descartes2006 6y final - European Commission · DESCARTES SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PRIZE...

DESCARTES SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PRIZE

W i n n i n g t h e p r i z e

The Descartes Prize contributed to continued collaborative research in a number of ways. Professor Smith went on to make good progress in his research post-2000 and the funds provided by the Descartes Prize sustained his team’s joint scientifi c activity for several years. In addition, the prize helped both partners buy or upgrade equipment.

The apparatus for low-temperature measurements, previ-ously in Birmingham, is now in Rennes. This fi rmly estab-lishes Rennes as the world centre for the investigation of molecular processes at ultra-low temperatures.

Professor Smith received funding from the UK Engineer-ing and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for a study on the effect of reagent rotational energy on the rates of fast-low temperature reactions. This work follows on from his Descartes Prize work and should greatly im-prove our understanding of this class of reactions and the effect of temperature on their rates.

T h e t e a m

The project was coordinated by Professor Ian Smith of the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham (UK), along with Dr Ian Sims and Dr Delphine Chastaing from Birmingham, in co-operation with Dr Bertrand Rowe of Rennes University (France).

P r o g r e s s / a c h i e v e m e n t s

The collaboration between the two groups, which led to the Descartes Prize award in 2000, was consolidated by the formation and subsequent successful operation of an EU Network involving research groups in Gottingen and Chemnitz (Germany), Perugia (Italy), Meudon (France), Bordeaux (France) and London (UK), as well as the original Rennes and Birmingham teams.

The aim of the network is to better understand chemi-cal reactivity at very low temperatures and provide a da-tabase for chemical models of interstellar clouds. Since winning the prize the researchers have made a number of scientifi c advances as well.

They obtained extensive data on the result of collisions between carbon monoxide and helium atoms at tempera-tures as low as 7°K (-266°C), which is important for our understanding of the temperatures in interstellar clouds. The results of this work will be published shortly and fur-ther experiments on collisions between the two major gases in interstellar clouds – carbon monoxide and hydro-gen – are being undertaken.

In addition, the two original partners were the fi rst to measure the reaction between oxygen atoms and hydroxyl radicals. This is groundbreaking research because of the diffi culty of conducting experiments on a reaction involv-ing two such unstable species. The researchers have also measured how carbon and silicon atoms can be transferred in collisions between their spin-orbit states – a signifi cant result in terms of the cooling of interstellar clouds.

2000

I N F O

Network of Youth Excellence by Peter Csermely

Category Innovative action for science communication

Contact Information Semmelweis University, Budapest, HungaryTel: +36 30 559 4420Fax: +36 1 222 0517

[email protected]

Movement website www.kutdiak.hu

Network of Youth Excellence Websitewww.nyex.info

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Community research

E U R O P E A NCOMMISSION

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EUR 22418

66666666 Excellence in scientifi c collaborative research and science communication

Prize winners

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Descartes

Interested in European research?

RTD info is our quarterly magazine keeping you in touch with main developments (results, programmes, events, etc.).It is available in English, French and German. A free sample copy or free subscription can be obtained from:European CommissionDirectorate-General for ResearchInformation and Communication UnitB-1049 BrusselsFax (32-2) 29-58220E-mail: [email protected]: http://ec.europa.eu/research/rtdinfo/

Descartes PrizesThe Science and Society programme of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research is responsible

for organising the annual Descartes Prizes: one for collaborative scientific research and one for science communication.The Commission welcomes the widest possible pool of entrants for these prestigious prizes.

Research prizeProposals may be submitted by teams of scientists themselves or by public or private organisations,

such as research centres, foundations or universities, which can nominate candidatesfor the prize in the following thematic areas:

Basic sciences (physics, chemistry, mathematics)Earth sciencesEngineering

Information sciencesLife sciences

Socio-economic sciences

Communication prizeCandidatures will be accepted from organisations or individuals who have achieved

outstanding results in science communication. Organisers of science communication prizes maysend their winners as candidates for the EU prize in one of the following categories:

Professional scientists engaged in science communication towards the publicPopularising science through the written word

Popularising science through audiovisual and electronic mediaInnovative action for science communication

Editorial policy for the promotion of science whatever the media

Participation guidelines for the Descartes Prizes:http://ec.europa.eu/research/descartes/index_en.htm

EUROPEAN COMMISSIONDirectorate-General for ResearchDirectorate L — Science, Economy and SocietyUnit L.4 — Scientific culture and gender issuesE-mail: [email protected]: Georges VlandasEuropean CommissionOffice SDME 07/33B-1049 BrusselsTel. (32-2) 29-6 55 40Fax (32-2) 29-9 37 46E-mail: [email protected]

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Six years of Descartes Prize winners

Excellence in scientific collaborative researchand science communication

EUR 224182006Directorate-General for Research

Structuring the European Research Area (Science and society)

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Celebrating six years of Descartes Prize winners

The Descartes Prizes – which were first awarded in 2000 – are among the foremost scientific awards at international level. Each year, 1 150 000 euros is granted to research teams for demonstrating scientific excellence through close transnational co-operation, which makes this prize absolutely unique. Since 2004, due recognition has also been given to the field of science communication with awards totalling 275 000 euros shared among scientists, film makers and specialist communicators.

The prestigious Descartes Prize for scientific collaborative research celebrates, in the spirit of European co-operation, team efforts, not individual researchers and scientists per se. Their work is judged on the criteria of scientific excellence and cross-border co-operation at international level.

“This prize is essential because it is part of the process of ‘Europeanising’ research by encouraging scientists to co-operate more and more effectively,” commented Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik.

After several successful years, the European Commission, which organises the annual event, added a new award for science communication to help promote the understanding of scientific progress and its implications. This new prize reflects the Union’s policy aimed at both boosting scientific culture and supporting the communication of its results.

“The importance of communicating science to the general public cannot be underestimated. Science cannot live isolated from society. The public must be able to understand research results and have an informed opinion on the state of scientific progress,” noted Mr Potočnik.

“The importance of communicating science to the general public cannot be overestimated. Science cannot live isolated from society.” (Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik)

The Descartes Prize for excellence in scientific collaborative research

This prize – 1 million euros shared between the laureate teams, and 30 000 euros for each of the five finalist teams – is awarded for outstanding scientific or technological results from European collaborative research. It showcases the best European scientists and shows the advances that can be made through European co-operation.

The prize is open to those involved in all fields of scientific endeavour, including the social and economic sciences. Since its launch in 2000, some 430 submissions have been received, which have whittled down each year to a selection of finalists. In its first year alone, hundreds of researchers vied to win the prestigious prize. By 2003, the number of competitors for the prize had risen to almost 1 500 scientists. In 2005, the jury chose five laureates and five finalists from a highly competitive field of 85 submissions.

Over the six years, 16 projects, involving 104 teams from 24 European and non-European countries, have taken home the esteemed prize, thus creating a diverse family of Descartes laureates in countries across the Union and beyond.

The Descartes Prize for excellence in science communication

This prize for science communication – with five winners sharing 250 000 euros, and five finalists receiving 5 000 euros each – recognises and rewards high-quality and accurate science communication aimed at the general public. In both 2004 and 2005, five leading personalities from the worlds of science and the media received this award.

Through this prize, the Commission wants to stimulate scientists and the media to improve the quality of science communication for a lay audience. Also, the aim is to boost interest in science which nutures the public debate on science and encourages people to consider scientific careers. The competition targets those organisations and individuals who have won similar competitions in their own countries, and who have succeeded in making science fun and exciting for people of all ages.

INTRODUCTION

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Hold the science page... 5

Descartes Scientific Collaborative Research Prize

2000 Towards absolute zero Chemistry close to absolute zero 6

Huge strides in understanding cancer and ageing The XPD gene: one gene, two functions, three diseases 8

Plastic fantastic Plastic transistors operating at 50 kHz for low-end high-volume circuits 10

2001 Stemming the tide The development of novel drugs against HIV 12

Helping hands Development of new asymmetric catalysts for chemical manufacturing 14

2002 Searching for medical missing links Autoreactivity in multiple sclerosis: structural, functional and pathological studies 16

Rising stars Solving the gamma-ray burst riddle: the universe’s biggest explosions 18

2003 Bright lights! Polymer light-emitting diodes for displays 20

Accurate positioning in a wobbly world Non-rigid earth nutation model 22

2004 ‘Power station’ genes for healthy, long lives? Collaborative research in mitochondrial biogenesis, ageing and disease (MBAD) 24

Quantum teleportation, a key to secure communications IST-QuComm – Long-distance photonic quantum communication 26

2005 Assembling the cold facts about a hot topic CECA: Climate and environmental changes in the Arctic 28

Immune system studies promise cures for common diseases EURO-PID: European initiative on primary immunodeficiencies 30

Setting new standards for measuring social change ESS: European social survey – innovations in comparative measurement 32

Left-handed materials bend the rules of physics EXEL: Extending electromagnetism through novel artificial materials 34

Finding the astrophysical Holy Grail: J0737-3039 PULSE: the impact of European pulsar science on modern physics 36

2006 The Grand Jury Descartes Research Prize 2006 Grand Jury Members 38

Descartes Science Communication Prize2004 David Attenborough’s wild life Contributions to science by film-maker Sir David Attenborough 44

‘Into people’s hearts’, one scientist’s inspirational motto Award for Wolfgang Heckl’s contributions to science education 46

Hungarian students enter lab life Peter Csermely’s research student movement and network of youth excellence 48

Taking composites for a spin round Europe Ignaas Verpoest’s ‘Composites-on-Tour’ programme 50

Confronting the phantoms of the insect world Vincent Lamy’s Face aux phasmes in the TV series C’est pas sorcier 52

2005 Swedish doctor prescribes a healthy dose of dialogue Dr Carl Johan Sundberg’s passion for explaining science 54

Danish scientist brings astrophysics down to Earth Dr Anja C. Andersen’s discovery journey of the wonders of the cosmos 56

A big bang in popular science A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson 58

The human narrative behind the science Jos Van Hemelrijck’s prime time documentary OverLeven 60

‘Kinder-Uni’ professors Michael Seifert’s Childrens’ university 62

2006 The Expert Panel Descartes Science Communication Prize 2006 Expert Panel Members 64

René Descartes – To think... is to be 72

CONTENTS

5

Hold the science page...

The Descartes Prize has received huge media attention since it was launched in 2000. Every year, hundreds of printed articles, as well as television and radio reports, appear on the subject in every single EU Member State, as well as in countries on every other continent.

In 2005, some 100 accredited journalists actually attended the award ceremony at the Royal Society in London, and a search for ‘Descartes Prize’ on Google returned some 375 000 hits. The media across Europe is fond of describing the Descartes Prize as the “Nobel Prize of collaborative research”, and one of the “most prestigious” and “most valuable” scientific prizes around.

In an increasingly application-driven age, the prize still values the importance of fundamental research. “The growing hunger of economies for technological innovation, and the impatience of investors, all too often causes scientific curiosity to be wrapped in suggestions of possible applications,” Andrew Moore observed in EMBO reports. “It was, therefore, a refreshing surprise for champions of basic research that the 2004 winners of the Descartes Prize... were scientists with purely curiosity-driven projects.”

One advantage of the Descartes Prize is the impressive media coverage it bestows on the laureates and even the nominees. “Being awarded this prize is an implicit sign of international scientific recognition,” wrote El Mundo, Spain’s second largest newspaper.

It could also be an inspiration for aspiring scientists. “Austrian politicians hailed the awarding of the Descartes Prize as an ‘incentive for many other scientists’,” reported Austria’s Der Standard.

Pride of the nationIn the European Union, national coverage tends to focus on nominees or winners from that country as a hook to introduce the Descartes Prize. For instance, at least two dozen articles on Anja C. Andersen, a science communication prize winner in 2005, appeared in Danish newspapers.

OverLeven, a Belgian science documentary series and winner of a Descartes communication prize in 2005,

even received a royal mention. On Belgian national day, 21 July 2006, King Albert II dedicated his speech to the importance of scientific research and innovation and called for more young people to study science. The monarch expressed his happiness with OverLeven’s Descartes victory.

Laureates get plenty of coverage in other countries too. For instance, another Belgian Science Communication Prize winner, Ignaas Verpoest, and his ‘Composites-on- Tour’ bus received media attention in numerous European countries, including many of those his travelling exhibition visited.

Such exposure is a true advantage for winners and nominees alike as it provides them with a great deal of extra prestige, while drawing attention to their work. “The Descartes Prize highlights the effectiveness of [European] fundamental research,” wrote Gilbert Schorsch in Actualité Chimique, a French chemical journal.

But the European angle is not lost on editors who recognise the prizes’ power in not only rewarding but also promoting scientific collaboration. “Co-operation between EU Member States towards common progress and development is one of the reasons why the Descartes Prizes were created,” explained La Voz de Galicia to its Spanish readers at the end of 2005.

Science for the peopleOne of the aims of the Descartes Prizes is to bridge the gap between the scientific community and society at large, notably by showing that science can be more tangible and less mystifying than commonly thought – and some laureates certainly know how to do that.

In 2004, the eye-catching appearance of Descartes laureate Howard Trevor Jacobs sparked the imagination of headline writers across the UK.

“It is the latest kit for any self-respecting world-ranking scientist: Ramones T-shirt, kilt, bovver boots, leather jacket, ear studs, shaven head, Tintin tuft and optional wrap-round shades,” wrote the science editor of The Guardian, the UK’s leading liberal newspaper, who referred to the Descartes Prize as “one of the most prestigious and valuable awards in science”.

Towards absolute zero

A rich variety of molecular processes were studied in the unique facilities in Birmingham and Rennes, especially many reactions between electrically charged ions and molecules and between electrically neutral radicals and molecules. The results set theoreticians a real challenge. What factors control the rates of these rapid reactions that go even faster as the temperature is lowered?

Because of their fundamental significance, the findings have generated much interest and excitement. However, their importance extends further: they have had a major impact on the understanding of how molecules might form in the deep recesses of space. About 120 molecules have now been identified in huge astronomical aggregates (interstellar clouds) where the molecules are found in close association with particulate matter, or ‘interstellar dust‘. The temperature and densities are extremely low in these clouds and scientists are fascinated by the chemical mechanisms that create the molecules.

In addition, interstellar clouds are the birthplace of stars, as dust and molecules are pulled together by gravity. The Birmingham-Rennes work has shown that a rich chemistry occurs in interstellar clouds and provides – directly and indirectly – information on what appropriate chemical models should be constructed.

The scientists broke ground developing new methods for studying the kinetics of gas-phase chemical reactions at temperatures just a few degrees above absolute zero (-273°C).

They found that, at these temperatures, many reactions between simple molecules and ions proceed with unexpected speed. A lot has been achieved in this collaboration but much exciting work in low-temperature chemistry lies ahead!

T h e s c i e n c e

Their work has significant implications for our understanding of the chemistry of huge astronomical aggregates of molecules and dust found in deep space, and known as ‘interstellar clouds’.

Interstellar cloud is the generic name given to accumulations of gas and dust in our galaxy. Stars are almost always found in collections called galaxies, together with gas, dust, and dark matter – from 10 to 20% of a galaxy is made up of stars, gas, and dust.

The duo’s research findings are important for our understanding of how molecules form in space and the chemical reactions that take place in interstellar clouds. These conclusions will help astronomers gain insight into the process by which stars collapse and form.

An ambitious project, led by Professor Ian Smith in Birmingham and Dr Bertrand Rowe in Rennes, set about pioneering the study of chemical reactions to extremely low temperatures.

CHEMISTRY CLOSE TO ABSOLUTE ZERO

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Towards absolute zero

I N F O

Chemistry close to absolute zero

Category Basic Sciences

Led bySchool of Chemistry, The University of Birmingham Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom

Contact informationEmeritus Professor Ian Smith Tel: +44 (0)1223 767503

[email protected]

Websitehttp://www.chem.bham.ac.uk



The Descartes Prize contributed to continued collaborative research in a number of ways. Professor Smith went on to make good progress in his research post-2000 and the funds provided by the Descartes Prize sustained his team’s joint scientific activity for several years. In addition, the prize helped both partners buy or upgrade equipment.

The apparatus for low-temperature measurements, previously in Birmingham, is now in Rennes. This firmly establishes Rennes as the world centre for the investigation of molecular processes at ultra-low temperatures.

Professor Smith received funding from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for a study on the effect of reagent rotational energy on the rates of fast-low temperature reactions. This work follows on from his Descartes Prize work and should greatly improve our understanding of this class of reactions and the effect of temperature on their rates.

T h e t e a m

The project was coordinated by Professor Ian Smith of the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham (UK), along with Dr Ian Sims and Dr Delphine Chastaing from Birmingham, in co-operation with Dr Bertrand Rowe of Rennes University (France).


The collaboration between the two groups, which led to the Descartes Prize award in 2000, was consolidated by the formation and subsequent successful operation of an EU Network involving research groups in Gottingen and Chemnitz (Germany), Perugia (Italy), Meudon (France), Bordeaux (France) and London (UK), as well as the original Rennes and Birmingham teams

The aim of the network is to better understand chemical reactivity at very low temperatures and provide a database for chemical models of interstellar clouds. Since winning the prize the researchers have made a number of scientific advances as well. They extended their experiments to a wider range of chemical compounds, with a particular focus on carbon chemistry.

They obtained extensive data on the result of collisions between carbon monoxide and helium atoms at temperatures as low as 7°K (-266°C), which is important for our understanding of the temperatures in interstellar clouds. The results of this work will be published shortly and further experiments on collisions between the two major gases in interstellar clouds – carbon monoxide and hydrogen – are being undertaken.

In addition, the two original partners were the first to measure the reaction between oxygen atoms and hydroxyl radicals. This is groundbreaking research because of the difficulty of conducting experiments on a reaction involving two such unstable species. The researchers have also measured how carbon and silicon atoms can be transferred in collisions between their spin-orbit states – a significant result in terms of the cooling of interstellar clouds.

2000

7

Huge strides in understanding

cancer and ageing

This was an unexpected discovery because the diseases are completely different. The breakthrough in explaining how a single gene could cause three different disorders came with another surprising finding: that the XPD protein – complex molecules behind the structure, function and regulation of the body’s tissues and organs – has not one function, as is the case with most proteins, but two. It is needed to repair damage in the DNA caused by sunlight, as well as the quite different process of transcription – how cells read genetic information and convert it into proteins.

Although unexpected, the discovery provided a lot of possible explanations. The researchers suggested that, if the fault in the XPD gene affects DNA repair, the patient has XP. But if it alters transcription then TTD or Cockayne Syndrome will develop. In their next series of experiments, members of the team were able to show that this was indeed the case.

Armed with this knowledge, Professor Lehmann and his Sussex team can now help doctors around the world diagnose patients by examining their cell tissue. Early diagnosis of XP, TTD or Cockayne Syndrome – even in the womb – means that parents have the choice of interrupting the pregnancy and preventing the birth of a severely affected child or can make sure children receive the maximum protection against the sun in order to prevent skin cancer.

The three diseases can only be cured, however, if scientists can work out how to replace the defective XPD gene in an efficient and safe manner. Professor Lehmann estimates that this advance is at least another five or ten years away.

This research has also led to some important developments in other areas of medical research. In a separate study at the Keck Institute (USA), a team is investigating variations in the XPD gene and patient responses to chemotherapy. It is part of an ongoing movement to understand how cancer differs from patient to patient, so that oncologists can customise therapies.

The 2000 Descartes Prize winning consortium focused on just one gene, called XPD, which demonstrates unusual characteristics. In most cases, a defect in a gene can result in only one genetic disorder. But the researchers made the remarkable discovery that not one but three conditions can result from a faulty XPD gene.

T h e s c i e n c e

Today, huge strides are being made in medical research into the very essence of human life – our genes. For the first time, the completed sequencing of the human genome is providing a holistic view of our genetic heritage.

There are 46 human chromosomes – 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes and two sex chromosomes – with 3 billion base pairs of DNA containing between 25 000 and 30 000 protein-coding genes. The coding regions make up less than 5% of the genome (remarkably, the function of the majority of DNA is still a mystery), and some chromosomes have a higher density of genes than others.

Most genetic disorders are the direct result of a mutation in one gene. However, one of the toughest problems ahead is to find out how genes contribute to diseases that have a complex pattern of inheritance, as in the cases of cancer or mental illness. Before you can cure cancer, for example, you need to understand what cancer is and what causes it.

In some instances, faults in the XPD gene can cause the rare inherited disorder xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) which significantly increases the chance of developing skin cancer. In other cases, the faulty gene is linked to two quite different diseases: trichothiodystrophy (TTD), which causes brittle hair and a variety of other symptoms, and Cockayne Syndrome resulting in severe physical and mental retardation reminiscent of premature ageing.

Over the past decade, a pan-European team coordinated by Professor Alan Lehmann of Sussex University has been looking at a number of diseases in which a faulty gene means that the body is unable to repair damage to its DNA, or genetic material.

THE XPD GENE

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I N F O

The XPD gene

Category Life Sciences

Led byMRC Cell Mutation Unit University of Sussex Falmer, Brighton BN1 9RR, United Kingdom

Contact informationProfessor Alan R Lehmann Sussex Centre for Genome Damage and Stability Tel: +44 (0)1273 678120

[email protected]

Websitehttp://www.sussex.ac.uk/gdsc/profile19651.html


Finally, the teams have two further EU research applications under negotiation from recent calls for proposals. The topics include risk evaluation of toxic components and development of transgenic mice for different genetic defects in the area of DNA damage response. These research proposals involve some or all of the same partners and some new ones. They have also attracted some interest from small companies in the private sector.


The team has benefited greatly from the increase in scientific standing by winning the prize, not only in Europe but also throughout the medical world. The award had a significant impact on the laboratories as it was used for funding further research.

“Our work represents a major advance in our understanding of fundamental cellular processes, with impacts on clinical medicine, cancer prevention and on tackling genetic diseases and ageing. The Descartes Prize recognises the importance of research into these debilitating diseases,” say the scientists.

T h e t e a m

The project was coordinated by Professor Alan Lehmann of Sussex University in Brighton (UK) in co-operation with Professor Jan H.J. Hoeijmakers of Erasmus University in Rotterdam (The Netherlands), Dr Miria Stefanini of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Genetica Molecolare (IGM-CNR) in Pavia (Italy), and Professor Jean-Marc Egly of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Strasbourg (France).


Since winning the prize, the consortium has resolved a new form of one of these diseases called trichothiodystrophy (TTD) form A, and identified which gene is affected. Furthermore, the Rotterdam team has successfully generated transgenic mice in which specific DNA repair genes are mutated in a way that they show signs of ageing at different rates.

For instance, instead of the normal life span of two years, different mutant mice age in 14 months, seven months, three weeks or even in utero. This discovery is significant for determining the effects of drugs, foodstuffs or other agents on the speed of ageing. Depending on whether they cause damage to DNA or protect the DNA from being damaged, they may either accelerate or postpone the ageing process. The research team aims to discover food components (antioxidants) which will help to prevent damage to DNA and, in so doing, contribute to the fight against age-related conditions, such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

“Work in all our labs is progressing. We are trying to understand why, in one of the diseases, the incidence of cancer is very high, whereas in another it is as normal. We are getting more clues, but as yet no definite answers,” Professor Lehmann noted.

The team has received funding from various European Union research programmes, including for three projects in the current Sixth Framework Programme (the EU funding scheme for promoting scientific research in key thematic areas): one Research Training Network (to encourage research training, especially for young researchers, in top international projects); and two Integrated Projects (funding for targeted research where the main deliverable is knowledge leading to new products, processes, services, etc.). They have also received a European Science Foundation award for the analysis of live cells using fluorescent-labelled repair proteins to understand the process of DNA repair in the living cell.

2000

9

T h e s c i e n c e

The winning Descartes team managed to replace the silicon with plastic transistors, which are flexible and also cheaper to make. One of the problems with this method is that plastic conducts electricity more slowly than silicon, but in this case it is still fast enough for most electronic appliances. By using plastic instead of silicon, the transistors are also more compatible with manufacturing processes that use other plastics.

Transistors are fairly simple components (they are either on or off) which means a single pixel is either black or white. But team coordinator Dago de Leeuw and his team at the Philips Research Laboratories created an innovative plastic transistor that can control 256 corresponding shades of grey. This greater level of sophistication produces a much more accurate result.

