Fij 1 2011 keytechnologies by Forschungszentrum Jülich

The Magazine from Forschungszentrum J端lich

RESEARCH in J端lich

KEY TECHNOLOGIES :: COMPUTERS SEEK A SUCCESSOR :: GLOWINGLY PRODUCTIVE BACTERIA :: USING NEUTRONS TO CREATE NEW MATERIALS

01|2011

RESEARCH in Jülich The Magazine from Forschungszentrum Jülich

Cabinets containing the JUGENE supercomputer in the Jülich Supercomputing Centre. Simulations on supercomputers provide us with insights and information that would otherwise remain hidden for physical, technical, financial and ethical reasons. Cover illustration: Instruments granting us access to the tiniest parts of the world are the key to new materials and new nanoelectronic components. In Jülich, researchers can avail of tools such as the Titan 80-300 transmission electron microscope.

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The Key to our Future

umankind faces huge challenges today. How can we slow down climate change – and learn to live with the consequences? How can we stay healthy and mentally fit as we get older? And how can we help to feed a growing world population? We believe that research on key technologies is one way of providing targeted solutions to these problems. And it is also worthwhile from another point of view. “Key technologies are the drivers of innovation and the basis for new products, processes and services,” according to the Federal Government’s High-Tech Strategy 2020 for Germany. Our scientists work in an interdisciplinary manner pursuing completely new approaches. This issue of Research in Jülich contains many fascinating examples of this. For instance, Jülich researchers are developing components and computational processes for the world’s best supercomputers. And they are using these supercomputers to predict air pollution over the next few days as well as the size of the hole in the ozone layer over the next ten years. Read about the key technologies researchers at Jülich are currently working on – in areas such as green IT with the objective of decreasing the need for energy in information technology or of optimizing new biotechnological processes. Some scientists use neutrons as a tool to investigate “self-healing” and durable materials that will help us to conserve both energy and raw materials. Other researchers at Jülich are improving imaging techniques. This will help us to diagnose neurological diseases more accurately, which are becoming more and more common due to demographic developments.

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These examples illustrate that key technologies today tend to emerge at the interfaces between the classic scientific disciplines. The Jülich campus unites different types of expertise – particularly in physics, materials science, the nanosciences, information technology and medicine. In addition, we are involved in European and international cooperations – often as lead partners – especially when a complex research infrastructure and the operation of large instruments are required. We pursue basic research with the same level of dedication as the transfer of know-how to industry and society. All of this makes Forschungszentrum Jülich the perfect place for research on key technologies. This opinion is also held by high-ranking representatives of industry and politics, as demonstrated by the interviews in this magazine. We hope that this issue makes for interesting reading!

Prof. Dr. Achim Bachem Chairman of the Board of Directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich

Prof. Dr. Sebastian M. Schmidt Member of the Board of Directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich

10 11 :: COMPUTERS SEEK A SUCCESSOR J端lich researchers simulate the human brain using supercomputers. The knowledge they gain will be used to help build computers that are highly energy efficient as well as intelligent robots.

:: GLOWINGLY PRODUCTIVE BACTERIA By adding a genetic extra, bacteria that are particularly productive glow, making them stand out from the rest. This will simplify the search for new bacterial strains suitable for use in industrial production.

:: USING NEUTRONS TO CREATE NEW MATERIALS Materials that can automatically seal scratches and cracks similar to the way that living organisms can heal cuts and fractures are coveted commodities for aircraft and cars. Neutron scattering experiments help us to understand the self-healing mechanisms on the molecular level.

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IN THIS ISSUE

3 Editorial

:: SNAPSHOTS 6 Research at a Glance A kaleidoscope of pictures illustrating the latest highlights from research in Jülich on key technologies – from a warning system combating crowd congestion to a new method of looking inside complex molecules.

21 “We Need a Culture that Fosters Innovation” Interview with Dr. Joseph Pankert, General Manager Laser Ventures at Philips. 22 Technology Through Time Key technologies yesterday and today – in pictures. 24 Gaining Knowledge Through Precision Nuclear physicists at Jülich are trying to solve one of the biggest mysteries of the universe and are refining particle detectors in the process.

:: KEY TECHNOLOGIES 8 The Atmosphere in Supercomputers Jülich atmospheric researchers use supercomputers to forecast regional air pollution. And they use simulations to predict how the hole in the ozone layer will develop in the northern hemisphere.

27 “There’s no Need to Follow Every Fleeting Fashion” Interview with Prof. Wolfgang Lück from the Hausdorff Research Institute for Mathematics in Bonn. 28 Tracking Down the Structures of Dementia Alzheimer’s disease is the focus of the successful research being pursued by a team of structural biologists at Jülich.

11 Computers Seek a Successor 13 “Germany is Abreast of its Competitors” Interview with Prof. Henning Kagermann, President of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering acatech.

30 New Insights into the Brain Advanced tomographic techniques allow structures and metabolic processes in the brain to be imaged in more detail than was possible in the past.

14 Glowingly Productive Bacteria

33 “Opening Windows into the Future” Interview with former Parliamentary State Secretary Uwe Thomas.

18 “Important: Technologies for Sustainability” Interview with Prof. Wolfgang Plischke, Member of the Bayer AG Board of Management.

34 Using Neutrons to Create New Materials

19 Looking at the Quantum World Electron microscopy allows us to see tiny changes no bigger than a few billionths of a millimetre in the lengths of atoms. Such displacements are important for new data storage systems.

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38 Outlook for Key Technologies On green IT, a sustainable bioeconomy and plans for the world’s most powerful neutron source. 39 Publication Details

Magnetic Spirals Physicists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and the universities in Hamburg and Kiel discovered a regular lattice of “magnetic skyrmions” on a surface. These are spiral and exceptionally stable spin structures, which could provide the basis for a new generation of smaller and more efficient data storage systems. The researchers discovered the magnetic spirals, each comprising just fifteen atoms, in a one-atomic layer of iron on iridium.

Rolls-Royce Performs Tests at Jülich Scientists at Forschungszentrum Jülich have developed and constructed a special test stand for Rolls-Royce, one of the world’s leading aircraft engine manufacturers. On the stand, the gas turbine components of an engine can be heated and reheated to temperatures above 1400 °C and cooled down to less than 100 °C within two minutes. This allows the lifetime of the components and their ceramic protective coatings to be tested.

Research at a Glance Scientists at Jülich are developing and refining key technologies and using them for selected purposes. The latest findings benefit science, industry and society.

LINK TIP www.fz-juelich.de

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SNAPSHOTS

Predicting the Success of Operations Doctors refer to a narrowing of the bony spinal canal as spinal stenosis: a condition usually resulting from degeneration. In a study with twenty patients, researchers from Jülich and Düsseldorf have shown that it is possible to predict whether an operation will improve clinical symptoms of spinal stenosis, such as loss of feeling and paralysis, by means of a metabolic examination of the spinal cord using positron emission tomography (PET).

Warning System Combats Congestion At a national league football match in the Düsseldorf Esprit Arena in September 2011, simulation scientists from the Jülich Supercomputing Centre and several Hermes project partners showcased their new evacuation assistant. The computer-aided system determines how the crowd is distributed at large events and predicts whether congestion could become critical before it actually does. In the case of fire or another critical situation, it will help the emergency services to prevent dangerous crushes.

Tunnelling into Molecules Physicists at Jülich have developed a simple technique to image the arrangement of atoms inside complex molecules using conventional scanning tunnelling microscopes. They have thus considerably expanded the capabilities of these instruments, which already play a key role in nanotechnology and materials science. The new technique uses single atoms between the tip of the microscope and the sample as a type of contrast medium. Even intermolecular forces can be imaged in this way.

World Record for Simulation The fast multipole method is an algorithm that calculates the gravity and other long-range forces acting between particles. Scientists at Jülich have refined the method, thus speeding up relevant computer simulations significantly. During a test with the JUGENE supercomputer, researchers calculated a system comprising 3,011,561,968,121 particles in just over eleven minutes – a world record!

Forces in Blood Red blood cells attract each other, but the forces at work in doing so are tiny. Physicists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and two American research institutions calculated that they are around ten million times smaller than the force created by the weight of a mosquito that has landed. Computer simulations show that these mini forces nevertheless determine the flow resistance of blood.

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The Atmosphere in Supercomputers Supercomputers serve scientists in a number of different ways – as virtual microscopes, laboratories and telescopes, to name but a few examples. Some researchers even use them as time machines, travelling back into the past and more importantly into the future of the Earth’s atmosphere.

ife without weather forecasts calculated by the weather service’s computers – for most people today, this is inconceivable. After all, what’s the point in planning a BBQ if it ends up being ruined by rain? Or of staffing the beer garden if none of these employees are needed? What would happen if there was no electricity because the wind turbines suddenly stopped turning? Scientists like Jülich researcher Dr. Hendrik Elbern are also interested in other atmospheric processes that don’t usually appear in newspaper articles or in weather forecasts on television. At the Institute of Energy and

Climate Research, Elbern uses computer simulations to predict what the air will contain over the next few days – how much ozone, the amount of nitrogen and sulphur oxides and how much particulate matter. In order to compile these “chemical forecasts”, the atmospheric researcher

The predicted nitrogen oxide concentration for 9 June 2011. Blue stands for a low concentration, green and yellow for a medium concentration and red for a high concentration.

