Some microorganisms from the early days of life on earth have a defence mechanism against radioactive heavy metals. Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have now described this mechanism for the first time and recommend that it be considered in the safety assessment of possible repositories for high-level radioactive waste.

Worldwide, an estimated 100,000 animal species produce toxins. Some serve to protect against predators, others to hunt prey. What many poisons have in common is that they can have the opposite effect in small doses: Important antihypertensives, anticoagulants and pain killers are based on animal toxins, and a toxin of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis is making waves as a biological insecticide. Unlike snakes or spiders, little is known about the toxins of predatory flies.

In agriculture, mineral fertilizers play an important role in supplying plants with nutrients. But these fertilizers are problematic as both their energy-intensive production and import are harmful to the climate. In addition, the reserves that can be economically exploited are limited and will probably be exhausted within a few decades. Biobased fertilizers are therefore becoming increasingly important - but they too can have their problems.

Most people are familiar with the feeling of relaxation and recuperation when spending time in a natural setting. Scientists at the University of Heidelberg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now investigated how green spaces affect well-being and what goes on in the brain.

Strenzfelder, Lacaune or Lizagarotte - in Europe there are about 5,000 landraces of maize. They were developed during the 400 years of cultivation without systematic breeding. But for about 50 years, they have existed almost exclusively in gene banks, and elite breeding lines have taken their place. While the latter have been optimized for yield and quality, the land races have other strengths: they are more robust because they are well adapted to different environmental conditions.

When scientists talk about greenhouse gases, they convert their effect into CO2 equivalents. In addition to the known carbon dioxide, there are a number of other gases that heat up the climate. Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is a gas that is around 300 times more harmful to the climate than CO2. Geoscientists at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen have now identified a previously unknown source of this greenhouse gas.

The population of large freshwater animals - weighing at least 30 kilograms - declined by 88 percent between 1970 and 2012. This is the alarming result of a large-scale study conducted by researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries.

As people age, so does their genetic material. One of these aging mechanisms is methylation, in which small molecules, so-called methyl groups, are attached to the DNA. These methylations often have a regulatory function and are reversible. However, the overall extent of methylation increases over the course of a lifetime. In the "DrugTarget" project, Fraunhofer researchers have now developed a method for determining a person's age on the basis of methylations.

Around one million animal and plant species are currently in danger of extinction, the World Biodiversity Council warned a few weeks ago in its latest report. Only 1.75 million species are known to date. Seed banks conserve the seeds of many plant species in order to preserve plant diversity and, last but not least, preserve the genetic potential, for example for pharmaceutical research. However, the stocks are only of value if they are still viable. Plant researchers at the University of Osnabrück have now developed a simple rapid test for this purpose.