Working in their laboratory at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin in Adlershof, Dr. Alexander Schnegg and Dr. Klaus Lips are tracking down aging processes. However, the cells they are investigating in-between the enormous magnetic coils have nothing to do with biology, even if the Sun is their elixir of life.

To 'When cells age'

Algae convert the greenhouse gas CO₂ back into biomass, with the added extra that a high proportion of the oils produced can be used as fuels. Two research groups at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology are now working on optimising this process.

To 'Algae as energy supplier'

A lot of energy is consumed in the built environment. Not only for heating, but also – perhaps not so well known – for producing building materials. The cement industry alone uses between two and three per cent of the worldwide energy demand for its energy intensive production processes and emits five to seven per cent of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas CO2 produced by its raw materials and fuels into the atmosphere.

To 'New cement saves energy and CO₂'

Even modern, fossil fuel fired power stations blow around half of the primary energy into the atmosphere. To make this much more efficient, scientists headed by Professor Dr. Lorenz Singheiser from the Institute of Energy Research at the Forschungszentrum Jülich are developing new materials that can with stand higher operating temperatures and extreme loads without changing their inner structures through aging.

To 'High temperature materials increase efficiency'

The Sun shows us how and releases energy by fusing atomic nuclei. Nuclear fusion could also become a climate friendly source of energy on Earth as well. The experimental reactor “ITER” (Latin for “path”) aims to demonstrate the feasibility of this technology.

To 'Looking for the right material for ITER´s wall'

In just six hours, the world’s deserts receive more energy from the sun than humankind uses in one whole year. The Desertec Industrial Initiative, which was founded in October 2009 by a number of major industrial companies, aims to provide 15 per cent of the European electricity demand by 2050 through imports from solar thermal power plants in North Africa and the Middle East.

To 'Solar power from the deserts'