The Large Hadron Collider at CERN has been hailed as the scientifi c phe- nomenon of the year by the jour- nal SCIENCE. Guests were given a tour of the installation BREAKTHROUGHS IN 2008 at its inaugura- tion on Septem- Research That Sets the Pace ber 10, 2008.
Each year, the two major scientifi c journals Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göt- SCIENCE and NATURE single out the publications tingen, was the fi rst to achieve nanometer-scale they consider to be the breakthroughs of the resolution using light-optical microscopy. year – those that, in their opinion, have the The STED microscope he developed, which has greatest signifi cance for future research. And been manufactured and marketed by Leica-Mi- once again, Max Planck researchers are among crosystems since November 2007, makes it possi- the authors of this year’s publications. ble to distinguish tiny fl uorescence-marked pro- tein complexes that are just 20 to 50 nanometers For the editors of the respected journal NATURE in size – structures that are about a thousand METHOD, a subsidiary of NATURE, the “Method of the times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Year” in 2008 was ultrahigh resolution fl uores- Recently, Hell and his colleagues have made fur- cence microscopy. It has been mainly physicists ther spectacular improvements that now also en- working at interdisciplinary research institutions able them to track dynamic processes in individu- who have recently found sophisticated ways to al cells. At a rate of 28 frames per second and a improve light-optical microscopy far beyond the spatial resolution of 65 nanometers, their fi rst
: CERN 200-nanometer resolution limit postulated by video shows living nerve cells working at their
HOTO ® P Ernst Abbé. Stefan Hell, Director at the Max task of signal transmission.
1/2009 MAXP LANCKR ESEARCH 81 MAX PLANCK NEWS
Biochemists have also been observing proteins, Researchers have also made great strides in ge- the basic building blocks of life, at work. There has nome sequencing. The new sequencing technolo- been a long-running argument over how proteins gies are faster and less expensive than those used bond with their target structures, which are often for the human genome project. To sequence the proteins as well. Many researchers have assumed Neanderthal genome, the team headed by Svante that the structure of the target molecule forces the Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolution- protein to adopt a complementary form, on the ary Anthropology in Leipzig used the “Sequencing basis that what doesn't fi t must by Synthesis” technology developed in the US by be made to fi t. However, it 454 Life Sciences, following the example of Amer- may also be the case that ican colleagues who recently used this method to proteins switch back decode 70 percent of the mammoth genome. In and forth between dif- August 2008, a team of scientists in Leipzig head- ferent conforma- ed by Johannes Krause displayed the complete
Bert L. de Groot Helmut Grubmüller Christian Griesinger
The enzyme tions until they have found their target molecule. mitochondrial genome sequence of a 38,000- ubiquitin marks A group of scientists headed by Helmut Grubmül- year-old Neanderthal – a preliminary step toward exhausted pro- ler, Christian Griesinger and Bert L. de Groot of the decoding the entire Neanderthal genome. teins as cellular Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in SCIENCE reserved the title of “scientifi c phe- waste. Research- Göttingen have succeeded in recording protein dy- nomenon of the year” for the Large Hadron Col- ers at the Max namics over a timescale of microseconds and at lider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland. As the US Planck Institute for Biophysical atom-scale resolution. magazine wrote – not without a hint of jealousy Chemistry have Their observations support the hypothesis that at the sheer scale of the project – European revealed how it proteins evidently jump around between dozens countries are getting progressively better at identifi es them. of conformations. Only when a specifi c confor- bundling their resources in pursuit of ‘big sci- mation has been selected will the protein, as ob- ence.’ Scientists from the Max Planck Institute served, fi nally match the point of contact with for Physics in Munich and the Max Planck Insti- the target molecule. The investigations carried tute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg will also out by the researchers in Göttingen were focused be working at the LHC. on the ubiquitin molecule, a (ubiquitous) protein The Munich-based physicists are taking part in that is present in all eukaryotic cells. It marks the Atlas experiment, which aims, among other damaged or exhausted proteins as cellular waste things, to get a handle on the Higgs particle. Ac-
(3) ready for disposal. In doing so, it changes its form cording to the Standard Model of particle physics, in a matter of microseconds. If one of its forms the Higgs boson is what gives particles mass, and RIVATE
/ P happens to match one of its partners, the two it is hoped that the massive energy unleashed in proteins spontaneously bond together. the LHC will allow its existence to be proven ex- CHRÖDER
S The ubiquitin is thus not forced into a particular perimentally for the fi rst time. Some of the detec- form by its partner, as was previously believed. In tors required for this project originate from the UNNAR
- G fact, the protein already possesses many forms, like Max Planck Institute for Physics. a bunch of keys, each of which fi ts a different lock. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Nu-
HEMISTRY These latest discoveries now explain why ubiquitin clear Physics have also designed other detectors C can recognize many different partner proteins with for an experiment code-named LHCb, in which a high degree of specifi city. The technique devel- they aim to identify differences between matter IOPHYSICAL B oped by the Max Planck scientists could one day and antimatter. They hope to discover why the FOR provide new insight into diseases and their mecha- latter has largely disappeared from the universe, : MPI nisms, and was therefore also hailed as a break- even though it must have been formed on the
HOTOS ● P through of the year by the editors of SCIENCE. same scale as matter itself.
