Press releases
News and views on research at the Helmholtz Association - this is the place to look for all the press releases issued by the Helmholtz Association Research Centres. A comfortable search function helps you to view specific news items from the Helmholtz Research Centres in chronological order. Older press releases since 2003 can be found in our archive or on the website of the relevant Helmholtz Research Centre.
At present only a selection of press releases is available in English - switch to the German version with the topmost navigation bar for a complete overview.
07 June 2013, Forschungszentrum Jülich
Algae instead of oil – this is the goal for the aviation fuels of the future. In the collaborative AUFWIND project involving twelve partners from research and industry, Jülich researchers are investigating the suitability of biomass made from microalgae as a basis for the production of kerosene. Key questions addressed are the economic and ecological feasibility of the process. The Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) is funding the project with € 5.75 million via its project management organization FNR (Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe). Total funding for the project amounts to some € 7.4 million.
07 June 2013, Forschungszentrum Jülich
Proteins transport oxygen, fight pathogens, and act as building blocks for muscles and tendons. To be able to fulfil these functions, they must adopt a complex spatial structure. They are assisted in this by helper proteins known as chaperones. An international team of researchers has succeeded for the first time in analysing the intermediate stage of folding in the cavity of the common chaperone GroEL. Their findings have been published in the renowned journal Cell.
06 June 2013, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Centre for Materials and Coastal Research
On June 10th, 2013, at the 7th Study Conference on BALTEX, a new international and interdisciplinary research programme, Baltic Earth, will be launched. The aim of Baltic Earth is to achieve an improved understanding of the Earth system for the Baltic Sea region, focusing on physical and biogeochemical processes which interact in the atmosphere, in the sea including sea ice, and on land. Human interactions with the environment are recognized as an important part of the regional Earth system.
06 June 2013, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
A special passenger was on board during the launch of ESA’s fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), ‘Albert Einstein’, on 5 June 2013 at 23:52 CEST – the STEREX experiment, funded by the DLR Space Administration and the European Space Agency (ESA).
06 June 2013, Forschungszentrum Jülich
With a new world record of over 20,000 hours in continuous operation, Forschungszentrum Jülich’s direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) have once again demonstrated their practical applicability. This type of fuel cell is particularly suited to powering small vehicles, but for a long time they were considered unreliable. DMFCs work with liquid methanol, which is much easier to store than pure hydrogen. The Jülich system that passed the long-term test is specifically designed for use in electric forklifts that are used, for example, in large transport hubs, which are at the centre of the global flows of goods
