CAMPUS

Amazing ideas from the sea

How innovations from marine research are shaping our environment

What’s so attractive about marine research? Surely the sea itself: That beauty! This smell! The mystery, the songs, poems, novels and islands! And, of course, the wonderful – sometimes bizarre, but mostly beautiful creatures – such as jellyfish and whales, sea cucumbers, sharks, squid, corals – but not least our favorites – diatoms! Diatoms are light, stable, beautiful, and insanely diverse. Some spend an entire, exciting scientific career studying these creatures. They find new species and figure out the role of diatoms in the ecosystem.

And aside from science? Is there anything else going on? – Absolutely!! We show you the originals from the oceans of the world and great developments, technical products for cars and planes and houses, ask you what you find beautiful and introduce you to a cool software company that has its origins in the sea.

We have also prepared a small exhibition for you: Art from the sea. You want to draw, build or make something yourself? No problem – come by and get inspired.

Cells – Medicine of the Future?

Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) & German Stem Cell Network (GSCN)

How can (stem) cells help to cure diseases? What possibilities do new therapies create and how does research turn into health?

At BIH, cells are the material of the future: Scientists are researching their processes and communication down to the level of individual cells. The goal is to understand the human organism and diseases in such detail that this research can turn into health – with new therapies. How far has research progressed? What are the risks? What are the prospects?

Come by the booth of the BIH. We are available for discussions and questions and explain the state of research in short talks. A poster exhibition and a quiz with prizes will playfully expand knowledge about stem cells, and information material will provide information about cell research and future therapies.

Meet our experts in person at the Speaker’s Corner:

Nov. 3 | 2:30 p.m.: Dr. Elke Luger (BIH) “Gene therapy in Germany – Where do we stand?”

Nov. 4 | 3:00 p.m.: Dr. Daniel Besser (GSCN) “Stem cells: the all-rounders?! Perspectives of stem cell research explained easily”

VR Plant Journey – Join us on a virtual journey into the world of plants

Come with us on a virtual reality adventure journey inside a rapeseed plant and experience what happens inside the cells of roots, leaves or seeds – by playing! Regulate the absorption of nutrients and help the rapeseed plant to grow optimally.

Together with plant researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, the programmers of Breakpoint One and Simmation have created a high-quality educational experience that is fun and promotes dexterity. VR Plant Journey conveys biological knowledge to children in a playful way. Thanks to fully immersive virtual reality (VR), the players follow the inner workings of a rapeseed plant, experience the cellular processes up close and can even control them:

They throw the raw materials of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide and water, at chloroplasts in the leaf. In the root they assemble the important nutrients ammonium and nitrate. In the seed they grow oil bodies with bow and arrow.

Sophisticated plant research as an entertaining VR game for young and old. 

Robots and people working together: Using neuroscience to measure and improve human-robot collaboration.

With the rise of AI and the integration of robots, chatbots and other synthetic agents into society, machines with social features will shift from tools to collaborative counterparts in various contexts. Artificial agents will revolutionise healthcare and manufacturing, promising innovation and increasing safety. Furthermore, they will offer companionship in hospitals, schools, stores, and museums, boosting productivity.

Our research dives into how brains react to artificial agents using neuroscience methods. We aim to improve human-robot interaction, making it more intuitive and effective. Through integrating neuroscience, human-robot interaction studies gain a deeper understanding of the human mind, resulting in more empathetic, responsive, and adaptable robot companions.

 Join us at our stand! Interact with humanoid robots, explore demos, and witness brain-wave tech in action. See first-hand how humans and robots unite for success!

Bromacker back to the future: 300 Mya fossils, digital media and science communication

Early tetrapods are old, the methods highly modern! In the middle of the UNESCO Geopark Thuringia, paleontologists are researching the origins of our modern ecosystems – and the whole public benefits from it. The Bromacker fossil site presents one of the most important and productive localities for approximately 300-million-year-old terrestrial vertebrates. Among the fossil finds are the very first vegetarians, the earliest skin impressions of mammalian relatives, and the oldest complex burrows of vertebrates. The finds are being studied using state-of-the-art methods, including computed tomography, bone histology and animated 3D models. However, the goal is not only to gain scientific knowledge, but above all to allow the public to participate in the entire research process. One can experience the Bromacker digitally – social media, interactive website, podcasts, VR glasses as well as 360° and live tours on the web.

CISPA Cysec Lab – Where Cybersecurity comes to life!

CISPA Cysec Lab combines science outreach activities for a children, young people, and citizens at the CISPA – Helmholtz Center for Information Security, a federal research center based in Saarland. We offer interactive workshops and events combining state-of-the-art Cybersecurity and Computer-Science research with gamification and edutainment elements. We enable participants to acquire new skills and knowledge and provide plenty of opportunities to experiment and apply freshly acquired skills. In our workshops and events, we use hands-on demo stations and experiments, an escape room, and an online platform to raise awareness for Cybersecurity topics from an early age. At our stall, we present several selected demos. Visit us and experience hands-on challenges and demos.

Citizen Science at Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – We can all be researchers!

Discovering new things together and strengthening the exchange between science and society – that is Citizen Science! At our station we present the variety of Citizen Science activities at MfN and invite you to explore with us: The platform Bürger schaffen  Wissen will playfully search for suitable Citizen Science projects with you. At MfN, nature lovers can get to know the living artwork Pollinator Pathmaker, learn about wild bees, the City Nature Challenge or cosmic dust. Furthermore, at our station, we offer insights into Citizen Science as a research approach to address ecological and societal issues in Germany and worldwide. At MfN, this includes the Citizen Science contest Auf die Plätze! Citizen Science in your city, the collection experiment Natur der Dinge. Eine partizipative Sammlung des Anthropozäns, and the community-driven Freshwater Plastic Monitoring in West Africa. Visit our station and let’s engage in dialogue about the future of Citizen Science research!

