It’s no secret that World Cup fever has gripped the MPI-CBG, as all the weekday games are screened in our own auditorium, accompanied by a complicated beer betting system to let people predict the outcome. But our scientists have taken match prediction to a whole new level, creating oracles out of various model organisms.
Aiming to replace the late Octopus Oracle Paul, who correctly predicted all of Germany’s games during the last world cup, labs at the MPI have made Model Oracles with: Drosophila (Tomancak lab), red flour beetles (Tomancak), Zebrafish (Vastenhouw lab), Planeria (Rink lab), yeast (Alberti lab), and our personal favorite, Xenopus (Hyman lab postdoc Simone Reber). Simone’s frog oracles have predicted that Germany will win their first match against Portugal tonight by a score of 4-0. We can’t wait to see if they’re right! Check out an article about the Model Oracles printed in the newspaper Bild Zeitung, featuring Simone and her frogs.