82 MAXP LANCKR ESEARCH 1/2009 MAX PLANCK NEWS
YOUNG PROFESSIONAL AWARD 2008 “Plenty of scope for creativity”
Much praise for the Max Planck Society: According to a study by the Swedish consultancy Universum Communi- cations, the research organization is the most popular employer among young scientists, heading a fi eld of 130 enterprises.
The consultants surveyed young profession- als who had been on the career lad- der for an average of four years and were around 31 years of age. The Max Planck Soci- ety was rated as the top employer by 20.3 percent of them, ahead of Arbeitgeber the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (14.9 percent) and Roche Diagnostics (13.1 percent). “I work in a laboratory that is at the ab- solute cutting edge of the research fi eld that I’m interested in,” says Matias Hernandez of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen. “The people I get to work with are as well trained and highly qualifi ed as can be. Plus, In contrast, women attach great importance to there’s the international fl air and friendly work- the right work-life balance – 61 percent rated it ing atmosphere at the institute.” as particularly important. Even among men, 49 Between July and August 2008, market re- percent value a good balance and apparently searchers interviewed around would not pursue a career at 7,800 professionals working in any cost. economics, science and engineer- Human resources managers are ing, and information technology. likely to be particularly interest- The percentage of women work- ed in the fact that three quarters ing in IT and engineering was be- of these young professionals low 25 percent, rising to 51 per- could imagine changing employ- cent among the scientists. ers in the short or medium term. When it comes to top employ- For the scientists, criteria such as ers, Germany’s successful research a friendly work environment, at- organization is in good company: tractive basic salary and good among economists, Porsche opportunities for development ranked just ahead of Lufthansa are most likely to tip the scales. and the BMW Group. IT special- “A good work environment and RIVATE ists would ideally like to work for intellectual challenge were the / P search engine Google, the em- Matias Hernandez two most important aspects in ployer of choice picked by 20 percent of those my choice of job,” agrees Matias Hernandez. “I EUTSCHLAND For those inter- D surveyed, replacing last year’s winner SAP. Next in would never sacrifi ce these two aspects in return line were IBM Deutschland and the BMW Group. for more money. On the contrary, I would take a ested, current job offers at the Max Among engineers, the top three places went to cut in lifestyle – albeit not too big a one – in re- Planck Society OMMUNICATIONS Porsche, BMW and Audi, as in the year before. turn for a rewarding career experience. That is ex- C can be found at: Questions about career goals revealed some actly what I’ve done here in Göttingen.” The big- http://www.mpg.
NIVERSUM marked differences between men and women: gest barrier to a career move, incidentally, is an de/english/career : U some 52 percent of men, but only 32 percent of unattractive location, which ranked far ahead of Opportunities/
HOTOS ● P women, have their eye on a management post. an inadequate income. index.html
1/2009 MAXP LANCKR ESEARCH 83 MAX PLANCK NEWS
FIRST ADVANCED GRANTS AWARDED Success in Brussels
For the fi rst time since taking up its work less not receive funding. This was the fate of some in 2007, the European Research Council has of the participating Max Planck Institutes: 20 begun awarding its Advanced Grants, which submitted applications, 10 of which were posi- provide funding of up to 3.5 million euros per tively assessed – so 50 percent; however, only 5 applicant. Among the 275 applications to be research projects will actually be funded. Still, for approved are 5 submitted by Max Planck Direc- the Max Planck Society, this is a success rate of 25 tors. With a total of 20 funding applications percent, compared with an average of just under made by Max Planck Institutes, the success rate 13 percent (of 2,167 Advanced Grant applications, of one in four is above average. 275 will be funded). Those applications that were positively assessed but did not receive funding In the fi rst round of tenders, the Brussels-based failed by only a very small margin, as the Brussels ERC received a total of 2,167 completed appli- offi ce of the Max Planck Society has learned. cations for Advanced Grants. The applicants, The following Max Planck scientists will receive who must be outstanding and established heads an Advanced Grant: of research groups, come from 26 different coun- Markus Antonietti (Max Planck Institute for tries; 12 percent of them are women. Colloids and Interfaces), Christian Griesinger (Max The UK accounted for the greatest number of Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry), Jo- successful applicants, followed by Germany and hannes Lelieveld (Max Planck Institute for Chem- France. When counting only the female appli- istry), Svante Pääbo (Max Planck Institute for cants, Germany came out on top. The fi eld of en- Evolutionary Anthropology) and Peter H. Seeberg- gineering and sciences comprised 41.5 percent er, who was recently appointed to the Max Planck of