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The Origin of Life

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The Origin of Life B56133 The Science Magazine of the Max Planck Society 3.2018 The Origin of Life CITIZENS’ RIGHTS QUANTUM PHYSICS EXTREME WEATHER URBAN DEVELOPMENT Russian roulette Diamond – a Quirks in Creating space for with mental health flawless sensor the computer existential awareness 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 ON LOCATION Old Bailey in East Africa A day in May 2010: in the Ugandan capital Kampala, the high court is in session, presided over by Judge Benjamin Kabiito. Due to its colonial history as a British protectorate, Uganda is one of the nations in which justice is administered according to the common law system customary in many English-speaking countries. This system is based on prece- dents, i.e. on authoritative judicial decisions made in earlier cases. The judge’s assessment of each case therefore plays a significantly more important role than in civil law, the system customarily used in continental Europe. The judicial system in Uganda is largely independent. However, people in poor and rural regions in particular often have little or no access to the organs of the state judiciary. The court, police and prison infrastructure is inadequate; the prisons are extremely overcrowded. While Uganda still has the death penalty, it is very rarely implemented within the civilian justice system. The second most severe penalty is a life sentence – which then actually means imprisonment for the natural life term of the convict. A person sentenced to imprisonment for a specific period cannot be released before two-thirds of this sentence have been served. The image is part of the exhibition “Law & Order – The World of Criminal Justice” by Dutch photographer Jan Banning, which was created in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg. It includes pictures from prisons, courtrooms and police stations in Uganda, Colombia, France and the U.S. “Law & Order” will be on display in the Max-Planck-Haus at Hofgarten in Munich for Max Planck Day on 14 September 2018. Photo: Jan Banning The exhibition catalog is available at www.janbanning.com/books/law-order. 3 | 18 MaxPlanckResearch 3 Contents No understanding: people with mental illness are often incorrectly believed to 18 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 10 be dangerous or unpredictable. Gabriel Miziara/unsplash 18 Building blocks that fall from the sky PERSPECTIVES How did life on Earth begin? Scientists from the Heidelberg Initiative Landmarks in science for the Origins of Life have set about answering this truly existential 06 question. Indeed, they are going one step further and examining 06 The size of raindrops the conditions in which life can emerge. The initiative was founded 07 “A price tag on citizenship” by a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and brings 08 Live videos from inside the body together specialists in the fields of chemistry, physics and the 08 Tracking animal migration geological and biological sciences. 09 Quality control deters predators 26 Elixirs from the primordial soup 09 On the net In the Bible, the universe was created step by step: first light, then water and land, and finally the terrestrial animals and humankind. However, from a scientific viewpoint, it appears that the elements VIEWPOINT of life might not have come into being successively, but rather at the same time – this is what researchers at the Max Planck Institute of 10 Russian roulette with Biochemistry have concluded. They are investigating the role played mental health by RNA molecules in the emergence of life. The Free State of Bavaria has re- vised a law on psychiatry. However, 34 How cells get their shape our author criticizes the new regu- lations as failing to help people with Some time around four billion years ago, life started to become mental illness. On the contrary, en capsulated. The first cells emerged – protected spaces that these people are classified as a facilitated the bonding of complex molecules. Researchers at the danger to the general public. Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces are exploring the boundaries of cellular life by researching the dynamics of biomembranes. FOCUS 18 Building blocks that fall from ON THE COVER No satisfactory conclusion has yet been drawn about where life the sky first emerged. It could have happened in thermal springs such as the Champagne Pool in New Zealand. These warm, saline environments provide conditions that 26 Elixirs from the primordial soup are important for the evolution of lifeforms. 