Life Sciences: Hidden Treasures

enApril 08, 2011

insightLMU - 2011

What was the main topic of the podcast episode?

Summarise the key points discussed in the episode?

Were there any notable quotes or insights from the speakers?

Which popular books were mentioned in this episode?

Were there any points particularly controversial or thought-provoking discussed in the episode?

Were any current events or trending topics addressed in the episode?

What was the main topic of the podcast episode?

Summarise the key points discussed in the episode?

Were there any notable quotes or insights from the speakers?

Which popular books were mentioned in this episode?

Were there any points particularly controversial or thought-provoking discussed in the episode?

Were any current events or trending topics addressed in the episode?

About this Episode

The domestication of the donkey, the genetic diversity of the cheetah and the ancestry of the cucumber. A pretty heterogeneous list – but the projects being pursued by the palaeoanatomist Professor Joris Peters and the botanist Professor Susanne Renner do have one thing in common. None of them would be possible without the many unique and irreplaceable specimens in the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History. And there is little doubt that the keys to many other scientific mysteries are slumbering in the storerooms.

Recent Episodes from insightLMU - 2011

On the brink

Waiting for the Big One. Many of the world’s megacities are located on the boundaries between two tectonic plates. Using computer simulations, seismologist Heiner Igel and his team are trying to estimate the shaking of future earthquakes in these urbanized areas.

enJanuary 09, 2012

Pergamon the prototypical

A blueprint for a civil society. Martin Zimmermann’s work brings the Greek polis of Antiquity to life, and illuminates the enormous impact that cities had on the civilization of the Ancient World.

enJanuary 09, 2012

Babylonian complications

"Behind every window lurks a story." Modern urban films deal not with cities but the people who live in them. Isolation, lack of communication and the world of work are their major concerns, says film scholar Fabienne Liptay.

enJanuary 09, 2012

Waste, want and other woes

Anthropologist Eveline Dürr studies the culture of the slums, life in the shadow of waste dumps – and how terms referring to dirt take on xenophobic connotations.

enJanuary 09, 2012

The Mega-Megacity

Metropolitan Tokyo is the largest built-up area in the world. How does such an urban machine work? How does it deal with its own inevitable decay? Japanologist Evelyn Schulz has been studying how residents use its urban spaces and cope with the attendant risks.

enJanuary 09, 2012

insightLMU, issue 4, 2011

What's inside:

* The Mega-Megacity
* Waste, want and other woes
* Babylonian complications
* Pergamon the prototypical
* On the brink

enJanuary 09, 2012

The Power of Nature

The logic of exploitation, risk-taking, and optimism in the face of disaster: Christof Mauch and his colleagues at the Rachel Carson Center study how the environment continues to impact culture and society.

enOctober 17, 2011

Molecular Cooking

Life most probably evolved from a "primordial soup". Biophysicist Dieter Braun wants to reconstruct in the laboratory the conditions that made biological evolution possible.

enOctober 17, 2011

"Beauty is not always an Advantage"

The job goes to the best candidate? Undoubtedly, qualifications should determine the choice. Should. Often, however, irrelevant criteria also play a role, according to social psychologist Maria Agthe. And sometimes in quite unexpected ways.

enOctober 17, 2011