MAX PLANCK NEWS
Pause for
thought: Max
Planck was an
enthusiastic
hiker and mountain climber.
EXHIBITION FOCUSES
ON
MAX PLANCK
P HOTO : M AX P LANCK S OCIETY
A Reluctant Revolutionary
April 23, 2008 marked the 150th anniversary
of the birth of Max Planck – reason enough
for the Max Planck Society and the German
Museum of Technology in Berlin to devote an
exhibition to his life. One thing that clearly
emerges is that Max Planck initially took a very
skeptical view of the revolution in physics that
he himself had instigated.
Among the exhibited objects visitors might be
least likely to expect in an exhibition marking
Max Planck’s 150th birthday is a jeep. It forms
part of the section dedicated to the Max Planck
myth – for it was in a jeep like this that Planck
and his wife were hurried from Rogätz, near Magdeburg, to Göttingen in May 1945. As with so
many other details about the scientist, few people
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AN
INDIAN SPACE PROBE
Taking “Max Planck” to the Moon
Space travel is international – and the Max
Planck Institute for Solar System Research is
among the leaders in the exploration of the
Sun, moons and planets. Now a spectrometer
born in the workshops and laboratories of the
institute in Lindau is set to hitch a ride on the
unmanned Indian lunar probe Chandrayaan-1.
The rocket is
ready to launch
at the Satish
Dhawan center.
It will carry the
Chandrayaan-1
satellite to the
Moon – and with
it, a spectrometer
from the Max
Planck Institute
for Solar System
Research.
P HOTOS : ISRO, B ANGALORE (2)
know the real story. Despite the fact that Max
Planck was one of the most important physicists
of the 20th century, the intimacies of his life and
work are mostly known only to a select group.
Now, through this exhibition, the Max Planck
Society and the German Museum of Technology
are offering broad insight into his activities from
the era of imperial Germany until after World
War II. The exhibition also goes on to describe
some of the modern fields of research to which
Planck’s discoveries first opened the door, as well
as his commitment, which still resonates today,
as a scientific organizer and namesake of the
Max Planck Society.
In a series of six sections, visitors can follow the
context in which Planck’s breakthroughs in physics were achieved – discoveries that fundamentally altered our general understanding of the
world. The very title of the exhibition – “The Reluctant Revolutionary” – points to the dilemma in
which the creator of quantum theory must have
found himself. As a scientist deeply rooted in tradition, Planck never intended his research to trigger a revolution in physics, and he was initially at
pains to distance himself from it.
A look at other discoverers and researchers reveals to visitors that this process is not unusual in
the history of science. Christopher Columbus,
Nicolaus Copernicus and Charles Darwin also arrived at new discoveries whose importance was
unclear when they began their work. In many
cases, the full significance was grasped only by
their successors.
What kind of a world was Planck born into?
What role models and what influences shaped
him? The image of Planck’s circumstances conveyed by this section of the exhibition is anything
but uniform. The world that presents itself to visitors is one marked by disruptions. We see a society that was strongly shaped by traditional values,
ABOARD
P HOTO : C LEMENS K IRCHNER – DTMB
With the C-47 Skytrain suspended above it – a reminder of the Berlin Airlift – the German Museum
of Technology on the Landwehrkanal is hard to miss.
but that was, at the same time, undergoing radical change. Through a web of biographical notes
and historical facts, the exhibition describes the
torn environment in which Planck found himself,
both as a man and as a scientist.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is Planck’s
most important discovery: the quantum hypothesis that he formulated around 1900. Until that
time, it was generally believed that natural processes, such as the discharge of heat, were always
continuous. Planck, however, discovered that radiating energy is given off in minute packets – in
quanta, or multiples of the Planck constant h.
Max Planck had thus discovered a new physical
constant. Interactive displays afford exhibition
visitors the opportunity to understand Planck’s
theories of molecular behavior under various effects of heat and light.
Where does knowledge come from? The answer
is revealed in the next section of the exhibition,
which deals with the networks that linked the scientific community of the time and how they
functioned. Planck’s quantum theory was, after
all, not so much a stroke of genius on the part of
one individual as the joint creation of a host of
scientists. Numbers of original letters penned by
Max Planck and his friends and fellow physicists
Wilhelm Wien and Heinrich Hertz provide an indication not only of the style of scientific communication, but also of how well many scientists
were acquainted in the private sphere.
