Earth's magnetic field guides migratory birds over vast distances. Despite decades of research, the mechanisms behind avian magnetosensitivity remain unclear. Recent studies suggest cryptochromes play a role, but proving this is challenging. Our project explores whether rhodopsins, previously overlooked, also contribute. We aim to understand these photoreceptors at a molecular level and enable behavioural experiments with transgenic birds.

Certain ant species exhibit wound care and rescue behaviours towards injured nestmates, thereby enhancing their survival and sustaining the colony's workforce. Despite these benefits, it remains unclear how ecological and evolutionary factors have shaped these social behaviours. By using interdisciplinary methods from behaviour and theoretical biology, we aim to elucidate the causes and consequences underlying the evolution of wound care and rescue behaviours.

The human brain has the remarkable ability to flexibly generalize knowledge from specific learning experiences to new situations. However, the mechanisms underlying such generalization processes are still not fully understood. This project aims at characterizing the cognitive and neural representations that underlie successful generalization processes and to identify factors that influence them (e.g., sleep). As such, we hope to gain a better understanding of how we make sense of the continuously changing world around us.

Elastocaloric cooling utilizes stress-induced crystallographic phase transformation which releases or absorbs latent heat upon stress loading or removal. It is a promising next-generation solid-state cooling due to its high caloric effect. However, one of the disadvantages is the huge electric actuator required. This project aims to integrate actuators driven by low-grade heat to reach the goal of reducing driver-to-refrigerant mass ratio and zero electricity input.