In Plastronix, using the new type of transistor, the researchers created a 10 cm polymer dispersed liquid-crystal display. It measures 64 pixels by 64 pixels and can form an image using the 256 shades of grey. It can also be refreshed at the same speed as a video display. The current prototype used to test the plastic transistors was mounted on glass. The next step is to use plastic rather than glass to create a flexible display that would be robust and lightweight.

This field of research is highly competitive and the European team is not the only group experimenting with plastic transistors. The field also includes heavyweights such as Lucent and IBM. Similarly, Gyricon Media, a spin-off company of Xerox, is developing ‘Smart Paper’ with built-in display technology.

They were the first to show that polymer transistors could be manufactured on flexible surfaces so that they keep working even when folded in half. Not satisfied with this breakthrough the team also developed, later in Plastronix, the world’s first electronic display in which each pixel was driven by a thin-film transistor based on a polymer semiconductor.

This represents an important step towards the realisation of low-cost all-polymer displays with a high contrast and wide viewing angle – it may even allow flexible displays to be manufactured (see www.polymervision.com). Standard silicon technology is made from sand as a raw material and is expensive, whereas polymers are generally easier to process and more cost effective.

You might wonder how plastic can carry the electric currents that make a circuit work. Most people think of plastic as an insulator, not a material that conducts electricity very well. But in fact all materials conduct some electricity and many applications do not require a material that conducts as well as copper wire, for instance. Although plastic lacks some of the benefits of the best conductors, it provides other advantages, such as ease of manufacturing. Advances in electronics, especially in the field of integrated circuits, are often driven by the need to find new manufacturing techniques.

The manufacturing of conventional integrated circuits is expensive because it needs high-energy or high-vacuum processes, not to mention pristine conditions. This relatively new approach to electronics relies on much simpler production techniques, which resemble printing processes.

In this innovative manufacturing process, a transistor is built in much the same way as making a sandwich – layer upon layer – and without any high-energy or high-vacuum steps. These silk-screening-like steps lead to extremely cheap transistors. Some even suggest we may end up with disposable technology.

The prize winning research teams combined their academic and industrial skills to study carbon-based compounds – popularly called plastic or organic transistors – to make integrated electronic circuits that may some day complement silicon-based devices in special applications.

PLASTIC TRANSISTORS

1 0

Plastic fantastic


I N F O

Plastic transistors


Led byPhilips Research Laboratories Prof. Holstlaan 4 5656 AA Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Contact informationDr Dago de Leeuw Tel: +31 (0)40 27 42547

[email protected]

Websitewww.research.philips.com



Researchers previously linked to the Descartes Prize winning team have gone on to develop a disposable identification tag that can be incorporated into the wrapping of a package. The device also leads the way in linking large numbers of all-plastic transistors into circuits. This 326-transistor device can be bent in half and will still work properly.

Others formed an EU Fifth Framework Programme project, called Plastronix, which ran successfully for two years from 2000 to 2001 and resulted in several patent applications.


Winnings from the Descartes Prize were pumped into research aimed at optimising this revolutionary technology for use in more sophisticated devices, such as small memory devices and active-matrix displays. The research teams have made great strides in other projects, improving the switching speed and processing time.

Several teams are working on further improvements to this technology to get the same uniformity of performance over an even larger area, which would pave the way for a low-cost production process for large sheets of electronic paper.

T h e t e a m

Dr Dago de Leeuw of Philips Research Laboratories in The Netherlands, with assistance from Dr B.H. Huisman and Dr P.T. Herwig of Philips, and in co-operation with Dr R. Janssen, Dr B. Langeveld-Voss and Ms A.J.H. Spiering of Eindhoven University of Technology, Professor Dr P. Bäurle, Dr E. Mena-Osterlitz and Dr G. Götz of the Universität of Ulm (Germany), Dr P.J. Brown, and Dr H. Sirringhaus of the University of Cambridge (UK) and Dr M.M. Nielsen and Professor Dr K. Bechgaard of the Risø National Laboratory (Denmark), are leading the field in a very competitive race.

But e-paper is not the only application for the strong, flexible and lightweight electronic displays. Other applications for this technology range from electronic bar code devices for identification (e.g. airport luggage or in supermarkets), to flexible displays for mobile phones or car dashboards. In addition to being highly flexible and lightweight, plastic transistors can reduce production costs.

T h e a p p l i c a t i o n s

So what does this mean in practical terms for consumers? One of the most exciting possibilities of this research is the revolutionary prospect of an almost paperless world. In the future, researchers predict the demise of the paperback novel and morning paper in favour of electronic paper or so called ‘e-paper’. The goal is to create an electronic display on a material that has the look and flexibility of paper but, unlike paper, can be both amended and reused.

We could eventually be downloading our morning newspaper or the latest bestseller on to a single sheet of electronic paper. Scientists predict that early versions of e-paper could be available within the next five years. The main difficulty in developing e-paper has been that the circuit boards that direct the ‘electronic ink’ have not been flexible enough.

Silicon transistors are basically tiny switches that control the colour of each pixel (the tiny square units that make up the image on a computer screen). The transistors are layers of metals and insulators that must be laid down on a flat surface, producing a rigid display.

So, to achieve the perfect flexible display, a transistor needs to be placed behind each pixel for direct control. At the moment, silicon transistors break when bent. The transistors are currently placed on the edges where they are less likely to be damaged. Such screens can still be flexed, but they do not reproduce moving images, such as video, very well since the transistors are so far away from each pixel.

2000

1 1

Stemming the tide

T h e s c i e n c e

The researchers involved in the winning project discovered novel drugs and antiviral therapeutic targets and developed new therapeutic concepts which have already led to the treatment of many thousands of patients with HIV and hepatitis B infection. The novel drugs show only few, usually acceptable side effects.

Through careful study of the structure and function of viruses and antiviral substances, the researchers identified drugs, such as the acyclic nucleoside phosphonates (ANPs), which act against DNA viruses and retro(lenti)viruses, and discovered the very first non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) active against HIV. Increasing incidence of drug resistance is a major barrier to long-term therapy, so researchers are devoting significant attention to this problem. This has led to new approaches to treating HIV with therapeutics that show a lower rate of viral drug resistance.


Thanks to the consortium’s efforts, researchers were able to develop novel anti-HIV drugs with an improved resistance profile. The successful co-operation led to the development of tenofovir, a new phosphonate nucleoside drug which is a specific reverse transcriptase inhibitor for the treatment of AIDS. The drug was licensed to the US drug producer Gilead Sciences, Foster City, California. It prevents HIV replication and it also suppresses the replication of many HIV strains that became resistant to other established anti-HIV drugs. It was officially approved for clinical treatment of HIV-infected individuals by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA in October 2001.

Approximately two decades ago, researchers announced that they had isolated the cause of AIDS. The guilty party was identified as a lentivirus, a specially focused human immunodeficiency virus – most of us now know it more commonly as HIV.

For the past 20 years, the Research Group for Virology and Chemotherapy at the Rega Institute for Medical Research, Leuven, Belgium, has played an instrumental role in the search for new treatments against the HIV/AIDS disease.

In the 1980s, with the support of the European Commission, a centralised European facility for HIV drugs screening was created under the leadership of Professor Erik De Clercq of the Rega Institute. The facility is capable of processing thousands of substances per year, and numerous laboratories, institutes and pharmaceutical companies have taken advantage of it. Significant added support came from the establishment of a European collaborative network (consortium) which assembled researchers from complementary disciplines – in particular, medicinal/organic chemists from the Czech Republic, Spain and Britain; molecular biologists and enzymologists from Sweden; and virology/cellular biologists from Italy. Through these strategic partnerships, the research team presented a united front in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

This philosophy was successful when, in 2001, a project led by Professor Balzarini of the Rega Institute, in collaboration with teams from six countries (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK), won the Descartes Prize. The group focused on finding new lead drugs which inhibit HIV replication, identifying targets in the HIV replication cycle that are suitable for drug inhibition, developing novel therapeutic concepts, and understanding the molecular basis of HIV drug resistance.

According to the United Nations Aids Organisation, there are more than 40 million people around the world currently living with the HIV/AIDS virus. The burden is heaviest on the shoulders of the globally weak. In 2005, up to 4 million people died from the disease.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL DRUGS AGAINST HIV

1 2


Stemming the tide

I N F O

Development of novel drugs against HIV


Led byRega Institute for Medical Research, K.U. Leuven Minderbroedersstraat 10 3000 Leuven, Belgium

Contact informationProfessor Jan Balzarini Head of the Laboratory of Virology and Chemotherapy Tel: +32 (0)16 33 73 41 Fax: +32 (0)16 33 73 40

[email protected]

Websitewww.kuleuven.ac.be/rega/


groups. The researchers are currently collaborating with pharmaceutical companies to perform further (pre)clinical research on this pro-drug technology.

In addition, Professor Balzarini developed an entirely novel therapeutic concept to trigger the immune system to produce more neutralising antibodies against HIV upon exposure of the virus to a new class of antivirals. This approach is still in its infancy and efforts are being made to further elaborate this principle and to prove the concept in an animal model. The researchers have shown that carbohydrate-binding agents, or CBA, may force the virus to delete (partially) its glycan shield on its envelope gp120. Such drugs are unique in that they may afford a dual mechanism of antiviral action: a direct antiviral effect by blocking entry and transmission of HIV into its target cells, and an indirect antiviral effect by triggering the immune system to produce neutralising antibodies against previously uncovered immunogenic epitopes on the viral (gp120) envelope.


“Our team combined strong basic science aspects with clinical applications. The prize money helped to expand this team and purchase vital new equipment. The money also covered more day-to-day running expenses and basic operating costs.”

“We gained new mechanistic insights into the action of some novel drug leads, studied the drugs’ pharmacology, designed and synthesised new drug leads and discovered potential new ways for treatment – all within the Descartes team,” Professor Balzarini notes. “Patents have been filed on new antiviral compound leads and pro-drug technologies.”

Basically, tenofovir is able to reduce the amount of HIV in the blood and, when used in combination with other antiviral drugs, it can help prevent or reverse damage to the immune system and reduce the risk of AIDS-related illnesses. A closely related analogue (adefovir) is used for the treatment of hepatitis B.

In the European Union, tenofovir was approved in February 2002 and has since been available on the European market. It was later approved, in combination with another anti-HIV drug (emtricitabine) as a combination pill, called Truvada, that can be taken once daily. Very recently, tenofovir and emtricitabine have been combined with the NNRTI efavirenz as a once-a-day triple concentration pill, called AtriplaTM.

In July 2002, an entirely new subclass of phosphonate nucleoside drugs (prototype: PMEO-DAPy) was discovered by researchers in Leuven and Prague (Professor A. Holý), and is currently under further investigation. The compound has low toxicity in human blood cells and the researchers are examining its action mechanism to see whether it has advantages over tenofovir. Moreover, these compounds can also act against a broad series of DNA viruses including poxvirus and papilloma viruses.

Underpinning all the research, the team has also been developing new ways of delaying, suppressing or circumventing the emergence of drug-resistant HIV, as well as investigating ways of optimising and rationalising current HIV treatments. In addition, Professor C. McGuigan and Professor A. Karlsson have focused on new delivery systems of activated nucleoside analogues into intact cells.

The European team is also investigating the feasibility of developing a new type of pro-drug approach to make (anti-HIV) drugs more soluble and/or orally bio-available. The proof of principle in cell culture has already been established within the Descartes team, in collaboration with Dr M.J. Camarasa’s and Professor C.F. Perno’s

2001

1 3

T h e t e a m

The project was coordinated by Professor Jan Balzarini of the Rega Institute for Medical Research in Leuven (Belgium) in collaboration with Dr Maria-José Camarasa of the Instituto de Química Médica in Madrid (Spain), Professor Antonin Holý of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague (Czech Republic), Professor Anna Karlsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (Sweden), Professor Chris McGuigan of the University of Wales in Cardiff (UK) and Professor Carlo-Federico Perno of the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’ (Italy).

Helping hands


The research teams continue to make progress in the field of asymmetric cyanohydrin synthesis. The major fine-chemical manufacturer, NPIL, formally launched one of the catalysts (CACHYTM or Catalyst for Asymmetric CyanoHydrin sYnthesis) in February 2002 and a second patent (based on vanadium catalysts) has been filed and is also included in the agreement with NPIL. In 2004, the technology was sub-licensed to the organisation NARD in Japan, thus enhancing the global impact of the catalyst.

The researchers have also demonstrated that very cost-effective cyanide sources can be used. The research revealed that, in addition to trimethylsilyl cyanide and potassium cyanide, ethyl cyanoformate can be used as the cyanide source. This has the advantage that the reaction is homogeneous (unlike the potassium cyanide chemistry), the product is stable (unlike the trimethylsilyl cyanide product), and the reagents are inexpensive.

The teams are also investigating the subsequent trans-formations of the cyanohydrin acetates. They have shown that enantiomerically pure α-hydroxy amides and α-hydroxy acids can be prepared from the cyanohydrins, thus enhancing the utility of the methodology.

The use of the catalysts in other related processes is also being investigated and the chemists have achieved some very promising preliminary results on the Strecker reaction. Studies on the catalysis mechanism are also ongoing.

The researchers are making rapid progress, too, in the application of their catalysts to a totally different reaction: the synthesis of amino acids under phase transfer conditions.

Many chemicals have two so-called ‘hands’: one hand of the compound may have a desirable property, the other, essentially its mirror image, may have a detrimental effect. Traditional methods for dealing with unwelcome hands are wasteful and costly, so the scientists searched for alternatives.

T h e s c i e n c e

Their discovery has made a significant contribution to the development of catalysts (molecular machines) which are capable of producing the desired hands in much greater quantities than the unwanted hand – asymmetric catalysts.

This has resulted in the development of over 50 new catalysts for chemical reactions, many of which had no previously known catalyst. These catalysts have the potential to replace inferior manufacturing methods – particularly within the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries – and will result in more cost-effective and environmentally friendly commercial processes.

This will have a knock-on effect for consumers in terms of the cost and quality of these products. The process can be applied to many different potential pharmaceuticals and is currently being refined and commercialised by NPIL, a leading fine-chemicals manufacturer.

The teams were responsible for solving one of the key challenges faced by chemists – how to produce only the desired ‘hand’ of a chemical compound resulting in less chemical waste and minimum cost.

DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ASYMMETRIC CATALYSTS FOR CHEMICAL MANUFACTURING

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Helping hands

I N F O

Development of new asymmetric catalysts for chemical manufacturing


Led byKing’s College Department of Chemistry The Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom

Contact informationProfessor Michael North University of Newcastle Tel: +44 (0)191 2227128 Fax: +44 (0)870 1313783

[email protected]

Websitewww.staff.ncl.ac.uk/michael.north/index.htm



The Descartes Prize money helped PhD students and young researchers to further develop their chemistry careers. The money also provided funds for chemicals, consumables and equipment to continue the research and for exchange of staff and students between the collaborating laboratories. This collaboration is still continuing, with funding from INTAS recently secured for the next two years.

Professor North says the prize is welcome international recognition of the quality and importance of the work being carried out within both his research group and those of the partners.They have prepared a series of catalysts based on different

metals, and have shown that copper and cobalt complexes can be used to synthesise pharmaceutically important amino acids with a very high excess of one hand of the product over the other. The application of this methodology to other reactions is currently under investigation, as is the mechanism of the reaction.

The teams now have three patents on the catalyst system.

2001

1 5

Two examples of catalysts prepared during the project.

T h e t e a m

The project was coordinated by Professor Michael North of King’s College in London (now at Newcastle University) (UK) in co-operation with Dr A. Börner of Universität Rostock (Germany), Professor Y.N. Belokon of A.N. Nesmayanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds and Dr J.M. Brown of Oxford University (UK), and Professor H. Kagan of Université Paris-Sud (France).

Searching for medical missing links

According to some scientists, these genetic variations could make it difficult for the immune system to distinguish between the Epstein Barr virus (EBV) and myelin – the fatty material that insulates the nerves and allows them to transmit electrical signals. When the immune system mistakes myelin for EBV, it attacks it. The result is that electrical signals in the body then slowdown or become mixed up, which leads to the symptoms experienced by MS patients.

But exactly what triggers this misguided immune system assault is unclear. The study by Professor Fuggerand colleagues found that a genetic variation in MS patients made their immune systems more likely to confuse myelin for EBV. The study gives more credence to the idea that the body might be mistaking proteins of the central nervous system for proteins in the virus.

Leading researchers agree that the new study fulfils a lot of expectations. For some time, they have known that there was some relationship between viral and MS attacks. This does not mean the virus is the cause of MS, but it shows how viruses might trigger it.

Ultimately, researchers may find that more than one type of gene variation leads to susceptibility to MS. The focus of the group is to understand the disease pathways that lead to MS. This knowledge will be instrumental in designing future drugs which are urgently needed.

Symptoms of MS are unpredictable and vary from person to person and from time to time in the same person. The disease usually causes sudden neurological symptoms, including vision loss, paralysis, numbness and walking difficulties. While some symptoms will come and go over the course of the disease, others maybe more lasting.

A European team of six research centres developing treatments for multiple sclerosis won the Descartes Prize in 2002. The group led by Professor Lars Fugger succeeded in describing how the disease starts.

The winning research revealed how a virus can mimic a compound found naturally in the nervous system and trigger the disease. The team also helped to identify compounds in the brains of MS patients which explain how their immune systems over-react, triggering them to start attacking their own cells.

T h e s c i e n c e

The researchers discovered that certain genetic variations may make some people more prone to developing multiple sclerosis. They did this by using mice which possessed the same genetic defects as human MS patients.

Through their experiments, the team successfully defined the principal players in the autoimmune attack and envisaged how the virus may start a disease. The researchers’ ultimate objective is to develop new drugs and immunomodulatory therapies, which are urgently needed for the treatment of MS patients.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, incurable disease of the nervous system affecting some 350 000 people in Europe. MS is an autoimmune disease, which means the body’s immune system attacks its own central nervous system.

AUTOREACTIVITY IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: STRUCTURAL, FUNCTIONAL AND PATHOLOGICAL STUDIES

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Searching for medical missing links

I N F O

Autoreactivity in multiple sclerosis: structural, functional and pathological studies


Led byDepartment of Clinical Immunology Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby Sygehus 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark

Contact informationProfessor Lars Fugger Department of Clinical Neurology MRC Immunology Unit University of Oxford Tel: +44 (0)1865 22 2498

[email protected]

Websitewww.clneuro.ox.ac.uk



The Descartes Prize was used to extend the consortium working on the research. Professor Fugger said that it was a great honour to win the award and that the follow-up has helped put multiple sclerosis on the European medical agenda.

“The Descartes Prize has added tremendous value to our research as we have been contacted by new potential partners, and private sources have expressed interest in funding our continued research work,” notes Professor Fugger. “Moreover, winning the prize has also resulted in increased public interest and understanding for biomedical research that is even more important.”


In the months following the prize, the researchers identified how MS disease risk genes can interact. This observation sheds new light on the complexity of the disease and is important because, only by understanding this complexity, can more drugs be developed.

The teams also managed to extract and crystallize protein from the immune system of MS patients. The resultant crystal structure provides a high-resolution picture of how this protein can contribute to the disease process, and might represent a target for new drugs. It is a very important step forward and may form a basis for the development of new drugs to treat MS patients.

All project partners working on the MS project are now collaborating on other immunology related projects. They have established liaison officers to improve interaction and cross-fertilisation between involved partner groups.

The team is currently working with European pharmaceutical partners on developing new MS medicines, some of which are already being tested. It is still too early for concrete applications but they are making good progress. Many of the teams’ results and reagents are also being used by other companies and scientists investigating the autoimmunity of MS and developing new therapies.

In April 2005, Professor Fugger was awarded the prestigious European Society for Clinical Investigation Award for Excellence in Clinical Science. The award recognised Professor Fugger’s pioneering work to understand molecular mechanisms of the immune system relevant to human disease using transgenic mouse models expressing human immune determinants. Such work is beginning to establish a more clear foundation for understanding the association of specific major histocompatability complex class II determinants with autoimmune disease. It is felt that a clear understanding of this phenomenon may be a key to new treatments.

2002

1 7

T h e t e a m

The project was coordinated by Professor Lars Fugger of Aarhus University Hospital (Denmark), now at the University of Oxford – John Radcliffe Hospital (UK), together with Professor Rikard Holmdahl of Lund University (Sweden), Professor Yvonne Jones Oxford University (UK), in co-operation with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (USA), Dundee University (Scotland), and the Danish School of Pharmacy (Denmark), in the Department of Clinical Immunology.

Rising stars

to trace the history of star formation in the early cosmos. Most astronomers now believe that they are produced when young, massive black holes shoot jets of gas into space at near the speed of light. Bursts occur, they think, as a gas jet breaks up and its parts collide with each other.

Gamma-ray bursts are detected by satellites orbiting the Earth and travelling through the solar system. They can only be detected from space because the Earth’s atmosphere absorbs gamma rays and, therefore, we cannot observe them from the ground. The first gamma-ray bursts were detected by the Vela satellites which were launched in the 1960s by the USA to ensure compliance with the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

The winning research was carried out with the BeppoSAX satellite – operated by the Italian Space Agency and the Dutch Agency for Space Research – from May 1996 to May 2002. BeppoSAX detected gamma-ray bursts and quickly worked out precisely where in the sky they came from. Scientists could then turn optical telescopes, such as those of the European Southern Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope, on these spots.

An afterglow is the emission that follows a gamma-ray burst in other parts of the spectrum, ranging from radio waves to X-rays, and lasting from a few days to several years. The afterglows fade away over time in a well-understood manner. The discovery of the first afterglows in 1997 was made possible by BeppoSAX, and has revolutionised the field of gamma-ray burst astronomy.

Observations of the afterglows all across the spectrum tell us many things about gamma-ray bursts. First, observations of the first afterglow in 1997 confirmed that they occur in very distant galaxies. Second, we can determine from them how much energy was released in the gamma-ray burst. Third, we can ascertain how much material was present in the vicinity of the burst.

Gamma-ray bursts were discovered by accident in the 1960s and, for the past 35 years, they have been the target of intense research and speculation by astronomers. Until recently, we did not know if they came from our own galaxy or perhaps from as far away as the edge of the Universe.

This was the first time that the Descartes Prize went to astronomers, who discovered that these bursts do come from the edge of the Universe.

Gamma-ray bursts release an extremely large amount of energy – the equivalent of turning a star like the Sun into pure energy (using Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2). This is also the amount of energy released by 1 000 stars over their entire lifetime of 10 billion years. If you can quantify it, in the few seconds that a gamma-ray burst occurs, it releases almost the same amount of energy as the entire Universe releases in the same time.

After almost 30 years of observing gamma-ray bursts, it was believed that, on average, one occurs every day somewhere in the Universe. However, recent developments indicate that the true number of these events may be 500 times larger, meaning we see one in every 500 gamma-ray bursts.

T h e s c i e n c e

Professor van den Heuvel and his co-workers determined that gamma-ray bursts come from the star-forming regions of distant galaxies. In the past, scientists batted around over 150 theories about gamma-ray bursts, but most involved sources inside our own galaxy.

His team’s discovery greatly narrowed the number of viable explanations into what causes gamma-ray bursts. The new clues support what was once just speculation, that the bursts represented the explosive death of massive stars. The gamma-ray bursts may become unique probes of extreme physics and cosmology, allowing astronomers

Twenty astrophysicists, led by Edward van den Heuvel, shared the Descartes Prize for their research into the origins of gamma-ray bursts. Gamma-ray bursts are fleeting powerful flashes of photons detected in space and, for 30 years, have been considered to be the greatest mystery of modern astronomy.

SOLVING THE GAMMA-RAY BURST RIDDLE: THE UNIVERSE’S BIGGEST EXPLOSIONS

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Rising stars

I N F O

Solving the gamma-ray burst riddle


Led by

Astronomical Institute “Anton Pannekoek” Kruislaan 403 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Contact information

Professor Edward van den Heuvel Tel: +31 (0)20 525 7493 Fax: +31 (0)20 525 7484

[email protected]

Websitewww.astro.uva.nl



“We all feel that being awarded this prize is a very important distinction: it means international recognition of our scientific work at the highest level. One of the values of the prize for society is that it focuses the attention of the general public on the importance of scientific research. It also increases the interest of the public, particularly young people, in science,” comments Professor van den Heuvel.

He and his colleagues are spending their Descartes Prize winnings on developing new instruments for pinning down the genesis of these gamma rays. Since winning the prize, several new partners have joined the team. The project is now a worldwide collaboration with the addition of Israel, France, Sweden and the United States.

