Science often pushes back the boundaries of the known world to explore the new and make the unseen visible. In addition to a purely scientific documentation of research, sometimes images are created that feature surprisingly aesthetic forms and structures: abstract works of art from a world normally hidden to the human eye.
Each year scientists from the more than 80 Max Planck Society research institutes enter images in an annual photography competition to showcase their work. The winning pictures form the basis of a travelling exhibition that provides a fascinating glimpse into the world of science. The techniques used to create these images range from conventional photography and colored microscopic images – light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and scanning tunneling microscopy – to computer simulation. The selection shown at the exhibition on Thursday, June 12, 2014, in New York, will consist of 20 large-format images from widely varying research fields. To see more of this year’s exhibition, view the online gallery at www.images.mpg.de.
Dr. Klaus-Armin Nave, Director of the Department of Neurogenetics at the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine and Professor of Molecular Biology at Heidelberg University, will briefly introduce the Max Planck Society and its neuroscience institutes in Germany before segueing to a presentation about his own molecular neurobiology research. Dr. Nave will discuss neuron-glia interactions in the mammalian nervous system, specifically the role of myelin-forming glial cells and the genetic basis of neurological diseases, in which myelin is functionally perturbed. He will also show how new electron microscopic techniques allow us to visualize neuron-glia interactions at the nanometer scale.
Dr. Nave studied biology, physics, and chemistry at Heidelberg University in Germany. In 1987, he obtained his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego. In 1991, after postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, he became an independent research group leader at the Center for Molecular Biology Heidelberg (ZMBH). Dr. Nave was promoted to Professor of Biology at Heidelberg University in 1998. In 2000, he was recruited by the Max Planck Society to direct the Department of Neurogenetics at the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Göttingen. His research focuses on mechanisms of myelination, rodent models of human myelin diseases, and most recently, on glial support of axonal energy metabolism.
Dr. Joann Halpern, Director of the German Center for Research and Innovation (GCRI), will provide the welcome remarks and open the exhibition.
This event will take place on Thursday, June 12, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at the German Center for Research and Innovation (871 United Nations Plaza, First Avenue, btw. 48th & 49th Streets). To RSVP by June 10, click here.
Unable to attend? Follow @gcri_ny and the hashtag #ScienceArt for live tweets.
This event is co-sponsored by the German Center for Research and Innovation (GCRI) and the Max Planck Society.