Lightlab: Unraveling the secrets of light 

Demonstrations, hands-on experiments and magic tricks!

EN: Embark on a journey through light’s secrets! Meet our quantum physicists and dive into the heart of the fundamental properties of light, from reflection and polarisation to wave-particle duality. Our booth brings these concepts to life with engaging presentations and hands-on experiments.

How can we make computer science more sustainable?

Whether it’s plastic recycling, green tech or CO2 reduction in software applications – the German Informatics Society (GI) is taking action to make computer science more sustainable.

What contribution can computer science make to a more sustainable, environmentally friendly and just world? Being the largest association for computer science in Germany, the German Informatics Society (GI) is addressing this issue in diverse projects. After all, digital technologies can have devastating effects on nature – or they can contribute to achieving our environmental and climate goals.

At the GI booth, you’re welcome to ask your questions – our project experts deal with Green IT on a daily basis and look forward to exchanging ideas with you! You can also learn about our GI projects. The AI Hub Plastic Packaging, for example, is about how AI can improve the recycling of plastics. Sounds exciting? Then drop by!

Goliath™: green back-up station. The missing link to launch the age of renewables  

Why in 2023 we are still getting most of our energy from burning oil and gas? The technical reason is the intermittency of renewable energy. Solar panels and wind turbines are great as long as the sun shines and the wind blows. But what if they don’t? 

Inventors Udo Gärtner and Robin Krack will present the Goliath™ system, which allows to store excess energy generated from any source and to release it when required. It works as a pump power plant, but topographically independent and could be installed both on and off shore, offers unlimited storage time and is easily scalable. 

Join us to take a look at the Goliath™ model, explore how it works and talk directly with its creators.  

The event is organized by GREEN RELOAD Talks GmbH & Co. KG. We bring together investors, experts and business, making the world a better place by executing, consulting, complementing and synergizing the green projects and initiatives.

The wonderful world of microorganisms

Did you know that there are more microorganisms living in a teaspoon of healthy soil than there are people on our planet? Together we will discover the fascinating world of microorganisms. Because: the diversity of microorganisms is also (super)vital for us humans! In the form of a Winogradsky column we will make the life of microorganisms visible to the naked eye. The Wino-gradsky column is a planet in miniature, in which all relevant biogeochemical cycles take place like in an ecosystem. Depending on the environmental conditions, the species composition changes and with it the color in the soil: A colorful work of art is created that changes again and again. With an interactive app you will be playfully guided through microbiological concepts with puzzles and links. 

The biologists of the University of Innsbruck, Arbeitsgemeinschaft MikroMondo, the CYANce project of the Climate and Energy Fund Austria and the Junge Uni are looking forward to the joint journey of discovery!

The kn/own/able Project: Handloom Weaving as Knowing and Owning

We see throughout history and across societies that there are many ways people can own knowledge. Knowing words enables us to name a human gene, making it ownable as intellectual property. A dancer owns knowledge of a performance through the skilled use of their body. An artisan owns knowledge of a loom as they weave threads into intricately-designed fabrics. The kn/own/able project seeks to challenge how we think of knowing and owning through words, bodies, and objects.

In this multimedia exhibition we explore how diverse ways of knowing handloom weaving in India came to be replaced by singular algorithmically-encoded patterns owned as “intellectual property.” Practice weaving at our tablet loom and be ready to question your assumptions about knowledge! How do we own it? What happens to that knowledge, and to ourselves as social beings, when these diverse ways are replaced by a singular idea of what it means to know and own? And how can we rethink this issue towards social change?

Quantum Computing Unplugged

The international race for developing a practical quantum computer has started. But what’s exactly behind the hype? How do quantum computers function? Are they even real? Explore one of the biggest challenges of our time, meet NCCR SPIN researchers who work on developing quantum computers and ask your most burning questions!

Protonation Dynamics in Protein Function

Every kind of life known to us is based on the action of proteins. The complex interplay of these little “all-rounders” on the nanoscale still holds many secrets. Biologists, chemists and physicists of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 1078 in Berlin want to unlock these secrets and are investigating the functions of proteins with experimental and theoretical biophysical and structural biological methods.

Using five model proteins as examples, young scientists in the SFB’s Research Training Group want to understand how proton movement controls the way proteins work: in the photosystem of plants for energy generation, in cytochrome c oxidase in the power plant of our cells, in channel rhodopsin for the light manipulation of nerve impulses, in phytochrome, which makes plants flower, and in viroporin, which allows viruses to multiply in the human body.

The electron spin is one of the key quantum properties determining structure and dynamics of matter. It has large potential for applications in so-called spintronics for future magnetic memory and logic devices with simple architecture and reduced power consumption. The goal of our CRC/TRR 227 at Freie Universität Berlin together with Martin-Luther-Universiät Halle-Wittenberg and other institutions is to establish a fundamental understanding of ultrafast spin dynamics, thereby laying the foundations for spin-based information technology that can be operated at THz clock rates. Our concerted research effort employs femtosecond laser pulses from the THz up to the x-ray spectral range to shoot a movie of the ultrafast dynamics in magnetic materials. Our theory projects model these spin dynamics and predict new phenomena.