Nature: The Max Planck Society, which runs 80 research institutes in Germany and 13 international partner institutes, has selected Martin Stratmann as its new president. The society, founded in 1948, receives funding from the German federal government and from each of the nation’s 16 states; it currently has an operating budget of around €2 billion ($2.6 billion). Stratmann, a vice president of the society since 2008, replaces Peter Gruss, who has been president since 2002. Stratmann is currently the director of the department of interface chemistry and surface engineering at the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research, which is a partnership between the society and the German Steel Institute and is located in Düsseldorf.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
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