The exhibition also provides an impression of
Planck’s abilities as a science manager. The section entitled “Open rooms – How does one organize science?” describes Planck’s involvement
with Berlin University, the Prussian Academy of
Sciences and the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, and
how the scientific landscape changed as the
20th century progressed. The then-developing
forms and structures persist to this day. Planck
was committed because he deeply believed that
scientists can work to best effect only under
conditions that they themselves are in a position
to determine.
The fact that this principle continues to apply is
illustrated in the last section of the exhibition.
Here, some of the institutes of the Max Planck
Society introduce themselves in words and images: eight “heirs of Max Planck” whose basic research would be inconceivable without Planck’s
discoveries. Take, for example, radio astronomy
and the APEX telescope, of which some of the
original detector components are even on display.
Videos invite visitors to explore the deep-sea
world, the production of steel or the laboratories
of infection biologists.
The conclusion of the exhibition draws together the many small facets into a living mosaic that
effectively brings the great physicist and namesake of the Max Planck Society much closer to
today’s society.
●
Our Moon, inseparably linked with the Earth,
holds a key to our understanding of the planetary
evolution of the solar system. The geological record of the past 4.5 billion years, the early parts
of which have long since been erased on Earth,
are better preserved on the Moon than on any
other planetary body. The proximity of the Moon
to the Earth and the consequent fact that, in a
reasonable period of time, there are fundamental
insights to be gained into the earliest stages of
planetary development are beginning to arouse
scientific interest.
As part of a technological program run by the
European Space Agency (ESA), the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in KatlenburgLindau has begun to develop miniaturized light-
weight near-infrared wavelength spectrometers
adapted for various uses. The first of these spectrometers, named SIR, earned its space credentials
as a technology demonstrator on the European
lunar mission SMART-1. The fact that an instrument of this type was ideal for a purely scientific
lunar mission persuaded the Indian space organization ISRO to select an advanced version, SIR-2,
as the first of three European instruments for its
Moon shot.
“India is combining the challenge of penetrating interplanetary space alone with an entry into
basic planetary research,” said Urs Mall, project
leader for SIR-2 and a scientist at the Max Planck
Institute in Lindau. The Chandrayaan-1 mission is
due to lift off from the Satish Dhawan launch
center aboard India’s four-stage Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle before the end of this year. The
probe will take about six days to reach the Moon.
Once arrived, the vehicle will gradually descend
from an initial orbit at a height of 1,000 kilometers to a polar orbit 100 kilometers above the
Moon’s surface.
Together with the 11 other scientific instruments onboard, SIR-2 will spend at least two years
examining the mineralogical composition of the
Moon in the near-infrared wavelength range and
helping to map the surface. “This gives us the opportunity to carry out the scientific part of the
experiment for which the instrument was designed much sooner than we planned,” added
Mall.
The close cooperation between the Indian space
organization ISRO and the Max Planck Institute
for Solar System Research on this mission also
raises scientific cooperation with India in space
research to a new level: this is the first time a
team of foreign scientists has calibrated a nonIndian satellite experiment at the ISRO Space Application Center.
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The SIR-2
spectrometer,
designed and
built in Lindau,
following integration into the
lunar probe in
Bangalore in
October 2007.
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MAX PLANCK NEWS
AGREEMENT
MAX PLANCK NEWS
ON
DOCTORAL DEGREE PROCEDURES
FOUNDING DIRECTORS
Graduate Center Established
enhanced the international attraction of these
graduate schools.” In fact, around half of the
4,000 or so doctoral students working at one of
the 78 Max Planck Institutes and completing their
doctorates at one of the cooperating universities
now come from abroad. Barely 16 percent of candidates pass the strict selection procedure.
“Mainz, as a center of science, is pioneering an
innovative and attractive model for cooperation
between universities and external research institutions,” said Doris Ahnen, Minister of Science for
Rhineland-Palatinate. She went on to describe the
Max Planck Graduate Center as an excellent example of how the Max Planck Society is able to
work closely with a university to support junior
scientists in innovative fields of research, and thus
further enhance their mutual international visibility and attraction for young researchers.
The President of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Georg Krausch, pointed out
the fact that the university and the two Max
Planck Institutes in Mainz have maintained an
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FOR THE
BIOLOGY
OF
AGING
Heading research into aging: Adam Antebi, Nils-Göran Larsson and Linda Partridge (from left).
