New technological possibilities often raise new ethical questions. This currently applies to so-called genome editing, the precision intervention in the genome. The Max Planck Society has now made clear its position in a discussion paper on the new possibilities, which also separately evaluates the individual fields of application.

Scientists from Potsdam, Berlin and Grenoble were able to use ultra-fast 3D neutron imaging to visualize the transport of water in the soil and the subsequent absorption by the roots of lupines.

The world market leader for collagen proteins, the German company Gelita, and the pioneer on the market for animal-free collagen, the US biotech company Geltor, intend to jointly develop vegan collagen for the food and beverage market. The two companies have announced their intention to develop vegan collagen for the food and beverage market at a trade fair.

It has been known for several years that bacteria can degrade PET, which is mainly used for plastic bottles: Microorganisms such as Ideonella sakaiensis - discovered in 2016 on a partially decayed PET bottle in Japan - release an enzyme called PETase. This enzyme is able to break down the chain molecules of the plastic into its components. "This is of particular interest when it comes to the degradation of microparticles, for example microplastics," explains Daniel Moog, head of the junior research group at the Philipps University in Marburg.

The chemical industry is intensively researching ways to replace crude oil with renewable alternatives. Of particular interest here is the approach of using the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which is produced as exhaust gas in many processes. In this way, the climate could be protected at the same time as carbon could be fed into a sustainable circular economy. The newly launched "ElkaSyn" project is now investigating two approaches to making such processes more efficient and thus more economical.

That insect decline and species extinction are a fact has been shown by numerous national and international studies. Now German scientists are once again drawing attention to the loss of species with a large-scale biodiversity study. A research team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has come to the conclusion that the decline of insects in Germany is even more extensive than previously assumed. "Previous studies [...] either focused exclusively on biomass, i.e. the total weight of all insects, or on individual species or species groups.

In many countries of the world, rice is a staple food. Small farmers, especially in South Asia and Africa, live from the cultivation of this important crop. However, their livelihood and food security are threatened by the plant disease bacterial blight. This is caused by the pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). In India alone, the bacterium causes annual harvest losses worth around 3.6 billion dollars.

For many pollutants such as pesticides, the legislator has set threshold values. Below these limits, exposure is considered harmless. However, this does not seem to apply to many living organisms, including humans, as ecotoxicologists at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) have now been able to show.

Wood is a diverse raw material. It is used as a building material and fuel, for furniture construction, but also for the production of biofuel and sustainable chemicals. But climate change is putting forests under increasing pressure as a source of raw materials. Coniferous woods such as spruce in particular have suffered from drought and heat in recent years, which has severely decimated the tree population in some regions of Germany. Such supply bottlenecks are a concern for the wood processing industry.

Just last spring, the European Investment Bank (EIB) put together a 400 million euro loan package to motivate private investors to give greater support to innovation in the bioeconomy and agriculture across Europe.