Plants coordinate their physiological and developmental processes over the course of the day. Scientists at the Dahlem Center of Plant Sciences (DCPS), Freie Universität, recently discovered a new form of stress in plants that they have named circadian stress. Their findings indicate that it is caused by a change in the day-night rhythm. The plant hormone cytokinin plays an important role in protecting the plants against this stress.

In February 1987, restaurant operator Detlef Armstark, then 26, had run up so much debt that the East German state-owned wholesale company no longer wanted to deliver to him. He was also listed by the East German secret police, the Stasi, in their “Vorverdichtungs-, Such- und Hinweiskartei” (literally “pre-compilation, search, and reference file”), which contained information on certain individuals. Armstark was convinced that he no longer had a future ahead of him in the German Democratic Republic, so he decided to flee.

Atopic dermatitis is a disease that is difficult to study because it has many different causes and not all of them are known. There is no way to prevent the disease, and very little clarity has been achieved to date regarding its mechanisms. But Sarah Hedtrich, a junior professor with a doctorate in pharmacology, could help to change that soon: She has been able to show that genetic causes play less of a role in the emergence of atopic dermatitis than had previously been believed. Hedtrich has received the “Research On Skin-Dryness Award” (R.O.S.A.) for her research.