FRoM behind the SCiENcES

Throughout his life Josef Leinthaler cultivated his fields on the farmland around Garching. However, the local farmer could hardly have imagined the development of the small village near Munich into a world-renowned science centre. It all began more than 60 years ago with the construction of Germany’s first nuclear facility – the research reactor in Munich, popularly known as the “Atomic Egg” – right next to Josef Leinthaler’s field.

On the 1st of April, we spotted a pair of Common Kestrels on the campus of the FRM II of the Technical University of Munich (TUM). As their name already suggests, the birds are quite common. However, their hunting grounds are shrinking due to increasing building development and potential nesting sites are made inaccessible leading to a steady decrease in the kestrel’s population size. To help the kestrels, an eyrie was constructed on the rooftop of the FRM II building. Oddly, the birds prefer the drainage shaft of the UYW building that is currently under construction. Why the kestrels chose the FRM II as their new home, they will have to tell us themselves.

After four decades Izabela Sosnowska still comes to Garching. Her working group does research for iron oxide compounds – promising storage materials – already in the third generation. The professor talks about how she gained recognition as an East European in the male domaine of physics.

Eleven-year-old Keti-Danai Mantzaridou takes part in the first kids-tour at the research neutron source. Excitedly she tells how she experienced this fascinating event from her own perspective.

Environmental scientist Dr. Nuno Canha measures the air quality in rural Portugal by analysing lichens. Hereby the neutrons of the Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum play a key role.

Felicia Nachbar, student at the Oskar-Maria-Graf Gymnasium in Neufahrn, examines the teeth of predators and ruminants. The 14-year-old does a voluntary internship at the Materials Science Lab of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum in Garching, a laboratory for sample preparation and x-ray analysis.

Markos Skoulatos, instrument scientist at the FRM II, is one of a few people worldwide who recreated a functional Antikythera mechanism. This first computer of humanity is more than 2000 years old and calculates a wealth of information about the sun and moon phase, planetary motion, solar or lunar eclipses and even Olympic Games and other events.

Lead scientist Dr. Pascale Deen from Lund is part of an international team building a cold chopper spectrometer (CSPEC) at the European Spallation Source (ESS). She talks about the CSPEC collaboration, the future of reactor-based neutron sources, and balancing the needs of her family with those of her family of fellow scientists.

Andreas Galsterer, deputy subarea director at the documentation service of the FRM II, is the Bavarian vice champion in pool-billiard. Not only at the sporting competitions but also at his working place he benefits from his billiard skills.

At the FRM II the exchange of a beam plug is imminent. The preparations for the important project promoting the commissioning of the ultra-cold neutron source lasted more than two years. Exact planning, high accuracy and especially teamwork are vital for pulling out the beam plug as each movement must be correct during the exciting event.