TINY CAPSULES WITH A BIG IMPACT
Almost like a modern still life: when you see this photograph you are looking deep inside the human body. This picture, taken with the help of an electron microscope, shows hollow polymer capsules that are only a few microns across; they are an intelligent microtransportation system developed by scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam. The system transports active agents in the form of minute spheres through the body in search of diseased cells, where it releases them. To ensure that the capsule shell only opens at the desired locations – for example, cancer cells – its surface is covered with recognition molecules that dock onto the diseased cells. Changing environmental conditions, such as temperature, can either seal the walls of the capsules or soften them, enabling the active substances to escape into the organism.
Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam
DYNAMICS OF ELECTRONS
The green area at the centre is the source of all the flow and everything seems to be in flux: this is the impression the electrons give in this picture as they move in all directions in a two-dimensional electron gas from a point source. This scenario has been simulated on a computer by physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen. The place where the fictional event takes place is a conducting layer of special semiconductor components just a few millionths of a millimetre thick. After starting out from the same point at the same velocity, all the negatively charged particles spread out in different directions. Weak impurities lead to “lapses” on the part of the electrons, causing the flow of particles to ramify. Such simulations give the researchers an idea of particle motion in the micrometre range, knowledge that could aid the development of semiconductor components.
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen
NETS FOR CATCHING BACTERIA
Pathogens have no chance of escape: the unwelcome red bacterial invaders get caught up in the yellow nets of the neutrophils, become firmly stuck and are killed. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin illustrate this impressive defence mechanism of the human immune system with this coloured image taken with a scanning electron microscope. It turned out to be an interesting discovery: researchers knew that neutrophils, which belong to the white blood cells, can literally eat up bacteria by engulfing the pathogens and digesting them inside the cell. What was new was the realization that neutrophils can throw out fibrous structures like a net to catch and kill bacteria outside the cell.
Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin
WORLD OF DARK MATTER
Intense colours and a glow like a starry sky: this computer model shows a virtual cosmic network of dark matter connecting individual, brightly shining galaxies in the universe. Dark matter is what scientists call matter that they cannot detect visually, but which they nevertheless assume exists. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching are using their simulation to make dark matter visible. They explore its effects on celestial bodies and the evolution of cosmic structures. In the model, the differences in brightness stand for the density of the matter, the colours for the different velocities of the particles. It shows how the dynamics and gravitation of the dark-matter particles lead to the great diversity and complexity of cosmic structures.
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching
CERAMICS REINFORCED BY NEEDLE-SHAPED GRAINS
A stable, colourfully lit interior: ceramic materials can be effectively reinforced by adding long, needle-shaped grains to their structures. With their transmitted-light images using polarized light from a micro section, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research (now the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems) in Stuttgart show two roughly equal-sized grains (white and blue) each of whose base level has grown around the other grain.
Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart
ATOMIC STRINGS OF BEADS
Like a string of pearls leading down: this picture makes us want to immerse ourselves in the tiniest of worlds. It was taken by scientists at the Max Planck Society’s Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin to show the surface structure of monocrystal using, among other things, computer-based theoretical methods. The geometric arrangement of the atoms on the surface of monocrystals is crucial to understanding their physical and chemical properties. The researchers developed a special visualization program for their analyses. In order to show the topmost layer of the palladium monocrystal, the surface was greatly distorted for aesthetic reasons. This gives the impression of curved surfaces made of strings of pearls leading into infinity at the centre of the picture.
The Max Planck Society’s Fritz Haber Institute, Berlin