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KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Three images of the hole in the ozone layer in the northern hemisphere on 28 March 2011. Left: Ozone concentration measured by the AURA satellites. Middle: Corresponding calculation by the CLaMS computer model. Right: Another image of this simulation highlighting ozone loss.

collaborates with scientists from the Rhenish Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Cologne. Together, they are working on the development and application of a model known as EURAD-IM. “We use this model to predict the air quality over Europe and over individual regions, such as the Ruhr area, on a daily basis. Anybody who wishes can access the results on the Internet,” says Elbern. The data published at http:// macc-raq.gmes-atmosphere.eu/som_ensemble.php are important for people suffering from asthma or allergies, for example, as well as for amateur athletes. The computer model can also be used for other purposes. The eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 grounded air traffic in most of Europe. At that time, atmospheric researchers from Jülich and Cologne simulated how the cloud of ash would spread. “Measurements later showed that the predictions were essentially accurate,” says Elbern. Environmental agencies and other public authorities also value the

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new opportunities afforded by computer simulations. They allow us, for example, to understand why measures for combating air pollution, such as car-free zones, have more of an impact on certain days than on others. As is the case for conventional weather forecasts, chemical forecasts are only useful if they are reliable. “In order to increase the accuracy of our forecasts and possible divergences, we want to use ensemble simulations in the future. Such simulations don’t just calculate a forecast once but rather hundreds of times,” says Elbern. The researchers simply change the starting conditions slightly or implement different computer models. Although EURAD-IM is a unique project in Germany, similar models have already been developed by other research groups, and their predictions don’t always agree. A CODE WITH TEN MILLION LINES “For such ensemble calculations, we need the computing capacity of ex-

tremely powerful supercomputers like JUGENE,” says Elbern. Scientists at the Jülich Climate Sciences Simulation Laboratory (SimLab) help him get his ensemble simulations up and running on JUGENE, which boasts 72,000 processors and a computing power equivalent to that of 25,000 PCs. “It is definitely a challenge to make climate models suitable for use on the Jülich supercomputers using a programme code of typically ten million lines,” says Dr. Lars Hoffmann, head of the Climate Sciences SimLab. The Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) is also home to other SimLabs for other fields such as plasma physics and biology. The scientists working there combine their expertise in massively parallel computing on supercomputers with the respective research discipline. Jülich stratosphere researcher Dr. Rolf Müller from the Institute of Energy and Climate Research also works closely with his colleagues at JSC. Müller and his team mainly use JuRoPA – a computer jointly developed by engineers at JSC,

Dr. Rolf Müller (left) and Dr. Hendrik Elbern (middle) from the Institute of Energy and Climate Research with Dr. Lars Hoffmann (right), head of the Climate Sciences SimLab at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre.

the French hardware manufacturer Bull and the Munich software company ParTec. Researchers working with Müller use JuRoPA to simulate the processes behind the hole in the ozone layer above the Arctic. “Using our CLaMS computer model, we can describe the relationships in the polar vortex in great detail – and we can take very high-altitude clouds into account. These clouds play an important role in ozone depletion,” explains Müller. PREDICTING OZONE DEPLETION In order to compare predictions with reality, the scientists use data such as those from the RECONCILE project. Dr. Marc von Hobe from Forschungszentrum Jülich coordinated this international measurement campaign above the Arctic in spring 2010. On these flights, researchers recorded ozone depletion in the northern hemisphere during a record cold winter with particularly marked cloud formation in the atmosphere above an altitude of eight kilometres. Around a year later, in spring 2011, the biggest hole ever observed in the ozone layer in the northern hemisphere emerged. “We need to understand these extreme situations as best we can and simulate them so that we can then calculate the future development of the

ozone layer in a realistic and reliable manner,” says Müller. The well-known paradox of time travel also applies here: if we implement measures today on the basis of our computer-aided insights into

the future, then what was predicted to happen in the future may never actually become a reality. Frank Frick

Research on Jülich supercomputers Together with theory and experiment, computer simulations form the third pillar of research. They provide us with insights and information that would otherwise remain hidden for physical, technical, financial and ethical reasons. The Jülich Supercomputing Centre operates supercomputers of the highest performance class for areas such as the following: • Dispersion of pollutants • Designing nanomaterials and quantum computers • Galaxies and the formation of stars • Properties of metals, semiconductors, glasses and molecules • Strong interaction between elementary particles • Behaviour of polymers, proteins and biological membranes • Laser and plasma physics • Aviation and automotive engineering • Pedestrian dynamics

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KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Computers Seek a Successor Supercomputers have become an indispensable tool for almost all scientific disciplines. What is astonishing is that the simulations they perform are also helping us to investigate new technologies that could one day take over certain tasks from computers.

fter the Deep Blue computer spectacularly outwitted the then reigning chess world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997 watched by journalists and the public around the world, many people considered electronic brains to be more powerful than the human super brain. It may therefore come as a surprise that there are scientists who actually use the human brain as a paradigm for the next generation of computers. One of them is Prof. Markus Diesmann. The director at the Jülich Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine explains, “State-of-the-art computers today are well suited for tasks that can be mastered with sheer computing power. But when it comes to using as little energy as possible to solve a problem, or indeed perception or the ability to learn, then the human brain is simply unrivalled.”

SPIRAL OF KNOWLEDGE Diesmann’s team simulates the human brain using today’s supercomputers. The scientists hope to set a spiral of knowledge in motion. Using computer simulations, they increase their understanding of the principles behind how the brain works. They can then use these principles to design more powerful computers and more intelligent robots. Such simulations begin with numerous mathematical equations. They describe how a nerve cell – neuron in the jargon – actually works. The key factor in signal transduction is how the electrical activity caused by excitation of the neuron spreads. “To simulate this process in

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The brain as a paradigm. The human brain provides important information for designing future computers. This image was generated as part of a cooperation between the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), with its director Prof. Katrin Amunts, and Prof. Torsten Kuhlen from the Virtual Reality Group at RWTH Aachen University within the scope of the Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA).

detail, you need many different coupled equations for each and every neuron,” says Diesmann. But in certain instances, this can be done more simply. The physicist and brain researcher continues, “If we take a single neuron to be a simple electrical circuit, then we can describe it using only two or three equations. This is often sufficient to predict whether a neuron that has been specifically excited will pass on an electrical signal or not.” However, even with only a few equations per neuron, we still need enormous computing capacities to simulate small regions of the brain. A volume of only

one cubic millimetre of our brain contains around a hundred thousand neurons – and each of these is connected to around ten thousand others. The total number of contacts is enormous! “To simulate this cubic millimetre, we must account for a billion contact points between the neurons,” says Diesmann. The simulations are made even more complicated by the fact that key variables vary strongly within this cubic millimetre of the brain. For example, such an area in the visual cortex comprises six layers, and the neurons in each of these layers are packed together with different densities and are connected to many other cells. Diesmann is involved in developing software known as NEST (www.nest-initiative.org), which is used by brain researchers throughout the world and is continuously being expanded. NEST allows scientists to mathematically describe single neurons and to enter data on anatomy and electrical properties. As a result, they get an evaluation of the brain activity. In Jülich, Diesmann and his team work with the experts at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) who provide extensive support, ensuring that such simulations can be productively implemented on supercomputers of the highest performance class. The results are integrated into the European BrainScaleS project, which uses neural networks as a model to develop new types of microchips known as neuromorphic hardware. Diesmann and his researchers have already achieved a breakthrough. In a simulation, they reconstructed the

Prof. Markus Diesmann is convinced that simulations of the human brain will help us to construct powerful and energy-efficient computers in the future.

behaviour in a region of the visual cortex measuring one cubic millimetre – and they did so in such detail that the calculated activities agreed with the experimental findings. TOWARDS THE QUANTUM COMPUTER Brain researchers are not alone in using supercomputers to seek models for the next generation of even more powerful computers. Scientists at Jülich also use them to take an in-depth look at new emerging information technologies. Quantum computers could achieve an

inconceivable tempo when processing certain tasks. For example, in contrast to conventional processors, they would be able to perform multiple operations simultaneously in one switching process. The reason behind this is linked to the information unit used. A classical bit either has a value of 0 or 1. A quantum bit (known as a qubit for short), on the other hand, can be a superposition of different values. Up to now, only initial prototypes of quantum computers with a capacity of a few qubits have existed in laboratories.

However, Prof. Kristel Michielsen from the Jülich Supercomputing Centre has successfully simulated a much larger system on the JUGENE supercomputer. She calculated a (highly idealized) quantum computer system with 42 qubits, which is a world record. This was made possible by simulation software, which was developed for this purpose and tailored to Germany’s fastest computer JUGENE. It ensures that hundreds of thousands of processors work together seamlessly on the calculation. “We are now using this software to investigate other quantum-mechanical systems, for example, to identify whether fundamental problems occur and the options open to us to correct them,” says Michielsen. By working in this manner, Jülich researchers have already unearthed many insights that will prove useful to all developers of real quantum computers. Frank Frick

Prof. Kristel Michielsen in front of the Jülich supercomputer JUGENE, which she uses to simulate a potential information technology of tomorrow – the quantum computer.

