B56133

The Science Magazine of the Max Planck Society 1.2019

Europe

ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY TSUNAMI RESEARCH CHEMISTRY MOBILITY The power of Atoms make Material mix from Buses on expectations waves the food processor demand Daniel Hincapié, Research Engineer at Fraunhofer Institute, Munich

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Treasuries of knowledge

Scholars immersed in contemplative silence and surrounded by books – for centuries, they were the personification of learning. But can libraries still function as central “research locations” when the digital age has seen most sources made available online? Researchers worldwide would answer this question with a clear “yes.” The printed book is still the preferred publication medium in many areas of knowledge, while libraries can be seen as well-equipped labs without which no research would be possible. It therefore comes as no surprise that guest scientists often have to plan their stays at the Max Planck Institutes according to the capacities available for library use. However, the quality of a library is not judged solely by its collections, as valuable as these may be. It is the accessibility of the knowledge that matters. This is the responsibility of the librarians: they comb all the available sources for new, relevant publications, prepare data in keeping with modern technological standards, and also assist researchers during the publication process. This naturally applies not only to the printed word but also to other media such as images, audio and video material. The 120-year-old library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, shown here, is one of the world’s most renowned libraries of art history. It provides access to around 300,000 monographs, 50,000 volumes of serial publications and more than 1,000 specialized journals. Approximately 7,000 new acquisitions are added each year. The library naturally also contains laptops, computer terminals and electronic media – even though they are not visible in this picture. Along with its print media, the library provides access to 2,500 e-journals and around 100,000

Photo: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut / Becker Lacour e-books on fine arts and related subjects.

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 3 Contents

Pre-fabricated: fictitious stories often form the 18 EUROPE 10 basis for scientific forecasts.

18 A battle-tested community PERSPECTIVES A glance at the history of Europe shows that the Europeans have plenty Award-winning! of experience of dealing with crises. However, it has always been possible 06 to find strategies for overcoming them. Researchers at the Max Planck 06 Recognition for achievements Institute for European Legal History are also gaining new insights about in protein research today’s situation from the past. 07 “At the mercy of a future with no alternatives” 24 The struggle for common legislation 08 Fathoming the oceans In the European Union, ideas about what constitutes a state under the 08 Measles viruses for cancer therapy rule of law have been drifting apart for some time now. Poland and 09 A victory for Open Access Hungary in particular are defining their own rules. At the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, researchers 09 On the net are analyzing the causes of the crisis and the different ways in which the EU can respond. VIEWPOINT 30 The Union of disparity 10 The power of expectations Opinions are divided when it comes to the question of whether and how The business world is only rational Europe should grow closer together. In light of the major differences in appearance. According to our between the countries, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Study author, fiction plays an important of Societies are critically questioning the closer integration of members. role if a small business wants to be successful in the competition for investment and customers.

ON THE COVER It is not just the facade that is crumbling: the European Union is currently undergoing several crises at once. Brexit – as illustrated by artist Banksy on a building FOCUS wall in Dover – is just one of these, and in the view of many scientists is not even the most serious. Researchers are more alarmed by the drifting apart of notions of what 18 A battle-tested community constitutes a state under the rule of law and by the major structural inequalities between the member states. However, a look back at the history of the community of states also 24 The struggle for common legislation

shows that Europe has also overcome several severe crises in the past. 30 The Union of disparity Cover: Hannah McKay/Reuters; photos on this page: shutterstock (2)

4 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 Pre-warned: simulations of electron Pre-cooked: new materials Pre-ordered: In the Harz region, waves are designed to improve the can be kneaded and baked using an app can be used to order the 44 forecasting of tsunamis. 58 unusual ingredients. 66 EcoBus, even on rural roads.

SPECTRUM PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE

38 Flying optical cats 44 Atoms make waves 66 Buses on demand 38 In the whirlpool around a gigantic Tsunamis and monster waves put There are usually not many options black hole ships and human lives at risk. available to people wanting to use MPIDS From experiments on tiny semi­ public transport in the country. 38 Who lies the most conducting structures, researchers Researchers have now developed Preference for underweight bodies 39 can learn about these destructive a system in which customers can Interfaces, 39 Geckos walk on water events and in so doing, improve order a bus to stop directly outside and 40 Reaching into the box of forecasting of them. their front door. A software program psychological tricks optimizes the routes for customers Colloids and operators.

of A cold super-Earth in

40 our neighborhood BIOLOGY & MEDICINE 41 The toolmakers of the bird world Institute 52 A fast-paced life REGULAR FEATURES 41 Nanorobots enter the eye Personal portrait: Silvia Cappello Planck 41 Symbiosis of burying beetles 03 On location Max 42 Illuminating women’s role in the / 16 Post from Santa Cruz, U.S.

creation of medieval manuscripts MATERIALS & TECHNOLOGY Familiy life on the Pacific coast 42 Four new sources of 74 Flashback Molinari 58 Material mix from the gravitational waves The umbrella algae’s crazy caps food processor Appealing art has a lasting effect Valerio 43 76 Max Planck Community Researchers are experimenting 43 It’s an animal! with pasta machines, pizza ovens 76 “I was simply relieved” 43 Neanderthal genes influence or mixers in order to obtain new sub- 77 Cyber Valley reaches the next level the shape of the brain stances from sustainable raw mate- 78 When your collegue is a little different Fleischmann, rials. During the process, they have 79 Research Establishments already produced a robust wooden 79 Publisher’s Information Ragnar material, bioplastic and biofuel. Cover: Hannah McKay/Reuters; photos on this page: shutterstock (2) Photos:

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 5 PERSPECTIVES

Award-winning!

2019 Leibniz Prizes for three Max Planck scientists

Melina Schuh is being awarded this prize for her vital work on reproductive biology. The Director of the Max Planck Institute of Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen has con- tributed crucial insights into how a mature, fertilizable egg cell forms and what the consequences are when errors oc- cur during this sensitive process. The recent Leibniz Prize winner explained to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) how her research helped women who wished to have children. The FAZ also devoted an article to the work of Ayelet Shachar, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Studies of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Goettingen, un- der the title “The rights of displaced persons”. Schachar’s multidisciplinary work on citizenship and legal framework conditions in multicultural societies has made her one of the Women of influence at the Max Planck Society: Leibniz Prize winners Melina Schuh, Ayelet Shachar and Brenda Schulman (left to right). leading experts in this field. Brenda Schulman, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, is This year, no less than three Max Planck scientists are being being awarded this prize for her work on the molecular awarded Germany‘s most prestigious research prize: Melina mechanisms of the ubiquitin system, focusing in particular Schuh, Ayelet Shachar and Brenda Schulman will be formally on their biochemistry and structural biology. Any faulty reg- presented with the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, endowed ulation in this system can lead to numerous functional dis- with up to EUR 2.5 million, on March 13, 2019 in Berlin. orders such as cancer or neurodegenerative diseases.

Recognition for achievements in protein research

Franz-Ulrich Hartl receives the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2019

This year, two scientists are to receive this special award for their pioneering research into protein folding: Franz-Ul- rich Hartl, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich, will be sharing the prize with his U.S. colleague Arthur L. Horwich from Yale School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The prize, which is endowed with the sum of EUR 120,000, will be presented to the researchers on March 14, 2019 at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. Hartl and Horwich have proven that the proteins Master of protein folding: in all organisms are folded by means Franz-Ulrich Hartl, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. of a complex, energy-consuming pro- cess which is dependent on helpers known as “chaperones”. This work is also highly significant for the medical tic of many neurodegenerative diseases folding malfunction could therefore field, as incorrectly folded, agglutinat- such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. open up new approaches to treating

ed proteins are a significant characteris- Better understanding of this protein these diseases. Photos: Frank Vinken (2, above left) Peter Barta/BMC/St Jude (above right); Paul-Ehrlich-Stiftung (below)

6 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 PERSPECTIVES

“At the mercy of a future with no alternatives”

Lisa Suckert investigates the motives behind the Brexit campaign

much power over the economy and want create a better future inside or outside the to leave the EU so that Britain can at last EU. In 2016, both the “Leave” and the “Re- have truly free markets. Some of the peo- main” campaigns were concerned with ple who voted “leave” want to restrict mi- avoiding risks and hazards. gration and return to times of greater na- tional sovereignty. In contrast, others be- So did people have different ideas of the lieve that the EU treats refugees poorly and future back in the 1970s? inhumanely. Once out of the EU, they Not really in terms of content, but there could do things better. These are strongly was a different underlying mood. The fu- contradictory opinions that cannot be rec- ture was presented as open, as something onciled rationally. that could be influenced. For a society, it is of central importance how its members en- So what do Brexit supporters actually want? visage the future. If they feel that there is For many, the present is highly complex – no scope for shaping the future, many Lisa Suckert this is probably true of more countries things will come to a standstill. than Britain. People have the impression that they no longer have any decision-mak- What might a “better” future for the British Since the referendum of 2016 in which the ing power over their own lives, that there look like nowadays? British people voted to leave the European are no alternatives for their future. The That‘s difficult to say; at the moment, the Union, the nation has been fighting over desire for greater sovereignty, to regain situation is muddled. The country is deep- its future. Lisa Suckert from the Max Planck control, to have clear borders – all this ly divided. In the long term, the British Institute for the Study of Societies in Co- played a dominant role in the campaign. have to find a way to reconcile these con- logne has been analyzing the Brexit cam- This has more to do with longing for a tradictory needs, i.e. to participate in glo- paign. In the sociologist‘s view, this is a time and a world that was supposedly saf- balization while maintaining a certain lev- good example of how ideas about the fu- er and happier. For many, this means the el of seclusion and control over their own ture shape a society – an example from golden age of the British Empire and lat- economic area. which the EU can draw a number of im- er of the Commonwealth. This past is portant conclusions. used as inspiration. How can the EU react to this? It could help find a solution by making Ms. Suckert, the Brexit vote was a shock for Didn’t the people think about what the changes. More and more people are be- Europe. Have the British fallen prey to a new consequences of their vote would be? coming dissatisfied with the EU. It has form of nationalism? In 2016, many people did indeed vote with- been concentrating almost exclusively on Lisa Suckert: We have to be careful not to out thinking through the consequences of the economy and the free market for far pigeonhole the people who voted to leave leaving the EU. Around 70 percent of the too long. This has not been very convinc- the EU. We are quick to call them “nation- people who voted for Brexit believed that ing so far, at least not as far as European alists”, “stupid racists” and “die-hards” with the outcome of the referendum would not integration is concerned. Perhaps it should no understanding of economic relations make a significant difference, i.e. that not soft-pedal economic integration and pay who are afraid of anything foreign. Migra- much would change whatever happened. much more attention to social standards tion was of course one of the most import- If the British do end up with a hard Brexit, and European culture. It would also be ant issues, and parts of the “Leave” cam- this may turn out to have been an error of worth taking another close look at the paign were clearly xenophobic. However, judgment in terms of economic policy. needs that influenced the Brexit support- putting everything down to radicalism is ers’ decision so that the EU learns from oversimplifying the situation. We need to The British had a referendum on leaving this event. take a closer look. the EU once before, in 1975. However, two-thirds of the voters elected to remain. Interview: Martin Roos In what respect? Which arguments were used back then? Brexit supporters cover a wide spectrum They were very similar to those used today. from the far right to the far left and criti- Great Britain dreamed of resuming its sta- cize the EU from very different perspec- tus as a global power. By contrast, EU sup- tives. For some, the European Union is porters wanted to actively influence the fu- a neoliberal enemy, which is too busi- ture project of Europe. The overall mood ness-friendly and concerned only with free was more optimistic. Both sides asked

Photo: MPI for the Study of Societies markets. Others think that the EU has too themselves how it might be possible to

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 7 PERSPECTIVES

Fathoming the oceans

Bremen-based start-up wins European founder‘s award

“95 percent of the ocean floor is as yet scientists have set up PlanBlue, a start- problems facing humanity. The effects unexplored,” says Hannah Brocke. up originating from the Max Planck of climate change could then for ex- The biologist and her colleagues Guy Institute for Marine Microbiology in ample be tracked by observing changes Rigot, Joost den Haan and Raja Kan- Bremen. Their vision: to survey the en- in coral reefs, Measurements can be dukuri want to change this. The four tire ocean floor and address important taken under water using a special hy- perspectral camera. The technology for this was developed at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiol- ogy, and PlanBlue has turned it into a new, user-friendly product. The cam- era scans sea, lake and river beds auto- matically. It can be used by any expe- rienced diver – not just by experts. In all, PlanBlue’s technology is faster, more accurate and cheaper than other methods used to explore underwater terrain to date. The new business model is already celebrating its first successes in Decem- ber 2018, PlanBlue won the Galileo Masters, a European start-up competi- tion for the aerospace industry that dis- tinguishes ideas associated with the European navigation system of the same name. PlanBlue uses Galileo to locate the data on the map after collection.

Surveying the submarine world: divers can map the ocean floor using a special camera developed by Max Planck researchers.

Measles viruses for cancer therapy

Max Planck Innovation enters into licensing agreement with Themis Bioscience

As the pathogens that cause influenza, herpes, measles or small- Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried in cooperation pox, viruses are actually our enemies. However, they can be sur- with the Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen. It uses a mod- prisingly helpful when treating cancer. This is because cancer ified measles virus based on the genome sequence of the estab- cells are highly susceptible to infection by viruses, which can lished measles strain with which billions of people have been destroy them extremely efficiently. Scientists call this process vaccinated worldwide. These oncolytic measles viruses will in “oncolysis”. The Vienna-based biotech company Themis Bio- future destroy cancer cells more efficiently, thereby stimulating science has now been licensed to develop, manufacture and and strengthening the cancer patient’s previously underactive market treatments based on an oncolytic measles virus plat- immune system. In ideal conditions, all tumors will be brought

form. The licensed technology was developed by the Max permanently under the control of the immune system. Photo: Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology

8 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 PERSPECTIVES

A victory for Open Access

Agreement concluded by DEAL and Wiley

In January, after almost three years of negotiations, Project DEAL, a consortium representing approxi- mately 700 academic institutions in Germany, ­finally signed an initial agreement: the consortium has agreed to enter into a groundbreaking nation- al partnership with U.S. publisher John Wiley & Sons, one of the world‘s leading publishing compa- nies in the field of research and teaching. For an an- nual fee, the newly concluded three-year agreement grants all institutions represented by Project DEAL access to the scientific journals published by Wiley as far back as 1997. Researchers at these institutions can also publish their articles in Wiley’s journals as Open Access publications. The Max Planck Society – as a member of the alliance of German science or- ganizations behind the Project DEAL consortium – established the company Max Planck Digital Library Services GmbH to facilitate the signing of the agreement by Project DEAL and Wiley. Public access to the agreement is now available (also refer to page 76f.). Signing the agreement: Guido Herrmann, Managing Director of Wiley, and Frank Sander, Managing Director at Max Planck Digital Library Services GmbH.

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On the net

Shining a spotlight on our devices Self-help for traumatized refugees Open letter on green genetic and our researchers About 20 to 30 per cent of refugees suf - engineering In our more than 80 Max Planck Insti- fer from major depression or a pro- 98 leading research institutions have tutes, the Max Planck Society offers its nounced post-traumatic stress disorder signed an open letter to Jean-Claude researchers access to often very special- and are in need of treatment. Psychiat- Juncker, President of the EU Commission, ized equipment and machines. To illus- ric care of refugees in Germany needs to expressing concern about restrictions on trate our hidden equipment treasures, be optimized. The Max Planck Institute the use of CRISPR Cas9 technology in ranging from gravitational wave detec- of Psychiatry wants to contribute to this plant cultivation. Unlike in the past, how- tors over lasers, cell sorters and vacuum process. Within the ‘RefPsych project’, ever, foreign genetic material is no longer chambers to 30-m single dish telescopes, part of the initiative “People for People”, transplanted into soy or potatoes. And we have started a social media cam- it has produced two short films, each what’s more, the plant varieties cultivat- paign under the hashtag #mymachine- available in 13 different languages, for ed in the laboratory could just as well andme, aimed at shining a spotlight on refugees and helpers explaining possible have been grown naturally – by means of our research infrastructure and the ear- somatic and mental symptoms which natural mutation or conventional cross- ly career researchers working with it. can occur after flight and migration. The breeding. The open letter, which was The photographs can be found on Insta- second, most recent video, “Flight and composed in English, is signed by several gram and Facebook accounts as well as Trauma - Self Help” explains how refu- Max Planck Institutes and can be viewed on Twitter: gees can, in a first step, help themselves: by clicking on the following link: www.instagram.com/maxplanckge- https://youtu.be/R_kP-qLhKok https://sciencebusiness.net/news/ sellschaft scientists-urge-new-eu-rules-gene-

Photo: Tanja M. Marotzke https://bit.ly/2FYRT1P editing-crops

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 9 VIEWPOINT_Economic Sociology

The power of expectations

Advertising tells us that wishes really can come true. With the right deodorant, anyone can be a cool guy. The new yogurt is guaranteed to make you slim. Paradise is waiting for you at the seaside resort. It is well known that advertisements tell fictional stories designed to arouse the expectation that the product in question is going to make us cool, slim, or feel rested and refreshed. Our author explains that the economic system as such functions in a very similar way. Stories play an equally vital role in the seemingly rational world of investors and analysts.

TEXT JENS BECKERT

e think of the economy as the em- nomics textbooks, as well as in statements explain- bodiment of rational thinking. In- ing the decisions made by economic actors who vestors and entrepreneurs make strive to maximize profits. decisions and maximize their re- However, at best this image reflects only a part turns based on sophisticated math- of the modern economy. After all, the future is un- Wematical models, detailed calculations, and precise known and therefore uncertain. It is characterized prognoses. At the beginning of the 20th century, the by genuine novelty, by developments that are unique, and not part of what already exists. This was once true for the telegraph, and it is now true for ar- tificial intelligence. Nobody can predict what dis- Nobody can predict coveries will be made, whether an idea is technical- ly feasible, and if there will be a market for the if an idea can be realized, products based on it. All investment decisions are if a product will find a buyer therefore based on assumptions whose correctness can only partially be evaluated and people are gen- erally aware that they will often turn out to be sociologist Max Weber referred to modern capital- wrong in retrospect. Even for less groundbreaking ism as an “iron cage” that forces all participants into

a mode of rational calculation. To this day, we are Bright prospects: the store window suggests that the clothes on familiar with this idea of the economy as a place of offer will place their wearers in the limelight. The fashion company

rationally calculated actions. It is conveyed in eco- thus highlights the fact that its products are status symbols. Photo: shutterstock

10 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 Photo: shutterstock VIEWPOINT_Economic Sociology 1 | MaxPlanckResearch MaxPlanckResearch 19 11 VIEWPOINT_Economic Sociology

innovations, decision-making situations can be so future, and the future does not simply behave like a complex that it is impossible to consider all relevant continuation of the present, these assumptions are influencing factors. This is only possible in the mod- not a guaranteed flash-forward to the future pre­ els in economics textbooks, with their many nar- sent. Instead, imagined futures are stories used as rowly defined assumptions. In real life, players are “placeholders” that enable the actors to make deci- sions, as if the future was going to develop in the way anticipated. To do so, they must be convinced of the story: it must appear plausible to them, but it Even the world of investors does not have to be accurate. Novels and fictional and analysts only appears stories are also based on the author pretending that a certain sequence of events has taken place as de- to function purely rationally scribed, and the readers go along with this assump- tion. Decisions made under the condition of uncer- tainty and, fictional stories have something in unable to fully take all causal relations into account. common: both authors and recipients have a broken This problem is further intensified by the social relationship to reality. It goes without saying that character of economic activities: unlike chemical there are also differences, in particular the fact that molecules, the reactions of the players and their in- economic actors will critically question the story re- teractions cannot be predicted, in part because the peatedly, revising it as needed, if new facts become players will behave differently when observed. known, or if there are new ways for interpreting the Nevertheless, decisions need to be made regard- situation. However, one thing is still true at the end ing innovation projects, capital investments, invest- of the day: expectations remain fictional, as there ment in professional qualifications, even decisions can be no future facts. to purchase consumer goods. Actors do this based Innovations may well be the prime example on expectations regarding future developments. of the fictional character of economic decision- However, these expectations cannot simply be de- making. In his Theory of Economic Development, Joseph rived from past experience. In addition, participants Schumpeter recognized already in the early 20th in modern economic systems do not simply follow traditions or conventions. Therefore how can we un- derstand expectations, and the decisions driven by them, if a situation is characterized by fundamental The economy is fueled uncertainty, and it is impossible to rationally calcu- late optimized decisions? by decisions with The answer is: as fiction! This might seem far- uncertain consequences fetched at first. After all, economic actors would not want to waste their money on made up stories. On closer inspection, however, there is a striking cor- century that any innovation exists only in the entre- relation between the nature of fictional texts and preneur’s imagination to begin with. As an aspired the context in which economic actors make their ideal, so to speak. The entrepreneur adjusts demand decisions under uncertain conditions. for production factors, as though the innovation These decisions reflect the economic actors’ visions had already been realized, and – if successful – they of a future world. As there can be no facts about the thus transfer their imagination to the real world.

