Long Night of the Sciences

Friday, November 22, 2024, 6:00 PM until midnight

Did you know that the devastating damage caused by bark beetles in our forests is also due to their successful association with fungi? Or that insects have very fine noses or antennae and need their sensitive sense of smell to survive? Or have you ever heard of beewolves? In order to protect their offspring, they live in an amazing defense symbiosis with bacteria. We look forward to your visit during the Long Night of Science on November 22, 2024, to introduce you to the secrets of the ecological interactions between insects, plants and microbes.

Here are the items on our program in detail:

Smell like an insect

Discover how insects smell and how we explore their sense of smell. We conduct experiments with moths, locusts and flies. Test your own nose in fun competitions.

It's a summer Sunday and you're going to the park with friends to have a nice picnic. Everyone is sitting together, talking, laughing, playing and enjoying the sun and the warmth. As you all get hungry, containers of food turn up to share, some run to buy some chips or a currywurst. But then they appear. Suddenly wasps, flies and ants descend on us. How did they find us? How do the moths find our flour packets so that they can conquer them and fill them with their maggot children? How do mosquitoes find the tasty humans? more ...

 

Superorganisms: How ant societies are organized

Ants are social insects that live in colonies of between a dozen individuals and millions of workers. Discover the tiny world and the variety of shapes, forms and diets of these fascinating insects!

Most ant species have sterile workers and a reproductive queen. However, some species have a very special way of life. Here you can discover different ant species: for example, a polymorphic species from Europe with workers of different sizes; or ants that eat seeds and build grain silos. more ...

Kids' Corner: Exciting and creative things from the world of plants and insects

Bring insects and their symbionts together in our giant memory, fold caterpillars out of paper, paint with plant colors or let yourself be transformed into a colorful butterfly.

Once again this year, we have special offers for all children to take part in. So you can

• bring together insects, their symbiotic bacteria and their function in our special memory,
• fold origami butterflies and caterpillars,
•  more ...

Take a close look! The microcosm of insects

Immerse yourself in the world of diversity that is barely visible or invisible to the naked eye! Dyes make symbionts visible under the microscope and insects from large to tiny can be seen in a completely different light under the stereomicroscope.

Microscopes give us a whole new perspective on insects. Beetles, bugs, wasps and flies, whether large or tiny. more ...

The defense symbiosis of beewolves

The relationship between beewolves and their symbiotic bacteria serves to protect the beewolf offspring. Learn more about this 68 million year old symbiosis and what role antibiotics play in it!

Insects live in symbioses with microorganisms that provide them with nutrients, for example, or help them defend themselves against enemies. A fascinating example of a defense symbiosis are the beewolves. more ...

The secret world of our invisible roommates

Humans and animals have tiny roommates: microbes. Compare the microbes that live on different humans with those found on and in insects. Discover real symbionts among them, which are the focus of our research.

We all need microbial helpers to survive. Most symbiotic bacteria live in our intestines and help us digest food or provide us with essential vitamins. more ...

Insects: important players in our ecosystems

Insects are by far the most species-rich class of animals. They live in the most unusual habitats. But what makes them so successful? We introduce our research objects and report on their way of life and their contribution to research.

In its laboratories, breeding chambers and greenhouses, the Max Planck Institute is particularly dedicated to researching the coexistence of plants and insects. We dedicate a separate exhibition to our living test objects and show many different species that we are researching. more ...

Biological pest control: keeping pests in check with beneficial insects

In their natural environment, all insects, including pests of our crops, have natural antagonists. We make use of this for biological pest control in our greenhouse and largely dispense with insecticides.

As we study the natural interactions between plants and insects, we do not use insecticides in the greenhouse. Through the targeted use of beneficial insects, we can reduce pests and thus protect the environment and our wallet. more ...

Fighting the bark beetle - but how?

Why do bark beetles not infest all spruce trees to the same extent? Why do the pests never live alone, but with fungi on their bodies and bacteria in their guts? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology are investigating these questions.

This year, the Thuringian Forest is once again being hit by a large plague of bark beetles, causing many spruce trees to die and ultimately changing the entire forest ecosystem in the future. more ...

 

Smelling with the help of machines

Many living creatures use scents to communicate with each other. Although the human nose cannot detect many of these substances, we are still able to detect and analyze them with the help of state-of-the-art technology.

We study how organisms use chemical signals to communicate with each other. Odors are often used, which are detected and interpreted by insects through their sense of smell. The odor is detected by special olfactory receptors that respond to specific chemical compounds. In order to measure the volatile substances emitted by plants and animals, we use highly sensitive equipment specially developed for this purpose. more ...