The award has been a welcome boost to the teams’ budget, making the expansion of the research possible. The Descartes Prize has thus raised awareness in the scientific community about a project that is pure fundamental science.

T h e t e a m

The project was coordinated by Professor Edward van den Heuvel from the Astronomical Institute ‘Anton Pannekoek’ and the Centre for High-Energy Astrophysics at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands), in co-operation with the University of Amsterdam, SRON and NASA/MSFC (The Netherlands), CNR/IASF in Rome, INAF Trieste and the University of Ferrara (Italy), the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), LAEFF-INTA (Spain), Cambridge University (UK), and AIP (Germany). Other participants include the Space Telescope Science Institute, Max Planck Institute at Garching, Germany, BeppoSAX, and astrophysicists at Cambridge and Stony Brook University in the USA.


The researchers have since discovered that the gamma-ray burst on 29 March 2003 was definitely associated with an extremely powerful stellar explosion, a so-called ‘hypernova’, the signs of which were discovered about a week after the actual burst which only lasted a few minutes.

At that time, the only other known case of a gamma-ray burst that coincided with a stellar explosion was that of 25 April 1998 which was also discovered by the team and associated with the extremely powerful stellar explosion Supernova 1998.

In astronomy, as in any other science, one single event, observation or measurement is not considered sufficient to draw definitive conclusions. The stellar explosion of 29 March 2003 is like an identical twin of the explosion of 25 April 1998.

These two observed occurrences led scientists to draw the definitive conclusion that these long-duration gamma-ray bursts (lasting longer than two seconds) are due to explosions of very massive stars, which accompany the collapse of the burnt-out stellar core to a black hole. Since then, several more long gamma-ray bursts have been found to be associated with supernovae, most recently that of 18 February 2006.

Until 2005, nothing was known about the places of origin of the short-duration gamma-ray bursts (lasting less than two seconds and with much harder spectra than the long bursts). In that year, members of the project consortium and American colleagues found that several of these originate in old galaxies in which there are no massive stars, and must therefore be produced by a different physical mechanism, which is still being studied.

Furthermore, it can be noted that Professor van den Heuvel has been a member of the Descartes Grand Jury since 2004.

2002

1 9

Bright lights! substances that fluoresce vibrantly in solution lose this property in their solid form.

PLEDs can now be produced with efficiencies comparable to those of a tungsten light bulb. Therefore, future devices could be used not only in displays, but also for lighting applications.

T h e s c i e n c e

Plastics are normally thought of as insulators but it was discovered in the late 1970s that, if an organic polymer was doped chemically, it would have potential as a conductor or semiconductor. It would behave like a metal but with much greater electrical conductivity. This has given rise to a new technology which is challenging liquid crystals for use in applications such as displays.

Unlike liquid crystals, light-emitting polymers are electro-luminescent which means their molecules can emit light on their own. Displays are made by applying a thin film of polymer to a glass or plastic base, which has been coated with transparent electrodes. Light is emitted from the polymer when an electric field is applied across the electrodes. The result is virtually instant light-up and a lighter, more energy-efficient display than with liquid crystals. And because they are robust, large-area displays can be made. An additional advantage is that they can be dissolved in a solution and printed on a variety of surfaces using an ink-jet system.

The scope of these technologies will be widened when organic thin-film transistors are available. Although the assemblies will operate at only a fraction of the speed of silicon transistors, as used in Intel’s Pentium processors, they are fast enough for the less expensive end of the market.

In addition to displays, they are likely to be used in throwaway products, with plastic chips being printed on consumer items such as T-shirts, drinks cans and food cartons for displaying health messages or providing sales data.

It does not seem too long ago that the electronic game PAC-MAN was a technological breakthrough. Now we are in the era of bendable organic monitors and the 2003 Descartes Prize winning team, led by Professor Richard Friend, is working on polymer-based light-emitting diode displays (PLEDD) which will revolutionise the way in which we view things.

The seeds of the research were planted in 1989, when a doctoral student, Jeremy Burroughes, at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, passed an electric current through a plastic polymer sandwiched between metallic electrodes. It glowed bright green. His research supervisor, Professor Friend, saw the potential and filed some broad patents. In 1992, Professor Friend and colleagues set up Cambridge Display Technology to develop them.

The winning multinational team of British, German, Dutch and Swedish researchers from universities and industry developed polymer-based light-emitting diodes which will open the door to significant innovations in display technologies. The glass or silicon in screens of all kinds could, for example, be replaced with much cheaper plastic.

Polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) consist of a thin film (0.1 microns) of a polymer plastic, such as polyparaphenylene vinylene, sandwiched between two electrodes. They are usually built on a transparent base which can be glass or flexible plastic.

PLEDs have a great future in displays because they are lighter, more energy efficient than liquid crystals, and more flexible. This feature – and their low cost – will enable electronics to move into cheaper or even throwaway applications, for which silicon is too rigid and too expensive and where its high speed is not needed.

Progress made by the German project partner, Covion (now part of Merck), in the synthesis of polymers has contributed to a major increase in luminescence efficiency. One surprising finding was that some materials do not exhibit the expected ‘solid-state quenching’ effect, where

The next generation of electronic displays is being developed by the best and the brightest of Europe’s researchers.

POLYMER LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES FOR DISPLAYS

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Bright lights!

I N F O

Polymer light-emitting diodes for displays


Led byOptoelectronics Group Cavendish Laboratory University of Cambridge J.J. Thomson Avenue Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom

Contact informationProfessor Sir Richard Friend Tel: +44 (0)1223 337218 Fax: +44 (0)1223 764515

[email protected]

Websitehttp://www-oe.phy.cam.ac.uk



The money was distributed around the consortium members, leaving each partner free to choose how to use it. “It seems clear to us that several of the teams want to use some of the prize money to improve ‘networking’ between partners, particularly where they want to find new ideas,” Professor Friend confirms.

“The ability to operate on the European scale has made a difference. It made new things much more possible, notably to ‘push the boundaries’ with high-risk research. The most valuable money is the money that you can use to try out something slightly on the edge, because it is very hard to get ordinary sources of funding,” he concludes.

T h e t e a m

The project coordinator, Professor Richard Friend of the University of Cambridge (UK), worked together with Dr Jeremy Borroughes of Cambridge Display Technology (UK), Dr Eliav Haskal of Philips Electronics (The Netherlands), Professor Jean-Luc Bredas of Materia Nova in Mons (Belgium), Professor William Salaneck of Linköping University (Sweden), and Dr Hermann Schenk of Covion Organic Semiconductors in Frankfurt am Main (Germany).


Philips was the first to market a product derived from the work. A pilot-scale line at its factory in Heerlen (The Netherlands) has manufactured monochrome passive-matrix screens for the top-of-the-range ‘Spectra‘ electric shaver (which notably featured in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day).

Currently, displays are limited to deposited glass or silicon backings, but with flexible plastic substrate seven reel-to-reel processing would be possible. This would effectively overcome the problem of size limitations, while offering the economies-of-scale benefits of continuous mass production, as well as the convenience and environmental gains of operating under ambient conditions. Cambridge Display Technology and Philips have actively pursued the use of direct ink-jet printing. Top-end printers already offer adequate resolution and uniformity; it only remains to develop the appropriate ‘inks’ and matching print-heads.

Real commercial success will come when full-colour displays are introduced. The groups have shown that it is possible to demonstrate the technology on small-scale screens, but research is continuing on the development of larger screens and polymers that can produce the three primary colours. The predictions are that PLED screens for televisions and computers could be available by the end of the decade.

In March 2003, Professor Friend became the 81st recipient of the Institution of Electrical Engineers’s Faraday Medal. In June of the same year, he was knighted for “Services to Physics” in the British Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

2003

2 1

Accurate positioning in a wobbly world

of the Earth’s complex movements. The Earth is roughly a flattened sphere whose equator is tilted at 23 degrees to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. As a result, the gravitational attraction of the Sun causes the Earth to wobble like a spinning top, with a period of 26 000 years (precession). The Moon also causes smaller wobbles and has a whole range of periods, from days to 18.6 years (nutation). Besides these quivers, there are more complicated gravitational effects due to the fact that the Earth is not rigid – it contains a liquid core and a solid inner core, and it changes shape under the attraction of the Sun and Moon (tidal deformation). Finally, the effects of the atmosphere and the oceans have to be considered, as their attraction and loading on the Earth also change the amplitudes of its vibrations.

The team set about tackling the problem posed by the very slight inclination of the Earth’s axis as it orbits the Sun, known as nutation. The researchers developed a new model that dramatically improved the precision of the Earth orientation in space, which can now be measured in terms of centimetres rather than metres. It is very useful for precise satellite positioning and navigation systems. We can now locate the position of the world in space to an astonishing degree of accuracy.

This progress could prove extremely beneficial to space missions and satellite applications, especially in the framework of such major European projects as Galileo and the global monitoring for environment and security (GMES).

This poses a problem when trying to work out accurately where we are in relation to space or to a satellite orbiting around the Earth. How are we meant to know exactly where we are when our points of reference are constantly moving?

In today’s society, there is a growing demand for precise positioning and navigation systems. Accuracy is vital to the way that we are trying to move this technology forward, and is key to being more efficient travellers or to having greater personal security.

The Descartes winning team, led by Professor Véronique Dehant, in collaboration with groups from eight European countries, as well as five non-European countries, has successfully produced a highly accurate reference framework, using detailed computation of variations in the Earth‘s rotation and orientation in space. Basically, the research has greatly improved the accuracy of pinpoint positioning on Earth.

T h e s c i e n c e

Scientists agree that the Earth is not a very stable platform from which to make measurements of directions in space because it vibrates on its axis, revolves around the Sun, and follows the Sun as a member of the solar system on its journey around the galaxy. Astronomers measuring the positions of stars, planets, etc. have used considerable ingenuity in removing from their observations the effects

Nutation in astronomy is a slight wobbling motion of the Earth’s axis. The causes of nutation are similar to those of the precession of the equinoxes, involving the varying attraction of the Moon and the Sun on the Earth’s equatorial bulge.

NON-RIGID EARTH NUTATION MODEL

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Accurate positioning in a wobbly world

I N F O

Non-rigid earth nutation model


Led byRoyal Observatory of Belgium Av. Circulaire 3 – Ringlaan 3 1180 Brussels, Belgium

Contact informationProfessor Véronique Dehant Head of Section “Time, Earth Rotation and Space Geodesy” Tel: +32 (0)2 373 02 66

[email protected]

Websitehttp://homepage.oma.be/veroniq/


of the Earth. The experiment will form part of a future mission to Mars involving the deployment of landers on the Martian surface in a few years from now. This is an exciting new development for the group.


The consortium decided to use the prize money to sponsor PhD and postdoctoral exchanges, as well as to pay for meetings among the working groups involved in the Descartes Prize project. The objective is to reach the next decimal of the modelling of the nutation, making the measurements that much more accurate.

The team has also sent out a call for proposals in the scientific community to further their work. An advisory board has been created and has selected the proposals to be financed by the prize money. The future looks very promising.

T h e t e a m

Led by Professor Véronique Dehant of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, with colleagues Dr F. Defraigne, Dr O. de Viron, Dr F. Roosbeek, and Professor T. Van Hoolst, in association with researchers from her institution and key contacts at institutes around the world. These include Dr F. Arias of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures in Sèvres, Dr M. Bretagnon and colleagues of the Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Ephémérides in Paris, and Dr N. Capitaine and colleagues at the Observatory of Paris (France), Professor A. Brzezinski of the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw (Poland), Dr M. Folgueira of Complutense University of Madrid, Professor J.M. Ferrándiz and colleagues of the University of Alicante, and Professor J. Getino of Valladolid University (Spain), Dr S. Klioner and Professor M. Soffel of the Technical Universities of Dresden, Professor M. Rothacher of Munich Technical University and Professor S.Y. Zhu of the GeoForschungs Zentrum Potsdam (Germany), Professor H. Schuh and Professor R. Weber of the Technical University of Vienna (Austria), Dr J. Vondrak of the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences in Prague (Czech Republic), Professor Y. Yatskiv of the Main Astronomical Observatory of the National Academy of Sciences in Kiev (Ukraine), and Professor V. Zharov of the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute of Moscow State University (Russia). Researchers from the USA, Canada, China, Japan and India also participated in the project.


The team has grown since winning the Descartes Prize in 2003, with the welcome addition of young scientists interested in the research. Together, the expanded team will continue to work on modelling more accurate rigid Earth nutations, taking into account, for example, additional corrections for ocean and atmosphere effects on the nutations and seismic effects.

Professor Dehant revealed that a list of steps in the next phase has been identified. In particular, there will be improvement on the theoretical side, such as coupling mechanisms inside the Earth, and on the observational side, as the team studies how the new generation of global positioning systems (GPS) and the Galileo system will help determine the nutations.

Looking a little further afield, she plans to apply the same methodology to study Mars. The work will help determine whether the Red Planet has a liquid core similar to that

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‘Power station’ genes for healthy, long lives?

A major additional objective was to determine the role of mtDNA in the ageing process. The Swedish participants in MBAD developed a special strain of mouse, genetically modified to produce a higher than normal error rate in the replication of its mtDNA. As a result, the mice showed clear signs of premature ageing.

T h e s c i e n c e

Mitochondria are key components of the body’s cells: they produce enzymes which burn sugars and fats to deliver the energy needed for all vital functions. Uniquely, mitochondria contain small quantities of DNA that are separate from the ‘main’ DNA contained in the cell nucleus, although the two sets of genes do function in concert. Mitochondrial DNA contains just 37 genes and, unlike nuclear DNA, is inherited exclusively through the maternal line (from mother to child).

Early findings regarding mtDNA related principally to rare illnesses which, despite their severity, were not accorded high research priority because of their infrequency.

However, since then, scores of different mtDNA mutations, plus a similar number of mutations in nuclear genes for mitochondrial functions, have been identified as the causes of numerous disorders, including some conditions that are relatively common. Mitochondrial dysfunction mainly affects tissues which are highly dependent on biological energy: the brain, heart, muscles, and secretory and sensory organs. The long list includes Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, encephalopathy, diabetes, infertility, heart failure and other forms of muscular weakness or paralysis.

In 1988, Dr Ian Holt, who now heads a team at the UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC), opened up the field by making the breakthrough discovery of genetic mutations in the mtDNA of people exhibiting muscular abnormalities. Shortly afterwards, Dr Massimo Zeviani of the Italian Istituto Nazionale Neurologico ‘CarloBesta‘, in Milan, reported the first identified cases of multiple mtDNA deletions (defects).

Then, in the early 1990s, Professor Howard Jacobs – currently at the University of Tampere, Finland, and coordinator of the MBAD group – was one of several researchers to observe that such mutations also gave rise to some common conditions, such as inherited deafness in children.

Throughout the 1990s, the group also made major progress in mapping, identifying and determining the functions of key nuclear genes involved in the maintenance and replication of mtDNA. It became clear that nuclear gene products are also involved in mitochondrial disease. The Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) in Paris produced the first report on this subject in 1995, and subsequently patented a drug called Idebenone, a powerful antioxidant, for use in treatment.

The pioneers went on to collaborate with a wider group of institutions. Their work was aided by EU support under the Third and Fifth Framework Programmes for research (FP3 and FP5) – and is continuing to be funded through the FP6 Integrated Project EUMITOCOMBAT (www.eumitocombat.org).

Scientists from the five partner institutes in the MBAD project pioneered the study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in disease and ageing and are now gathering new knowledge that will guide the development of curative therapies, and possibly extend healthy human life.

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH IN MITOCHONDRIAL BIOGENESIS, AGEING AND DISEASE (MBAD)

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‘Power station’ genes for healthy, long lives?

I N F O

Mitochondrial biogenesis, ageing and disease (MBAD)


Led byInstitute of Medical Technology 33014 University of Tampere, Finland

Contact informationProfessor Howard Trevor Jacobs Tel: +35 83355 17731 Fax: +35 83355 17710

[email protected]

Websitewww.finmit.org/howylab.htm



The Descartes Prize has greatly boosted recognition of this field of work, even among the general public, Professor Jacobs notes. “The idea that the term ‘mitochondria’ might be widely recognised and understood, and that its importance in human health and disease would be acknowledged, is a very important gain for our area of studies.”

The award has also thrust MBAD members into the public limelight. “Remarkably, people stop me in the street or in the supermarket to ask me about mitochondria and ageing!” Professor Jacobs enthuses.

But he believes it is necessary to step out of the lab sometimes. “I feel this is really important to enable our work to progress. The public must have some appreciation of where this apparently esoteric line of research leads, and how it can affect their lives and health in the future.”


MBAD members hope that, in the long term, their efforts will lead to treatments for mitochondrial disease. “Our work may eventually help us to treat a substantial proportion of cases of many common diseases, especially those affecting the elderly, including neurodegeneration, diabetes, hearing and vision loss, and so on,” explains Professor Jacobs.

Since they received their Descartes award, MBAD members have been extending both the fundamental and applied aspects of their research on mitochondria, ageing and disease. The teams in the UK, Finland and Italy are working closely to broaden their knowledge of how mitochondrial DNA replicates. “Although this is very much in the category of ‘basic research’, it is really essential if we are to understand how somatic mitochondrial mutations arise and contribute to disease and ageing,” says Professor Jacobs.

Four members of the team are pursuing a promising new approach to gene therapy for mitochondrial diseases, based on the use of the so-called alternative oxidase enzyme, found in many lower organisms. “This work is still at a very early stage, but the ‘metabolic bypass therapy’ that this offers could have very wide applications in medicine,” Professor Jacobs admits.

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The disease presented in the figure is called autosomal dominant progressive external ophthalmoplegia (ad-PEO) and it is an example of nucleus-driven abnormality of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). The pedigree shown in the upper panel clearly demonstrates that ad-PEO is transmitted as a dominant trait. Affected individuals (red symbols) are characterised by the accumulation of multiple mtDNA deleted species, as shown in a Southern blot of linearised mtDNA from muscle biopsies.The disease causes the paralysis of the eye muscles including that which raises the upper eyelid, which droops down in a patient (middle panel). The disorder, however, is more generalised, causing a typical mitochondrial myopathy (bottom panel).

T h e t e a m

The MBAD project was led by Professor Howard Trevor Jacobs of the University of Tampere in Finland, who worked with Professor Nils Göran Larsson of Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Medical Nutrition (Sweden), Dr Ian J. Holt of the Medical Research Council (UK), Dr Massimo Zeviani of the Istituto Nazionale Neurologico ‘CarloBesta’ (Italy), and Dr Pierre Rustin of the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (France).

Professor Howard Trevor Jacobs

Quantum teleportation, a key to secure communications

Entanglement can find use in so-called quantum cryptography. In quantum cryptography, a cryptographic key, which can be used to hide the actual message, is sent between the communication parties encoding the key data bits on individual photons. One way to send such keys is to use entangled photons, where the entangled photon pairs carry the keys from the transmitter to the receiver, with per data key bit one photon sent to the receiver, and the photon twin sent to the transmitter. The security of such systems resides in the property that if someone eavesdrops on the transmission it breaks the entanglement, the twin properties disappear and the real communicating parties can find this out and take countermeasures. In fact, it can be proven that the security of such a quantum cryptographic system is complete, which is not possible with any conventional classical system.

Quantum cryptography, as being offered commercially today can be done without entanglement using faint laser light from laser diodes. The extra security of quantum cryptography, based on entanglement, is that it eliminates some of the possible security loopholes in these first-generation systems. Furthermore, entangled states can be used to provide cryptographic relay links to extend the

distance possible for doing quantum cryptography.

P r o g r e s s / a c h i e v e m e n t sIn 1998, the University of Vienna – later to become an IST-QuComm partner – was the first to demonstrate quantum cryptography with entangled photons. A number of further technological breakthroughs occurring within the project itself have boosted the state of the art in this field. Much new knowledge was gained about the fundamental mechanisms of entanglement and how to generate and detect entangled photons. In particular, the work in

In the IST-QuComm project, European and American researchers joined forces to develop and demonstrate intriguing applications of quantum physics: from quantum teleportation to the perfectly secure transmission of encrypted information over cable links and through free space – eventually aiming towards a global network for secure communications.

Researchers have performed experiments in which it has proven possible to correlate – give twin-like properties – to photons, even after they have been transmitted to widely separated locations. Once described by Albert Einstein as ‘spooky action at a distance‘, this effect can be used to do “quantum teleportation” which is a process of teleporting the full information down to the tiniest quantum level of an object from one place to another.

In the EU-supported (2000-2003) IST-QuComm project, scientists sought to extend the transmission limits of such quantum teleportation, and to show the use of this effect as a way to provide a transmission channel that could not be listened into without being detected.

T h e s c i e n c e

To perform these feats, the scientists used an effect called quantum entanglement. Quantum entanglement involves simultaneously produced photons linked to one another as twins, triplets or larger groupings, which effectively perform as if they were single objects. Even when such photons are separated geographically by distances that exclude normal physical influences, modification of one of them automatically causes its remote counterpart to behave in the same way. What’s more, both particles are actually without properties until they are measured, all they “know” is that they should behave in a similar manner.

Quantum physicists have shown that teleportation, the science-fiction dream of making an object disappear while a replica appears somewhere else, is indeed a reality – at least for photons (light particles) or atoms.

IST-QUCOMM – LONG-DISTANCE PHOTONIC QUANTUM COMMUNICATION

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I N F O

IST-QuCOMM


Led byKungliga Tekniska Högskolan Valhallavägen 79 10044 Stockholm, Sweden

Contact informationProfessor Anders Karlsson Strategic Research Center in Photonics Tel: +46 (0)8 790 40 81 Fax: +46 (0)8 790 40 90

[email protected]

Websitehttp://www.imit.kth.se/info/FOFU/SRCP/WWW/index.php


spin-off technologies related to the fact that we work with the detection of extremely low levels of light, down to the level of individual light quanta, called photons – the smallest unit of light possible”, he explains. This could be used by the life sciences for rapid DNA sequencing, for example.

“As for applications,” stresses Professor Karlsson, “our project was basic research, which means that it was about understanding nature better and the laws of physics. By default, this means that we, as a society, get to know the rules and laws that govern nature better – and that’s an application in its own right!”


Since winning in December 2004, there has hardly been time to distribute the prize money to the participating teams, admits Professor Karlsson. But the prize has certainly left its mark on the group. “Winning the Descartes Prize [...] is important recognition that our research on quantum physics and technologies is of scientific and societal relevance,” he adds.

The extensive media coverage generated by the prize – and the public interest in what IST-QuComm was doing – came as quite a surprise. “In my home country, Sweden, after winning the prize, we had high-school students coming to see our lab, received invitations from science festivals and many newspapers showed interest in our work,” he says. “On a personal level, many of my friends and neighbours – even people I met in pubs and bars – mentioned they had read about our research ... quite fun, actually!”

Munich should be mentioned, and Los Alamos in the US on entangled state systems, and especially the work in Geneva on long-distance telecom compatible quantum communication systems.

While much of the technology used in the project was similar to current optical systems – i.e. the backbone of the internet and broadband communications – working at the scale of single (or a few) photons required novel approaches, purpose-built electronics and optics, and extreme care in the experimentation. New laser-based photon generator sources were produced, with higher brightness, smaller size and greater ease of use than ever before. Specially customised detectors and counting electronics were also developed, enabling more complex transmission experiments to be performed.

Perhaps one of QuComm’s most spectacular results was its long-distance field trial using a 6 km optical fibre link partly going below the river Danube in Vienna. In a historic ceremony, on 21 April 2004, Bank Austria Creditanstalt used the link to perform the world’s first-ever bank transfer to be authorised by means of quantum cryptography.

The project partners are now involved in SECOQC, a 40-partner project under the EU‘s Sixth Framework Programme, aimed at setting up a global network for secure communications.

“IST-QuComm worked on fibre-optical communication technologies of the future,” says project coordinator Anders Karlsson, but quantum key distribution is something for the near future. Not only is it a secure method for encrypting secret messages, “there are some other

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T h e t e a m

The project was coordinated by Professor Anders Karlsson of the Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Stockholm (Sweden), with partners Professor Harald Weinfurter of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Germany), Professor Anton Zeilinger of the Institut für Experimentalphysik der Universität Wien (Austria), Professor Artur Ekert of the Centre for Quantum Computation, Oxford University (UK), Professor Nicolas Gisin of the Group of Applied Physics, Geneva University (Switzerland), Dr Richard Hughes of the Physics Division in the Quantum Institute, Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA), Dr Thierry Debuisschert of the Research and Technology Division, Thales (France), and Professor John G. Rarity of the E&EE Department, Bristol University, QinetiQ (UK).