12 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 Schumpeter’s assumptions are confirmed by studies in entire dynamics of modern economies that depends which innovation processes are examined in practice. to a considerable extent on scientists, entrepreneurs, Innovation processes start with “promissory stories” – investors, and consumers daring to make decisions, promises used to illustrate a particular technological whose likelihood of success is unknown and that future that is often presented as being inevitable. will incur considerable costs if they fail. If they do An agenda is created in which the path towards this succeed, however, they are the drivers of capitalist future is shown, and in which the individual actors dynamics. Researchers as well as research organiza- are assigned their roles, much as in a novel. If a story tions react to these circumstances, by outlining how appears plausible, scientists, government funding, and central societal problems can be solved through a private investors will follow it. The current discussions about artificial intelligence are an example of this type of narrative motivation for present-day decisions based on an imagined future. Economic competition At the beginning of innovation processes, no- is largely about competition body knows if they will be successful. There is no knowledge about the finished product, but only an for the more convincing story imagination from which a hype can develop, if the vision is considered to be credible. However, such a hype is not simply irrational enthusiasm, but an es- future discovery, or by highlighting the purpose-free sential prerequisite for the dynamics of capitalism. character of scientific knowledge. In doing so, they To find out whether an idea is just a pipe dream legitimize the use of resources despite the uncertainty or could actually be realized, it is often necessary to of success. Societies react to this by providing state mobilize significant resources. Scenarios and fore- funding to cover a large share of the costs of basic casts are drawn up, usually backed up by a wealth research, to enable it to take place despite a lack of of figures. The story of a possible future emerges, short-term commercial pressure. and if the players find it sufficiently plausible, funds When it comes to private companies, it is start-ups are made available to allow the idea to be tested. in particular that use fictional expectations to facili- According to the organizational researcher James tate their innovative activities. In the search for cap- March, organizations must succeed in creating shells ital, they have to pitch their ideas to potential inves- in which “craziness is protected.” tors, who will make their investment decisions based One might assume that basic research also takes on an oral presentation and submission of a business place in such shells. The results and likelihood of plan. For start-ups, the product that is being sold of- success of such research are extremely uncertain. In ten does not even exist, since the funds being sought particular, it is impossible to predict if and to what are intended to create it. Nevertheless, business plans extent it will result in marketable applications. From contain detailed descriptions of future turnover, mar- a purely rational point of view, basic research is ket shares, and the costs of competing products. These bound to struggle. Any practical use that can be ex- figures are, however, merely more or less plausible as- pected from it appears too uncertain and too dis- sumptions: stories about a future that the parties in- tant. So why invest in something that has at best volved picture as if they have already been realized. vague prospects of economic success? Such objec- In this sense, all business plans represent a disrupted tions may be understandable, but they remain prob- relationship with reality. Competition is largely about

Photo: shutterstock lematic. After all it is not only innovation, but the competing for the more convincing story. >

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 13 What is true for innovations is true for the capital- that have been occurring time and time again, ever ist economy as a whole. The entire dynamics of since the initial spread of capitalist economic prin- modern economies are heavily dependent on scien- ciples. Crises occur if expectations that were consid- tists, entrepreneurs, investors, and consumers mak- ered to be credible suddenly appear unreliable. Mar- ing decisions whose likelihood of success is un- kets lose their faith that Greece’s sovereign debt will known. Decisions regarding career choices are be paid back; consumers no longer see a brand as re- characterized by a wealth of fictional expectations flecting their desired social identity. Turnarounds regarding one’s own future position, which is imag- like this are not triggered simply by new informa- tion. Much more frequently, it is a new interpreta- tion of established information or – in the case of consumer goods – a new hype that makes existing Crises occur if products look outdated. The imagery of worlds that do not exist but expectations suddenly that are to be created shows that human beings are appear unreliable capable of fiction. This may well be the most funda- mental ability of humankind. It is in this very abil- ity that creativity is expressed, and it is this ined in the form of a future that has already been creativity that has been driving the incredible realized. A doctoral student sees themselves as a growth dynamics of capitalism ever since its begin- professor; a business student as the head of market- nings in the Italian trading cities. However, this also ing at a large company. The entire monetary system creates new problems. Among these are the vulner- is based on the fictional expectation that figures in ability of economic systems, whose development is bank accounts or on bank notes, although valueless based on the credibility of stories. This also includes in themselves, can be traded for valuable goods in the possibility of fraud: take Elizabeth Holmes, for the future. Every monetary system depends on this example, chairwoman of the former showpiece com- collective fiction. Currency crises show how fragile pany Theranos in Silicon Valley, who, despite know- such expectations can be. Consumer decisions are ing it to be false, convinced her investors with the linked to notions of a future life with the product story of the expected further development of her in question. This anticipative consumption is fu- revolutionary blood analysis device. After a journal- eled by travel brochures, car catalogs, movie trail- ist from the Washington Post found out about the ers, lottery tickets, or product presentations from deception, the company’s valuation fell from nine the computer industry, where the motives for pur- billion dollars to zero. chasing decisions are presented as anticipations of It also holds that narratives are used deliberately, the future. to create a future. While the future cannot be pre- However, it takes more than just any random dicted, it can be shaped through prophecies whose story to achieve credibility. Fictional expectations in narratives motivate decisions. This can lead to a the economy are subject to ongoing critical review, stabilization of the economy, for example when cur- not least in the markets. Is Tesla going to be the car rency crises are prevented, or when politicians manufacturer of the future, or will the share certifi­ “guarantee” in public speeches that bank balances cates just be waste paper a few years down the line? are safe. This power to influence expectations was The term capitalist dynamics encompasses phenom- used by both President Roosevelt in the 1930s and

enal economic growth, as well as economic crises Chancellor Merkel in 2008. Photo: shutterstock

14 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 VIEWPOINT_Economic Sociology

Techniques for predicting and creating credible nar- ratives of future development can also be used to serve political, ideological, or business interests. Ex- amples of this are industry representatives fighting the introduction of minimum wages by forecasting rising unemployment figures, or populists proph­ esying that taking in refugees will lead to an Islam- ization of German society. Technological visions, such as those currently being propagated by a hand- ful of players in Silicon Valley, always contain social development models, generated by these technolo- gies, but which largely evade social debate. This shows that a politics of expectations exists. Control of our visions of the future is among the most im- portant tools of power; and this is true historically, THE AUTHOR as well as in the present day. If economic decisions are not thought of as be- Jens Beckert, born in 1967, has been a Director at the ing determined rationally, but as the result of futur- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, and has istic visions that are ultimately contingent, this will held a professorship for Sociology at the University of also lead to a new understanding of the economic Cologne, since 2005. Places where he has previously sciences. Since the 19th century, economics has been taught include Goettingen, New York, Princeton, Paris, modeled after physics. It has been assumed that and Harvard University. His research work is focused there are economic laws, in the same way that there on the social embedding of markets including illegal are natural laws, and that the economy tends to- markets, and the issues of inheritance and wealth wards an equilibrium, much like the equilibrium of inequality. In 2018, Beckert was awarded the Leibniz forces in physics. However, if the participants’ in- Prize by the German Research Foundation. terpretations play a decisive role for economic dy- namics, and future developments are determined by the plausibility of stories, then economics should not be modeled after physics, but after hermeneu- tics – the study of interpretation. Nature does not THE BOOK tell any stories, while the economy is based on them. As in all social action, participants in the Jens Beckert economy act based on the meaning a situation takes Imagined Futures on for them. The situation needs to be “read”, and Fictional Expectations and of course this also involves mathematical models. Capitalist Dynamics. The Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Shiller Harvard University Press 2016 speaks of “narrative economics.” If this proves to be 569 pages, EUR 42 true, it is the disciplines dedicated to the analysis of structures of meaning that deliver the model for understanding the economy: the humanities and

Photo: shutterstock Photo: © juergen-bauer.com social sciences.

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 15 Post from Santa Cruz, U.S.

Family life on the Pacific coast

Max Planck scientists cooperate with partners in around 120 countries all over the world. Here they write about their personal experiences and impressions. Carolin Hillemanns from the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law spent seven months in California with her family. Here she met a bicycle thief, a lot of homeless people, just one Trump supporter and some remarkably friendly, generous neighbors.

Santa Cruz is the birthplace of mountain biking; moreover, the city has produced some legend- ary skateboards and is above all a Mecca for surfers. Even though it meant my husband had to commute to Palo Alto, we decided at a very early stage to settle in Santa Cruz a small, accessible city right on the Pacific Ocean, rather than in Silicon Valley, where the wealthy live secluded from real life and where the rental prices are horrendous. Even in Santa Cruz, we once had to move because the rent on the house we lived in would have been 9000 US $ a month during the summer season. It is hardly surprising that such a sky rocking housing market produces many homeless people, among them women, elderly people and people with mental illnesses. Many of them are drug ad- dicts; drug-related crime is correspondingly high. The disproportionately high number of home- less people in Santa Cruz is also due to the fact that they are tolerated – unlike in other cities, where they are driven out of town. Crime is a problem. Living in Freiburg we were already used to bike thefts, but in Santa Cruz it seems extreme. One afternoon, I caught a thief red-handed who carried my daughter’s locked bike out of our back yard. I ran after him and shouted at the top of my lungs; he threw the bike over my neighbor’s fence and strolled off, not really concerned. Everybody knows that you have to lock your bike as securely as possible. Otherwise, you should take it inside even when you go shop-

ping – this is actually what people do. Graphic: iStockphoto

16 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 Dr. Carolin Hillemanns , 46, obtained her doctorate from the Institute for Public International Law and Foreign Constitutional Law at Zuerich University. Her scientific research focuses on areas such as corporate social responsibility and transitional justice. Since 2007 , Hillemanns has been work ing at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and- International Criminal Law in Freiburg, where she recently took up the position of Research Coordinator. In 2018 , she accompanied her husband to California for a sabbatical and con tinued her own work there. -

Apart from this, Santa Cruz is a liberal, alternative city that seems to have almost as many dogs as inhabitants and is home to a vibrant music and art scene. However, I don’t think that my chil- dren really got to know “the U.S.” during the seven months we were there. California is excep- tional, and Santa Cruz even more so: over the seven months, I met just one person who expressed support for President Trump – a tourist from Northern California. The annual Women’s March showed us just how committed to Liberalism the city is. Thousands of people turned out onto the streets to show their support for women’s rights and demonstrated against Trump. It was rather like the protests of 1968 – truly impressive! Generally speaking it was a very exciting half year. We lived right on the Pacific Ocean and were able to cycle along the coast oftentimes carrying our longboards to go surfing. Even my young- est daughter who was just about to learn English got a taste of a completely different daily rou- tine and way of life. This highly valuable experience sharpened our perspectives of both our home- land and host country. My kids all found out that classroom discipline was much stricter than in their schools back home and that the teachers were committed to all their students and treated them with great respect and goodwill. For my part, I was very impressed by both the academic and athletic prowess of many of these young kids and adolescents. What I am sure to remember most is the help, support, friendliness and respect we received in California. We were overwhelmed with gifts. The Pacific is always cold, summer and winter, so our neighbors and friends gave us e.g. appropriate wet suits for the kids. The importance and val- ue of respect and kindness are highly stressed and thus deeply ingrained in childhood education. It’s quite likely that the mostly peaceful co-existence of people from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds would otherwise not be possible. I hope we will keep up this warmth and kindness in Freiburg, besides taking a more relaxed atti- tude towards life. By the way, my youngest daughter has now made up her mind where she wants

Graphic: iStockphoto Photo: private to spend the rest of her life: in Germany.

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 17 FOCUS_Europe

A battle-tested community­­

The Europeans have plenty of experience of dealing with crises. If we take a look at the history of the community of European states, one thing becomes clear: more or less heated controversies have been a regular occurrence over the decades. However, it has always been possible to find strategies for overcoming them, as the team headed by Stefan Vogenauer at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt/Main is finding out in the course of its research. During the process, the researchers have also gained new insights into the current state of the European Union.

TEXT MECHTHILD ZIMMERMANN

18 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 A summit with new delegates: in October 1972, the six founder states of the European Community were joined for the first time by Great Britain, Ireland and Denmark at a meeting of the European heads of state and government. In the years that followed, vetoes by individual members repeatedly blocked agreements on a large scale.

russels, in the summer of 1965: policy. According to Stefan Vogenauer, 1958. It was agreed in these treaties that “Three minutes after midnight, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the establishment of an internal Euro­ the lights went out in the Palais European Legal History, this phase was pean market and the gradual conver­ de Congrès. The ministers gath- marked by the most severe crisis in the gence of economic policy was to pro­ ered in Brussels (...) were sitting history of European integration. As an mote prosperity in the countries and in theB dark. Anyone who might have re- act of protest, the French government improve relations between the states. garded this as a bad omen would soon at the time recalled its permanent rep­ However, opinions about how far inte­ see their fears confirmed: after the short resentative in Brussels, refused to at­ gration would have to go varied widely. circuit had been repaired, it only took tend the meetings of the Council of The French President at the time, another 107 minutes for the negotiations Ministers, and in so doing, blocked the Charles de Gaulle, could certainly be to fail. On 1 July, shortly before 2 o’clock entire Community for half a year. described as a Eurosceptic from today’s in the morning, the most severe crisis yet Only seven years previously, Ger­ perspective. While he was in favor of a to hit the Common Market began.” many, France, Italy, Belgium, the Nether­ Europe with France and Germany as The night of 9 July 1965, the bitter lands and Luxembourg had joined supporting pillars, his greater priority end of which was described by the together to form the European Eco­ was helping his country regain its for­ weekly newspaper Die Zeit, marked the nomic Community (EEC). The Treaties mer global status. For de Gaulle, na­

Photo: Ulrich Wienke/Federal Government of Germany beginning of the use of the empty chair of Rome had come into force in January tional independence was of key impor­

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 19 FOCUS_Europe

European Court of Justice Judges from all member states

judges and interprets EU law crisis mode.” One of the few exceptions was the period at the end of the 1980s EU and the early 1990s, when Jacques Delors was President of the European Commission and agreement was reached EU Commission Council of Europe over the Single European Act and the Commissioners Treaty of Maastricht. “There have always Summit of the heads (one independent commissioner been times when giant strides towards of state and government for each member state) European integration were made,” says Vogenauer. “However, they were again followed by long periods of tactical defines the general political withdrawal or stagnation.” direction proposes legislations monitors Nevertheless, there are always two sides to a crisis. Walter Hallstein, who was the first President of the EEC Com­ mission from 1958 to 1967, firmly be­ lieved that the European Community could “gain in stature and stability, par­ Minister ticularly in times of escalating crisis,” explains Philip Bajon, a historian in Vogenauer’s team. “This was a part of Council of Ministers European Parliament jointly decide his theory and his self-identification as Ministers from the member on legislation 751 delegates President of the Commission: integra­ states for specific areas and the from all tion through crisis – the more severe, (e.g. Foreign Minister or EU budget member states the better.” Minister of Agriculture) Hallstein was a professor of law and a staunch European. As one of the is directly founding fathers of the European Com­ Divided leadership: along with the EU Commission and elected by munity, he regarded Europe as a Com­ the European Parliament as supranational institutions, munity of Law (Rechtsgemeinschaft) – the individual member states in the Council of Europe an idea that has since played an and the Council of Ministers also have an influence over the development of the Union. The European Court of important role in the debate surround­ Justice acts independently but has repeatedly driven EU citizens ing European integration. Even so, it is forward integration in the past. not so easy to clearly define what the “European Community of Law means,” explains Thorben Klünder, who is ex­ tance, and he accordingly took a critical that the French returned to the table amining the concept for his doctoral view of cross-state European institu­ with the other EEC members, where thesis. “On the one hand, it is assumed tions. The controversy that ultimately they then negotiated what became that there was already a Community culminated in the crisis of 1965 flared known as the “Luxembourg Compro­ of Law before the European states up over two issues. Majority voting was mise”: a veto option for certain states came together by signing an agree­ to be extended to a series of important which regarded their national interests ment.” The European Community is questions. Moreover, in de Gaulle’s as being in danger. therefore something akin to a commu­ view, the EEC Commission under Walter nity of values that had already had a Hallstein was acting like “a European INTEGRATION THROUGH CRISIS – common legal basis for hundreds of government”, since it was planning for THE MORE SEVERE, THE BETTER years in the form of Roman law. example to introduce a separate Com­ On the other hand, the term is also munity budget. Events show that the atmosphere in Eu­ used in the sense of an ideal, according However, there were other reasons rope was by no means more peaceful to which the European states should for the French blockade. The French and harmonious in the past. “There become ever more closely aligned in President wanted to secure a dominant have always been crises,” says legal his­ legislative terms, as Klünder explains: role for his country in the European torian Stefan Vogenauer, “and they are “In the view of Walter Hallstein, for ex­ Community and to strengthen the in­ easily forgotten. Since I’ve been follow­ ample, we were a Community of Law fluence of the national governments ing its development, the European and were to become an even stronger

overall. It was not until January 1966 Union has in fact been in permanent one.” According to Klünder, there is no Graphic: designergold based on a draft by the MPG

20 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 doubt that the different meanings of the word have influenced our under­ standing of the European Community: “The Community of Law can certainly be perceived as a narrative of how Eu­ ropean integration can succeed, name­ ly through the law.” However, what might sound good in theory is proving difficult to realize in practice. Even if there is a certain de­ gree of consensus in Europe about the rule of law or basic rights, matters get complicated as soon as it comes to the details. Since the European Union’s main focus is still the internal market, the goal in question is “merely” the cre­ ation of equal terms for the economies of all member states. However, these terms ultimately influence topics that relate to everyone: consumer protec­ tion, environmental protection, work­ ers’ rights, and national ways of dealing with issues ranging from food produc­ tion to the design of car number plates.

A BLACKCURRANT LIQUEUR CHANGES POLITICS

Philipp Schmitt, who is also a doctoral student in Vogenauer’s Department, explains how it soon became clear that agreeing on entirely congruent legal rules for all states was an impossibility. “The European Commission wanted to drive forward the Community of Law and attempted to achieve legal stan­ dardization. However, time and again, in petrol. “Germany was the only coun­ Working for Europe: when in 1975, the British the countries expressed their opposi­ try to have already significantly reduced first voted on membership of the European tion. This became particularly problem­ the lead content by law when the stan­ Community, Margaret Thatcher as the leader of the Conservative Party advocated saying yes atic in areas in which the members dard was to be unanimously aligned at to Europe. She met with success: more than were supposed to agree unanimously.” European level. The other members two-thirds of voters were in favor. The argu- Schmitt is researching the development wanted to reduce the lead content in ments on both sides at that time are largely of a legislative technique known as stages; however, Germany successfully the same ones that are used today. minimum harmonization. This offered proposed a derogation that permitted a way out of the dilemma that was fre­ more stringent limits.” In his analyses, While minimum harmonization may quently used from the 1960s until the Philipp Schmitt also comes across coun­ not conform to the ideal of legal unifi­ recent past. For EU directives, i.e. for try-specific patterns: “It is those states cation, the EU has in Philipp Schmitt’s rules that need to be converted by the that have high standards in certain areas view certainly benefited from the op­ individual states into their own laws, it that most frequently press the case for tion of allowing more stringent mea­ created room for maneuver for national derogations. Environmental protection sures: “I think that in a Europe with concerns. The states only needed to was often an important issue for the opposing views, this was a good way of agree on a minimum standard, with Germans, while the Danes insisted on making progress in the single market more stringent rules possible. asserting their principles when it came without ignoring social issues or envi­ Schmitt cites an early example to social matters and the British were ronmental and consumer protection.”

Graphic: designergold based on a draft by the MPG Photo: dpa report from the 1970s, the reduction of lead particularly keen on animal welfare.” After all, this is precisely the danger

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 21 22 which theEuropeanCourt ofJustice mutual recognition.” product alignmentandtowards more ment preparedthepathaway from movement ofgoods.TheCJEU judg requirements inordertoenablethefree tosetuniform appeared tobenecessary in adirectiveon‘Euroliqueur’,sinceit would havepreviouslybeenspecified called not findthatsuchgroundsapplied. In thecaseofliqueur, thecourtdid or whenthereisarisktopublichealth. purposes example forfiscalsupervision requirements,for to fulfillmandatory market whenthisisdeemednecessary may onlyrestricttheEuropeaninternal sion bysayingthatnationalregulations CJEU. Thejudgesexplainedtheirdeci­ and wasgivenafavorablerulingbythe sold. Thecompanyfiledanobjection law onspirits,theliqueurcouldnotbe tent didnotconformtotheGerman range. However, sincethealcoholcon­ Crème deCassisaspartofitsproduct market wantedtostartsellingFrench blackcurrant liqueur. A German super­ nal, sincethesubjectofdisputewas 1970s. The casemayat first sound ba­ ing inthisrespectattheendof Justice (CJEU)passedanimportantrul­ details centrally. TheEuropeanCourt of forthesinglemarkettoregulate essary text istowhatextentitactuallynec­ sation mightbeanobstacle.” drawal orclaimsfordamagecompen­ different periodsfortherightofwith­ tection, forexample,theeconomy, tions upwards were forconsumer pro­ look atit.Asimportantasthedevia­ “It’s aquestionfromwhichangleyou Schmitt cancertainlyunderstandwhy: for morestringentnationalstandards. anything butsupportiveofderogations benchmark.” of theday, theloweststandardsets the bottom;inotherwords,atend “In general,thereistheriskofaraceto on thesmallestcommondenominator: that ariseswhenagrouphastoagree legislation: “A certain alcohol content set new standards for the alignment of MaxPlanckResearch 1 MaxPlanckResearch This wasnottheonlyruling with Philipp Schmittsaysthattheso One important question in this con­ Today, theEuropeanCommissionis Cassis-de-Dijon judgment of 1979 judgment of1979 | 19 - ­ are studyingthisinstitution’s past,and pean CourtofJustice.Heand histeam of the Euro­ has focused on the history acted ultravires. way overtheyears,andinso doinghas tice has consciously acted in a political critical ofthefactthatCourtJus­ Union ofdisparity”,page30).Theyare scientists and sociologists (seealso“The demic arena,particularlybypolitical as beingatrisk,butalsofromtheaca­ ticians whoseetheirnationalinterests cism has been voiced not only by poli­ tion” – a role that is contentious. Criti ­ considered tobethe“engineofintegra market inEurope.Fordecades,itwas facilitated theadvanceofsingle on the concept of the European Community of Law (below from left). from (below Law of Community European the of concept the on focusing is Klünder Thorben and harmonization, minimum of development the researching is Schmitt Philipp while Compromise, Luxembourg the after veto the studying private is Bajon Philip European law. to relating issues on working is left) (above Jarass Insa history. its and Union European the studies right) (above Vogenauer Stefan by headed team the investigation: Joint In hisresearch, StefanVogenauer ­ cols andotherwrittendocuments,but not onlywithreferencetofiles,proto­ fore no political role, no activism, no applying thelaw–thatthere wasthere viewees insistthattheCJEU wasonly together withacolleague.“Many inter conducting some of theseinterviews cording toPhilipBajon,who hasbeen by theCourt.Theanswersdiffer, ac lates tothepossiblepoliticalroleplayed with theofficialwrittenrecords. past, and are comparing their memories cials whousedtoworkthereinthe and high questioning judges,AdvocatesGeneral theyare pilot project.Ininterviews, in a also by recording its oral history One question in their interviews re­ One questionintheirinterviews - ranking administrativeoffi­ ­ ­ ­

