Step into the accelerator! Long Night of Science on 22 June from 5 p.m. to midnight
View into the experimental hall of the X-ray source BESSY II: What are we researching here? Come along and find out! © HZB/M. Setzpfandt
A look inside the BESSY II accelerator: here the electrons orbit at almost the speed of light. © HZB/S. Steinbach
Children's programme: Making jewelry in a soldering course © HZB
This chaos in the photo should make sense? Sure - for many, many scientists from HZB, Berlin and all over the world! They come to the X-ray source BESSY II and hold their samples in its extremely bright beam of light. You can find out exactly how this works live on site during the Long Night of Science on 22 June. We invite you to marvel, ask questions and experiment!
Browse through our full programme
We have selected a few highlights here:
Tour through our X-ray source
Take a tour of our X-ray source BESSY II. Many science stations await you there, including:
- How does the BESSY II accelerator work? And what is it used for?
- What does light reveal about our substances?
- How can proteins be decoded with BESSY light? And why is this important for the development of new drugs?
- How do you generate really low temperatures? We experiment with liquid nitrogen on the topics of energy conversion, magnetism and superconductivity.
- Exciting experiments on the subject of vacuum
With renewable energies to zero emissions (selection)
Photovoltaics Competence Centre: Here we show how we develop more efficient solar materials and technologies and cooperate with industrial partners. This enables us to bring the results from the laboratory into application as quickly as possible.
The building as a power station: Building façades have large areas for generating solar power. We show what possibilities there are, how we are researching this with our real laboratory and present our advice centre for building-integrated photovoltaics.
The world of green hydrogen: How is hydrogen produced and why is it green? We show possible applications, e.g. for green chemistry, for sustainable aviation fuels or healthy and sustainable cooking fuels for developing countries.
Recycling carbon dioxide: CO2 can be captured directly from the air and stored. It can then be converted into chemicals and fuels. We are investigating how this process can be fuelled by renewable energy.
Children's programme
Come to the school lab and become a researcher! Many experiments on the subject of energy await you! Or take part in the soldering workshop and make glowing earrings to take home! (Location: BESSY II, 1st floor)
You will also find a great offer in the IRIS building (Zum Großen Windkanal 2, 12489 Berlin): There you can visit the fabulous children's laboratory (from 3 years), make and snack on sweet layers or listen to an exciting children's lecture (7 pm).
Lectures in German (BESSY II, lecture theatre)
- 6 pm: Highly efficient novel solar cells: from the basics to market maturity
- 7 pm: Green fuels: Why, why, why?
- 8 pm: Building-integrated photovoltaics - how the energy transition is coming to cities
- 9 pm: Destroying eye tumours with protons
- 10 pm: Sunny prospects: Towards zero emissions with renewable energies