My Science and Me Gallery
What fascinates scientists about their research? What motivates them? Science thrives because of the people who drive it forward. Our photo gallery offers a glimpse into research through the eyes of those who make it happen. Whether astrophysicists, biologists, or historians, they all share a deep passion for their fields. Evocative images, mostly taken by professional photographers, capture researchers in their natural work environments. The accompanying texts are primarily written by the researchers themselves.
By the way, the gallery is regularly updated, so be sure to check back often!
Alex Jordan
At season’s end, it’s underwater smiles all around
At season’s end, it’s underwater smiles all around
© Alex Jordan / MPI für Verhaltensbiologie
Christian Vorpahl
ASDEX Upgrade - The hottest place to be in research
ASDEX Upgrade - The hottest place to be in research
It may take a moment to understand the perspective of this picture. It shows the inside of the plasma chamber of the ASDEX Upgrade fusion device, but in a 360-degree panoramic view. Several individual images were merged to a two-dimensional picture using coordinate transformation. In reality, the room has roughly the shape of a doughnut.
The aim of this facility is to research the basics for a fusion power plant generating energy by fusing atomic nuclei – similar to the sun. During an experiment, a hydrogen plasma, i.e. ionised gas, is generated and heated to an unimaginably high temperature of 150 million degrees. Now, it is perhaps not very helpful to talk about temperature on this scale. The particles simply have an incredible amount of kinetic energy; they can meet and merge – in other words, fuse.
The immense magnetic fields that enclose the plasma also deform the machine. My task as a doctoral researcher was to design and install a customised measurement system for these movements. If you amplify the measurement signals sufficiently, you can sometimes see how the plasma causes the ring-shaped internal structures to vibrate like a giant bell – for example in an oval or triangular shape, depending on the excitation. It’s absolutely fascinating! Besides, the findings also enable safe operation.
A few years earlier at university, I had heard about fusion, an emission-free, almost inexhaustible and safe source of energy. Since then, I've wanted to be exactly here, help with the research and get fusion under way.
By the way, in the picture I'm fitting one of the tungsten-coated heat-resistant tiles.
Christian Vorpahl, former doctoral researcher at the MPI for Plasma Physics (Alumni)
© Volker Steger
Edward Hurme
Watching a bat take off
Watching a bat take off
The natural world is a mystery that doesn’t divulge its secrets easily. Just ask anybody who has ever tried to really understand a wild animal—where it goes, and why, the many challenges it faces. In the last decades, we’ve found a powerful tool—tags—that remotely gather data from wild animals, much like your smart watch does when you wear it. But what are the costs for the individuals that carry them? We are deeply motivated to answer that question and to push the limits of technology to minimize that cost.
Here, you can see our team watching a bat take off in a purpose-built flight tent.
Edward Hurme, postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Here, you can see our team watching a bat take off in a purpose-built flight tent.
Edward Hurme, postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
© Christian Ziegler
Martin Wikelski
We had to explain a lot to curious traffic cops
We had to explain a lot to curious traffic cops
Tracking migratory birds in Illinois in the late nineties was a wonderful experience for me. We followed the birds from dusk until dawn. Constantly keeping up with them, refuelling frantically at times and then chasing after the beeping signals from the night sky, if possible without getting a speeding ticket, was pretty exhausting. However, we sometimes had to floor it to avoid being left behind by the birds, which more than once ended up with us having to explain to curious traffic policemen what the big, rotating aerial sticking out of our rickety old car was all about.
Ultimately, we set about making some key advances in radio telemetry in order to spare researchers nights like these in the future. These days, we no longer have to race after the birds in the car. Using the satellite-based observation system ICARUS, we can track the journeys of thousands of birds and other animals around the globe in real time. The transmitters attached to the animals transmit the position of the wearers as well as data about their condition and environment. This is how we learn not just about the migration routes of animals, but also about the state of our planet.
Martin Wikelski, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Constance
Ultimately, we set about making some key advances in radio telemetry in order to spare researchers nights like these in the future. These days, we no longer have to race after the birds in the car. Using the satellite-based observation system ICARUS, we can track the journeys of thousands of birds and other animals around the globe in real time. The transmitters attached to the animals transmit the position of the wearers as well as data about their condition and environment. This is how we learn not just about the migration routes of animals, but also about the state of our planet.
