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NEWS FEATURE NATURE|Vol 436|14 July 2005

Until his recent death,

MAINAU Count Lennart Bernadotte MAINAU (left) invited Lindau attendees to visit him on the flower island of Mainau.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS After a low-key existence for more than 50 years, Germany’s Lindau meetings have opened their doors to the world. Alison Abbottjoined 44 Nobel laureates as they mingled with young scientists.

or the past 55 years, a remarkable gath- since the meeting was conceived in 1949. persuade new laureates to take part in the ering of minds has been taking place in Back then, Lindau was under French occu- Lindau meetings. a small town in Germany. Behind closed pation. It was an unlikely time and place to In the early days it was hard to find cash Fdoors, Nobel laureates have come from plan an international gathering of Nobel lau- within Germany’s ruined economy for such an all corners of the globe to meet local students. reates: Germany was destroyed as a scientific, indulgence. But political confusion came to the This year, for the first time, the rest of the world as well as a political, force. rescue. Being the only corner of Bavaria not has been invited and some 700 international Despite this, three local personalities, who under US occupation, Lindau enjoyed a special students have joined the party. saw science as a promoter of ‘peace and administrative status that allowed it to sidestep “I can’t believe my luck,” says Evan Thomas, brotherhood’, managed to bring laureates to gambling laws. Soon, the town established the a chemist working on his PhD in Louisiana Lindau. The original idea belonged to Gustav Bayerische Spielbank Casino, which became a State University in Baton Rouge, on the first Parade, a doctor at the Lindau district hospital, major source of funding for the meetings. evening. “I don’t know what I’m going to say to who wanted to do something about the scien- Attracting Nobel laureates turned out to be them, but I’ll definitely say something having tific isolation of Germany in his field. He the easy part. The first European Meeting of come all this way.” teamed up with a local gynaecologist, Franz Nobel Laureates in Medicine, in June 1951, Qi Zhang, a PhD student from the Fourth Karl Hein, to propose inviting Nobel laureates was attended by six German laureates and one Military Medical University in Xi’an, China, in physiology or medicine for discussions with from the United States as well as some 400 is bubbling over with excitement following doctors and scientists from around Germany. physicians. It was deemed by all to be a big suc- a chat with 1978 medicine laureate, Werner cess, although the Swedish Nobel Foundation, Arber. “He discovered restriction enzymes In for the count which saw Stockholm as the laureates’ only …what we use in the lab all the time… Emboldened by the backing of the mayor of legitimate home base, was unimpressed. Ten- we couldn’t work without them…I was talking Lindau, in early 1950 the two men boated sions have eased in recent years, but the foun- with him…I can’t believe it.” across Lake Constance to the tiny ‘flower dation has never formally endorsed the series. The story of these unusual gatherings begins island’ of Mainau. There they sought the sup- During the first 50 years, a rhythm was in postwar Germany. It involves a count, a port of its owner, Count established, with meetings casino and the small medieval island town of Lennart Bernadotte, great “Nobel laureates are like rotating between medicine, Lindau on Lake Constance. And it has a happy grandson of King Oscar II, the rest of the world — chemistry and physics. Stu- ending: after years of financial struggles, the who presented the first dents, mostly German under- 2005 Lindau meeting has made the switch from Nobel awards in 1901. some are smart, some graduates selected according parochial to international, has put its funding The count did not hesi- are average and some are to academic performance, on a firmer footing and is using English — for tate, and his patronage dumb.” — Ivar Giaever soon replaced the physicians the first time — as its official language. became the hallmark of the of the first meeting. They “The meetings very much needed to become annual meetings until he died last December enjoyed not only morning lectures, but also the international,” says Arber, a regular Lindau at the age of 95. Tireless in his dedication to informal company of Nobel laureates during attendee. “The German students attending the cause he would stand in line with afternoon discussions, a dinner and dance on needed that boost — they were becoming com- autograph hunters at the Stockholm Nobel the first evening, and the traditional final-day placent.” And times have changed, he notes, award ceremony for the opportunity to boat trip to Mainau as guests of the count.

