Perhaps you are reading our magazine comfortably on the sofa with a cup of coffee or tea in your hand? The fine motor skills of our hands are fascinating – and it is still a long way from being understood why it is so difficult to develop functioning prostheses for patients. Ideally, a brain-computer interface would read out the desired movement in the brain and transmit it to a prosthetic hand. Our neuroscientists have been investigating how movement information is processed in the brain for many years and have now published a study that could help to improve the fine control of neural hand prostheses. You can read how they went about it from page 10 onwards.
Our stem cell researchers have discovered that epigenetic factors are responsible for the fact that old men – and old marmosets – have poorer sperm than younger ones, which can certainly have an influence on the children conceived. You can read about this from page 14.
One focus in this issue is research on langurs. These fascinating animals – some of which have even adapted to drinking salt water – are extremely endangered, with fewer than a hundred of some species left. As a result, their genetic variability is decreasing and they are mating with individuals of closely related species due to a lack of sexual partners. The fact that this results in hybridization, which in the worst case can lead to the extinction of the original species, is a phenomenon that has received little attention to date and which our researchers report on from page 3.
The fact that we can report so many findings is not least due to the curiosity with which our researchers look at their environment. Scientists from the University of Göttingen, the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and the DPZ now want to investigate when, why and how we are curious as part of the Research Training Group “Curiosity”. You can find out exactly what this is all about from page 18 onwards.
Incidentally, the approximately 300 visitors who visited the DPZ this year as part of our public guided tours were also curious. We are very pleased about this and will resume the guided tours in May 2025.
“DPZ aktuell” is published four times a year and has around 40 pages each time. We offer a free subscription to anyone who is interested. If you are interested, you can find more information here. Of course, the magazine is also available in the building: You can find it at reception, in our cafeteria or in the library.
Enjoy reading!