Israel is one of our most important partner countries, but the country is in a crisis that is also affecting science. Helmholtz President Otmar Wiestler met with partner organizations in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Rehovot. During the trip, it became clear just how much pressure science is under in Israel. The international boycott of Israeli scientists was the subject of almost every conversation. It is good that the German scientific organizations have resolutely opposed such calls. Science is a pillar of a democratic society and we can only find solutions to the global challenges of our time only in an open dialogue across national borders  You can also read about a sensational discovery in which GEOMAR was involved: Manganese nodules in the deep sea are said to produce oxygen. And neuroscientists present a position paper with key points for the future of digital neuroscience. 

Enjoy your reading!

The Helmholtz Foundation Model Initiative (HFMI) is soliciting bids for a second round of projects. All Helmholtz researchers are eligible to apply. The deadline is September 16, 2024. Go to the call for proposals

A discovery in the dark depths of the Pacific Ocean is challenging the scientific consensus of how oxygen is produced and has even called into question how life on Earth began. In a study now published in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience, a team of authors led by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) shows that oxygen is formed in complete darkness at the seafloor 4,000 meters below the ocean surface. They hypothesize that seawater electrolysis may contribute to this “dark oxygen” production. Expertise on specific sensors provided by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany, helped to investigate the phenomenon which stands in surprising contrast to the established fact that oxygen is usually produced by photosynthetic organisms using energy from sunlight.

The discovery was made while sampling the seabed of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone to assess the possible impacts of deep-sea mining. This process would extract polymetallic nodules that contain metals such as manganese, nickel and cobalt, which may help to address the growing demand required to produce lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and mobile phones. The researchers found nodules to be carrying a very high electric charge, which could lead to the splitting of seawater into hydrogen and oxygen in a process called seawater electrolysis. Only a voltage of 1.5 Volt is needed for seawater electrolysis to occur – the same voltage as a typical AA battery. The team analyzed multiple nodules and recorded readings of up to 0.95 volts on the surfaces of some, meaning that significant voltages can occur when the nodules are clustered together.

The researchers first thought their sensors were faulty, because every study ever done in the deep sea has only seen oxygen being consumed rather than produced. But despite recalibrations, the surprising oxygen readings kept showing up, and a back-up method was explored.

In this context, Tobias Hahn, then a doctoral researcher at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, provided expertise on a specific type of oxygen optode sensors. To avoid methodological uncertainties and explore possibilities of bad sensor behavior, Hahn conducted calibration procedures, data processing and data evaluation of these sensors. “Through our exchange, we assured the data quality which goes beyond the typical measuring uncertainties and includes the sensor's individual drift and pressure behavior,” the chemical oceanographer said. “I was astounded about the results, yet relieved to re-assure the quality and validity of the oxygen optode sensor data which were obtained during the first field campaigns. At the same time, I was able to provide further advice on how to handle this sensor during future deployments.”

Expedition leader Andrew Sweetman now says that more investigation into ‘dark oxygen’ production is required during deep-sea mineral extraction baseline investigations as well as an assessment of how sediment smothering during mining may alter the process. “Through this discovery, we have generated many unanswered questions and I think we have a lot to think about in terms of how we mine these nodules, which are effectively batteries in a rock.”

Original publication:

Sweetman, A.K., Smith, A.J., de Jonge, D.S.W. et al. (2024): Evidence of dark oxygen production at the abyssal seafloor. Nature Geoscience, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01480-8

(Picture: ROV KIEL 6000, GEOMAR)

A vast viral world in wastewater
Deep metagenomic sequencing of wastewater in Berlin over 17 months shows this technique could help forecast disease outbreaks and monitor the spread of human pathogens. It can also reveal thousands of novel viruses, according to a study by the Landthaler lab from Max Delbrueck Center. Read more

BESSY II shows how solid-state batteries degrade
Solid-state batteries have several advantages: They can store more energy and are safer than batteries with liquid electrolytes. However, they do not last as long and their capacity decreases with each charge cycle. But it doesn’t have to stay that way: Researchers are already on the trail of the causes. A team from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and Justus-Liebig-Universität, Giessen, presents a new method for precisely monitoring electrochemical reactions during the operation of a solid-state battery using photoelectron spectroscopy at BESSY II. The results help to improve battery materials and design. Read more

The dawn of the Antarctic ice sheets
The "eternal“ ice in Antarctica is melting faster than previously assumed, particularly in West Antarctica more than East Antarctica. The root for this could lie in its formation, as an international research team led by the Alfred Wegener Institute has now discovered: Sediment samples from drill cores combined with complex climate and ice-sheet modelling show that permanent glaciation of Antarctica began around 34 million years ago, but did not encompass the entire continent as previously assumed, but rather was confined to the eastern region of the continent (East Antarctica). It was not until at least 7 million years later that ice was able to advance towards West Antarctic coasts. The results of the new study show how substantially differently East and West Antarctica react to external forcing, as the researchers describe in the journal Science. Read more

