From matter to materials and life - in the molecular kitchen for tomorrow’s innovations

What is the goal?

Modern materials and substances shape our daily lives: metals are essential for the construction of cars, ships and airplanes. Semiconductors form the basis of electronics. And plastics can be found almost everywhere in an impressive variety of applications. In order to develop even more efficient, resource-conserving and environmentally friendly materials, one thing is becoming increasingly important: a deep understanding of how a substance is constructed in detail and how it behaves at the level of atoms and molecules. The situation is similar in medicine and biotechnology: To develop new drugs, we need to understand the function of the elementary building blocks of life down to the molecular level: How is an enzyme made up of atoms, and how exactly does it interact with other biomolecules? And how do biomolecules react to external influences such as radiation, cytotoxins or viral infection?

What is Helmholtz doing to achieve this goal?

The Helmholtz research program “From Matter to Materials and Life” investigates both the exact structure and the exact behavior of future materials and promising biomolecules - and thus lays the foundation for future innovations. It also addresses fundamental problems: Among other things, the experts examine samples of matter exposed to extreme conditions, such as those found only in the interior of stars and planets. Or they bombard matter with extremely intense laser beams and analyze its behavior. Understanding exotic phenomena ultimately enables practical applications, such as how heavy-ion physics provides the basis for new forms of cancer therapy.

Examples from research

To address the full range of questions, Helmholtz operates a whole series of large-scale scientific facilities: storage rings and X-ray lasers generate intense X-ray flashes. They enable the extremely precise analysis of a wide variety of samples – novel semiconductors, proteins of highly infectious viruses or next-generation lightweight materials. X-ray flashes also make it possible to follow ultrafast processes, literally filming the dynamics of chemical reactions. Other facilities generate neutrons that can be used to literally screen magnetic materials, batteries, and entire engine blocks. In addition, there are large lasers, ion accelerators, terahertz sources, and laboratories that generate extremely high magnetic fields – all of which are among the world’s leading large-scale facilities.