An international team, including TERRAnaut and geomicrobiologist Andreas Kappler, provides recommendations on how to reduce the amount of pollutants, toxins, and heavy metals moving from the soil into rice grains during the production of the world's most important staple food. You can find the full article in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment here.

TERRA is part of Pan-GLASS 2026 in Stuttgart. We'll be on-site from July 6 to 9 to share information about TERRA. We're also sponsoring the Poster Award. We look forward to seeing you there! More information can be found here.

An international research team led by our colleague and TERRAnaut, Senckenberg researcher Debbie Leigh, and comprising further members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Conservation Genetics Specialist Group, has developed a new approach to more reliably identify genetically distinct groups within a species. The method is intended to improve both the assessment of extinction risks and the evaluation of reintroduction potential. The goal is to reduce the loss of genetic diversity by ensuring that genetically unique populations are effectively protected. The study has now been published in the journal BioScience. The full press release can be found here.

„Exzellent erklärt – Spitzenforschung für alle" is a podcast series on current science topics that reflects the research diversity of Germany's Clusters of Excellence — from A for Africa Studies to Z for the future of medicine.

Our speaker Kira Rehfeld and TERRAnaut Andreas Schweiger were featured in the latest episode, joining host Larissa Vassilian to discuss why the interactions between the living and non-living environment are key to understanding climate change. The episode also covers our Diversitorium.

The TERRA episode is available from 1 July 2026 here.

The TERRA team congratulates Madelaine on this recognition by the Umbrella Organization of Geosciences in Germany.

As a Professor of Terrestrial Paleoclimatology in Tübingen, Madelaine investigates the complex links between climate change, ecosystems, and the evolution of organisms.

Madelaine is also the first female professor in Geosciences at Tübingen, a Visiting Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Dartmouth College (USA), a Fellow of the Carl-Friedrich-von-Siemens-Stiftung, and a founding director of the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment.

We are proud to have Madelaine in our scientific community and, once again, congratulations on your achievement!