34 How cells get their shape Cover: Marco Simoni/imageBROKER/OKAPIA; photos on this page: Ziliang Zhao/BPS Art of Science Image Contest (large image), Pedro 4 MaxPlanckResearch 3 | 18 No brilliancy: flawed No computer: information scientist No coincidence: global warming Miziara/unsplash diamonds serve as sensors Kurt Mehlhorn deliberates over many could increase the flooding caused 48 in the nanoworld. 56 problems using a pen and paper. 64 by extreme precipitation. Gabriel Pedro image), SPECTRUM MATERIALS & TECHNOLOGY REGULAR FEATUERS (large 42 Storks on the wing 56 On a journey of discovery in 03 On location Contest 42 Higher income means more children the digital world 16 Post to – Cairo, Egypt Personal Portrait: Kurt Mehlhorn 43 Drummed speech The Nobel Prize as a turning point Image 43 Light gets ions going 80 Flashback A fateful year for a physicist Science 43 Invisible pathogens ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE of 44 Chimpanzees suffer from 82 Max Planck Community Art heat stress 64 Quirks in the computer 82 Many hurdles lead to success 82 From Lindau on Lake Constance 44 Giant swirls on the sun Storms, droughts and extreme rainfall could become more frequent to the MPG’s world of research Zhao/BPS right) 45 Avatars for the virtual zoo 83 Biodiversity, tropical disease to due to global warming. Measured 45 Fewer genes, better adaptation and health (left Ziliang data is being analysed to determine 45 Hostility is contagious whether this can already be ob- 84 Quiz night in the cafeteria page: 85 The “Eugen Seibold” sets sail 46 Fast light channels fire hearing served. Researchers at the Max this 86 Talent, tools and a tenor Hollemann Planck Institute for the Physics of 46 The Janus head of the South on Asian monsoon Complex Systems are developing the 87 Research Establishments necessary statistical tools. 87 Publisher’s information photos dpa/Holger PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY CULTURE & SOCIETY Pingel, 48 Diamond – a flawless sensor Tom Brilliant-cut diamonds can emit a 72 Creating space for existential dazzling array of light, but that is not awareness what attracts scientists at the Max At the Kunsthistorische Institut Flo- Stuttgart, of Planck Institute for Solid State Re- renz, the “Ethics and Architecture” search. They work with less research group invites discussion of Simoni/imageBROKER/OKAPIA; conspicuous diamonds to develop the history and theory of architec- University sensors that are intended to allow ture and the applicability of its Marco live observation of the molecular ma- teachings to the present and future Cover: Photos: chinery in a living cell. of building construction. 3 | 18 MaxPlanckResearch 5 PERSPECTIVES Landmarks in science Max Planck President looks ahead to future research topics at the annual meeting 100 years after the Nobel Prize was again experiencing epochal change. As nual meeting in Heidelberg, data-driv- awarded to Max Planck, Martin Strat- the Max Planck President emphasized en research has joined experimenta- mann believes that science is once in his speech at the close of the 69th an- tion, theory and simulation as a “fourth paradigm”. In addition to big data, the life sciences in particular are seeing fur- ther revolutionary innovations such as the CRISPR-Cas9 genetic scissors and organoids, i.e. organ-like cell tissue grown in Petri dishes. Stratmann also mentioned public concern at recent de- velopments in science. The Max Planck Society takes both these fears and its re- sponsibility very seriously. Other speak- ers at the Plenary Assembly included Baden-Wuerttemberg’s Minister of Sci- ence Theresia Bauer. The ceremonial address was given by Stephen Mann of the University of Bristol, a pioneer in the newly forming research field “Ori- gin of Life”. The Directors of the Max Planck Institutes and the research orga- nization’s central decision-making bod- ies came together for this two-day an- nual meeting. Prizes were also awarded to 36 outstanding young scientists, in- cluding the Otto Hahn Medal for out- standing doctoral research. Past and future: at the annual meeting for 2018, Max Planck President Stratmann paid tribute to Max Planck on the 100th anniversary of his being awarded the Nobel Prize and looked ahead to innovative new research topics. The size of raindrops First prize in the Physics category at the national finals of “Jugend forscht” goes to Max von Wolff from the Megina Gymnasium in Mayen A measuring device for raindrops – this invention won Max von thetic membrane and make it oscillate. Sensitive sensors register Wolff, a pupil at the Megina Gymnasium in Mayen in the Rhine- the membrane’s fine vibrations and send the measurements to a land-Palatinate, first prize in the Physics category of the “Jugend computer that uses them to calculate the size of the raindrops. This forscht” contest for young researchers.
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