Photos: Christiane Birr (2) Photos: Christiane Birr (2) what became known as “Eurosclerosis”, what becameknownas“Eurosclerosis”, 1970s, thelargenumberofvetoes ledto in theCouncilofMinisters. During the it inordertoblockmajority decisions room formaneuverwhenthey invoked political deal, since it gave them more were happytoacceptaninformal,more came European law. The governments Luxembourg Compromiseneverbe not definedingreaterdetail, and the at stake.These“nationalinterests”were decision when“nationalinterests”were state could veto a majority by every bers negotiatedanarrangementwhere- cy” toanend.Atthattime,themem- Charles deGaulle’s “emptychairpoli- This wastheagreementthatbrought embourg Compromisewasoftenused. day justastheywereinthepast. defense oftheirnationalinterests–to- Ministers are often vehement in their state andgovernmentintheCouncilof fore notsurprisingthattheheadsof expect politicianstodefend.Itisthere- compromising positionsthatcitizens there arestrong,ultimatelyoftenun nation, an exampleofhowinevery For Vogenauer, thepurityregulationis PUT ASTOP TO THE DEVELOPMENT NO ATTEMPT WAS EVERMADE TO it’s justthatno-onebuysit.” with the purity regulation standards; has notbeenbrewedinaccordance probably possible to purchase beer that well abroad. And here in Germany, it’s about this any more. German beer sells truly traumatic.Today, no-onetalks turned ourpurityregulation.’Thatwas just cameinfromBrusselsandover the Germanpublicsaid:‘Thesepeople example: “Thatwasthefirsttimethat regulation on thepurity of beer as an cites the ruling on the 1987 German lations wereaffected.StefanVogenauer ularly when traditional national regu- reactions in thememberstates, partic- Justice oftentriggeredfierce emotional of itsrole,judgmentsbytheCourt litical one.” that itsrolewasoccasionallyalsoapo- only a small number of people who say room formaneuverinvolved.Thereare Regardless ofitsownunderstanding In the1970sinparticular, theLux- - - - The arguments put forward inthede- The argumentsputforward already beingpublishedinthepress.” that time, various Brexit scenarios were sequences thatthisentailed.Evenat ty,” Bajonexplains,“withallthecon- an enormousblowtotheirsovereign- of the UK.“The British regarded this as es wereapprovedwithouttheconsent too farfortheotherstates,andpric al uponbudgetconcessions.Thiswent common agriculturalpricescondition- the Britishhadmadetheirsupportfor its attempttoblockavote.Atthattime, the UnitedKingdomwasoutvotedin did soinspectacularfashion.In1982, member tovetoadecisionfail,andit of theprocessEuropeanintegration.” pression thattheywerestillincontrol ate. “Itgavethegovernmentsim- and makeiteasierforthemtocooper- a toolusedtobringthecriticsonboard history.” He concludes that the veto was ment or even to turn back the clock of the CJEU,toputastopdevelop- ever madetolimitthecompetencesof tions: “Evenso,nomajorattemptwas therefore workinginoppositedirec jon, the legal and political spheres were mental importance.AccordingtoBa- degree withrulingsthatwereoffunda- of Europeanintegrationtoasignificant Court ofJusticefacilitatedtheadvance period ofEurosclerosis,theEuropean during the1970s,precisely and itsapplication.Itisnoticeablethat study oftheLuxembourgCompromise ture begantochange. onwards thatthedecision-makingcul- sions oftheTreaties fromthemid-1980s icies. Itwasonlywiththemajorrevi an extensiveblockadeofEuropeanpol-

l l l SUMMARY Only oncedidanattemptbya Philip Bajon has conducted a close Philip Bajonhasconductedaclose    to give up their national self-determination. national their up give to unwilling also are states the However, standardization. demands market internal An informal veto option, which was frequently used from the mid the from used frequently was which option, veto informal An the beginning: the from tension of asource been has unification European control of the increasing degree of integration. of degree increasing the of control mid- Compromises such as those that take the form of minimum standards with national with standards minimum of form the take that those as such Compromises derogations have made it easier for European states to grow together in the past. the in together grow to states European for easier it made have derogations 1980 s, left national governments under the impression that they were still in in still were they that impression the under governments national left s, - - - example of Brexit shows that the British example of Brexit showsthattheBritish balance here,”Vogenauer stresses.“The “It isn’t always easytofindtheright sumer andenvironmentalprotection? system, concerning,forexample,con- the valuesunderlyingmynationallegal tions withoutgivingupmyidentityor and lessbureaucracyforpatentapplica- to themarket,lowproductioncosts, that standardizationbrings,withaccess nity: howcanIenjoyallthebenefits it wasfoundedasaneconomiccommu surrounded the European Union since mately reflectsthetensionsthathave ulations intheirowncountry. desire to have full sovereignty over reg- the fearoflossautonomyand bate werethesameasthoseusedtoday: for Europetogrowclosertogether. crisisasanopportunity who sawevery pean Commission,Walter Hallstein, spirit ofthefirstPresidentEuro- –entirelyinthe major stepforward other memberstatesandfacilitatea ble thatBrexitwillweldtogetherthe rian’s opinion,itisbyallmeanspossi- picture wasdifferent.Inthelegalhisto voted infavorofexitingtheEU, the EU.BeforeUnitedKingdom in any member state would vote against rope showthat,atpresent,nomajority inEu side toBrexit.Currentsurveys to havebothatthesametime.” tions andstandards.Butit’s impossible full sovereigntyovertheirownregula- market, while on the other maintaining hand, they want full access to the single want tosquarethecircle. Ontheone (inGerman)

For StefanVogenauer, Brexitulti- For Vogenauer, thereisapositive www.mpg.de/podcasts/eur 1 | MaxPlanckResearch 19MaxPlanckResearch - 1960 FOCUS_Europe s until the the s until co ­ opa mmon mmon

23

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The struggle for common legislation

The European Union is not only an internal market, it is also a shared legal space. However, ideas about what constitutes a state under the rule of law are drifting further apart. For some time now, Poland and Hungary in particular have been defining their own rules. Armin von Bogdandy, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, is conducting research into this “constitutional crisis” and the possible responses that can be made by the EU. FOCUS_Europe

Under the banner of the law: judgments passed by the European Court of Justice play an important role for the rule of law in Europe. With the Latin term curia, which stood for the judgment of the king in the Middle Ages, the Court of Justice places itself firmly in the European tradition.

TEXT CHRISTIAN RATH

he EU is a community based implemented was one reason for the Recently, the government attempted to on the rule of law. The inter- dramatic financial situation in Greece,” bring the Supreme Court of Poland nal market would barely be von Bogdandy explains. The country’s into line and to dismiss Małgorzata able to function if there were administration is regarded as non-trans- Gersdorf, the President of the Supreme no common rules. National parent, bloated and corrupt. Court, who had refused to bow to the authoritiesT apply European rules, while Romania and Bulgaria, which joined government’s will. national courts monitor their applica- the EU in 2007, also have significant Armin von Bogdandy is a key figure tion. The European Court of Justice problems. At that time, the judicial in the discussion surrounding the safe- (CJEU) is only involved in cases of system was not capable of acting effec- guarding of EU rule of law. In particu- doubt or conflict. tively against organized crime and cor- lar, he develops arguments and legal Over the last 20 years, close collab- ruption. For this reason, both states concepts as a reminder of the basic val- oration has developed between the had to commit themselves to a man- ues of the EU, especially for the states courts and the investigative authorities. datory monitoring process. Every year, that are drifting away from them. Judgments are being mutually recog- the EU Commission writes a report on According to von Bogdandy’s central nized. Police forces are assisting each judicial reform and the fight against theory, “The EU must take action wher- other. Extraditions within the EU have corruption. In most cases, these re- ever there are systemic deficiencies.” By been made much simpler thanks to the ports are not encouraging. this, he does not mean problems that oc- European Arrest Warrant. For all this to cur occasionally. “A systemic deficicien- work, there has to be mutual trust be- TRUST IN THE JUDICIARIES OF cy is said to exist when trust in the law tween the EU states, since equivalent THE OTHER STATES IS KEY and its enforceability is lost in import- rule of law standards apply and are up- ant areas.” Here, von Bogdandy means held everywhere. However, these problems have long not just the application of EU law, but Article 2 of the Treaty on the Euro- been dwarfed by the disputes with Hun- also of purely national law. Trust in the pean Union lists the basic European gary and Poland. Since 2010, Viktor law and its institutions is important for values: “the respect for human dignity, Orbán has been transforming Hungary citizens and companies doing business freedom, democracy, equality, the rule into what he himself calls an “illiberal and planning their lives. Trust is funda- of law and respect for human rights.” It democracy.” The government is pursu- mental to the EU, which specifies rules is claimed that these characterize the ing the goal of expanding its influence for the Member States and in some cas- EU and are shared by “all Member over the media, educational institu- es also transfers considerable sums of States”. But is that really the case? tions and also the courts. money. Trust is also necessary when Armin von Bogdandy, Director at the In Poland, the governing PiS party Member States cooperate with each oth- Max Planck Institute for Comparative under Jarosław Kaczy´nski has been at- er on police and judicial matters. In von Public Law and International Law in tempting to bring the judicial system Bogdandy’s view, it is difficult for the EU Heidelberg, has his doubts. For about under its control since 2015 by intro- to function as a community based on ten years now, he has been researching ducing numerous new laws. It has made the rule of law if there are systemic defi- the “EU constitutional crisis and the rule sure that the majority of judges on the ciencies in individual states. of law.” How can Europe function as a Polish constitutional court are pro-gov- Some time ago, he presented an ar- community based on the rule of law ernment. The Council for the Judiciary, gument on handling systemic deficien- when the Member States themselves which appoints the Polish judges, is cies in the application of the rule of law. have difficulties with the rule of law? now also controlled by the political In exceptional cases, EU citizens should States with weak institutions, such majority. The Minister of Justice can be able to assert claims to the European as Greece, are problematic. “The ineffi- also replace all presidents of the dis- protection of fundamental rights either

Photo: Reuters ciency with which Greek tax law was trict, regional and voivodeship courts. in the national courts (if they are still

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 25 independent) or directly at the Euro­ vidual EU citizens have a right to a “Eu- and the German judge at the European pean Court of Justice. Armin von Bog- ropean safety parachute of fundamen- Court of Justice for Human Rights in dandy talks of a reversed “Solange” tal rights,” according to von Bogdandy. Strasbourg, Angelika Nussberger, are also doctrine, referring to a decision made Since the CJEU has not yet adopted members. In 2018, the subject of discus- by the German Federal Constitutional this concept, it has to date remained sion was “Mutual trust in the European Court in 1986. At that time, the court nothing more than a much-discussed legal space.” This is an opportunity for in Karlsruhe decided that it would not academic recommendation. von Bogdandy to discuss his research re- monitor EU legal files for compliance In 2016, von Bogdandy also found- sults directly with key stakeholders and with fundamental rights “solange”, or ed the “Heidelberg Discussion Group on to present these results to them. “so long”, as the CJEU guaranteed a the Multilevel Cooperation of Constitu- However, what concrete measures largely equivalent protection of funda- tional Courts” (“Heidelberger Gesprächs- can the EU take if there are problems mental rights. Conversely, this means kreis Verfassungsgerichtsverbund”) to- in individual states? Currently, there that the institutions of each Member gether with high-ranking individuals are four measures in particular that State are themselves responsible for the such as Andreas Vosskuhle, President of can be considered. national protection of fundamental the German Federal Constitutional The lowest-level measure is to initi- rights outside EU law contexts – so Court. In this group, scientists debate ate a dialogue process. This is based on long as they protect the essence of with constitutional judges and European an “EU framework to strengthen the these fundamental rights. If not, indi- judges. CJEU President Koen Lenaerts Rule of Law” that was approved by the

On principle, EU citizenship encompasses an entitlement to a European

» safety parachute for fundamental rights. Photos: picture alliance/dpa (left), alliance/NurPhoto

26 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 FOCUS_Europe

A test of strength in Poland: EU Commission in 2014. Such a dia­ As a fourth option, there are procedures the government of Jarosław log­ue encompasses three phases. First, at the European Court of Justice that Kaczy´nski (far left) has been attempting to bring the the EU Commission performs an anal- are initiated by national courts. At issue judiciary under its control ysis of the situation, in which it defines here is whether a court in one state can since 2015. Małgorzata the problems. It discusses these with still collaborate judicially with a prob- Gersdorf (large image), the the state in confidence. If the problem lematic Member State. Here, trust in the President of the Supreme cannot be solved quietly, the Commis- other state’s application of the rule of Court, was due to be forcibly retired in July 2018 but sion issues public recommendations law plays a key role. Can a citizen be ex- refused to give up her seat. and sets deadlines by which they must tradited to this state if they are charged be implemented. During the third with a criminal offense there? This is a phase, the Commission checks wheth- tricky question for the CJEU. If it pro- er the recommendations have been fol- hibits extradition because treatment ac- lowed and draws corresponding con- cording to the rule of law is not guar- clusions. Apparently, von Bogdandy’s anteed in the destination state, this ideas were an important inspiration for might help the person affected but will this dialog­ue process. However, the pro- damage European cooperation in the cedure does not provide for sanctions. fight against crime. If it approves the The EU Treaty (Article 7) for the EU extradition, it is in effect closing its eyes Council of Ministers, the body of the to the problems relating to the rule of Member States, has more powerful law in the country in question. tools at its disposal. With the agree- ment of 80 percent of its members, the POLAND AND HUNGARY Council can determine a “clear risk of SUPPORT EACH OTHER a serious infringement” of EU basic values. This is intended as a type of fi- For Armin von Bogdandy, the question nal warning. In the next step, the of whether or not these measures are ef- Council can determine that there is “a fective in the short term is by no means serious and lasting infringement” of decisive. For him, the main point is EU basic values. This resolution must that the EU does something and re- be unanimous (excluding the state in sponds to systemic deficiencies. “Here, question). If this hurdle is cleared, cer- the vast majority of the EU states can tain sanctions such as the loss of vot- draw a red line and define themselves ing rights can be initiated provided in the club.” In this way, he says, a sit- there is a qualified majority. While uation can be prevented whereby the harsh sanctions are possible, this pro- understanding of the rule of law in cedure is also strongly politicized. As questionable states comes to be regard- soon as two states agree to close ranks, ed as different but of equal value. there is almost no possibility of intro- Over the past three years, the strug- ducing sanctions. gle for the independence of the Polish The third option consists of in- courts has intensified. It is now regard- fringement proceedings, which can in ed as a litmus test for the ability of the turn be initiated by the EU Commis- EU to uphold rule of law structures in sion. The Commission can file a suit the Member States. This case can also against individual Member States at the be seen as an example of what the tools CJEU. Here, the matter in hand is not the EU has at its disposal can achieve the general situation, but individual in practice. laws. These procedures are often effec- Poland was in fact the first state tive, since states that fail to comply with which the EU Commission con- with CJEU ordinances and judgments ducted a dialogue over the rule of law. are threatened with substantial finan- From January 2016 to December 2017, cial penalties. On the other hand, such the EU Commission issued four recom- procedures frequently remain technical mendations to Poland, each referring and non-political, since they do not to different laws. However, from the openly address the development of au- viewpoint of the EU Commission, the thoritarian ruling structures. recommendations went unheeded. >

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 27 Left A speaker in demand: Armin von Bogdandy is also active in eastern European countries with regard to the discussion surrounding the rule of law in the EU. Here, he is seen at a conference in Budapest. Below Waiting it out together: according to the EU Treaty, the Council of Ministers has the option of determining a “clear risk of a serious infringement” of the EU basic values by Poland. To date, the members have not reached such a conclusion.

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A situation must be prevented whereby the understanding of the rule of » law in questionable states is regarded as different but of equal value.

The EU Commission therefore applied than in cases of everyday crime. In this fact creating the rule of law by remov- to initiate the Article 7 procedure in the way, the Court of Justice cleverly avoids ing judges from the communist era to- fall of 2017. However, the EU Council having to make its own assessment of gether with corrupt party members from of Ministers has yet to pass a resolution conformity to the rule of law in Poland the previous civic government. Poland on this matter. A removal of Poland’s by transferring responsibility for the and Hungary also claim that they are ac- voting right appears almost impossible, analysis to the national courts. cused of having structures that have since Poland and Hungary have assured never been contentious in other states each other that they would each pre- STRENGTHENING SELF-HEALING such as Germany, such as the election of vent a unanimous resolution against POWERS WITHIN THE COUNTRY judges by political committees. the other state. Armin von Bogdandy is glad that in At the same time, the EU Commis- Armin von Bogdandy says that he is such debates there are also independent sion has initiated two infringement unable to predict whether or not the ef- bodies such as the Venice Commission proceedings due to the reform of the ju- forts made by the EU in Poland will be of the Council of Europe working along- diciary in Poland. The second legal ac- successful in the long term, and which side the EU institutions. This commis- tion filed in September 2018 has at- tools could be the most effective. He sion is a committee of experts that ad- tracted particular attention; it pertains says that he is neither a political scien- vises states on constitutional issues and to the reduction of the pensionable age tist, nor is he sufficiently familiar with also assesses them. It has explicitly crit- for judges on the Polish Supreme Court. Polish domestic politics. icized the restructuring of the judicial This reduction means that 27 of the 72 For the Director of the Max Planck system in both Hungary and Poland. acting judges could be forced to retire, Institute in Heidelberg, it is important However, for von Bogdandy, the pur- including President Gersdorf. not only to research the situation in pose is not so much to enforce govern- At the end of October, the CJEU, on Hungary and Poland from afar, but also ment compliance from the outside. First behalf of the Commission, issued an in- to work with academics and judges and foremost, he wants to strengthen terim injunction against this proposal. from these countries in order to formu- the self-healing powers in the country As a result, the judges affected were able late questions and develop assessments. in question. “If the EU insists on a judi- to return to work. One month later, the In 2017, for example, he held a confer- cial system that is independent and Polish parliament, the Sejm, summarily ence in Warsaw. based on the rule of law, this is certain- passed a law that largely revoked the re- At the same time, however, he warns ly acknowledged in the state affected.” form. The EU thus proved that it has the against regarding the problematic EU For him, it is a good sign that at the stronger arm, at least in individual cases. states merely as objects of EU measures. CJEU, nine judicial referrals are already During 2018, the CJEU also consid- “These countries have their own point pending from Poland with issues relat- ered the extradition of criminals to Po- of view, which we should listen to and ing to the Polish judicial reform. land. In one case presented by the Irish assess carefully.” High Court, the CJEU recommended a In the case of Poland, for example, www.mpg.de/podcasts/europa two-stage approach. First, national the PiS government claims that it is in (in German) courts should examine whether there is a risk to the independence of the judi- cial system in Poland as a whole. The SUMMARY Article 7 procedure that has been initi- l Through political interventions, Poland and Hungary are threatening to undermine ated could provide important informa- the independence of the judiciary and thus the EU rule of law. tion in this context. In the second step, l The EU has several ways of responding to this. The most effective ones appear to it must be checked whether this risk be infringement proceedings arising from specific laws that constitute an infringe- might have an impact on the specific ment of EU law.

case. Here, the CJEU takes account of l In the long term, the EU will only be successful if it strengthens the self-healing the fact that the risk of an unfair trial is powers in the Member States affected.

Photos: shutterstock (above), The Council of the European Union/Enzo Zucchi (below) higher in politically controversial cases

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 29 The Union of disparity

Opinions are divided when it comes to the question of how Europe should progress in the future. On the one side are the Eurosceptics, who wish for stronger nation states. But on the other there are also many advocates of stronger European integration. At the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, research on Europe by Martin Höpner and his group and Fritz Scharpf explores to what extent there is any chance for the member states to move closer together, given their significant structural differences.

TEXT CASPAR DOHMEN Photo: shutterstock

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urope will be whatever the The researchers at the Max Planck Worlds apart: in Bulgaria, the poorest member Europeans can agree on, or Institute for the Study of Societies state of the EU, 20 percent of people are so there will be no Europe,” (MPIfG) in Cologne have found that poor that they cannot cover their basic needs. Roma people (left) are the hardest hit. wrote the politicians Hans the political and economic hetero­ In Luxembourg, the richest EU country, seven Eichel (SPD), Roland Koch geneity of the member states has a sig­ percent of citizens are millionaires, and some (CDU),E the philosopher Jürgen Haber­ nificant impact on European inte­ like to display their wealth. mas, and the economist Bert Rürup in gration. “Their heterogeneity has a their appeal for more solidarity in decisive influence on the scope of Europe in the fall of 2018 They called what is politically possible,” says the That might also help to prevent disap­ for more Europe, from an integrated political scientist Martin Höpner, lead­ pointment among citizens when the European army to minimum stan­ er of the “Political Economy of Euro­ high-flying plans of the visionaries dards of social protection for the un­ pean Integration” research group at cannot be realized. employed from Portugal to Romania. the MPIfG. “It determines what is re­ For a long time, there was much to Other pro-Europeans are demanding a alistically possible, and what is not.” be said for aligning living standards in greener Europe, or a more social Europe. Given the serious structural differ­ the EU, in theory. In practice, however, There are many good reasons for them ences, the researchers are skeptical. the story of European integration took to do so. But how likely is it that the Their perspective is likely to make another course: the differences between 27 EU members remaining after Britain them seem unduly negative to Eu­ the member states increased with each has left can agree on such ambitious rope visionaries, yet their objective is enlargement and, except in the case of

Photo: shutterstock Photo: Marc Kleen / unsplash steps towards integration? to identify realistic courses of action. Ireland, diminished little over time. >

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 31 Record export levels: Germany exported more goods than ever before in 2018. The German economy benefits from the fact that the euro – because of the economically weaker countries of the eurozone – is valued too low by international comparison.

The six founding members of the Euro­ ferences between states and find out ing countries that were once compa­ pean Community (Germany, France, whether heterogeneity has conse­ rable to drift apart economically during Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and quences, for example for the integra­ the 1970s. Luxembourg) were initially a relatively tion of regional economic areas such homogeneous group, measured by as in the European Union. Essentially EUROPEAN CONSENSUS their economic performance. This first it is concerned with different mani­ HINDERED BY DIFFERENCES began to change when the southern festations of capitalism. This is how countries (Spain, Portugal, and Greece) the American political scientist Peter According to Höpner, there is no defi­ joined in the early 1980s, and then did A. Hall and the British economist nite threshold from which heterogene­ so very significantly with the wave of David Soskice differentiate in their ity prevents integration. However, in accessions of Eastern and Central Euro­ classic book Varieties of Capitalism be­ political economy research there is a pean countries after the fall of the Ber­ tween coordinated economies in “core consensus that “the heterogeneity of lin Wall. The wealth gap continues to Europe” and liberal market econo­ the EU member states is enormous.” this day: gross domestic product per mies such as the U.S. or Great Britain. This is clearly illustrated by factors in­ citizen is more than ten times higher in The Danish sociologist Gøsta Esping- cluding minimum wage levels, worker Luxembourg, the richest member state, Andersen classifies states according to participation arrangements, or meth­ than in Bulgaria, the poorest country in their social-democratic, conservative, ods of taxation. Nevertheless, a large the EU. This inequality is also reflected and liberal welfare models. As early as amount of integration has taken place in minimum wages, which are EUR the late 1970s, Fritz Scharpf, an Emer­ in the EU – in a variety of ways. 11.55 per hour in Luxembourg and only itus Director of the Cologne-based In the early 1990s, Fritz Scharpf al­ EUR 1.57 in Bulgaria. MPIfG and still actively researching ready distinguished between positive The MPIfG research group on Eu­ today, identified other important vari­ and negative integration which is es­ rope works in particular with compar­ ables for determining national differ­ sential to understanding the approach ative political economy, an approach ences in economic development: how taken by the Cologne researches. The commonly used by political scientists, they control inflation and how they terms are used neutrally, merely in­ sociologists, and economists. With it, set wages. The impact of these factors tended to describe two different ways

researchers examine the structural dif­ became clear with the oil crisis, caus­ of achieving “more Europe.” Negative Photo: istock

32 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 FOCUS_Europe

Current account balance as a percentage of GDP

15

Netherlands 10 Germany

5 Italy Spain 0 France Greece

-5

-10

-15

-20 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

integration takes place when national ic differences, however, it is extremely Forced harmonization: the current account trade barriers are removed in the indi­ difficult to reach this kind of consen­ balance – the difference between the value of exported and the value of imported vidual countries. The best example of sus,” Höpner says. goods and services – has developed positively this is the creation of a single Euro­ in Greece and Spain. However, in order to pean market. The Community banned THE EU OFTEN ANNULS STANDARDS achieve this, people in these countries have protectionist measures in all member BUT DOES NOT CREATE NEW ONES had to suffer significant wage reductions and severe cutbacks in their health and states, such as customs duties and pension systems. individual product specifications, so- The best example of this is the discus­ called non-tariff barriers to trade. This sion about tax harmonization. Large resulted in the liberalization of the EU EU states have much to lose through The institutional regulations make it Single Market. tax competition and tend to push for much easier to achieve political progress Negative integration, however, is harmonization of tax rates, for exam­ in the EU by means of negative inte­ not only brought about by European ple for corporate taxes. Smaller and gration than by positive integration. legislation. It is also extended by inter­ poorer EU countries are more interest­ “This asymmetry is embedded in the pretation in the judgments of the Eu­ ed in attracting companies with lower European institutional system, and thus ropean Court of Justice (CJEU). This tax rates. “This is a legitimate inter­ in the deep grammar of the EU, so to happens on a regular basis. An exam­ est,” Höpner points out. Interests also speak,” says Höpner: “Negative inte­ ple of a landmark judgment of the clash when it comes to regulating the gration generates a momentum that CJEU is the Cassis de Dijon ruling of employment market, as the Posting positive integration never could.” 1979. The judges ruled that if a prod­ of Workers Directive shows. Poorer This has significant consequences, uct was lawfully marketed in one countries are interested in their do­ as the two integration mechanisms ad­ member state, it was generally permit­ mestic companies being able to ex­ dress different policy areas. Positive ted for this product to also be sold in port lower standards and wages to integration is usually used to create all other member states. richer countries, at least in part. new regulations and establish stan­ Meanwhile, the researchers talk Meanwhile, the wealthier countries dards, for example in the fields of en­ about positive integration if the EU cre­ try as far as possible to prevent this. vironmental or social policy. Negative ates policies that are binding for all These divergent interests make it very integration, on the other hand, often member states. To this day, such deci­ difficult to agree on consistent over­ affects the economic policy field. Here sions in the EU require a large degree of riding principles in the Community, national standards are almost always political consensus among the mem­ whether for social welfare, capital tax­ eliminated, which is why negative in­

