Encoded messages: 58th issue of the research magazine EINBLICKE

Front cover: Cryptography as a field of research, also: dragon-wheeled animals, the understanding of crisis in ancient Greece, gender constructions in Richard Wagner. In the EINBLICKE research magazine of the University of Oldenburg, scientists present current research topics - in a generally understandable way and aimed at a broad readership. Mathematicians Florian Heß and Andreas Stein specialise in secret messages and their encryption. The two authors provide an introduction to their field of research, cryptography, which has been a hot topic not only since the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden. to the article
The ancient Greeks and Romans also had their crises. However, as the ancient historian Michael Sommer points out in his article, they lacked one thing completely: The belief of our present day that crises are fundamentally manageable. Sommer describes an era in which history was nothing more than a story of perpetual decline - and which nevertheless knew how to deal with crises pragmatically. to the article
Musicologist Melanie Unseld is interested in the underexposed aspects of Wagner research. In this interview, she describes why Richard Wagner and pop culture are not opposites. And that she is interested in the nuances that Wagner incorporated into the concepts of hero and woman. to the article
Wherever water collects on the globe, they feel at home: dragon rotifers of the species Cephalodella ungulata. Evolutionary biologist Olaf R.P. Bininda-Emonds has been studying them in waters in Oldenburg and around the world. In the process, he has discovered some surprising relationships.

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