Long Night of the Sciences

with Gwendolyn Sasse

Why is Russia waging war in Ukraine? What are the reasons for the unity of the Ukrainian military and civil resistance? What is the significance of this war for Europe as a whole and for liberal social orders? Building on many years of social science research on identities and social mobilization in Ukraine, this conversation with renowned political scientist Gwendolyn Sasse contextualises the current war, its background and consequences.

Gwendolyn Sasse

Gwendolyn Sasse is the academic director of the Center for East European and International Studies and Einstein Professor of Comparative Democracy and Authoritarianism at Humboldt University in Berlin. She is also principal investigator in the Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script – SCRIPTS”.

with Andrew James Johnston

The Cluster “Temporal Communities” explores what it means when literature becomes global. The focus is on how literature engenders relationships across time and space – relationships between texts and readers, between writers and artists, between different genres, media, and institutions: from opera to manga to contemporary television series.

Using the early medieval English epic “Beowulf” as an example, it will be shown how such a globality, transcending space and time, unfolds, how a narrative poem from a distant and very foreign past forges multiple relationships, imagining its very own being-in-time and creating its own notion of what it means to be global.

Andrew James Johnston

Andrew James Johnston is Professor of English literature with a focus on medieval and early modern studies at the Freie Universität Berlin and one of the two speakers of the Cluster of Excellence 2020 Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective.

with Sabine Oldemeyer

The sun is essential for life on earth – plants, for example, perform photosynthesis with its help. To control this process efficiently, plants use certain proteins: so-called cryptochromes. They respond to blue light and regulate the plant’s growth and flowering time.

Algae, insects and even mammals also use cryptochromes – for example to adjust their day/night rhythm or to sense the earth’s magnetic field. How these processes work is Sabine Oldemeyer’s field of research. She explains why the cryptochrome “aCRY” found in green algae can even repair damage in DNA – and that in the future, light-sensitive algae may be able to help develop revolutionary new applications.

Sabine Oldemeyer

Sabine Oldemeyer is a postdoctoral researcher in Experimental Molecular Biophysics at Freie Universität Berlin. Her scientific focus is on light-induced processes in retinal proteins and cryptochromes.

with Regine Hengge and Wolfgang Schäffner

At the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity”, the activity of materials is being rethought. For example, experts from biology and materials science are working together with architects and cultural scientists to investigate the active structures and properties of wood or bacteria. The knowledge gained in this way will one day be used to develop more sustainable and energy-efficient technologies. Microbiologist Regine Hengge and cluster spokesperson Wolfgang Schäffner, historian of science and media, provide insights into the diverse research work at the “Active Curtain Project”.

The “Active Curtain Project” is an ongoing experimental setup of the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity”. Various fragile, interactive and translucent materials made of bacterially generated and plant cellulose are woven into a curtain in the entrance area of the Humboldt Lab, which react to the room climate. The naturally generated material moves, connects, swells or twists in – without any conventional mechanics. The scale and speed of the activity becomes visible in projected images and films.

Regine Hengge

Regine Hengge is a professor of microbiology at Humboldt University and researches how bacteria form biofilms and how they process stress. At “Matters of Activity” she investigates bacterial biofilms as an example of active matter with a focus on nano/microarchitecture and morphogenesis of biofilms.

Wolfgang Schäffner

Wolfgang Schäffner is Professor of History of Knowledge and Culture at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and spokesperson for the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity. Image Space Material”. As project leader of “Symbolic Material”, he researches and develops, among other things, common models of thought and generally understandable terms for interdisciplinary research on active materials.

with Anna Kufner

Neuroscientist Anna Kufner conducts research at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin on the effects of strokes, among other things. To do this, the research group uses a new method: the so-called “Lesion-Network Mapping (LNM) of post-stroke symptoms” (LNM). With its help, it should be possible to better understand, predict and subsequently treat neurological deficits after a stroke. At the NeuroCure research station in the Humboldt Lab, Anna Kufner will provide insights into her scientific work and answer questions of visitors.

Anna Kufner

Anna Kufner is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Stroke Research Berlin at Charité. She has also been a fellow of the NeuroCure Research Fellowship since 2021 and conducts research on the symptoms that occur after a stroke.

with Felix Günther and Nina Smeenk

Bending without breaking – when it comes to large glass facades, this is a difficult and expensive undertaking. In order to nevertheless meet their stylistic ambitions, architects assemble their curved surfaces from individual glass plates. Using a geometric theory of such surfaces, mathematicians have found out how futuristic glass roofs can be realized in such a way that they shine with uniform reflections in the sunlight. Their motivation: properly assembled, many of the properties of the round surfaces can be retained while ensuring a high degree of stability. Learn how geometry can lead to a more beautiful cityscape and how mathematics has its very own inherent aesthetics!

Felix Günther

Felix Günther has a PhD in Mathematics and works in the Sonderforschungsbereich “Discretisation in Geometry and Dynamics” at the Technische Universität Berlin. In addition to his research in the field of discrete differential geometry, he is involved in science communication and talent promotion. As a member of the Junge Akademie Mainz and the Junges Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung, he is committed to exchange across disciplinary boundaries.

Nina Smeenk

Nina Smeenk is a research assistant at the Technische Universität Berlin. As part of her Master’s degree, she worked until 2020 in the Sonderforschungsbereich “Discretisation in Geometry and Dynamics” in a project on the geometric 3D visualisation of mathematical theories. She is continuing this work as a research assistant with the aim of obtaining her doctorate in 2024.

with David Bierbach

Many animals have amazing cognitive abilities. Using fish as an example, David Bierbach will demonstrate some of the remarkable mental feats of animals – from anticipating the future behavior of known conspecifics to copying in partner selection to synchronized swimming in a school.

David Bierbach

David Bierbach is a biologist who conducts research on topics ranging from individual differences to broader collective behavior. His research interests are in tropical freshwater fishes such as Amazonian carps (Poecilia formosa), guppies (P. formosa), and sulphur mollies (P. sulphuraria). In the Cluster of Excellence “Science of Intelligence”, he is researching how fish act predictively in their social interactions – with the goal of using this knowledge to develop improved bio-mimetic robots and social interaction algorithms.