Research Magazine
2012
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Magazine 01/2012
If dissimilar couples enter into a union for life, the relationship doesn't necessarily have to fail. On the contrary: such partnerships have decisively shaped the evolution of our planet. Max Planck researchers are examining symbioses in animals and plants and keep discovering fascinating details. Bacteria, for example, produce protective antibiotics for insect larvae or help deep sea muscle in the provision of energy.
2011
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Magazine 01/2011
India is currently experiencing an "economic miracle" and one of the most important growth markets worldwide. And it is also developing into a hub for research of the highest international calibre. All this is reason enough for Max Planck scientists to collaborate with Indian colleagues – or to turn the subcontinent itself into the object of their research.
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Magazine 02/2011
A long life in perfect health – this is what humans have always dreamed of. While modern medicine is far from being able to fulfill this dream, basic research helps us understand our bodies better and to treat diseases in a more targeted manner.
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Magazine 03/2011
In the future, will we transport computer chips on banknotes, roll up our monitors before putting them into our pockets, and store and access ever larger volumes of data on our PCs in a very fast and easy manner? Max Planck researchers are working on "organic electronics" and nano storage units in order to ensure that such scenarios eventually become part of our everyday lives.
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Magazine 04/2011
Every fifth German has a migration background - that corresponds to more than 16 million people. Not only politicians and authorities must respond to this demographic trend. Researchers also increasingly turn their attention to the subject of migration. In this issue of our research magazine, Max Planck scientists examine the topic from three different angles.
2010
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Magazine 01/2010
In order to live as a part of society we must understand others. This requires social awareness. Max Planck researchers investigate how this skill has developed and how we read each other's minds.
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Magazine 02/2010
Clouds are far more than the objects of romantic musings - they are an important factor in the global climate system. Scientists want to understand the structure as well as chemistry and physics of these floating water reservoirs.
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Magazine 03/2010
Our energy needs are growing rapidly, while at the same time conventional sources of energy such as fossil fuels endanger the climate. Basic researchers are working on new concepts so that our earth will remain green.
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Magazine 04/2010
If you want to reach a specific destination, you need detailed information about your environment. To this end, both humans and animals use various strategies. Max Planck researchers have now attempted to unravel the secrets of orientation by means of sophisticated experiments.
2009
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Magazine 01/2009
Newtonian physics is completely sufficient for everyday use: it explains why a ripe apple hanging on a tree falls off onto someone's head, helps us avoid an accelerating car, and describes the trajectory of a banana shot. But Newton's formulas aren't even half the truth of physics. For very small-scale objects, quantum physics applies, which contradicts our everyday experience with mysterious phenomena - with quantum acceleration, spooky action at a distance, and compass needles that point both north and south at the same time.
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Magazine 02/2009
Robots with a thirst for knowledge, potatoes a la (genetic) carte, or living cells which produce new materials. Utopian scenarios? Yes and no. Max Planck researchers are currently working on turning these visions into reality.
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Magazine 03/2009
For long time, smell and taste languished on the shadow side of sensory physiology. Today, these chemical senses are among the most exciting areas within neurobiology - as is attested by the research activities of Max Planck scientists in three new departments.
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Magazine 04/2009
The solar system offers a vast array of fields for research. Excursions to planets, moons and small bodies such as asteroids and comets teach us a lot about our cosmic neighborhood - and even about the history and evolution of the Earth itself.
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Magazine SP/2009
Nutrition, health, energy - these are three of the fields in which basic research provides practical applications. Thus, Max-Planck scientists assist in the challenge of mastering climatic change, the scarcity of resources and of demographic change
2008
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Magazine 01/2008
There is hardly a more creative process than the mechanism of mutation and selection. Max Planck researchers investigate the molecular processes of evolution and why some changes are dominant, and some aren't.
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Magazine 02/2008
It is not solid, not liquid and not gas, and yet we encounter this matter everywhere - in stars and lightning, in neon lights and television screens. Max Planck researchers study various plasmas both in space and in the laboratory.
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Magazine 03/2008
It persuades us with purity and dazzles us with beauty, for example, when converting complex contexts into a simple equation. Mathematics also helps to solve practical problems in biology, medicine, or materials science.
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Magazine 04/2008
China is a fascinating country with many facets but also with many problems resulting from its transformation to an industrial nation. Max Planck researchers are involved in this change; we introduce some of their projects.
2007
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Magazine 01/2007
What sounds like a buzzword of the 21st century is an integral feature of every human community and has been the engine of all cultural development since time immemorial. 'Mobility' is thus a rich subject for basic research.
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Magazine 02/2007
The human brain resembles a parallel computer with high-dimensional, non-linear processes. We may never be able to fully unravel and understand its complexities. At any rate it provides scientists with a wealth of material.