Martin Wikelski, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Constance
© Bill Cochran
Rüdiger Berger, Hans-Jürgen Butt, Doris Vollmer
About the scientifically fascinating aspects of water
About the scientifically fascinating aspects of water
We are in our element here. Not only do we love water, we also find it absolutely fascinating from a scientific point of view: we investigate how droplets move on surfaces, what frictional forces act on them and how droplets become electrically charged. And this knowledge opens up surprising prospects for application: when printing or coating surfaces and even in 3D printing, the water droplet should remain in the same place until it has dried. However, a water-repellent surface is better for glasses, cameras and car windscreens. It is also important for solar cells that droplets roll off their surface quickly, taking as much dirt as possible with them, so that the electricity yield remains high. Possible applications in agriculture are also exciting: here, we hope that less pesticide would be needed if the droplets adhere better to the parts of the plant. Or in medicine: here, the speed of the droplets and their interaction with the surface could be used to determine how quickly active medical ingredients are released from a carrier in the body. However, our research may also lead to applications that are not obvious at first glance.
The experimental set-up here in the courtyard of our Max Planck Institute and other set-ups in our laboratories help us continue our research into the secrets of water and sometimes have a lot of fun in the process.
Rüdiger Berger, Hans-Jürgen Butt and Doris Vollmer, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research
The experimental set-up here in the courtyard of our Max Planck Institute and other set-ups in our laboratories help us continue our research into the secrets of water and sometimes have a lot of fun in the process.
Rüdiger Berger, Hans-Jürgen Butt and Doris Vollmer, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research
© Katrin Binner
Benjamin List
I like looking at things from a different perspective!
I like looking at things from a different perspective!
Of course, it's not like this every day in our laboratory. I usually do yoga at home, and of course I always wear my lab coat and safety goggles in the lab, even when I'm doing headstands. Joking aside, even though the shot is obviously posed, I really like the photo. It conveys the enthusiasm my entire team and I feel for science, and chemistry in particular. At the same time, this photo also shows a willingness to look at things from a different perspective – in my view, an extremely important prerequisite for achieving success in basic research. What I also find flattering is that you can’t tell from the picture how long I can actually hold a handstand …
In 2021, Benjamin List was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with David W.C. MacMillan for their work on the development of asymmetric organocatalysis. Both researchers discovered that small organic molecules can also carry out chemical reactions. Previously, science assumed that only enzymes and metals, often including toxic heavy metals or expensive and rare precious metals, could accelerate chemical reactions and steer them in a desired direction.
Benjamin List, Director at the MaxPlanck-Institut für Kohlenforschung
In 2021, Benjamin List was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with David W.C. MacMillan for their work on the development of asymmetric organocatalysis. Both researchers discovered that small organic molecules can also carry out chemical reactions. Previously, science assumed that only enzymes and metals, often including toxic heavy metals or expensive and rare precious metals, could accelerate chemical reactions and steer them in a desired direction.
Benjamin List, Director at the MaxPlanck-Institut für Kohlenforschung
© Frank Vinken
Julian Kiefer
About a worm with no mouth, no gut and no bottom
About a worm with no mouth, no gut and no bottom
My research object – a rather small worm that lives in the sandy seabed – may not be as impressive as a whale, but it's not ordinary: it lives without a mouth, without a gut, and without a bottom. What's more, it does not have kidneys for the excretion of waste. Its name: Olavius algarvensis.
To find it, we search in the Mediterranean for shallow, sandy seabeds with permeable sediment. Seagrass meadows, such as those here at Elba, are a guide. They particularly like living here.
Olavius algarvensis lives in close symbiosis with several bacterial partners that are located under its cuticula. It could not survive without them: the worm cannot ingest food and has no digestive system. The bacteria provide it with everything it needs – they obtain energy from sulphur compounds in the sediment and use this to build up organic substances from carbon dioxide. At the same time, the bacteria also take over the disposal of its waste products.
This special form of symbiosis makes the worms a valuable model for researching adaptation between animals and microorganisms.
I am currently investigating how this symbiosis has developed spatially and evolutionarily in the Mediterranean region.
To find it, we search in the Mediterranean for shallow, sandy seabeds with permeable sediment. Seagrass meadows, such as those here at Elba, are a guide. They particularly like living here.
Olavius algarvensis lives in close symbiosis with several bacterial partners that are located under its cuticula. It could not survive without them: the worm cannot ingest food and has no digestive system. The bacteria provide it with everything it needs – they obtain energy from sulphur compounds in the sediment and use this to build up organic substances from carbon dioxide. At the same time, the bacteria also take over the disposal of its waste products.
This special form of symbiosis makes the worms a valuable model for researching adaptation between animals and microorganisms.
I am currently investigating how this symbiosis has developed spatially and evolutionarily in the Mediterranean region.