Perseverance, important problems, fellowship and dreams: Take-home lessons

Kategorie: Englische Postings·Geschichte / History·Kultur·Nobelpreisträgertreffen 2009·ScienceBlogs Kategorien

Marie Curie once said that "Science is about things, and not people". While this statement is true and profound, the fruits of science are unmistakably linked to their human origins, postmodernist relativism notwithstanding. The scientists who make discoveries are human beings, and they shoulder their share of foibles and successes, petty rivalries and forthcoming generosity, despair and triumph. Their life displays cycles that any young researcher will go through in his or her future career.

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Autor: Ashutosh Jogalekar· 08.07.09 · 13:00 Uhr· 0 Kommentare

Wo ist der Witz? Greek tragedy or preventable catastrophe?

Kategorie: Englische Postings·Kultur·Nobelpreisträgertreffen 2009·Politik·ScienceBlogs Kategorien·Umwelt  ·  Kommentare: 5

When the controversial and talented physicist Edward Teller was doing a PhD. with the great Werner Heisenberg at the University of Leipzig, the question asked at the end of every group meeting that focused on a complex sequence of problems was "Wo ist der Witz?", supposed to be translated as "What is the point"? but more correctly translated as "What is the joke?". The joke part of it consisted of turning a wry eye at the world, donning the hat of the court jester who laughs even as the fire that he predicted would engulf the world rages on. The question about global warming that we ask is also "Wo ist der Witz"? and we only hope that the joke is not upon us and we can actually still get the last laugh. Whether we might was the topic of discussion of a panel on global warming on the final day of the 59th Meeting of Nobel Laureates at Lindau.

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Autor: Ashutosh Jogalekar· 07.07.09 · 00:26 Uhr· 5 Kommentare

Air Born(e)s - Weiße Würfel im Sonnenblumenfeld

Kategorie: Deutsche Postings·Nobelpreisträgertreffen 2009·ScienceBlogs Kategorien·Technik·Umwelt  ·  Kommentare: 1

Ich müsse dort unbedingt hingehen und mir dafür viel Zeit nehmen, hatte mir Professor Wolfgang Schürer, Vorstand der Stiftung Lindauer Nobelpreisträgertreffen am Bodensee, ans Herz gelegt und mir begeistert nicht nur von den Inhalten der Ausstellung „Entdeckungen - Wasser" berichtet. Schürer hat insbesondere vom architektonischen Konzept der Ausstellung geschwärmt. Aufblasbare Bauten. Dabei dachte ich sofort an Energie verschwendende Hüpfburgen. Aber nein, das Konzept sei nachhaltig. So etwas will ich immer genau wissen.

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Autor: Beatrice Lugger· 04.07.09 · 15:30 Uhr· 1 Kommentar

Die Landschaft, die Seen, der weißblaue Himmel

Kategorie: Nobelpreisträgertreffen 2009·Politik·ScienceBlogs Kategorien

Der Bayerische Wissenschaftsminister Wolfgang Heubisch im Gespräch am Rande des Bayerischen Abends am Donnerstag Abend, 2. Juli 2009, während des Lindauer Nobelpreisträgertreffens.

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Autor: Beatrice Lugger· 04.07.09 · 00:20 Uhr· 0 Kommentare

Young researchers on science and faith

Kategorie: Englische Postings·Kultur·ScienceBlogs Kategorien

In some ways Harry Kroto's talk at Lindau was the most provocative of all because of its emphasis on a rejection, or at least transparent criticism, of religious faith. To get an idea of what students thought about it I buttonholed three graduate students, two from Germany and one from Russia, during lunch on Thursday. Florian and Annalena are students at the University of Frankfurt and Aachen respectively and Peter is a student at the University of St. Petersburg. In an interactive dialogue I found that Florian and Annalena differed a little in their views of Kroto's talk and the whole science-religion issue. This was a good thing since disagreement always offers one a chance to truly learn.

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Autor: Ashutosh Jogalekar· 02.07.09 · 23:01 Uhr· 0 Kommentare

Making ends meet; Mr. Fantastic, hedgehogs and the dance of the bonds

Kategorie: Chemie / Chemistry·Englische Postings·Naturwissenschaften·Nobelpreisträgertreffen 2009·ScienceBlogs Kategorien·Vorträge / Lectures

Today's talk by MIT chemist Richard Schrock was about a discovery that was applied in part to a long-standing chemical problem. There was no efficient method for forming large molecular rings until Robert Grubbs from Caltech and Schrock arrived on the scene. The method that accomplished this was called olefin metathesis. For their achievement, Schrock and Grubbs shared the Nobel Prize in 2005 with French chemist Yves Chauvin. Just as the Nobel Prize for GFP was long anticipated in the community of biochemists, the Nobel Prize for metathesis had been long anticipated in the community of organic chemists. Nobody was surprised when Grubbs and Schrock received it.

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Autor: Ashutosh Jogalekar· 02.07.09 · 16:25 Uhr· 0 Kommentare

Erwin Neher im Interview: Proofing the Channel Concept

Kategorie: Deutsche Postings·Englische Postings·Naturwissenschaften·ScienceBlogs Kategorien·Video-Interviews

Für seine Entdeckungen zur Funktion von einzelnen Ionenkanälen in Zellen wurde Erwin Neher 1991 mit dem Nobelpreis für Medizin oder Physiologie ausgezeichnet. In seinem Vortrag am Dienstag sprach Neher über die molekularen Mechanismen der Signalübertragung zwischen Synapsen und erklärte welche Rolle die Freisetzung und Wiederaufnahme von Neurotransmittern hat.

