What the hell am I doing here? I am standing on Odeonsplatz in the city center of Munich, holding a gigantic ball of yarn. All thanks to the event “Soapbox Science“, which wants to enhance the visibility of female researchers to the general public. So here I am, talking about our research to passers-by…and many are actually interested! I was overwhelmed by the nice atmosphere on this somewhat rainy July afternoon and was happy to answer many questions on how we can keep our mitochondria happy, even when they have to travel such long distances into our axons (the ball of yarn I used to visualize how long an axon can be). Many thanks also to Hari, Alina and Tabitha for showing their support!

being part of the organizing team was more stressful than I thought, but all the more were we relieved when the SyNergy Summer Fair 2022 was a huge success. It was the 10th anniversary of our excellence cluster, so we went all out and organized an exciting scientific program (thanks to Karen Alim for being our keynote speaker and educating us on intelligence outside the brain). But also the non-scientific entertainment was wonderful, from a bouncy castle for the kids, to a magician for the adults. Special thanks also to Alina and Tabitha who staffed one of the kids entertainment tables and made wonderful things with them out of play dough. If you want more arts and crafts, see here.