Assembling the cold facts about a hot topic


Rising temperatures have also coincided with a strong increase in the atmospheric concentration of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), which thus is likely to be a prominent contributory factor to the observed warming, the CECA team concludes. “The Arctic is subject to wholesale change, as we can now confirm by satellite monitoring,” notes Professor Johannessen (see figure on page 29).

“We are seeing a 3% decrease in the area of total ice cover per decade, and a 7% decrease per decade in the area of multi-year ice. With CO2 emissions set to double by the end of the century, our climate model forecasts indicate that the summer ice could disappear completely at that time. “Curiously enough,” he adds, “the interior of the Greenland ice sheet is actually thickening by 5 cm/year. This underlines the complexity of the system. This is primarily (75%) caused by a ‘natural’ weather phenomenon, called the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), which results in more winter snow and – to a lesser degree (25%) – by global warming, which causes more evaporation from the ocean and, again, increased snowfall.” These results have recently been published in Science (Johannessen O.M., Khvorostovsky K., Miles M.W. and Bobylev L.P., Recent ice sheet growth in the interior of Greenland, Science, AAAS, Vol. 310, pp. 1013-1016, 2005).

The CECA team also investigated how the increased greenhouse gases will interact and influence the natural variability of the weather system in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions. Under the doubling of atmospheric CO2 scenario, at the end of this century, the low pressure systems between Iceland and the Azores (describing the NAO), will intensify – causing warmer, wetter and wilder weather in Northern Europe, particularly during winter time, with drier weather in the Mediterranean region.

In Climate and Environmental Change in the Arctic (CECA), valuable input from a Russian partner has helped the European consortium to compile new evidence relating to the decreasing Arctic Ocean ice cover. The study reaches some important conclusions about the likely consequences of global change in the Arctic.

T h e s c i e n c e

The Arctic is a unique region, exerting a key influence on the global climatic system. Debate has raged over whether the recent progressive increase in surface air temperature and decline in ice cover is due to a natural cycle, or to the increasing greenhouse gases as a result of human activities. Given that a continuation of this trend, whatever its cause, would have a profound effect on the strongly marine-influenced climate of Europe, considerable effort and resources have been ploughed into investigating the underlying phenomena. As part of this drive, the collaborative research collectively called CECA has been carried out in the framework of a suite of closely interrelated, European-funded projects spanning the past decade.

The current global temperature rise is by no means an isolated event. Considerable cyclical variations are known to have occurred throughout history. The previous most significant warming began in the 1920s, primarily in the Arctic region. During its peak period, between 1930 and 1940, the average annual temperature anomaly for the area 60°N-90°N amounted to some 1.5°C, before cooling took place towards the middle of the 1960s. This strong event was analysed by the CECA team and interpreted to be natural variability internal to the climate system. Since 1980, however, the rate of increase has been larger, global in nature but strongly amplified in the Arctic region.

Global warming is a ‘hot topic’ for our times – yet popular debate on the subject is often begun without full understanding of the complex interplay of factors producing climate change.

CECA: CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES IN THE ARCTIC

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Assembling the cold facts about a hot topic

I N F O

Climate and Environmental Change in the Arctic (CECA)

Category Earth Sciences

Led byNansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC), affiliated to the University of Bergen Thormohlensgate 47 5006 Bergen, Norway

Contact informationProfessor Ola M. Johannessen Tel: +47 55 20 58 00 Fax: +47 55 20 58 01

[email protected]

Websitewww.nersc.no



Professor Johannessen and deputy project leader Lasse H. Pettersson caution that the Arctic Ocean in the 21st century is also likely to be increasingly vulnerable to pollution. “We must further improve our capabilities to understand, quantify and predict the spatial distribution, temporal evolution and biogeochemical consequences of human-generated contamination, including nuclear residues, in this vulnerable environment. It will require continuing use and refinement of the integrated methodology of observation and numerical modelling we have pioneered in CECA.”

This is being achieved through the use of the Descartes Prize grant of 200 000 euros to support young Russian scientists and students to continue studies of climate change processes and their impact in the high Arctic. The Norwegian Minister of Education and Research Oystein Djupedal is also supporting these research and recruitment activities by matching the Descartes Prize grant.

While much more remains to be done in order to obtain unambiguous answers to the outstanding questions, the CECA consortium has identified a number of potential human and socio-economic consequences of the undoubted shrinkage of Arctic sea-ice cover – not all of which are negative:

1. Reductions in solar reflection from the ice, and increased areas of open water, would have significant effects on energy balances and atmospheric and oceanic circulation in the high latitudes;

2. Exposure of vast areas of the cold open water of the Arctic Ocean, which has a high capacity for CO2 absorption, would provide a new and important sink for this greenhouse gas;

3. Changes in the pathways and spreading of melt water – and in the stratification in the Nordic Seas, as well as the effects of reduced deepwater formation in the Greenland Sea on global oceanic circulation, including a reduction of the Gulf Stream – could greatly alter the climate of the Arctic and adjacent regions, including Europe;

4. Broad changes in the marine ecosystem – e.g. migration of plankton in the North Atlantic due to less ice and a greater inflow of melt water – could have a negative impact on Arctic and sub-Arctic marine biodiversity. Stocks may move or change in the Nordic and Barents Seas, which are among the most important fisheries in the world. On the positive side, however, there would be a larger area for the establishment of new fishing grounds;

5. Milder conditions in the high latitudes would offer Europe increased opportunities for exploitation and production of offshore oil and gas, mineral and other resources.

An extended open-water season would permit increased use of the Northern Sea Route, particularly if the sea-ice conditions lessen to the extent predicted by the models. This would greatly reduce the length of voyages between Europe, the Far East and the west coast of North America, bringing both economic and environmental advantages.

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T h e t e a m

The project was coordinated by Professor Ola M. Johannessen of the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC) which is affiliated to the University of Bergen, Norway in co-operation with Professor Lennart Bengtsson of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, and Dr Leonid Bobylev of the NERSC in St Petersburg, Russia.

Immune system studies promise cures for common diseases

body. Each reacts to specific pathogen-associated molecules, such as proteins and sugars – which, when detected, trigger the generation of a small number of lymphocytes capable of recognising them. These rapidly multiply in order to produce a sufficient immune response, typically over a period of several days. Adaptive immunity usually increases with repeated exposure to a given infection and is retained as a memory.


Genetic mutations or deficiencies that give rise to breakdowns in the processes of leukocyte production and control are at the root of immunological disorders. In one sense, PIDs are ideal subjects for research in this field, as they are frequently monogenic in nature – i.e. each is related to a particular mutation in a single gene. However, their study is rendered more difficult by the irrarity. This makes it harder to gather adequate data, or to reach enough of the widely scattered sufferers to constitute a meaningful sample for analysis and testing. Through a combination of clinical immunology and basic scientific studies, the consortium

Immunodeficiencies arise from defects in the white cells, or leukocytes, present mainly in the blood, spleen and bone marrow. They can make it difficult for those affected to cope with a variety of infections, or trigger autoimmune responses, such as anaemia or vasculitis, in which the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues and organs.

T h e s c i e n c e

“The immune system is extremely complex,” explains Professor Alain Fischer of INSERM, France’s national institute for health and medical research, who is the coordinator of the EURO-PID project. “You can compare the processes involved to the actions of an army equipped with a range of different weapons, individually designed to combat bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi and other potential attackers. Some forms of defence are ‘innate’ – in other words they are shared with even the simplest of organisms – others are ‘adaptive’, having been acquired much later along the evolutionary path.”

Innate immunity is the first line of defence against infection, and also provides the body with a signal of ‘danger’. It derives from the action of phagocyte cells, a form of leukocyte with surface or internal receptors of broad specificity, able to bind to molecules present in a variety of micro-organisms, which they then engulf and destroy. Adaptive immunity, on the other hand, is a slower process mediated by lymphocyte cells, of which there are many different types present in the

Primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs) are a group of over 130 rare genetically determined diseases leaving sufferers – mostly children – prone to infection, lymph cell proliferation and autoimmune disorders. With the collaboration of seven prominent European research teams, the EURO-PID project has amassed new information about these often life-threatening disorders. By assembling a group of patients for clinical trials, it has also made valuable progress towards the identification of effective gene therapy solutions.

EURO-PID: EUROPEAN INITIATIVE ON PRIMARY IMMUNODEFICIENCIES

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Immune system studies promise cures for common diseases

I N F O

European initiative on primary immunodeficiencies(EURO-PID)


Led byInstitut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) 101, rue de Tobliac, 75015 Paris, France

Contact informationProfessor Alain Fischer Tel: +33 (0)1 44 49 50 71 Fax: +33 (0)1 42 73 06 40

[email protected]

Websitewww.necker.fr


this common condition. “Once the disease mechanism was unravelled, we could introduce a ‘normal’ copy of the identified gene, known as ‘gamma-c’, into lymphocyte progenitors in the patients’ bone marrow, which is the body’s blood cell factory,” says Professor Fischer. Six years later, the survivors provide clear proof of principle. In some cases, however, the treatment resulted in a complication. Three of the 17 subjects experienced uncontrolled leukaemia-like cell proliferation – and, regrettably, one of them died.

“Today, our immediate objective is to make the technology safer – and we are seeking an answer by modifying the way in which we introduce genes into the cells. Every time a genetic effect is identified, or a correlation made between the severity of a condition and a particular mutation, new diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic tools become available to improve patient care. A second goal is, therefore, to build on our experience by developing safe vectors for gene transfer treatment of other similar conditions in the near future. We already envisage tackling at least three more PIDs within the next few years. In the longer term, I also believe our discoveries will form the foundation for strategies to alleviate and cure many more common diseases, despite the greater complexity of their genetic origins.”


The prize money enabled Professor Fischer to hire post-docs and buy new equipment such as a laser for applications in the field of cytometry. His research work remains in the spirit of the Descartes Prize, which means he participates in a number of European collaborative research projects. “I am continuing on the same track”, Professor Fischer notes.

made great strides in several key areas. Understanding the molecular mechanisms accounting for given conditions has provided valuable information on how cells in the immune system differentiate and accomplish their specific functions, as well as regulate immune responses. “In all, we estimate that there are at least 130 distinct diseases leading to impaired response or systemmal function,” Professor Fischer observes. “Over the past five years, our collaboration has produced a wealth of information on the responsible mechanisms, including the characterisation of defects in 20 important defensive genes.”

The work focused on six principal areas:

1. Understanding the formation processes and development of defects in T-lymphocytes, which are the master cells active in fighting severe infections, particularly those caused by viruses;

2. Analysis of the development of defects that impair the ability of B-lymphocytes to fulfil their role as producers of antibodies;

3. Identifying molecular defects in phagocyte cells, which provide innate immunity against, for instance, streptococci and mycobacteria and remove dead cells;

4. Investigating how and why T- and NK- (natural killer) lymphocytes act in destroying infected and tumour cells;

5. Determining the nature of inherited and acquired defects in the apoptosis process, whereby excess or inappropriately targeted lymphocytes are triggered to die (failure of this mechanism is the cause of autoimmune diseases); and

6. Exploring gene therapy as a basis of new treatments for life-threatening immune disorders.

After several years of effort, the partners succeeded in developing a promising form of gene therapy for one type of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), and were able to organise a clinical trial on a ‘cohort’ of 17 patients sharing

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T h e t e a m

EURO-PID (European initiative on primary immunodeficiencies) pools the resources of seven of the most active European research teams, drawn from France, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It is led by Professor Alain Fischer of France’s Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM). Partners include Professor Jean-Laurent Casanova, University of René (France), Professor CI. Edvard Smith and Professor Lennart Hammarström, Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), Professor Luigi Daniele Notarangelo, Universita degli Studi di Brescia (Italy), Professor Adrian Trasher, University College London (UK), and Dr Anna Villa, CNR Istituto di Tecnologie Biomediche (Italy).

Setting new standards for measuring social change

• to achieve and spread new standards of rigour in cross-national social measurement; and

• to develop robust social indicators of national performance, capable of standing alongside existing economic indicators.


“Six institutions from five Member States submitted the proposal to the Commission to create a continuing central database to be fed by biennial surveys conducted simultaneously in all participating countries,” observes Professor Roger Jowell of City University London, the coordinator of the project.

“The project garnered widespread support from the outset, also attracting funding from 22 national science foundations. There was immediate recognition that this would provide an invaluable source of data for academics from a very broad range of social science disciplines, as well as for politicians and civil servants, think tanks, journalists and the public at large.”

After the successful completion of the key preparatory stages (questionnaire design, translation and piloting), the first round of data gathering took place in the autumn of 2002, with the release in September 2003 of findings covering 22 nations, available to all on the web.

Since then, fieldwork for the second round has taken place with participation now increased to 26 countries. In addition to the 21 EU Member States, these include Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine, Iceland and Turkey. Israel, too, took part in the first round. The third round is now well under way.

The questionnaire comprises two complementary elements. A top-down core element addresses change and persistence in a range of social and demographic characteristics, attitudes and behaviour patterns – including such aspects as trust in institutions, socio-political values, moral and social values,

The European social survey – innovations in comparative measurement (ESS) project has now developed a consistent scientific approach that will permit accurate Europe-wide mapping of the changes occurring in citizens’ attitudes and values. The project is closely coordinated by a central team from six institutions from five different Member States. In addition, each participating country has a national coordinator and a survey institute to organise face-to-face at-home interviews of a statistically representative sample of at least 1 500 randomly selected citizens aged 15 and above. The rigid framework of the survey is such that no substitutions are permissible, nor any deviations from the centrally determined specification.

T h e s c i e n c e

The study of changing social attitudes and values across Europe, which are central to understanding modern societies, has historically fallen short of expectations. While deficiencies existed at national level in many countries, they were even larger, more persistent and more serious at European level. Volumes of important comparative data were either missing altogether or were available in such different forms in different countries that the basis for comparison was often tenuous. Resolution of this problem was hampered by seemingly insuperable cultural, contextual and methodological obstacles.

In 1995, the European Science Foundation set up an expert group to help overcome these hurdles. Its conclusions formed the basis of the ESS (European Social Survey) initiative which, in 2001, first received EU funding under the Fifth Framework Programme. The vision for ESS was to pioneer and validate a standard of methodology for cross-national surveys that had not been attempted anywhere in the world hitherto. Its threefold objective was:

• to chart and explain long-term changes in attitude and behaviour within and between European nations;

Governments, decision-makers and opinion-shapers have access to large volumes of economic indicators as a basis for their judgements and actions. However, they are less well served in terms of social indicators, since cross-national social surveys tend to be conducted with varying degrees of statistical rigour.

ESS: EUROPEAN SOCIAL SURVEY – INNOVATIONS IN COMPARATIVE MEASUREMENT

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Setting new standards for measuring social change

I N F O

European social survey – innovations in comparative measurement (ESS)

Category Socio-economic sciences

Led byCity University Northampton Square EC1V 0HB London, United Kingdom

Contact informationProfessor Roger Jowell Tel: +44 (0)20 7040 4904 Fax: +44 (0)20 7040 4900

[email protected]

Websitewww.city.ac.uk


ESS, and the US National Science Foundation has arranged visits by leading American academics to study its methods.

Further EC funding has now been awarded to establish the ESS as a continuing Community infrastructure. Meanwhile, preparation for round three is in hand, and work is proceeding on the development of new Europe-wide national social indicators. The initiative has already demonstrated that, despite the formidable difficulties, public attitudes can be measured across countries much more accurately than had been envisaged. Such attitudes are of course critical to the formation of public policy, especially in an era of falling electoral participation and political engagement. So the ESS will help to serve as an important tool for reducing the democratic deficit and monitoring the health of democracy in Europe.


“As the only social science project so far ever to be awarded this prestigious prize, it has come as a welcome and unanticipated mark of respect from fellow scientists in very different disciplines,” notes Professor Jowell. “The Descartes Prize money is being used by our team to produce both a major new database and a new jointly-authored book on social survey methods.”

religious identity, welfare and security, and perceived quality of life. A second, bottom-up element provides for rotating topic-specific modules selected competitively in each round in response to applications from multinational groups of EU social scientists. This provides opportunities for in-depth examinations of certain topics in certain years, such as attitudes to immigration and citizenship or the work-family balance. In addition, contextual variations between nations and influential events, such as elections or natural disasters, are recorded to assist data analysts in accounting for observed differences between countries or rounds.

“The intention is not just to provide a snapshot, but, as survey builds upon survey, to develop a unique long-term account of change and development in the social fabric of modern Europe,” Professor Jowell points out. “We also aim to improve the consistency and quality of our methods round by round. So far, the methodological and organisational innovations introduced in our first and second rounds suggest that our initial ambitious goals can be achieved.”

“The impact of ESS on European governance could be profound,” he notes. “While other statistical agencies, such as Eurostat, collect rigorous data about the social and economic circumstances of EU Member States, they tend to avoid comparable statistics about cultural and political attitudes – how people think and feel about themselves and their world. The role of the ESS is to fill that gap.”

Within 18 months of the public release of the first round data, nearly 6 000 registered users had already begun analysing the content and producing journal articles, dissertations and books (seven books in as many languages had either been published or were imminent). Now, with two datasets available, the number of registered data users is approaching 10 000 and publications based on ESS data are burgeoning. Interest has not been confined to Europe. A US foundation funded Georgetown University to set up a national replica of

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T h e t e a m

The project coordinator, Professor Roger Jowell of City University London (UK), worked together with Caroline Bryson, Gillian Eva, Rory Fitzgerald, Ruth O’Shea and Caroline Roberts of City University, Professor Peter Mohler, Sabine Haeder, Janet Harkness and Achim Koch of the Zentrum für Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen (ZUMA) in Mannheim (Germany), Dr Ineke Stoop of the Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau (SCP) in Den Haag (The Netherlands), Professor Willem Saris and Irmtraud Gallhofer of the Universiteit van Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Professor Jaak Billiet and Michel Philippens of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), Bjorn Henrichsen, Kirstine Kolsrud and Knut Skjak of the Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD) in Bergen (Norway), and Professor Max Kaase and Dr Henk Stronkhorst of the European Science Foundation (ESF).

Left-handed materials bend the rules of physics


At first, the NIM concept was met with doubt and disbelief from the scientific community at large, which argued the impossibility of reversing established principles, such as Snell’s law, Fermat’s principle and the Doppler effect. However, the EXEL partners succeeded in refuting all of the objections – and a rich new field of interdisciplinary research was born.

“Having explored and explained the fundamental physics, we moved towards developing modified designs that are easier to fabricate, more compact and amenable to a wealth of applications,” says EXEL (DAHLM) coordinator Professor Costas Soukoulis, who is also a distinguished professor at Iowa State University. “As well as tuneable wire-and-ring structures with nanoscale features, we were able to demonstrate that photonic crystals, developed in the EXEL consortium, can also act as NIMs.”

One exciting aspect of NIM behaviour is the ability of a block of such material to function as a flat ‘superlens’. Conventional curved lenses, which recombine divergent incident electromagnetic rays at a fixed focal point, suffer from one significant limitation. They are unable to resolve detail that is finer than the wavelength of the radiation itself (known as the ‘diffraction limit’). This is due to the fact that they focus only the so called far-field components, whereas near-field radiation – which decays within about one wavelength distance from its propagation – is lost. In principle, NIM lenses eliminate this shortcoming because they are flat and thus their surface can be brought into close contact with another material, unlike a curved lens that only contacts at one point. This feature of NIM lenses allows them to produce perfectly detailed images of objects placed within one wavelength of their surface.

Given the present state of technology, NIM lenses cannot yet be exploited for optical wavelengths (around 10-6 m). But with further development, it could be feasible to achieve

Veselago pointed out that LHMs could show interesting optical properties when interacting with light. To investigate this, researchers from Europe and the USA collaborated to produce left-handed synthetic materials. Now, the EXEL project has shown how the properties of these new LHMs could lead to exciting new devices in fields such as telecommunications and medical imaging.

T h e s c i e n c e

Much of human progress is based on our ability to bend and shape light, so new ways of doing this cause much excitement because of the possibilities for new and innovative applications in many fields. The refractive index, n, that explains how rainbows form, is a measure of a material’s combined response to both the electric and the magnetic components in radiation: the former is characterised by the so-called ‘electrical permittivity’, ε, and the latter by the ‘magnetic permeability’, µ.

For all natural materials, n has a positive value. However, approximately 40 years ago, the Russian scientist Veselago envisaged so-called left-handed or negative index materials (LHMs or NIMs), which have negative indices, as a result of negative values for both ε and µ. But these negative index materials’ existence was not proven for many years.

Some 30 years after Veselago’s original hypothesis, United Kingdom theoretical physicist Sir John Pendry (Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) put forward designs for two artificial ‘meta materials’, respectively composed of non-magnetic metallic wire arrays and split ring resonators (SRRs), which would meet the NIM criteria.

At La Jolla University, in the United States, Dr RA Shelby, Professor David Smith, now at Duke University (US), and Professor S Schultz combined SRRs and wires to produce the first structure that could confirm, in experiments, the existence of a negative index of refraction.

Around 40 years ago, the Russian scientist Victor Veselago came up with the idea of ‘left-handed’ and ‘right-handed’ materials. Right-handed materials are found all around us, but left-handed materials (LHMs) are not found in nature.

EXEL: EXTENDING ELECTROMAGNETISM THROUGH NOVEL ARTIFICIAL MATERIALS

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Left-handed materials bend the rules of physics

I N F O

Extending electromagnetism through novel artificial materials (EXEL)


Led byInstitute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL) Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) PO Box 1527 Vassilika Vouton 7 1110 Heraklion, Greece

Contact informationProfessor Costas Soukoulis Tel: +30 2810 391303 Fax: +30 2810 391305

[email protected]

Websitewww.iesl.forth.gr


“There are many more potential uses,” adds Professor Soukoulis. “Miniaturised NIMs could be manufactured into antennas and wave guides that are 100 times smaller and much lighter than those of today, transforming design in mobile communications, aeronautical systems and other strategic sectors. We can also produce materials that are totally non-reflecting over certain frequency ranges, regardless of the angle of incident radiation. They represent the ultimate in ‘stealth’ technology for the defence community.”

“The EXEL team has been instrumental in establishing and developing a revolutionary field, which extends the realm of electromagnetism and opens up exciting technological applications from the MHz range to optical frequencies,” he concludes. “And this is just the start. More inventions will come from hundreds of research groups working in the new field of metamaterials, which owes its existence in large part to the creativity of European researchers.”

After winning the Descartes Prize in 2005, the team has managed to design and fabricate metamaterials and measure experimentally that they have a negative index of refraction at 1.5 microns with relatively small losses. “We have also managed to get a negative n at 780 nm, but the losses are larger,” Professor Soukoulis explains.


“Most of the groups in our Descartes team decided to use the grant for research,” says Professor Soukoulis, adding that the prize money helped his group to work even more at an international level: “We used it to hire post-docs from countries outside Europe and for travel outside Europe.”

focal point sizes of only a few nanometres, almost two orders of magnitude smaller than is possible with conventional lenses. If so, the amount of information that can be stored on DVDs would be vastly increased, and transistors with features as small as 10 nm might also be made using optical lithography.

Already, the United Kingdom team has shown how NIMs’ ability to focus radio waves could lead to smaller, better performing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines. Here, the wavelengths employed are in the region of a few metres, so the whole imaging process takes place in the near field.

With the support of industrial company Marconi Caswell, Professor Pendry and his colleagues fabricated a NIM comprising a roll of metallised film wound around an inert plastic mandrel (dubbed a ‘Swiss roll’, because of its structural resemblance to the popular jam-filled cake).

In a milestone experiment, they placed an array of ‘Swiss rolls’ between an object they were trying to image – in this case, a researcher’s thumb – and a small receiver coil in a standard MRI device. Without the ‘Swiss rolls’, no image could be detected by the coil. But when in place, they functioned like a bundle of wires in directing the magnetic flux towards the receiver, producing a clear picture of the thumb’s internal structure.

A crucial feature of this material is that it consists of a periodic array of structures, each of which is much smaller than the wavelength of the radio-frequency fields it focuses on. Work continues to further reduce the size of the individual elements and thus optimise resolution.