Photo: istock Graphic: MPI for the Study of Societies bers. “Owing to the structural econom­ es, or worker participation. tegration almost always has a liberal­

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 33 34 the pricesoftheirproductsor services, port the costs of production may force ex export sectorrisingwagesthat increase mand, suchasItalyorSpain. Inthe depending primarilyondomestic de lands thantheyhaveincountries tries suchasGermanyortheNether ferent effect in export duced fordomesticdemand. are pro­ sector where goods and services the exportsectorandofnon factor: differences in the relative size of are toalargeextentcausedbysingle Emeritus DirectoroftheInstitute, they countries. AccordingFritzScharpf, sive effectsintheeurozoneof19EU the socialsphere. EU butthereislittleharmonizationin liberalization have been takenin the explain why somanystepstowards Luxembourg companies. in commuters non-European for conditions cross-border of taxation number high the favorable by Ireland’s and distorted the slightly are between gap The figures the prosperity. that of fact levels the the indespite disparities apparent, is the members EU reflects capita per product domestic gross the inequality: of indicator An FOCUS_Europe izing effect. This theory canbeusedto effect.Thistheory izing MaxPlanckResearch 1 MaxPlanckResearch Wage andpriceincreaseshaveadif Structural differenceshaveexplo - oriented companiestoincrease GDP per capita in euros in 2017 in euros in capita per GDP 90 60 40 80 50 30 20 70 10

000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000

Luxembourg 0

Ireland Denmark | 19 -

oriented coun­ Sweden Netherlands

Austria - traded Finland Germany ­ ­ ­ ­ ­

Belgium a largeexportsector. Itmaytherefore with for itseconomythaninacountry sector canhaveadifferentsignificance with alargedomestic tion inacountry well causeinflationtorise, butinfla­ and employmentasaresult. Thismay at homeand can expandproduction are thenabletoachievehigherprices of thenationaleconomy. Companies more significantforthedevelopment demand torise,andthiscanbefar increases household incomes, causing vantage, too.However, increasingwages wage increasesareacompetitivedisad­ domestic market.Forthesecompanies, panies in countries that focus on their Of course, thereare also exporting com EXPORT PRICES INFLATION PUSHESUP petitors intheinternationalmarket. disadvantage comparedtotheircom which willputthematacompetitive United Kingdom

France

Italy Spain Cyprus

Malta Slovenia

Portugal

Czech Republic Greece

Slovakia ­ ­ Estonia possible throughinternaldevaluation. currency, adjustments have only been the respectivenationalcurrencies. through appreciation or depreciation of mem between thecurrentaccountsofEU currency was launched, imbalances current account.Beforethecommon ance is the largest component of the a positivetradebalance.Thebal­ the oppositeiscase,theytalkabout soldabroad.If the goodsandservices tional economy is higher than that of vices purchased fromabroadbyana balance ifthevalueofgoodsandser Economists talkaboutanegativetrade market andexport of thecurrentaccountsdomestic lematic whenitcomestoevaluation sales toallowhigherinflation. al economiesthatfocusondomestic make sense for central banks in nation­ Lithuania Since theintroductionof single The commoncurrencyisalsoprob­ Hungary ber statescouldbecompensated

Poland

Latvia Croatia Romania - oriented countries. oriented countries. Bulgaria

- ­ ­

Graphic: MPI for the Study of Societies Graphic: MPI for the Study of Societies

Photo: Thekla Ehling / MPI for the Study of Societies ern EUcountriesstillexists. Itcould tiveness betweennorthernand south­ compared totherestof world. further, astheeuroisundervalued man exportsurpluseshave increased What ismore,thealreadyhighGer­ higher thanitwasbeforethecrisis. tries, andnationaldebtissignificantly ployment has fallen in the crisis coun gross domestic product. However, em­ and exportsaregrowingfasterthan and thewagesharehavedecreased, the sensethatcurrentaccountdeficits The strategyhasprovensuccessfulin from thecountrieshitbycrisis. cus ondomesticsales,ascanbeseen counterproductive forthosewithafo­ port the right economicpolicy for an ex other nationaleconomies.However, compared totheircompetitorsfrom national economymorecompetitive intended tomakecompaniesfromone These so today receive only the minimum wage. tem waseroded,andmanyworkers by aroundonequarter, thetariffsys­ In Greece, forexample, gross wages fell ly towageandnon In practice,suchmeasuresapplymost­ BY AQUARTER WAGES INGREECEFELL Fund. national Monetary European CentralBank,andtheInter­ called Troika, theEUCommission, der significantpressurefromtheso during thefinancialcrisis–inpartun­ heavily indebted euro member states particularly largescaletookplacein al economy. Internaldevaluationona prove thecompetitivenessofanation­ lowering of prices and wages to im­ Economists usethistermtorefera

“The gapininternationalcompeti ­ - oriented country mayprove oriented country » - called austeritymeasuresare in the eurozone. It makes no sense for everyone to keep the euro. the keep to everyone for sense no makes Iteurozone. the in exists thatdisparity economic the reduce to sums enormous take would It - wage laborcosts. - ­ ­ the affectedcitizens. would causeconsiderableunrest among therefore bemoreausterity, which keep the eurozone together would those itaffects.Theonlyother wayto not beprescribedagainstthe willof said thandone.Higherinflationcan­ within theeurozone.Butthisiseasier this wouldreducepricedistortions justment insoutherneconomies,as north wouldeasetheburdenofad unlikely anyway. More inflation in the ers considerthissolutiontobehighly account, however, theMPIfGresearch the major structural differences into to overstrainthedonorstates.Taking would require enormous sums, likely among theGermanfederalstates.This fiscal equalizationthattakesplace and poorer countries, much like the reduced by transfers between richer ic disparityintheeurozonecouldbe their findings?Intheory, theeconom­ the researchers inColognedrawfrom irreversible results.” Höpner: “Liberalizationoftenproduces to createandeasydestroy,” says “Certain typesofsocialorderarehard of thisisnotwithoutconsequences. systems havealsobeenweakened.All tries. Education,health, and pension tive wage agreements for entire indus­ than tradeunionsthatbargaincollec­ are inaweakernegotiatingposition ized toplantlevel.Localworkscouncils wage settlementshavebeendecentral­ austerity policies,forexamplebecause have alreadybeenweakenedbythe siders tobe“politicallyimpossible.” decrease evenfurther, anoptionhecon crisis Scharpf explains.Pricesandwagesin intensifying presentausteritypoli only beclosedbyfurtherextendingand So, whatpoliticalconclusionsdo Trade unionsinmanyEUcountries - ridden countries would need to ridden countrieswouldneedto ­ cies,” cies,” > ­ ­ ­

continues to work on issues relating to Europe. to relating issues on work to continues 1986 between Societies of Study the for Institute Planck Max the of Director a was Scharpf Fritz Emeritus: Research-active 1 | MaxPlanckResearch 19MaxPlanckResearch

and 2003 and and 35 FOCUS_Europe

A political scientist with an economic Max Planck Innovation is responsible for focus: Martin Höpner leads the MPIfG research group on the “Political the technology transfer of the Max Planck Economy of European Integration”. Society and, as such, the link between industry and basic research. With our inter- disciplinary team we advise and support scientists in evaluating their inventions, filing patents and founding companies. We states to strengthen basic social pro­ offer industry a unique access to the tection. Höpner considers a voluntary basis for such assistance to be appro­ innovations of the Max Planck Institutes. priate, which the countries will be hard Thus we perform an important task: the pressed to refuse given the great benefit to their citizens. transfer of basic research results into Sober assessments like this may not products, which contribute to the economic be as exciting as the dream of a United States of Europe, but they may provide and social progress. better opportunities for making actual political progress in the EU despite all the structural differences between the “It makes no sense for everyone to Höpner. Scharpf and Höpner never­ member states. keep the euro,” says Höpner. He be­ theless see realistic chan­ces of social lieves it would be wise to implement a progress, for example in the form of EU www.mpg.de/podcasts/europa mechanism in the eurozone that en­ assistance to enable poorer member (in German) ables states to opt out of the single currency, as well as back in. For this Y type of reform he also sees major ob­ Connecting Science and Business stacles, however. There is an intense SUMMARY fear of the consequences that dissolv­ l There are significant differences between the economic structure and performance ing the euro might have, as well as the of the member states of the European Union. tendency to associate the euro with a l The resulting conflicts of interests make it almost impossible to reach pro-European attitude. As the German agreement in certain areas, for example in the case of a common tax policy Chancellor Angela Merkel succinctly or EU-wide social standards. put it before the Bundestag, “If the l There are also significant disparities within the eurozone: depending on whether euro fails, Europe fails.” Höpner con­ a country’s economy focuses on its domestic market or on exports, policy siders the “emotional or ideological measures – for example to lower inflation or cut wage costs – can have a positive or negative effect. identification of the euro with Europe l [to be] part of the problem, as it pre­ In setting its targets, the EU should pay more attention to the heterogeneity of its members. Euro countries should also be able to temporarily opt out of the vents a necessary correction of the cur­ common currency. rency union.” The essence of the re­ searchers’ findings is this: ambitions for the EU should be lowered. This GLOSSARY may not produce a United States of Austerity refers to policies provides pursued by governments in an economic downturn Europe, but it could lead to a more in order to cut spending and make the country more attractive for investors through functional union of states. lower wage and incidental non-wage labor costs. www.max-planck-innovation.de The researchers consider the likeli­ The trade balance of a country’s economy is a calculation of all exports and imports hood of establishing a European welfare of goods and services over a certain period. A positive trade balance is where the state to be “non-existent.” A European sum of a country’s exports is higher than that of its imports. welfare state that works in Bulgaria and The current account is made up of the trade balance, transfers to and from abroad, Denmark at the same time? “It is impos­ and residents’ net income.

sible to imagine, even in theory,” says Photo: Christoph Seelbach / MPI for the Study of Societies

36 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19

mi_anzeige_1/1_englisch_28_07_2017_prod.indd 1 28.07.2017 15:11:39 Uhr Max Planck Innovation is responsible for the technology transfer of the Max Planck Society and, as such, the link between industry and basic research. With our inter- disciplinary team we advise and support scientists in evaluating their inventions, filing patents and founding companies. We offer industry a unique access to the innovations of the Max Planck Institutes. Thus we perform an important task: the transfer of basic research results into products, which contribute to the economic and social progress.

Connecting Science and Business

www.max-planck-innovation.de Photo: Christoph Seelbach / MPI for the Study of Societies

mi_anzeige_1/1_englisch_28_07_2017_prod.indd 1 28.07.2017 15:11:39 Uhr SPECTRUM

Flying optical cats An entangled atom-light state raises new prospects for quantum communications

Alive and dead at the same time: Schrödinger’s cat is entangled with an atom. If the atom is ex- cited, the cat is alive. If it has decayed, the cat is dead. In this experiment, a pulse of light forms a superposition state of this kind, as represented by the pulse profile in the middle of the image.

allowed a cat to be simultaneously dead and alive in what is known as a superpo­ sition state. In this version of the exper­ iment, however, the role of the cat was played by a pulse of light. After bringing an atom into two physical states that existed simultaneously, the researchers caused the light signal to interact with the atom in a resonator – a tiny cavity between two mirrors. This interaction caused the light to adopt a similar state. Using other optical operations, the re­ searchers ultimately caused the pulse of At no point did researchers put a cat’s life in jeopardy. Rather, light to continue flying independently of the atom in a super­ a team led by Gerhard Rempe, Director at the Max Planck position state similar to that of Schrödinger’s cat. As optical Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, conducted a para­ superposition states of this kind can be used to encode quan­ doxical thought experiment in the laboratory. Devised by tum information, the experiment raises new possibilities for

the quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger, this experiment quantum communication. (www.mpg.de/12651632) Graphic: Christoph Hohmann, Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM); photo: ESA/Hubble & NASA

In the whirlpool around Who lies a gigantic black hole the most Quasars are the turbulent nuclei of galaxies that serve as the home of supermas­ sive black holes. In these cosmic powerhouses, gravitational energy is converted Meta-analysis synthesizes into heat as material falls into the black hole at the center. In the process, the gas results of 565 studies on the glows so brightly that it illuminates the entire galaxy and is visible even from bil­ psychology of dishonesty lions of light years away. This brightness complicates the measurement of active black holes, because it is no longer possible to see the stars whose orbits are used to calculate the central mass. However, using the Gravity instrument on the Very Experimental studies have long Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory, astronomers from the Max sought to identify the personal Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and environmental factors that have peered deep into the heart of the quasar turn people into liars. Now, scien- 3C 273 and succeeded in determining its pre­ tists from the Max Planck Institute cise mass for the first time based on the swirl­ for Human Development have ing motion of the gas clouds that surround the teamed up with Israeli colleagues black hole. The distance of 150 light days from to synthesize the results of 565 the clouds to the center, in combination with studies as part of a comprehensive their orbital velocity, produced a value of 800 meta-analysis. This confirmed the million solar masses. (www.mpg.de/12545668) conjecture that men lie more of- ten than women – although the A power plant in space: the quasar 3C 273 is located in a gigantic elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo, some 2.5 billion light years from Earth. It was the first quasar ever identified as such.

38 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 SPECTRUM

Preference for underweight bodies Anorexia nervosa patients prefer extremely slender bodies

Scientists are increasingly relying on the use of virtual reality in order to research how people perceive their bodies. The researchers scan subjects’ bodies and create a digital copy using the latest computer technology. This approach is more realistic than, for example, squeez­ ing or stretching photos to simulate variations in body weight. Using the new technique, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cy­ bernetics and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems studied the body Personalized avatar of a test subject. Anorexia nervosa patients are just as accurate as healthy perceptions of over 100 people with eat­ women in estimating their real body weight. Unlike healthy women, however, they perceive ing disorders. With the help of a joypad severely underweight bodies as attractive. (similar to a Playstation controller), the subjects were asked to vary their avatars until the weight of body weight the participants considered desirable and found their virtual alter ego matched their perception of their own that women with anorexia nervosa considered severely un­ weight. The results showed that patients with anorexia ner­ derweight bodies ideal. For example, they perceive a weight vosa estimated their weight just as accurately as healthy of 43 kg at a height of 1.60 m as beautiful. According to the women. Many previous studies suggested that anorexic researchers, the fact that women with anorexia nervosa have women suffer from distorted visual self-perception and per­ a different opinion about what weight is desirable should be ceive themselves as too fat, even though they are generally at the forefront of future therapies for people suffering from

Graphic: Christoph Hohmann, Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM); photo: ESA/Hubble & NASA Photos and graphic: MPI for Biological Cybernetics/A. Thaler (top), Adobe Stock (bottom) severely underweight. The researchers also investigated what eating disorders. (www.mpg.de/12332536)

Geckos walk on water

When it comes to walking, geckos have ate air pockets that support them. In evolved some extraordinary abilities. addition, their water-repellent skin ap­ For example, tiny hairs allow many of pears to allow them to plane across the difference is slight, with 42 per- them to walk upside down across a water. Finally, they use wavelike move­ cent of men and 38 percent of sheet of glass, and some medium-sized ments of their tails to create thrust and women lying in the experiments. species can even walk on water, as re­ lift. Based on these findings relating to What is clear is that younger peo- searchers led by Ardian Jusufi at the geckos’ ability to walk on water, re­ ple lie more than older people: the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent searchers want to develop robots with probability of lying is about 47 per- Systems in Stuttgart have discovered. similar abilities. (www.mpg.de/0120192/en) cent for 20-year-olds and falls to To prevent themselves from sinking, just 36 percent by the age of 60. the lizards – which weigh around six However, the results also show grams, about the same as a sheet of pa­ that the experimental set-up can per – appear to use a variety of tech­ influence subjects’ behavior. In niques. For example, they exploit the other words, people are not hon- surface tension of water, as do some est or dishonest per se, but rather species of insects, but they are too their behavior depends partly on heavy for this alone to keep them circumstances. This should be tak- afloat. The reptiles therefore rapidly en into account in future studies. slap the water with their feet, like (www.mpg.de/0120194/en) ducks and swans during takeoff, to cre­

Medium-sized geckos cannot rely on surface tension alone in order to stay afloat.

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 39 SPECTRUM

Reaching into the box of psychological tricks

The degree of willingness of men and women to assert themselves in competitions can be balanced out

Unequal opportunities: women are generally less willing than men to face competition. A psychological method known as priming can be used to iron out behavior differences between genders.

pared. When all of the participants sub­ sequently faced a competitive situation, 40 percent of men but only 14 percent of women in the neutral group were willing to enter into competition. Fol­ lowing priming, men in particular be­ haved differently, with only 28 percent of them choosing to face the competi­ tion. On the other hand, a slightly larger proportion of the women – 20 percent – opted for the competitive There are significant differences be­ Planck Institute for Research on Collec­ situation. Remembering an influential tween men’s and women’s attitudes to tive Goods together with Austrian col­ situation appears to enable individuals, competition – and this is one of the key leagues. In an experiment, some of the regardless of their gender, to arrive at reasons why women are often at a dis­ subjects were prepared using a psycho­ a realistic assessment of their own abil­ advantage in the world of work. This in­ logical method called priming. This ities. According to the research team, equality can be reduced considerably group was asked to remember an event the method could be applied in the using a psychological trick, as demon­ over which they exerted an influence. education system and in professional strated by Matthias Sutter of the Max Another group of subjects went unpre­ training. (www.mpg.de/12381578)

A cold super-Earth in our neighborhood

Barnard’s Star, which is six light years away, is home to an exoplanet

An international group of astronomers, in­ cluding from the Max Planck Institute for As­ tronomy, has succeeded in detecting a planet orbiting Barnard’s Star, which is only six light years away. The planet has just over three times the mass of Earth and is about as cold Saturn. The discovery was made by measuring the periodic changes in radial velocity of the parent star – that is, the movement of the star in response to the planet’s pull. To do this, the astronomers extracted a signal from 771 indi­ vidual measurements they had collected over the course of two decades. The celestial body, which has been named “Barnard’s Star b”, or­ bits its host star once every 233 days at a dis­ tance of around 60 million kilometers. With a temperature of about -170°C, it is probably a hostile, icy desert in which there is no liquid water. (www.mpg.de/12486212)

An alien world: this illustration shows the surface of the planet “Barnard’s Star b”. Photos: shutterstock (top), ESO/M. Kornmesser (bottom)

40 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 SPECTRUM

Reaching into the box of psychological tricks The toolmakers of the bird world

New Caledonian crows combine individual parts to form a long-distance reaching aid

For a long time, tool use appeared to tools in order to access food that is be an exclusively human trait. We out of reach. In an experiment, the now know that tools are widespread researchers offered the birds treats in the animal world, although it was that they could not reach, as well as thought that only humans and great several sticks that were each individ- apes could use complicated objects ually too short. Without any external consisting of multiple components. help or prior training, the crows com- Now, however, it is clear that this il- bined the short pieces to create a stick lustrious group of animals also in- of sufficient length. One of the birds cludes crows. Scientists from the Max even made tools out of three and four Planck Institute for Ornithology in parts. The results show that crows are New Caledonian crows – from the eponymous Seewiesen and the University of Ox- among the few animals that can re- archipelago in the South Pacific – are extremely ford have discovered that New Cale- spond flexibly to novel problems. intelligent birds. If necessary, they can combine donian crows can create compound (www.mpg.de/12401947) several elements to create a working tool.

Symbiosis of burying beetles

The animals rely on their gut symbionts in order to transform decaying carcasses into healthy nurseries for their young

Burying beetles bury the cadavers of small animals in soil to use them as a food source for their offspring. However, the nursery decomposes progressively over time, and the resulting toxic substances, microbial pathogens, and nu- trient loss are a threat to the beetle larvae. According to Corkscrew-shaped nanorobots are injected into the vitreous humor of an eye and steered towards the retina using an scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecol- external magnetic field. ogy in Jena, the beetles therefore replace harmful micro- organisms with their own beneficial gut microbes. Sym- biotic yeasts from the beetle’s gut thus suppress the Nanorobots enter soil-associated molds that quickly overgrow a cadaver in normal circumstances. In this way, the parent beetles en- the eye sure that their offspring remain healthy and can thrive in the dead body. In cadavers without microbes from the par- In the future, nanorobots could perform medical tasks ents’ intestinal flora, on the other hand, the larvae remain directly on the retina. A team led by Peer Fischer, a scien- a significantly smaller size. The burying beetle is therefore tist at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, another example of how insects can use symbionts to ex- has moved a step closer to this goal. The researchers ploit challenging resources. (www.mpg.de/12358349) steered a corkscrew-shaped nanopropeller through the vitreous humor of a dissected pig’s eye. They had incorpo- A pair of burying beetles rated particles of iron into the silica propellers so that of the species Nicrophorus vespilloides attend to their they could actively control the movement from the out- young in a dead mouse. side using magnetic fields. By applying a coating that was The beetles have preserved not only hydrophobic but also oleophobic, they ensured the cadaver with microor- that the propeller slipped through the gel-like substance ganisms from their gut. in the vitreous humor. Nanovehicles of this kind could be used to deliver medicines or to perform minor operations.

