CINSaT presents itself at the Hessentag 2018 in Korbach

With mostly sunny weather and summer-like temperatures, this year’s Hessentag in Korbach once again offered visitors an ideal opportunity to gain insights into the diverse and interdisciplinary world of nanostructures currently being researched at CINSaT. At the same time, the employees worked with great dedication to introduce interested visitors to the diverse range of degree programs at the University of Kassel and their connections to the field of nanotechnology.

CINSaT was once again represented this year at the “Hessen schafft Wissen” science initiative booth, alongside the numerous research projects of ProLOEWE—the State Initiative for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence. Hessentag is a unique event organized by the State of Hesse to make science accessible to the general public and communicate it in understandable language. To this end, a wide variety of experiments and exhibits were prepared to amaze visitors. This allowed the employees to demonstrate that the public perception of science has changed significantly over the past few years and that science communication has now become an important element.

In addition to exciting experiments, the tour of CINSaT also offered the opportunity to gain insights into the diverse and, in some cases, internationally unique degree programs—such as the degree program in Nanostructure Sciences —at the University of Kassel, with the latter being significantly supported by CINSaT’s established research priorities. The close interconnection of interdisciplinary collaboration is particularly evident in the example of the ELCH project, formerly funded by LOEWE — Electron Dynamics of Chiral Systems — which was formerly funded by LOEWE; this project gave rise to a dedicated research focus on “Chiral Systems” and recently evolved into a DFG Collaborative Research Center. The Collaborative Research Center’s current research activities on chirality were illustrated, among other things, using 3D models of handedness, the varying odor properties of molecules with the same chemical composition, and the uniform direction of rotation in snail shells.

Visitors found the experiments with liquid nitrogen, the influence of magnetic fields on magnetic fluids, and the replica of an atomic force microscope built with LEGO Mindstorms to investigate nanostructures to be particularly spectacular and engaging. The latter also sparked enthusiasm among numerous children and teenagers who had already gained some experience programming such systems at school or in their free time.