Dr. Rachel Lippert

Curious to know about how it all started? Check out my interview with @leibniz_dife discussing #science, #scicomm, #mentoring and more! German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke: Interview with Rachel Lippert #womeninstem #newPI #brain dife.de/en/interview-w…

Your brain at 2 AM writing a paper you started at 10 PM is operating in a neurochemical state that most productivity systems spend thousands of dollars trying to replicate. Sleep deprivation suppresses your prefrontal cortex. That's the region responsible for self-criticism, second-guessing, and the voice that says "this paragraph isn't good enough." At 2 AM, that voice goes quiet. Not because you've achieved some zen state. Because the hardware running it is shutting down for the night and you won't let it. Meanwhile the deadline is dumping norepinephrine and cortisol into your system, which narrows your attention to a single point. Your brain physically cannot multitask in that state. No checking your phone. No opening a new tab. The stress response has commandeered every available resource and pointed it at the Google Doc. Lowered inhibition plus chemically forced single-task focus. That combination is almost identical to what Csikszentmihalyi documented across 30 years of flow state research. Clear goal, immediate feedback, challenge matched to skill. A 12-page paper due in 8 hours hits all three criteria by accident. The lo-fi beats matter more than people think. Repetitive audio at 60-70 BPM synchronizes with resting heart rate and suppresses novelty-seeking circuits. You stop hearing it within minutes. It becomes an auditory wall that blocks interruption without costing you any cognitive load. It's the cheapest sensory deprivation chamber ever built. And the black coffee at midnight is pharmacologically different from your morning cup. Your adenosine levels have been building all day, so the caffeine is fighting a much stronger sleep signal. The subjective experience of "wired but calm" at 1 AM is a different drug interaction than alert-at-9-AM. Same molecule, completely different neurochemical environment. Every semester, twice a semester, four years straight. That's 40 sessions of accidental deep work before anyone had a name for it. The grade was an A- because the conditions were perfect. Not despite the chaos. Because of it.

@KindSbierski @Molofsky_lab Woohoo!! Great news!!! I can imagine you’re so happy to finally have this published!

So glad to see this finally being published! Huge thanks to the whole team, and a special shout-out to @Molofsky_lab for the incredible mentorship! Check out how the adventitial fibroblast-ILC2 niche restrains liver fibrosis... science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Today marks 2 full months (🤯) without grocery shopping, and really the first creative meal this far. Quinoa bowl! #healthyeating #easyrecipes #madefromscratch #emptythecupboards #wastenotwantnot #funwithfood

Happy to comment on new work from the Betley lab! (S+) Studie zu Ausdauertraining: Wie das Gehirn den Körper fit macht spiegel.de/wissenschaft/m… via @derspiegel

Major life hack: Be optimistic. The way you choose to perceive the world impacts every single area of your life. Choose wisely.

@SMikulovic @CellReports Woohoo!!! Congrats to you and the whole team!

Excited to share that our first study on the hippocampus’ role in helping behavior in mice is now published in @CellReports. This work was driven by an amazing team in my lab, and marks an important milestone for more, exciting studies to come! cell.com/cell-reports/f…

Today I'd like to honor the memory of my mentor and friend, Roger Tsien, born 1952 February 1. Today would have been Roger's 74th birthday. Most know Roger for his 2008 Chemistry Nobel Prize with Shimomura and Chalfie. Roger made GFP into the versatile imaging method it is now.

@jdpereira I feel you there. A year of unsuccessful applications. Time to regroup for 2026!

20 grant applications this year. No hits so far. Sigh. Onwards and upwards!

The most dangerous addiction today isn't a substance. Research on 100,000 people confirms that heavy short-form video use is just voluntary cognitive decline. We are actively training our brains to fail at hard tasks. If you can simply sit with a problem for 10 minutes without swiping, you have a massive competitive advantage. Basically, boredom is the new IQ.

@So_Steculorum @cgardanaz @LCReimon Congrats Sophie!

🤩I’m beyond excited to finally share our paper! 🎉 It’s been a long journey and a true team effort. Congratulations to our outstanding first authors, @LCReimon and Ayden Gouveia, and to all of the co-authors who made this possible 🙌! nature.com/articles/s4225…

Join us on Dec 10th online! Looking forward to this upcoming GSRNet flagship webinar with Scott Russo on brain–body circuits in stress and depression, which I will have the pleasure of chairing! @GSRNet_ Don't miss it: gsr-net.org/workshops-webi… Great opportunity to connect!

I know it’s a small study, but if this is true, then my love of cheese will never cease! Protective (even if only a teeny tiny bit) is still a check in the positive for me! 🤓🧀 story below: A Taste For Cheese May Reveal Your Future Risk of Dementia sciencealert.com/a-taste-for-ch…

Starts to look a lot like that social butterfly neuron I posted about earlier! So cool.

The “social butterfly” neuron.

neuron trying to connect to other neurons

@GilesYeo @ApolloVictoria How cool!!

Spoke to ~2000 A-level biology students (17-18yr) today at the @ApolloVictoria Theatre in London’s west end. The only time I’ve been here previously was to see Wicked! #obesity #genetics #obesityisnotachoice

Featured today on @rtlgroup Deutschland: our study on Softdrinks and Depression! Check it out starting at 1h14min! rtl.de/sendungen/punk… @SThanarajah did a wonderful job in the interview after a bit of short notice! Time to rethink what we drink! #depression #softdrinks🥤🧠