Energy-efficient cooling for supercomputers It sounds like a paradox: warm water with a temperature of around 40 °C is more efficient at cooling supercomputers than cold water with a temperature around 16 °C. And yet this strategy is promising. The reason is that the heat of

the recycled water can be simply released into the air. This does away with the need for technical and energetic efforts to cool the water down to 16 °C. The Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) is hoping to test the technique thorough-

ly on a cluster computer. If it is proven worthwhile, then it will be used to cool future generations of supercomputers at JSC.

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KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Interview with Prof. Henning Kagermann

“Germany is Abreast of its Competitors” The president of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering is convinced that a lot is being done here in Germany to advance key technologies. Question: How would you define the term “key technologies”? Kagermann: I understand it to mean technologies that have a large impact on the fields of action of mobility, energy, health, communications and safety. These are areas that have been prescribed by society. Key technologies are beneficial to several of these fields and have a great deal of leverage. Question: You referred to socially prescribed fields of action. Are you basing this idea on the High-Tech Strategy where the German Federal Government set down important topics for the future with the objective of enhancing Germany’s innovative strength? Kagermann: Partially, yes. But these fields of action exist worldwide. At acatech, we looked at other countries and found that these areas apply across the board. However, this is not really surprising because all countries are driven by the same global influences: a growing world population, dwindling resources, climate change and demographic developments. Question: What should be done to promote the development of key technologies in Germany? Kagermann: I think we’re already doing quite a lot. We are on a par with our competitors both on a European and an international level. One of the reasons for this is the Federal Government’s High-Tech Strategy for Germany. However, we do still have some weak points – for example, the necessary skilled workforce, the lack of which will become

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work on transforming our investments in basic research into marketable products and services. After all, we in Germany don’t want to research solely for the benefit of those abroad. This is why we should also pursue applied research and keep our eye on the innovation chain as a whole.

an even more painful problem in the future, and the financing of innovation. Question: The general opinion in Jülich is that new key technologies tend to emerge at the interfaces between the classic scientific disciplines. What do you think? Kagermann: I fully agree with this. Today, there is even talk of the convergence of technologies, that biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technology and possibly even brain research will merge to a much greater extent. Information and communication technologies will also increasingly influence the classic technology areas, such as factories of the future or intelligent power grids in the era of the transformation of the energy sector. Question: Do we need basic research to develop key technologies? Kagermann: Yes. Sound basic research is essential. However, we also need to

Question: How do you know if a technology has the potential to become a key technology? Kagermann: On the one hand, there are processes and instruments we can use to systematically analyse technologies and assess their future significance. On the other hand, it’s like shares on the stock market: if you knew for sure how things will develop in the future, then you’d be rich. Instead, there is always a risk of backing the wrong horse. Interviewed by Frank Frick

Henning Kargermann Physicist Prof. Henning Kargermann is President of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering acatech. The National Academy represents the interests of the German scientific and technological communities at home and abroad. It supports and advises policymakers and society on issues related to the future of technology. Prior to his position at acatech, Kagermann was Co-CEO of SAP AG for a number of years.

They have developed a particularly efficient method of fishing out high-yield bacteria from the cultures grown: Dr. Lothar Eggeling and Dr. Julia Frunzke.

Glowingly Productive Bacteria An increasing number of active ingredients in medicine, food products and recyclable materials are being produced using enzymes and microbial cells. The biotechnology sector today boasts a global turnover of around € 50 billion. Researchers at Jülich are working on boosting this booming industry even more. Their latest coup: they can make single – particularly interesting – bacterial cells glow so that they can be distinguished from the mass of thousands of others. 14

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KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Dr. Katharina Nöh analyses the complex metabolic pathways in genetically modified bacteria. She uses computer simulations to image the metabolic fluxes.

hirty minutes is all it takes biotechnologist Stephan Binder, who is working on his PhD at the Jülich Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, to separate specific bacteria that produce particularly high yields of lysine (an essential amino acid) from a motley crew of around eighteen million bacteria. This process, known as screening in the jargon, usually takes several weeks. “Conventional screenings involve serious amounts of material,” says Binder’s colleague Dr. Julia Frunzke. “Bacterial cultures are prepared and incubated on hundreds of Petri dishes and we don’t even know which of these cultures produces lysine.” From the eighteen million Corynebacterium glutamicum bacterial cells, typically only as few as a hundred remain particularly productive. These cells are then cultivated further in order

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analyse their genetic makeup and their biochemical capabilities in detail. The new method effectively presorts the bacteria – it sorts the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. BACTERIA IN THE SERVICE OF INDUSTRY Originally found in soil, genetically modified Corynebacteria have been used in industry for years to produce additives such as the amino acid lysine. Lysine is used, for example, in infusions for the seriously ill and as a fodder supplement. It eases the digestion of grain and course-ground cereal in cows. Jülich biotechnologist Dr. Lothar Eggeling is one of the top international Coryne specialists. He believes that the annual global requirement of around one million tonnes and a turnover of two billion US

dollars every year make improvements in lysine production worthwhile. “If we can find a bacterial strain that is only one or two percent more effective, this will lead to an additional turnover of between twenty and forty million dollars. And finding a new strain is not just profitable, it also conserves resources.” Scientists at Jülich are using Corynebacterium glutamicum as a model organism for their new screening method. The cell itself, in contrast, has a highly sensitive and specific control system for lysine and several other metabolic products. A special “watchdog” protein recognizes when there is too much lysine in the cell and immediately provides relief. It starts a genetic program that increases the export of lysine out of the cell. Several of these

Bacteria under the fluorescence microscope. Thanks to a genetic extra, their luminosity shows how productive they are.

specialized “watchdog” proteins – known as transcription regulators in the jargon – protect the cell from an excess of metabolic products by ensuring that these products are selectively expelled from the cell. “Our method exploits nature’s toolbox,” says Julia Frunzke. The researchers smuggle an additional circular piece of the genome into the bacterial cell. It comprises two parts. The first part is the recognition region for the “watchdog” protein. The second part does not comprise the original program to export the lysine, but rather the command to produce a natural fluorescent colour. “What we then have is a highly specific biosensor that does not affect the metabolism of the cell in any way. The normal genetic makeup, in other words the watchdog and export functions, remains unaffected by this intervention,” explains Lothar Eggeling.

PATENT SECURED After the researchers have added the genetic extra to the cell, they use UV radiation to ensure that as many genetically different mutants as possible are created. Bacteria that produce large quantities of lysine glow more than those that produce small quantities. Eggeling and his team have used this method successfully to find very promising new bacterial strains, which they went on to patent. The basic principle behind the method has also long since been patented. This new screening method can be used to construct a biosensor for every known “watchdog” protein of any bacterium. Escherichia coli, which is a bacterium commonly used in industry, is also very promising. “In addition to numerous amino acids such as lysine, valine and methionine, we could also use it to track down pharmaceutically interesting mol-

ecules – for example, taxanes, which are used in malaria medication and cancer drugs,” says Eggeling, who successfully tested the Jülich technique on this type of intestinal bacteria. Industry is also interested for another reason. “The new method is attractive because the sensor can be used during normal operation to quickly ascertain exactly how many of the highly productive bacteria contained in the huge industrial fermenters actually produce the desired product – and how many just sit back and do nothing instead!” says Frunzke. DIVERSION FOR GLOWING CELLS PhD student Stephan Binder is delighted that he doesn’t have to sort out the glowing cells by hand using a microscope and pipette. A commercial flow cytometer does this job for him with immense speed and precision. It is usually used to analyse blood. The cells contained in a solution are extracted using a capillary tube before being individually passed under a laser beam. Up to 30,000 cells per second are run past the light source. The instrument recognizes the glowing cells and reroutes them to a Petri dish. The Petri dish moves a few centimetres after each “hit”, allowing each individual cell to create its own colony of offspring as even more cell material is required for the subsequent analyses.

Bacterial strains are grown in Petri dishes like this.

