There for you on site: Lena Jung & Delphine De Moor, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution

Microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses are found almost everywhere, but not every species lives in every environment. Depending on whether they inhabit a host—such as a dog's mouth, the spaces between a cat's toes, or the surface of a leaf—or prefer soil, puddles, or the soles of our shoes, microorganisms have very different requirements. Some feed on plant material, others on animal matter. Some cannot survive in the presence of oxygen, while others depend on it. Some species grow so quickly that they rapidly cover an entire culture plate, whereas others take days to form even a single visible colony.

Using different nutrient media, I cultured microorganisms collected from a variety of hosts and locations across Leipzig. Can you guess which microbiome came from a dog, a cat, or a tree?

There for you on site: Nico Eisbrenner, Paul Grohmann und Joshua Neumann, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology

How do we learn? How do we solve problems? How do we perceive the social world around us? The Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology explores these and many other questions around the world. We compare people from different cultures with our closest relatives, the great apes, to find out which abilities we share, what makes us uniquely human, and how strongly culture shapes the way we think and act.

Visit our booth and experience research hands-on! Discover some of our studies with children and great apes, solve puzzles yourself, and join us in exploring the mysteries of human thinking.

There for you on site: Leon Duensing & Team, PhD representative at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences

Mathematics explores the spaces we move through, the shapes that surround us, and the patterns – both visible and hidden – that we find in nature and science.

We invite you to explore the visual and tangible side of mathematics through geometric models, hands-on experiments, and fascinating puzzles. Build the five Platonic solids, discover the Möbius strip, and find out what surprising structures can emerge from simple shapes.

Whether you’re experimenting with mathematical shapes for the first time or already a true geometry enthusiast, there’s something here for everyone to discover, explore, and be amazed by.

There for you on site: Philip Vedder; Mathematics Lab, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences

Explore mathematics you can see and touch, through physical objects that bring abstract ideas to life. Discover 3D prints and visualizations ranging from hyperbolic geometry and Klein bottles to fractals and unusual rolling objects. 

About the Mathematics Lab:
The Mathematics Lab is a centre for innovative and interdisciplinary research in mathematics, with three main areas of focus: experiments and computation in mathematics, mathematics and artificial intelligence, and science communication. Its aim is to create a space that advances mathematical research while also making its beauty and relevance to society visible.

Talk & Live Demonstration

What would things sound like if they had a sound, just as they have an appearance? The Sonificator is a generative sound device: cameras and sensors scan an object’s colour, shape, and material and translate them in real time into an ambient soundscape.

Carl Ahner introduces the idea behind the device and demonstrates it live. What happens when we “see an object with our ears”? Can this translation change the way we perceive the world around us – and how we connect or resonate with it? What hidden memories might become audible?

Developed as a master’s thesis at HTW Dresden (2024/25) together with Paul Werner (programming and technical implementation), the Sonificator sits at the intersection of design, sensor technology, and sound art – offering a playful, synesthetic approach to the everyday objects around us. Feel free to bring your own objects to try out!

🔗 www.carlahner.de · https://youtu.be/GZpZgWwXHwU · Instagram @curled_ntt · mail@carlahner.de

Panthera Krause is a producer, DJ, and illustrator from Leipzig – and, together with Peter Invasion, one half of the label Riotvan. Growing up in eastern Germany in the late 1990s, surrounded by saxophone lessons, record shops, and his own radio show, he started out in 2007 with the band Marbert Rocel on Compost Records. In 2012, he released his first solo productions on Lobster Theremin.

Since then, his releases have appeared on Uncanny Valley, Live at Robert Johnson, and Permanent Vacation, alongside mixes for NTS Radio and Gilles Peterson, and sets at venues ranging from Panorama Bar and Corsica Studios to Burning Man. For the early afternoon at Bürgerbahnhof, he’ll leave the club behind and present an ambient set of floating chords, meandering arpeggios, and melancholic expanses. 

🔗 www.pantherakrause.com · soundcloud.com/panthera-krause · ra.co/dj/pantherakrause · riotvan.bandcamp.com

Zukunft Pink has been playing in Leipzig for years – at Distillery, Polikyl, Lisbeth Lauscht – and has recently taken her records further afield to Sardinia, Poland, Kenya, and Zanzibar. This summer, she’ll be playing at IBUG in Riesa and the Detect Festival at Schloss Bröllin.

Her sound: deep rhythms with an unmistakably feminine touch – soulful, calm in pulse, yet constantly in motion. After her set with us in May, she returns to Bürgerbahnhof for an afternoon session. Perfect timing: one of her mixes is simply called “Heiter bis Wolkig” (“Partly Cloudy”).

🔗 soundcloud.com/zukunftpink · Instagram @zukunftpink_

NICI PALM is a DJ, producer, and booker from Leipzig. Her sets weave indie dance, synthpunk, wave, and techno into a dark, hypnotic flow: driving kicks, thick distorted basslines, wavy synths, and ghostly vocals. Elegance meets punk.

A regular at Distillery and IfZ, she has recently played at Sisyphos and KitKat in Berlin, at the Detect Classic Festival, and at Festsaal Kreuzberg. In 2025, she released her single “Beauty of Greed” on Eastern Standard.At Bürgerbahnhof, she’ll take over the blue hour, gradually turning the day towards evening.

🔗 nici-palm.net · soundcloud.com/nici_p · Instagram @nici__palm__music · „Beauty of Greed" (Eastern Standard)

Very little is known about Horse Power. A strictly secretive DJ act, allegedly from the vast expanses of Mongolia, supposedly only sighted after dark. The only thing confirmed is the music: house, techno and bass, high energy, driven by chaos.