Tim Heitland is the medical coordinator at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), and is responsible for overwintering in Antarctica and leading expeditions to Neumayer Station III. From 2016 to 2018, he spent the winter there himself as a doctor and station manager. Photo: private

I am very lucky and privileged to have a job that is exciting in every way. For me, there is no one thing that is most exciting, but rather a whole range of exciting content, areas, expeditions, and most of all, the people I work with. I play a small part in making research possible in some pretty extreme places. Research in such remote and inhospitable areas, on land, on water, on ice and in the air, is not only exciting because of the challenging and, above all, relevant content. It also presents us with all kinds of challenges: The logistics and technology of such expeditions, as well as medical care in such an environment. And when you can be there and see and experience the incredible and unique beauty of this world, it is of course exhilarating. In particular, preparing the overwintering teams for Antarctica always brings me into contact with a very diverse group of people from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds. They all sparkle with enthusiasm, are capable and motivated, want to do their best and have a common goal. Nobody stays over winter by accident.

I would like to make it possible for more scientists and other people to spend the winter in Antarctica. There is so much to discover, including in the social sciences and humanities. I would also like to open up this platform to other people, for example, artists and writers, to share the experience and the possibilities of this project. Not only do I love the nature, wildlife, and sheer beauty of Antarctica, but it is also a place where I have learned and experienced much of what I consider desirable and important in and for life, including tolerance, community, respect, helpfulness, openness, and enthusiasm. Imagine if we could teach these values and experiences at an early age and have, for example, an international school class spend the winter here.

I’d like to listen to Kurt Gödel, M. C. Escher and Johann Sebastian Bach talk about endlessly braided ribbons while physicist Douglas Richard Hofstadter explains what it's all about. Maybe Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner could support me as a role model for achieving extreme goals. And if that doesn’t help, I’d be happy to talk to Tedros Teclebrhan about anything; Kaltenbrunner, Escher, Hofstadter and Bach would be delighted.

Supercomputing and large-scale, multidisciplinary collaboration are creating completely new opportunities for brain research. The European Human Brain Project (HBP) has made these new forms of collaboration possible. It has created a digital platform, the EBRAINS research infrastructure, where scientists from all over the world can find data, analysis tools and access to high-performance computing. This opens up unprecedented opportunities for brain research, medicine and technology development.

In our current position paper, more than 100 authors have outlined a common roadmap for digital neuroscience over the next decade. It identifies eight research priorities. These include high-resolution anatomical models such as the Julich BigBrain and detailed mapping such as the Julich Brain Atlas. Other priorities are applications in medicine and artificial intelligence (AI).

The work also points the way for neuroscientific research into further medical applications. The “digital twin” will play a key role here: Computer-aided, mathematical brain models that are continuously compared with real measurement data. Such personalized models will increasingly improve the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases, for example, through more precise surgical treatment of epilepsy.

However, further research must address the problem of the lack of harmonization and exchange of often fragmented clinical data. Together with its partner, the European Academy of Neurology, EBRAINS is developing a process to enable the harmonization, exchange and sharing of health data.

There is also enormous potential in new AI-based methods. AI foundation models in particular are changing research in a way that allows completely new questions to be addressed. EBRAINS can play an important role in this and pave the way for European foundation models of the brain in neurological and psychiatric diseases. It offers a well-developed data infrastructure with increasingly large training data sets of high quality.

It is not only the neurosciences that benefit from this. Knowledge about the brain is also being transferred back to AI, and algorithms developed in the HBP using the brain as a model have already demonstrated remarkable advantages: They have shown high energy efficiency, flexibility and plasticity as well as the ability to learn from sparse data.

Access to the enormous computing capacities of the first European exascale computer JUPITER at Forschungszentrum Jülich is also important here. It is of great importance that the potential offered by the new exascale computing capacities for the neurosciences can be used effectively through appropriate research programs.

In this way, a unique productive cycle between AI and brain research can be created at the interface to computing, further advancing both fields.

(Photo: Forschungszentrum Jülich)

Link to the Paper

EBRAINS

Read in Browser

Newsletter auf Deutsch abonnieren

Published by: Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Anna-Louisa-Karsch-Str.2, 10178 Berlin

Questions to the editors should be sent to monthly@helmholtz.de

No subscription yet? Click here to register

If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, simply click here: Unsubscribe

© Helmholtz