The function of the brain is based on the connections between nerve cells. In order to map these connections and to create the connectome, the 'wiring diagram' of a brain, neurobiologists capture images of the brain with the help of three-dimensional electron microscopy. Up until now, however, the mapping of larger areas has been hampered by the fact that, even with considerable support from computers, the analysis of these images by humans would...

Using light alone, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried are now able to reveal pairs or chains of functionally connected neurons under the microscope. The new optogenetic method, named Optobow, allows probing the pathways along which information flows by targeted activation of individual neurons and monitoring the responses of neighboring cells.

Scientists working in connectomics, a research field occupied with the reconstruction of neuronal networks in the brain, are aiming at completely mapping of the millions or billions of neurons found in mammalian brains. In spite of impressive advances in electron microscopy, the key bottleneck for connectomics is the amount of human labor required for the data analysis.

Robots generally need a gripper that adapts to three-dimensional surfaces. Such a gripper needs to be soft to adapt to a great variety of geometries, but not too soft, as it will detach easily and not be able to bear weight for very long. Researchers working with Metin Sitti at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart developed a membrane equipped with microscopic fibres inspired by the fine hairs on a gecko's foot and attach...

Astronomers from Bonn and Tautenburg in Thuringia (Germany) used the 100-m radio telescope at Effelsberg to observe several galaxy clusters. At the edges of these large accumulations of dark matter, stellar systems (galaxies), hot gas, and charged particles, they found magnetic fields that are exceptionally ordered over distances of many million light years. This makes them the most extended magnetic fields in the universe known so far.

Learning and memory are crucial aspects of everyday life. When we learn, our neurons use chemical and molecular signals to change their shapes and strengthen connections between neurons, a process known as synaptic plasticity. In Ryohei Yasuda's lab at Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI), scientists are working to understand how these molecules send messages throughout the neuron.

Nanorobots and other mini-vehicles might be able to perform important services in medicine one day – for example, by conducting remotely-controlled operations or transporting pharmaceutical agents to a desired location in the body. However, to date it has been hard to steer such micro- and nanoswimmers accurately through biological fluids such as blood, synovial fluid or the inside of the eyeball.

AR has once again come into the spotlight since the mobile phone game Pokémon Go attracted more than 75 million fans within the space of a few days. In AR, images or videos of a real scene are enhanced or altered by overlaying the image with computer-generated information. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Informatics have now developed a programme that can edit materials and shading/lighting in videos in a very realistic way.

  Studying properties of fundamental particles in condensed matter systems is a promising approach to quantum field theory. Quasiparticles offer the opportunity to observe particle properties that have no realisation in elementary particles.

To develop new treatments for skin cancer, drugs need to be tested on animals. Now scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne have been able to grow mouse skin stem cells in a dish. These stem cells in a test-tube could reduce the number of animal experiments. Wounds need to heal and dead hairs need to be replaced. Responsible for this are the so-called hair follicle stem cells in our skin.

Controlling functional properties by light is one of the grand goals in modern condensed matter physics and materials science. A new study now demonstrates how the ultrafast light-induced modulation of the atomic positions in a material can control its magnetization. An international research team led by Andrea Cavalleri from the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter at CFEL in Hamburg used terahertz light pulses to e...

Most lenses, objectives, eyeglass lenses, and lasers come with an anti-reflective coating. Unfortunately, this coating works optimally only within a narrow wavelength range. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have now introduced an alternative technology. Instead of coating a surface, they manipulate the surface itself. By comparison with conventional procedures, this provides the desired anti-reflective e...

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed functional elastomers, which can be activated by magnetic fields to imitate the swimming gaits of natural flagella, cilia and jellyfish. Using a specially developed computer algorithm, the researchers can now automatically generate the optimal magnetic conditions for each gait for the first time.

Sound can now be structured in three dimensions. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the University of Stuttgart have found a way of generating acoustic holograms, which could improve ultrasound diagnostics and material testing. The holograms can also be used to move and manipulate particles. Peer Fischer, a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and Professor at the Univer...

Munich Physicists have developed a novel electron microscope that can visualise electromagnetic fields oscillating at frequencies of billions of cycles per second. Temporally varying electromagnetic fields are the driving force behind the whole of electronics. Their polarities can change at mind-bogglingly fast rates, and it is difficult to capture them in action. However, a better understanding of the dynamics of field variation in electronic co...

Physicists based at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics have observed a nanoscale light-matter phenomenon which lasts for only attoseconds. When light strikes a metal, its electromagnetic field excites vibrations of the electrons in the metal. This interaction results in the formation of so-called near fields - electromagnetic fields that are localised close to the surface of the metal.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are presenting a motion system - a so-called elastic actuator - that is compliant and can be integrated in robots thanks to its space-saving design. The actuator works with hyperelastic membranes that surround air-filled chambers. The volume of the chambers can be controlled by means of an electric field at the membrane.

Some adhesives may soon have a metallic sheen and be particularly easy to unstick. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are suggesting gallium as just such a reversible adhesive. By inducing slight changes in temperature, they can control whether a layer of gallium sticks or not. This is based on the fact that gallium transitions from a solid state to a liquid state at around 30ºC.

Sixty years ago, Alan Turing proposed that body patterning is achieved by two types of signaling molecules that spread in the developing tissues to create a spatial pattern. Scientists from the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Tübingen have now developed new mathematical approaches and software to systematically analyse realistic pattern forming networks that involve more than two molecules.