11/06/2024 This year, the European Research Council (ERC) is funding four ORIGINS scientists with prestigious Synergy Grants for their collaborative projects. The recipients are biophysicist Petra Schwille (MPIB), astrophysicist Kevin Heng (LMU), cosmologist Torsten Enßlin (MPA), and systems biophysicist Dieter Braun (LMU).

10/19/2024 On Saturday, 19 October, the ESO Supernova will participate in the nationwide Long Night of Astronomy and open its doors between 18:30 and 23:00. Together with the ORIGINS Excellence Cluster an exciting programme is planned with various free activities.

10/11/2024 The origin of life on Earth is still an unsolved mystery, but a common theory suggests that the replication of genetic material – the nucleic acids DNA and RNA – was a central and crucial process. Researchers from the ORIGINS Excellence Cluster at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) uncovered a plausible geological constellation that could have triggered the emergence of life on Earth.

09/24/2024 The researchers of the ALICE collaboration present the first exploration of the strong interaction within a system of three nucleons. This was achieved by measuring the relative velocities between pairs of protons and deuterons produced in proton-proton collisions at the ALICE detector at the LHC, CERN. This technique to study the strong interaction, developed by ORIGINS scientist Laura Fabbietti and her research group at TUM, has already been successfully employed on pairs of particles, demonstrating its reliability and preciseness. The new results pave the way for its…

09/15/2024 On a regular basis, "Exzellent erklärt – Spitzenforschung für alle" reports from one of the 57 clusters of excellence funded under the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. In the second ORIGINS episode "The Universe in the lab: How artificial intelligence (AI) helps in the search for elementary particles", podcaster Larissa Vassilian talks to Prof. Dr. Lukas Heinrich and Dr. Philipp Eller about the use of artificial intelligence in physics.

09/06/2024 Researchers from LMU, the ORIGINS Excellence Cluster, the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), and the ORIGINS Data Science Lab (ODSL) have made an important breakthrough in the analysis of exoplanet atmospheres. Using physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), they have managed to model the complex light scattering in the atmospheres of exoplanets with greater precision than has previously been possible. This method opens up new opportunities for the analysis of exoplanet atmospheres, especially with regard to the influence of clouds, and could…

09/05/2024 The European Research Council awards ERC Starting Grants to ORIGINS scientists Prof. Philipp Reiss and Dr. Max Gronke. Philipp Reiss holds the professorship of Lunar and Planetary Exploration at the Technical University of Munich. His research is dedicated to the exploration of the moon, the planets and space, as well as the technologies required for this. Max Gronke leads the 'Multiphase Gas' research group at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. His research focuses on understanding the complex interactions of multiphase gas in various astrophysical contexts.

08/02/2024 The origins of life remain a major mystery. How were complex molecules able to form and remain intact for prolonged periods without disintegrating? A team at ORIGINS, a Munich-based Cluster of Excellence, has demonstrated a mechanism that could have enabled the first RNA molecules to stabilize in the primordial soup. When two RNA strands combine, their stability and lifespan increase significantly.

07/31/2024 Researchers at LMU, the ORIGINS Excellence Cluster, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) have developed a new model to explain the formation of giant planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The model furnishes deeper insights into the processes of planet formation and could expand our understanding of planetary systems.

07/10/2024 Just like in the past, the PhD students of the ORIGINS excellence cluster gathered for the much-anticipated PhD Days. This year, the three-day workshop was held in the charming “Seminarhaus Grainau,” providing a cozy backdrop for the 32 young scientists to engage in lively discussions about their research in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.