Photos: shutterstock (top), ESO/M. Kornmesser (bottom) Photos: Auguste von Bayern/MPI for Ornithology (top)/S. Shukla/MPI for Chemical Ecology (bottom); graphic: MPI for Intelligent Systems (www.mpg.de/0120193/en)

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 41 SPECTRUM

Illuminating women’s role in the creation of medieval manuscripts

Traces of blue paint in dental plaque offer the first clear evidence that women were involved in illustrating manuscripts

Germany was a center of book production in the Middle Ages. As a sign of humility, many me- dieval scribes and painters of manuscripts did not sign their work – which may explain why illumi­ nation was long attributed solely to men. Now, an international team of researchers with significant participation by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History has shed light on wom­ en’s role in this profession. When analyzing the dental calculus of a woman buried at a small wom­ en’s monastery near Paderborn in around 1000 AD, the team came across lapis lazuli pigments. Along with gold and silver, this precious blue paint was reserved for illustrating the most luxu­ rious manuscripts, and only people with excep­ tional skill were entrusted with its use. Based on the distribution of the paint particles in her mouth, the researchers concluded that the wom­ an probably painted with lapis lazuli and repeat­ An unspectacular place for an archaeological find: a community of religious women lived in Dalheim, near Paderborn, in the Middle Ages. At least one of them illustrated edly licked the end of the brush while she worked. elaborate manuscripts – a job that, until now, has been attributed solely to men. (www.mpg.de/12632827)

Four new sources of gravitational waves

The LIGO and Virgo observatories are also publishing their first catalog

Scientists have carried out a closer tional radiation. To coincide with the analysis of previously recorded data announcement of the new findings, from the LIGO and Virgo gravitation­ the scientists presented a catalog of all al wave detectors, tracking down four known gravitational wave detections new signals. All of them originate and candidate events from the first from the fusion of pairs of black holes, two observing runs, O1 and O2. The which is accompanied by the release catalog describes the characteristics of of part of the mass as energy and a the merging black hole population. distortion of space-time. The masses So far, the astronomers have tracked of the black holes varied widely, from down eleven signals, one of which 7.6 to 50.6 solar masses. One of the does not originate from black holes newly discovered events – known as but rather from a collision between GW170729 – was attributed to the two neutron stars. (www.mpg.de/12552357) most massive and distant gravitation­ al-wave source ever observed: in this Space is moving: this numerical-relativistic coalescence, which took place rough­ simulation reflects the first observed fusion of ly five billion years ago, an amount of two black holes, as measured by the Advanced energy equivalent to almost five solar LIGO detectors on 14 September 2015.

masses was converted into gravita­ Photo: Christina Warinner, simulation: S. Ossokine, A. Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics), Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes project, W. Benger (Airborne Hydro Mapping GmbH)

42 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 SPECTRUM

Appealing art has a lasting effect

Paintings can trigger reactions in areas of the brain that are normally used for reflection

Based on measurements of brain activ­ in brain activity in areas that support ity, a team including researchers from reflective processes. However, the re­ the Max Planck Institute for Empirical searchers observed that aesthetically Skulls of a Neanderthal (left), with the Aesthetics is studying how our brain re­ pleasing images activated the observers’ typical elongated brain shape (red), and a acts when we look at works of art. Cog­ “default mode network” – an area of modern human (right), with the typical rounded brain (blue). The arrows point nitive researchers expect primarily sen­ the brain that allows us to think in­ to the enlarged cranial fossa at the back of sory brain regions to be active when dependently of external stimuli, for the skull, which is home to the cerebellum, we look at images, as the focus is – of example, in the form of daydreams or and the arching of the parietal bones in course – on the outside world. At the future plans. When subjects saw an modern humans. same time, there should be a reduction artwork they did not find attractive, however, this effect was not observed. In other words, if – and only if – art­ Neanderthal genes works are aesthetically pleasing, they influence the shape activate an unusual process in the brain that deals not only with external of the brain stimuli but also with mental and emo­ tional responses. One characteristic feature of mod- Impressive: the painting The Starry Night ern humans is their unusually round by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh triggers skull and brain in contrast to other a reflective response in many people even forms of human. An international 130 years after it was created. team including scientists from the Max Planck Institutes for Evolution- ary Anthropology and Psycholin- guistics has now discovered genes that influence the shape of the brain It’s an animal! and therefore the skull, in modern humans. The researchers analyzed Traces of organic material in fossils dating back over 550 million years Four new sources of gravitational waves skulls from Neanderthals and mod- allow classification of the primeval organism Dickinsonia ern humans using an MRI scanner and produced virtual imprints of the Dickinsonia was an unusual creature. organic material in fossils dating back inside of the skull. These imprints re- Examples of this genus are thought to 558 million years. According to their flect the shape of the individual’s have moved about on the seabed until analyses, the substances are residues of brain but not their intellectual ca- approximately 550 million years before cholesterol molecules that are typical­ pacity. According to the analyses, our time, reaching a size of up to 1.40 ly found in animals. Dickinsonia are significant differences in brain and meters and bearing no resemblance to therefore the earliest known animals skull shape are found not only be- present-day organisms. It was hitherto on Earth. (www.mpg.de/0120191/en) tween Neanderthals and modern unclear whether the organism was a humans but also between the skulls lichen, an extinct form of large single- of some humans who are alive today. celled amoeba, or indeed the earliest A genome analysis showed that hu- known animal on Earth. Now, this mans with more elongated skulls question has been answered by an in­ carry Neanderthal DNA on chromo-

4.0 (image: Philipp Gunz; top), public domain (center), Ilja Bobrovskiy, ANU (bottom) ternational team including scientists somes 1 and 18. These fragments al- from the Max Planck Institute for Bio­ ter the activity of two genes in- geochemistry. The researchers classi­ volved in brain development and the fied Dickinsonia by analyzing traces of formation of nerve cells. However, brain shape is probably not affected solely by these two genes, but rather An animal with no modern relatives: Dickinso- nia, whose fossils have been found in the results from the combined effect of White Sea, in Russia, for example, is unlike many different genetic variants. any present-day organism. Photos and graphic: CC BY-NC-ND (www.mpg.de/12565720)

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 43 44 MaxPlanckResearch 1 MaxPlanckResearch TEXT waves. destructive of improving forecasts Self-Organization and Today, sea. open on the waves rogue his Planck team Institute at for Dynamics Max the behavior in resembling semiconductors, electrons thatof observed he tsunamis of and For Atoms Ragnar Fleischmann Ragnar KLAUS JACOB KLAUS | 19 make waves make in is Goettingen with researching aview to processes electronic , it was asurprising, it was in discovery: simulations depicting flow the

Photo: MPI for Dynamics and Self-Organization – Ragnar Fleischmann PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY_Tsunami research

A model of monster waves: Max Planck researchers in Goettingen simulate the branching of electron flows from one contact (left, light yellow) to another (right, light red) in a semiconductor system. This also helps them learn about the formation of rogue waves, which strike fear into the hearts of sailors.

or anyone who was still un- often several hours in which to issue a more deceptive than previously as- aware of it, the destructive warning. From the seismic waves, sci- sumed. To understand this, we must force of tsunamis became entists can determine not only the turn our attention away from the great abundantly clear over Christ- strength of the earthquake but also its ocean for the time being and instead mas in 2004. A powerful earth- epicenter – that is, the place from consider the world of tiny nanostruc- quakeF struck off the coast of Indonesia, which the wave originates. Based on tures, which can only be accessed using triggering a wave that raced halfway this information, software is used to highly sensitive techniques such as around the world and killed in excess model the path of the tsunami and to atomic scanning probe microscopy. of 200,000 people. The tsunami trav- calculate when it is expected to arrive eled for hours before slamming into at the various coasts. People on the A MOMENTOUS DISCOVERY IN distant coastlines, claiming the lives of ground are then warned via radio an- SEMICONDUCTOR SYSTEMS unsuspecting beachgoers even thou- nouncements, sirens, or other signals. sands of kilometers away. But the modeling of the wave’s Indeed, Fleischmann is not an ocean- Since then, German scientists have course can be misleading, as demon- ographer but rather a theoretical physi­ installed an early warning system in the strated by Ragnar Fleischmann and his cist, and his research focuses primarily Indian Ocean. This is based on the prin- team at the Max Planck Institute for on complex dynamics and quantum ciple that seismic waves move much Dynamics and Self-Organization in phenomena, such as those in electronic faster through rock than water waves Goettingen. According to their calcula- semiconductor structures. While he can cross the ocean, meaning there are tions, these monster waves are even was studying systems of this kind as a

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 45 postdoc with the physicist Eric Heller in Harvard 18 years ago, he and two colleagues made a discovery with far-reaching consequences. They were seeking to explain an experiment that delivered beautiful images but that is also difficult for non-experts to under- stand. It concerned how electrons move in a two-dimensional electrical conductor. A conductor of this kind is formed at the interface between two different semiconductors – a semiconductor het- erostructure. Here, electrons are trapped in a “potential well”, rather like water in a trough. Their freedom of move- ment is therefore limited to the two di- mensions parallel to the interface.

IMPURITY ATOMS FORCE ELECTRONS ONTO NEW PATHS

Two tiny metal contacts on the surface of the crystal are separated from one another by a narrow slit, forming a bottleneck that the electrons have to squeeze through. This is known as a quantum point contact. Since the semi- conductor material used in the experi- ment was highly pure, the scientists ex- pected the electrons to fan out from the quantum point contact in all directions like light from a streetlamp. After all, the particles should be able to move freely and have only negligi- ble obstacles to overcome: the adjacent semiconductor is doped with impurity atoms that affect the flow of current. However, because these impurities are relatively far from the interface, they should only deflect the electrons slight- ly, and their effect should be barely no- ticeable – or so the researchers assumed. Instead, the experiment produced a completely different result. The image from the atomic scanning probe micro- scope showed that the electrons did not fan out evenly, but rather were focused into filaments. What the researchers saw was more reminiscent of a “cat o’ nine tails” than a uniform beam of light. “At first, we feared that the mea- Photo: dpa

46 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY_Tsunami research

suring technique was at fault,” says cused into caustics, which are also Fleischmann. However, he and his known as focal lines. With their calcu- colleagues produced detailed models lations, Fleischmann and his colleagues showing that the method worked per- showed that even minimal imperfec- fectly, except that physicists had con- tions are enough to produce this phe- siderably underestimated the influence nomenon. In other words, small caus- of the imperfections. Although the im- es can have a big effect – this had purity atoms were not located on the simply been overlooked so far. interface between the two semiconduc- This brings us back to tsunamis, and tors, they were forcing the electrons more precisely to the catastrophic tsu- onto new paths. nami of 11 March 2011, which de- Together, the many small imperfec- stroyed several nuclear power plants in tions created a focusing effect, which Japan and ultimately spelled the end of led to the flow branching that the re- nuclear power in Germany. Scientists searchers observed under the micro- from the NOAA Center for Tsunami Re- scope. The structures of these focusing search reconstructed how the wave patterns have long been known to sci- spread across the Pacific and how its ence and go by the technical term height varied. For this, they used data “caustics”. The term comes from the from sensors that had recorded the study of optics, where it is used for spe- wave height at a number of locations cific aberrations produced by lenses. in the open ocean. When they adapted Caustics can be observed in many this measurement data to the modeled everyday situations. For example, when course of the tsunami, the resulting the sun shines on the surface of an out- pattern was astonishingly similar to door swimming pool, you often see a that of the electrons in the semicon- grid of bright lines on the bottom of ductor. Ragnar Fleischmann immedi- the pool. Here, the sunlight is being fo- ately thought to himself: “The two

Left The tsunami of 2004 completely destroyed this part of the city of Banda Aceh, in northern Indonesia. Here we compare two aerial photographs: one taken six months before the disaster (top) and one taken two days after (bottom). Right Electrons radiating from a point source can be used to simulate how seabed relief focuses waves that were originally triggered by sea- quakes. Small defects in the conducting layer concentrate the flow of charge carriers into small branches. Photo: Ragnar Fleischmann

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 47 PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY_Tsunami research

things might be related.” Here too, hour. Only when it reaches the coast there was no homogeneous wavefront, does the wave undergo rapid decelera- and the wave energy was instead con- tion, rising steeply to reach catastroph- centrated in individual bands that ic proportions. At this point, the branched out – as Fleischmann had ob- few-decimeter height difference in a served in the nanostructures. The wave tsunami moving across the open sea reached a far greater height in the grows to many meters. bands than in the surrounding area. Al- However, seabed relief not only de- though the values only differed by a termines the wave’s speed but also its few decimeters, this can eventually course and shape. For example, an un- have major consequences in the case of derwater mountain acts like a converg- 60° E a tsunami. ing lens and focuses the energy, where- as depressions act like diverging lenses SEABED RELIEF INFLUENCES and long trenches behave like guide TSUNAMIS rails. Islands also leave their mark on the wavefront, and experts take all of Top The tsunami formed in 2011 following After all, a tsunami is a highly unusual this into account when modeling the a quake off the coast of Japan raced across wave. It is rarely more than a meter path of a tsunami. Until now, however, the Pacific and exhibited significant differ- ences in height. At some points, the wave high in the open ocean, but it is also in- they had only considered larger struc- stood just 20 centimeters above mean sea credibly long, with successive wave tures. Smaller disturbances with eleva- level (yellow), while at others it reached a troughs often separated by a distance of tions of just 100 or 200 meters were not height of 8 meters (black). several hundred kilometers. Its shape is included in the calculations – which Bottom When electrons from a point more like a gently sloping plane than a potentially leads to significant errors, source flow through the boundary layer steep hill and is best imagined as a tid- as Fleischmann and his colleagues have between two semiconductors, they are focused by impurity atoms in the material, al bulge instead of wind waves. Indeed, now demonstrated. as this simulation demonstrates. These ships’ crews generally don’t even notice They selected a 1,500-kilometer so-called caustics can also be observed on when they pass over a tsunami. The square of the Indian Ocean with no in- the open sea, where currents can focus ship just gently rises and falls. terfering islands or major underwater waves to reach over double the height of the waves around them. Experts call this a shallow water mountains. The depth was around wave, because the wavelength is much 4,000 meters plus or minus seven per- larger than the water depth. To put it an- cent, and the seabed relief was taken other way: for the tsunami, the sea is from the official data pool. Based on nothing more than a puddle. The key this, they used a computer to model thing to note is that shallow water waves how a tsunami – triggered by a ficti- have completely different properties tious event – passed over the relief in from those of the short waves whipped order to observe how the wave changed up by the wind. Their character is essen- in response to the seabed. tially determined by the seabed. In a second run, they varied the sea- For a start, the speed at which a tsu- bed relief slightly. Small changes should nami rolls across the ocean depends not make a great deal of difference. Af- solely on the water depth: at a water ter all, the existing data is anything but depth of 5,000 meters, a tsunami exact, providing depth measurements reaches speeds of around 800 kilome- that are accurate to within a few hun- ters an hour – as fast as a jet aircraft. dred meters. The researchers therefore At a depth of 3,000 meters, it still trav- incorporated a few hills whose heights els at approximately 600 kilometers an were less than the error tolerance. This

48 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 cm 240 to 799 220 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 120° EE120° 180° 120°W 60° W

second relief therefore still correspond- efforts because they desensitize people. rection. Secondly, the medium must ed to the real topography. Again, they Anyone who has sought refuge unnec- be disordered, because a sea floor struc- simulated a tsunami moving across it – essarily three times simply won’t both- tured as regularly as an egg carton but this time they obtained a complete- er when the fourth warning comes. The would have no impact on a wave. That ly different pattern. At some points, the problem is that not every earthquake being said, landscapes with an irregu- wave energy differed by a factor of ten produces a tsunami; it is only when the lar distribution of elevations and de- between the two calculations – and a sea floor moves in a vertical direction pressions represent the rule rather power of ten results in enormous height that it causes the water to surge. than the exception. variations that could mean the differ- It is no wonder, then, that there are ence between life and death. As with MANY EXAMPLES INVOLVING many other examples involving this the semiconductor mentioned earlier, THE SAME MECHANISM mechanism, such as the twinkling of small causes can have a big effect. stars. Of course, stars do not twinkle in But what does this finding mean for These two phenomena – a tsunami that reality – but they appear to do so if you tsunami forecasts? Unfortunately, it races halfway around the world and the look at them for a long time. This is won’t be possible to predict caustics re- electron flow in a semiconductor – are also due to caustics: before the light liably until accurate maps exist of the separated by about twelve orders of reaches our eyes, it must pass through ocean floor. Whether we like it or not, magnitude, but they both involve the the atmosphere, which is littered with the models are still imperfect. “But we same mechanism. Indeed, the relation- small disturbances that produce a fo- have to realize that this effect exists,” ships that Fleischmann identified in cusing of the light. For the observer, says Fleischmann. For example, warn- the semiconductor are universally ap- the starlight therefore seems to vary in ing services could examine how their plicable. Wherever a wave propagates intensity. When a caustic reaches the calculations are affected by small depth though a disordered medium, small eye, it resembles a small flash of light – variations to get a better idea of the re- imperfections can have major conse- the star appears to twinkle. This also liability of their forecasts. quences, focusing the energy into explains why stars twinkle particular- Of course, these services also have a branched structures. ly strongly when there is turbulence in completely different set of problems to Of course, this is subject to certain the atmosphere. deal with. Above all, they must ensure prerequisites. Firstly, the medium must One particularly impressive exam- that their warnings reach even the only cause relatively weak deflection ple of this are monster waves, which are smallest fishing villages and that they in the waves. The effect would not oc- also referred to as rogue or freak waves. are actually taken seriously once they cur if every encounter with an imper- These actually have nothing to do with

Photos: Ragnar Fleischmann (left); NOAA (top) get there. False alarms undermine their fection scattered the waves in every di- tsunamis – they are just unusually high,

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 49 wind-driven waves that suddenly tow- detect these gigantic breakers. In Feb- According to basic wave models, they er up in the middle of the ocean. They ruary 1995, a laser system on the shouldn’t even exist. But what does all are at least twice as high as surround- Draupner drilling platform in the of this have to do with caustics and ex- ing waves and are said to have engulfed North Sea recorded a 26-meter surge, periments on semiconductors? The an- many a ship over the years. Until a few and in November 2007, a 21-meter swer becomes clear when you enter the decades ago, however, these stories wall of water rushed toward the Ekofisk mouth of a river on a ship. The river’s were dismissed as seamen’s yarns. platform, also in the North Sea. This is current alters the waves rolling in from said to be the steepest wave ever mea- the sea and can cause them to build up CURRENTS CAN FOCUS WIND sured. At the time, it was only a force- into dangerous breakers. WAVES INTO ROGUES nine storm, and the wave simply ap- The current therefore corresponds peared out of nowhere. to the impurity atoms in the semicon- Our knowledge has advanced since Every year, ships are lost with no ex- ductor, or to the underwater hills affect- then – or at least we now give credence planation – many of them presumably ing a tsunami. It influences the wave to the observations of seafarers. In fact, due to an encounter with a killer wave. and changes its course, focusing the en- they actually know several categories of In 2001, the cruise liner MS Bremen ergy at certain locations. This effect, monster waves: in addition to the un- had a lucky escape off the east coast of which is clearly visible in river estuar- usually high wave, there is also the Argentina when it was caught by a ies, also occurs on the open sea. After “white wall”, which rises at an especial- breaker reportedly measuring 35 meters all, the water is moving in every direc- ly steep angle and lights up due to its in height. The force of the impact tion – if you plotted the near-surface covering of foam. Sailors have also smashed windows on the bridge, which currents on a map, they would produce learned to fear the “three sisters” – normally towers high above the waves. a disordered pattern of spirals. three giant waves in quick succession As water rushed in, the resulting The greatest danger arises where that slow ships down so sharply that short-circuit caused the engines to cut currents intersect. This can also pro- they can no longer climb the final crest. out, leaving the ship in a precarious sit- duce a focusing of the wave energy, If these eerie encounters far out at uation, listing parallel to the wavefront. causing a vast wave to appear out of no- sea are no longer dismissed as myths, It took the crew half an hour to start where. Eric Heller, the scientist with it is partly because shipping traffic has the auxiliary diesel engine. whom Fleischmann once modeled the increased enormously and almost no Science has taken a serious interest electron experiment, has undertaken a section of the sea remains unobserved. in monster waves for around 20 years, particularly intensive study of monster Oil platforms also record wave move- but it has yet to provide a convincing waves. His conclusion is that if you take

ments, and some satellites are able to explanation of how they are formed. account of branches in wave flow due Photo: Ronald Schmidt

50 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY_Tsunami research

Left Ragnar Fleischmann talks to Max Planck Director Theo Geisel and doctoral student Gerrit Green (from left to right) about mathe- matical laws that apply to both electron dynamics and ocean waves. Right Ragnar Fleischmann’s team simulated how water with a moving surface focuses light into a web of caustics. The researchers created an inverted image of the effect, representing the bright focal lines as areas of dark shading.

to currents, the number of freak waves nomena. Only by understanding the often monster waves occur and where is 50 times higher than without this as- interaction between these factors can tsunamis will deliver their greatest de- sumption. That sounds feasible, espe- scientists make reliable forecasts of how structive force. cially since other studies have now con- firmed that rogue waves are far more numerous than once assumed. SUMMARY USING TWO THEORIES TO l Impurity atoms in tiny semiconducting structures cause an electron flow to branch out as it passes through the system. By analogy, Max Planck physicists draw con- MAKE REALISTIC PREDICTIONS clusions as to why tsunamis hit different sections of coastline with varying degrees of force. In the same way as impurity atoms alter the course of electrons, these de- However, there is another theory of structive waves are focused by irregularities in the seabed. how freak waves are formed. This is l By analyzing nanosystems, researchers can gain a better understanding of why based on special properties of the wave monster waves repeatedly occur on the open sea, where waves are whipped up by equation, so-called nonlinearities, the wind before being focused by ocean currents. which are used to describe water waves. l These findings could help improve early warning systems for tsunamis and allow Fleischmann is convinced that only a more accurate statistical forecasts of how often ships might encounter rogue waves. combination of the two theories will permit realistic statistical forecasts of freak waves. This is therefore one of GLOSSARY the research projects he is currently Branched flow: The flow of electrons or water waves can be focused by disturbances. working on. Caustic: In this effect, which is known from the field of optics, light is focused into lines – In addition, he is particularly com- for example, when it passes through moving water. In a similar way, electrons and water mitted to gaining a deeper understand- waves can also be focused into caustics. ing of branched flows and to producing Monster wave: Ocean currents can focus wind-driven waves, causing them to grow a statistical description of this phenom- to over twice the height of surrounding waves. Monster waves are also referred to as enon, as caustics are merely its most rogue waves. striking feature. Indeed, a branched Quantum point contact: A nanoscopic constriction in a conductor. When electrons flow contains a complex interplay of flow through a bottleneck of this kind, quantum effects occur that are not observed in ordinary conductors. chaotic stretching, compression, and folding of wavefronts, creating not Tsunami: A wave triggered by a seaquake.

Photo: Ragnar Fleischmann only caustics but also interference phe-

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 51 BIOLOGY & MEDICINE_Personal Portrait

A fast-paced life

Silvia Cappello’s life is all about movement: at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, she performs research into the way in which different types of neurons migrate to the correct position in the cerebral cortex, during embryonic development of the brain. In her free time, the passionate athlete rarely stands still either.

TEXT ELKE MAIER

alking up the stairs still, except when I am working on the life. She speaks English with a hint of a with Silvia Cappello computer. I also tend to try and do too Mediterranean accent, and she talks at to her fourth floor of- many things at the same time!” the fast pace you would expect from fice in the Max Planck her: taking notes of our conversation Institute of Psychia- FINDING THE RIGHT PLACE soon becomes a challenge, owing to my try, Wyou may well get out of breath. “I AMONG BILLIONS OF CELLS lack of shorthand skills. like to use this walk for exercise,” the Silvia Cappello’s area of expertise is scientist explains. Since April 2015 she Silvia Cappello’s office is colorful and the embryonic development of the has been the leader of an independent homey: a bright yellow sofa is paired brain. With her team of seven research- Max Planck Research Group in the field with a black rug with white dots. The ers, she examines the processes that en- of “Developmental Neurobiology”. walls are decorated with radiantly col- sure that each individual cell takes the Already when looking at the Insti- ored images of neurons. There is a shelf correct place in which it is able to fulfill tute’s website, it is obvious that she is filled with a harmonious mix of special- its function, within the complex net- very sporty. There is one picture of hear ist literature, an Asian lucky cat, chil- work that consists of billions of cells. astride a wooden sled wearing an anorak,­ dren’s artwork and photos of family The scientist pulls a sheet of paper a woolen hat and a big smile. Another and friends. By the window there are showing two magnetic resonance im- picture shows her just after a running houseplants she has adopted from for- ages of human brains from a stack of competition. The caption reads: “Silvia mer doctoral students: “They always re- documents, to illustrate her research Cappello, who is now officially the mind me of them. I like being sur- topic. Using a pen she points out an third fastest female boss in Munich!” rounded by everyone I care about!” area in the picture on the right: “This Talking to her it soon becomes apparent In our meeting, the scientist comes gray layer should normally not be that she enjoys a wide range of sporting across as easy-going and approachable. here,” she explains, “these cells should disciplines: the list includes running, The kind of person you may like to go have moved further on to the outside, cycling, climbing, swimming, skiing, out with to have a beer. Or to go on a towards the edge.” snowboarding and surfing, and she also mountain hike at the weekend. Wear- The outer cerebral cortex of around used to do boxing and judo. “I am kind ing jeans, a t-shirt and trainers, she three percent of all human beings fea- of hyperactive,” she says, “and I use ex- leans back in her desk chair as she talks tures malformations, caused by incor- ercise to compensate for that. I rarely sit about science as well as her personal rectly positioned neurons. The effects of

52 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 Photo: Axel Griesch ideas during her runs. her during ideas new has often scientist The order. in thoughts her put to her helps also it fit, physically Cappello Silvia keeps only not running run: the on Thinking

this vary, depending on the cells and the area affected: “Some people are com- pletely unaware of it, others suffer from severe epilepsy,” says Silvia Cappello. “There may also be links to autism.”

