MARUM study in National Geographic's top 11 list

Dec 29, 2023

The Geobiomolecular Imaging lab at MARUM is currently the only geoscience lab in the world dedicated to ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry imaging for elucidating in-situ distributions of organic molecules in sediments on a microscale. Photo: MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen; V. Diekamp

National Geographic magazine has named a study involving MARUM as one of the eleven most astonishing scientific discoveries of 2023. It was published in June in the journal Nature. Dr. Benjamin Nettersheim from MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen is one of the lead authors of the study. He and his international colleagues have identified biomarkers that indicate that complex life played an important ecological role in Earth’s early oceans over a billion years ago.

National Geographic's inclusion in the list recognizes the team's approach of searching for molecular fossils to detect the cell membrane of eukaryotes. Eukaryotes are organisms with a clearly defined nucleus such as animals, plants and fungi.

List in National Geographic

More information on the study