The cooperation partners Universität Innsbruck and Innsbruck Nature Film Festival are pleased to present the award-winning film Hunt for the Oldest DNA from last years festival edition (original EN version).

“How can we travel back in time? Is there a time machine? Yes. It’s DNA. It’s ancient DNA.”

– Eske Willerslev

The Screening is followed by a joint conversation between the audience and the following uibk-experts:

• Corinna Wallinger – ecologist
• Bettina Thalinger – ecologist
• Magdalena Nagler – microbiologist
• Chris Rinke – microbiologist

Finish off with open discussions, exchange with scientists and relaxed networking  – drinks (and brez’n) are offered. All welcome!

Poster (PDF) campusKino@uibk Anfahrt

Synopsis

Hunt for the Oldest DNA tells the story of a maverick gene hunter, whose single-minded pursuit of an improbable scientific vision would tease and torment him before ending with a stunning triumph: a lost world recovered from a spoonful of dirt.

Two decades ago, Eske Willerslev had a radical idea: Could DNA, the fragile chemical code of life, survive intact in frozen sediment for millennia? Fellow scientists called him crazy. But the Danish biologist set out to prove everybody wrong, and his perseverance paid off with a landmark breakthrough – with massive implications for how we understand the deep past.

After many years of failure, Willerslev recovered the genetic traces of a lush forest ecosystem from before the Ice Age, more than two million years ago. The species identified from their DNA lived during the last hot epoch on Earth. Signaling a new era in DNA research, scientists can now use DNA to travel back millions of years and piece together vanished ecosystems. Today, they are poised to harvest the genetic secrets of these ancient worlds to help us adapt to our own climate future.

Contributors

Special thanks to the Innsbruck Nature Film Festival and the panelists. Many thanks to all interested parties and to the contributors, and supporting colleagues for their participation and for the great cooperation,

Günter Scheide, Transferstelle Wissenschaft-Wirtschaft-Gesellschaft

INFF | Institut für Ökologie | Institut für Mikrobiologie | Green Office (Technik) | Transferstelle Wissenschaft-Wirtschaft-Gesellschaft