Second Season 2009

Bonded Concrete

Even the Romans valued the properties of concrete. The popular building material has improved over time and continues to develop further. Into UHPC—ultra-high-performance concrete—which is characterised by its extremely high density and compression strength. Its special strength, however, has not yet been sufficiently studied in practical applications. It's time for science to put the pressure on: in two projects, researchers at the Institut für Massivbau (Institute for Solid Construction) at RWTH Aachen are testing the load-bearing performance of the ultra-high-performance concrete in composite girders and in prestressed concrete girders. Does the UHPC deliver what it promises?

Bonded Concrete
 

Discrete Optimisers

Mathematics is boring and serves no purpose? Wrong! Mathematicians Wiebke Höhn and Marco Lübbecke from the Institute for Mathematics at TU Berlin know that mathematics plays a key role in making our daily lives as pleasant as possible. Algorithms and models help, for example, to find better solutions: be it for the fastest route from Berlin to Munich or the shortest waiting times for busses and trains. A trip through the world of mathematics: what challenges does mathematics pose in such solutions, and why are mathematicians also artists?

Discrete Optimisers
 

Duck Stop

Above all, they want to answer one question: do water birds prefer plant food? To find out, biologists from Constance and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell are diving into the depths of Lake Constance to study the menu of the water birds. And there are plenty of birds: up to 260,000 of them overwinter on Lake Constance. When they all go in search of food, there are most certainly consequences for the animal and plant world. What do life and survival look like on and in the lake? Do the feeding habits of the birds change over the course of the year? Are there gender-specific or perhaps individual differences in the choice of food? And what do the researchers discover on the bottom of the lake?

Duck Stop
 

Function through Diversity

Hauling, planting and weeding trees: when the spadework is finished, it will be the largest biodiversity experiment in the world. A new forest is being created on 60 hectares in Xingangshan, in Eastern China. Gardeners are planting 96 native plant species and more than half a million trees and bushes. As we watch the trees grow little by little and experience the daily life of the Chinese workers, the students from Germany, Switzerland and China explain to us the most important factors of the ecosystem. What roles do herbs, herbivores, bacteria and, of course, climate play?

Function through Diversity
 

Love à la Darwin

A date with Darwin: from the perspective of evolution, beauty plays an important role in the choice of partner. But what is beauty? There are no fixed measurements for beauty—but there are rules and laws of nature according to which we can evaluate good appearance. Modern behavioural biology examines the signal effect of face and body and recognises that our appearance has a considerable effect on choice of partner. But not all aspects have yet been sufficiently researched. With their studies, the behavioural biologists from Göttingen hope to open a new chapter in the history of the search for the ideal partner. It's sure to be anything but boring: what role do, for example, the appearance of the skin or the body movements of another play?

Love à la Darwin
 

Polar Archive

Drilling into the past: located at the outer edge of northeastern Siberia is Lake El'gygytgyn, which was formed 3.6 million years ago by a meteorite strike. The sediment layers at the bottom of the lake represent an invaluable climate archive of the Arctic: they provide us with information on how the continental Arctic responded to past climate changes. With the knowledge that is gained, it will be possible to take a look into the future: researchers from the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Cologne are asking themselves "how will the Arctic respond to renewed climate change and what implications will that have for the rest of the planet?"

Polar Archive
 

Search for a Cure

More than one hundred years ago, Alois Alzheimer described for the first time the disease that now bears his name. In spite of intense research, there is still no medication that can cure Alzheimer's. But the biologists working with Professor Haass at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich are hot on the tracks of the disease—with the help of the zebra fish. As en embryo, this fish is transparent, thereby allowing researchers to observe developments and changes in a living organism. Will the zebra fish help scientists to understand Alzheimer’s?

Search for a Cure
 

Stone-Age Giants

What inspired people to move large objects? Some 5,500 years ago, our ancestors began to shape erratic blocks and use them to construct giant monuments. The archaeologists at CAU Kiel working with Professor Müller and at the RGK in Frankfurt working with Professor Lüth assume that both human cohabitation and human thought underwent a fundamental change at the same time. Did these structures, made of megaliths, serve as gravesites, as meeting points or were they intended to serve as markers on the open landscape? What can the stone legacies tell us about social differences within Neolithic mankind?

Stone-Age Giants
 

The Start of Nature

The hour of birth: to observe the creation of an ecosystem from the start, geologists and ecologists in Cottbus want to start from time zero. Because young ecosystems are rare, the scientists are constructing the "Hühnerwasser" artificial water catchment area in a former brown-coal mine. It is hoped that the open-air laboratory will answer important questions: How does new life form in the soil? What influence do microorganisms and water have during this process? And how does the soil structure change?

The Start of Nature
 

The Wave Hunters

Does the universe wobble? Following the theoretical prediction of Albert Einstein, researchers are trying to measure gravitational waves. They occur as a result of tiny distortions in spatial geometry. With their research, the wave hunters hope to expand our understanding of space and time. With their experiments, the physicists from Hanover are working at the quantum limit. The problem: the measurements require extremely powerful and precise technologies in order to keep the gravitational waves from disappearing into the background noise of the light particles. To meet this challenge, a new technology is being used: squeezed light. Will they be successful in directly verifying gravitational waves for the first time?

The Wave Hunters
 
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