Reinhart Koselleck Projects

The ability to estimate or count the number of objects is widespread in the animal kingdom. But also plants, such as the Venus flytrap, have the ability for this. When an insect lands on the trap and touches its special sensory hairs electrical signals are triggered. As soon as the moving object elicits two signals the trap snaps shut and encages its victim – now the hunting cycle begins. The underlying molecular mechanisms of this frequency-dependent decision making are investigated within this project.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Rainer Hedrich (Julius-v-Sachs-Institute for Biosciences)

Duration: since 2019

Further information can be found here.

Plastic bags made of polyethylene, packaging made of Styrofoam, pans with a Teflon coating: everyday life is full of polymers. This refers to very long, chain-like molecules whose basic structure almost always consists of carbon atoms, sometimes also silicon atoms. Other types of synthetic polymers are extremely rare. By using established synthesis concepts, polymers based on boron chains are prepared in this project and are examined with regard to their intrinsic structural, chemical and photophysical properties.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Holger Braunschweig (Institute of Anorganic Chemistry)

Duration: since 2018

Further information can be found here.