News - Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

The latecomer

Wendelstein 7-X is the world’s largest and most advanced nuclear fusion device of the stellarator type. Its objective is to test whether a new source of energy could emerge for humanity from fusing light atomic nuclei.

Solar fuels

The quest for the perfect energy storage system

Our sun delivers huge amounts of energy to us every day. But we are only making use of a small percentage of it. If Kathrin Aziz-Lange had her way, this situation would soon be changed.

HELMHOLTZ Extreme

The loudest workstation

The explosion is up to 263 decibels loud that Thomas Jordan creates at his work-station. Compared to this, a jet taking off with its 110 decibels sounds almost like a whisper.

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Global Warming

“We can see, hear, and feel climate change”

Bis zu zwei Wochen kann es dauern, bis Doris Abele ihren Arbeitsplatz - die Polarforschungsstation Carlini, erreicht. Hier, am nördlichsten Zipfel der Antarktischen Halbinsel, erforscht sie, wie sich die Gletscherschmelze auf den Lebensraum dieser Küsten auswirkt.

Water

Every drop counts

Water is scarce in the Middle East. But Israel has made a virtue of necessity despite its lack of this resource. The country is now a world leader in seawater desalination, water recycling, and smart irrigation technology.

Pollutants

Something in the air

Air pollution and emission limits have become politically explosive issues. But what does good air actually consist of – and where do pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, ozone, or particulate matter come from?

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Alzheimer’s

The battle against oblivion

No longer recognizing loved ones or losing treasured memories – hardly any other sign of aging scares people more than forgetting. Researchers are trying to explain the molecular causes of Alzheimer’s disease and thereby find the key to a treatment.

Ernst Jung Award

The origin of pain

In recent years, researchers have succeeded in understanding the development of pain right down to the molecular level. This facilitates totally new treatment approaches, with one of the most unusual animals on our planet playing a key role.

Interview

“The greatest gift of my career”

Founding Director of the DZNE, Pierluigi Nicotera, talks about what has been achieved in the 10 years of the Center’s existence, about painful setbacks suffered – and about the questions he most frequently hears during informal conversations.

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Year of Space

From the ISS to Mercury

Alexander Gerst in command of the ISS, a mole landing on Mars, and a launch toward Mercury: These are just three major events in space exploration we have to look forward to in 2018. What follows is an overview of some of this year’s highlights, which are increasingly being shaped by private initiatives.

Helmholtz Extreme

Growing fresh food in the Antarctic

Scientists are working to grow fresh vegetables in a greenhouse surrounded by perennial ice. The experiment will supply the winter crew at Neumayer Station with fresh food, but it is primarily designed to provide experience and data for future Mars missions.

Interview

How dirty is diesel really?

Most people think diesel engines are significant contributors to air pollution. But modern models produce hardly any particulates or nitrogen oxides. We spoke with Thomas Koch about a technology that has fallen into such disrepute.

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Neutrinos

The superstars of particle physics

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.

IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Astrophysics in the Antarctic

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.

Portrait

Making the invisible visible

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.

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Public transport

Researching ways to make train stations safer

Platforms at train stations are often very crowded – especially during rush hour. Researcher Maik Boltes and his team want to improve situations like these by seeking effective ways to manage crowds of people.

New Center

“We research every aspect of information security”

Helmholtz has a new member. We spoke to Michael Backes, the director of the Helmholtz Center for Information Security, about computer viruses, autonomous driving, patient data—and how to attract employees from Silicon Valley to the state of Saarland in southwestern Germany.

Brain research

“Show me your brain, and I’ll tell you who you are”

Could job interviews be replaced by a simple brain scan? This just might be possible someday thanks to the methods neuroscientists at Forschungszentrum Jülich are developing. But it’s more likely that they will enable early diagnosis of depression and dementia.

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Sustainability

“It is not a matter of recycling old ballpoint pens”

Denise Völker is the first sustainability officer appointed at DESY in Hamburg. In her new job, not only has she learned a lot about physics, but also that the staff actually demand changes to promote environmental protection.

Matter matters

Without large research infrastructures modern science would lack a crucial basis. Every year Helmholtz offers more than ten thousand scientists from over thirty countries acces to its research infrastructures. That is making a decisive contribution to scientific and technological progress.

Theater meets Science

Raising the curtain on fake news

As part of a series of events co-organized by the Berliner Ensemble and the Helmholtz Association, a science day was held with a focus on the topics of distrust and responsibility. Talking points included climate change, artificial intelligence, and what humans can learn from tiny worms.

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Interview

"The language of science knows no borders"

The first large-scale particle accelerator in the Middle East has been assembled in Jordan. Researchers from Israel, Iran, and the Palestinian territories work together there. We spoke to Rolf Heuer, former General Director of CERN and chairman of the project’s supervisory board.

"Israel Has Incredible Momentum"

The Helmholtz Association has opened a new international office in Tel Aviv. With this step, Germany’s largest research organization is seeking to take its cooperation with Israeli researchers and start-ups to a new level.

Helmholtz Juniors

On the Future of Science

The business practices of 'predatory publishers' drew a great deal of attention in the media. We asked seven young Helmholtz researchers about their ideas on how to cope with these issues.

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