Im Interview erinnert er sich an die Ausgangsbedingungen und technischen Schwierigkeiten seiner damaligen Arbeiten, die ihm am Ende den Nobelpreis einbrachten. Er erklärt die Vorgehensweise und den Forschungsprozess, der sich über viele Jahre erstreckte und spricht am Ende über seine derzeitigen Forschungsschwerpunkte.

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Erwin Neher was awarded the 1991 Nobel for Medicine or Physiology along with Bert Sakmann for their discoveries concerning the function of single ion channels in cells. His talk here in Lindau was about the molecular mechanisms at a synapse.

In the interview Neher goes back to the old days and talks about his first steps in his hot spot of science. Surely there have been certain kinds of technical difficulties in the beginning of his research, but finally he was honored with a Nobelprize. What have been the decisions and what was the research progress over several years? And last not least (!) Neher talks about his current research.

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Autor: ScienceBlogs-Redaktion· 02.07.09 · 15:45 Uhr· 0 Kommentare

A many-colored glass; the glow of life and the joy of discovery

Kategorie: Chemie / Chemistry·Englische Postings·Naturwissenschaften·Nobelpreisträgertreffen 2009·ScienceBlogs Kategorien·Vorträge / Lectures

Last year's chemistry Nobel Prize was one of the most softball predictions ever made for the Nobel Prize. The Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) has become so widely used in chemistry, biology and medicine that it is easy to forget that someone had to discover it and develop the technology. Every year Roger Tsien's name used to be on everybody's favorite candidate list along with Martin Chalfie's and Osamu Shimomura's. Then last year, he along with Shimomura and Chalfie finally put the tortuous process and spilling of ink to rest.

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Autor: Ashutosh Jogalekar· 02.07.09 · 11:22 Uhr· 0 Kommentare

Wo war der Käseigel?

Kategorie: Chemie / Chemistry·Kultur·Nobelpreisträgertreffen 2009·ScienceBlogs Kategorien

Lange, sehr lange schon hat mich keiner mehr zu einem Diaabend mit seinen Urlaubsbildern eingeladen. Dabei ist das doch immer recht spannend. Denn an solchen Abenden lernt man selbst beste Freunde noch ein wenig besser kennen.

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Autor: Beatrice Lugger· 01.07.09 · 18:09 Uhr· 0 Kommentare

Lindau, day two: Drugs, Warming and Calcium

Kategorie: Chemie / Chemistry·Englische Postings·Medizin·Naturwissenschaften·ScienceBlogs Kategorien

Waste is not usually a popular topic for polite conversation. Biochemists also avoided it for many years, thinking of protein degradation as a general process that simply gets rid of unwanted biological waste. It was not until Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose discovered the ubiquitin-based protein degradation system that the specificity and centrality of this process in life was recognized. Ubiquitin, as the name indicates, is a small protein that is ubiquitously expressed in eukaryotes. It binds to unwanted and broken down proteins and peptides and labels them for recognition by the proteasome, where they are broken down. Both ubiquitin and the proteasome have emerged as key features of living systems. They underscore the notion that death is as important as life. Not only have both of these become important in the study of biological processes but the proteasome has also emerged as a possible target for drugs.

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Autor: Ashutosh Jogalekar· 30.06.09 · 11:15 Uhr· 0 Kommentare

Surface success

Kategorie: Chemie / Chemistry·Englische Postings·Naturwissenschaften·Nobelpreisträgertreffen 2009·ScienceBlogs Kategorien

Last night, I was lulled to sleep by the sound of 2007 chemistry laureate Gerhard Ertl's gentle voice. Ertl wasn't in my hotel room, I hasten to add. I had switched on my television and there he was on local network giving an interview... in German, naturally.

I managed to identify a few words, such as "electron", "atom", "positive" and "negative" and so assumed he was discussing his prizewinning work in surface chemistry, which explained how fundamental molecular processes at the gas-solid interface take place. I thought to myself that it would be highly unlikely to come across such a good, old-fashioned technical interview on a UK television channel. Then I fell asleep.

This morning, from the window of a bus, I spotted Ertl in the middle of a roundabout -- this time in the form of a giant black and white portrait in a gallery erected to publicize the 59th Lindau meeting.
Finally, there he was in the flesh - kicking off the meeting with a half hour talk about, you guessed it, surface chemistry.

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Autor: Matthew Chalmers· 29.06.09 · 16:00 Uhr· 0 Kommentare

Das Besondere am Lindauer Meeting

Kategorie: Deutsche Postings·Kultur·Nobelpreisträgertreffen 2009·ScienceBlogs Kategorien

Wer einmal in Lindau war, wird es nie vergessen und sich bei vielen anderen Tagungen und Konferenzen fragen, weshalb es nur nicht gelingen mag, eine ähnliche Atmosphäre zu zaubern.

Denn meist sind Konferenzen eine staubtrockene Angelegenheit - abgesehen von den Abenden an der Hotelbar oder dem Special Dinner. Lindau dagegen ist ein lebendiger Bienenschwarm und gleichzeitig eine Oase der Ruhe. Wie kann das sein?

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Autor: Beatrice Lugger· 26.06.09 · 09:45 Uhr· 0 Kommentare