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Magazine 03/2007
Globalisation and technical progress are changing the world. Cybercrime and bioethics have become today's buzzwords. How can we meet these challenges? Researchers from Max Planck Institutes are looking for answers.
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Magazine 04/2007
Progress in science and technology is based on the precise knowledge and resourceful application of materials. To this end, researchers examine the inner life of plants and minerals just as much as that of organs of the baroque period.
2006
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Magazine 01/2006
The shimmering band of the Milky Way has always fascinated mankind throughout the ages. Today, astrophysicists gain insights into previously inaccessible regions of the galaxy, as well as into its structure and history.
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Magazine 02/2006
For millennia, mankind has known primarily the surface of oceans. It is only today that scientists have delved into the depths of the water continent, discovering it as an important habitat - and also a new field for legal scientists.
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Magazine 03/2006
Technical progress and a growing world population are a challenge for basic research. In the laboratories of the Max Planck Institutes, the future has already begun – here scientists work on new environmental energy sources.
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Magazine 04/2006
We are living in the age of information. But what is meant by that phrase? More, in any case, than the simple dissemination of facts. Focus offers some insight on this topic – from the brain of a fly to virtual worlds.
2005
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Magazine 01/2005
We know them from computers or digital cameras, but chips can do much more than just calculate or capture images. Researchers use them to investigate the genetic causes of diseases or even build entire laboratories on them.
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Magazine 02/2005
To gain knowledge of or a skill in something is an intrinsic characteristic of biological systems. Many aspects of the phenomenon of learning, however, are still puzzling. And it is by no means only people or animals that learn.
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Magazine 03/2005
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Rome and Florence are working in inspiring locations. Per mouse click they explore the baroque period or study the stone archives in Siena, putting art and architecture into historical context.
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Magazine 04/2005
Natural scientists study the human organism. This is what all medical students learn in the first semester. Max Planck researchers also use methods from quantum physics and cosmology for diagnostics and therapy.
2004
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Magazine 01/2004
Microscopes sharpen our view of the invisible world. The equipment modern researchers use today, however, has nothing to do with the apparatus Dutch eyeglass makers busied themselves with more than 400 years ago.
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Magazine 02/2004
The phenomenon of time is relative,
a fact we have been aware of since Einstein, and it is difficult to grasp although it is just as present in biological clocks as in atoms. Embark on a search for the mechanism of time. -
Magazine 03/2004
Throughout the world different religious views are running up against each other. Europe too is turning into a land of immigration and hence a religious melting pot. Conflicts are a given.
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Magazine 04/2004
Minute protein machines perform heavy labor in our body and ship cellular parcels from one end of the cells to the other. Read more on how researchers are investigating these driving forces of life.
2003
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Magazine 01/2003
The products of material sciences affect our day-to-day life more than ever before. Developments are progressing incredibly fast. Will our computers soon work with bits and bytes made of light?
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Magazine 02/2003
Multiple sclerosis affects around 120,000 people alone in Germany.
As of yet there is no cure. Today researchers are endeavored to better understand neurological diseases. -
Magazine 03/2003
Language makes human beings human. Nevertheless, researchers are just now beginning to understand how we produce and process it. Submerse yourself in the world of language.
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Magazine 04/2003
Microorganisms are among the most fascinating living things on earth. Taking a glance at the world of minute beings reveals many a secret.
2002
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Magazine 01/2002
The universe has captivated people throughout the ages. Just in recent decades researchers have uncovered many cosmic mysteries thanks to new observation methods.
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Magazine 02/2002
Groundbreaking science is inconceivable without high performance computers. Whether in astronomy or in cell biology many of the problems scientists investigate would be inaccessible or unsolvable without high performance computers.
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Magazine 03/2002
Research needs teams that are not just made up of experts from the same discipline. Only when experts from various fields cooperate do new perspectives arise.
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Magazine 04/2002
Plants are the foundation for almost all life on earth and a fruitful work field for scientists at that. Plant biology keeps on producing surprising results.
2001
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Magazine 01/2001
Epidemics are one of the most common causes of death worldwide. In 1999, for example, more than 17 million people died from infectious diseases. Read about how Max Planck scientists are working to combat mankind’s natural enemies.
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Magazine 02/2001
Fuel cells are regarded as an innovative source of energy. Basic research has played a considerable role in developing this new technology.
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Magazine 03/2001
Goods are universal and, in the case of air and water, indispensable. How has consumption developed? What legal problems have arisen in dealing with data and knowledge?
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Magazine 04/2001
Listening, looking and touching are ways in which we perceive our environment. Many of the isolated impressions our sensory organs perceive add up to a complex whole.