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KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Prof. Marco Oldiges and his team at the Jülich Institute of Bio- and Geosciences test how productive a promising new bacterial strain actually is. The strains are placed in a bioreactor for analysis. “They have much better living conditions there than in a Petri dish or in a small shake flask,” says Oldiges. Such realistic industrial conditions also guarantee greater control: the researchers at Jülich can control exactly how much glucose – i.e. sugar – is added to the process and how much lysine is produced as a result. “Our ultimate aim is to convert 100 % of the glucose to achieve a maximum lysine yield – but we have yet to see this ideal case become a reality,” says Oldiges grinning. In order to understand exactly how the sugar is metabolized, the researchers label selected carbon atoms in the glucose molecules with a minimally heavier carbon isotope, which only accounts for 1 % of carbon in the natural world. Following a precise time protocol, they remove samples from the bioreactor and investigate when and how frequently their labelled carbon appears in certain metabolic products. MULTIPLE BRANCHES Before lysine is formed, sugar is converted into a number of intermediate products – known as metabolites in the jargon – and this process is never linear. The metabolism of a living organism comprises multiple branches: many substances are not just involved in one reaction but in several. And certain reactions do not just create the main products but also other substances. These by-products can negatively affect lysine production and reduce the yield. To use a metaphor, the researchers are dealing with a network of racetracks, one-way streets, roundabouts, slow lanes, building sites and cul-de-sacs. Depending on where they start, the regulations and the route, the various road users respond to each other, helping each other to accelerate but also blocking each other and causing traffic jams. “The whole process doesn’t just take place on one level, as is the case for road traffic. Instead multiple levels are involved and each level influences the other. Unfortunately, we only understand bits and pieces of the highway traffic

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Prof. Marco Oldiges investigates promising bacterial strains under conditions similar to those in industry.

code for bacteria,” says Marco Oldiges. In order to keep track of the bigger picture, the researchers transfer their results to sophisticated computer models. “Using these models, we can understand where the metabolism experiences bottlenecks and whether there is a lack of nutrients, for example,” says mathematician Dr. Katharina Nöh, specialist in metabolic flux analysis. The advantage is that time-consuming and expensive laboratory experiments are no longer necessary. Instead, each metabolic screw can be virtually tweaked and the consequences calculated.

Whether the calculations are correct or not will be revealed by the living object at the latest. By switching selected genes on and off, Oldiges and Nöh can accelerate or inhibit the calculated metabolic pathways. Recently, they celebrated an important success using this method: they excited Corynebacterium glutamicum to produce more of the amino acid valine, which is an elementary structural element in antiviral medications for herpes and HIV. Brigitte Stahl-Busse

Interview with Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Plischke

“Important: Technologies for Sustainability” The member of the Bayer Board of Management outlines his view of key technologies and calls on the Germans to be more open to innovation.

and energy issue, and the consequences of climate change.

Question: What technologies do you immediately think of when you hear the words “key technologies”? Please list a maximum of three. Plischke: The first things that come to mind are biotechnology and nanotechnology. After these, general technologies that foster sustainability are particularly important. For example, new process technologies that allow us to use energy and resources more efficiently. Question: How would you define the term “key technologies”? Plischke: For us at Bayer, key technologies are technologies that we can use to pursue our mission “Science For A Better Life”. In other words, technologies for innovative products that benefit all of us – whether it be in the area of health, nutrition or high-quality materials. We want to contribute to the sustainable development of society with our innovations.

Wolfgang Plischke Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Plischke has been a member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG since 1 March 2006. At the international concern, the biologist is responsible for Innovation, Technology and Environment, as well as for the Asia-Pacific region.

Question: What should be done to promote the development of key technologies in Germany? Plischke: We need to be more open to innovation! For example, I am concerned that large sections of the German population continue to reject green biotechnology. Without new seed varieties that ensure increased yields based on stateof-the-art biotechnological methods, we won’t be able to feed the growing world population in the future and we won’t be able to create a solid basis for renewable resources. The new Bioeconomy Science Center, in particular, in which Forschungszentrum Jülich plays a key role, aims to address such grand challenges facing society – it wants to find solutions to problems such as feeding the world’s population, the raw materials

Question: How important is it for a company like Bayer that research on key technologies receives public funding? Plischke: For Bayer, different types of research funding are important: in addition to support in terms of technology acceptance by policy makers and society, we also believe that funding is vital for projects dealing with certain topics and application-oriented projects. Consortia comprising universities, stateowned research institutions, small and medium-sized enterprises and industry are particularly efficient when it comes to laying the groundwork for the widespread application of key technologies. In addition, general tax concessions for research could provide added impetus for Germany’s innovative competitiveness: the revenues waived by the tax authorities would be well invested. They would be demonstrably used for additional research, to consolidate innovation and growth – and would ultimately create new jobs and increase tax revenues. Interviewed by Frank Frick

Research in Jülich 1 | 2011

KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Looking at the Quantum World The atomic world is hidden from view; its dimensions are unimaginably small. And yet the tiniest of details regarding the position and movement of atoms are what determine the properties of materials. Jülich pioneers in electron microscopy Chunlin Jia and Knut Urban (pictured above) have developed a technique that can be used to identify tiny picometre-sized displacements of the atoms and to measure these with unrivalled precision. Such changes as tiny as a billionth of a millimetre in the position of an atom, for example, are important for novel ferroelectric digital data storage.

aterials research as it stands today has begun to exploit the atomic world over the past decade. The platform for doing just this is provided by electron microscopes with aberration-corrected optics. However, even the very best optics is no good in the world of atoms if used alone. This is where quantum physics reigns and the notion of an image here defies that of our everyday experience. This has quite unexpected consequences. For example, the image of a structure depends on the thickness of the speci-

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men. In the image, “atoms” can appear in places where there are none in reality – or vice versa. You have to know exactly how thick the specimen is. But there is no such thing as a yardstick for the atomic level. And to make matters even more complicated, atoms tend to be transparent for electrons. Their contrast is extremely weak, and compared to an optical microscope or a camera, it gets even worse the closer the adjustment of the objective lens is to exact focus. In order to see anything at all, you have to work out of focus – in other words,

the objective lens is usually “defocused”. The result then depends sensitively on the chosen focus value, but this is not directly accessible in atomic dimensions. On top of this, a tilted specimen produces a distorted image. How distorted the image is depends on the type of atom being imaged. When different types of atoms occur together, very complex conditions exist. In order to be able to use the images at all, the specimen has, in principle, to be adjusted to within a few hundredths of a degree, but there is no instrument that could be used to technically realize this in an atomic range. Chunlin Jia and Knut Urban work at the Peter Grünberg Institute at Forschungszentrum Jülich and at the Ernst RuskaCentre. Since they first used an aberration-corrected electron microscope for their work ten years ago, nobody has been able to make more accurate measurements. “The laws of quantum physics defy our intuition. But what astonishes us and even appears absurd is what provides information and allows us to measure with an unimaginable precision when we use computers to analyse the images because they “understand” the laws of quantum physics,” says Urban. DEDUCING INFORMATION “BACKWARDS” When an electron wave is sent through an object in an electron microscope, then this wave is modified. This object-specific modification does not just provide us with information on the object but also on the imaging conditions. In order to deduce information “backwards” from the images, a computer is used to construct an atomic model – based initially on intuition alone. Comparing this model with the real images then provides us with clues for improving it. The calculation is repeated using the progressively modified model until the calculation and observation agree. This process should not be underestimated. Not only do the large number of atoms have to be coordinated but the values of the optical parameters, the thickness

Knut Urban Physicist Prof. Knut Urban was head of the Jülich Institute of Microstructure Research – today part of the Peter Grünberg Institute – and held a chair for experimental physics at RWTH Aachen University from 1987 to 2011. He was also president of the German Physical Society (DPG) from 2004 to 2006. Urban has received many prizes and awards, including the Wolf Prize, which is one of the most prestigious awards for physicists. He is also the first JARA Senior Professor.

Chunlin Jia Materials researcher Prof. Chunlin Jia was selected for China’s 1000 talents programme and was appointed professor at Jiaotong University in Xi’an. The initiative aims to attract top researchers working abroad back to China in an effort to expand and support the booming research sector. Jia divides his time equally between Jülich and Xi’an. Jiaotong University has just finished a new building for his institute.

Electron micrograph of the ferroelectric material lead zirconate titanate (PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3). The arrows indicate the direction of the electric dipoles.

and the orientation of the specimen also have to be varied in such a way that a consistent data set is created. That such a feat is possible was for example shown by Jia and Urban working together with colleagues from the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in a paper published by the well-known journal Science. They succeeded in detecting what are known as flux-closure domains in ferroelectrics for the first time and also showed that ferroelectric dipoles in such materials continuously rotate on an atomic scale. Although the existence of such closure domains had been predicted theoretically for almost a decade, it had never been proven experimentally. Their quasi-continuous rotation is necessary for the realization of nonvolatile ferroelectric memory devices. MEASUREMENTS ACCURATE TO THE PICOMETRE Ferroelectrics are oxide materials containing crystalline unit cells in which the atoms are arranged in such a way that their electric charge centres do not coincide geometrically. In the compound lead zirconate titanate (PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3) used by Jia, Urban and their colleagues, the negative charge of the oxygen atoms and the positive charge of the metal atoms forms a permanent electric dipole. The Jülich researchers took measurements accurate to the picometre of the strength and direction of these dipoles. The surprising finding: despite being much more rigid than magnetic dipoles, the electric dipoles can be rotated in the smallest of space. This facilitates the formation of triangular domains no bigger than a few unit cells. Researchers had overlooked these in the past because they were so unbelievably small. Their discovery was simultaneously exciting news for researchers working on ferroelectric vortex memory devices. Four of these domains together form an elementary vortex no bigger than a nanometre in which the electric field rotates 360 degrees. Based on this direction of rotation, clockwise or counter-clockwise, a digital bit can be realized in the tiniest space. The editorial team would like to thank Prof. Knut Urban for his article.

