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the World?” Where do religious symbols like the Cross or the Star of David come from? What happens in our brains when we have to find our way around an un- familiar city? The ultimate test for the researchers is a question and answer session broadcast live on university radio in which they have to field ques- tions from a group of first graders. Arno Mattes, a forest scientist at the Institute of Forest Growth, has brought an enormous wooden disk with him. He explains how you can tell how old a tree is by counting the rings. But the cub reporters are inter- ested in other things: “How many trees are there in the world?,” asks a little girl and holds the micro- phone up to the scientist’s face with both hands. Mattes chuckles, nonplussed by the unexpected question: If the population is young, he ponders, a hectare can support over 10,000 trees, but it can only support 100 to 200 old trees. Baden-Württem- berg has 1.4 million hectares of forests. He could attempt to provide a rough estimation – but what would be the point of confronting the child with such inconceivable numbers? “Do you know what’s much easier to count? The species of trees that grow in Baden-Württemberg,” answers Mattes. “We actually don’t have that many kinds of trees here. Spruces are everywhere. In the Swabian Alb there are mostly beeches, the Rhine Valley has a lot of oaks, and in the Black Forest you also have the fir, which even grows naturally here.” The girl considers for a few seconds, and then asks: “Why is the Black Forest called the Black Forest?” Mattes’ actual job is to teach master’s students of forest science, but he is used to answering questions like these: When he worked at ForstBW, the former state forest agency of Baden-Württem- berg, part of his job involved taking school classes on forest excursions and explaining to them how the cycle of nature works. Moreover, as the father of a five-year-old daughter and a ten-year-old son he often has to explain abstract concepts from his discipline to little children in daily life. An example of this is the squirrel game: One group, the squir- rels, hides nuts in the forest, while another group, the robbers, tries to find and collect them to eat during the winter months. If the robbers and the squirrels both miss one of the nuts, it can grow into a tree. “There are wonderful forest education con- cepts that can be used to teach even elementary school children a whole lot about the foundations of their environment,” says the forest scientist – and they can be taught in the great outdoors. Surprising Science: Research on the Internet The insight into research offered by the Univer- sity of Freiburg’s research platform Surprising Sci- ence, by contrast, is of a virtual nature. The portal went online in 2012. Colorful spherical links float like atoms on a chain against the gray background of the site. When one positions one’s mouse over one of the links, a speech balloon reveals what’s behind it – for instance Icelandic sagas or protec- tion against radiation. The platform presents indi- vidual research findings and special features on an overarching theme from the perspective of different fields. The special feature on age, for example, ­explores the following questions: How does Goethe illustrate the process of aging in his texts? What effect does age have on linguistic abilities? And how is it possible to conceive of time in physical terms? “We want to emphasize connections between academic research and developments that are im- portant for society at large,” says Annette Kolle- frath-Persch, coordinator of the Surprising Science editorial staff. She researches new topics and pays visits to established professors as well as aspiring young researchers. “For example, we reported on a student who was conducting research into the language of youths. What counts is the quality of the research.” The research portal Surprising Science presents the university’s latest research findings with texts, images, and videos. 5