MaxPlanckResearch 4/2024

As satellite mega-constellations such as Starlink and OneWeb get increasingly bigger, they are radically altering the night sky. This has consequences for astronomy. The satellites reflect sunlight and, alongside their intended communication signals, they also emit unwanted radio waves towards the Earth. This interferes with the work of astronomy, which measures very weak radio waves from the cosmos.

As a child, Meeyoung “Mia” Cha had a dream: she wanted to be an astrophysicist. But her path took a different turn. After a challenging time at school, she decided not to reach for the stars, but to pursue computer science instead. Today, as a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy she studies how artificial intelligence and social media are changing society.

It can take hours and hours to solve a puzzle with a thousand pieces. It tookv Martin Beck from the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt 20 years to complete a very special puzzle: the researcher and his team uncovered the arrangement of the thousand protein molecules that make up each nuclear pore – protein complexes that form a tunnel-like passage through the membrane of the cell nucleus. The proteins serve as both gates and gatekeepers: they connect the nucleus with the surrounding cell and actively control what is allowed in and out. Viruses, for example, have to remain outside.

As sustainability becomes ever more important, steel and other materials must meet increasingly demanding requirements: they need to be non-toxic, produced with minimal waste, and fully recyclable. There’s also a push to reduce reliance on countries like China for raw materials. This makes it especially challenging to develop new materials and manufacturing methods. To tackle this, Jörg Neugebauer and Dierk Raabe from the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials are now turning to artificial intelligence.

In agriculture, growth and sustainability seem to be irreconcilable. Artificial intelligence can help resolve this contradiction. The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen is working with the agricultural sector to develop a robot that will efficiently and sustainably work the fields in the future.

Quantum computers are expected to perform certain calculations – such as those underlying the design of wind turbines and aircraft engines, material development, or climate research – much faster than today’s computers. And that’s why companies like Microsoft, Google, and IBM are heavily investing in them. In 2022, the Garching-based start-up planqc, a spin-off from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, entered the race – with its own technical concept. The company’s first quantum computers are expected to be operational by 2027.

Max Planck researchers co-operate with partners in more than 120 countries. Here they write about their personal experiences and impressions. Marwa Kavelaars from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin travelled to wintry Scandinavia for three weeks. She investigates human decision-making behavior and talks about her work with Finnish ice fishers.