A challenge for Dark Matter

kroupa — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:00:18 +0200

There was a time I (Pavel Kroupa) was quite happy with the dark-matter cosmological model. Dark-matter cosmology made a lot of sense, since we were allowed to keep our simple Newtonian "equations of motions" which meant that modelling star clusters, galaxies and the whole universe was simple (but still challenging) computationally. The only price we had to pay was to accept the existence of exotic new "dark" particles which were not part of the otherwise overwhelmingly successful Standard Modell of Particle Physics. Since the neutrino had been predicted in 1933 to exist based on a missing mass problem in beta decay and was then discovered in the laboratory in 1956, the mental...

An Interview with Francoise Barr�-Sinoussi

woodley — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:13:02 +0200

Francoise Barré-Sinoussi won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008 for her role in the discovery of HIV. As she detailed in her plenary lecture on Monday 28th June, she considers a combined approach of mainly Western-led lab-based research and locally based education and treatment centres in developing countries as crucial for the control of the disease.

Martin Fenner and I talked to Professor Barré-Sinoussi on Thursday afternoon, covering topics including how to make a marriage work when one of you has a demanding job, her work in Africa and how to judge the merit of scientists based on more wide-ranging criteria than...

An Interview with Ada Yonath

woodley — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:25:26 +0200

Ada Yonath won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009 for her work on the structure and function of the ribosome. Born in Jerusalem, she has spent the majority of her scientific career in Israel and is currently Director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She is the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel Prize.

Lorena Guzman from the Chilean national newspaper, El Mercurio and I talked to Ada Yonath on Tuesday afternoon about being a woman in science, why scientific data should always be shared and the challenges and inspirations she finds in life.

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The 60th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in one blog post

rathi — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:53:01 +0200

Even before the meeting had begun the bloggers had started their job with reflections on the Nobel city. The theme of the meeting was:

The Size of the Proton Measured with Lasers

bastidas — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:42:43 +0200

A little over a week ago at the Lindau conference Theordor Hanch hinted at new measurements of the size of the proton which may impact the fundamental theory of quantum electrodynamics. Hansch's lecture was an overview of the history of lasers progressing from our realization of the wave/particle duality nature of light to new research published in Nature on the size of the proton. The new research relies on the fact that the energy levels allowed within an atom depend upon the quantum mechanical interaction of the proton and the electron (or in the case of this recent experiment the exotic muon particle). Each atom has its own energy levels and corresponding spectral lines like a...

Turning the Tables: Students take the high seat

rathi — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:29:45 +0200

Turning the Tables at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting 2010

The Nature Publishing Group (NPG) selected six talented young scientists to face five Nobel Laureates in a marvellous event that was very aptly named ‘Turning the Tables’. The aim of the event was to move the focus, for a short time, from the laureates to the students. It was the students who were to be asked questions by the laureates. The event was chaired by the witty Dr. Adam Rutherford of NPG and what followed was an hour of discussion so fascinating that all the people who heard about it declared how much they wish they could have come. Although this was a closed door discussion it was being tried out as a potential event for future meetings.

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Interview with Sherwood Rowland - Climate Change, Ozone, misleading Campaigns

lugger — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:36:21 +0200

Twenty five years ago, the discovery of the ozone hole above the Antarctic made waves. The ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, which protects Planet Earth from 90% of the sun’s ultraviolet rays, diminished. Only two years later, in 1987, the Montreal Protocol was signed. There would not have been a chance to stop this ongoing reduction unless some chemists had described the possible reactions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other substances with ozone in the 1970s. These findings by Paul Crutzen, Mario José Molina and Frank Sherwood Rowland, who all were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in...

Interview with Jean-Marie Lehn: Chemistry is trying to answer the biggest questions

rathi — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:17:52 +0200

After the lecture session on Thursday, I had a 15 minute slot to 'interview' Jean-Marie Lehn. who shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Donald Cram and Charles Pederson for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity. Prof. Lehn is more commonly known as the father of supramolecular chemistry.

In his lecture that morning, Lehn was his usual charming self when he tried to explain the people the importance of supramolecular chemistry. "Chemistry is a bridge between Physics and Biology. It tries explain how complexity arose from particulate matter", he said with conviction. He then delved into...

Nobel Questions - Lindau answers. Some responses from the Young Scientists

woodley — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:44:09 +0200

One unique aspect of this year's meeting is that we asked on for input also from those who were unable to attend in person, inviting them to submit questions to the Laureates via our online Q&A competition. Some of the most popular questions as voted by readers of the site are already answered by Nobel Laureates on the site. AND many will then be used in interviews with the Laureates which will be featured in a specially-commissioned Nature supplement in the autumn.

Because the standard of questions submitted has been so high, we also posed some of them to the young scientists to...

Young and old Supergeeks - Camcorded Reflections

attendees — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:38:50 +0200

What happens when you put 650 young researchers and 59 nobel laureates together on an island for a week? Lila Warszawski and I came to Lindau fascinated with the possibilities of having so many "supergeeks" (young and old) in such a small place: it seemed like an amazing social experiment. The result for me at least was: inspiring and fascinating conversations, not much sleep, the beginning of what I hope will be great friendships, and a lot of fun! In our video diary, we ended up focussing on the lighter side of Lindau - because an important part of the week is that it is simply really, really fun.

Scilogs.eu

A challenge for Dark Matter

An Interview with Francoise Barr�-Sinoussi

An Interview with Ada Yonath

The 60th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in one blog post

The Size of the Proton Measured with Lasers

Turning the Tables: Students take the high seat

Interview with Sherwood Rowland - Climate Change, Ozone, misleading Campaigns

Interview with Jean-Marie Lehn: Chemistry is trying to answer the biggest questions

Nobel Questions - Lindau answers. Some responses from the Young Scientists

Young and old Supergeeks - Camcorded Reflections

What is physiology?

Interview with Edmond Fischer: pianist, microbe hunter, pilot and Napoleon expert

Explaining Religion - Conference at Bristol University, September 2010

Nigeria: Emerging Nation Status Soon?

Physiology organized by major body systems