Although Ursula Bassler grew up in Germany, it is through her work in France that she has risen to become one of the most influential women in the field of particle physics. Her roots in both countries are useful in her work today.

They are constantly passing through our bodies without us noticing. Even more than 60 years after they were discovered, neutrinos still hold mysteries for the scientific community. Because they are so elusive, they are also called ghost particles.

Black holes have always been a source of fascination. But is there really anything to the legend that a black hole could swallow the Earth? Volker Schomerus, a quantum physicist at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), knows the answer.

Researchers are working to unravel the mystery of neutrinos – and, nearly 60 years after their discovery, are gradually getting to the bottom of one of the greatest riddles in the natural sciences.

Temperatures fall as low as negative 100 degrees during the winter. Darkness prevails for six months. Work at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station demands a lot from the researchers there. Emanuel Jacobi lived and worked there for a year, learning a lot about himself along the way.

Understanding the structures of molecules is an important part of developing new medicines. X-ray flashes can provide valuable assistance in this process, and this is an area in which physicist Henry Chapman and his team have already achieved the first pioneering breakthroughs.

Scientists have made a breakthrough involving great expectations for a new access to the universe.

The earth is being incessantly bombarded by a stream of energy-rich particles from the universe. By means of a new observatory a group of astrophysicists aims at tracking down the cosmic events that trigger this particle storm.

Osmium is one tough customer. Instead of crumbling or caving in, the metal stayed intact when research scientists at the University of Bayreuth and the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY applied pressure to it.