WHY CELLS SOMETIMES GO ASTRAY

But why do brain cells migrate in the first place? “During embryonic devel- opment, neurons are formed from neural stem cells in the neural tube,” the researcher explains. “From here they migrate to their respective desti- nations in the different layers of the cerebral cortex.” Along the way, the young neurons specialize, developing for example into visual or olfactory cells. However, sometimes cells settle in the wrong place – researchers refer to this as het- erotopia. The electrical signals they fire from there can disrupt the complex circuits in the brain and as a result cause conditions such as epilepsy. Silvia Cappello and her team would like to find out, why it is that neurons some- times go astray. The scientist speaks about her work passionately: “Just try to imagine this: each cell has to move to one particular place to be able to carry out its func- tion. How does this work? How do the cells know where they need to go? It is a great mystery. And even the smallest of mistakes may have disastrous conse- quences!” However, what Cappello is

A strong position in science: Silvia Cappello has been a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich since 2015. She appreciates not only the working environment, but also the close proximity to the Alps and her

home country Italy. Photo: Axel Griesch

54 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 BIOLOGY & MEDICINE_Personal Portrait

Each cell has to move to one particular place to be able to carry out its function. » It is a great mystery, how the cells know where to go.

fascinated by the most, is that in most cases everything goes well, despite the high degree of complexity: “This doesn’t only require precise spatial co- ordination, but also temporal coordi- nation, as the stem cells that give rise to the different cell types divide at varying times.” So far, researchers have only begun to understand how all of this is coordi- nated: “We know that young neurons are guided by chemical signals, but also by the appearance of cells in their en- vironment.” Silvia Cappello and her team are conducting research into the migration of cells using a range of dif- Small yet revolutionary: to study cell migration, Silvia Cappello and her team use pinhead sized ferent model systems, such as neurons brain organoids that they grow in the laboratory (left). Fluorescent dyes enable the researchers in petri dishes and the brains of mice. to make the different types of cells visible (right): the cores of all cells are marked in blue, the They also work with brain organ- neural stem cells are green, and particular neurons are highlighted in red. oids – pinhead sized cell clusters (see MaxPlanckResearch 3/18, p. 54) that are grown from human neural stem cells. ture system in which we are able to the Max Planck Institute for Evolution- This method is still relatively new: watch cells in three-dimensional tis- ary Anthropology in Leipzig. Stephen “The first publications about brain or- sue.” The researchers are able to moni- Robertson, human geneticist at the ganoids came out in 2013. We tried the tor the movement of individual cells un- University of Otago in New Zealand is protocols right away and we were lucky: der the microscope. Organoids featuring another important cooperation partner. it worked right from the start!” The un- mutations in their genetic material pro- The scientists work together, searching remarkable looking cell clusters live in vide clues of the effects that these genet- the genetic material of patients for tiny a reddish nutrient solution and they ic changes have on cell migration. changes. Meanwhile they are aware of thrive in culture dishes in the incubator quite a few mutations that affect migra- at a pleasant temperature of 37 degree MIGRATION IS DISRUPTED tion behavior of neurons, and they Celsius. A slow vibrator keeps the organ- DUE TO GENETIC CHANGES continue to examine their effects. oids in constant motion. This prevents After all those years Silvia Cappello them from sticking to the bottom, and In the first step it is important to iden- still thinks of the brain as “the most fas- it ensures that they receive an ideal sup- tify mutations that have an impact on cinating of all research objects.” But ply of oxygen and nutrients. After about migration. “There are a wide range of how did it all begin? Being very versa- ten days, the young organoids are ready different genetic causes for malforma- tile, she was not fixed on this subject to for the researchers to start working with tions of the cerebral cortex,” the scien- begin with. them. The cell clusters can survive in tist explains. “In order to find a starting The scientist, who is the second the laboratory for up to a year. point for future treatments, we need to child in a family of lawyers, grew up in “The organoids represent a revolu- find out what the various disease pat- Bologna. In school she studied the clas- tion for research,” says Silvia Cappel- terns have in common.” sics: Greek, Latin, philosophy. She lo. “They resemble a human brain at a To this end, Silvia Cappello cooper- played the piano and the violin in her very early stage of development. This ates with peers from Germany and youth. “I would have loved to become

Photo: Axel Griesch Photos: Axel Griesch (left); Silvia Cappello / MPI of Psychiatry (right) means that we have access to a cell cul- abroad, such as Barbara Treutlein from a violinist,” says Cappello, “but I wasn’t

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 55 BIOLOGY & MEDICINE_Personal Portrait

good enough.” Instead she played the ing across the island. During this trip is really exciting, too!” She visited the violin in a punk rock band with old she made up her mind: after her return Museum of Modern Art every week, as friends from school, until she graduat- she started working on a doctoral the- she enjoys contemporary art, especially ed from university. Sports already sis at the University of Bologna. How- Kandinsky. The city also had much to played an important role for her, when ever, she was not particularly excited offer when it came to sports: the re- she was still in school. here. Perhaps she should transfer to searcher regularly participated in chari- Germany? So she packed her bags once ty runs that are very popular in the U.S.: TRAVEL BRINGS CLARITY again and went to Australia for three “I love running for a good cause!” FOR DECISION-MAKING months. Upon her return she knew for However, she and her partner did sure: she would go to Magdalena Götz, not want to live in New York perma- However, it was in the biology lessons the leader of the laboratory for stem nently: “We wanted a family and I in her final years of secondary school cell research at the Helmholtz center could not imagine raising children that her course was determined: “I was in Munich. there. I think the city is too big and too fascinated by the subject of genetics, “This was the most important deci- hectic for that.” Munich seemed to be and desperate to learn more about it.” sion of my life,” Silvia Cappello says better suited for this purpose: “The So instead of following in her family’s without hesitation. “Magdalena is one mountains, the Isar, the way of life – it track – many of whom are lawyers – she of the most inspiring scientists I know.” is a big city, but a very relaxed one.” opted to study biotechnology. This was Her decision also proved to be very for- And last but not least: it is close to never an issue for her parents: “They al- tunate when it comes to her personal Italy. She would be able to spend week- ways allowed me complete freedom life: in Götz’s working group, she met ends and vacations with her family and encouraged me to trust my in- her future husband. She also met one and her mother from Bologna at her stincts.” Her way was also smoothed by of her best friends, who she goes climb- apartment in the Italian Brenta moun- her brother, who is three years older ing with once or twice a week to this tains – climbing, hiking, skiing or than her: “He is a biophysicist and lives day, a doctoral student in the laborato- snowboarding, depending on the time in France.” ry next door. of year. During her third year at university, After conferral of their doctorates, the young woman came in touch with the couple decided to go to New York FAMILY, RESEARCH, SPORTS – her future research object for the first together, to Columbia University. “For ORGANIZATION IS KEY time: “We looked at neurons under the us this was not only about science, we microscope, and I fell in love with them also wanted it to be an important expe- Cappello gave Magdalena Götz a call right away. They look so different from rience in our lives.” Working as a post- and was offered a position at her former all the other cells, it is simply fascinat- doc with Richard Vallee at Columbia place of work. Just before their first son ing!” Once more she followed her in- University, she went on to perform re- was born, the couple returned to Ger- stincts, and wrote her degree thesis search about the genetic foundation of many. Four years later, Silvia Cappello about neurotrophins and about the im- lissencephaly, a rare malformation of received a Max Planck scholarship and pact these endogenous signaling sub- the human brain. The brain surface of became the leader of an independent stances have on neural activity. affected individuals is smooth rather Research Group at the Max Planck In- After this, she had to decide: should than convoluted, and this is caused by stitute of Psychiatry. Nowadays she is a she write a doctoral thesis? And if so, a disruption of neural migration. mother of two sons, aged five and nine. which topic should it be about? “When- She had found her ideal area of re- Reconciling the demands of fami-­­ ever I need to make an important deci- search. The young scientist loved her l­y-life, research and sports is mostly sion, I go on a trip,” says Silvia Cappello. work and the atmosphere at the Insti- “a matter of organization” for Silvia “And I go on my own.” She flew to Ire- tute: “Working next door to Nobel Prize Cappello. This is what she also tells her land and spent three months backpack- winners is pretty special. And New York female students, to show them that

56 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 Photo: Axel Griesch arrangement thattalkabout workwas work atthesameInstitute,we hadthe ner: “Whenmyhusbandand Iusedto Science isneverdiscussedduring din- I amatypicalItalianinthat respect!” important to me.Iguess “Food is very areherfavorites: her homecountry able torelaxwhilecooking.Dishesfrom other thingsrightaway.” Sheisalso searcher: “Thekidsmakemethinkof is notanissuefortheMaxPlanckre- my work,withouthavingtorush.” means thatIamabletocalmlyfinish until oneofuscomeshome.This from kindergartenandlooks after him ian nanny:“Shepicksthelittleoneup ments.” AnothergreathelpistheirItal that we use to coordinate our appoint- least thankstoourGooglecalendar well–“not handling thesituationvery with, but she and her husband are now scientific community. there arestillsofewrolemodelsinthe do both!”Shefindsitunfortunatethat family oracareerinresearch: “You can they do not have to choose between a students Pipicelli. doctoral Fabrizia her and with Buchsbaum steps Isabel next and experiments latest the discusses Cappello Silvia situation: the Discussing Unwinding afteralongdayatwork Her familylifewaschaotictobegin - not afterwards. Todaynot afterwards. wecanmanage only permittedonourwayhome,and lent shape, she regularly takes part in thinking whileIrun!”Beinginexcel- as thekidsareinbed.“Idomybest a tenorfifteenkilometerrun,assoon pello: threenightsaweekshegoesfor the sofa is not an option for Silvia Cap- Nevertheless, spending a cozy night on AGAINST HERSELF ALWAYS COMPETING these days. works forapharmaceuticalcompany without thiskindofrule.”Herhusband

that consists mostly of neural cell bodies is positioned in the wrong location. wrong the in positioned is bodies cell neural of mostly matter gray consists the that that means term this neurology In places. unusual in located are that Heterotopia brain. the and cord spinal the system, nervous the into central develops that pregnancy early during structure Embryonic tube: Neural brain. adult the in rare are but brain, embryonic the in exist numbers They large cells. in glial and neural of types different to rise give They cells: stem Neural GLOSSARY [from Greek hetero = different, topos = place] refers to tissue or organs is excellent. I am very happy!” is excellent.Iamvery is my first working group and everyone team iseasy-goingandfriendlytoo:“It sonal friends.Theatmosphereinher operation partnersareamongherper- for hercolleagues,andsomeofco- conversation sheoffersalotofpraise thinking inscience,either. Duringour if Idoworsethanthetimebefore!” compete againstmyself. It annoysme, strive todobetterthanothers:“Ionly jury. Incompetitions,shedoesnot shortly beforetherun,duetoakneein for a marathon, but had to give up half-marathons. Sheevenusedtotrain She doesnotbelieveincompetitive 1 | MaxPlanckResearch 19MaxPlanckResearch

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MATERIALS & TECHNOLOGY_Chemistry

Material mix from the food processor

Valerio Molinari and his team at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam have equipped their laboratory with a pasta machine, pizza oven and mixer. What‘s more, the scientists often use waste from the forestry or food industries in their experiments. They can use these simple resources to manufacture wood-based materials, bioplastics and biofuels.

TEXT PETER HERGERSBERG

t was a cookery contest with scien- Molinari. “For my part, I cook the sauce whites to create materials made from tific implications. “My boss and I just like my grandmother did.” renewable sources? Valerio Molinari had a discussion about what goes While the culinary results of the con- and Markus Antonietti had never heard into a proper ragù,” says Valerio test soon disappeared, the researchers of such a thing, even though chemists Molinari from Italy, adding with were left with an idea that had first been often talk about cooking in connection mockI disgust, “In Germany they call it put on the table that evening: the idea with their experiments. bolognese sauce – heresy!” In conse- of practicing technical chemistry with “It goes without saying that kitch- quence, the researcher, who was doing kitchen equipment and ingredients. en utensils can’t set the temperature as his doctorate at the Max Planck Insti- precisely or be programed as flexibly as tute of Colloids and Interfaces at the ONE INCENTIVE: MATERIALS a lab device that mixes and heats sub- time, and his Director Markus Antoni- THAT ARE EASY TO MAKE stances for chemical reactions,” ex- etti set up an Italian cookery contest. In plains Molinari. “In principle, though, the Department’s small kitchenette, the This idea actually came quite naturally: they do the same thing at a fraction of two scientists each cooked for around after all, chemistry is always happening the cost.” This is one of the main mo- 20 colleagues using their own recipes. in saucepans, frying pans and baking tivations behind the kitchen lab, which No vote was planned; if necessary, the tins. Nearly 30 years ago, some chefs Molinari – now as the leader of a small contest could have been decided by the made quite a fuss about enhancing research group – constructed about four number of half-full plates left at the their creations using methods em- years ago. end of the evening. ployed in chemical labs – this was “The chemical industry often reacts In the end, both variations turned known as molecular gastronomy. But sceptically to developments in academ- out to be very popular despite their dif- how would this work in reverse? A piz- ic research,” he says. The developments ferences. “As a good scientist, Markus za oven, a pasta machine, or even a fan- that scientists present so proudly work Antonietti is keen on experimenting – cy utensil like a sous vide cooker on the well with expensive laboratory equip- he calls his style ‘fusion’,” says Valerio lab bench? And semolina, vanilla or egg ment and the extremely pure chemicals normally used for research purposes, An indigestible baking mixture: researchers in Potsdam kneading a dough made of waste from the However, it is often impossible to use

Photo: Valerio Molinari / MPI of Colloids and Interfaces paper and food industries; this turns into a durable wood-based material when baked in the oven. these great innovations in industrial

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 59 MATERIALS & TECHNOLOGY_Chemistry

production facilities. “By using kitchen resources ever since the start. They even can be processed into almost any equipment and natural ingredients, we purchase some of the ingredients for shape. It could therefore be used in- are demonstrating that our materials their recipes in the supermarket. stead of particle board when manufac- are easy to make.” RemixWood®, for example, is a spe- turing furniture, for example. Anoth- Despite being inedible, the Pots- cial product developed in the lab. Vale- er advantage of the material is that it dam-based researchers’ creations could rio Molinari developed this material could be an alternative to plastic, as it be a mouthwatering prospect for furni- together with former Group Leader is more rigid, less prone to warp and ture manufacturers, the cosmetics in- Nina Fechler, who now works at the cheaper than some widely used plas- dustry or biofuel producers – not least Charité, Berlin’s university hospital. tics. Some of the sustainable compo- because Valerio Molinari and his team This material has many of the proper- nents it contains were even formerly have been relying heavily on renewable ties of wood but is more durable and classified as waste. “What’s more, our RemixWood® – unlike a lot of particle Flexural modulus boards – doesn’t release formaldehyde, (2.3 GPa) because this isn’t needed during pro- cessing,” says Molinari.

Compression modulus Elasticity modulus (3.8 GPa) (1.8 GPa) A WOOD-BASED MATERIAL MADE OF INDUSTRIAL WASTE

Molinari and Shekova are accelerating the process of developing the materi- al. Shekova is testing the ideas put for- Cost Density ward by Molinari and his colleagues by (0.70 EUR/kg) (0.7 kg/l) performing systematic experiments. “She’s much more organized than I RemixWood® am,” says Molinari, while the lab tech- Particle board nician prepares various pastes: Remix- Oriented strand board Wood® and some of its predecessors in Tensile stress Bending stress Medium-density fiberboard their raw state. For this, she starts by (6.9 MPa) (23 MPa) Laminate weighing a plastic bowl full of cellu- lose, which is stored in the lab in a large plastic bucket. “We use inferior cellulose left over from paper produc- tion,” explains Molinari. “You could Compression module say that it’s the framework on which our materials are built.”

Costs Above The researchers in Potsdam compared the costs and mechanical properties of RemixWood® and other wood-based materials Density with the same density. Their reasonably priced High-density RemixWood® material has outstanding compression and elasticity moduli. The modulus measures the Polypropylene force required to deform a material in a Acrylonitrile butadiene Tensile modulus specific way, e.g. by compression. Remix- styrene Wood® can also withstand considerable Polycarbonate bending stress before it breaks. Below RemixWood® compares favorably to Flexural modulus various plastics due to its low cost and high

compression and flexural moduli. Graphics: Valerio Molinari / MPI of Colloids and Interfaces

60 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 Versatile material: Irina Shekova makes RemixWood® with various degrees of density by submitting the paste to varying amounts of pressure. One of the material‘s components is lignin, which comes from the woody parts of plants, i.e. from nutshells or bamboo (below).

Next, Irina Shekova spoons yellow powder from another bucket into the mixture: this is gluten, which mills re- move from certain flours because it clogs some people’s intestines, as a result of which they are no longer able to digest food. Despite being life-threatening for some, this property is exactly what Mo- linari finds so interesting about gluten. Gluten is a mixture of various proteins that are brittle when dry but become tough and sticky when wet. Shekova and Molinari mix cellulose and gluten with various other ingredi- ents to create assorted pastes. They spread the mixtures in square tins rem- iniscent of Christmas cookie molds, al- though they don’t leave a design in the dough. The material is baked in a device that is unlikely to be found in any kitchen: a combination of oven and press that is reminiscent of one of

Photos: Valerio Molinari / MPI of Colloids and Interfaces (2) the grim-looking nutcrackers from Germany’s Ore Mountains. Molinari puts the paste-filled tins into the heat- able jaws of the hydraulic press and uses the lever to compress them under ten tons of weight. This makes the materi- al very firm and dense. If the research- ers wish to manufacture a lighter mate- rial, less pressure is used. The compressed pastes are then baked at 135 degrees Celsius. An appe- tizing aroma spreads throughout the lab while they are cooking. This is be- cause Molinari added vanilla to one of the mixtures as an additional adhesive, as gluten alone does not bind the chain molecules in the cellulose sufficiently. The researchers have also tested turmer- ic for this purpose. This gives the paste an intensive yellow color and a spicy

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 61 MATERIALS & TECHNOLOGY_Chemistry

note. “We started by using vanilla and Normally, wood-based materials can usually stay this way for long. Oil and turmeric, because these substances – only be treated on the outside, for ex- vinegar in salad dressing, for example, like ordinary adhesives – contain a ample with flame retardants or fungi- separate quickly unless the dressing is chemical group called phenol,” ex- cides. As soon as the product becomes stabilized by adding mustard. Cosmet- plains Molinari. worn, it loses its protective layer. “These ic and pharmaceutical creams are of- However, neither of these substances properties are also found in the interi- ten stabilized by adding microplastics, yielded optimum results. Vanilla pro- or of our material,” says Molinari. It can which at some point contaminate wa- duced a usable material, but this spice also be dyed all the way through or ter supplies and can also end up in the is relatively difficult to manufacture even turned into a wooden magnet by human food chain. and is consequently more suitable for adding magnetic particles. vanilla cookies than for furniture. Tur- Due to its many advantages, Nina AN EMULSION IS STABILIZED meric was also a contender for use as a Fechler and Valerio Molinari believe IN THE SOUS VIDE COOKER binding agent in RemixWood®; how­ that RemixWood® will be a market suc- ever, the product it yielded was crum- cess. “We are hoping that a company In her search for an alternative to envi- bly. “We finally hit on the idea of using will pick up on this material and find ronmentally harmful plastic particles, lignin, which also contains plenty of practical applications for it, for exam- Nikki Man combines laboratory chem- phenol groups,” says Molinari. Lignin ple as a substitute for particle board in istry with culinary techniques and also makes straw and wood rigid and is left furniture or for conventional plastics,” borrows ideas from mayonnaise. This as waste when cellulose and hemicellu- says Valerio Molinari. mixture of oil and vinegar or lemon lose are extracted from lignocellulose, Nikki Man is also working on an al- juice gets its wonderfully creamy texture e.g. while being made into paper. ternative to plastics made from fossil re- from the lecithin and proteins found in sources; this consists of bioplastic sheets. egg yolk. The chemist also utilizes the FLAME-RETARDANT INTERIOR She too is mixing various pastes to stabilizing effects of proteins in her oil- demonstrate the properties of various in-water emulsions by adding the pro- Before using the biopolymer in their compounds. For this, she is mixing glu- tein albumin, extracted from cattle se- wood-based material, the researchers ten glycerol, which when dry is less brit- rum, to her mixtures. She then dips an treat it chemically to make it bond bet- tle than ordinary gluten, with other ultrasonic wand of the type used in lab- ter with other components. The pre- components such as lignin. However, oratories into her mixtures to make the pared lignin, cellulose and gluten are she is also working on a mixture con- emulsions particularly homogeneous. kneaded into a dark brown dough that taining chitosan, a nitrogenous poly- The fine, inaudible shock waves break looks just like an appetizing dark bread. saccharide extracted from the chitin up the oil into microdroplets or even However, once it is baked, the mixture found in the exoskeletons of shrimp. nanodroplets that are coated in pro- becomes harder than particle board – The chemist mixes the pastes thor- tein molecules and are all roughly the you could easily break your teeth on it. oughly and forms them into spheres same size. With its long, widely branching chain the size of marzipan balls. She then flat- Now the emulsion has to undergo molecules, lignin not only makes the tens these spheres between two metal one more procedure which Nikki Man material particularly stable but is also plates, puts them in the nutcracker borrowed from the kitchen. “This is cheap and plentiful, being as it is a oven and compresses them to the thick- our sous vide cooker,” says the re- waste product from the paper industry. ness of foil. While the mixtures melt to searcher proudly, pointing to a wand The fact that two of the components form bioplastics, Nikki Man talks about suspended in water-filled glass basin come from wood inspired Nina Fechler another project. the size of a microwave oven. Such de- to create the name RemixWood®. “We want to produce stable emul- vices were first used by French chefs to The material not only scores points sions, for example for cosmetic produc- prepare vacuum-sealed meat in order for being stable and sustainable, it can tion and the pharmaceutical industry,” to make it particularly tender at tem- also be furnished with various extras. explains the chemist. Many emulsions peratures of less than 100 degrees Cel- “Using powders to manufacture Remix- consists of oil droplets finely dispersed sius. Nikki Man uses the moderately Wood® means that we can also give it in a watery medium – however, with- warm water to convert the protein a variety of properties,” says Molinari. out some kind of agent, they will not coating of her emulsified oil droplets