/ J ACOB F ORSELL /
PRIVATE
P HOTOS :
C HEMISTRY
PRIVATE
All three members of the dream-team of
founding directors at the new Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Aging in Cologne
have confirmed their acceptance: Nils-Göran
Larsson, Linda Partridge and Adam Antebi will
head the study of model organisms in the quest
to explore the principles of the aging process.
FOR
Working together with the universities and the
HRK, the Max Planck Society intends to further
improve the educational conditions for doctoral
students in Germany and ensure that they are internationally competitive. And the Max Planck
Graduate Center, to be founded as a legally independent limited company with its own budget, is
a prime example. The Max Planck Society and the
Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz each
have a 50 percent interest.
The right to award doctorates remains with the
University of Mainz. However,
the Max Planck Society’s role
in the procedure is to be more
visible in the future: for the
first time, Max Planck scientists will have an equal number of seats on the doctoral
commission of the University
of Mainz, and an equal voice
in the process of awarding
doctorates. In addition,
teachers at the Max Planck
Graduate Center may be
granted full rights in the university’s examination procedures. Besides the seal of the
university, in the future, the
doctoral certificates themselves will also bear the Max
Planck logo and the signature
of the Graduate Center management.
The intention is that these
elements, incorporated into
Playing a part in the Max Planck Graduate Center
the doctoral degree regula- in Mainz: The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry.
tions in Mainz, will serve as
extremely close and successful partnership in
a template for other IMPRS. The memorandum
matters of research and graduate training for
signed with the HRK leaves the matter of specific
decades. One example of this high-level cooplocal organization to the cooperating universities
eration is the Materials Science Graduate School
and Max Planck Institutes. “We are very satisfied
in Mainz, supported by the Excellence Initiative
with this solution,” said Max Planck Society Presiof the federal and regional government, and
dent Peter Gruss, “because together, we have now
conceived and established by the university in
succeeded in establishing a clear profile for exemcooperation with the local Max Planck Institute
plary doctoral student training at the IMPRS.
for Polymer Research.
What’s more, in doing so, we have even further
●
INSTITUTE
Top Trio Now Complete
P HOTO : MPI
At its March meeting, the Senate of the
Max Planck Society gave its blessing for the
establishment of the Max Planck Graduate
Center together with the Johannes Gutenberg
University of Mainz. In a memorandum of
understanding, the Max Planck Society and the
German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) also agreed
to heighten still further the profile of the successful International Max Planck Research
Schools (IMPRS).
OF THE
British-born Linda Partridge is regarded as a specialist on the fruit fly Drosophila. Under her leadership, one department of the new Institute for
the Biology of Aging will concentrate on the evolutionary and developmental biology and genetics of Drosophila, with an emphasis on its longevity. In recruiting the 57-year-old scientist, the
institute has gained one of the world’s leading
evolutionary biologists. She earned her degree
and later a doctorate (1974) at the University of
Oxford. Since 1994, Linda Partridge has been the
Weldon Professor of Biometry at University College London, and is Director of the Centre for
Ecology and Evolution.
Her first publication in NATURE in 1981 was devoted to the costs of reproduction in fruit flies. In
it, she demonstrated that sex shortens the lives of
male flies. After this, research into aging seemed
the obvious next step. Her breakthrough in this
field came when she described the significance of
insulin signaling pathways for longevity. She has
also considered the issue of whether and how
specific nutrition can prolong life.
Adam Antebi is a renowned expert on the
roundworm C. elegans. In fact, when he began
his scientific career, his interest lay in another
model organism, and he was awarded a doctorate in biology at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1992
for his studies of yeast. But as a post doc at
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland,
he turned his attention to the genetics of the
roundworm.
In 1997, Adam Antebi became head of an Independent Junior Research Group at the Max Planck
Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, where
his laboratory worked on the hormonal regulation
of the life cycle and longevity of C. elegans. Since
2004, he has continued this research as an assistant professor at the Huffington Center on Aging
at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
In his new capacity at the Institute for the Biology of Aging, he will be investigating molecular
signal pathways and their interaction with the
environment, focusing on their effects on the duration of development, maturity and aging in the
roundworm.
The third top scientist to join the ranks of the
founding Directors is Professor Nils-Göran Larsson. His department at the new institute will concern itself with the influence of mutations on the
basic energy balance of mitochondria, the power
stations of cells, and consequently also on the life
span of mammals, as represented by mice. After
studying at the University of Gothenburg, where
he was awarded a doctorate from the Faculty of
Medicine in 1992, Professor Larsson went on to
work as a post doc in the Department of Developmental Biology at Stanford University of Medicine
in California.
