5 June 2026, by Sara Walcher

Photo: UHH/Sara Walcher

Science, drinks and a bar packed to the brim—that was this year's Wissen vom Fass! Johanna Baehr joined the event again this year on the evening of June 4 at Café Miller in St. Pauli to talk about the Gulf Stream. By now, she’s a true Wissen vom Fass regular, having participated for several years in a row.

Café Miller was absolutely crammed, and the crowd was amazingly mixed: people of different ages, people with different scientific backgrounds, and most important — plenty of non-scientists too. And that’s exactly what Wissen vom Fass is all about: taking science out of the university so that everyone can join the conversation. People asked loads of questions, shared their thoughts and stayed really engaged throughout the evening. It was great to see how much the topic moved people and how curious they were to learn more.

Johanna’s talk, “Geht dem Golfstrom die Puste aus?”, focused on a question that keeps popping up in the news: Is the Gulf Stream really at risk of collapsing, and could that mean an ice age for Europe? The Gulf Stream transports heat northwards and plays a major role in keeping northern Europe’s climate relatively mild. Johanna explained what scientists currently know about the state of the North Atlantic, which effects of climate change we can already see and what all this could mean for Europe’s future climate.