has so far mainly been burned is the biopolymer lignin. It is one of the major components of plants and a promising alternative to crude oil for the production of plastics. "Lignin is the largest source of naturally occurring aromatic compounds, but so far it has mainly been regarded as a by-product or fuel in the paper industry," says Mats Johansson of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Stockholm regretfully.

In the development of drugs, materials or processes, plant and animal life have time and again inspired scientists to innovate. For example, researchers used the swimming fern as a model to reduce the frictional resistance of ships by means of a new coating, and many have tried to duplicate the delicate but stable web of the spider. Now it is the grasshopper's feet that have inspired an interdisciplinary team at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität (CAU) Kiel to develop an adaptive frictional system.

In order to detect acute infection with the corona virus, thousands of tests based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are performed daily. With the help of this molecular copy method, the genetic material of the virus, which consists of the biomolecule ribonucleic acid (RNA), is detected in the swabs. The few virus RNA molecules are first transcribed into DNA and then amplified by the PCR in numerous copy cycles. Only then can the existence of the viral genetic material in the samples be determined. Experts refer to this as real-time RT-PCR.

Bioethanol is an alcohol produced from either cereals or sugar beets as well as from agricultural residues. In a bioethanol factory, there are large tanks in which yeasts ferment the sugar-containing biomass to ethanol. Bioethanol is added to petrol and is available as Super-E10 at petrol stations.

Satellite data have long since expanded their use beyond weather forecasting. They provide agricultural researchers with important information on soil properties or plant growth and are the basis for harvest forecasts. Data collected from orbit are also an important tool for marine researchers to observe algae growth. Up to now, satellites have been used to measure the amount of the plant pigment chlorophyll in the water and thus the concentration of algae.

Scientists have copied many a fine chemical from nature. Phenylglycine is also a substance produced by bacteria. However, there are two mirror-image forms of it - L-phenylglycine and D-phenylglycine. The former is the product of microorganisms, the latter is a medically highly interesting compound, which as yet can only be produced conventionally in a petrochemical process - until now.