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In: International, Summerstudents

“If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generations of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis (or the atomic fact, or whatever you wish to call it) that all things are made of atoms—little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just aRead More →

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In: International, Summerstudents

Hello! I am Olga. Or you can call me Olya. I’m a summer student, but you have probably already noticed that. You may also know that under the summer program, we should write a blog post telling about our research or working process in the lab. And here we are. I don’t want to bore you with it. So let’s turn this task into a little game. I hope you enjoy it. Good luck! Everyone, this is Blahblah (the most common name, definitely). Or you can call him Blah. Blahblah is fond of photography, playing drums and watching documentaries on Netflix. Blahblah studies PR andRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, Summerstudents

When I was a child, I asked parents that “why is flying bird?” “Why is the sky blue?” and they said this could be explained by science. Science is a tool used for understanding the world around us. The more I understood that the more I was enjoyable, and this drew my attention to study in science. While I was studying science, I was working to seek for truth, based on observation, knowledge and experience. Luckily, I have gotten an oppotunity as a participant in the the summer student programme 2019 at the HZB. This program provides a great occasion to many students at myRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, Lightsources, Summerstudents

A synchrotron light source is a source of electromagnetic radiation produced by a storage ring, for scientific and technical purposes. The major applications of synchrotron light are in condensed matter physics, materials science, biology and medicine. Metrology Light Source(MLS) is a minor light source near BESSY II. It like a small replica of BESSY. Accelerator and us, just like patient and doctors. We need a stethoscope to know the situation of the patient. My work here is to develop a tool to monitor and adjust the chromacity of this storage ring. The chromacity here is not for the synchrotron light, it is a parameter toRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, International, Summerstudents

Sunlight is a huge source of energy. However, it is not available 24/7. But, solar energy can be used to split water. Water splitting is the decomposition of water into oxygen and hydrogen gas due to the passage of an electric current induced by two electrodes in a conductive solution. This hydrogen can be stored or transported and be used later. Scientists at the Institute for Solar Fuels work on a way to split water efficiently by studing different type of electrodes. Usually, a high photocurrent during water splitting means a high production of hydrogen. When I arrived for my internship at HZB in Wannsee,Read More →

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In: International, Students, Summerstudents

“Be a diamond. Flourish under pressure” – Maureen Joyce Connolly To most people diamonds are well-known as the marvelous gemstones which used in a piece of jewelry. However, they are not only “a girl’s best friends”. Due to their remarkable physical and optical properties diamonds can be used by scientists and engineers as well! With this blogpost I’ll guide you through my research here at HZB and, hopefully, will share the delight and enjoyment of working with diamonds. Why diamonds? To have a better understanding of diamond it is useful to have a look at its crystalline structure. The strong sp3 covalent bonds between carbonRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, International, Summerstudents

Let’s spray and create samples ! In the institute of Solar Fuel, the main research is to produce hydrogen from sunlight and water. Hydrogen can be used to easily store energy and also directly for transportation. But how can we produce it? Only from the sunlight, a metal oxide semiconductor and water. Photons from sunlight will be absorbed by the metal oxide, and this will generate electrons and holes which oxidize or reduce water. The reaction between the electron and hole and the electrolyte allows to separate water in oxygen and hydrogen. Let’s see how we make this metal Oxide! SPRAY PYROLYSIS: The chemical methodRead More →

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In: Energymaterials

From a speaking Barbie doll to ISRO’s space rocket, everything in the current world runs with transistors as a very basic element in it. It is hard to define the world without considering the evolution of transistor technology. From a room-sized transistor, we have come to an era where transistors are so small that we can’t even see them with our naked eyes. But everything comes with an expiry date on it, we cant scale the size of transistor down anymore, the current time might be an end to transistor technology and a beginning for memristor technology or resistive random access memory. The devices thatRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, Summerstudents

First Impressions I’m a rare example of a student in the international summer student program, who lives already in Berlin. At the first day I was really impressed how many people arrived from different countries with different backgrounds. I was really curious what the others study and where they come from. Can I keep up with these international students? Do I have enough knowledge to compete with them? That were questions I asked myself. But back to my background, I study geological science with the specialization geodynamics and geomaterials at the FU Berlin. In the main part of the study we look on natural systems,Read More →

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In: Energymaterials, Summerstudents

What is your motivation to be a scientist? This question has been lingering in my mind during my student career. Of course, the answer is plenty, varying from person to person. I have met many scientists through the years. They shared their personal stories. I have concluded the reasons that attract them in their chosen subject are money, social statue, a raw love, to be most intelligent, a sense of duty and so on, and most commonly, a combination of them. The most impressive one for me is “curiosity”. I got it from a young scientist by an online investigation. He describes science is theRead More →