Two Winning Teams at LifeScienceXplained 2023

The children’s book “Bakterien und so, die leben wo?!” and a YouTube video by Doktor Whatson on Big Data and AI in healthcare awarded with this year’s Sartorius Award for New Communication.

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A premiere in the third year of the LifeScienceXplained | Sartorius Award for New Communication: The jury selected two winners from the more than 70 entries and three finalists: Johanna Nelkner and Carlotta Klee with their children's non-fiction book "Bacteria and such, they live where?!" and the team of Cedric Engels, aka Doctor Whatson, with his YouTube clip about the use of artificial intelligence and big data in personalized medicine, will share the 15,000 euros in prize money.

The two winning teams received the LifeScienceXplained Award on November 1 at the Sartorius Campus in Göttingen in front of around 250 invited guests from the fields of science, culture, business, and politics. Sartorius had initiated the award in 2021 to honor German-speaking science communicators who present and explain the functionality and potential of life sciences to a broad audience in an understandable, innovative, and creative way.

Bakterien und so, die leben wo?! – Bacteria and such, they live where??!

The non-fiction children’s book is designed for 3–6-year-old children and teaches them that bacteria live everywhere: In snow and ice, on hot volcanoes, in the deepest ocean and in the highest clouds. And in our bodies, too. The focus is on their fun and useful talents: such as helping plants to grow, making medicine for people, helping bees produce honey, or turning manure into valuable biogas. Harmful microbes are also portrayed as well as habits that help us stay healthy - from proper handwashing and brushing our teeth to a healthy diet. Johanna Nelkner is a PhD student and microbiome researcher, and Carlotta Klee is an illustrator. They have launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to finance the project.

Personalized medicine - how Big Data and AI could revolutionize medicine

Big Data and Artificial Intelligence should make the knowledge of doctors accessible in everyday clinical practice. A number of programs, so-called computer-based decision support systems, already exist. However, surveys show that only about 30% of these programs are used in practice because they are not user-friendly. As Doktor Whatson, Cedric Engels addresses the question: Why have so-called computer-based decision-making systems not yet arrived in practice and how must they develop further? Together with his team, he creates around 20-minute knowledge contributions for the YouTube channel of the same name. In doing so, they apply scientific standards and at the same time attach importance to ensure that even complex content remains easy to understand.

Prof. Dr. Viola Priesemann, physicist at the Max Planck Institute, University of Göttingen and spokesperson for the jury, explains the decision as follows: "Both contributions convinced us as a jury in different ways. The children's non-fiction book shows how relevant bacteria are for us. The topic is presented in such a captivating and creative way that not only we, but also young readers, were very enthusiastic. The YouTube video by Doktor Whatson, on the other hand, shows the potential of Big Data and artificial intelligence in medicine, and does so in a way that is both entertaining and informative. The fact that the decision was made in favor of two award winners this year may be unusual, but it reflects the range and particularly the high quality of all contributions."

In addition to Prof. Dr. Viola Priesemann, this year’s jury consisted of Anja Martini, who shared the role of jury spokesperson and oversees the science section at German public broadcaster NDR’s Tagesschau, Inga Bergen, entrepreneur and expert for innovation in healthcare, Dr. Jan Pietras, engineer at the University Medical Center Göttingen and co-founder of myofarm, and Prof. Dr. Metin Tolan, President of the University of Göttingen.