The final two hours at Bürgerbahnhof belong to them. If you want to know more, you’ll have to come.

You’ve already discovered our comics and the fascinating topics behind them and want to learn more? Then join our scavenger hunt, chat with the scientists and illustrators on site, and discover Science Streets from a whole new perspective. And there are some great prizes to be won, too!

The winners will be announced at 5:45 p.m.

Science Streets explores eleven neuroscience topics this year. Each comic is created by a team of a scientist and an illustrator. Different teams will be on site at different times throughout the day. Is there a particular topic you’re especially interested in? Then come by and meet the people behind the comics!

12:00–1:30 p.m.

• Cerebellum
• Interaction Between Hormones and the Brain
• Anxiety and Depression
• The Aging Brain

2:00–3:30 p.m.

• Memory (Infantile Amnesia)
• Brain Age
• The Rusting Brain
• Touch

4:00–5:45 p.m.

• Pain Perception
• Predictive Brain
• Interaction Between the Body and the Brain

Science Streets has entrusted its comics to the All Inclusive Improvisation Theatre and simply said: “You’ve got this.”

What happens when science meets the limitless freedom of improvisation? The result is a unique experiment where anything can happen. And the best part: you decide what happens on stage.

Come along and experience just how entertaining science and learning can be!

1:50 p.m. – Prize Draw
Posters for participants in the survey

Science Streets has entrusted its comics to the All Inclusive Improvisation Theatre and simply said: “You’ve got this.”

What happens when science meets the limitless freedom of improvisation? The result is a unique experiment where anything can happen. And the best part: you decide what happens on stage.

Come along and experience just how entertaining science and learning can be!

1:50 p.m. – Prize Draw
Posters for participants in the survey

Acknowledgments and closing remarks by Science Streets Founders Agata Patyczek and Laura Mayer.

Science Slam in English.

Speaker: Bonnie O'Malley - Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Human Brain Sciences

Stress is an evolutionary process, designed to protect us from harm. However, the world that we inhabit today is vastly different from the environment that humans spent hundreds of years adapting to. Modern humans become stressed in social situations, and even when thinking about hypothetical situations. And now research is suggesting that stress - like a virus - may be contagious; we may be able to ‘catch’ stress from others. In this talk, I will give an overview of the evolutionary function of stress, the social aspect of stress, and insights into the idea of ‘empathic stress’. I will also share some ideas and tips on how to manage stress related to social situations. I hope that by sharing what I learnt during my PhD, we can ultimately begin to understand and manage our experiences in an ever more stressful world.

This talk will be held in German.

Speaker: Merlin Szymanski, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Evolutionary Genetics

Wer lebte neben Bär, Hyäne und Löwe einst in unseren Höhlen – der Neandertaler oder der moderne Mensch? Oft fehlte das entscheidende Knochenfragment, um diese Frage zu beantworten. Doch selbst dort, wo keine sichtbaren Überreste erhalten sind, gibt es in der Regel reichlich Erde: In DNA-Spuren, die über Jahrtausende in archäologischen Sedimenten erhalten geblieben sind, stecken wertvolle Informationen über die Tier- und Menschengruppen, die einst eine Fundstelle besuchten. 

In einer groß angelegten Studie mit rund 3.000 Bodenproben von 150 Fundstellen in Europa, Asien und Afrika zeigen wir, wie sich das Kommen und Gehen von dominanten ausgestorbenen Säugetieren der Eiszeit sowie von archaischen und frühen modernen Menschen mithilfe neuester bioinformatischer Verfahren in Raum und Zeit nachzeichnen lässt. Dabei werfen wir auch einen Blick auf die Grenzen und Herausforderungen dieser neuen Methode sowie auf das, was die Zukunft der Sediment-DNA-Forschung noch bereithält. 

 

This talk will be held in English.

Speaker: Edward Eriksson, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences

In the early 1940s the British naturalist Alexander Corbet spent a few years catching butterflies in British Malaysia. Once he returned to the UK he consulted with the legendary statistician R.A. Fisher as to how many new species he may expect to discover on a return expedition. Analogous questions have since appeared in many places, for example in genome sequencing. Consequently many statisticians have written about what has become known as the "Unseen Species Problem", proposing various methodologies. In recent work I revisited the problem and proposed a new model/methodology.

This talk will be held in German.

Speaker: Lena Jung, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution

Mikroorganismen sind überall. In und auf uns Menschen, in Lebensmitteln, an den extremsten Orten dieser Erde – und wahrscheinlich auch an solchen, die der Mensch noch nicht entdeckt hat. Wie können wir unser Feindbild gegenüber Bakterien, Pilzen und Viren überwinden, wenn doch ein Leben ohne sie unmöglich ist? Der 1991 von der Evolutionsbiologin Lynn Margulis geprägte Begriff „Holobiont” beschreibt, dass jeder komplexe Organismus, egal ob Mensch, Tier oder Pflanze, nur aus dem Zusammenspiel vieler kleiner Organismen bestehen kann. Doch wo kommen diese eigentlich her? In meiner Arbeit schaue ich mir an, wie sich Sozialverhalten auf die Übertragung von symbiotischen, also „guten“, Bakterien auswirkt. 

 

This talk will be held in English.

Speaker: Dr. Irina Bobrova, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences

Sounds a little bit abstract, right? But actually, we can observe the phenomenon of non-commutativity in real life. We will explore this notion through examples from our everyday routine and formulate it in a formal, mathematical way. No background is needed. Just bring yourself and grab the knowledge — not the other way around!