Press releases

The first 3D images from the TanDEM-X satellite mission are now available. Just one month after the launch of TanDEM-X, which took place on 21 June 2010, DLR researchers have created the first digital elevation model – almost a week ahead of schedule. A group of Russian islands in the Arctic Ocean was selected for the first test.

TanDEM-X delivers first 3D images

A research team led by Dr. Heiko Lickert of Helmholtz Zentrum München has pinpointed a gene that is essential for the physiologically correct disassembly of cilia. Errors in the regulation of cilia assembly are implicated in a variety of human syndromes. Until now, however, the consequences of faulty cilia disassembly have not yet been elucidated. The findings are reported in the current issue of the prestigious journal Developmental Cell.

Important Clue to Understanding the Pathogenesis of Ciliary Disorders

How can digital services be offered in an intelligent, user-friendly, and efficient way? What is required for a good IT architecture and price, above all when services are provided jointly by several suppliers? These topics will be in the focus of the “Second Karlsruhe Service Summit” on Friday, July 23, 2010. The Karlsruhe Service Research Institute (KSRI) of KIT will bring together more than 160 renowned experts from science and decision-makers from politics and industry in order to discuss current and future developments in service research.

Targeting Digital Services

Do electrons have a fourth property in addition to mass, charge and spin, as popular physics theories such as supersymmetry predict? Researchers from Germany, the Czech Republic and the USA want to find the answer to this fundamental question of physics. In order to improve the precision of previous measurements, they have created a new material with the aid of the Jülich supercomputer JUROPA. The scientists report on this in the current issue of "Nature Materials".

Researchers Seeking the Fourth Property of Electrons

Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) at Garching and Greifswald – one of the largest fusion research centres in Europe – will commemorate its 50-year jubilee with celebrations on 26 July 2010. In the presence of Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer and Bavarian Minister of Research Dr. Wolfgang Heubisch, representatives of the Federal Ministry of Research and of the European Union, and numerous guests of honour, IPP is celebrating 50 years of successful research – a fitting occasion to review the long road traversed on the way towards a fusion power plant and to consider the ground still to be covered.

Energy for the future

When Harald zur Hausen was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008, Manfred Lautenschläger spontaneously offered to support the Nobel laureate’s scientific work by funding a new research team. These funds will now go to Angelika Riemer, a young scientist who plans to advance the development of a vaccine which is able to cure existing infections with carcinogenic human papillomaviruses at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ).

One Million for Cancer Research: Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation supports the development of new vaccines against cancer

For the first time, KIT scientists have successfully measured in the ozone layer the chlorine compound ClOOCl which plays an important role in stratospheric ozone depletion. The doubts in the established models of polar ozone chemistry expressed by American researchers based on laboratory measurements are disproved by these new atmospheric observations. The established role played by chlorine compounds in atmospheric ozone chemistry is in fact confirmed by KIT’s atmospheric measurements.

Key Compound of Ozone Destruction Detected

The source of diamonds is closely linked with processes, which take place deep in the Earth’s interior, at the core-mantle boundary at depths of approximately 2900 kilometres. The same procedures, which led to the formation of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs), also sculpted the areas in the cores of the continents, in which today the richest diamond deposits of the world are found. That is a result of the investigation of Kimberlite rocks, presented by a group of scientists from Norway, South Africa, Germany and the USA in the latest volume of “Nature”.

Diamonds as Signposts

Today, on the 15th July at 14:32 GMT, the georesearch satellite CHAMP orbits the Earth for the 57217th time, thus heralding its 10th anniversary in service. Exactly one decade ago, the satellite was set into an almost polar orbit at the head of a Russian COSMOS-rocket following a text-book launch from the Plesetsk cosmodrome.

Birthday in Space: Recap of the life of a satellite

The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association will be thirty years old on 15 July. Through its innovative scientific and excellent research infrastructure the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) has developed into one of the world’s leading internationally recognised centres for climate research on both polar regions and the oceans.

30 years of Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research - Ice, sea and climate – research to understand our Earth better