We were featured on the iconic TV show “Sendung mit der Maus“! Special Episode for the Day of German Unity

Symbolic picture for the article. The link opens the image in a large view.

6. October 2025

We’re proud to announce that our research was featured in the “Sendung mit der Maus”, one of Germany’s most beloved kids TV programs — and not just in any episode! Our contribution was selected for the special episode #DeineSendung and part of the special broadcast for the Day of German Unity on October 3rd.

Among many entries from across Germany, our project was selected as the winner and featured in the nationwide TV special. In the episode, we showed how it’s possible to create brilliant colors without pigments — inspired by butterflies and other natural structures — using only the right material design on the nanoscale.

Our segment appears around 20 minutes into the episode, and you can watch it here. For our international audience: the video is in German and without subtitles, so we’ve included a few screenshots below that capture some of the highlights from the show.

Niki explains our host Jana how pigments work and why they bleach. But we discovered a possible solution for that…

Giulia shows Jana that butterfly wings don’t have pigments but structures, so they don’t bleach.

Julia explains how we can imitate the butterfly’s structure in the lab using particles.

The appearance on Die Sendung mit der Maus was also connected to the “Türöffner-Tag” on October 3rd, where, in collaboration with panOPTICUM we opened our doors to curious visitors of all ages. Our event was a success, bringing together more than 40 kids and their parents to learn about colors and optics.

If you’d like to experience more of our colorful research, come meet us at the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften on October 25 th — we’ll be there to share even more science, creativity, and fun!