CAMPUS

#Berlinforschtmit – Clowning for new research

A new format of Knowledge Exchange of the Berlin University Alliance

What is a clown doing in a museum? They surprise. They enchant. And they ask. “What questions do you have for new research?” In the format of #Berlin forscht mit – The Research Forum Berlin Citizens, classic theatre techniques of clowning and mime are used. The improvisation artists play with the expected, the embarrassing and mishaps. They transform difficulties into opportunities and create moments of fantasy and laughter. These creative encounters with the audience are used to gather perspectives, questions and themes for research. They are an element of co-exploration for transdisciplinary research and an expression of the innovative understanding of Knowledge Exchange at Berlin University Alliance.

Bayer Foundation and SciCO are doing some social brainstorming! Whether you are at school, have an office job, are a parent or a scientist (or all of the above), science is an important part of life and we all have our own Scientific Journey. We want to learn what you think about science, how it affects your life, and what hurdles you face on your own personal Scientific Journey. Stop by our interactive journey board to share your thoughts and explore what others said about their own journey: not just the challenges, but importantly, how they overcame them.

Solar energy is already one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity. We are researching the next generation of solar cells, which are even more efficient and economical.

Green hydrogen will also play a role in the energy transition, as energy storage, fuel and raw material. We are developing novel catalyst materials that can enormously accelerate the electrolytic splitting of water. 

For our research, we operate a huge X-ray source, BESSY II. Here we can analyse materials with atomic precision. For example, also the building blocks of life, the proteins. At our virtual reality station you can travel inside a protein and experience its complex three-dimensional architecture.

Material Shapes the Ages: Materials have had such a profound impact on humanity that we name entire historical ages after them. Whether in the Bronze Age or the Silicon Age, new materials always led to technological progress and deep societal transformations. Today’s materials transform entire industries and the way we live our lives. Without them, there would be no smartphones, no energy-efficient houses, no dental implants and no artificial skin.

ETH Zurich exhibits exciting innovative materials at Berlin Science Week – metals that float on water, screws that dissolve in the human body. Discover their fascinating properties and meet the scientists behind them.

In the ’10-Minute-Museum’ you can learn in only 10 minutes how mathematical models help us understand global warming and predict changes in the climate.

Through interactive applications, videos and animations, sound, experiments, 3D prints, and friendly explanations, we’ll show you:

• How scientists run models of our planet on supercomputers to see multiple possible futures
• How we can know what Earth’s climate was like millions of years ago
• How we can transform wind and sea currents into equations
• What Global Warming sounds like

… and many other things!

Copernican Revolution

Universe where art, science, and societies merge!

In the Copernican Revolution, gaming machines serve as an analog medium to enter the virtual realms of the universe as portrayed by Instytut B61. Visitors play games dedicated to space exploration and global citizenship. The games are yet another entry point to the interactive chatbot, where users get inspired by science and discover what sustainable space exploration may look like.

Copernican Revolution employs entertainment technology in order to raise philosophical and ethical questions about our place in the universe. It reminds us that we are not the center of the cosmos, at the same time highlights our role as guardians of the planet, caretakers of other species, and ourselves, humans.

Instytut B61 is an international art & science collective founded in 2009 by the Polish artist, curator, and futurologist Jan Swierkowski. The backbone of the collective is the Brewster’s Hub (Klaster Brewstera), a cluster organization that uses information technologies combined with social media to create chatbots, VR experiences, and engaging digital stories based on social media platforms.

Experience fun Science next to the T-Rex!

Have you ever been curious about what a Science Contract Research Organization (CRO) is and how it can help the pharmaceutical industry to be more sustainable? And are you interested in experiencing chemistry in real-time? 

Come by our booth and meet NUVISAN, the Science CRO with its drug discovery hub located in the heart of Berlin. NUVISAN supports its pharmaceutical, biotech, non-profit clients, and partners on their exciting journey from drug discovery all the way to clinical development. 

Whether you are a (future) scientist, knowledge-seeker, science dummy, or curious citizen: Get to know our scientists, lab professionals, and talent recruiters on November 4th and 5th next to Tristan Otto, the Tyrannosaurus rex! For the youngest scientists of all ages, we will prepare a series of experiments. Stop by to make your very own slime in your favorite color!

Come with us on a virtual reality adventure journey inside a rapeseed plant and experience what happens inside the cells of roots, leaves or seeds – by playing! Regulate the absorption of nutrients and help the rapeseed plant to grow optimally.

Together with plant researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, the programmers of Breakpoint One and Simmation have created a high-quality educational experience that is fun and promotes dexterity.

VR Plant Journey conveys biological knowledge to children in a playful way. Thanks to fully immersive virtual reality (VR), the players follow the inner workings of a rapeseed plant, experience the cellular processes up close and can even control them:

They throw the raw materials of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide and water, at chloroplasts in the leaf. In the root they assemble the important nutrients ammonium and nitrate. In the seed they grow oil bodies with bow and arrow. Sophisticated plant research as an entertaining VR game for young and old.

Every kind of life known to us is based on the action of proteins. The complex interplay of these little “all-rounders” on the nanoscale still holds many secrets. Biologists, chemists and physicists of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 1078 in Berlin want to unlock these secrets and are investigating the functions of proteins with experimental and theoretical biophysical and structural biological methods. Using five model proteins as examples, young scientists in the SFB’s Research Training Group want to understand how proton movement controls the way proteins work: in the photosystem of plants for energy generation, in cytochrome c oxidase in the power plant of our cells, in channel rhodopsin for the light manipulation of nerve impulses, in phytochrome, which makes plants flower, and in viroporin, which allows viruses to multiply in the human body.

