Research News

Why is it rare for dangerous blood clots to form in our blood? What happens if this safety mechanism fails? An international team of researchers involving the University of Greifswald has taken a major step towards finding the answer to this central medical question. The results were published…

People living in Germany have more confidence in themselves today than 20 years ago. They have more faith in their ability to influence their own lives and key life events. This has now been shown in a long-term study conducted by Dr. Theresa M. Entringer from the University of Greifswald and…

An Australian spider has developed a hunting technique that is unique to the animal kingdom. It uses the aggression of its prey to trigger a high-performing snare – shooting ants into its web with enormous force. These are the findings of a joint team of researchers from the University of Greifswald…

Petrus Wickerau’s twenty-five words are among the oldest surviving texts written in Old Prussian. When the manuscript was discovered and published in 2013, Baltic scholars hailed it as a sensation. Source material on Old Prussian is scarce; every new find has a great significance. The…

A research team belonging to the University of Greifswald’s Research Training Group RTG-PRO “Proteases in pathogen and host: importance in infection and inflammation” has discovered a new mechanism with which bacterial pathogens adjust their activity to the metabolism of infected host cells.…

In an Israeli-German collaborative project, researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheba and the University of Greifswald have discovered a mechanism that explains how microorganisms successfully coexist in complex communities: they specifically adapt their protein production to…

It has only taken a few decades: the wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi) has expanded its range from the Mediterranean region to northern Europe – even as far as southern Finland. In so doing, it has adapted much faster genetically than previously thought possible. This is shown in the results of a…

It is unpleasant, strange and often comes as a surprise: shame. But why do we feel it? An international study that involved researchers from the University of Greifswald has shed new light on the emotion of shame that has long been considered harmful. The conclusion: shame is not merely an…

The amount of light in the sea is changing. Coasts shine brighter, the water is getting murkier. What is barely visible to swimmers has a huge effect on algae, fish and plankton. The international research project ISOLUME (IndicatorS Of changing Lightscapes in Underwater Marine Ecosystems)…

Giant dragonfly-like insects with wingspans of up to 70 centimetres that lived around 300 million years ago have fascinated researchers for decades. They have investigated how such giants were able to fly at all. A new study with the participation of the University of Greifswald now questions a…