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The project was led by Professor Costas Soukoulis of the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser in Heraklion (Greece), in collaboration with Professor Ekmel Ozbay of Bilkent University (Turkey), Professor John Brian Pendry of the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, South Kensington Campus (UK), Professor Martin Wegener of the DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany), and Professor David R. Smith of Duke University (USA), supported by the IST-FET project DAHLM (IST-2001-35511).

Finding the astrophysical Holy Grail: J0737-3039

of Manchester University in the United Kingdom. “The problem is that pulsars are weak radio sources, subject to dispersion effects during their passage through the interstellar medium. To study them, we need large and sensitive radio telescopes equipped with sophisticated data acquisition systems for fast sampling – and these are costly to build and run.”


In the early 1990s, Europe was home to four of the world’s seven telescopes with major pulsar programmes. Yet, despite a degree of co-operation, the responsible groups had each developed individual hardware and software facilities tailored to their own particular requirements.

“We eventually concluded that a closer partnership would allow us to benefit from collaborative instrumentation and software efforts, sharing of expertise and training opportunities, and coordination of observing programmes,” Professor Lyne recalls. “We therefore founded the European Pulsar Network (EPN), which was approved in 1994 and funded under the EU Human Capital and Mobility programme.”

By 1997, the EPN members had finalised development of a common data format and set up a database to accommodate all observational feedback in a single web-based archive, accessible to all. A year later, they had begun routine, simultaneous multi-frequency, single-pulse observations with the aid of the 100-metre-class instruments in Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

However, while the European instruments were ideal for developing and testing new techniques, the best prospects of finding new examples lay in searching the centre of our disc-like galaxy – which required a viewpoint in the southern hemisphere. For this, EPN sought the collaboration of the Australian Telescope National Facility (ATNF), which operates a 64-metre-telescope in Parkes, New South Wales.

With this added facility onboard, new sightings came thick and fast. Low-frequency surveys logged large numbers of previously unknown millisecond pulsars, which are proving

Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars, often described as ‘cosmic clocks’, whose observation offers unparalleled opportunities to study some of the most extreme physical conditions in the universe. By pooling resources and sharing their results, the project partners propelled themselves to the forefront of this stellar field of research.

T h e s c i e n c e

A pulsar is a small, rapidly spinning and highly magnetised neutron star resulting from the violent collapse of a massive star in a supernova explosion that can light up the sky, even though it may occur at the other side of our galaxy. The Crab Nebula, the remnants of a supernova explosion recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054 AD, shone four times brighter than Venus and could be seen in daylight. At the heart of the Crab Nebula is a pulsar. A sizeable fraction of the pre-existing giant star condensed into a body typically measuring only 20 km across. As a result, pulsars are incredibly dense; a piece of pulsar matter the size of a pinhead would weigh more than the largest ocean-going super tanker!

In addition, as they rotate, they emit powerful directional beams of electromagnetic waves from their magnetic poles. When the Earth lies in the direction of these emissions, they can be observed by radio telescopes as pulses. These repeat with the regularity of a super-accurate clock whose ticking is set by the neutron star spin-period, ranging from a few milliseconds to seconds.

The rewards for finding and observing pulsars can be huge. Monitoring apparent variations in pulse-rates makes it possible to test theories of relativity, follow their precise motion in space, explore the solid-state physics of superdense matter, study the properties of superfluid and superconducting materials, investigate extreme plasma physics, and more.

“Rarely does a single class of objects lend itself to high-precision experiments in so many domains of modern and fundamental physics,” enthuses PULSE project coordinator Professor Andrew Lyne, from the Jodrell Bank Observatory

In 2003, a group of European scientists made a discovery that has been hailed as one of the greatest advances in astrophysics.

PULSE: THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN PULSAR SCIENCE ON MODERN PHYSICS

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Finding the astrophysical Holy Grail: J0737-3039

I N F O

Pulsar science in Europe: the impact of European pulsar science on modern physics (PULSE)


Led byUniversity of Manchester Jodrell Bank Observatory (JBO) Oxford Road, M13 9PL Manchester, United Kingdom

Contact informationProfessor Andrew Lyne Tel: +44 (0)1477 571321 Fax: +44 (0)1477 571618

[email protected]

Websitewww.jb.man.ac.uk


“The large orbital velocity, small orbital separation, high orbital inclination and visibility of pulsations from both the stars ensures the occurrence of significant ‘relativistic effects’,” Professor D’Amico explains. “Within only 18 months of timing measurements taking place, the team was able to make the most accurate confirmation yet of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Moreover, visibility of both pulsars at the same time allowed direct measurement of their mass ratio, which has never before been done for double neutron star binaries.”

The future is even more intriguing. Among other exciting implications, the discovery revitalises the possibility of detecting gravitational waves, which are faint ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein. What is more, the fact that the orbital plane is almost edge-on has made the double pulsar a unique laboratory for studying electrodynamics and plasma physics under the most extreme conditions.

“Our work increases mankind’s knowledge of some of the fundamental physical laws that govern the Universe,” Professor Lyne concludes. “These results are not only of relevance to today’s scientific professionals. They also help stimulate young peoples’ interest in astronomy, physics and basic research, forming an important foundation for a society increasingly based on science and technology.”


“The discovery of the double pulsar was the culmination of many years of technical developments at both the Jodrell Bank and Parkes Observatories”, says Professor Lyne. “It is very pleasing to see this work and its exciting results recognised internationally.”

to be particularly valuable in detecting the cosmological gravitational wave background – originating from a time when the universe expanded rapidly after the ‘big bang’.

In a bid to reveal previously undetectable pulsars, the team also embarked on a sensitive high-frequency survey. They equipped Parkes with a 13-beam-receiver system which was developed jointly by Jodrell Bank and the Italian INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari in collaboration with the ATNF. In a massive experimental undertaking over five years, this co-operation enabled them to locate over 850 pulsars, more than the total number found in all surveys spanning 30 years prior. Furthermore, a deep search of globular clusters (gravitationally bound concentrations of approximately 100 000 very old stars, of which our galaxy has around 200) produced more significant findings, which have triggered on-going investigations by many groups around the world.

PULSE’s crowning achievement to date, however, was the discovery, in 2003, of the first-known double pulsar. The existence of such a system is remarkable, since its two components needed to have survived twin supernova explosions. Its detection was fortuitous, given an astronomically brief lifespan of a few tens of millions of years.

“The original Parkes multibeam survey concentrated on the Galactic plane,” notes Professor Nicolò D’Amico of INAF. “To probe the distribution of pulsars which are nearby or have millisecond periods, we also searched higher Galactic latitudes and longitudes. It was in this new survey that we discovered the 23-ms pulsar J0737-3039A, which proved to be in a very short-period orbit (2.4-hour) with a companion. The neutron star nature of this companion was confirmed with our discovery of 2.7-s pulsations from the same system.

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The project leader, Professor Andrew Lyne from the Jodrell Bank Observatory of Manchester University (UK), worked together with Professor Nicolò D’Amico of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari (Italy), Dr Axel Jessner of the Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie in Bonn (Germany), Dr Ben Stappers of ASTRON (The Netherlands), and Professor Ioannis Seiradakis of the University of Thessaloniki (Greece).

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Dr Claudie HaigneréAstronaut and neuroscientist

ProfessorJan BalzariniMedicine2001 Descartes Prize winner

Descartes Research Prize 2006

Grand Jury Members

President of the Grand Jury 2006Senior Adviser to director-general of the European Space Agency A medical doctor and neuroscientist by training, Claudie Haigneré is a senior adviser to the director-general of the European Space Agency. She is also a faculty member at the French Academy of Technology, the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and the Academie des Sports. Dr Haigneré is the only professional woman astronaut in Europe. She has taken part in two space missions: the first scientific mission (Cassiopée) aboard MIR, the Russian space station, in 1996, and another (Andromede) on the International Space Station in 2001. Dr Haigneré is also a qualified station and spacecraft flight engineer and a cosmonaut rescuer for Soyuz. She became a member of the European Astronaut Corps on joining the ESA in 1999. She has held two ministerial posts in the French government: Research and New Technologies (2002-2004) and European Affairs (2004-2005). She has been decorated by the French state, receiving the prestigious Officier de la Légion d’Honneur and Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite. She has also received the Russian Order of Friendship between the Peoples, and another for Personal Valour.

Professor at the School of Medicine, KU Leuven, BelgiumJan Balzarini is on the board of directors of the International Society for Antiviral Research and professor at the Rega Institute for Medical Research. He studied biology and bioengineering at the KU Leuven in Belgium. In 1984, he obtained a doctorate in bioengineering. He attended the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, for a post-doctorate focusing on the discovery and pharmacology of novel medicines against HIV. Back at the Rega Institute, he further expanded his antiviral research, coordinated a variety of research networks sponsored by the European Commission, and was at the core of the discovery of an entirely novel class of therapeutics for HIV and hepatitis B. He won a Descartes Prize in 2001 the Blaise Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Sciences in 2003, and the Sanofi-Aventis Award of the American Society of Microbiology in 2006. Jan Balzarini is currently head of the Laboratory of Virology and Chemotherapy at the Rega Institute.

THE GRAND JURY

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DESCARTES SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PRIZE2006Professor Marcia C. BarbosaBiology

Professor Tatiana BirshteinBiochemistryPhysics/mathematics

ProfessorJean-PatrickConneradePhysics

ProfessorYves CoppensPalaeontology

ProfessorPierre CoulletPhysics

Professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil Born and educated in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Marcia Barbosa’s career includes research in statistical physics, with particular application in the study of phase transitions in complex fluids. She is the head of the Complex Fluids Group at the UFRGS. Besides her own research, she has been active in gender studies and organisations promoting gender equity. She chairs the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics’ Working Group on Women in Physics.

Principal Research Scientist, the Institute of Macromolecular Compounds, the Russian Academy of Science (IMC RAS), St Petersburg, RussiaBorn and educated in Leningrad (presently St Petersburg), Tatiana Birshtein’s scientific career has been connected with the IMC RAS since 1958. She is the author of a monograph entitled “Conformations of macromolecules”, with OB Ptitsyn (issued in 1964 in Russian and later translated and published abroad), and more than 250 papers in the field of the statistical mechanics of polymeric systems. For many years, she has been the group leader in International and Russian Grants. She has sat on the editorial board of several polymeric journals: Macromolecular Theory and Simulations (1992-2002), Polymer Science (Russian, 1988-1999), Acta Polymerica (1990-1999) and Biophysical Chemistry (1983-1997). Professor Birshtein has received a large number of awards, including Honoured Professor, Honoured Research Scientist for the Best Scientific Publication in Russia in 2000, and the Medal for the Defence of Leningrad (1944).

Professor at the Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, London, and President of EuroScienceJean-Patrick Connerade’s distinguished career spans nearly 40 years, starting as a state scholar in physics at Imperial College, London, in 1965, and culminating in his ongoing presidency of the renowned EuroScience Association. In between, he has researched atomic physics in the UK, in France and in Germany, and has taught at institutions in London, Paris and Bonn. He has served on numerous committees – including the Synchrotron Radiation Committees of the Science and Engineering Research Council and of the Laboratoire LURE in Orsay. Professor Connerade has been Honorary Editor of the Journal of Physics B. Among other things, he joined the Association of Scientists in St Petersburg, was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and to the Council of Physics College of the EPSRC on two occasions. He also serves on the External Advisory Group for the Commission’s Marie Curie Actions.

Professor at the Collége de France and Chair of Palaeoanthropology and Prehistory at the Collége de FranceBorn and educated in France, Yves Coppens’ long career includes a research stint at the National Scientific Research Centre, some 14 years at the National Museum of Natural History as professor and chair of anthropology, a directorship at the Museum of Man, membership of the French, Italian and Belgian Academies of Science, as well as other prestigious organisations. He has carried out a wide range of field research in Chad, Ethiopia, the Maghreb, Asia, Russia and more. Professor Coppens has around 800 publications to his name, has won several European and international awards, and has earned honorary doctorates from universities in Italy, Belgium and the USA.

Professor at the University of Nice, France, and Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de FrancePierre Coullet’s association with the Descartes Prize began in 2001, as panel president for the basic sciences section. He was a researcher at France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) between 1975 and 1987. He co-founded the Institut Non-Linéaire de Nice in 1991, which he headed between 1995 and 2002. He also founded and heads the Insitut Robert Hooke. He has won several awards, including Germany’s highest, the Humboldt Prize, and sits on various science panels, including that of the Institut Universitaire de France. His long list of publications in the fields of dynamical systems, chaos, turbulence and self-organisation (in fluids, liquid crystal, chemical reaction and biological systems) includes many major peer-reviewed journals.

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Professor PatrickCunninghamGenetics

Professor Ayse ErzanPhysics

Dr Cristina GavriloviciBioethics and medicine

Professor Andrzej GórskiMedicine and bioethics

ProfessorElmars GrensBiomedicineGenetics/biology

Professor of Animal Genetics at Trinity College, University of Dublin, IrelandPatrick Cunningham was formerly deputy director (research) at the Irish National Agriculture and Food Research Institute (1980-1988), visiting professor at the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank (1988), and director of the Animal Production and Health Division of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (1990-1993). He has published extensively on the genetics of domesticated animals. He is co-founder and chairman of the biotechnology company IdentiGEN. He has been president of the European and World Associations of Animal Production, and served on the European Life Sciences Group which advised former Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin.

Professor, Department of Physics, Istanbul Technical University, TurkeyAyse Erzan is a professor at Istanbul Technical University’s Department of Physics. Professor Erzan was born and educated in Turkey, as well as the United States. She spent many years in Portugal, Germany and The Netherlands doing research in statistical physics as well as teaching. She has been at the physics department of the Istanbul Technical University for the last 16 years, and is also associated with the Feza Gursey Institute for Basic Research. She is a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences, the Palestine Academy for Science and Technology and TWAS, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. She has served on the editorial boards of various scientific journals and on the IUPAP Committee for Statistical Physics, as well as on human rights and ethics committees. She was the 2003 laureate from Europe of the L’Oreal-UNESCO prize for Women in Science. She also won the annual prize of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) in 1997.

Member of the Bioethics Committee, Romanian College of Physicians, RomaniaDr Cristina Gavrilovici has a background in bioethics and medicine, having acquired a PhD cum laude in medicine (paediatrics) and a Master of Arts in bioethics. She completed her training in Romania and the United States. Currently, she is a member of the Romanian Bioethics Committee and her main areas of interest are research ethics, ethical issues in genetic technologies and procreative liberties. She has published in both paediatric nephrology research and bioethics domains.

Professor, the Medical University of Warsaw (MUW), PolandBorn in Poland, Andrzej Górski studied medicine at the MUW. Between 1974 and 1976, he was a Fulbright scholar at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York (USA). His major research interests focus on immunology, transplantation and bacteriophages. Between 1996 and 1999, he was rector of the MUW. Professor Górski has organised seven international conferences in the field of ethics in science, and currently chairs the bioethics commission at the Polish Ministry of Health. He is a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (and is also the director of the L Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy there) and the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Scientific Director, the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, LatviaBorn and educated in Latvia, Elmars Grens graduated from the University of Latvia’s faculty of chemistry, and is currently a professor of molecular biology at the same university. He is a member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences and Academia Europaea. Professor Grens is also a member of the Latvian Science Council and the Strategic Analysis Commission. His main research interests are in the field of biomedicine, namely gene structure and expression, molecular virology, gene and protein engineering, and recombinant biotechnology.

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DESCARTES SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PRIZE2006Professor Nouzha Guessous IdrissiMedicine and bioethics

Professor Lucia Mendonça PreviatoMicrobiology

Professor Gretty M. MirdalPsychology

ProfessorWubbo OckelsEngineering and astronautics

Professor of Medical Parasitology and Chair of UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee Educated in Morocco and France, Nouzha Guessous Idrissi has been teaching and carrying out research in the field of medical parasitology for some 28 years, as a Professor at the Medical Faculty of Casablanca University and the former head of the Diagnosis and Research Laboratory at the University Hospital of Casablanca. Her wide lab and field research in Morocco has covered such topics as leishmaniasis and the interaction between parasites and their environment. Since 1999, she has been acting as an expert for the UN-sponsored Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). Concomitantly, Professor Idrissi is a founding member of the Moroccan Organisation of Human Rights, a consultant for women rights NGOs, and a member of the Royal Advisory Commission for the Revision of the Moroccan Family Code. She has also been dedicating more of her attention to the field of bioethics. In Morocco, she is a member of the Ethics Committee for Biomedical Research and of the Moroccan Association for Bioethics. Internationally, she has sat on UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee since 2000 – she became vice-chair in 2002 and the Chair in December 2005.

Institute of Biophysics Carlos Chagas Filho, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, BrazilLucia Mendonça Previato was born and educated in Brazil. From 1972 to 1976, she undertook her graduate studies at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where she was awarded a PhD in microbiology and immunology. In the late 1970s, she did post-doctoral work on carbohydrate chemistry at the National Research Council of Canada, Saskatoon and on glycobiology at the Department of Biochemistry, University of California, Berkeley (USA). In 1980, she established a Surface Structure of Micro-organisms Laboratory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro’s Institute of Microbiology, which she directed until taking up her present position, in 2001, at the Carlos Chagas Filho Institute of Biophysics’ Laboratory of Glycobiology, located at the same university. Her honours include the National Research Council of Brazil’s Top Research Career Investigator (1986); the Petrobras Award’s National Invention Prize (1987); the Rio de Janeiro State Award for Biological Sciences (1999); the National Order of Merit in Science (Ordem Nacional do Mérito Científico) (2001); and the L’Oréal-UNESCO Laureate for Latin America (2004). Dr Previato has been the editor-in-chief of Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Science since 2003.

Professor, Transcultural and Clinical Psychology, University of Copenhagen, DenmarkGretty M. Mirdal is professor of transcultural and clinical psychology at the University of Copenhagen. She is an expert in the areas of mental and physical health in migration and health psychology. Professor Mirdal is also involved in international research policy and administration at the highest level. She chairs the Standing Committee for Humanities at the European Science Foundation, is a member of the board of the Danish Research Foundation (Danmarks Grundforskningsfond), and sits on the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB). Professor Mirdal is the former chair of the Committee for the Humanities and Social Sciences at France’s Agence Nationale de la Recherche, as well as a former member of the Scientific Board of France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and of the grand jury of the Institut Universitaire de France. She is a fellow of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.

Chair, Aerospace for Sustainable Engineering and Technology at Delft University of Technology, The NetherlandsBorn in The Netherlands, Wubbo Ockels holds ESTEC’s professorial chair in the aerospace engineering faculty at the Technical University Delft. He completed a doctorate in physics and mathematics at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) in 1978 on the basis of work at its Nuclear Physics Accelerator Institute. Shortly after, the European Space Agency chose him as a payload specialist to train for the Spacelab-1 mission at the US space agency NASA. He performed this task on the successful 1985 Spacelab D-1 mission, launched on-board the space shuttle Challenger. In addition to his ESTEC duties, he has been involved in ESA’s future manned space flight activities, the Columbus programme and the International Space Station. He advised the Department of Automation and Informatics in The Netherlands and initiated the Agency’s education programme.

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Professor Mary OsbornMolecular biology

Dr RossellaPalombaDemography

Dr Nadia RosenthalBiology

Professor Karen SiuneSocial sciences

Max Planck scientist and past president of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBorn in the UK, Mary Osborn studied physics at the University of Cambridge (UK) and obtained her PhD in biophysics from Penn State University (USA). Later career stages took her to Harvard (USA), to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK), to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (USA) and then to the Max Planck Institute for biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen (DE), where she also became honorary professor in the medical faculty at the Georg August University (DE). She was awarded the Meyenburg Prize and the L’Oréal/UNESCO Prize for her work on cytoskeletal and nuclear proteins in animal cells. Professor Osborn is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation and holds an honorary doctorate from the Pomerian Medical Academy in Sczeczin (PL). She was a trustee of the Swedish Foundation on the Environment, MISTRA, and has chaired both the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, and the Cell Biology Section of Academia Europaea. From 2003 to 2006, Professor Osborn was the president of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB), an organisation representing biochemists and molecular biologists in 72 countries.

Director of Research at the National Research Council, ItalyItalian Rossella Palomba is head of the Department of Population, Social Behaviour and Policies at the National Institute for Population Research and Social Policies in Rome, Italy. Her main fields of interest are related to the analysis of changes in family structure and behaviour, couple formation and dissolution, fertility, and gender roles. Dr Palomba was a member of the National Committee for Sociology, Statistics and Economy, the National Committee for the Environment, and the Italian Representative on the European Commission-appointed Committee on Human Potential and Mobility. She was vice-president of UNESCO’s European Observatory on Population Education and Information. She also held the presidency of the Italian Committee for Valorisation of Women in Science. Dr Palomba has written ten books and more than 150 articles in international and national scientific journals. She is also the Italian Ambassador for Equal Opportunities in Science.

Head of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Monterotondo Outstation, ItalyBorn in the United States, Nadia Rosenthal was awarded a PhD in 1981 from Harvard Medical School and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health. She moved to EMBL from the Cardiovascular Research Center at Harvard, where she directed a biomedical research laboratory at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She served on the editorial staff at the New England Journal of Medicine, where she was a consultant on molecular medicine and editor of the molecular medicine series. Since her arrival in Europe in 2001 to direct the EMBL Mouse Biology Unit in Rome, Dr Rosenthal has become a member of EMBO, and was awarded the Ferrari-Soave Prize in Cell Biology from the University of Turin. She has served on numerous EU grant review and prize committees, advisory panels and editorial boards. She also holds a professorship in cardiovascular science at Imperial College London (UK). Professor Rosenthal’s research focuses on developmental genetics, the molecular biology of ageing and the role of stem cells in tissue regeneration.

Director, the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research PolicyKaren Siune has headed the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy – which she helped build up between 1997 and 2003 – since 2004. Her areas of research interest include the role of science in society, comparative research policy studies and citizens’ attitudes towards science. During her successful career, Professor Siune has held various faculty positions at the universities of Aarhus (DK) and Michigan (USA). She has also sat on several Danish government commissions. Between 2002 and 2006, she chaired the Science and Society Advisory Group connected to the Sixth Framework Programme for Research. From 1995 to 2001, Professor Siune was vice-president of the European Advisory Committee on Statistical Information in the economic and social spheres. She has also been involved in a number of EU-funded research programmes.

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DESCARTES SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PRIZE2006ProfessorEdward P.J.van den HeuvelAstronomy2002 Descartes Prize winner

Dr GeorgesVassiliouEconomics

Professor at the University of Amsterdam (UA), The NetherlandsUntil 2005, Edward P.J. van den Heuvel had chaired The Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy for nine years. He has been a professor of Astrophysics at UA since 1974, and was director of the Astronomical Institute and the Centre for High Energy Astrophysics until January 2005. He has carried out astrophysical research at the universities of Utrecht (NL), Brussels (BE), California (Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara) in the United States and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (USA). He led the team which was awarded the 2002 Descartes Prize for the discovery of the places of origin of giant cosmic explosions producing the cosmic bursts of gamma-ray radiation.

Businessman, Visiting Professor, Politician, CyprusBorn in Famagusta, Cyprus, Georges Vassiliou has a degree and doctorate in economics from the University of Economics in Budapest. Back in Cyprus, after a few years of work in the UK as a market researcher, he established his own company, Middle East Marketing Research Bureau, which provided market research and consultancy services in the Middle East, and from 1990 onwards in Central and Eastern Europe. The company presently covers the whole area with offices in 30 countries. In 1988, he was elected president of the Republic of Cyprus, serving until 1993. In 1998, he was appointed chief negotiator and coordinator of Cyprus’ effort to join the EU. He established the University of Cyprus and the Cyprus Institute of Management and, since 1987, has been a visiting professor at Cranfield University in the UK.