Transitioning towards a more sustainable production, consumption and lifestyle

Bio-based Späti: shop the bioeconomy for a sustainable future 

Insect burgers? Beer from bread waste? Spider silk nail polish? With the EU Project Transition2bio’s Bio-based Späti, visitors are invited to dive into the world of the bioeconomy and explore a vast array of innovative and sustainable bio-based products, games, videos, books and more. Visitors of all ages, especially kids, can learn about the potential of the bioeconomy to offer a more sustainable future. As our planet faces many systemic crises, the demand for sustainable products and services grows. The bioeconomy helps provide us with many innovative solutions that contribute to economic, social, and ecosystem resilience. The Bio-based Späti showcases novel foods and beverages, innovative packaging alternatives, and other everyday necessities, allowing visitors to experience how we can live more sustainably today.  

 Visit the Bio-based Späti at the Berlin Science Week exhibition and shop the bioeconomy for a sustainable future!

The Czech Centre Berlin presents an interactive exhibition “SDGs: Innovations for a Sustainable Future”. Using a free-to-download app, you can point your phone or tablet at a collection of pictograms which then come to life through augmented reality. The Pictograms represent the 17 Sustainable Development Goals the United Nations have set to fight poverty, protect the planet, and ensure peace and equality for all. Looking at the pictograms through your smart device provides you with information about each of the 17 SDGs, highlights scientific achievements in fulfilling these goals and answers our most complex questions. Can we eliminate extreme poverty? How do we save our planet? Will we ensure equal pay for all? The exhibition demonstrates the power of human thinking and originality in solving global issues and highlights important international research infrastructures and scientific workplaces in the Czech Republic. The exhibition is a part of the Czech Centres’ 2022 EU Presidency Programme.

New publication: Chocolate Robots and Deepfakes. A comic essay about artificial intelligence from the perspective of young people.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already changing our lives, but it will do so much more intensively in the future. 

What do young people think about AI – the generation whose future lives will be significantly shaped by AI? What kind of AI do they want? We asked young people between the ages of 11 and 19. Based on their contributions, we created the comic “Chocolate Robots and Deepfakes. A comic essay on artificial intelligence from the perspective of young people.” Pointed, expressively illustrated and flanked by compact knowledge texts. A comic for young people, adults and researchers. A comic as a testimony of time. A comic that invites people to participate in the debate, to be curious and to engage with AI themselves. 

The comic is a science communication project of the Tübingen AI Center: a research facility of the University of Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, jointly funded by the federal and state governments. The aim there is to push the boundaries of AI research and help shape the future in Europe, with the goal that technology should adapt to nature and not the other way around.

Glaciers as a thermometer of climate change

Where the Great Aletsch Glacier – the largest glacier in the Alps – is today, the ice masses will melt away by the end of this century and new lakes will be formed. There is no sign of this on the 19th century topographical relief of the Aletsch Glacier exhibited by Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. At that time, the glaciers were advancing throughout the Alps and were considered a threat. 

Today, we have to face the effects of climate change and see the glaciers disappearing. Equipped with 3D glasses, experience interactively on “Expedition 2 degrees” how the Aletsch glacier reacts to climate change scenarios. Learn more about the development of glaciers from the past to the future at the exhibition of the Universität Zürich and the Humboldt-Labor of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

“Expedition 2 degrees” was created in collaboration with the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste and the Universität Freiburg.

From Science to Industry. From Paper to Product.

On the challenges of translating scientific achievements into productive practice.

Whether digitization, shorter technology cycles or the urge to innovate, industry is countering these dynamics of change by seeking proximity to science. Here, the profit-oriented market economy meets individual freedom of research; two often different worlds. Where are the similarities, where are the differences? What can a complete value chain from formula to market-ready product look like? What are the biggest challenges in implementing scientific findings? 

At our exhibition, we will be talking to Big Data experts about the role of industry, using the example of Würth as an incubator for science-based applications.

In Berlin, the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences will be showcasing a wide range of projects in the field of sustainability from the various subject areas of the School of Engineering, School of Life Sciences and Facility Management, School of Management and Law and School of Applied Psychology.

 The topic of ‘Regenerative Food – Healthy Planet’ is also at the centre of the ZHAW’s presentation and will be highlighted, among other things, by the research project ‘Regenerative Chocolate Processing’. How can chocolate be produced and at the same time achieve added value along the entire cocoa chain? 

The highlight of the ZHAW’s visit to the German capital will be the sealing of the partnership between the Food Campus Zurich and the Food Campus Berlin during the Berlin Science Week. Further cooperation between the two cities in the form of a Summer School 2023 will hereby be pursued.

Kamituga | Digital Gold

‘Kamituga | Digital Gold’ invites visitors to look beneath the shiny surfaces of the mobile tech industry and engage with the concrete challenges and living conditions of artisanal miners. ‘Kamituga | Digital Gold’ was part of the exhibition Planet Digital (Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, February – June 2022) and has now been conceived in a reduced version. Visitors will experience the contrasts between cleanly polished, shiny surfaces of tablets and smartphones and portraits of miners in Congo, work their way through the scan of a mine via an interactive experience and listen to an interview with Salomé, a worker sharing stories from her everyday life.

Immersive Arts Space, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK)

In cooperation with: University of Zurich

Commissioned by: Museum für Gestaltung

Supported by: DIZH and Stiftung Mercator Schweiz