approved applications, the life sciences 30.5 Institute for Colloids and Interfaces and submit- percent, and the humanities 17.5 percent, while ted a successful application while still a Professor 10.5 percent were for interdisciplinary research at the ETH Zurich. projects. Funding is also being granted to an External The Science Council of the ERC anticipates that Scientifi c Member of the Max Planck Institute for a total of 275 grants with a total value of 542 Psycholinguistics: Pieter C. Muysken, who works million euros will be disbursed. Unlike applications primarily at the Centre for Language Studies at made under the EU research programs, the ERC Radboud University in Nijmegen but has close ties does not specify the subjects for which its grants to the MPI for Psycholinguistics. Incidentally, this are awarded. Its object is rather to promote re- should soon also be the case for astrophysicist search on the frontiers of knowledge. Michael Kramer and the Max Planck Institute for As was the case when the Starting Grants for Radio Astronomy: the scientist is currently teach- The funds award- junior scientists were awarded, due to budget re- ing at the University of Manchester, but has just ed by the Euro- pean Research strictions, some of the Advanced Grant applica- accepted an appointment in Bonn. He, too, will ● Council are fi - tions were positively assessed but will neverthe- bring ERC funding with him. nanced by the EU Commission in Brussels. The pho- to shows the Ber- laymont building. : AP HOTO P
84 MAXP LANCKR ESEARCH 1/2009 MAX PLANCK NEWS
SYMPOSIUM IN MUNICH Plasma Crystal in Space
For ten years now, German and Russian scien- periment. At the end of 2005, the PKE-Nefedov tists have been jointly researching complex laboratory was replaced by PK-3 Plus. plasmas onboard the space station ISS – reason In addition to electrons and ions, a complex enough to sum up progress so far. In November, plasma also comprises electrically charged macro- the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial scopic particles and is formed at relatively low Physics in Garching organized a symposium to temperatures. Its particular properties make it a present and discuss the results of this research model system for the study of solids, liquids, gases into complex plasmas. and natural plasmas and enable investigations at the level of individual atoms. This, in turn, has led to some entirely new insights into microscopic physics. On Earth, however, gravity inter- feres with interaction between the larger component particles in com- plex plasmas. Therefore, this research work is far better carried out in con- ditions of weightlessness. In fact, some experiments can be conducted only in zero gravity. This applies es- pecially to the formation of plasma crystals in which the charged parti- cles form neatly arranged lattice structures. With the interference of gravity, it is barely possible to even observe this process. The discoveries made in space have since been reported in 40 sci- entifi c publications – and were duly celebrated at the two-day sympo- sium in Garching. “We had an inter- esting discussion that shed light on these projects from every angle,” re- Plasma research lates Hubertus Thomas, who works in zero gravity: as a project scientist at the Max In March 2008, Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial cosmonaut Yuri Physics. “We talked about the tech- Ivanovich Malen- nology and shared our experiences chenko carried in working with complex plasmas out experiments under zero gravity.” One of the high with the PK-3 The joint German-Russian venture was fi rst estab- points of the symposium was a report by cosmo- Plus apparatus lished in 1998, when Russian Minister of Research naut Pavel Vinogradov on his scientifi c work on- onboard the In- ternational Space Vladimir Fortov suggested, during a visit with board the ISS. Station ISS. Gregor Morfi ll, Director at the Max Planck Insti- This research into complex crystals is of signifi - tute for Extraterrestrial Physics, that the two sides cance not only for physics, but also for medicine. share in an experiment on complex plasmas The Garching-based scientists are able to create aboard the Russian space station MIR. Morfi ll was plasmas at temperatures of around 30 degrees delighted to accept the offer: with fi nancing from Celsius. Such plasmas are gentle enough to treat the German Aerospace Center (DLR), researchers wounds that refuse to heal, as the ionized gases at the MPI in Garching worked together with the in the plasmas kill off bacteria. In order to devel- aerospace industry to build the PKE-Nefedov lab- op plasma instruments for medical applications, oratory that fi ts inside a container the size of a the scientists in Garching are drawing on the ex- rain barrel. perience they have gained in experiments aboard However, MIR came to an end before the appa- the ISS, which are still ongoing. Physicists have
NERGIA ratus was completed – so the study of complex high hopes for future advances in the study of plasmas became the fi rst scientifi c project on- solids, fl uid dynamics and soft matter, which, like
: RKK-E board the International Space Station ISS, where sand, exhibits some of the characteristics of both
HOTO ● P it has since also become the most successful ex- fl uids and solids.
