Amphibians such as frogs play an important part for the ecological equilibrium. On the one hand they serve as a food source for many birds and mammals, on the other hand they also consume a large amount of insects themselves, and are thus invaluable to keep pests at bay. In Germany and Europe more and more frog legs are being sold as delicacies. However, if the rising demand is met by catching wild frogs instead of breeding them under sustainable conditions, the balance of the ecosystem will be destroyed.

Despite great advances in technologies, precise weather forecasts are still very difficult to make. Thus, many researchers rely on computer models. However, these models are built upon specific data sets, which are difficult to come by. In particular agriculture requires exact forecasts and is largely negatively affected by the ongoing climate change.

The CRISPR-Cas system is a revolutionary and unique genome editing tool. It is the basis for countless new molecular research projects. And especially the applied research in the biotechnology sector is benefiting from the new approach – which is why it is being hailed as a remarkable breakthrough worldwide. There are currently a number of global projects underway that are investigating how best to apply the genome editing tool – medical researchers and plant breeding programs alike are testing and applying the new method.

April 22 has been dubbed “Earth Day” since 1970, when millions of Americans first demonstrated for a healthy and sustainable environment. Since then the movement has only grown and taken on major issues such as global warming and clean energy.

The top coat of cars has to fulfil many requirements – it has to be scratch resistant, protect against sunlight and inclement weather, and also has to give the car a glossy appearance. Now, for the first time, a clearcoat containing a bio-based hardener was applied to test bodies of the Audi Q2 under near-series conditions at the Audi plant in Ingolstadt, Germany. A project team consisting of members from Audi, BASF’s Coatings division, and the materials company Covestro achieved this milestone.

Molecular structures are the building blocks of every organism. But because of their minute size, they are extremely difficult to visualize. A team of Dortmund-based researchers headed by Leif Dehmelt at the Technical University and Yaowen Yu at the Chemical Genomics Center of the Max Planck Society developed a new method to depict the inner workings of a cell.

Half of the total global carbon dioxide stock is stored within the tropical vegetation, which only serves to worsen the consequences of tropical deforestation. Every year approximately 1,000 million metric tons of carbon dioxide are released due to deforestation. However, instead of complete forest removal, oftentimes the forests are fragmented into many smaller forest-areas.

The genome-editing tool CRISPR-Cas is one of the most groundbreaking developments for the field of molecular biotechnology throughout the last decades. Researchers worldwide are free to use this tool. However, the economical use is another matter: companies have to acquire licences from the institutes that patented the innovation.

Amsilk GmbH is the world’s first industrial supplier of synthetic silk biopolymers and aims to make the new uber-material available for use in medical or technical products as well as cosmetics. The Martinsried-based start-up engineered bacteria to produce the spider silk polymer. Those microbes are now producing the coveted proteins in large quantities. Using this white protein powder the bioengineers even manage to produce synthetic fibres.