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KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Interview with Dr. Joseph Pankert

“We Need a Culture that Fosters Innovation” The Philips manager talks to us about the division of roles in companies, research institutions and universities in the development of key technologies.

Question: What technologies do you immediately think of when you hear the words “key technologies”? Please list a maximum of three. Pankert: I immediately think of the optical technologies because I work with them on a professional level. Semiconductor technology also comes to mind because it’s enormously important for almost all sectors in industry and for our society, as does genetic engineering. Question: Can a key technology simply be defined as a technology that decisively shapes or will shape our lives? Pankert: In principle, yes; but the technology itself isn’t always visible. For example, the lives of the younger generation are characterized by Facebook. However, this doesn’t make social networking services a key technology. They only exist because of the progress made in communications and information technology. Only at this level, can we speak of a key technology. Question: To what extent do key technologies contribute to the solution of issues facing society? Pankert: I’d approach that question the other way around. When a technology doesn’t help us to solve social problems, then it’s not a key technology but rather a niche technology. For example, optical technologies and their applications, such as LEDs, are closely connected to the energy supply problem.

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out smaller companies and their technologies. The key word is “open innovation”: we have to keep our eyes open for everything going on around us, for example, at universities and research institutions. This also means that we need a culture that fosters innovation at universities and research institutions and indeed in society at large. Interviewed by Frank Frick

Question: A famous quote underestimating the potential of a key technology is a statement allegedly made in 1943 by Thomas Watson, who at the time was chairman of IBM. He foresaw “a world market for maybe five computers”. How can a company like Philips avoid such errors? Pankert: There’ll always be “Watsons” – people who have achieved great things but still fail to recognize developments at an early stage. Like most companies, at Philips, we have given up trying to control the entire innovation chain. What is decisive for us is that even if we do miss a development, we have to be in a position to catch up – for example, by buying

Joseph Pankert As General Manager Laser Ventures, Dr. Joseph Pankert is responsible for three Philips’ subsidiaries, out of which he aims to develop a business line within the international company comprising hundreds of employees. Previously, he played a key role in setting up a joint venture with the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology. Today, this joint venture goes by the name of XTREME technologies GmbH and was sold by Philips in 2009.

1967

1 Computing

1936

2007

Technology Through Time Key technologies yesterday and today 1 In 1936, civil engineer Konrad Zuse designed a freely programmable mechanical calculator: the Z1 – the world’s first computer. The Z1 was destroyed during the Second World War. The picture shows the punched tape reader in a replica constructed for the German Technology Museum. In the computer room at Jülich in 1967, scientists worked with computers whose performance was tiny compared to that of today’s supercomputers. Computing power today allows us, for example, to simulate the Earth’s atmosphere (see p. 8).

2 We don’t know for sure who built the first microscopes at the end of the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, the optical microscope became an important instrument in medicine and the natural sciences. The development of the electron microscope in the early 1930s by Ernst Ruska allowed scientists to forge ahead into even smaller dimensions. Researchers at Jülich have also been using such instruments for years, as shown by the picture taken in 1968. Using modern microscopes in the Ernst Ruska-Centre, we can now even take a look at the quantum world (see p. 19).

3 On 8 November 1895, physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered a type of radiation that could pass through matter and the human body. During his subsequent public lecture, he took a picture of anatomist Rudolf Albert von Kölliker’s hand. In 1971, medical scientists at Jülich injected a patient with harmless radioactive tracers and measured the radiation emitted using a gamma camera. Today, scientists at Jülich use MRI scanners to produce high-resolution and high-contrast images of the human brain (see p. 30).

Research in Jülich 1 | 2011

KEY TECHNOLOGIES

2 Microscopy

1968

19th century

2011

2007

3 Imaging techniques

1971

1896

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Gaining Knowledge Through Precision Scientists pin their hopes on particle accelerators believing, for example, that they will provide new impetus for medicine and materials research. Nuclear physicists at Jülich are developing these large-scale facilities including the necessary particle detectors and are hot on the trail of one of the greatest mysteries of the universe.

hy is there us, the Earth and everything else? Nuclear physicists at Jülich have made it their mission to answer this age-old question. But while others try to answer this question by philosophizing or meditating, the researchers are trying to wrest nature’s secrets from her using precision physics. On their quest for information, the scientists came across a particular type of decay of the eta particle (see “The Participating Particles”, p. 26). An eta

only lives for half a quintillionth of a second. For comparison, the clock rate of computer processors used today is somewhere in the region of a billion cycles per second. One of these tiny cycles is two billion times longer than the lifetime of an eta. DESTRUCTIVE ANTIMATTER Our existence causes a problem for physicists. Actually, we shouldn’t really exist at all. The Big Bang should have produced equal amounts of matter and

antimatter. But, these two forms cancel each other out. Therefore, shortly after the creation of the universe, they should have destroyed each other. Yet this didn’t happen. How can the obvious excess of matter be explained? That matter and antimatter accumulated in clusters quite independently of each other is something that Prof. Siegfried Krewald from the Jülich Nuclear Physics Institute (IKP) considers unlikely, as do most of his colleagues. “The two types of matter would destroy each other as soon as

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KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Prof. Siegfried Krewald, Dr. Christoph Hanhart and Dr. Volker Hejny (from left to right) in the hall containing the Jülich particle accelerator COSY.

The WASA detector used by the Jülich nuclear physicists to register the decay products of the eta particle.

these clusters meet. Gigantic amounts of energy would be released in the process.” And this is something that astronomers could not overlook. PUZZLING EXCESS Many scientists therefore assume that the asymmetry of matter and antimatter is rooted in the laws of physics themselves. The “rules” of physics give preference to matter over antimatter according to this concept. And this is the reason why more matter remains. “This is known as CP violation, which is indeed an integral part of the Standard Model and has been demonstrated in many experiments,” says Krewald’s colleague Dr. Christoph Hanhart. He continues, “But unfortunately it is several orders of magnitude too small to explain the observed excess of matter in the universe, which is millions of times greater.” This is where the eta particle comes into play – or to be more precise, how it decays. Physicists assume that nature involves a symmetry violation that goes

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beyond what is predicted in the Standard Model of particle physics. This would explain not only the excess of matter in the universe but would also affect the decay of eta. “Around one eta in every ten thousand decays into an electron, a positron and one positively and one negatively charged pion,” says Dr. Volker Hejny, who is also from IKP. These four particles repel each other (see image on p. 26). “If a symmetry violation really does exist that is not predicted by the Standard Model, then we should find an asymmetry in the geometrical arrangement of the orbits – and we should find this for a maximum of two percent of these rare and special eta decays,” says Henjny. Hanhart clarifies this, “Two percent is the absolute limit. The effect is probably much smaller.” MILLIONS OF COLLISIONS The combined COSY accelerator and WASA detector, which was transferred from Jülich to Uppsala in Sweden a few

years ago, was the first instrument to facilitate the extremely precise measurements required. The COSY cooler synchrotron spanning a length of 200 metres produces an extremely uniform proton beam that is “cooled” using different techniques. This beam hits a second proton at almost the speed of light, on average millions of times per second. Every ten thousand collisions or so, an eta is produced. Its decay products are what the WASA detector equipped with around 6,000 detector elements searches for like a “tracking dog”. In order to tackle the resulting flood of data, the nuclear physicists have perfected the read-out electronics of WASA in cooperation with their colleagues at the Jülich Central Institute for Electronics. “We can now record ten thousand events per second,” says Hejny. To date, the researchers have recorded several hundred million eta decays. Whether the expected CP violation is among them will be revealed when the data is analysed over the next few years.

The know-how gained by the Jülich scientists operating COSY is proving invaluable for one of the largest research projects in the world: the international FAIR accelerator complex which is currently being constructed in Darmstadt. The Jülich group are designing the FAIR accelerator HESR – COSY’s “big brother”. As a centre of antimatter physics, it will make experiments with antiprotons possible that will hopefully throw light on the mystery behind our existence.

Significant decay electron negative pion

eta positive pion positron

Axel Tillemans

One in ten thousand etas (green sphere) decays into an electron (small red sphere), a positron (small blue sphere) and into one negative (large red sphere) and one positive (large blue sphere) pion. The orbits of the electrons and positrons lie in one plane, while the orbits of the two pions lie in another plane. If the angular relationship between these two planes is asymmetrical, this could explain why matter exists in our universe.

THE “PARTICIPATING” PARTICLES

Proton

Mean lifetime

Mass (in grams)

Electric charge

Theoretically stable in the Standard Model

1.67 * 10 -24

Positive

A basic component of matter. The nucleus of a hydrogen atom comprises exactly one proton.

Theoretically Antiproton stable in the Standard Model

1.67 * 10 -24

Negative

The antiparticle of the proton. The antiproton was first artificially produced in 1955 in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California. Researchers are currently investigating whether antiprotons could be used in radiotherapy. It is hoped that they would have less of a negative impact on healthy tissue.

Electron

Theoretically stable in the Standard Model

0.91 * 10 -27

Negative

A basic component of matter. The nucleus of a hydrogen atom is orbited by exactly one electron.