1/2009 MAXP LANCKR ESEARCH 85 MAX PLANCK NEWS
ANTJE BOETIUS WAS AT HOME two days before might then be possible to develop active phar- Christmas when an e-mail arrived in her comput- macological agents to counteract this process. er’s inbox: You’ve won the Leibniz Prize! A tre- mendous surprise – after all, the award presented A HUMOROUS, whimsical and affectionate pro- by the German Research Council carries 2.5 mil- duction – that is how the jury assessed the photo lion euros in prize money. That is enough to fund entitled “Ball Lightning,” submitted by Norbert a lot more studies of the seas, a subject not nor- Michalke as his entry for the Technology Journal- mally at the center of general scientifi c interest. “I ism in Word and Image award presented for the am delighted that microbial ecology has been sin- fourth time by the German Academy of Science gled out for such an award. There is so much still and Engineering (Acatech). Working for Max- to discover. But because we study minute living PlanckResearch (issue 2/2008, page 35), the Ber- beings that are invisible to the naked eye, the im- lin-based photographer photographed two staff portance of this research is lost on many people,” members as they set off an electrical discharge in explained the oceanographer. The 41-year-old the laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for scientist, the only woman among Plasma Physics. The jury also all Leibniz Prize winners for 2008, went on to say that the photo studies the microbiology of the depicts a technically sophisticat- marine methane cycle. She has ed subject, captured with impres- Pinboard worked at the Max Planck Insti- sive skill, awarding Michalke fi rst tute for Marine Microbiology in prize in the single photo catego- Bremen since 1999, where she ry. The award, which is intended heads a research group with to promote the understanding nearly 30 members. She is also a and appreciation of technical in- professor at the private Jacobs novations, carries a total of University in the city, and a proj- 20,000 euros in prize money. ect head in the MARUM excel- lence cluster at Bremen Universi- THE RECENT OPEN ACCESS ty. Antje Boetius has also just conference, this time hosted taken over the leadership of what jointly with Heinrich Heine Uni- is known as the ‘bridging group’ versity in Düsseldorf, was the formed by the Helmholtz Associ- sixth in this series of events orga- ation and the Max Planck Soci- nized by the Max Planck Society. ety. This is a joint project dedi- The conference focused on the cated to deep-sea ecology and far-reaching changes taking place technology being conducted by in scientifi c communication and the Alfred Wegener Institute for publication. The number of initia- Polar and Marine Research and tives being undertaken and the the Max Planck Institute in Bre- innovative publication models men. In the future, the project presented at the conference un- will increasingly concentrate on Leibniz Prize winners: derscore the fact that Open Ac- the ecosystems of the deep Arc- Antje Boetius, Research Group cess is already inseparably linked tic Ocean. leader at the Max Planck Insti- with the latest developments in tute for Marine Microbiology scientifi c research. Open Access is ANOTHER LEIBNIZ PRIZE win- in Bremen, and Karl Lenhard actively supported both by such ner was cause for further cele- Rudolph, head of the Max Planck sponsors as the German Research bration at the Max Planck Soci- Stem Cell Aging Research Group Council and by the EU. Some of
ety. Karl Lenhard Rudolph, a at the Ulm University Institute the projects supported by the lat- ) of Molecular Medicine. 39-year-old doctor of medicine, ter are actually obliged to publish BELOW ( is head of the Max Planck research group inves- their results in a freely accessible form. Dieter Im-
tigating stem cell aging that has been estab- boden, who is soon to become President of Euro- NIVERSITY U
lished for over a year now at the Ulm University HORC (the European Heads of Research Councils), LM
Institute of Molecular Medicine. The Ulm-based announced his intention to make Open Access a ) / U
group has also just set up a Max Planck Partner central theme of his presidency. The fact that he ABOVE ( Group at the Institute of Laboratory Animal Sci- made this announcement in Düsseldorf shows the ences operated in Beijing by the Chinese Acade- importance that decision-makers in the world of ICROBIOLOGY
my of Medical Sciences and the Peking Union science attach to the conference, which upholds M Medical College. Rudolph’s team works mainly the tradition of the Berlin Declaration. The Max MARINE with naturally occurring adult stem cells in an Planck Society was also a co-initiator of the Berlin FOR effort to understand the mechanisms that re- Declaration and has been committed to the issue strict the function of these cells in old age. It of Open Access for many years. ● : MPI HOTOS P
86 MAXP LANCKR ESEARCH 1/2009