Research News
Helmholtz Accelerates Development of Innovative Accelerators
Integration of the ALICE experiment’s inner tracker, LHC, CERN. Photo: Maximilien Brice (2007)Increasingly, particle accelerators are used also by medicine, life sciences and material research. The development and construction of innovative accelerator components thus has evolved into a comprehensive task that now receives intensified funding from the Helmholtz Association: Six Helmholtz centres, two Helmholtz institutes, eleven universities, two Max Planck Institutes and the Max Born Institute closely cooperate on the portfolio topic of "Accelerator Research and Development" (ARD). The...more
How the Internal Clock is Being Lost
The internal or biological clock tells the organism when it is advantageous to look for food and when the body needs rest. It is controlled by certain genes, but is continuously readjusted by light. Because a day on Earth has 24 hours, this biological clock features the same rhythm in almost all living organisms. Yet there are exceptions:more
Polar 6 on First Mission to Antarctic
The new polar research aircraft Polar 6 has successfully returned from its first research mission to the Antarctic. The aircraft of the Basler BT-67 type is equipped with numerous specially developed devices for capturing geophysical data and for exact surveying of the several kilometre thick ice crust. The Federal Ministry of Research funded the...more
DLR Planet Researchers Generate 3-D Model of Moon Surface
DLR scientists now have generated a three-dimensional, digital moon model comprised from a total of 70,000 images and featuring a hitherto unique degree of precision and completeness. A film shows virtual flights across the Moon. The image data was provided by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) orbiting the Moon since 2009, which captures...more
"Stiftung Warentest" Appraisal for Solar Cell Technologies
When analysing thin layers of solar cells, experts face a problem well-known to every consumer: Various methods of measurement are available for investigating the quality of layers and the distribution of chemical elements. Yet which one is the best suited to the task? An international team now has presented a comprehensive study comparing 18 of...more
Targeted Dissolution of Magnesium Implants
Over the course of the next four years, the EU project "Tailored biodegradable magnesium implant materials" (MagnIM) is to develop and test the first prototypes of biocompatible bone implants made of magnesium. The project funded with three million Euro is coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre Geesthacht (HZG). Implants made of the light...more
Researchers Discover Graphene-like Material
The 2010 Nobel Prize for physics went to two scientists researching the material graphene and its astonishing characteristics. Together with Korean colleagues, Dr Frederick Wolff-Fabris from the Helmholtz Centre Dresden-Rossendorf now has developed a material displaying physical characteristics that are similar to graphene. It is comprised of the...more
Two Years of Wunderkammer Wissenschaft: Summary and Outlook
When the planning of the concept began in 2006, there was considerable doubt whether a travelling exhibition featuring large and moving pictures from the world of science could hold its own. These doubts now are dispelled with: Since September 2009, the Wunderkammern or cabinets of scientific curiosities from the world of Helmholtz research...more
How the Immune System Fights Tumours
Hepatocellular carcinoma are one of the most frequent malignant cancer forms world-wide. It usually is caused by liver cirrhosis, in turn caused by chronic viral hepatitide infection (hepatitis B or C). Researchers at the Braunschweig Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) around Professor Dr Lars Zender and at the Medical University...more
Deaf People Feel Differently
It is well-known that blind people have a more developed tactile sense than people who can see. Less well-known, however, is the fact that people suffering from a certain kind of hereditary hearing impairment have a significantly heightened tactile sense for vibration in their fingertips than healthy people display.
Together with clinicians from...more
Fighting Cancer with Viruses
Parvoviruses can infest cancer cells and kill them, yet cause no disease in humans. At the end of October, a clinical phase I/IIa study commenced at the Neurosurgery Department of the University Hospital Heidelberg, that is the first to test the safety of a treatment with parvoviruses. The innovative treatment is developed for clinical application...more
Helmholtz International
On this special page, we report news from the Helmholtz offices in Brussels, Moscow and Beijing several times a year. Specific focus is on cooperation and partnership ventures of the Helmholtz Association in Russia, China and the EU as well as on select international research policy news.more
