Some authors are able to craft stories that come to life in the imagination of their readers. In fact, most books are literally alive, because their pages contain microorganisms. Researchers from the Leipzig University Library, the TU Braunschweig and the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ) now want to look at and study these microbes as "genuine components of the culture material".

It is at least 3,500 years old and yet so far no one knew its parents: the saffron crocus has been cultivated for a long time, especially in the Mediterranean region and in Asia. Its flower threads are the source of the valuable spice saffron, which can compete with gold at a price of up to 30,000 euros per kilo. The saffron crocus has also been appreciated for centuries as a medicinal plant and coloring agent. Despite its value, the plant has never been improved by breeding in all these years.

Many car owners hate scratches in the paint of their cars. After all, even harmless scratches abruptly reduce the value of the car, especially when it is a luxury car. Together with Saarland University, researchers from the Leibniz Institute for New Materials (INM) in Saarbrücken have a solution: they have developed a new type of coating that removes small imperfections in no time at all - all by itself.

“Anam­mox, a glob­ally im­port­ant mi­cro­bial pro­cess of the ni­tro­gen cycle rel­ev­ant for the earth’s cli­mate, does not work the way we as­sumed it did.” With these words, Boran Kartal from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen sums up a surprising discovery by the microbiologists: Together with colleagues, the Bremen researchers have for the first time discovered an anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (short: "Anammox") bacterium that uses nitric oxide ("NO") to grow.

Many people like giving to others - and not without reason. Scientists found that unselfish giving activates happiness hormones in the brain. Researchers from the Department of Marketing for Food and Agricultural Products at the University of Göttingen have investigated the extent to which the intention to do good for others also plays a role in purchasing.

Hormones from the contraceptive pill turn male frogs into females, antibiotic residues promote the development of resistant bacteria: Numerous chemical compounds, in particular residues from pharmaceuticals, industry and agriculture, cause ecological problems when they enter the environment by way of water. This can can also have health consequences for humans. A new approach aims to make it easier to remove these so-called xenobiotics from wastewater in sewage treatment plants.

Dirt or food - that is probably a question of perspective. Fats, proteins, carbohydrates and also urea - the substances that make up a large part of the dirt in kitchens and bathrooms - serve bacteria as food. Some manufacturers of cleaning products have recently started advertising that their products contain bacteria that are supposed to improve the cleaning effect. Microbiologists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now explained that this is not plausible for several reasons.

They are tiny and at home in many freshwaters: water fleas. The so-called daphnia are unique in that they react very sensitively to pollutants in the water. Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have therefore used these small crustaceans as a yardstick to investigate the pollution of freshwater ecosystems.