Positron

Theoretically stable in the Standard Model

0.91 * 10 -27

Positive

The antiparticle of the electron. It can be produced, for example, by a radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. When it collides with an electron, it is annihilated.

Pion

26 billionths of a second (26 * 10 -9 seconds)

0.25 * 10 -24

Positive or negative

Pions are produced, for example, when cosmic radiation collides with gas atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere. In addition to electrically charged positive and negative pions, neutral pions also exist. They have a much shorter lifetime.

Eta

0.51 quintillionths of a second (0.51 0.98 * 10 -24 * 10 -18 seconds)

Neutral

A type of meson, like the pion. It has such a short lifetime that it cannot be directly detected. However, by proving that the particles into which it decays exist, we can also prove that it existed.

Research in Jülich 1 | 2011

KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Interview with Prof. Wolfgang Lück

“There’s no Need to Follow Every Fleeting Fashion” The mathematician and scientist involved in basic research tells us what funding bodies can learn from the example of BSE. He explains why he considers physics, chemistry, biology and medicine to be key technologies.

Question: What technologies do you immediately think of when you hear the words “key technologies”? Lück: Physics, chemistry, biology and medicine. These four traditional scientific disciplines will merge to an even greater degree in the future. And then I would also include mathematics as a future key technology.

proportion should be invested in blue skies research – in other words in research where we don’t demand that scientists provide solutions to a particular problem within, for example, three years. If we neglect such blue skies research, then we rob ourselves of long-term product development. By the way, some companies appear to have recognized this. Microsoft, for example, has a group in California comprising only mathematicians who work on very fundamental issues.

Question: An unusual answer that makes the next question even more important. How would you define the term “key technologies”? Lück: As an area of science from which society can expect to benefit in the form of greater progress. Question: But by listing the traditional scientific disciplines, medicine and mathematics, are you not labelling science as a whole a key technology? Lück: No. I am saying that a key technology is a scientific domain in which society invests because it counts on high returns. These domains change over time. Thirty years ago, physics and chemistry were top of the list. Today, we are pinning our hopes on the life sciences, and in the future it will probably be something different. Scientists and policy makers face the continuous challenge of identifying the areas or domains that look like they could be particularly promising for society.

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Interviewed by Frank Frick

Question: But how can policy makers and society succeed in identifying these domains in order to then selectively invest in the relevant research? Lück: It has to be said that this is indeed a difficult task for policy makers. On the one hand, a continuous review process is required and research must be funded in areas where quality is obvious. On the other hand, there’s no need to follow every fleeting fashion. Take the example of BSE or mad cow disease as it is known colloquially. A lot of money was invested in research at short notice – today, you hardly hear mention of BSE any more. I have a suggestion here. Although the major part of research funding should be invested in planned research, a small

Wolfgang Lück Wolfgang Lück is a professor at the University of Bonn and the Hausdorff Research Institute for Mathematics. His research field, algebraic topology, belongs to what is known as pure mathematics. He has been awarded the Max Planck Research Prize and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize and was president of the German mathematicians’ association in 2009 and 2010.

Tracking Down the Structures of Dementia Scientists at Jülich are trying to decipher the structure and interaction of proteins that play a role in all processes of life. Methods used in structural biology have proven to be an important tool. The findings obtained are being used to improve the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, which affects around a million people in Germany alone.

f you can’t remember the names of your own children, lose your way just outside your own house and find it difficult to dress yourself, then you could be suffering from an advanced form of Alzheimer’s dementia. Although the medication that is currently available rarely helps such patients, researchers are still working on new drugs. “Drugs based on new active ingredients would probably have a better chance of success if they were prescribed before the severe symptoms become apparent, as the disease process is too advanced in the brain at this stage,” says biologist Dr. Susanne Aileen Funke. This is the reason why a research team at Jülich, headed by Funke and biochemist Prof. Dieter Willbold,

wants to track down the molecules that paralyse the brain as early as possible. USING MIRROR IMAGES IN THE SEARCH At the moment, the diagnosis can only be made with certainty after the patient has passed away, when the characteristic deposits can be confirmed between the brain cells of the deceased (amyloid plaques). They are formed by an aggregation of several ß-amyloid molecules – chains comprising around forty amino acids (the building blocks of proteins). The insoluble deposits have long been considered the cause of the symptoms. “But today, we know that a key role is played in the disease process by

Dr. Susanne Aileen Funke and Prof. Dieter Willbold are tracking down ß-amyloids which play an important role in Alzheimer’s dementia.

small soluble aggregates comprising a few amyloid molecules,” says Funke. In order to demonstrate these harmful aggregates, the Jülich team from the Institute of Complex Systems prepared microscopic probes. These comprised short amino acid chains – peptides – which bind to the ß-amyloids. These peptides contain very specific amino acids that do not occur in natural proteins. These D-amino acids are structured like a mirror image of the natural L-amino acids. The advantage of the artificial mirror images: they are not attacked by degradation proteins in the body and are therefore particularly stable. As the immune system does not recognize them as foreign proteins, they also cause very few side effects. The Jülich scientists working with Funke and Willbold tested a whole range of such peptides. Two of these were found to be particularly suitable. The first one is known as D1 and can be used in combination with imaging techniques to identify the harmful aggregates of ß-amyloid molecules in the brain – an important step towards new diagnostic methods. The other is called D3 and protects cell cultures from the ß-amyloid compounds – thus providing a basis for preventive medication and therapeutic drugs. The scientists at Jülich worked with researchers at the University of Alabama in the USA to uncover the properties of the D1 molecule. In human tissue sections, D1 was only able to recognize

Research in Jülich 1 | 2011

KEY TECHNOLOGIES

In an ageing population, more and more people will suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Left: The fluorescently labelled substance D1 reveals where amyloid deposits similar to those that form in the brains of people suffering from Alzheimer’s have formed in the brain of a mouse.

ß-amyloid deposits and no other types of deposits. In the future, it is hoped that using low-level radioactive tracers and positron emission tomography, such D1 probes will be able to identify deposits typical of Alzheimer’s directly in the living brain. STEPS TOWARDS NEW DRUGS Jülich researchers are also making progress in their quest to develop a new drug. Mice with mutated genes for a human ß-amyloid precursor protein were shown to demonstrate signs of dementia a few months after birth without treatment. They couldn’t remember, for ex-

ample, how to get to the platform in a water pool where they could take a rest. When D3 was administered in their drinking water, however, the Alzheimer mice did not suffer a loss of memory. Significantly fewer amyloid plaques were also found in the brains of these mice than in the brains of the untreated animals. “However, we still don’t know exactly how D3 works,” says Willbold. Perhaps the peptide prevents the single amyloid molecules from joining together. Or perhaps it prevents the harmful small aggregates from circulating by causing structurally different harmless amyloid agglomerates to form.

Computer simulations show two different perspectives of how the substance D3 binds to the harmful ß-amyloid molecules – shown here as yellow-green strips.

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In order to develop new drugs, Jülich scientists are cooperating with colleagues from German and French universities and breaking completely new ground in the process. They apply a large number of methods ranging from molecular biological techniques to structural investigations using a new ultrahigh-resolution 900 MHz NMR spectrometer and computer simulations. In their latest experiments, the researchers combine two different active ingredient molecules. In order to improve the effectiveness of the D3 peptide created using molecular biological techniques, the researchers have combined it with another active ingredient known as aminopyrazole produced using chemical synthesis techniques. In cell cultures, the linked substances prevented the formation of the small harmful ß-amyloid aggregates – and they did this much more effectively than a simple mixture of D3 and aminopyrazole. The hybrid molecule is therefore more powerful than the sum of its parts. “It is a promising base substance for future medications,” says Funke. Wiebke Rögener

New Insights into the Brain Imaging techniques are the key to understanding the brain and to improving the diagnosis of numerous diseases. Scientists at J端lich are developing methods and instruments in close cooperation with Siemens. They aim to image brain structures and metabolic processes in more detail than ever before. 30

Research in J端lich 1 | 2011

KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Prof. Jon Shah looks through the cylinder of the Jülich 9.4 tesla MRI-PET. He and his team are working together with Siemens to improve the scanner.

rof. Jon Shah makes a fist. The director at the Institute of Neurosciences and Biophysics then says, “Imagine that this is a brain tumour and it is surrounded by healthy tissue. If the contrast is weak, you will hardly be able to distinguish the fist – or the tumour – from its surroundings.” He is trying to explain one of the major advantages of the 9.4 tesla magnetic resonance imag-

