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Published 5 August 2021 by Christoph Schumacher

Topics of the Lindau Online Sciathon 2021

The second Lindau Online Sciathon will take place 10-12 September 2021. Once again, we’re giving our Lindau Alumni community the opportunity to work together during a 48-hour hackathon-type event and competition.

This year, we’re asking Lindau Alumni to submit their project ideas in six topic categories that are based on the panel discussions of the 70th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. Building on the conversations at #LINO70, we’re looking to our interdisciplinary community to develop further projects to address the big questions in the future of science – during the Sciathon and beyond. Find all six topics below and more information on sciathon.org.

New Approaches to Future Global Health Issues Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus impacted all our lives in 2020 and 2021. Besides the illness, the crisis has underlined existing problems and inequalities while also showing the importance of communication and collaboration.

The panel discussion with Nobel Laureates Harvey J. Alter, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi as well as Richard Neher and Jana Huisman launched the 70th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. They talked about the cooperation between science and politics especially in the beginning of the pandemic. And about the great success: The fast development of vaccines.

CRISPR, mRNA Vaccines and Further Advances for the Next Generation of Medicine

The great advancements in medicine were discussed during #LINO70, from genome editing techniques to new classes of vaccines to personalised medicine.

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard as well as Alena Buyx and young scientist Julia Jansing had an engaging discussion about the possibilities and problems of the CRISPR-Cas9 technology.

New Ideas for Greener Energy and More Sustainable Industries

Climate change is upon us. Maybe more than changes in individual behaviour, keeping its impact at bay will hinge on greener solutions for our energy needs, technological advancements and a transition to a more sustainable economy.

Steven Chu, Robert B. Laughlin, and Hartmut Michel, as well as climate scientist Nadine Mengis and geologic climatologist Gerald Haug, stressed during #LINO70 how big of a challenge tackling climate change really is.

From Astrophysics to High Energy Physics and Particle Physics

New models of dark matter, deciphering the nature of dark energy and the need for a new concept beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics – open questions at the frontier of physics were discussed at the 70th Lindau Meeting.

Young scientist Saskia Plura exchanged their thaughts about “dark energy” with the Nobel Laureates Reinhard Genzel, David J. Gross, Saul Perlmutter and Rainer Weiss.

Artificial Intelligence: Promises and Threats

The potential uses of artificial intelligence and machine learning seem endless, from healthcare to transportation to finance, but the societal implications and potential threats are significant.

Nobel Laureate Michael Levitt, Turing Award Laureate Vinton G. Cerf as well as Bernhard Schölkopf and the young scientists Marco Eckhoff, Dina ElHarouni and Eleni Karatza talked about the impact of AI on various fields. As well as on research itself where many processes can be automated, which leads to faster results and less costs.

How Can Open Science Improve the Public’s Trust in Science?

The Open Science movement is gaining support, researchers worldwide are advocating for the public availability and reusability of scientific data, increased transparency in the experimental methodology, observation, and collection and more.

#LINO70 ended with a panel discussion about the question “Why Trust Science?” Answeres came from Brian P. Schmidt, Carl-Henrik Heldin, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, young scientist Balkees Abderrahman. One day before Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Randy W. Schekman as well as young scientists George Datseris and Michal Jex had talked about the advantages of Open Science.

A Look Forward to September

The first Sciathon last year was a great experience for everyone who was part of the event. We are looking forward again to enjoying a weekend full of inspiriring ideas within a network of collaboration all around the globe.

Inspiring Content

Christoph Schumacher

Christoph Schumacher is the alumni and community manager of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Before coming to Lindau, he studied British and North American Studies in Konstanz and Freiburg. He's excited to connect with scientists across the world.