Category: natural sciences (Page 1 of 2)

The Hidden World on Our Planet – Life within the oceanic crust

14. April 2025 / Ankita / 0 Comments

By Melina Krohn

Figure 1 – A fictional representation of the deep biosphere inside the oceanic crust.

When we go down below the surface of the Earth we go farther and farther away from everything we know and is familiar to us. This makes it hard to imagine how anything could survive there. And yet, microorganisms make this harsh, hostile environment their home. Supported by the circulating seawater and the surrounding rocks these organisms not only survive there but at some places they even thrive.
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The Rise of Antarctic Ice

11. July 2024 / Hanna Sophie / 1 Comment

Let’s talk about deep time!

By Hanna Knahl

Figure 1 – This is an artistic way of showing Antarctica’s transition from a warm climate with forest to a colder climate with rising ice 34 million years ago. Source: Created with AI Image Generator

Let’s travel back in time again, dig deep into the sediments and see what face Antarctica wants to show us this time! Is it hot and colourful or cool and icy? Or is it both? My “time machine” will bring us back into a climate full of change and mysteries.

Rainforest in Antarctica?

9. November 2023 / Hanna Sophie / 1 Comment

Let’s talk about deep time!

by Hanna Knahl

Figure 1 – This is how Antarctica might have looked like 90 Million years ago. Source: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / James McKay

“Rainforest in Antarctica” sounds like an April fool? Or like a climate apocalypse scenario for the future? It actually was real. Let’s go deep back in time to the fascinating epoch of the dinosaurs!

The higher the temperature, the higher the risk

15. September 2023 / Hanna Sophie / 0 Comments

Climate Special – Theory

by Hanna Knahl

Several elements in our climate system are on the edge, e.g. the ice sheet in Greenland… Picture: Pixabay

Global warming should not exceed 1.5°C, according to the Paris Climate Agreement. Fridays for future and other climate activist groups are fighting for this. Why 1.5°C, actually?

Cloud fates and Cocktail parties

3. February 2023 / Ronja / 0 Comments

by Ronja Gronemeyer

Merge or die – The fate of clouds and (covid restricted) cocktail parties

How the fate of simulated rain cells improves understanding of tropical storms. Stay tuned, as we learn about rain tracking algorithms and analyze the merging or decaying of competing clouds. Finally, we will see why cold pools affect cloud clustering similarly, as covid restrictions affect a cocktail party…

Tropical storms, cuddling clouds and cocktail parties

18. November 2022 / Hanna / 2 Comments

by Ronja Gronemeyer

Clouds can party hard!

Clouds like to cuddle and cluster. Cloud clustering is crucial to understanding the formation of tropical storms. This article will brush up your basics on convection, introduce you to fascinating atmospheric phenomena and reveal, how the clustering of clouds can be compared to a cocktail party…

Kiruna – All Fired up for an Icy Adventure

28. November 2021 / Greta / 2 Comments

by Christoph Kulmann and Greta Sondej

Long anticipated and eagerly awaited, our student training week starts in snowy Lapland near Sweden’s northernmost city: Kiruna (from the North Sami “giron”, meaning “snow grouse”).

Bremen Airport is already getting us in the mood for the weather that awaits us in Lapland…

REXUS/BEXUS – Experiments Soar Into Space!

28. November 2021 / Greta / 0 Comments

An European Education Programme Empowers Students to Develop Their own Space Mission

by Greta Sondej and Christoph Kulmann

In our last article, we told you about our FORAREX project, which we developed within the framework of the German-Swedish REXUS/BEXUS programme.

But what exactly does this REXUS/BEXUS programme entail? And who can participate?

FORAREX – Astronaut in Miniature Form

28. November 2021 / Greta / 0 Comments

How a Single-Celled Organism Finds its Way From the Sea Into Outer Space

by Team FORAREX

Imagine you are living under the sea. You see the suns rays shining through the water. There is sand beneath you. The water flows around you to the rhythm of the wave – and you sway with it (see Fig. 1). Everything feels very pleasant. You are thinking how wonderful your home is. The waves, the light – everything is perfect.

But suddenly a dark shadow looms over you – and this shadow takes you out of this paradise and catapults you into space! Isn’t that a disturbing and rather improbable idea?

But that is in fact my story.

Foraminifera – A Hard Shell With a Soft Core

28. November 2021 / Greta / 0 Comments

by Christoph Kulmann and Greta Sondej

Foraminifera (Latin for “hole bearers”, informally called “forams”) are single-celled organisms that usually have a multi-chambered shell, which can be built in various ways depending on the species. They are the stars of the FORAREX (FORAminifera Rocket EXperiment) project, in which we investigate their behaviour and shell growth under microgravitational conditions.