During its six-year history, the Descartes Prize has also been honoured by contributions from:

Membership

Professor Ene Ergma Former President of the Descartes Grand Jury 2003-2005 and former President of the X Riigikogu, the Estonian Parliament (2003-2006), currently Vice-President

Dr Leo Esaki Nobel Prize winner in Physics (1973) 2004-2005

Professor José Mariano Gago Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Portugal 2003

Professor Helena Ilnerová President, Czech Academy of Sciences 2001-2004

Mr Pantelis Kyriakides Vice-President, European Patent Office 2000-2004

Sir John Maddox Former editor of Nature 2000-2002

Dr Ulf Merbold Former astronaut and former coordinator of the International 2000-2002 Space Station at the European Space Agency and 2005

Dr Yves Michot President, Défense Conseil Internationale 2000-2002 former President of ‘Aérospatiale’ (France) and former President of the Descartes Grand Jury

Professor Helga Nowotny Chair, European Research Advisory Board 2003-2004

Professor Nikolaï Platé Vice-President, Russian Academy of Sciences 2000-2004

Dr Anna C. Roosevelt Professor of Anthropology, University of Illinois, USA 2000-2003

Professor Margarita Salas Research Professor at the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) 2001 Falgueras and former President of the Institute of Spain (1995-2003)

Ion Siotis Former Research Director at the National Centre for Science 2002-2005 Research ‘Demokritos’ in Athens, Greece

Dr Susan Solomon Senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 2005 Administration (NOAA) Boulder, Colorado

Mr Rudi Thomaes President and CEO, Alcatel Bell 2001-2003

David Attenborough’s

wild life

T h e h i s t o r y

Although an honours graduate in zoology, Attenborough admits that, after more than 50 years in the television business, his view of science is from the other side of the fence. He joined British public broadcaster, the BBC, in 1952. Two years later, he launched the first of his famous Zoo Quest series which, over the next ten years, took him to the wilder parts of the world.

Captivating audiences in Britain with the first-ever pictures of the bird of paradise displaying in the wild, Attenborough started a revolution in nature documentary-making for television. Today, technology is better, budgets are bigger and distances travelled take hours instead of weeks, but serious nature film-makers still follow his model of beauty, originality and scientific rigour.

His pioneering attitude went beyond nature programming and, as controller of BBC2, he was responsible for introducing colour television into the UK in 1965. But he is best known for his nature programmes and, over the years, has produced a number of landmark series.

These include the innovative 2002 series entitled The Life of Mammals. An estimated 500 million people worldwide watched the 13-part series Life on Earth, first broadcast in 1979. At the time, it was the most ambitious series ever produced by the BBC’s Natural History Unit.

Whether the film documents plant life, bird habitats, the living planet, mammals, underwater life, or any one of his nearly 20 major titles, he maintains that any commentary accompanying the images must be scientifically reliable. But he does admit that filming wildlife sometimes necessitates a degree of creativity.

Filming a potentially dangerous animal, such as a polar bear emerging from its winter den, is technically possible using modern lenses, but recording sound is a problem. To replicate the noise a bear makes as it rubs itself on fresh snow, sound editors used custard in a bag. Without sound, the final result would lack something, Sir David notes.

Much of his broadcasting work has been of enormous help to other scientists, particularly his hands-on filming of natural phenomenon never before witnessed in the wild. Through his books and TV work, he has masterfully blended the beauty of the natural world with a dedication to the scientific facts – i.e. evolutionary exegesis, anatomical explanations and ethological studies.

SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH

For half a century, Sir David Attenborough has been entertaining and informing millions of television viewers across the world with his nature documentaries. His work is recognised as the gold standard of the genre.

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David Attenborough’s

wild life

I N F O

Sir David Attenborough

Category Professional scientists engaged in science communication towards the public

Contact InformationSir David Attenborough can be reached via the Royal Society, London, United KingdomTel: +44 (0)20 7451 2500Fax: +44 (0)20 7930 2170

[email protected]

Websitewww.royalsoc.ac.uk

Learn more...Half a century of televisionYou can learn more about David Attenborough’s long and distinguished television career on the BBC website: www.bbc.co.uk/nature/programmes/who/david_attenborough.shtml

2004DESCARTES SCIENCE COMMUNICATION PRIZE

chance to shine by the BBC, he is a committed advocate of public broadcasting.

“Commercial networks are there to make money by advertising and I cannot blame them for scheduling programmes that bring profits,” he notes. “If a nation decides that there should be public service networks, then there will be more scientific programmes. If it decides there are to be no public service networks, then they will simply die out.”

W h o m a d e t h e n o m i n a t i o n ?

This submission was made by the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science which supports top young scientists, engineers and technologists, influences science policy, debates scientific issues with the public, and much more. Sir David Attenborough won its 2003 Michael Faraday Award. The Royal Society promotes science and technology by funding researchers and stimulating international inter-action through various grants facilities.

www.royalsoc.ac.uk


David Attenborough maintains that science television requires a careful blend of scientific rigour, technology and creativity. “Today, film-makers regularly use equipment from various branches of science,” he says. “Filming wildlife necessitates a small or a great degree of creativity.”

He believes that the public view of science is mixed. “People all over the world accept the benefits of science without a thought. But when things go wrong for some reason, they dismiss the whole of science as a folly.”

The veteran film-maker is unflattering about the general quality of scientific communications. “We have done a very bad job until now of communicating science. The level of ignorance in this matter is dreadful and widespread.

“The secret is not in the scientific issue but in how you present this issue. If you want to trigger the public’s interest in science, you have to make science interesting,” he insists.


Although David Attenborough has won a stream of awards throughout his long career, he was thrilled and honoured to receive his Descartes Prize which he picked up in person at the ceremony in Prague in December 2004.

Among his other awards, in 1985 he received a knighthood from the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II, and he was given the Order of Merit in 2005. He has also won a number of prestigious awards, including a Fellowship of the Royal Society which first introduced Attenborough’s works to the Descartes Prize organisers. He was a Trustee of the British Museum, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and President of the Royal Society for Nature Conservation.

S c i e n c e a n d s o c i e t y i m p l i c a t i o n s

Television is the number one source of information, both scientific and general, for the majority of people. That means the small screen has a powerful role to play in improving the public’s awareness of science.

But, in a rapidly commercialising TV environment, David Attenborough fears the gradual extinction of high-quality, high-budget science programmes. Having been given the

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One scientist’s inspirational

motto

science magazines. He is also an avid painter and, through such projects as his ‘Atomic Landscape’ music, is building bridges between the sciences and arts. Perhaps his most unusual accolade is being in the Guinness Book of Records for creating the smallest man-made hole.

In recognition of his unique ability to convey, in simple terms, his scientific activities to the public, Heckl won the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) 2002 Communicator Award for scientists, sponsored by the Donor’s Association. In addition to his posts in academia, he is head of the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

He may have a high-powered position as professor of experimental physics and as a nano-scientist at Germany’s Ludwig Maximilian University, but he is also an accomplished media performer whose renown stretches beyond scientific circles.

Seen on television, in glossy magazines and talking to children in schools, his calling is to pull science out of its ivory tower. In his many dealings with the media, he frequently tackles the question: what is nanoscience?

Through experience teaching physics, he learned the best way to explain complex scientific ideas is to make them relevant to the audience. In the magazine Brigitte, he defined nanotechnology as the formula for the emergence of life – a study of molecules and nanoparticles or “physical dwarfs”.

He backs up his definitions with creative examples, such as non-stick surfaces that mimic natural materials and new treatments for serious diseases using nano-molecules.

T h e h i s t o r y

With hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, conferences and book contributions, reports and monographs to his name, plus countless interviews and citations in the mainstream press, Heckl has become a household name in Germany and even abroad.

He has participated in television and radio programmes and writes regularly for German newspapers and popular

INTO PEOPLE’S HEARTS

Wolfgang Heckl is a member of a rare breed, the scientist-entertainer. This youthful and enthusiastic scientist brings hard science softly to the ground so that everyone can appreciate it.

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One scientist’s inspirational

motto

I N F O

Into people’s hearts by Wolfgang Heckl

Category Professional scientists engaged in science communication towards the public

Contact InformationGeoBioCenter, Department of Geo- and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany Tel/Fax: +49 (0)89 2180 4331

[email protected]

Websitewww.nano-science.de

Learn more...Wolfgang Heckl is also the general director of the Deutsches Museum which is a rich source of information on a wide range of scientific subjects, with comprehensive archives, multimedia displays, as well as research and education facilities and programmes. Founded in 1903, the museum has many permanent exhibitions on topics ranging from aerospace to energy technology, as well as a full programme of temporary exhibitions covering all manner of subjects, usually supported by English information and captions. www.deutsches-museum.de/e_index.htm


But science is there to serve society, he maintains. “Science is not worth it, if it is not for the benefit of society, and this is only possible, if we include a dialogue with European citizens.”

He urges scientists to be proactive and communicate the risks and opportunities of their field. “Society can only decide if informed... We have to be honest and tell the public if there are things we do not know.”


This submission was made by Deutsche Forschungs-gemeinschaft (DFG), the German central, self-governing research organisation for promoting research at universities and other publicly financed institutions in Germany. It serves all branches of science and the humanities by funding research projects and facilitating co-operation among researchers. Wolfgang Heckl won its 2002 DFG Communicator Award.

www.dfg.de


Wolfgang Heckl says that imparting the wonders of science, especially to young people, gives him great joy. He wants to continue developing his communication skills, bringing nanobiotechnology to life using different media to communicate and involve people in the learning experience.


Adding a communication prize to the collaborative research prize is a perfect complement to achieving the EU’s goal of raising awareness of both its activities and science per se. Like Heckl’s work, it now gets the message across, in a clear and engaging way, about the importance of science by reinforcing the best examples of it! Receiving the prize was a great honour, the German science communicator said at the Descartes Award Ceremony in Prague.


Communication is a vital component of the research process, argues Heckl. “Innovation needs communication,” he observes. “Science is a unifying culture in Europe. Education and science must be the highest priority. Science literacy is the answer to many problems we are facing today.”

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Hungarian students enter

lab life

On that occasion, the EMBO’s jury panel said that the project “sparked the interest in science of many young students, helping them to get into the best colleges and universities”.

In fact, many of the youngsters involved in the early years of the programme have gone on to do PhDs. A lot of them are now mentors in the movement, or took up careers as science teachers and set up their own research programmes.

“We started our programme to offer top research opportunities to interested high-school students. Today, we have more than 5 000 students in this programme, which is helped by 600 mentors and 800 high-school teachers. One-third of the students come from small villages and exactly half of the participants and winners are girls,” says Csermely.


The movement is going from strength to strength. It draws almost double the number of students from one year to the next. In 2002, it founded a Network of Youth Excellence which promotes collaboration between extra-curricular research movements in 20 European and six non-European countries. Nowadays, most of the new recruits to the programme come via word of mouth.

The programme strengthens the links in society as students pass on their knowledge of science to family and friends, notes Csermely. “Many students will not continue their life as scientists but [with this basic understanding] they can help science in the media, business and politics.”

In November 2006, the European Commission announced that Peter Csermely would be part of an expert group that will look at what action can be taken in Europe to support

Professor Peter Csermely, a successful Hungarian molecular biologist and network scientist, saw that science and research were not teacher-centred subjects and that students need to be more involved. In 1996, he launched the Hungarian Research Student Movement to whet the scientific appetites of young high-school students.

Participation, he realised, was the best path to learning. He quotes the Chinese proverb: “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand” as his mantra for the network promoting youth excellence.

T h e h i s t o r y

Professor Csermely’s ‘baby’ first drew European attention as a winner of the European Molecular Biology Organisation’s (EMBO) Award for Communication in the Life Sciences, which he received in 2003.

NETWORK OF YOUTH EXCELLENCE

Since 1996, the Hungarian Research Student Movement has been giving thousands of high-school students a taste of real lab life by opening the door for them to work with some of the country’s top scientific research teams.

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Hungarian students enter

lab life

I N F O

Network of Youth Excellence by Peter Csermely


Contact InformationSemmelweis University Budapest, Hungary Tel: +36 30 559 4420 Fax: +36 1 222 0517

[email protected]

Movement websitewww.kutdiak.hu

Network of youth excellence websitewww.nyex.info

Professor Csermely’s lab websitewww.weaklink.sote.hu

Learn more...What do the students say about the programme?“You completely changed my life when I entered this programme,” commented one young Hungarian.“Here I found friends and learned how to distinguish between important and unimportant information,” another participant in the network reflected.


between all civil movements and the government,” he continues. This is very delicate work which needs careful thought to ensure that we have a pool of skilled scientists for generations to come, he concludes.


This submission was made by the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) and won its 2003 Award for Communication in the Life Sciences. Established in 1964 by leading scientists in the biosciences field, its 24 member states are now committed to promoting this science in Europe. Today, through the work of its over 1 100 scientists, it is developing a strong transnational approach to molecular biology and identifying measures to help train scientists in this area.

www.embo.org

science education in primary and secondary schools. The group will be chaired by Michel Rocard, former French prime minister and now Member of the European Parliament. It will formulate policy recommendations designed to improve the way that Europe approaches science teaching and ensure future generations are properly prepared for a society and economy that relies on knowledge as a driving force.


Winning the prize has had a powerful impact on the way Csermely now carries out his work. “For me, Descartes was an award for several thousand people. Everything is free in our movement and the work is based on volunteers. Our mentors and teachers sacrifice their time and money to give the best students the top-level science that they deserve,” he comments.

These many contributors worldwide have now been recognised for their hard work, he adds. “The network we started to help the co-operation of similar initiatives all around the world now has members from more than 33 countries (23 in Europe).”

The prize has also been of great benefit in attracting programme sponsors. “But the greatest benefit of all is that the initiative became a model,” he says. “Today, it is adapted for use in the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Romania, Slovakia and even in Asia and Africa. Former high-school research students return to their school and start a scientific student club. The original idea became self-sustaining and self-perpetuating. Descartes was a highly important step in this process.”


“Programmes like these teach us scientists that, if we are unable to explain our work to our mother [or a lay person], it is either not important enough or our thoughts about it are not clear enough,” stresses Csermely on the importance of events like the Descartes Prize and other science awareness programmes to modern society.

“Either way, these are important signs that change is needed. Modern society needs talented people. We cannot afford the luxury of neglecting these brilliant young minds by not helping them develop their talents and integrate in society, which is why we established the National Council for the Help of the Gifted in Hungary to promote co-operation

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Taking composites for a spin

round EuropeT h e h i s t o r y

This ambitious project, supported by the EU’s European Science Week initiative, was the brainchild of Ignaas Verpoest, a professor of metallurgical and material engineering at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (BE). In addition to the KULeuven and the Flemish Institute for Independent Entrepreneurship (VIZO), the University of Liverpool (UK), the Technical University of Delft (NL), and the University of Napoli (IT), the UK Centre for Materials and Education, the Belgian company Compositrailer, and the Design Museum Ghent also contributed. Visit the partners and sponsors page on the project website for full details of these contributions.

Verpoest, a respected teacher, researcher and writer in the field, has spent a full career investigating high-performance materials and learning new ways to communicate his – and his team’s – findings to both scientific and lay audiences. Composites-on-Tour hit on a winning formula of presenting solid scientific facts in an engaging and memorable fashion to all ages, but especially to young people.

He speaks animatedly about the vital role of composites in space technology and Formula 1 race cars – and can even ignite interest in the more mundane household objects where composite plastics, for example, can also be found.

Composites-on-Tour, the travelling exhibition that sought to raise public awareness of these important new materials, travelled to eight countries, stopping off in 40 cities in the summer of 2002. The mobile exhibit drew some 30 000 visitors and distributed more than 100 000 folders, posters, leaflets and invitations. The Science Week tour set off from Brugge (BE). It toured Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and, finally, back to Belgium. The bright-coloured mobile

Whether you can spot them or not, composites are all around you – and they are spreading. They can be found in mundane objects, such as the bankcard in your wallet, enhanced bicycles and cars, and space-age components in satellites and launchers.

Composites have been dubbed the ‘material of the future‘ because of their malleability – designers can mix and match properties – and their potential not only to help solve complex design problems but also as a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional metals and plastics. By blending the best characteristics of various materials, composites can be lighter, stronger, tougher and greener than their traditional counterparts.

Composites-on-Tour included a mobile exhibition, pulled along by an articulated truck, two design competitions and an exposition of prize winning objects. Just about everything could be found in the trailer – ultra-light bicycles made entirely of carbon fibres, aircraft and car parts, surfboards and chairs, musical instruments, engines, ...

The design competitions attracted more than 40 designers from all over the world. The awarded designs were displayed in an exhibition at the VIZO Gallery (now Design Flanders), in the heart of Brussels. A third exhibition, in the Design Museum Ghent (Belgium), highlighted the history of composites in the design of ‘consumer goods‘, from the early cotton fibre reinforced bakelite radio to 21st century composite bikes. The two Belgian exhibitions attracted around 25 000 visitors.

All of the items displayed were everyday objects made of composites about which most of us know very little. The exhibition explained what they are made of, how they are made and their precise properties. Visitors could wander through different ‘spaces’ with interactive sequences analysing and breaking down these products.

COMPOSITES-ON-TOUR

Composites-on-Tour covered the length and breadth of Europe in an ambitious bid to familiarise the European public with exciting materials of the future.

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Taking composites for a spin

round Europe

I N F O

Composites-on-Tour by Ignaas Verpoest


Contact InformationKatholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Tel: +32 (0)16 321 306 Fax: +32 (0)16 321 99

[email protected]

Websitewww.compositesontour-2.be

Learn more...“Thanks to initiatives such as Composites-on-Tour, [these materials] can gain broader public coverage. This project caught our eye straight away and it has now been awarded the prestigious Descartes Prize. We’re very happy and proud to have helped this valuable initiative and motivated team gain public recognition. Our congratulations to the creator behind the project, Ignaas Verpoest, who, with his catching enthusiasm and tenacity, convinced us all of the value of this vast project and implemented it successfully. We’re also very happy to prove our ability to join forces and work together as a network, combining talents to promote composite materials,” commented JEC General Manager Frédérique Mutel.



“While it is clear that composite materials have reached abroad public in a short time, this same public is unfamiliar with the concepts behind composites,” explains the team of seven partners which organised Composites-on-Tour, thanks also to Science Week funding. The funds were used to help raise public awareness about composite materials and their applications and were also provided by the Commission’s Science and Society programme.


This submission was made by the Journals and Exhibitions on Composites (JEC), a service provider whose mission is to promote composite materials around the world through such events as the JEC Composites competition and the JEC Composites Network. Its mantra is the ‘sharing of knowledge through integrated services’.

www.globalcomposites.com

museum-cum-lab, clocked up 10 000 km. The articulated trailer, containing the exhibition, was itself an ultra-light vehicle constructed entirely of composite materials by the firm Compositrailer.

During its journey, it took in the Journals and Exhibitions on Composites (JEC) Show, in France – drawing 23 000 visitors and 132 journalists – and won the 2003 Special JEC Award before being forwarded to the European Commission as a Descartes Prize entry – and subsequent winner.


The exhibition Xtra Strong/Light – Composites is a follow-up of the first science communication project about composites, Composites-on-Tour, and couples science to design. It is organised in the framework of the science communication project Composites-on-Tour-2, supported by the European Union in the framework of the European Science and Technology week.

The first part of the exhibition highlights the scientific foundations of composite materials in a playful and interactive manner. In the second part of the exhibition, the Belgian designers Clem van Himbeeck and Weyers & Borms, winners of the first Composites-on-Tour design competition in 2002, show how they make use of composite materials in an inventive way. Also, various designs are shown of the Israeli designer Ron Arad, who runs a design agency in London; both his original metal versions as well as various composite versions are shown.

Next to this exhibition, an International Composites Design Competition was held earlier in 2006. The results of this competition will be shown in six European design centres. The first of these exhibitions opens on February 15, 2007 in the gallery of Design Flanders in Brussels (until March 18, 2007). After this the exhibition, accompanied by the scientific part of Xtra Strong/Light – Composites, will be shown for one month at a time in design centres in Paris, Barcelona, Budapest, Eindhoven and Ljubljana.


Winning confirmed what Verpoest knew about science and the public. “With the Composites-on-Tour initiative, we just wanted to explain the mystery of composites and...increase the interest of the general public in new materials and in scientific innovations,” he says. “The link between composites and good design enabled us to reach a whole new public, and to convey to them the message that innovative design would be impossible without innovations in materials science!”

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Confronting the phantoms of the insect world

T h e h i s t o r y

The Descartes Prize winning television programme was aired as part of a long-running series of half-hour scientific programmes, called ‘C’est pas sorcier‘. Vincent Lamy and colleague’s documentary is crammed with useful facts and interesting tips about the 2 500 known species of phasmas found mainly in tropical parts of the world.

Showing on the public channel France 3, the series has been running since 1994 and has covered over 350 themes from the animal world, history, medicine, the environment and more. It has answered some of the most vexing scientific questions, such as why the dinosaurs disappeared, and even some of the more banal ones like why we need to eat.


‘C’est pas sorcier’ has collected a bundle of well-earned prizes, awards and accolades dating back five years. In 2000, for example, the producers bagged awards in different MIF-Science’s categories including the Box Office Scientific Film, Top 15 Individual, European Box Office and Young Public categories for titles such as ‘The Biggest ships in the World’, ‘Connected Driving – Electric Cars’ and ‘Bridges’. In the ensuing years, the awards continued to roll in for a whole range of episodes illuminating such topics as volcanoes, Venice, termites, plastics, carbon resources and much more.

In October 2006, the episode ‘Les mystères de l’Univers’ (‘The Mysteries of the Universe’) was awarded the Prix du Magazine at the prestigious scientific film festival ‘Image et Science’ in Paris.

Everything about stick insects carries scientific intrigue, from their name in French, phasme, which means apparition or ghost, to their movements and unique way of concealing their eggs in reproduction. But as shown by Fred, Jamy and Sabine – the three popular presenters of ‘Face aux phasmes’ – there is nothing supernatural about them except their eerie ability to blend in with the surrounding sticks, leaves and bushes.

“It’s a little beast that doesn’t lack imagination,” the film series producer, RIFF International Productions, explains on the jacket cover of the video. To conceal itself from predators, it can stay still for hours and even sway in the wind like the branches it has assumed as cover, it continues. What’s more, it lays eggs which form the shape of small grains to mask their origin so they do not look like a tasty snack for reptiles.

FACE AUX PHASMES

‘Face aux phasmes‘ (Facing phasmas), an episode in the series ‘C’est pas sorcier’ (‘The Magically Simple’) delves into the hidden world of the stick insect. Found in all shapes and sizes, this master of disguise can change its appearance to fit in with its natural environment and escape predators.

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I N F O

‘Face aux phasmes‘ by producer Vincent Lamy from the series ‘C’est pas sorcier’

Category Popularising science through audiovisual and electronic media

Contact InformationRIFF International Productions, Paris, France Tel: +33 (0)1 4437 1240 Fax: +33 (0)1 4639 8300

[email protected]

Websitewww.riff-prod.fr/accueil/index.html

Learn more...‘Face aux phasmes’ was written by Frédéric Courant, Jamy Gourmaud, Bernard Gonner and Eric Thiery. It was directed by Catherine Breton and produced by Vincent Lamy for RIFF International Production and France 3 television.



The prize was also strong confirmation of the importance of television as a medium in which science can be made more interesting and palatable for mass audiences. The fact that programmes, such as ‘C’est pas sorcier‘, can draw a large and loyal audience and win so many awards is a testament to its consistent quality. The producers say its success comes down not only to its excellent topic selection, but also its ability to bring the topic to life in an entertaining and believable way. “Surely, this is what is meant by science and society!” they would agree.


This submission was made by Les Amis du Marché International du Film Scientifique (AMIF-Sciences) and won the MIF-Sciences.net Trophy for the Best Scientific Film of the Year 2002. “Our knowledge at your service since 1988” is the mantra of AMIF-Sciences, a science promotion organisation based in France. Resources provided by AMIF include a science and technology footage bank, a database of projects and contacts, sound and multimedia production, video and technical assistance, as well as organising events, conferences and the MIF-Science film, photographer and website trophies.

www.mif-sciences.net


The media’s role is not only confined to ‘reporting’ science, it can play a major role in popularising it. Television, for instance, is cited by many Europeans as being their primary source of information and popular TV science programmes help promote scientific awareness. Frédéric Courant, who presents ‘C’est pas sorcier‘, shared his years of on-screen experience.

“‘C’est pas sorcier‘ appeals to a wide range of age groups and social classes,” Courant says. In fact, the programme goes out across the entire French-speaking world – it has even been dubbed into Mandarin – and regularly attracts a quarter of prime-time audiences in France.

Explaining the show’s phenomenal success, Courant observes that: “In France, science and culture are placed on a pedestal – it is useful sometimes to inject an element of fun.”

The show follows a basic formula in which a naive main character stumbles through various adventures, while experts and scientists explain the underlying science. A large dose of action, whether it is jumping out of aeroplanes or plunging into sewers, is also on the menu.

“You have to put yourself in the layperson’s shoes so that you can pose the right questions to those working in the laboratories,” he notes. “If people feel that they have come away more intelligent, this is extremely gratifying for them.”

