Tweeted and Blogged Science
There is no such star as @Astro_Alex in the German science scene on twitter these days. Alexander Gerst, a geophysicist, volcanologist and explorer is living and working on the International Space Station since May 28 and everyone reading his tweets and his blog can take part of his very special journey.
Ada Yonath and the Female Question
Lindau Blog author Kathleen Raven Reviews Ada Yonath’s lecture at the 2013 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.
All our hopes and fears: Why the Lindau meeting needs to include psychologists
When I visited Lindau this year I experienced a mix of hopes and fears. The hopes came from the Nobel Prize winners and the young students and researchers gathered there. As a supposedly unbiased observer it was my job to provide skepticism and express fears. What was the source of the fears? The problem was […]
The danger of losing the creative element of science – Sir John E. Walker
Last October 39 Nobel Laureates and 5 Fields Medal winners signed an open letter to warn against cutting the future European Union research budget. Among them was Sir John E. Walker – together with eleven further Laureates who attend this year’s Lindau Meeting. „In case of a severe reduction in the EU research and innovation […]
When chemists meet they talk about drugs
“You can make crystal meth in your lab?” asked my housemate who was pursuing a PhD in computer science. “Yes, it’s a fairly simple molecule. I haven’t looked but I bet that I won’t have trouble finding the chemicals needed to make it,” I said. At the time I was a lowly graduate student pursuing […]
A statement in preparation before the communication panel
‘Why communicate?’ is the title of Thursdays afternoon panel discussion during the 63rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (July 4th). I am very happy that this panel will take place, as I think there is a need to talk about changes in science communication. And I was kindly asked to join this panel together with Simon […]
Sketches of Science – Nobel Pictures
Three years ago I met the photographer Volker Steger for the first time. He prepared one of the ‚secret’ rooms in the Inselhalle in Lindau. Huge white sheets of paper and wax crayons lay around. You would not have guessed, that what happend there, was high art with simple means. It was the 60ths Nobel […]
Behind the greatest experiments: basic research
Insight must precede application. — Max Planck, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1918 One summer day a young Martin Chalfie walked out of a lab after a particularly frustrating experiment. He thought—quite erroneously—that the life of a scientist was not for him. After teaching high school chemistry for some years, he gave one more try. Working […]
What to learn from Nobel Laureates
Being able to meet 35 Nobel laureates is a rare and highly desirable opportunity. A question that arises when preparing to meet people of such stature is: What can we learn from them? It was my good fortune that I already had the chance to meet one of the laureates – Paul Crutzen (Nobel Prize […]
‘Create an international network’
Crystal Valdez is part of this year’s official video blog team – and as a talented researcher one out of more than 600 young researchers who will attend the 63rd Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau. Actually she is a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the chemistry & biochemistry department. […]
Kroto: Science is “lost in translation”
If you don’t know English, you can still understand Shakespeare’s stories, Sir Harold Kroto told me after his lecture at Lindau on Thursday. But, crucially, “you cannot understand his use of language, because language is a cultural thing – and the culture is lost in translation.” ‘Lost in translation’ was the title of Kroto’s lecture […]
Chance Favors the Prepared Mind
Chance favors only the prepared mind, said Louis Pasteur. Indeed history is filled with stories of great discoveries through serendipity. As Douglas Osheroff said, "most advances require both insight and good fortune" in his talk about how scientific discoveries are made. Biology is a field that has a particularly interesting history involving good luck as […]