62 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 Plastic made from renewable resources: Nikki Man mixes various ingredients to make bioplastic sheets. Gluten and glycerol yield a transparent material. into stable shells, thus making the emulsion more durable. There are lab devices that can keep water baths at a constant, precise temperature, but these are many times more expensive than the kitchen version. While the researcher explains how her emulsions are prepared in the sous vide cooker and shows computer im- ages of the oil-filled protein spheres taken by a scanning electron micro- scope, the bioplastic finishes cooking in the oven press. The gluten glycerol and lignin sheet, ocher yellow in col- or and sprinkled with dark dots, can only be removed from the carrier plate with difficulty and shatters at the first

attempt to bend it. The transparent, reddish brown version containing chi- tosan fares somewhat better, but is still not flexible enough for tear-resistant Sous vide packaging. “We now want to test a Ultrasound cooker chemically modified form of lignin, which mixes better with other compo- nents and should therefore contain fewer predetermined breaking points,” says Nikki Man. If the plan succeeds, the research- ers will have found a way to produce a flexible variety of RemixWood®. Oil Water Protein This wood-based material is itself in- flexible, as Valerio Molinari and Mari- An ultrasonic wand is inserted in a mixture us Bäumel found out. “We got a pasta of oil, water and protein to produce machine especially for testing purpos- uniformly sized oil droplets coated in protein. The moderate heat of the sous vide es,” says Molinari. They used the ma- cooker then stabilizes the protein coatings chine to make spaghetti, tagliatelle and consequently the entire emulsion. and penne out of the paste. These noo- The size of the oil droplets depends on the dles are also easy to shape when raw; quantity of oil in the mixture. An image taken by a scanning electron microscope Molinari even used them to weave a 1 µm (right) shows an oil droplet in a mixture braid. Unfortunately, the material was

Photos: Valerio Molinari / MPI of Colloids and Interfaces Graphics; graphic: Nikki Man containing 30 percent oil. no longer as elastic when it came out

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 63 Catalytic pasta: Valerio Molinari (top left) and Marius Bäumel turn a dough containing a large quantity of wheat semolina into thick spaghetti. After cutting it up, they roast it to obtain highly porous pellets (right). These serve as carrier material for a catalyst that facilitates the efficient production of the biofuel DMF.

of the oven; under gentle pressure, the biofuel in cooperation with his office it has an octane rating that makes it braid simply crumbled away. neighbor Majd Al-Naji. He too leads a even better suited for use in combus- However, this vital piece of Italian working group at the Max Planck Insti- tion engines than ordinary gasoline. kitchen equipment still turned out to tute of Colloids and Interfaces, where DMF can be obtained from lignocellu- be a good investment, since the re- he is seeking ways to do chemistry with lose, which is found for example in searchers have now found a pasta reci- renewable resources. “We want to con- plant waste. However, chemists need a pe with a promising application. They vert agricultural and forestry waste into suitable catalyst to extract lignocellu- call their creation catalytic pasta. It can fuel and source materials for the chem- lose from this bioresource, as it is not be used as a chemical moderator, for ex- icals industry,” says the chemist. very susceptible to chemical changes. ample in the production of biofuels and Dimethylfuran, DMF for short, is Fortunately chemists have already other bioproducts manufactured by the one of the possible candidates for the known for a long time that nickel chemicals industry. biofuel of tomorrow. The energy densi- nanoparticles in a suitable carrier ma- Molinari hit on the idea of using ty of this substance is almost 50 percent terial are very good at catalyzing the

catalytic pasta for the production of higher than that of ethanol; moreover, formation of DMF. A structure consist- Photos: Valerio Molinari / MPI of Colloids and Interfaces (2)

64 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 MATERIALS & TECHNOLOGY_Chemistry

ing of carbon and nitrogen has proven as if they would be much more at home promising approach for industrial com- to be a good base for the nickel parti- in the boiler of a biorefinery than on a panies,” says Majd Al-Naji. In the next cles; the larger the area it provides for plate. As soon as the chemists have re- step, the scientists wish to set up a pi- the reaction, the better. This means a moved the zinc oxide and salt from the lot facility to test the large-scale pro- substance with countless fine pores is pores, they soak the catalytic pasta in a duction of DMF. If the catalyst pellets needed; this substance must be avail- nickel salt solution, with which it reacts also prove their worth in this situation, able in the form of pellets the size of chemically to form the nickel nanopar- this will mean that another step has pharmaceutical capsules. “Manufactur- ticles. “Because it’s so porous, the pasta been taken toward the competitive in- ing large quantities of these pellets is a provides a surface area of 700 square dustrial production of biofuel. very complex process,” says Molinari. meters per gram,” says Marius Bäumel. The fact that the catalyst is easy to He and Marius Bäumel have found a “This means that ten grams have the manufacture is sure to be another remedy in the form of an unconven- surface area of a football pitch, which point in its favor. This advantage could tional pasta recipe. is more than most industrial catalysts also stimulate the appetite of other can manage.” chemicals companies. If so, the pro- AN EFFICIENT CATALYST FOR Studies performed by Al-Naji’s team duction of catalytic pasta may no lon- BIOFUEL PRODUCTION have shown that this large surface area ger be limited to the kitchen lab. The also makes a difference in the produc- research carried out by Molinari’s team For the pasta dough, the researchers tion of DMF. The catalyst is extremely could inspire other chemists to exper- mix durum wheat semolina with glu- efficient and significantly cheaper than iment with kitchen equipment and cose and urea. These ingredients then competing products produced commer- renewable materials instead of using bond to form a carbon and nitrogen cially. “Producing the catalyst in the expensive laboratory equipment and structure, with the carbon being pri- form of pasta is consequently also a fossil resources. marily derived from the semolina. The researchers had this specially sent from Italy. “A specific dough consistency is essential for production in the pasta SUMMARY machine,” says Marius Bäumel. “Origi- nal durum wheat semolina simply has l In the kitchen lab, Max Planck researchers in Potsdam are experimenting with the best properties and makes the per- kitchen equipment and renewable raw materials, including waste from industrial processes. fect dough.” l ® Zinc oxide nanopowder is added to They are using cellulose, gluten and lignin to make RemixWood , a cheap, durable wood-based material. Similar mixtures are used to produce bioplastics. the mixture together with fine salt – or- l Proteins could replace microplastics for stabilizing cosmetic products. dinary table salt is perfectly adequate. These two substances serve as place- l With catalytic pasta, the scientists have found an efficient catalyst for the production of biofuel that is also easy to manufacture. holders for the pores and are washed or steamed out of the finished pasta. The researchers use the pasta machine to GLOSSARY press out the dough in the form of thick, light-colored spaghetti that looks Cellulose: This polysaccharide, which consists entirely of glucose, is an important quite appetizing. However, all this component of the cell walls of plants; it is used to make paper. changes when Molinari and Bäumel Gluten: The protein compound found in grains is sticky and elastic when wet; process it further. this is what makes dough kneadable. They start by cutting the long strips Hemicellulose: Polysaccharide which consists of various sugars and is also found of dough into short stumps, then put in the cell walls of plants. them into the oven to roast. When Catalyst: A substance that accelerates chemical reactions or guides them in a specific direction without being consumed. Marius Bäumel takes the sheet with the pasta pieces out of the oven several Lignin: A biopolymer critical for the stability of wood cells. hours later, they are coal black and look

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 65 ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE_Mobility

Buses on demand

It is extremely difficult to get around in rural areas without a car of your own, either due to a lack of public transport or because scheduled buses are infrequent. That is why a team led by physicist Stephan Herminghaus, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Goettingen, have developed the EcoBus, a system that lets customers order a bus directly to their front door. The special thing about it is that, unlike other on-call systems, rather than poaching customers, the EcoBus will augment existing public transport services.

TEXT TIM SCHRÖDER

h man, I’ve really hit the vance, unlike the EcoBus. Anyway, the sent to the driver’s tablet from a cen- jackpot today,” exclaims kiosk owner only spends a few min- tral server via the cell-phone network. the young man who utes on board until the bus comes to a “This is the list of the next few stops,” boards the bus at the stop right in front of his kiosk in the he says, tapping the screen. “The sys- outskirts of Clausthal, “I town below. As he gets off, he bids the tem inserts the new customers some- onlyO had to wait three minutes!” His driver, Torsten Keck, a cheery “have a where along the route I’ll be taking in car is currently in the workshop, so for nice day.” the next few minutes.” the past few days he has been catching The EcoBuses have been operating the EcoBus to work at a kiosk in town THE BUS TRAVELS TO WHEREVER in the Harz region since the middle of each morning. “I always see the bus IT IS NEEDED August. There are currently eight of pass by,” he says during the journey, them, each with eight passenger seats. “and thought I’d give it a try.” It is re- Torsten Keck continues through the Some of them even have space for ally great, he goes on to say, that the streets, with their pretty half-timbered wheelchairs. “We’ve already got a few bus takes him directly to the door for houses, to his next stop. He has no regulars, mostly elderly folks.” Says Tor- just EUR 2.70. fixed timetable and glances at the tab- sten: “A lot of younger people use the The little bus wends its way down let mounted in a holder to the right of service on Fridays and Saturdays.” The the steep road into Clausthal. The the gear lever to see where his next buses stay out till two in the morning young man continues: “Back home in pick-up point is. “Ah, okay,” he says, on those nights. He once had a group Turkey you get little buses like this ev- “the next passenger is getting on just of young men who brought all sorts of erywhere. It’s pretty funny that they‘ve behind the market church.” barbecue equipment and provisions on only just come up with the idea here.” Every few minutes the tablet emits board. He drove them to a barbecue cab- However, whilst these buses, known a quiet “ping” whenever a new cus- in in the country. By the end of 2018, as Dolmus in Turkey, can be flagged tomer sends a request to be picked up the EcoBus had some 6500 registered down anywhere, they only follow fixed anywhere between Clausthal, Goslar users – more than ten per cent of the

routes and cannot be ordered in ad- and Osterode. The pick-up requests are population within the pilot area. Cus- Photo: MPIDS

66 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 “You are the bus stop!” True to this slogan, the EcoBus picks passengers up wherever they like – even at some points along a country road.

tomers can to book the service by phone or using a smartphone app via the website www.ecobus.jetzt (in German). The EcoBus is still just a pilot project launched by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization. The buses are oper- ated by project partners Regionalbus Braunschweig (a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn), the Zweckverband Verkehrsver- bund Süd-Niedersachsen (Administra- tive Union for the Integrated Transport System of Southern Lower Saxony) and the Regionalverband Grossraum Braun- schweig (Greater Braunschweig Region- al Association), who have also employed the drivers. The buses’ sliding side doors bear the witty slogan: “You are the bus stop!” which neatly sums up the concept: rather than walking to a traditional bus stop to wait for a service bus, you call the bus to where it is needed. And because most modern smartphones are equipped with a GPS function, the bus can even

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 67 ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE_Mobility

Flexible mini buses Bus or train

be called to remote places such as hikers’ hicles on the roads, which, ultimately, are very infrequent. As a result, many car parks, tourist cafés or, for that matter, does nothing to reduce road traffic.” On people prefer the car, so many large barbecue cabins far off the beaten track. the contrary: “Services such as these take intercity buses currently only carry a “Ultimately,” says Stephan Herming- passengers from the environmental- handful of passengers. They are referred haus, physicist and Director at the Max ly-friendly public transport systems and to in the sector as “ghost buses” and Planck Institute for Dynamics and distribute them among many cars.” tend to cost the public transport com- Self-Organization, “we want the EcoBus Stephan Herminghaus is familiar with panies money to operate. “The EcoBus to contribute towards the reduction of the extreme side effects that can result that I book to come to a particular spot private cars on the road by enabling sev- from this from his own experiences in at a time of my choosing will be able to eral people to share their journeys.” The the Indian metropolis, Bangalore, where fill this gap in future,” says Herming- EcoBus project was his idea. “The basic for some time now a significant part of haus. “Last but not least, it also pro- concept is that passengers board the bus the road traffic load has been due to vides a shuttle service to the established along its route. But, unlike with car shar- empty trips by cars driving for Uber or public transport network – to the train ing, it is the ride that is being shared, not Ola, its Indian counterpart. “These are station or the nearest bus stop. This the car. We call it ride sharing.” mostly drivers on their way to their next strengthens public transport rather Of course, as Herminghaus admits, customers, but that is precisely what the than weakening it.” That is why the the concept of ride sharing is nothing future should not look like.” EcoBus is also being supported by pub- new. On-demand bus services that op- lic transport companies themselves in erate on a similar principle, picking up LOCAL TRAFFIC IS INCREASING Southern Lower Saxony. It augments passengers along the way, have been the existing network. around for a considerable time, he says. The EcoBus is designed to achieve the At first glance, the EcoBus project has And, he continues, with modern trans- opposite by getting people out of their very little to do with the research carried port services, such as Uber or Volkswa- cars and onto the public transport ser- out at the Goettingen-based Institute, gen’s Moia, vehicles can be booked by vices. Its buses have often been an un- where scientists conduct research into smartphone at any time and any place. attractive option to date, as some vil- flows, self-organizing networks of living “The problem,” says Herminghaus, lages are not even connected to the cells and dynamic networks such as the

“is that all of these services put more ve- public service routes or else the buses electrical grid of the future. Graphic: MPIDS

68 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 Left-hand page In the traffic concept represented by the EcoBus, such flexible shuttle buses transport passengers to boarding points for regular bus or train services. This page Stephan Herminghaus and the concept of ride sharing: rather than sharing cars as in the car sharing concept, people share journeys.

“Yet, in the final analysis,” says Stephan people could be coaxed out of their cars ra of algorithms that produce solutions Herminghaus, “road traffic is also a and onto the buses and trains.” The to this optimization task. They are used flow – a special kind of flow,” whereas EcoBus is his answer: pick people up in in Satnav systems among other things. that is not the case with traffic. It is places where there had previously been “But our work goes quite a bit fur- true, he says, that in this case too there hardly any alternative to the car. ther than this routing problem” says is a certain flow in a particular direc- Tariq Baig-Meininghaus, who worked tion, but, of course, vehicles can di- EIGHT BUSES WITH THE intensively on a route finding solution verge from this main direction. “In this TRAVELING SALESMAN PROBLEM within the EcoBus project. “We’re not context we talk in terms of active fluids dealing with a traveling salesman, but in which particles have proper mo- The technology behind this service is with many passengers who want to be tion,” Herminghaus explains. “It’s like so complex that Herminghaus had to picked up and dropped off again. In with plankton organisms. Whilst they assemble a dedicated team of engineers addition to that, at present, we need are transported in a certain direction by and physicists. This is because to send to coordinate the routes of eight bus- powerful water currents, they can use a an EcoBus out on its rounds means es.” For example, a bus that is current- rowing motion to change direction.” mastering several challenges. For exam- ly traveling in the direction of Thus, the complex phenomenon of ple, the EcoBus concept relates to a clas- Clausthal-Zellerfeld should not pick road traffic is nothing new to flow re- sic mathematical problem. Called the up passengers whose destination is Go- searcher Herminghaus. “traveling salesman problem” it has slar in the opposite direction – and The idea for the EcoBus project oc- been known since the 1930s and in- vice versa. And another thing: the curred to him several years ago at a time volves finding the shortest route be- routes change continuously because when he had to cross the Reinhaeu­ser tween several towns that a traveling new guest are always submitting their Landstrasse, one of the large multilane salesman wants to visit. Yet, the more shuttle requests. arterial roads out of Goettingen, whilst towns there are, the greater the num- It took Tariq Baig-Meininghaus and cycling to the Institute each day. “Sit- ber of alternative routes: the 15 biggest his colleagues a good two years to rec- ting in almost every car there during cities in Germany, for example, can be oncile all of these requirements, and, rush hour is a single person. I asked my- connected via 43 billion different route although there are already various

Photo: MPIDS self how we could change that; how combinations! There are now a pletho- software solutions on the market, a lot

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 69 ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE_Mobility

Number of trips

300 26.10. Total: 243 Total: Julia 250 Ingo Hanna 200 Georg Frieda 150 Emil Doris 100 Clemens Berta 50 Anton

0

10.08. 13.08.16.08. 19.08. 22.08.25.08.28.08. 31.08.03.09.06.09.09.09. 12.09. 15.09. 18.09. 21.09. 24.09. 27.09. 30.09. 03.10. 06.10. 09.10. 12.10. 15.10. 18.10. 21.10. 24.10. 27.10. 30.10. Date

Increasingly popular: of the ten buses with are first performed. Finally, the soft- the pilot project, a trip can simply take names such as Julia, Frieda and Anton, up to ware synchronizes the individual areas up to an hour on occasion. In other cas- eight are in operation every day, whereby and interim results to produce an es, the customers still have to wait quite the number of trips has increased since the start of the pilot project. overall solution. a long time till the next free bus comes their way. “I once had to wait an hour FURTHER STEPS TOWARDS A and a half for the bus,” says the young of manual work was still needed. So RELIABLE TIME OF ARRIVAL kiosk owner from Clausthal. But the whilst many research groups have pub- more buses in operation in future, the lished routing algorithms in the past, Coordinating all buses and customers faster the service should be. the majority of them are too slow for or timing – there were many parame- The EcoBus is therefore by no means the EcoBus. “If a customer requests a ters that the researchers had to tweak a hundred per cent plannable for the bus then they want to know within for their EcoBus system. In particular, customers at this time, not least be- seconds when one will be free and this also includes placing customer re- cause the buses do not always arrive at when it will arrive,” says Baig-Mein- quests in a practical sequence to avoid their destinations to the exact minute. inghaus. “An offer has to be made the excessive prolongation of individ- For project leader Stephan Herming- within twelve to 15 seconds or the sys- ual passengers’ journey times. Bus haus, that is the next step. He wants to tem would feel too slow.” driver Torsten Keck knows why: “I re- further develop the system over the He and his colleagues solved the cently had a passenger who spent al- coming months so that it can give the problem in such a way that the EcoBus most an hour in the bus because oth- passengers a reliable time of arrival – for system really does provide an initial er passengers, whose pick-up points example to get them to the station in response to the customer request with- were along the route, had booked the Goslar on time for them to catch their in a few seconds whilst the algorithms service. The trip then got longer and connecting train. continue to work in the background longer due to the short detours – and But, even then, a precise departure to optimize the route and coordinate at some point the passenger let it be time from the front door will not be the many customer requests, which known that he’d like to get home in possible. “Such complete flexibility will takes them a bit longer. The customer the not too distant future.” not be achievable with ten buses – the has no inkling of this. The researchers The experts did program a maxi- area between the three towns with its also made the system faster by divid- mum journey time per passenger into 63,000 residents is simply too big,” says ing the entire EcoBus region into sub- their system, but, because there are cur- Herminghaus. “So, the way it’ll work

units, for which detailed calculations rently only eight buses in operation in initially is that we’ll be able to give the Graphic: MPIDS

70 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 Flexible routes: the EcoBus also operates in rural districts in which there are no public transport services. The map shows an example of the routes traveled by the various mini buses on a particular day. During these trips, they stopped to pick up passengers at all the points marked by the bus stop symbol.

10.08. 13.08.16.08. 19.08. 22.08.25.08.28.08. 31.08.03.09.06.09.09.09. 12.09. 15.09. 18.09. 21.09. 24.09. 27.09. 30.09. 03.10. 06.10. 09.10. 12.10. 15.10. 18.10. 21.10. 24.10. 27.10. 30.10.

passenger an accurate time of arrival and a period during which we’ll pick them up – that’s achievable.” Alterna- tively, a cooperation agreement with taxi firms would be feasible. Customers in a rush could be collected by taxi and transferred to an EcoBus somewhere along the way that would take them the rest of the way to the train station.

SIMPLIFYING THE SYSTEM WITH PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

However, the EcoBus project involves more than just the software that works in the background to synchronize all bus movements and customer requests; it also includes the visible elements. “We developed everything ourselves,” says electrical engineer Christoph Brüg- ge, “The app and the website through which you can book a trip as well as the Satnav system used by the bus drivers.” To this end, Brügge and his colleagues also organized public events during which they asked locals about their ex- pectations of such a system. “We want- ed to keep the system as simple as pos- sible so that older people, in particular,

Photo: Swen Pförtner / dpa (top), Graphic: MPIDS would be able to use it.” > ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE_Mobility

ger arrival times should shortly be real- ized. Initially, two EcoBuses will be de- ployed in Leipzig for this purpose. The test is intended to demonstrate that the bus can interact perfectly with the reg- ular bus and train timetables. “Other municipalities have en- quired about when we’ll finally be launching the EcoBus as a product and service on the market,” says Herming- haus. In the meantime, he continues, he has already developed an appropri- ate business model in conjunction with his colleagues from Max Planck Innovation, the Max Planck Society’s central technology transfer hub. “The concept is attractive because we would bear the risk. Our goal is to operate the call system as a service at our own cost and to fund it via small fees to be paid with each booking,” the researcher ex- plains. But he is not yet able to say pre- cisely when the EcoBus service will be on sale. However, the pilot project in the Tailor-made mobility: Christoph Brügge, Stephan Herminghaus and Tariq Baig-Meininghaus Harz region has already demonstrated (from left) are members of the team that developed and continue to improve the EcoBus. that the service works, and the re- A next step is to be able to provide passengers with reliable arrival times. searchers learned a lot from it: “Espe- cially that interacting with the real Sunrise! world sometimes looks very different to Because the buses are operated by the Herminghaus emphasizes the fact that the way a physicist imagines it will in The Foundation funded a 130-meter Helium balloon public transport companies themselves, he is not trying to reinvent the wheel theory,” says Tariq Baig-Meininghaus the tariffs are easy to understand – and with the EcoBus: “I’m pretty certain with a smile. “The passenger can cer- for the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the tickets can be transferred. The fares that companies such as Uber use very tainly point the cursor at the exact spot enabling one of the world’s largest solar telescopes to are the same as for the public service similar algorithms – all developers use on the map in the app where they want get off the ground. buses: a trip through Goslar costs the similar tools, after all,” says the re- to be picked up – but, it’s still some- usual EUR 2.70 and the route from searcher. “But, unfortunately, private times hard for drivers to find people, Sami Solanki‘s SUNRISE telescope observed the sun’s Clausthal to Goslar costs EUR 4.00. companies keep their cards close to which can delay the departure time – magnetic fields in high resolution. As a result, re search Among other things, passengers can their chests so that, in the end, we did you need to take account of this kind also purchase a Deutsche Bahn Nieder- have to set up a system of our own af- of thing in the system.” And the re- on how the sun in fluences the earth system can sachsenticket (Lower Saxony Ticket) to ter all.” searchers encountered another stum- now be carried out more effectively. enable them to use public transport bling block during the pilot project in throughout the state. “We initially OTHER TOWNS AND CITIES ARE the Harz region: dead zones! found integrating the public transport ENQUIRING ABOUT THE ECOBUS On the route from Goslar to ticket printers within our system to be Clausthal-Zellerfeld Torsten Keck steers The Max Planck Foundation has supported the Max Planck an additional level of complexity,” says This is a system with evident appeal, as his bus through tight bends and serpen- Society for more than ten years by pro viding targeted funding Stephan Herminghaus. “However, we’ve the public transport companies are very tines. The bus dives down into a thick- for top-level in no va tive and cuttingedge research at the more come to realize that this is an addition- interested. One member of the team is ly forested river valley – no chance of than 80 institutes, enabling breakthroughs in frontier science. al benefit to our customers because it currently developing an EcoBus solu- cell phone reception. The tablet only As a patron, you can make a crucial difference by creating integrates the bus directly into the tion for the Leipzig transport services, comes back to life as the bus drives into ad ditional scope to keep this re search ahead of the curve in transport associations’ tariff systems.” with which the goal of precise passen- Goslar: Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! “We’re Photo: Ronald Schmidt the inter national scientific competition. Join us!