MIF-Science also proudly promoted its association with the European-level science communication prize, dedicating several pages on its website to all the prize winners, including the collaborative research laureates.

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Swedish doctor prescribes a healthy dose of

T h e h i s t o r y

Dr Sundberg was born in 1958 in the Swedish capital Stockholm. His diverse academic and professional experience has taken him far and wide: from a war surgeon and diver in the Swedish military to a biotech entrepreneur and leading science communicator. Academically, he was awarded his PhD in 1993 and has been an Associate Professor at the Karolinska Institute, one of Europe’s largest medical universities, since 1999.

He has held several other positions at the Karolinska Institute, including a physiology and pharmacology researcher and a project leader at the Centre for Medical Innovations. He has also sat on several of the university’s committees. He is currently a part-time investment manager for the Karolinska Investment Fund.

Outside the university’s walls, he is a board member and advisor to several biotech and biomedical companies and industry organisations. His research work focuses mainly on the molecular mechanisms involved in the adaptation of human skeletal muscle to physical activity.

Dr Sundberg has a passion for explaining science in a clear and understandable fashion, and is committed to breaking down the barriers between science and the media. In addition to writing a book about biology for young teenagers, he has created a course on bio-medical science for journalists and on science communication for PhD students.

Over the past two decades, Dr Sundberg has been involved in a plethora of communication projects. On the pan-European scale, he founded the two-yearly Euroscience Open Forum (www.esof.org) which first took place in Stockholm in 2004. Euroscience, of which he was vice-president between 1998 and 2004, is a grass-roots scientific network with 2 000 members spanning 40 countries.

Over the years, Dr Sundberg has also helped to design several science centre exhibitions which have attracted thousands of visitors. He has held more than 100 lectures on science targeted at the public, including schoolchildren. The Swedish professor has also found time to write dozens of articles on science.

SCIENCE IN MOTION

Dr Carl Johan Sundberg may be an Associate Professor of physiology with a distinguished career in molecular physiology, but he is no lab hermit. The Swedish physician has made quite a name for himself – both in Sweden and abroad – as a people-friendly scientist who can reach and appeal to a range of audiences, from university students to primary school children.

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dialogue

I N F O

Science in Motion by Dr Carl Johan Sundberg

Category Professional scientist engaged in science communication towards the public

Contact InformationDepartment of Physiology and Pharmacology, LIME and SDO Karolinska Institute 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden

[email protected]

Websitewww.ki.se

Learn more...More information on the Euroscience Open Forum 2006 is available at: www.esof2006.orgMore information on the Euroscience Open Forum 2004 is available at: www.esof2004.org


His communicative touch has also touched the wider European scene with the establishment of the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF). His communication ideas act as a model for others to emulate and have been adopted in several European countries.


This submission was made by Åforsk, a private foundation which organises a number of project grants, scholarships and prizes for the successful dissemination of technology or good teaching practices in the technical sciences.

Dr Sundberg won Åforsk’s 2005 prize for the dissemination of knowledge. “The activities of Carl Johan Sundberg in promoting the dissemination of knowledge from universities to different sectors of society have gone on in parallel with his scientific career at Karolinska Institute,” the Åforsk jury concluded. “For two decades [he has] shown outstanding initiative and energy in the field of science communication and continues to do so in the local, national and international arena.”

www.aforsk.se


Some 11 000 people took part in the first Euroscience Open Forum’s outreach programme and more than 1 800 attended the conference itself, including 350 journalists. The second edition in 2006, which took place in the German city of Munich, drew 2 100 – among them 485 journalists – to the conference and 50 000 to the outreach programme. The Spanish city of Barcelona is due to host the 2008 event. ESOF has already become a well-known meeting and a natural part of the European “landscape” in science and its role in society.


Perhaps the greatest reward of winning the Descartes Prize for Dr Sundberg was the acknowledgement it conferred of the effort he has put in over his career. “Winning this award was a recognition of the science communication work that I have done over many years,” he explained.

He notes that science communication is not well understood by his peers and does not receive enough attention within the scientific community. “The Descartes Prize sheds light on the communicative aspect of science in a very powerful manner because of its high standing in the eyes of scientists.” Dr Sundberg also points to the tough and transparent nomination and selection procedures, the strong emphasis on exposure by the European Commission and the significant prize money. “It clearly stands out as the premier science communication prize in Europe.”

Dr Sundberg believes that winning this prize has made his science communication work easier.


Dr Sundberg truly deserves the accolade of being “Sweden’s Mr Science Communication” and has succeeded in making science more relevant to his Swedish compatriots. In a country of 9 million people, his exhibitions have attracted over a million visitors. Many thousands more have attended his lectures and read his popular articles in the media.

He has worked hard to nurture a passion for science among younger generations. Thousands of young people have attended his lectures and his biology book is read by school kids across the country.

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dialogue

Danish scientist brings astrophysics

T h e h i s t o r y

Born in 1965, Dr Andersen is a very youthful senior scientist. Married with three children, she is a living demonstration for sceptics that a woman can be a successful professional scientist and mother, without compromising either.

She was awarded her masters degree in astronomy in 1995 and her PhD in astrophysics in 1999. She did her post-doc research at Uppsala University in Sweden and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Between 2002 and 2005, she was a fellow at the Nordic Institute of Theoretical Physics.

Her main area of research interest is the astrophysics of dust, including dust formation, dust coagulation, as well as the role of dust in relation to the late stages of stellar evolution and the early stages of planet formation. She is also interested in astrobiology. She is the co-author of more than forty articles in international scientific publications, twenty papers on gender in academia, twenty-five popular astronomy papers, and much more.


In November 2005, Dr Andersen took up a position as associate professor at the Dark Cosmology Centre situated at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. The institute focuses on research, education and public outreach – Dr Andersen should feel right at home there.

Two prizes were awarded to the young Dane in October 2006. The Outstanding Young Persons of the World (TOYP) award was presented to her by Junior Chamber International Denmark and the Kirstine Meyer’s award presented by

Dr Andersen is a star in Denmark thanks to her appearances on television, radio and in the print press. She was the astrophysics expert on a TV science show called Kosmos. Aimed at young people, the programme won a major television award in Paris. Also, Dr Andersen’s public reputation was cemented in May 2003 when half the Danish population tuned in to watch her live presentation of a solar eclipse over Europe.

In addition, she travels around the country presenting popular talks and actively participates in debates about science and technology issues at schools, libraries and colleges. The superstar astrophysicist has penned numerous articles on astronomy and physics, as well as a book about stardust aimed at schoolchildren.

Dr Andersen has become a role model for young women, who are traditionally under-represented in the sciences, particularly at senior levels. She has broken new ground by presenting science and technology issues in glossy women’s magazines – a new frontier for science communicators!

STARDUST

Dr Anja C. Andersen has not only managed to bring astrophysics down to Earth for millions of Danes, who have joined her on a discovery journey of the wonders of the cosmos from the comfort of their living rooms, she has also helped raise the star of science in the eyes of young women.

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down to earth

Danish scientist brings astrophysics

I N F O

Stardust by Dr Anja C. Andersen

Category Professional scientist engaged in science communication towards the public

Contact InformationDark Cosmology Centre Juliane Maries Vej 30 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark Tel: +45 3532 5991 Fax: +45 3532 5989

[email protected]; [email protected]

Websitewww.dark-cosmology.dk

Learn more...You can find out more about Anja C. Andersen’s research and outreach work, her publications, and the awards she has received on her personal website: www.dark-cosmology.dk/~anja/


Dr Andersen also engages in more intimate outreach activities, such as public lectures and debates at schools and science cafés. Her passion for her subject is contagious and her media appearances have inspired a large number of people to pursue scientific studies and careers.

In the man’s world of science, women, in particular, find in her a model of how a young woman can reach the top of her game, while maintaining a healthy family life.


Dr Andersen’s charisma and drive have significantly boosted the public visibility of science, particularly among young people and women. She was put forward for the Descartes Science Communication Prize by Denmark’s Science Ministry which noted her “remarkable ability to relate difficult topics within physics and technology to ordinary people’s lives without compromising scientific quality”.

Dr Andersen won the ministry’s first-ever National Research Communication award. “Communication takes time,” the jury acknowledged. “We should be happy that some of our researchers make this effort because there is a price to pay for being in the media. Often, the professional recognition of an effort to communicate knowledge in a direct and popular manner takes the form, not of approval, but of silence, professional resentment and spite.”

http://videnskabsministeriet.dk

the Society for Physics Dissemination (SNU) founded by the world famous physicist H.C. Ørsted, the discoverer of electromagnetism. Kirstine Meyer was the first women in Denmark to obtain a university degree in Physics in 1892 and it is with humbleness that Dr Andersen follows in the footsteps of a unique role model who showed that women, as well as men, could be capable physicists.


Winning the Descartes Prize has increased Dr Andersen’s visibility, and placed more demands on her time. She receives many more requests than she can possibly meet. The advantage of the prize, she says, “is that it is more accepted now that I spend time on public outreach. The Descartes Prize has a significant impact on recognising and acknowledging science communication as an important part of science.”

She is often invited to other research institutions to talk about how to improve science communication with the public. Receiving the prize has also had a significant impact on her access to the media – she is frequently invited to be a science expert by all types of media (TV, radio, newspapers and magazines) not only within Denmark but also in neighbouring countries (such as Sweden, Germany, France, and Iceland).

The Danish Geological Museum chose her research on stardust from meteorites as one of the main highlights in their new meteoritic exhibition opened by Crown Prince Frederik in June 2006.

During the summer of 2006, Dr Andersen was invited to Iceland by Thorsteinn Vilhjalmsson (Descartes Science Communication nominee 2005) to present a popular talk on astrophysics and a talk at the University of Iceland on the shortage of women in academia. She was very well received in Iceland and appeared several times on national TV, radio and in all the national newspapers during her stay there.

EuroNews featured a portrait of her in their science magazine FUTURIS in the autumn of 2006.


Dr Andersen is not only concerned with star formations in the skies but also here on Earth. By transforming herself into a major media personality, she has brought astrophysics into millions of Danish households and also made science more relevant to hundreds of thousands of young people.

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A big bang in popular

science

The history

Bill Bryson was born in Iowa, USA, in 1951. He moved to the UK in 1977 and lives there with his English wife, whom he met during a backpacking expedition to England in 1973, and four children. He is a best-selling travel writer. His popular titles include Lost continent, Mother tongue, Neither here nor there, Made in America, Notes from a small country, Down Under, and African diary.

Before he became a best-selling author, Mr Bryson worked as a journalist with several UK newspapers, including The Independent and The Times. In 2005, Bryson was appointed Chancellor of Durham University, succeeding the late Peter Ustinov, the Oscar-winning actor, writer, dramatist and raconteur.

Progress/achievements

In October 2006, Bill Bryson released his new book The life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid, a humorous memoir recalling the trials and tribulations of growing up in the USA in the 1950s. Bryson’s hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, proclaimed 21 October 2006 to be ‘Bill Bryson Day’ and presented the author with a key to the city.

Previously known for his witty travel books, the intrepid writer decided to venture into science writing, armed with little more than an everyman’s knowledge of science and boundless curiosity.

His best-seller helps demystify many of the biggest questions in science for ordinary readers, from the Big Bang to the rise of human civilisation. “This book is about how we went from being nothing at all to there being something and then how a little of that something turned into us, and also what happened in between and some of what has happened since,” Mr Bryson explains.

The writer’s desire to understand the world around him took him to a whole range of “saintly experts”, as he calls them, who helped him answer some outstandingly dumb questions, as he puts it. How did we end up with a hot core in the middle of our planet and how do we

know its temperature? How do scientists know what goes on inside an atom and how can they seemingly know so much and not always be able to tell us whether it is going to rain or shine?

SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING

Travel writer Bill Bryson has caused a big bang in the science publishing world. His best-selling A short history of nearly everything takes the reader on a thrilling and dizzying ride through space and time, from the birth of the universe to the ascendancy of humankind on the third rock from the sun in this quiet corner of the Milky Way.

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A big bang in popular

science

I N F O

A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson

Category Popularising science through the written word

Contact InformationBill Bryson London United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)20 87490315 Fax: +44 (0)20 8749 0318

E-mailc/o [email protected]

Websitewww.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/

Learn more...You can find out more about Bill Bryson’s A short history of nearly everything at: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/bb_title/display.pperl?isbn=9780767923224


Although the book popularises scientific subject, it does not compromise on accuracy. One top scientist is alleged to have jokingly described the book as “annoyingly free of mistakes”.

Who made the nomination?

This submission was made by the UK’s Royal Society and Bill Bryson won the 2004 AVENTIS Prize for Science Book. “This ambitious book will communicate science to the widest possible audience in an intelligent and highly accessible away,” maintained Professor Robert Winston, chairman of the AVENTIS Prize jury.

www.royalsoc.ac.ukWinning the prize

On winning the Descartes Prize, Bill Bryson noted self-depreciatingly in an interview with UK daily The Guardian: “Never has someone been more generously awarded for his ignorance. I’m very grateful to all the scientists who, without exception, helped me to discover the wonder of their science.”

“I’m especially grateful to the Royal Society for nominating me for this award and in recognition of that, plan to return a small portion of the prize to the Society, in the hope they’ll be able to buy the staff a seasonal drink.”

Science and society implications

A short history of nearly everything has made some of the most complex and important issues in science today accessible – and, above all, enjoyable – to a general readership. One review of the book in the British daily The Guardian praised the “energetic, quirky, familiar and humorous” prose, noting that,” Bryson’s greatest skill is that of holding the reader’s hand throughout, building up such trust that topics as recondite, atomic weights, relativity and particle physics are shorn of their terrors.”

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The human narrative behind

the science

The programme aims to present difficult scientific content by using analogies and metaphors. By concentrating on the scientists – at least one of those featured in each episode has to be Flemish – OverLeven personalises the science for the non-technical viewer.

Episodes have included one on the puzzling death in South Africa of a certain type of reindeer, and a scientist who has trained rats to act as minesweepers.

T h e h i s t o r y

OverLeven was first broadcasted in 1997. The title is a play on words: ‘overleven’ means ‘survival’ in Dutch .The capital ‘L’ in the middle invites the viewer to read the title as “over leven” which means “about life”.

Over the years the programme moved to five different slots in the schedule: from late night on weekdays to weekend prime time, without much effect on its ratings: OverLeven always seems to keep its audience share of 6% with occasional leaps to 12% and even higher, depending on the topic. OverLeven is widely appreciated in the academic community and often cited as the favourite TV programme of writers, politicians and intellectuals.

In a major revamping of all CANVAS programming last year, the capital “L” was dropped in the title and the show now aims to appeal to a broader audiences, with subjects which are closes to the viewers personal life and environment. The programme was rescheduled to prime time on Sunday (9.05 pm).

When researchers pour their heart and soul into cracking a problem, the dividend for society can be astonishing. When exploring a contemporary scientific challenge, OverLeven weaves both the science and the ‘back room’ story behind it into a compelling human narrative.

Broadcast weekly on Canvas, a Flemish-language public channel, OverLeven attracts an impressive 120 000 viewers per week in Flanders, a region of 6 million people. Each episode tells the story of a scientist or a group of scientists trying to achieve a breakthrough or solve a problem in a range of fields, from zoology to environmental issues.

OVERLEVEN

One mistake often made in school curricula is to separate the science from the scientist, ignoring the real life stories of passion and determination behind every scientific discovery. A Belgian documentary, OverLeven, has injected the human back into science.

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I N F O

OverLeven by Jos Van Hemelrijck

Category Popularising science through audiovisual and electronic media

Contact InformationVlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 (0)2 741 33 68 Fax: +32 (0)2 735 58 65

[email protected]

Websitewww.canvas.be/overleven

Learn more...You can find out more about OverLeven at: http://www.canvas.be/overleven



OverLeven consistently draws large TV audiences to watch what are at heart complex scientific topics. It also highlights the human face of impersonal science. This helps achieve the important goal of bringing the scientific community closer to society at large.

By shedding light on the humanity behind the science, the programme reveals the excitement – and frustration – of following the twists and turns of the path to knowledge. It also proves to sceptical youth that science is relevant to the real world and can help answer many of the issues that concern and interest them in their daily lives.


This submission was made by the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, an independent and multidisciplinary learned society for the practice and promotion of science and culture. OverLeven won its 2003 ‘Prijs van de Vlaamse minister voor Wetenscapsbeleid’. It received the accolade for two reasons: it reached a broad audience and it “made the work of scientists more attractive”.

www.kvab.be


In order to encourage scientists to present their work in a more accessible format, the programme has introduced the OverLeven Prize. Winners of the accolade are awarded appearances on the show or their work is published in a popular magazine or journal.


“Winning the Descartes Prize was a complete surprise for me personally and for the entire crew,” admitted Jos Van Hemelrijck, the programme’s director. “It took some time to sink in how big this really was.”

OverLeven’s success was covered in the Belgian national television news and in all the newspapers. Van Hemelrijck was invited to speak on radio shows and congratulations poured in. Together with VRT’s top management, the entire crew was treated to a public celebration in the Palace of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

For OverLeven, the Descartes Prize came at a very auspicious moment: it was read as a strong signal to the network management that communicating science is part of our mission as a public television station. Entertainment is not everything: there is an audience for a high-quality science show.

This set some important wheels in motion. VRT is now willing to embark upon a thematic TV channel on science and education. In the short term, the programme is looking into network-based solutions to bring scientific content to the viewers. In August, the OverLeven team hosted the Flemish scientific community and invited them to enter into a continuing dialogue with VRT in order to improve science coverage. “The initiative was warmly welcomed,” Van Hemelrijck notes.

OverLeven even received a royal mention. On Belgian national day, the 21st of July 2006, King Albert II dedicated his speech to the importance of scientific research and innovation and called for more young people to study science. The monarch expressed his happiness with OverLeven’s winning the Science Communication Prize.

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‘Kinder-Uni’ professors

T h e h i s t o r y

Professors at the University of Tübingen were keen to help and an inaugural Kinder-Uni programme was launched in the summer of 2002. It was made up of eight lectures which aimed to stimulate scientific curiosity in a target of eight- to 12-year-olds.

The first one, which dealt with the question: “Why do volcanoes erupt?”, attracted some 400 children. Other lectures delved into such intriguing questions as “Why don’t stars fall from the sky?” and “Why are some people rich and others poor?” The 2003 series even attracted a Nobel Prize winner, German biologist Professor Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, who tackled the thorny question of “Why are we not allowed to clone human beings?”

After five years of Kinder-Uni at Tübingen, about 25 000 children have attended these entertaining and educational lectures. The Tübingen model has been emulated in nearly 70 towns in Germany and abroad.

The idea of creating a children’s university was the brainchild of Michael Seifert, head of public relations at the University of Tübingen in Germany, and two local editors, Ulla Steuernagel and Ulrich Janssen. Right from the beginning, this was a collaborative effort between Tübingen University and Schwäbisches Tagblatt, a local newspaper. The format proved instantly popular – the second-ever lecture had to be moved to the university’s largest lecture hall to fit the 1 000 children who had turned up.

The two editors wrote books about Kinder-Uni’s first three years of activities. More than 400 000 copies in 11 languages have been sold. The books’ success and the wide media interest have inspired other universities in Germany and beyond to start their own Kinder-Uni programme.

TÜBINGER KINDER-UNI BY MICHAEL SEIFERT

The German word ‘Kindergarten’, literally ‘children’s garden’, has become an accepted term in the English language. Perhaps a younger and no less successful German invention, the ‘Kinder-Uni’ (Children’s University), will also enter other languages sometime in the future.

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I N F O

Tübinger Kinder-Uni by Michael Seifert


Contact InformationUniversity of Tübingen Wilhelmstr. 7 72074 Tübingen, Germany Tel: +49 (0)7071 297 6789

[email protected]

Websitewww.uni-tuebingen.de

Learn more...You can find out more about the Kinder-Uni idea at: www.uni-tuebingen.de/kinderuni and www.die-kinder-uni.de (only in German).



As everyone knows, children are the future, and inspiring them to take an interest in science will help ensure the vitality of our future scientific heritage. According to a survey, children find the Kinder-Uni lectures at Tübingen fun, interesting and challenging.

The kids also said that the experience stoked their interest in all kinds of scientific disciplines. But perhaps it is the way that the children are handled that makes the whole experience such a winner.

Michael Seifert explains that children “are exclusively offered something that normally only adults gain access to. They are treated seriously like adults and the lecturers evidently make a great effort to fascinate the kids.”


This submission was made by Deutsche Forschungs-gemeinschaft (DFG) and the University of Tübingen won its 2003 PR-FUCHS prize.

www.dfg.de

Two new trends have been set in motion since winning the award of the Descartes Prize. First, a Kinder-Uni Researchers’ Day, with small workshops and hands-on activities, was held all over the university campus. Second, the Kinder-Uni has gone out to the country and set up two branches in two small towns in the Black Forest and near the Daimler-Chrysler plant. Hundreds of young children came to unlock the mysteries of science.


In 2006, the Tübinger Kinder-Uni won another prize awarded by Land of Ideas’ national competition which was created, under the auspices of the German Federal President Horst Köhler, to mark the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. The Kinder-Uni was chosen as a “place of ideas”.


The Descartes Prize was a great motivation and help to start new activities. The prize money was put into a foundation called Young University which aims to promote innovative activities to bring children and young people into contact to the universities and science.

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Descartes Science Communication Prize 2006

Expert Panel Members

THE EXPERT PANEL

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Mr Mikael AgatonScience documentaries

Mr Michel AlloulScience communication, audiovisual media

Dr Anja C. AndersenAstrophysics, science communication

Ms Valeria ArzentonSociology, scientific participation

CEO, Agaton Film, Stockholm, SwedenFilm-maker Mikael Agaton has been producing major science and history documentaries for international television since the start of the 1990s. As writer/director, he has been responsible for productions such as The saga/odyssey of life, with renowned medical photographer Lennart Nilsson, The Viking saga, Guardians of the north about the Sami people, War against disease, Revolution of the mind and The stone carvers about the mysterious Nordic Bronze Age. The awards Mr Agaton has received include the International Emmy award for best documentary, the George Fosters Peabody award and the Grand Prix Nortel. He is presently involved in the creation of a new major TV series: A journey to the centre of yourself, based on the recent scientific discoveries relating to the mysterious creature known as the human being.

General delegate of MIF-SCIENCES, FranceMr Alloul was born in Marrakesh (Morocco) in 1947 and studied social and cultural animation and audiovisual media. He has worked at several children and youth departments and festivals. He is the founder of the Festival International du Film Scientifique de Palaiseau and has been a delegate for the Association Internationale des Amis du Film Scientifique (AMIF-SCIENCES) since 1988. He has also been the president of the Centre International Audiovisuel Universitaire, a member of UNESCO’s Conseil International du Cinema et de la Télévision and the UN cultural arm’s Commission Nationale Française, as well as a member of the World Association of Medical and Health Films. Since 1994, he has been a European Commission expert on scientific and technological audiovisual media matters and has created an on-line audiovisual competition, the TROPHEES MIF-SCIENCES. He has also contributed to various scientific publications, conferences, television programmes, scientific exhibitions and international festivals.

Associate professor, Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, DenmarkDr Andersen holds a PhD in astrophysics and works at the newly established Dark Cosmology Centre at the University of Copenhagen. Her research is focused on cosmic dust with the emphasis on the role of cosmic dust in the thermal, dynamical and chemical conditions in the different astrophysical environments. Dr Andersen is widely known as an excellent communicator of science (in the public debate) as well as an enthusiastic advocate of women’s participation in the natural sciences. In recognition of this, she has received several prices, among them the Descartes Science Communication Prize 2005.

Sociologist, responsible for ‘science in society’ research activities at the Association Observa, Italy Ms Arzenton’s main research interests are in the area of the sociology of science, in particular the public communication of science and the role of public participation in the governance of techno-scientific innovation. Her recent work has focused on food safety and biotechnology issues, with specific attention to the public perception of food-related risks. She published the book Safety at table. Public perception of food-related risks in Veneto Region (with F. Neresini and L. Ravarotto, 2005) and the essay GMO, not in my dish (in the periodical Cells and Citizens, edited by M. Bucchi and F. Neresini, 2006). She is also on the editorial staff of the Observa’s yearly publication The science in society fact book and contributes to the Italian newspaper La Stampa.