On his return to Sweden in 1997, he joined the
Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, where he lectured in medical genetics and, in 2002, was subsequently appointed Professor of mitochondrial genetics. Since 2004, he has been a member of the
Nobel Assembly at the Institute, which awards the
Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology. A year
before that, Dr. Larsson was made an associate
member of the Committee for Medicine/Physiology, becoming a full member in 2006.
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Looking down
the tube: Annular
resonators (seen
here in section)
accelerate electrons, causing
them to emit Xray laser light.
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MATERIALS FOR EXTREMES – In late 2004, 37
research institutes and industrial companies
from 12 European countries joined in a project
to develop materials capable of withstanding
even the most extreme conditions. Under the
leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, around 100 researchers
have since been working on the ExtreMat project, which has received 17.4 billion euros in
funding from the European Union. The project
partners presented their results at the end of
April on a joint stand at the trade fair in Hanover. In many cases, the important and innovative contributions made by these new materials
are hidden from view: applications include highly effective heat sinks for high-performance
electronics, new power sources and heat shields
for spacecraft, as well as ultra-thin protective
layers surrounding radiation-resistant components for use in fusion research and nuclear
technology. The new materials have also been
tested for potential use in brakes and gas turbines. Besides the progress that has been made
and recently displayed in technical and scientific
fields, one of the major achievements of the ExtreMat project has been to initiate cooperation
between partners who have never worked together in materials research before.
CHAMPIONS OF THE X-RAY LASER – Physicists
Andrea Cavalleri and Henry Chapman head the
first two departments of the Center of Free-Electron Laser Science based at DESY (the German
electron synchrotron) in Hamburg. Andrea Cavalleri, who previously worked as a researcher and
teacher at the University of Oxford, was appointed jointly by the University of Hamburg and the
Max Planck Society. Henry Chapman, previously a
researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in Livermore, California, was appointed by the University of Hamburg and DESY. The
Center of Free-Electron Laser Science is a joint facility through which DESY, the Max Planck Society and the University of Hamburg aim to explore
the potential of the X-FEL X-ray laser, which is expected to offer scientists entirely new insights
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into the molecular world beginning in 2013. It
will enable researchers to investigate processes
such as individual stages in chemical reactions
that last for only a few femtoseconds. Its high intensity is also expected to make it possible to determine the structure of a protein from just a single molecule.
SWEDISH PRIZE FOR RUSSIANS in Germany –
Rashid Sunyaev, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, has been
awarded this year’s Crafoord Prize for Astronomy. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
presents the award on a four-year rotating cycle
in recognition of international basic research in
the fields of astronomy, mathematics, geosciences and biology with an emphasis on ecology and
evolution. The award follows the same principles
as the Nobel Prize, which it is intended to complement, and is presented by the King of Sweden. One half of the 500,000 US dollars in prize
money goes to Sunyaev, who also works at the
Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy
of Sciences in Moscow, with the other half being
shared between mathematician Maxim Kontsevich of the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvette, France, and Edward
Witten of the Institute for Advanced Study in
Princeton, USA. Sunyaev, who is actually from
Uzbekistan, is receiving the award for his contributions to high-energy astrophysics and cosmology, and in particular for his work on black holes
and neutron stars in association with cosmic
background radiation.
RESEARCH LEADS TO IMPROVED VACCINES –
Max Planck Innovation GmbH, the technology
transfer arm of the Max Planck Society, has
signed a license agreement with the Swiss pharmaceutical company AmVac. The agreement
gives AmVac exclusive rights to a technology
that will enable it to develop a new class of
vaccines that are both more effective and safer.
In return, Max Planck Innovation will initially
receive royalties on future sales. In addition,
the Max Planck Society (MPS) will also acquire
a stake in AmVac. The technology is the product
of pioneering research work by Wolfgang Neubert, head of the Molecular Virology Research
Group at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, and his team. By specifically modifying
the Sendai virus – an agent that primarily affects rats and mice, but does not cause disease
in humans – the scientists were able to create a
new vaccine prototype which is not itself capable of reproduction, but efficiently stimulates
host cells to produce the desired antigen. Initial
plans are to develop a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to prevent respiratory
diseases.
P HOTO : DESY
Pinboard
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