Max Planck-Foundation 72 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 Deutsche Bank IBAN DE46 7007 0010 0195 3306 00 www.maxplanckfoundation.org back online,” says Torsten. “Now all the new customer requests will come roll- SUMMARY ing in.” And suddenly his route plan l Rural bus services are rare if they exist at all. Because many people prefer to use looks completely different. The EcoBus their cars all the time, those buses that are in service are extremely underutilized. server has already arranged the requests l That is why researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organi- in the correct sequence. “That’s the zation developed the EcoBus to make public transport more flexible, whereby, nice thing about this job: you’re always among other things, they had to solve an especially difficult route finding problem. driving different routes. And, I’ve al- Public transport companies in Lower Saxony are currently testing the system be- ready discovered a few little places that tween Goslar, Clausthal-Zellerfeld and Osterode am Harz. I hadn’t even known existed before.” l The EcoBus picks people up where they want to get on and takes them right to There is no doubt the EcoBus is open- where they want to go. Although the system is not yet able to specify precise de- parture and arrival times, because the route is changes continuously in response ing up new prospects, not just for driv- to new requests, it should soon be able to provide reliable arrival times – not least ers like Torsten Keck, but especially for to enable customers to catch their connecting buses and trains on time. the customers and rural districts such l By contrast with other on-demand bus service systems, the point of the EcoBus is as the Harz region, in which people still to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads, because as part of the public trans- find themselves sitting in ghost buses port services, it augments service buses and trains. much too often. Sunrise! The Foundation funded a 130-meter Helium balloon for the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, enabling one of the world’s largest solar telescopes to get off the ground. Sami Solanki‘s SUNRISE telescope observed the sun’s magnetic fields in high resolution. As a result, re search on how the sun in fluences the earth system can now be carried out more effectively.

The Max Planck Foundation has supported the Max Planck Society for more than ten years by pro viding targeted funding for top-level in no va tive and cuttingedge research at the more than 80 institutes, enabling breakthroughs in frontier science. As a patron, you can make a crucial difference by creating ad ditional scope to keep this re search ahead of the curve in the inter national scientific competition. Join us!

Max Planck-Foundation Deutsche Bank IBAN DE46 7007 0010 0195 3306 00 www.maxplanckfoundation.org Flashback_Cell Biology

The umbrella algae’s crazy caps

Acetabularia is several centimeters long – and consists of a single cell. Joachim Hämmerling from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology in Berlin-Dahlem and Hans-Georg Schweiger from the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology in Ladenburg dedicated most of their research life to the umbrella algae. One of their goals was to find out about the role of the nucleus.

TEXT ELKE MAIER

Berlin-Dahlem in 1931. It was a rather is regenerated time and time again. peculiar little plant that the biolo- The nucleus can be isolated and gist Joachim Hämmerling was con- transferred into another Acetabu- templating. It did not really look like laria fragment, even a foreign one, a plant at all, but more like an um- without losing its functionality. The brella or a small mushroom. A thin little plant was the perfect model stalk the length of a finger was organism to tackle fundamental equipped with a flat, ribbed cap on questions of cell biology. one end, and a root-like holdfast on In order to find out more about the other end which the plant used the function of the nucleus, Häm- to anchor itself to the substrate in merling removed the nucleus of a the surf zone of the sea. young specimen that had not yet Hämmerling’s object of study formed a cap. And lo and behold: was a type of umbrella algae known against all expectations the plant as Acetabularia mediterranea. From a Pioneers of cell biology: Joachim Hämmerling (left) did not die – quite the contrary. research trip to the Mediterranean and Hans-Georg Schweiger. Without a nucleus it even lived for Sea, Max Hartmann, the Director of longer than with a nucleus; howev- the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology in Berlin, had brought er, it lived life on the back burner. The specimen remained in its back a number of specimens of these algae that grow to a length development stadium at the time, and it never reproduced. It ap- of up to six centimeters. His postdoc Joachim Hämmerling was peared to be the case that the nucleus transmits information that now supposed to find out how the algae reproduced. is vital to a normal life. It was especially the fact that the entire organism consists of Hämmerling continued to conduct countless experiments in a single cell that made Acetabularia interesting for scientists. In which he cut up umbrella algae, removed their nuclei and replaced the course of his studies, Hämmerling discovered that the gigan- them with foreign ones. In this context he also experimented with tic cell also contains just one nucleus throughout its entire growth exchanging nuclei across different species of Acetabularia. This » period, and that this nucleus is bigger than in most other organ- caused the cell to produce the form of cap typical of the species isms and is always located in the holdfast. Hämmerling recog- the nucleus came from. If Hämmerling placed nuclei of two spe- nized the marine plant’s great potential for cellbiological research. cies inside the same cell fragment without a nucleus, he could In multicellular organisms, the individual cells differentiate even create mixed cap designs. and take over different functions. But how does a gigantic cell like However, he made his most astonishing discovery when he re- this organize itself and manage to reproduce? How does it ensure moved first the cap and a week later also the nucleus of a cell: the that the cap is formed at one end, and the holdfast at the other? cut off side was able to form a new cap, even though the nucleus Hämmerling was unwilling to believe in the assumption that was gone! It had to be the case that the building instructions for was popular at the time, according to which appearance was de- the cap had moved from the nucleus to the cell plasma and sur- termined by mysterious life forces. He was convinced that mate- vived there. rial information carriers were behind all this. To prove his theory, Through his experiments, Joachim Hämmerling gained funda- he began to systematically cut umbrella algae into pieces. Thanks mental insights into the interaction between the nucleus and the to their large size, he did not even need any special instruments – cell plasma. He recognized that shaping is controlled by the nu- scissors and a pair of tweezers were enough. cleus by transmitting “morphogenetic” (relating to formation) The algae survive, even when they are cut apart repeatedly: substances to the plasma. Nowadays, it is known that these sub-

provided that the nucleus remains intact, the cut off top section stances are messenger ribonucleic acids – transcripts of the ge- Photos: archive of the Max Planck Society

74 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 RÜCKBLENDE_Lockstoffe

netic code that are channeled from the nucleus into the plasma, where they are used as instructions for protein production. “Hämmerling succeeded in showing with simple means that properties such as outer appearance are determined by the nucle- us, before people even knew about the genetic material DNA that Model plant: the umbrella algae Acetabularia mediterranea are at is located inside the nucleus,” says Horst Bannwarth, a former home in many places in the Mediterranean Sea, and they gave rise to fundamental insights into the interior of cells. Acetabularia researcher of the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biolo - gy in Ladenburg near Heidelberg, who now holds a professorship at the University of Cologne. “It was not until 1944 that the Cana- to block either transcription – the copying of the genetic code – or dian Oswald Theodore Avery demonstrated that information subsequent translation – the synthesizing of proteins based on about hereditary characteristics is stored in the DNA.” the code. The internal clock would stop whenever the scientists Hämmerling’s classic experiments paved the way for the um- interfered on the translation level. The clock must therefore be brella algae to enter the laboratories. Scientists around the world controlled by one or multiple substances that are produced in this were soon examining the processes inside the gigantic cell. The process – by specific proteins. medical expert Hans-Georg Schweiger worked with the giant al- Schweiger and his team were able to identify a protein called gae at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology. Schweiger had P230 as a key element of the internal clock. In Acetabularia it is previously conducted research on red blood cells with and with- located in the chloroplasts, and it controls the circadian rhythm out nuclei. He used new and refined methods to examine the um- of photosynthesis. Together with his brother Manfred Schwei- brella algae that can be easily manipulated and gained many new ger, who held a professorship in biochemistry at the University insights into the interrelations between the nucleus and the cell of Innsbruck at the time, Hans-Georg Schweiger published the plasma. In this research work, he was particularly interested in so-called coupled translation-membrane model in 1977, which biological rhythms. explains the underlying mechanism and can also be applied to Whether it be behavior or metabolic processes – there are other organisms. many vital processes that are characterized by specific regulari- This work made Hans-Georg Schweiger one of the pioneers ties. Photosynthesis in Acetabularia follows a daily rhythm, with of chronobiology – a field of research that has gained significant large amounts of oxygen being produced during the day and small- momentum over the past few decades: in 2017, three Americans – er amounts at night. The algae maintain this rhythm, even when Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young – received exposed to permanent lighting. This means that there must be an the Nobel Prize for researching the period gene that controls the internal clock. But where is it? And how does it work? circadian rhythm in the fruit fly Drosophila. To find out, Schweiger and his staff members once again took Following the publication of his model, Hans-Georg Schweiger the cells apart. The researchers measured oxygen production in set about examining the protein P230 more closely. However, he died suddenly in 1986. His mentor Joachim Hämmerling had died Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper on 14 September 1977 six years earlier. The international Acetabularia community had thus lost two extraordinary scientists. The algae that the local Italian lagoon dwellers lovingly The giant algae gradually disappeared from the laboratories » refer to as “umbrellas”, and that were introduced as research in the 1990s. Their cultivation is an elaborate process, and even objects 50 years ago by Professor Joachim Hämmerling, under ideal conditions their life cycle takes several months, and who is meanwhile retired, have attracted a lot of attention without bacteria colonizing their cell walls, they remain rather for a long time now. frail. They cannot compete against model organisms such as baker’s yeast, roundworms or thale cress. This is particularly true individual cells and cell fragments to determine photosynthetic in our contemporary fast-paced world, where scientists are ex- activity. They found that the “sense of time” exists across all parts pected to present results as quickly as possible. of the plant, and that the clock must therefore be located some- The possibility of a comeback cannot be excluded, though: where in the cell plasma rather than in the nucleus. What was in- Acetabularia belongs to the order of Dasycladales that have existed teresting, however, was that an Acetabularia specimen whose nu- on earth for close to 600 million years. “There are now only cleus had been removed adopted the rhythm of a foreign cell 19 living species,” says Sigrid Berger-Seidel, Professor at the Uni - whose core was implanted into it and that had been modified to versity of Heidelberg, and a former staff member of Hämmerling follow a different schedule by means of artificial lighting. Here, and Schweiger. “It would be interesting to compare species of dif- too, the nucleus therefore played an important part. ferent evolutionary ages, and to use new methods to examine the The methods had meanwhile become much more sophisticat- relationship between the nucleus and the organelles.” So it is ed than had been the case when Hämmerling was a postdoc. The quite possible that the primitive giant algae will return to the

Photos: archive of the Max Planck Society Photo: Norbert Probst / imageBROKER OKAPIA researchers were now able to use specific inhibiting substances laboratories one day.

1 | 19 MaxPlanckResearch 75 MAX PLANCK COMMUNITY

“I was simply relieved”

Gerard Meijer, Director at the FHI, talks about the DEAL project and negotiating with Wiley

He played a leading role in bringing the ne- so that he could sit in on the negotiations. gotiations between the DEAL project and For two days, we sat at the negotiating publishing company Wiley to a successful table discussing the details right up until conclusion: Gerard Meijer, Director at the midnight – nine hours on one day and 15 Fritz-Haber-Institut in Berlin since 2017, hours on the other. has long been an advocate of Open Access. The Dutch scientist gave our interviewer Two days of marathon negotiations... a look behind the scenes of the three-year Yes, we really got down to brass tacks. But negotiating marathon. the results were worth the effort. After the Gerard Meijer second day, it was clear that we had done DEAL project spokesperson Horst Hippler it. On January 11, I had a very pleasant phone negotiators and know exactly what’s hap- described the conclusion of the agreement on conversation with Brian Napack, in which pening in each country. The academics, on January 15, 2019 as “a milestone.” How did we both said, “Now everything’s fine!” the other hand, have a different negotiat- you feel that day? ing team in every country. That’s what Gerard Meijer: I was simply relieved. The Let us take another look back. The MPG made it all the more important to ex- weeks before the deal was closed cost a lot delegated you to start negotiations at the change experiences with other countries of time and nervous energy. I remember beginning of 2017. How did that happen? over those three years. saying to my wife, “If this doesn’t work out, Well, it wasn’t my first time at the negotiat- all the work I’ve done over the last two ing table. Before I came back to Germany in Three years of negotiations – what took so long? months will have been a waste of time.” But 2017, I was involved in similar negotiations The agreement with Wiley broke com- once the deal was done, everything was for- at home, in the Netherlands, as President of pletely new ground. There had never been gotten (laughs). the Radboud University in Nijmegen. a national license of this kind in Germany before. We had to get to know each other, So you were afraid that the deal with Wiley That means you’re probably the first build mutual trust, learn to respect the might fall through right up until the scientist to take part in negotiations for a other side’s ideas. That takes time and was agreement was about to be signed? national license in two different countries. the only way to establish a true partner- Yes, we wrangled over details right up to How far did this contribute to your success? ship from which both sides would benefit. the finish. After all, this was the first That was a clear advantage. In the past, This is something else that the last three agreement of its kind in Germany – and the large publishing companies had years have shown: publishing companies there was a lot of money involved. We things all their own way. They increased and academics need each other if they are didn’t manage to conclude the negotia- their prices by about five percent every to move towards Open Access. tions before Christmas. After that, Brian year. Nobody knew exactly how much Napack, President and CEO of Wiley, and I was paid in the other countries and why. What was the highlight of those three years were of one mind: “We have to set our- Negotiations didn’t take place on an equal for you personally? selves a deadline no matter what. Either footing for a long time. Without a doubt the birth of MPDL Ser- the deal will be done by January 11 – or it vices GmbH. It was already clear by the be- will all be over.” In what respect? ginning of September 2018 that we’d agreed The publishing companies always send the all the most important details with Wiley. How did you manage to turn things around? same people to the negotiating table no A consensus had also been reached within During the week before January 11, Brian matter where they are in Europe – or pos- the DEAL negotiating group. Napack flew over from the U.S., especially sibly even the world. They are really tough That sounds like a big “but”...

Yes, although we had come a long way in terms of content, we found that we didn’t The most important points agreed by DEAL and Wiley have the structure necessary to actually l For an annual fee, all institutions represented by DEAL will have access to all the conclude a contract. We had no idea which scientific journals published by Wiley as far back as 1997. of the people involved in the DEAL project l Researchers at these institutions can also publish their articles in Wiley’s journals had the mandate to sign the agreement. as Open Access publications. l The authors will retain the copyright rather than ceding it to the publisher, as was What happened next? previously the case. I emailed an urgent appeal to President

Stratmann and Secretary General Willems Photo: Joeri Borst/Radboud Universiteit

76 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19 Photo: Joeri Borst/Radboud Universiteit

Photo: MPI-IS/W. Scheible Schölkopf. The Director at the MPI for Intelligent Systems is also also is Systems Intelligent for Bernhard MPI the at says Director The Schölkopf. research,” basic curiosity-driven and research industrial application-oriented between dialog the from benefit can sides “Both Amazon. as such organizations commercial with weapons. autonomous against are Valley in Cyber in Linda says Behringer. ducted Cyber Valley!” Many of the scientists AI. is “But it of saying that con- without no goes research weapons applications military possible to regard with example for public, in expressed Valley Cyber of criticisms the to response searchers’ re- the are events These particular. in initiative Valley Cyber the and research AI on dialog in public the engaging of aim the with Stuttgart and Tuebingen in organized been have slam science a Valley. in Cyber created additionally professorships the of two Hein and Matthias Moreover, Philipp Hennig have taken selected. being currently are Stuttgart of University the at Leaders Group Research remaining two The work. started now have Tuebingen of University the at colleagues three their and Systems telligent Systems. telligent In- for MPI the for officer press Behringer, Linda says else,” thing are they for used before any- for Cyber new Valley spin-offs project while on working to the invari use developed inventions ably permitted are facilities research academic from “Scientists property. intellectual as such issues with dealing for rules down lay that to aims partners Valley. in Cyber companies start-up of establishment industrial the facilitate the and Tuebingen and Stuttgart of ties bywiththe MPG, thethe state Universi of Baden-Wuerttemberg up set venture cooperative The (AI). intelligence artificial of ment develop the alliance, aims which advance to research the of goals and central the business of one the is This of filled. part been as now up have initiative set science groups research ten the in sitions Cyber Valley is continuing to take shape. Most of po the leadership Cyber Valley reaches the next level in time first the for – GWK the through forwarded fast was request our quickly, move to had things Because (GWK). Conference Science Joint the and (BMBF) Research and ucation Ed- of Ministry Federal the of consent the needed we reason, that For companies. liability limited founding for not – search re- basic for meant are funds MPG’s The process. easy an wasn’t it although Yes, … GmbH Services MPDL of birth The Germany.” of whole the for and DEAL it –for je sellschaft doesn’tMax-Planck-Ge intervene, the “If evening: same that the DEAL pro ct will be a disaster. The MPG has to save save to has MPG The disaster. a be will ct There are also reservations about collaborative endeavors endeavors collaborative about reservations also are There and series such as lecture forums, events Meanwhile, numerous contracts signed now have partners the mind, in this With Meanwhile, all five Research Group Leaders at the MPI for In for MPI the at Leaders Group Research five all Meanwhile, 15 years. - ­ things go from here? from go things do Where done. been has deal first the So achieve! can MPG the what of example great 15. January on agreement the signed and GmbH Services MPDL of ment manage the over took Sanders enough. ly high commended be can’t Sander Frank and Schimmer Ralf by shown dedication the And together! pulled them of all – MPDL ment, Depart Legal entire the him with and er MP the at members staff the of commitment al person tremendous the to thanks and Yes, together. fit cogs the all because being into came agreement the end, the in So G: Stratmann, Willems, Prugger, Schlei- Prugger, Willems, G:Stratmann, - - - - -

a central goal for Schölkopf. “It is a matter of personal importance importance of personal is“It for Schölkopf. a goal matter a central working as an Amazon Scholar within the the within Scholar Amazon an as working global center in the field of artificial intelligence.” artificial of field in the center global to me that the Cyber Valley region remains a and leading European – world the all over from AI experts talented initiative attracts now visibility,Valley achieve great international as a of result which the work. their for inspiration obtaining sight to besides into that are solve companies trying the problems in gain researchers academic while applications, into research animated realistic, creating of ways developing are Tuebingen in researchers avatars: into life Breathing tion with commercial partners promotes the translation of basic basic of translation the promotes partners commercial with tion Collabora activities. ancillary perform to researchers for allowed The commitment of Amazon in particular has helped Cyber Cyber helped has particular in Amazon of commitment The All in all, a - - - - www.projekt-deal.de/about-deal online: available is agreement full the to access Public least important! at equally is public Access Open making but thing, one is deal the Closing Wiley. with cooperation in journal Access Open interdisciplinary an up setting be will we more, What’s publishers. smaller the with agreements national conclude to want We also board. on get to lishing companies pub- major other the encourage and effect signal a have will contract the that hope I 3 D models of the body. the of models D MAX PLANCK COMMUNITY MAX PLANCK 1 | MaxPlanckResearch 19MaxPlanckResearch

20 I percent timeframe timeframe percent nterview: Petra Maaß Petra nterview:

77 - -

MAX PLANCK COMMUNITY

Wolfgang Gass and Leonhard Schilbach in the documentary series “Ich, einfach unvermittel- bar?”. Wolfgang Gass passed all the cognitive tests with flying colors (left to right).

When your colleague is a little different

People with autism often have astonishing abilities from which companies can benefit

Patients with a diagnosis of autism usually have difficulties trained as a mechanical engineer. Despite all this, the high- finding a job. The Day Clinic for Disorders of Social Interac- ly gifted Gass was unable to find a job. “Why am I in this tion at the MPI for Psychiatry helps them look for work – and world if nobody wants me and my skills and talents are use- adopts unconventional methods in doing so. less?” he asked in the Vox TV series “Ich, einfach unvermit- A timetable written on an enormous whiteboard: blood telbar?” (“Unemployable Me?”). During the series, which tests, morning rounds, various individual and group thera- was broadcast at the end of 2018 and was nominated for the pies – all the details are noted clearly and concisely. This time- Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German Television Awards) and the table serves as orientation and provides support and structure, Grimme Award, people with diagnoses such as autism and from 8 am to 4 pm, Mondays to Fridays for a period of six weeks. Tourette syndrome got to know their true strengths by un- At the day clinic in Munich, adults with high-function- dergoing specialized diagnostic procedures. Gass now works ing autism learn to deal with the challenges of the working near Zurich. world, which often seem to them to be beyond their control. While the series was being filmed, he made the acquain- “From the application process to getting started in the new tance of Leonhard Schilbach – “a pleasant, busy man,” as Gass company and making small talk: our job-oriented training describes him. The psychiatrist had also been cast for the se- helps them get started or find their way back to work,” says ries but took a long time to decide whether he should take part. social worker Sabine Kiessewetter. Interpersonal communica- “Although the MPI for Psychiatry was already forging uncon- tion in particular is an obstacle for many autistic people. ventional paths in its cooperation with employees such as Au- Greeting, brief conversations in passing, maintaining eye con- ticon and BMW, appearance in a television series is not really tact during interviews – they practice all this during individ- one of the tasks of a doctor and scientist.” However, it was the ual coaching sessions. opportunity to lift the taboo on the diagnosis of autism that “People with autism perceive their world in great detail but finally persuaded Schilbach to take part in this experiment. His find it difficult to intuitively interpret the emotions of the peo- task was to find out the strengths of the autistic protagonists. ple around them,” explains Leonhard Schilbach. The psychi- The psychiatrist soon realized that Wolfgang Gass had great atrist is the Director of the Outpatient and Day Clinic for Dis- potential. “He knows a lot about his autism, is open about it orders of Social Interaction at the MPI for Psychiatry in Munich. and has remarkable intellectual abilities.” Schilbach was there- Imprecisely formulated work instructions can easily give rise fore delighted when Gass was offered a job with a spin-off of to misunderstandings at work. As an example, Schilbach tells the Goethe University in Frankfurt before the series came to the story of a patient on work experience who, after printing an end. The two men are still in contact. a set of documents and being asked by his superior to print Most former patients do not stay in contact with clinic staff another set (“And now the same in green!”), printed them out after spending time at the day clinic in Munich. And yet touch- in the color green. These job seekers rarely lack intelligence; ing scenes still happen, as assistant physician Judith Gollmitzer their difficulties are with the unwritten rules of society. Many explains: “Most of our patients have years of suffering behind of them have an exceptional eye for detail, a gift for recogniz- them. Here they notice that they are not alone with their prob- ing patterns and are excellent logical thinkers. lems.” This is an experience that can have a lasting impact on Like Wolfgang Gass (46), who completed his Master’s de- the patients – on their way towards a more satisfactory work-

gree with an average grade of 1.9, studied electronics and ing and private life. Screenshots: Tower Productions/Vox

78 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 19

SCHLESWIG- Research Establishments HOLSTEIN Rostock Plön Greifswald MECKLENBURG- WESTERN POMERANIA Institute / research center Hamburg Sub-institute / external branch Other research establishments Associated research organizations Bremen BRANDENBURG LOWER SAXONY The Netherlands Nijmegen Berlin Italy Hanover Potsdam Rome Florence Magdeburg USA Münster SAXONY-ANHALT Jupiter, Florida NORTH RHINE-WESTPHALIA Brazil Dortmund Halle Manaus Mülheim Göttingen Leipzig Luxembourg Düsseldorf Luxembourg Cologne SAXONY Bonn Jena Dresden Marburg THURINGIA Bad Münstereifel HESSE

RHINELAND Bad Nauheim PALATINATE Mainz Frankfurt

Kaiserslautern SAARLAND Erlangen Saarbrücken Heidelberg BAVARIA Stuttgart

Tübingen Garching BADEN- Munich WÜRTTEMBERG Martinsried Freiburg Seewiesen Radolfzell

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