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How has biodiversity changed in recent decades? What are the causes and how can the loss of biodiversity be stopped? In the first global report on biodiversity, the World Biodiversity Council (IPBES) provides answers. The 1,500-page Global Assessment was presented to the public on 6 May in Paris – the most comprehensive report on this topic ever completed. 145 lead authors from 51 countries, including seven scientists from Germany, were involved.

"Here in Heidelberg it has become very clear: We can do this. We have gained new insights and partners and forged new alliances.

In recent years, CRISPR-Cas9 technology and genome editing have opened up the possibility of modifying genetic material with unprecedented accuracy. Although the specificity of the interventions does not appear to be as high as originally hoped, research is continuously improving them. The Max Planck Society has now published its position on its use in humans, particularly in the germ line, but also in plant breeding research.

Proteins form the basis of all processes in living cells. In order to understand these processes, it is important to identify the proteins involved and also to recognize when they deviate from the norm and thus possibly cause diseases. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich have now developed a method with which large quantities of proteins can be analyzed with unprecedented reliability. So far, mass spectrometry (MS) has been the bioanalytical method of choice for identifying proteins.

From children's toys to crockery and shopping bags, many everyday products are already made of bioplastics, and the trend is on the rise. However, the use of biobased plastics is by no means without controversy. Bio-based plastics usually consist of renewable raw materials such as corn or starch and thus replace fossil raw materials. However, bioplastics are by no means automatically biodegradable and are often just as difficult to degrade as their petroleum-based counterparts.

Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are two megatrends in the economy. The Institute for Innovation and Technology (IIT) in Berlin has now carried out a study on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency to analyze where these trends could possibly collide or mutually enrich each other. The result was six scenarios with the respective starting points for a modern environmental policy.

Electric cars or a fully regenerative power supply: Both areas of energy system transformation, which are so important for climate protection, require efficient power storage systems. So far, however, batteries have often been ecologically and socially problematic because they require certain metals that can only be mined to the detriment of humans and the environment.

Carbon dioxide forms the basis for many organisms to produce carbon compounds through their metabolism. Plants and certain bacteria use photosynthesis, other bacteria use chemosynthesis. However, animals do not possess this ability and have therefore formed symbioses with protozoa. The bacterium Kentron has also been regarded as a chemosynthetic symbiont of the ciliate Kentrophoros.