13.4 new tests 9th April

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13.4 new Tests 9.4.2025

13.4 new Tests 9.4.2025

13.4 new Tests 9.4.2025

13.4 new Tests 9.4.2025

13.4 new Tests 9.4.2025

13.4 new Tests 9.4.2025

13.4 new Tests 9.4.2025

13.4 new Tests 9.4.2025

13.4 new Tests 9.4.2025

As the micro blogging platform X (formerly Twitter) has in recent weeks developed into a place that no longer respects scientific values and offers no space for fact based and constructive discussions, our German Society of Plant Sciences (DBG) has opened a new account on the platform Bluesky. With the handle @plantsciencedbg.bsky.social, the DBG has moved to a platform that is being joined by more and more people from the scientific community (s. Kupferschmidt (2024) 10.1126/science.zgpept9). Bluesky is a microblogging service, similar to the early days of Twitter, which uses an open protocol. DBG’s two X accounts – in German (@PlantScienceDBG with 2390 followers) and English (@PlantSciDBG_en with 6900 followers, as of January 7, 2025) – are kept in a “frozen” state to preserve the names and prevent them from being taken over by others.

To celebrate the 200^th birthday of the phycologist Nathanael Pringsheim (30 November 1823 – 6 October 1894), the Matthias-Schleiden-Institute at the University of Jena, where Pringsheim was a professor for around four years, held a symposium on 19 December. In her introductory remarks, phycologist Professor Dr Maria Mittag placed Pringsheim in the ranks of the Institute's outstanding professors. DBG's president, Professor Dr Andreas Weber, reported on the history of our German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG), which Pringsheim founded in Berlin in 1882, under the title "From 1882 to 2023: 141 years of promoting plant science". Pringsheim led our society until his death in 1894. He was instrumental in the transition from an association into a scientific society [1]. Professor Dr Andreas Deutsch introduced the sexual revolution in algal research in citing important scientific findings that Pringsheim elicited from algae: "Nathanael Pringsheim was able to observe how male gametes swam towards female egg cells and united with them in an inconspicuous alga. This discovery, made in 1855, was a scientific sensation," Deutsch writes in his latest book [2]. This was the first direct observation of the fertilisation process in a living organism.

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^{[1] Ekkehard Höxtermann (Hrsg., 2007): 125 Jahre Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft. Festschrift anlässlich der Botanikertagung in Hamburg. Basilisken-Presse, Marburg}

^{[2] Andreas Deutsch (2023): Urformen der Sexualität. Wie Nathanael Pringsheim den Algen die Unschuld nahm. GNT-Verlag, Diepholz}

The research of early career scientists (ECR) and their networking were the focus of the conference “Specialized products from plants and microbes – a natural source for biologically active compounds” of DBG’s Natural Products Section. Competently and enthusiastically, the more than twenty participants presented and discussed their research results from the broad field of plant and microbiological compounds. Prof. Dr. Maike Petersen and Prof. Dr. Ute Wittstock summarize topics and research focus of the participants and explain, in which way participants profited from the in-person meeting, which was financially supported by DBG.

Advancement of early career researchers (ECR), opportunities for members to participate in shaping our organisation, workshops for professional development and the topic of outreach into politics and society were just some of the points that were discussed during a workshop of our board meeting. With the moderation of our communicator, Dr. Esther Schwarz-Weig, the participants compiled what excites them about our DBG. They also developed solutions to respond to the challenges that scientific societies face due to changes in research, publishing, science policy, networking and communication. In order to inform everyone about these topics and to enable active participation, there will soon be a digital town hall meeting.

The symposium of our Section Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology took place from 23^rd to 26^th August 2023 at the University of Gießen in the lecture halls of the Hermann Hoffmann Academy.  Altogether 94 scientists participated (only 4 last-minute cancellations), 34 of them students. With two international keynote speakers the organizers Prof. Dr. Volker Wissemann, Prof. Dr. Elvira Hörandl, Dr. Anže Žerdoner Čalasan, and Dr. Natalia Tkach welcomed a European audience; with most participants from Germany. The programme encompassed 19 talks and 21 posters from students. Gender balance was a 2:2 male:female ratio with the invited keynote speakers, and 17 female compared to 13 male speakers, reflecting a strong presence of females at early career stages in systematics. Elvira Hörandl summarizes the scientific highlights, names the awardees and reports about the Section’s meeting and elections.

On the 6^th and 7^th July, over 50 scientists came together at Kiel University for the Kiel Plant Centre (KPC) Workshop on Plant Evolution with a particular focus on the adaptation of plants to terrestrial environments. The program, that included keynote talks from international experts, short talks from early career scientists as well as two poster sessions, covered a broad variety of topics encouraging lively discussions and exchange. Organiser Prof. Dr. Birgit Classen summarizes the topics of the workshop and this research discipline and reports why basic research on the adaptions of living on land Millions of years ago is also important for current and applied questions.