Coffee: It leaves some people feeling fit and refreshed; in others, it makes their heart race. Scientists have developed several decaffeination processes to allow even people who react badly to caffeine to enjoy a cup of the “black brew.” Kurt Zosel from the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr came across one of these processes quite by chance in 1967.
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From shopping bags to shampoo bottles to plastic watering cans – many everyday objects both large and small might look very different if it hadn’t been for the invention of chemist and Max Planck researcher Karl Ziegler. It took the catalysts developed at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung (coal research) to pave the way for the use of plastics in everyday items.
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In industrialized countries, corrosion guzzles up to 4 percent of economic performance annually. Consequently, scientists working with Martin Stratmann and Michael Rohwerderat the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung (Iron Research) in Düsseldorf are developing synthetic coatings that can protect steels and other metals from rust and heal themselves if they become damaged.
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Structure of amorphous materials clarified. This project has so far been a big challenge due to the complexity of this material class. Modern preparation methods in combination with scanning tunneling microscopy succeed in decrypting the everyday material glass.
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