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ing (MRI) scanner “9komma4”. The number of machines worldwide capable of generating such a strong magnetic field can currently be counted on the fingers of one hand. In Germany, there is only one other such scanner. “The contrast increases quadratically with the field strength: a huge improvement. On top of this, we can use other contrast mechanisms at 9.4 teslas that are completely meaningless at 3 teslas, which is the usual strength of machines used in hospitals today,” says Shah. For example, images taken at 9.4 teslas clearly differentiate between white and grey brain matter without the need for image correction tricks. 9.4 teslas correspond to a magnetic field that is approximately 200 times stronger than that of an “everyday” magnet like those we use to post notes on the fridge door. A 9.4 tesla MRI scanner is characterized not only by its high-contrast images but also by its very high “spatial resolution”, as the experts say. In other words, the images are particularly sharp. What this means is immediately clear when Shah shows us images of the hippocampus – a region in the brain that plays a role, for example, in Alzheimer’s disease. The smaller details

of the hippocampus, which are blurred in the 3 tesla images, are clearly visible in the high-field images (see images on p. 32). JÜLICH AS A PIONEER However, the high field strength also has a downside. As the first of its kind, the machine had to pass special official tests and inspections – which is also one of the reasons why the images from 2011 were mainly of the brains of deceased individuals. This is set to change during the course of 2012: 9komma4 will be used to examine healthy test subjects and patients undergoing treatment. However, there is another reason why MRI scanners with field strengths greater than 7 teslas are truly challenging. They demand extremely precise work and only produce optimal images if they have been individually adjusted to each patient or test person in a long and tedious procedure. An MRI scanner produces images because its magnetic field causes the atomic nuclei in the human body – mainly hydrogen nuclei – to align like tiny compass needles. Electromagnetic waves, similar to radio waves, deflect the nuclei from this forced orientation. When

The hippocampus of a deceased individual as imaged by a 3 tesla MRI scanner (left) and a 9.4 tesla scanner (right). The comparison impressively demonstrates the advantages of the higher magnetic field: higher resolution, much more detail and better contrast.

the radio waves are switched off, the atomic nuclei return to their old orientation and emit electromagnetic waves in the process. These are registered by receiver coils like an antenna. Depending on the type of tissue, the length and intensity of this signal vary. The computer then uses this information to calculate images of sections of the brain. EXPLOITING ALL POSSIBILITIES Ever since the phenomenon of magnetic resonance was integrated into medical imaging more than twenty-five years ago, scientists have been trying to optimize the radio-frequency excitation pulses. But the pulse design for conventional 3 tesla devices cannot simply be transferred to the high-field devices. Complex pulses are necessary to exploit the full potential of such devices. “In the

past, these had to be calculated in a time-consuming process using supercomputers while the test subject lay in wait in the scanner. Using such complex pulses on a regular basis therefore appeared a thing of the distant future,” says Shah. However, Shah and his team have since discovered that the pulse required can often be determined by means of a specific quick measurement taken beforehand. Working together with Siemens as their partner, the Jülich scientists have filed a patent for their technique, which allows them to determine the pulse quickly and directly. In addition, they have constructed special magnetic coil systems to further improve the scanner. This means that even at 9.4 teslas, the same kind of tissue results in the same imaging signal – regardless of where it’s located in the brain.

In addition to visualizing anatomical structures, a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner has been integrated into the Jülich 9komma4 to allow biochemical processes and functions in the brain to be analysed. The PET scanner allows us to track how a low-level radioactive tracer injected beforehand spreads out in the brain. This in turn helps researchers learn more about the metabolic processes and receptor activity, which facilitate communication between brain cells. The images produced using PET alone tend to be blurred, which means that it is difficult to pinpoint where something is happening in the brain. Combined with high-field MRI, however, PET is part of the dream team. Frank Frick

PET and MRI for plant research Imaging techniques are not just useful when it comes to investigating the brain. Plant researchers from the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences have refined positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging even further – they use these techniques, for example, to investigate plant structures, water contents and transport processes without damaging the plants.

Research in Jülich 1 | 2011

KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Interview with Dr.-Ing. E. h. Uwe Thomas

“Opening Windows into the Future” The former Parliamentary State Secretary with an honorary doctorate in engineering is convinced that public funding of key technologies has become more important over the last few years. Question: What three technologies do you immediately think of when you hear the words “key technologies”? Thomas: The term is multifaceted. There are key technologies that are important for several different sectors. Among these is the discovery of the transistor many years ago, which later led us on to microelectronics and today to nanoelectronics. Other key technologies are more important for specific fields, such as ionics – the transport and transformation of ions. This is the key to more efficient batteries, which in turn are becoming more and more important for the automotive industry. Another example is laser technology, where the German company Trumpf has become one of the world leaders. In other words, key technologies open up windows into the future, to innovations and new applications. Question: How important is it that key technologies receive public funding? Thomas: Since the 1990s at the latest, the state has borne a very large responsibility for research. This is connected with a global paradigm shift in industry. Previously, an industrial research institution such as Bell Laboratories, for example, would have had in excess of 20,000 employees and would have produced vast amounts of fundamental new knowledge – as well as many Nobel laureates. The same would have been true of Siemens AG, which nowadays performs little or no basic research. Today, companies who conduct hardly any research themselves can still become global lead-

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combine the different fields of research and to work together at the interfaces – something that is often extremely fruitful.

ers by buying out other companies and their technologies and innovations. A good example is CISCO, which has taken over more than 400 innovative companies. The time of large research institutions in industry seems to be over – and publicly funded research has to fill the emerging gaps in order to allow innovation prosper.

Question: Interfaces that frequently lead to the emergence of new key technologies? Thomas: Yes. For example, research on how the human brain works is currently being conducted at Jülich. At the same time, Jülich is a leading centre for parallel computing in Europe. The Human Brain Project unites both of these competencies and is laying the foundation for more flexible and adaptive computers among other things. In the future, this research field could be extended further with the aim of improving our understanding of the human learning process and then using this knowledge to develop learning strategies and software – a field that has yet to be explored but could well develop with increasing momentum over the next few decades with far-reaching consequences. Interviewed by Frank Frick

Question: Apart from the distinction between “public” and “industrial” – is a large research institution more suitable than several smaller centres when it comes to developing key technologies? Thomas: Jülich does indeed have a huge advantage here with its campus. While Max Planck Institutes are scattered throughout the whole of Germany, scientists at Jülich run into each other in the canteen. This makes it much easier to

Uwe Thomas Dr.-Ing. E. h. Uwe Thomas was Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research from 1998 to 2002. During this time, the physicist introduced a number of funding programmes for key technologies.

Using Neutrons to Create New Materials The Stone Age, the Ice Age, the Plastic Era – materials have always influenced the progress of humanity. Today, we are once again standing on a threshold: to materials that can be created anew on a molecular level according to certain criteria. The indispensable access to these tiny dimensions is provided by neutron research.

scratch in the bodywork of a new car is seriously infuriating. Oversized working parts on machines also lead to unnecessary costs in terms of material and energy. In an ideal world, scratches and scrapes would seal themselves automatically, a bit like how a living being heals cuts and fractures. The first products with such self-healing powers already exist – for example, bicycle tyres that release a viscous substance when punctured and seal the hole. “But this only works once in a particular spot,” says chemist Dr. Wim Pyckhout-Hintzen. Together with his colleagues at the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS), he is developing materials that can grow together endlessly again and again. “They form a mesh. When it breaks, it can remesh itself again anew,” says Pyckhout-Hintzen. The materials are made of polymer components, which are chain-like molecules. They are loosely connected to each other via hydrogen bonds and these bonds can be broken and reestablished.

DURABILITY THROUGH SELF-HEALING Wear and tear is something that particles will also counteract on a nanometre scale – in other words, at a magnitude of a few millionths of a millimetre. Distributed in elastic materials, such as the rubber in tyres for cars and bicycles, they ensure stability and reduce abrasion. The principle itself is not new. However, the particles used up to now, like those produced from silicon dioxide or carbon black for instance, were relative-

KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Dr. Andreas Wischnewski (left) and Dr. Wim Pyckhout-Hintzen explore materials with little wear and tear and those that possess self-healing capabilities.

ly course. Fine nanoparticles, in contrast, have a much greater impact – and they allow the advantages of hard and soft materials to be combined. Their surface is significantly larger for the same mass. “This means that there is greater interaction between the embedded particles and the rubber. Tyres or seals made of such material wear at a slower rate,” says Pyckhout-Hintzen. At the moment, the Jülich researchers are trying to unite the two approaches – self-healing and nanoreinforced properties – and create even better materials. They are developing particles that will make rubber and other soft elastic materials more resistant and simultaneously allow them to repair cracks and scratches themselves. The trick is that the Jülich researchers are using molecules with several “arms” that link each other when damage occurs in order to close the gap. This is a promising field of work that is of interest to industry and numerous other scientists. Physicist Dr. Andreas Wischnewski from JCNS believes that Jülich researchers are global leaders thanks to neutron research. “We are

