Research Made Understood

New speaker series in German held at the Max Planck Campus in Tübingen invites citizens to discuss basic research

To the point:

• The new lecture series "EinBlick – Forschung verständlich" (Insight – Research Made Understood) at the Max Planck Campus in Tübingen starts on January 21 and presents topics from basic neuroscientific research such as the internal clock, sleep and memory formation, brain-computer interfaces, and artificial intelligence, followed by a discussion round.
• During the forum, which will be held in German, Max Planck researchers will not only share their latest findings, but also explain methods, discuss ethical issues, and explain how research results can be applied.
• The event will take place in the lecture hall of the Max Planck House in German.

How are artificial intelligence and brain-computer interfaces changing neuroscientific research and medicine? Why is sleep so important for our memory? How does our internal clock work, and what influence does light have on our health?

Answers to these and other questions will be provided by the new monthly lecture series "EinBlick – Forschung verständlich" (Insight – Research Made Understood), which starts on January 21 at 6 p.m. in the lecture hall of the Max Planck House conference center, Max-Planck-Ring 6, on the Max Planck Campus in Tübingen.

Anyone who has always wanted to learn more about how our brain works, ask questions to Max Planck researchers, or join in the discussion in the forum will be in good hands here: open, understandable, and in direct exchange.

Online registration is required to participate in the lectures and discussion rounds: https://www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/einblick

• January 21: Why 24 hours are not always 24 hours: A crash course in chronobiology
  In his lecture, Prof. Dr. Manuel Spitschan provides an understandable insight into chronobiology and explains how light, sleep, and everyday life influence our body rhythms. Using current research results, he shows how scientific methods can measure our individual sense of time and sleep behavior and make them easier for us to understand. This can lead to important insights for health, performance, and well-being, because biological time and clock time do not automatically mean the same thing.
• February 25: Understanding biological processes: How can animal models help us?
  Dr. Thomas Ott explains why basic biological research is essential for the development of new and targeted treatments for diseases. Alternative methods such as cell cultures and organoids are used, as well as animal models, which offer various advantages but also raise ethical and methodological questions. Researchers must therefore weigh up which approaches are scientifically sound and ethically acceptable in order to achieve reliable results.
• March 18: Nighttime in the brain: Insights into the diverse functions of sleep
  Dr. Svenja Brodt takes participants on a journey through the processes that take place in the brain at night, which are essential for both our physical and mental health. She explains the different stages of sleep, their functions in information storage, and how the brain breaks down harmful metabolic products at night. The lecture uses current research to show that sleep is much more than a period of rest; it protects, shapes, and renews the brain.
• April 29: Brain-computer interfaces: The next technological revolution? The human brain is an electrical organ, and electrical signals can sometimes be more precise than drugs in therapeutic applications. Dr. Pascal Fries shows how brain-computer interfaces can enable successful therapies, for example, for people with Parkinson's disease. Modern approaches use novel treatment methods, and start-ups are developing ways to improve mobility and mental health. These advances are driving a boom in this field and opening up completely new avenues for the treatment of neurological and mental illnesses.
• May 20: Between humans and machines: Artificial intelligence and magnetic resonance imaging
  Dr. Gabriele Lohmann presents artificial intelligence as a tool and highlights its use in neuroscience. Lohmann shows how AI helps analyze large amounts of data in magnetic resonance imaging, recognize patterns in brain activity, and develop new research questions. At the same time, she discusses how neuroscientific findings are driving the development of intelligent algorithms.

The Max Planck Campus in Tübingen is home to the Max Planck Institutes for Biology, Biological Cybernetics, and Intelligent Systems, as well as the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory. With more than 1,200 employees from over 50 countries, the campus is part of the Max Planck Society, which, with 31 Nobel Prize winners and 84 Max Planck Institutes in Germany and internationally, is one of the world's leading research institutions in the natural sciences, life sciences, humanities, and social sciences.