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New study finds gaps in REDD+ forest carbon offsets with most overstating climate impacts
10 Oct 2025 | Most REDD+ forest carbon offset projects significantly overstate their climate benefits, according to a new study published in Science. The findings come from an international team of researchers, primarily based at the Guangdong Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy (SZ), China, with contributions from Prof. Dr. Jonathan Chase of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the MLU.
Researchers develop ultrasmall, light-sensitive nanoparticles that could serve as contrast agents
22 Sept 2025 | A novel class of light-sensitive nanoparticles may one day enable new approaches to medical imaging. They were developed by a research team at MLU. The particles absorb laser light and convert them into heat thereby changing their internal structure, similar to folded proteins. The research was published in the journal “Communications Chemistry”.
Plants, islands and climate change: biologist Julian Schrader receives an ERC Starting Grant
04 Sept 2025 | Dr Julian Schrader has been awarded one of the European Research Council’s (ERC) coveted Starting Grants to study island plant life. The biologist will use the 1.5 million euros grant to investigate the interaction between climate change and the spread of plant species. To do this, he will relocate from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, to MLU and the German Centre for Biodiversity Research Halle-Jena-Leipzig (iDiv). The ERC Starting Grant is one of Europe’s most prestigious research awards.
Cognitive Behavioural therapy can alter brain structure and boost grey matter volume, study shows
27 Aug 2025 | Psychotherapy leads to measurable changes in brain structure. Researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the University of Münster have demonstrated this for the first time in a study in “Translational Psychiatry” by using cognitive behavioural therapy. The team analysed the brains of 30 patients suffering from acute depression. After therapy, most of them showed changes in areas responsible for processing emotions. The observed effects are similar to those already known from studies on medication.
Older species tend to have large ranges – unless they live on islands
27 Aug 2025 | Every living species on Earth has a unique geographical range, with some being widespread and others being very narrow. Several factors shape a species’ range size - and one of them is the evolutionary age of a species. To investigate how evolutionary age is related to present-day range size, a research team by scientists from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig University, the Naturalis Biodiversity Center and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) compared over 26,000 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, reef fishes, and palms.