The laureates quickly came to love the for- success. “I want to learn from them how to that,” admits Günter Blobel (medicine, 1999). mula, and many come as often as their sched- think: what is the right thought process and “But it isn’t the whole story.” Giaever sees ules allow. “I must hold an attendance record,” where do you begin,” says Steve Bull, a doc- more diversity among his fellow laureates: boasts Ivar Giaever, who won the physics prize toral student in chemistry at Northwestern “Nobel laureates are like the rest of the world in 1973 and has been to every physics meeting University in Evanston, Illinois. — some are smart, some are average and some since. “They make me feel like a king!” Another student wanted to know if the lau- are dumb.” But the series has been on the verge of reates thought that they had simply been in the Blobel learned something, in turn, about the financial collapse several times. Federal and right place at the right time. “There is a bit of young scientists. “It is curious to see the ques- regional governments came to the rescue tions that students from different cultures in 1970, but it was not until the 50th ask,” he remarked after a discussion on evo- meeting in 2000 that a formal founda- lutionary biology led by Christian de Duve tion was established to put it on more (medicine, 1974). He was taken aback to secure ground. find some students expressing so much

A. ABBOTT/NATURE A. And despite their old-world charm, the interest in the ‘creative guiding hand’ of Lindau meetings had become an intelligent design. anachronism. Germany was no longer scientifically isolated, and the privileged Political science access to laureates was harder to justify. Past Lindau meetings have had politics as The failure to recognize English as the well as science on the agenda. Back in 1955, international language of science rein- some 18 laureates who had been involved forced the air of provincialism. in nuclear research, including Werner In the past few years, some laureates Heisenberg (physics, 1932), were invited became worried that unless they opened up to the chemists’ meeting. There they signed to the world, new laureates would not make the ‘Mainau declaration’, which called on the time to come. At the same time Count governments to abandon the development Lennart was ageing — and he was keen to of nuclear weapons, and played an impor- ensure continuation after his death. tant role in the 1950s ban-the-bomb campaigns. Glittering prize Since then, many laureates, most promi- From 2001, the new foundation’s 14-strong nently Albert Einstein (physics, 1921), have committee began to sort out the meetings’ used their fame to push political agendas, finances, and to make them more relevant to mostly promoting peace or equality. Just science as practised today. They invited sci- last month, 18 laureates signed a petition entific academies and other agencies around Memories of a meeting: Ivar Giaever (top right) jokes calling for stronger political leadership on the world to open competitions for young with student Steve Bull; Werner Arber meets Qi Zhang. neglected diseases. scientists to attend, then whittled down a Several at the 2005 Lindau meeting say list of nearly 10,000 applicants. The final they have launched petitions of their own. 2005 list of 720 invitees represented a new Others say that they prefer to stay out of poli- profile of participant: academically excel- tics altogether. “I know nothing more than any

C. THALHEIMER C. lent, familiar with societal impacts of their man on the street and have never signed a peti- research and fluent in English. They are tion that identified me as a Nobel prizewin- generally under 30, but the majority are ner”, says Robert Richardson (physics, 1996). now PhD students or postdocs, pushing But politics is never entirely forgotten in up the general level of education. Lindau. In their lectures, many laureates recall The weekly schedule of the meetings their personal debts to Jewish scientists driven remains the same, although the lectures are from Hitler’s Germany to seed frontline also broadcast live on the Internet. And research in the United States and elsewhere. economics now takes its turn — the first And the philosophy of the new-style meet- such gathering last year attracted 11 eco- ings is to support excellence in science nomics laureates. And as of this year, wherever in the world political or social medicine, chemistry and physics will all oppression may seek to stifle individuals. meet together every five years. Aside from such serious issues, Lindau Some things haven’t changed — most exerts a simpler magic as well. “It’s nice here,” notably curiosity about Nobel prize- answered Masatoshi Koshiba (physics, 2002) winners as human beings. Even the laure- when asked why he had come. “I just heard it ates confess to curiosity — and sometimes was really good,” said William Lipscomb reverence — for each other. “I met Dirac (chemistry, 1976), whose wife added point- once,” recalls Giaever with relish, referring edly: “And I wanted to come.” to Paul Dirac, the legendary, but famously Klaus von Klitzing (physics, 1985), who withdrawn, 1933 physics laureate who could be spotted rock-and-roll dancing with theorized the existence of antimatter. “He students on the first night, claimed it had was very quiet, very quiet.” always been his ambition to get in. He tried to Some students entertain hopes that get an invitation as a student, but was turned they may be recruited into a Nobel lab, down. “So I knew I just had to win a Nobel as has happened on several occasions. Serious and social: chemistry laureate Kurt Wüthrich prize if I wanted to attend,” he smiles. ■ Others long for insight into a secret for- gives a lecture (top), and last year’s physics medallist, Alison Abbot is Nature’s senior European mula that could help their own quests for Frank Wilczek (bottom right), heads for the dance floor. correspondent.