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Dr Andrea BandelliConsultant in science communication

Mr Philippe BijvoetScience education television programmes

Ms Heidelinde BlümersBroadcasting

Dr Richard BraunMicrobiology, science and society

Ms Sophie CoisneJournalism and science communication

Consultant for Après Tendance, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsMr Bandelli is an independent advisor on science communication initiatives. After working for newMetropolis in Amsterdam (now ‘NEMO’) from 1995 to 1999, he became manager of the Science Learning Network, a worldwide on-line community of educators, students, schools, science museums and other institutions pursuing a new inquiry-based science education model. From 2000-2004, he was project manager of BIONET, a virtual collaborative exhibition on the life sciences, and he is currently leading DECIDE, a project to encourage democratic activities in science centres and museums. He has been a consultant for various institutions in Europe and the USA, and for the national research organisations of Brazil and South Africa. His articles on public engagement with science and informal learning have been published by the Nobel Foundation, the Science Museum in London and in several journals. He was a board member at the Wellcome Trust’s ReDiscover fund, and is currently a trustee of the Next Generation Foundation in London.

Director of Educational Programmes and Science Documentaries, VRT, Brussels, Belgium Mr Bijvoet’s long career working for the Flemish public broadcaster, VRT, has focused on bringing science closer to society by producing high-quality scientific documentaries and programmes aimed at mass audiences. After studying at the Flemish Film, TV and Theatre Academy in Brussels – now part of Erasmus Hogeschool – he went on to work as a freelance TV director for the public broadcaster and private production companies before moving to the educational department of VRT in 1978. Since then, he has directed science, technology and historical programmes. Since 1999, he has been working for the science documentary series OverLeven. He is a member of the Science and Educational Experts Group of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

Secretary-General of Programmes, Arte, Paris, FranceMs Blümers has held different positions in TV channels. She is currently working in the Programmes Department of the French-German cultural TV Channel ARTE which broadcasts numerous science documentaries. Before this, she was director of the channel president’s cabinet. Ms Blümers has also been in charge of development for the production company Gedeon Communications and the head of programming for the digital channels of the Canal+ group.

Former Head of the Microbiology Department at the University of Bern, SwitzerlandIn Dr Braun’s 26 years at the University of Bern’s microbiology department, he has worn many hats – professor, department head and dean of the science faculty. His research interest focused on how the genome is organised and on gene expression in parasitic protozoa. Since retiring, in 1998, he has concentrated on the interaction between science and society, in particular public perceptions of biotechnology. He has contributed, both at the national and European levels, to public dialogue in the area of biotech and the life sciences. Currently, he is a member of the Task Group on Public Perceptions on Biotechnology of the EFB (European Federation of Biotechnology).

Senior editor of the French science magazine La Recherche, FrancePresident of the French Science Journalists Association (AJSPI) in Paris, Ms Coisne is senior editor of the French science magazine La Recherche. Since completing her studies in biology, she has gained vast experience writing for the French daily La Tribune and the weekly Le Point. She has been permanent science writer for the monthly magazine for teenagers Science et Vie Junior. One of her aims is to improve the communication between scientists and journalists and to strengthen the ties between the AJSPI and equivalent European associations.

THE EXPERT PANEL

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ProfessorNuno CratoMathematics and statistics

Dr Suzannede CheveignéScience communication

Mr Sean DukeBiochemistry

Dr Michael W. EsserMedia specialist, script development

Mr Vello KalaScience media

Mathematics professor at Lisbon Technical University, PortugalDr Crato took up his current post in 2000, after eight years at the New Jersey and Stevens Institutes of Technology (USA). He is also a senior science correspondent for the Portuguese weekly newspaper Expresso and author of TV science documentaries. His research interests include stochastic processes and time-series analysis with applications to economic and financial (volatility) models, as well as to climate and fisheries data. He has a parallel interest in science writing and advising science museums, and won the 2003 European Mathematics Society prize for the best article addressing the general public, as well as an award for science communication by Visionarium (PT). He has published over 500 articles, four dozen academic papers, four books, is a member of several task forces and committees, and is currently president of the Portuguese Mathematical Society (SPM).

Researcher, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris, FranceDr de Cheveigné is actively involved in science and society dialogue through her work at CNRS and as a ten-year member of the editorial committee of the well-known scientific journal Hermès. Specialising in public perception of science, risk governance and how society relates to technology, she has taken an interest in media coverage, especially television, of biotechnology and animal-human relations. She has also studied women’s careers in science institutions. She is a member of several national and EU scientific committees looking at science communication issues. With numerous publications to her name in popular and scientific titles, as well as TV programmes, she has put her scientific knowledge and communication skills to good use in lifting the barriers between science and the public.

Editor of Science Spin, science and discovery magazine, IrelandSean Duke is joint editor and co-founder of Science Spin, which is Ireland’s first and only popular science magazine, and reports on both domestic and international scientific developments. It was set up by Mr Duke and two science journalism colleagues to fill the perceived gap that had existed for many years in Ireland in the popular reporting of science. Mr Duke has a BSc from University College Dublin, and an MA in science and environmental reporting from New York University. He has 14 years’ experience of science reporting at this stage, having started in a local newspaper, and later moving on to editorial positions. In addition to his editorial role at Science Spin he is a regular contributor to The Sunday Times and Science (AAAS) and participates in Irish national radio and television programmes.

CEO of Dramaworks GmbH, Berlin, GermanyDr Esser pursued a spectrum of media-oriented courses of study and has since made his career in editing, producing, directing and scriptwriting. He established the script department of the first German daily soap opera and has constantly combined his academic knowledge of media science with his wide work experience in documentaries and audiovisual science communication. Besides his teaching assignments at a number of German and Italian film schools, broadcasters and universities, he founded Dramaworks, an agency for scriptwriters and script development in 2000. Dr Esser has been an active consultant and evaluator on EU-funded projects in the areas of science and society, and IST, since 1998. He has initiated such projects as ESPECTS (which explores the effectiveness of scriptwriting education in Europe) and Co-Scriptor (which developed software for team-based script development).

Editor-in-chief of TM Magazine, Tallinn, EstoniaMr Kala has held his present position as Editor-in-Chief of TM Magazine since 1998. During this period, it has become the leading magazine covering popular science and mechanics in Estonia. Mr Kala was among the first in post-Communism Estonia to start an independent magazine in the transition from a state-controlled economy back in 1989 to 1991. This has provided him with wide-ranging experience in media processes in societies undergoing transformation. In just 15 years, Estonia went from being a part of the now defunct Soviet Union to becoming an EU Member State.


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Professor Jaap KleinScience communication through film, the written word, and websites

Dr Athina MarkantoniSocial scientist, European affairs, communication

Ms Virginia MercouriScience communicator

Mr Manfred MeyerEducation through the media

Former managing director, Media Centre, University of Amsterdam, The NetherlandsIn his 25 years at the University of Amsterdam, Professor Klein produced around 270 audiovisual programmes about science for universities, television and scientific institutions, such as CERN, the European particle physics laboratory, in Geneva (CH). These programmes garnered 80 awards at science festivals all over the world. He published several papers on educational technology and dissemination of science. He is secretary-general of the World Association of Medical and Health Film (WAMHF), which is connected to the World Health Organisation. WAMHF’s main objective is to promote the production, documentation, distribution and use of audiovisual productions focusing on medical science. Professor Klein is a member of the International Association of Media in Science (IAMS), which is connected to UNESCO, the UN’s education and culture arm. He is also a regular jury member at international science film festivals. He is currently working as a palaeontology fellow at the Natural History Museum of The Netherlands.

Managing director of Euroscope Ltd, GreeceDr Markantoni is a specialist in, among other things, institution building and public administration reform, and is involved in a range of EU policy-making areas, such as evaluating the research Framework Programmes, gender issues, human resources, communication, and SME development. Cutting her teeth as a researcher at Athens University working on a social policy project in Greece, she moved into the European political sphere as a trainer in EU affairs covering such topics as EU integration, EU institutions and decision-making procedures. Between 2001 and 2003, she worked as a development consultant at Planet Ernst & Young, responsible for setting up and managing the Business Acquisition Office. During this time, she conducted vocational training for senior Greek public administrators on EU issues to help them prepare for the EU presidency in 2003. She also worked as an expert on public administration reform and communication for the EU-funded project PCA II – Kyrgyzstan. From 2003 until February 2005, she was director of the International Unit at European Profiles SA. Currently, she is managing director of Euroscope Ltd.

Press officer, Publicis Consultants, BelgiumVirginia Mercouri has broad professional experience in communication and European Affairs at both the European and national levels. Currently she works for Publicis Consultants as the press contact for the Community Research and Development Information Service, CORDIS. She worked for one year in the Audiovisual Service of the European Commission, and following this as a consultant for the Communication, Enlargement and Regional DGs. She has been involved in the pre-selection, monitoring and final evaluation of EU-funded projects for the strengthening of the media and democratic institutions in the new Member States, Bulgaria and Romania. She has carried out a feasibility study for the Commission for the opening of the MEDIA II Programme for Bulgaria. Ms Mercouri started her professional career in television, as a producer of a programme for enterprising and innovative people. She has been involved in the publication of the European Dialogue magazine, and has published numerous articles in national and European media. She holds masters degrees in journalism and in European studies from the College of Europe, Bruges.

Consultant, Educational Broadcasting, Munich, GermanyBefore his retirement from active service, Mr Meyer was deputy head of the Internationales Zentralinstitut für das Jugend- und Bildungsfernsehen (International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television, IZI), a documentation and information centre at the Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation) founded in 1965. In his capacity as specialist on the role of television in out-of-school education, he gave talks in various countries and evaluated educational broadcasting projects, especially in Latin America. He organised international conferences on specific aspects of educational broadcasting and published reports and books on related subjects, including health and science education through the broadcast media and the impact of educational programmes on TV (see www.izi.de). He was a jury member, and twice president, of the former Prix Télévision Jeunesse organised by France’s national scientific research centre, the CNRS, in Paris.

THE EXPERT PANEL

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Dr Steve MillerScience communication, astronomy, planetary science

Dr Luisa MinoliEU-funded research

Mr Hanns-Joachim NeubertBiological sciences and technology

Dr Jussi NuortevaArchiving and document management, science policy and communication

Professor of Science Communication and Planetary Science, University College London, United Kingdom Since 2002, Dr Miller has been head of the Science and Technology Studies Department which covers the history and philosophy of science, as well as science communication and policy. He is co-author (with Dr Jane Gregory) of Science in Public: communication, culture and credibility (Perseus Books). Prior to joining UCL in 1986, he was a political journalist for the Labour Party in London. His science-and-society interests include the European dimension to science communication. He currently directs the FP6 project ESConet Workshops, which involves science communication trainers from 12 European countries delivering training workshops to other EU-funded research networks. Professor Miller was a member of the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council’s (PPARC) Science and Society Advisory Panel for ten years, and is now a member of the Royal Observatory Greenwich Advisory Committee. With his science hat on, he runs a group carrying out observations on and modelling of the giant planets, and is chair of PPARC’s Solar System Advisory Panel.

EU adviser and author, API Varese and INNOVARE, ItalyDr Minoli is responsible for EU projects at API Varese (The Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of the Varese Province) promoting the interests of, and providing services to, associated enterprises in the field of European research programmes, and encouraging their participation in EU-funded projects. She is the coordinator of the technical committee of INNOVARE, the magazine of the Italian Confederation of SMEs, and the author of numerous articles focused on European research.

Communications consultant, ScienceCom, Hamburg, GermanyDuring his 26 years in science journalism, Mr Neubert’s has, among other things, edited books and journals, written numerous articles for German, British and US magazines and directed documentaries. He spent most of the 1990s working as press officer for the German Ministry of Science and Technology before becoming a freelance journalist and communications consultant in such fields as biotechnology and nanotechnology. He is president of TELI, the German association of science and technology writers, and vice-president of the European Union of Science Journalists’ Associations (EUSJA). He has travelled the world lecturing and advising on science and policy, and spent five years researching marine planktology and microbiology in the northern and Baltic region. He is currently acting as mentor to Anglophone African science journalists within a two-year mentoring project organised by the World Federation of Science Journalist (WFSJ).

Director-General, National Archives Services, Helsinki, FinlandPrior to taking up his current post, in 2003, Dr Nuorteva was secretary-general of the Finnish Literature Society for three years and of the Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Culture and Society for two. A historian by trade, he has documented the history of science, especially in universities, until the 17th century and written extensively on this and other subjects in academic and popular publications. His passion for science communication shows in his career through his membership of several learned societies and scientific academies. He honed his writing skills during a four-year stint with the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) as a science journalist. He was president of the Finnish Association of Science Editors and Journalists from 2000 to 2002 and now chairs the governmental Committee for Public Information, which is central to the field of communication and non-fiction writing in Finland. He is also secretary-general of the Delegation of the Finnish Academies of Science and Letters and chairman of the organising committee of the Turku International Book Fair.


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Mr István PalugyaiMedia studies and science communication

Ms Mercè PiquerasScience communication, science editing, and science in society

Dr Olivier RetoutScience communication

Ms Magdalena Ruiz de ElviraScience journalism

Science editor, Népszabadság newspaper, Budapest, HungaryWith more than 25 years of experience in science journalism, in both printed and electronic media, Mr Palugyai is well placed to comment on the evolution of scientific communication over the decades. In addition to his editorial responsibilities on the weekly science, medicine, environment and IT pages at Népszabadság – Hungary’s leading broadsheet with a circulation of up to 160 000 – he is also president of the European Union of Science Journalists’ Associations (EUSJA) and vice-president of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ). His stated ambition in these roles is to strengthen co-operation between European science journalists and to raise the level of journalism in this field across Europe and worldwide, as well as the training of science journalism.

Science writer and communicator, Barcelona, SpainWith more than 15 years of experience as a freelancer with the Microbial Ecology Group of the University of Barcelona (ES), Ms Piqueras has also developed a career in science editing and science communication. She is staff editor of International Microbiology and a freelance science writer. She is the president of the Catalan Association for Scientific Communication (ES) and a member of the Executive Councils of the European Association of Science Editors and the Catalan Society for the History of Science and Technology (ES).She is also a member of several committees on science in society and science communication (Autonomous Government of Catalonia, City Council of Barcelona, Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation, and the Catalonia Science Week). Ms Piqueras also sits on the Women’s Council of Barcelona and has been an active member of the committees organising the Barcelona Year of Science (2007) and the European Science Open Forum 2008. She is the co-author of Walks through the scientific world of Barcelona, now into its second edition, and was awarded the prestigious Premi de Literatura Científica 2004 for her popular science book Cròniques de l’altra veritat.

Head of International Relations, Royal Belgium Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Brussels, BelgiumDr Retout created the International Relations service at RBINS in 1998. Prior to that, he was the executive director of Mediascience International, a Brussels-based scientific press agency he founded in 1989. There he created and managed VIPS, an original scientific press service which published (monthly) more than 500 scientific articles in five languages, all validated by scientific sources and edited under the sole responsibility of the chief editor. In parallel, Dr Retout has produced and directed several scientific documentaries and performed many field missions for the European Commission as an expert in communication. Since receiving his PhD in chemistry in 1984, he has been a science communication generalist. This has qualified him to assess the potential value of a product or service designed for the general public.

Head of science desk, El Pais, Madrid, SpainMs Ruiz de Elvira is a well-known Spanish journalist with an engineering background who specialises in writing about science and technology. As head of the science desk at El Pais, Spain’s leading daily newspaper, she is the editor of the prestigious weekly pages on science and technology (called Futuro). She is currently vice-president of the Spanish Association for the Communication of Science (AECC). After witnessing and reporting on events in recent history, such as the AIDS pandemic, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, the cloning of Dolly the sheep, climate change, and the advances made in astronomy, cosmology and the exploration of space, she is familiar with all aspects of international science and science communication. She is the author of Eureka (Editorial Planeta, 2000), a book on scientific advances in the 20th century, and has been awarded several prizes for scientific and technological journalism during her career of more than 20 years in the field.

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THE EXPERT PANEL

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DESCARTES SCIENCE COMMUNICATION PRIZE

Ms Šárka SpevákováScience and technology in the media

Dr Eva-Maria StreierMedia studies and production

Dr Andreas TrepteScience press relations and exhibitions

Dr Anne Katrin WerenskioldLife sciences, EU research policy

Ms Tina ZethraeusScience communication

Editor of Popularis, a science and technology programme on Czech TV, Prague, Czech RepublicMs Speváková has held her present position as editor of the TV programme Popularis (which is produced by the independent producer Herafilm) since 2003. She is responsible both for the programme’s development strategy and the contents of individual episodes. Prior to Popularis, Ms Speváková was editor of the science and technology supplement of the economic daily Hospodarske noviny. She has also worked as editor-in-chief of the chemical industry’s monthly journal Chemicky prumysl, editor of educational programming on TV Nova, and deputy editor-in-chief of the monthly technical magazine Technicky magazin. She has held other science- and technology-related positions in the print and electronic media.

Head of Press Relations, German Research Foundation, Bonn, GermanyA journalist by training, Dr Streier has an academic background in the humanities (American Studies, History and Political Science). She has spent more than 20 years in science communication as head of the Press and Public Relations Department of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The DFG serves all branches of science, including the humanities, by funding research projects and facilitating co-operation among researchers, and has an annual budget of 1.5 billion euros. It also advises parliaments and government on scientific questions and establishes contacts with the scientific community abroad.

Managing Editor of News/Press and Chief Curator of the ‘Science Tunnel’ expo, Max Planck Society (MPG), Munich, GermanyWith some 15 years spent in science communication and a background in social science, economics and humanities, Dr Trepte has built up a noteworthy career. Since 1991, he has worked at the MPG managing various programmes and projects, such as setting up 27 MP research units in eastern Germany, and preparing numerous studies and exposés about cutting-edge research and technology. As managing editor of MPG’s science news releases and website, he has written and edited a range of material relating to new findings in all disciplines of science. Recently, he was involved in setting up a new web portal and content management system for MPG. This builds on his interest in new web technology, research at the cutting edge and open access. In 2005, he initiated the ‘Science Tunnel’, a new MPG multimedia exhibition portraying the frontiers of modern science, which was exhibited very successfully in Tokyo, Singapore and Shanghai.

Head of EU Liaison Office, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, GermanyA biologist by training, Dr Werenskiold pursued a research career in developmental and cancer biology for 20 years. Accepting new challenges in science management, she then moved to the MPI in Martinsried in 2001. There she has established the EU Liaison Office, a service supporting researchers in their efforts to acquire Union research funding and the management of research projects. Her present tasks include a wide array of responsibilities, largely accommodating her passion for science communication. These range from advising scientists on funding opportunities via the coordination, writing, and/or editing of research proposals, to the coordination, scientific management, and public relations work for EU projects (Interaction Proteome, 3DEM NoE, etc.). In addition, Dr Werenskiold is active in communicating science to schools by regularly organising ‘lab days’ for pupils.

Head of Information Office, Ministry of Education, Research and Culture, Stockholm, Sweden Ms Zethraeus took up her position with the Swedish government in 2006. Prior to that, she had various positions as a journalist at the Swedish Radio, the head of media relations at Uppsala University and as a project manager at the Swedish Research Council. Her main professional goal is to stimulate the exchange between civil society and the research community. Her major initiative in this field has been the national media service ‘Expertanswer’ which helps journalists to find scientists to interview and secures the international coverage of Swedish research news. She has championed numerous activities to improve science communication and is especially interested in international co-operation and benchmarking.

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Former members of the Expert Panel:

Dr Monica Alexandru (2004) Scientific and technical project assistant, ERA-Watch, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), JRC DG

Mr Jacques-Olivier Baruch (2004) Journalist and President of the French Science Journalists Association (AJSPI), Paris, France

Dr David Boak (2005) Director of Communications at the Royal Society, London, United Kingdom

Ms Deborah Cohen (2005) Editor of Radio Science at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), United Kingdom

Ms Susan Dahl (2005) Education Specialist, Fermi National Accelarator Laboratory (Fermilab), USA

Mrs Maria Dimitrova (2004-2005) Editor at the Bulgarian National Radio Station, Sofia, Bulgaria

Mr Ismael Gaona Pérez (2004) Coordinating Editor, Grupo Joly de Información, Seville, Spain

Mr Patrice Goldberg (2004-2005) Head of the Science Team, RTBF, Brussels, Belgium

Dr André Jaumotte (2005) Emeritus Professor, Free University of Brussels, Belgium

Mrs Daniele Jörg (2004) Producer, WDR Television, Cologne, Germany

Dr Sergey Komarov (2004) Deputy Editor-in-Chief, InformNauka Science News Agency, Moscow, Russia

Mrs Jeanne Monfret (2004-2005) Project Manager, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France

Dr Andrew Moore (2005) Programme Manager for Science & Society, European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO), Germany

Dr Cornelia Munteanu (2005) Expert from the Romanian National Commission for UNESCO, Romania

Dr Vladimir Nekvasil (2005) Senior Scientist, Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physics, Czech Republic

Ms Lara Ricci (2004) Writer/Editor, Il Sole-24 Ore, Milan, Italy

Mrs Silvia Rosa-Brusin (2004) Presenter and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of ‘Leonardo’, RAI Television, Turin, Italy

Mr Walter Staveloz (2004-2005) Executive Director Ecsite, Brussels, Belgium

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René Descartes

The philosopher, mathematician and scientist René Descartes (1596-1650), also known as Cartesius, was a pioneer of the Age of Reason and was one of the key players of the European scientific revolution. Like other leading thinkers of his time, he stressed the separation of reason and faith. This meant that he could be sceptical concerning the philosophical and theological positions taken by the Church, while maintaining his Catholic faith.

He is known both as the ‘founder of modern philosophy’ due to his attempt to explore fresh philosophical avenues and the ‘father of modern mathematics’ because of the headway he made in reconciling different strands of the discipline.

Descartes believed that the world was created in such a way that its workings are amenable to human intelligence. He invented analytical geometry – which bridged the gap between algebra and geometry and paved the way for calculus – and developed a detailed account of the physical universe in terms of matter and motion.

His famous work Meditations on First Philosophy is now perhaps best remembered for the statement ‘cogito, ergo sum’ (‘I think, therefore I am’). This simple declaration was the outcome of his attempt to arrive at a fundamental set of principles that one can know as true without any doubt.

He posited that the only certainties that could be asserted with any confidence were simply the fact of doubting itself, and the inference that something exists which is doing the doubting, i.e. Descartes himself. Through a process of hyperbolic doubt and reasoning, he discarded perception as unreliable and instead admitted only scientifically and mathematically based deduction as a method.

Born in France, Descartes was the quintessential European scientist who travelled widely around Europe. Between 1620 and 1628, he spent time in Hungary, Germany, Italy and France. His most productive years were spent in The Netherlands – where he wrote Discourse on the Method, published in 1637, and other major works. There, he met the Dutch philosopher and scientist Isaac Beeckman, who sparked his interest in mathematics and the new physics, particularly the problem of falling heavy bodies.

He relocated to Stockholm in 1649 to become Queen Christina of Sweden’s teacher but died of pneumonia a year later. Like the Enlightenment scholars who followed in his footsteps, Descartes corresponded widely – most notably with the Cambridge Platonist Henry More (1614-1683) – and was one of the first people to suggest a universal language through which people of different nationalities could exchange ideas.

To think... is to be

European Commission

EUR 22418 — Six years of Descartes Prize winnersLuxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities

2006 — 72 pp. — 21.0 x 29.7 cm

ISBN 978-92-79-04905-7

SALES AND SUBSCRIPTIONSPublications for sale produced by the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities are available from oursales agents throughout the world.

You can find the list of sales agents on the Publications Office website (http://publications.europa.eu/) or you can apply for it by fax (352) 29 29-42758.

Contact the sales agent of your choice and place your order.

THE DESCARTES PRIZES

Recognising the power of knowledgeScientific excellence is paramount for Europe to succeed in the competitive environment of international research and scientific development. But is this such a new concept? Actually, no. Much of Europe’s prosperity has indeed been based on its ability to harness the potential of knowledge.

René Descartes (1596-1650) – the world-famous philosopher, mathematician and scientist – understood the power of knowledge over 350 years ago. The prize that bears his name acknowledges that science is rarely the preserve of a single brilliant mind in a single country. The sharing of ideas and means yields a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. His willingness to share his thoughts and explore relationships with his peers is a poignant metaphor for what the European Commission is trying to achieve with the prestigious yearly event, the Descartes Prizes. Winning a Descartes Prize is not meant to compensate scientists financially for their hard work, but is a token of how the European Union appreciates cross-border scientific excellence and science communication.

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