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unique in gaining microscopic access to such materials using neutron scattering experiments. This is the only way, for example, of understanding the self-healing mechanisms at the molecular level.” In addition, neutron researchers at Jülich also use other established investigation methods to measure, for example, mechanical or macroscopic magnetic properties. Jülich researchers operate state-of-the-art instruments at neutron sources throughout the world – such as at the FRM II reactor in Garching near Munich, at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France, and at the spallation source SNS in Oak Ridge, USA, which is Europe’s only direct access to what is currently the strongest pulsed neutron source in the world. IDEAL FOR RESEARCH Together with protons, neutrons are the building blocks of atomic nuclei, and for materials researchers, they are ideal as an investigative tool. In contrast to the electrically charged protons and electrons, neutrons are electrically neutral. Electrical interactions, such as those caused by the electron shell of the

molecule, do not influence them. This allows neutrons to penetrate almost undisturbed deep into the “inner framework” of matter – the atomic nucleus. In small-angle neutron scattering instruments, neutrons behave like a wave – a bit like light but with a much shorter wavelength. They can be used to analyse structures like an extremely high-resolution microscope. Other instruments, such as neutron spin echo spectrometers and backscattering spectrometers reveal the dynamics in the materials being investigated: for example, their elasticity or the movements of molecules in viscous substances. Neutrons behave like particles here. In collisions, they either release or absorb energy. Based on this, the researchers can then determine the velocities of the atoms. “Neutrons reveal where the atoms are located and how they move,” summarizes Prof. Dieter Richter, director of JCNS. In addition, neutrons can also make certain molecules visible in a mixture: by replacing their hydrogen atoms with heavy hydrogen (deuterium), the mixtures are “coloured”, as neutrons interact

Using the neutron spin echo spectrometer (right), researchers can determine how atoms move in materials. Magnets comprising one single giant molecule (above) are also being investigated using neutrons.

very differently with the two forms of hydrogen. HIGH-TECH FOR HANDYMEN One person who exploits this potential is Jülich chemist Dr. Jörg Stellbrink. He conducts research on complex liquids, in other words on mixtures of different polymers as well as colloids, which are finely dispersed particles or droplets in a material. How such mixtures behave is difficult to analyse because of infinite interactions on a molecular level but it is also something that is extremely important. Examples include everyday liquids such as dispersion paints, melts used to produce plastics, and the blood flowing through our veins. In neutron scattering experiments, Stellbrink’s team succeeded in finding evidence for a theory that radically simplifies the innumerable interactions and reduces everything to forces acting be-

tween the centres of the respective molecules. This theory makes it much easier to predict material properties. It was proposed by researchers at the University of Vienna, with whom the Jülich group cooperates. Using neutron scattering experiments at the Institut LaueLangevin, Jülich scientists showed that single polymer molecules labelled with deuterium behave in the complex mixture exactly as the theory predicted. The research field is also relevant to our everyday lives. For example, Jülich chemist Dr. Jürgen Allgaier has developed an environmentally friendly paint brush cleaner in cooperation with a medium-sized enterprise. The main component in his product is an added polymer. It has a hydrophilic and a lipophilic end, the same as conventional active ingredients in detergents (tensides), but the molecule is up to one hundred times longer. The secret here is when it is

The magnetic moments of neighbouring iron atoms – shown here as red arrows – endeavour to align in the opposite direction or antiparallel to each other. In a triangular arrangement (left), this is impossible. They are therefore “frustrated” (jargon) and arrange themselves, for example, as is shown on the right.

mixed with tensides, it enhances their effect. A stable mixture is thus produced – a microemulsion – from water, vegetable oils and the additive. It removes paint and adhesive residues just as effectively as conventional paint brush cleaners – but without any harmful solvents. SPINS FOR IT Neutrons have yet another property: they posses a magnetic moment, the spin. This allows them to “feel” the atomic arrangement of elementary magnets in a material and makes them perfect for exploring magnetism. “Almost everything that we know about magnetic structures and the movement of elementary magnets is due to neutron scattering experiments. And they are also ideally suited for paving the way towards the next revolution in information technology,” says Dieter Richter. While working on his PhD, Dr. Zhendong Fu looked at magnets comprising a single spherical giant molecule known as a polyoxometalate. It possesses 30 magnetic iron atoms arranged in five-member rings and triangles. The spins of neighbouring iron atoms are always antiparallel. Yet this is geometrically impossible here (see diagram p. 36). “Such frustrated arrangements are particularly interesting for basic research,” says Fu. The molecular magnets can also be easily adapted for anticipated future applications as they are uniform in size and

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KEY TECHNOLOGIES

can be chemically varied. Possible applications include future data storage systems with enormous densities as well as components for quantum computers. SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AS A PHENOMENON Neutron spins could also provide us with clues on the phenomenon of superconductivity which has fascinated scientists for over a hundred years. Back then, Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered that mercury conducts electric current loss-free at temperatures below around -269 °C. Since then, several superconducting materials have been identified, including high-temperature superconductors, which were originally exclusively made from copperoxide compounds. They possess superconducting properties, which are “already” activated at temperatures much higher than -200 °C. The reasons for this are still not understood today. These materials can be cooled relatively cheaply with liquid nitrogen, but power cables with no resistance at room temperature still remain a vision. Jülich neutron researchers Dr. Shibabrata Nandi and Dr. Yinguo Xiao are investigating a completely new class of high-temperature superconductors whose basic structure comprises iron and arsenic. “These compounds led to the onset of the “iron age” of superconductivity,” says Prof. Thomas Brückel, director at the Peter Grünberg Institute and JCNS. “They allow us to approach the complex problem of high-temperature superconductivity from a different angle.” The iron compounds lose their resistance at around -220 °C. Their superconducting properties also elude conventional theoretical models. Many experts presume that this puzzling behaviour is caused by “fluctuating spins” – in other words, by spins that change their orientation. This form of superconductivity would then depend on the magnetic order. The experiments with neutrons at Jülich provide important atomic microscopic information, which is decisive in clarifying this physical phenomenon.

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For example, Jülich researchers are investigating how the magnetic structure of superconductors changes with temperature. “Our experiments also facilitate the search for materials suitable for practical applications,” says Shibabrata Nandi. One advantage of the iron-based superconductors with which he works is that they are metallic, in contrast to many other high-temperature superconductors, and are comparatively easy to process into wires. If the transition temperature to superconductivity could be increased by another 30 degrees, then this material would be a potential candidate for power cables. “One possible application in a few years would be improved superconducting coils for MRI scanners,” says Nandi.

Other uses for neutrons In addition to materials research, neutrons are also used in many other areas: • Structural analysis of biomolecules • Irradiation of tumours • Detection of environmental pollutants • Nondestructive materials testing • Production of radionuclides for medicine and research

Wiebke Rögener

The effect of a conventional paint brush cleaner (left) compared to that of a cleaner developed by a team including scientists from Jülich.

Outlook

for Key Technologies

Research for a Sustainable Bioeconomy In the future, plants will provide us with sufficient food, biobased materials, chemicals and fuel. At the Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC), which was set up in 2010, more than 1200 scientists investigate how this will be made possible by a sustainable bioeconomy. The official launch of the alliance in September 2011 was also attended by high-ranking representatives from politics. They welcomed the unique European concept, which will see Forschungszentrum Jülich and the universities of Bonn, Düsseldorf and Aachen working together on the pioneering field of bioeconomy. www.biosc.de

Performing Calculations a Thousand Times Faster A quintillion floating point operations per second – an exaflop/s – is what a supercomputer should be capable of in 2020. This would make it a thousand times faster than today’s machines. However, existing concepts to make computers faster cannot be extended indefinitely without causing a disproportionate increase in time and money. In the newly launched EU project DEEP, Forschungszentrum Jülich is collaborating with fourteen European partners in an effort to develop a new platform for exaflop computers. Companies such as Intel and ParTec, with whom Jülich has been working in the ExaCluster Laboratory since 2010, are also involved in the project. www.deep-project.eu

Green Information Technology For a long time, supercomputers subscribed to the motto of “only the (computational) speed counts”. But just like in Formula One racing, energy consumption has increasingly become the centre of attention. Researchers at the

Jülich Supercomputing Centre are working on different aspects of “green” information technology. For example, they are testing particularly efficient cooling techniques. In addition, they are developing software within the Eu-

ropean research collaboration “Fit4Green” that will allow supercomputer users to run different tasks with significantly less energy and no loss in computing power. www.fit4green.eu

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KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Accelerator for Antimatter

Most Powerful Neutron Source in the World In 2019, Lund in the south of Sweden will become home to the European Spallation Source (ESS), which will provide scientists from all disciplines with new insights into matter. The plans for what will then be the most powerful neutron source in the world are currently being optimized. Science managers from Jülich are coordinating the German contribution. ESS will also benefit from the know-how gained by Jülich researchers, who currently operate instruments at the top international neutron sources FRM II, ILL and SNS. www.ess-scandinavia.eu

More than a dozen countries are involved in FAIR – the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research. Starting in 2018, the accelerator centre in Darmstadt will make new experiments possible that will allow us to explore the development of the universe as well as the creation of matter and its counterpart, antimatter. FAIR will cost more than a billion euros. It comprises two linear and eight ring facilities. Jülich physicists and engineers are designing the centre for “physics with antimatter”, which is second largest of these with a circumference of 575 metres – HESR. Researchers are currently testing central components and detectors at the Jülich synchrotron COSY. www.fair-center.de

Foundation of Nanoelectronics Lab One of the most modern nanoelectronics laboratories in Europe is to be completed by 2013 on campus at Forschungszentrum Jülich. A total of around € 25 million will be invested in the project. The Helmholtz Nanoelectronic Facility will boast a

cleanroom area of approximately 1 000 square metres. It will allow researchers to develop new materials, processes and structures on a nanometre scale – and provide the basis for new sensors, processors and memories in the future.

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