Fraunhofer magazine 2.2012

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Fraunhofer magazine

  • Editorial: Fit for recovery

    Just as in sport, fitness is also a prerequisite for excellent performance in the workplace. We must ensure that employees remain healthy – particularly if they are to continue working for longer in future.

  • Green Chemistry

    Petroleum is a vital raw material for the chemical industry. Yet this finite fossil resource is steadily becoming scarcer and more expensive. Biomass, which includes wood, corn starch, sugar beets and vegetable oils, provides one alternative source of carbon. Plastics, paints and fine chemicals can also be produced from by-products of the food industry, such as whey and crab shells. The research community and industry are currently developing new processes for these alternative methods, many of which have already been successfully implemented on a laboratory or pilot scale. The task now is to transfer these methods to a demonstration and industrial scale.

Information Technology

  • Acoustic perfection in the office

    Disturbing background noise often makes working in an office environment much harder – particularly in the case of telephone conferences. Above all, this affects people who suffer from hearing impairment. A team of scientists is now tackling this very problem.

  • Pictures pick up the pace

    Hundreds of programs, movies in the highest quality HD, and even in 3D — television viewers can select from an ever expanding range and ever greater quality. A refined compression mode called “H.264“ ensures that the image stream gets channeled into their living rooms without any data congestion.

International

  • Testing solar panels in the American desert

    In the U.S. state of New Mexico, researchers are testing solar modules under extreme weather conditions in a bid to improve their performance. The site was chosen because the sun shines here for longer and with greater intensity than most other places in North America. The test data from this location enable the modules’ longterm output to be established.

  • Vegetarian cutlet

    It looks like a cutlet, it‘s juicy and fibrous like a cutlet, and it even chews with the consistency of a real cutlet – but the ingredients are 100 percent vegetable. Researchers are using a new method to prepare a meat substitute that not only tastes good, but is also environmentally sustainable.

  • The battle against AIDS

    The first mobile safety laboratory to operate under biosafety level 3 conditions has been in operation in South Africa since May 2011. By cutting the time between diagnosis and the start of treatment to just one day, the mobile laboratory truck can mean the difference between life and death for AIDS patients in remote areas.

  • Bobsled runs — fast and yet safe

    They should prove a challenge for the athletes, but not put them in danger: bobsled runs have to be simulated before being built. This simulation is based on the friction levels of the runners on the ice. Now it has become possible to measure these levels accurately. These results will help build the run for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

Europe

  • Accessible browsing

    The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT develops tools that can be used to verify compliance with Web standards. Companies are only gradually beginning to discover the benefits of web accessibility.

Financial Report

  • Boost in earnings

    The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft continued to grow in 2011. Financial resources rose 12 per cent to 1.85 billion euros. Especially pleasing: earnings from businesses increased by 15 percent to 531 million euros.

Logistics

  • Protecting goods during shipping

    Whether by air, sea, truck or rail, goods have to be transported all over the world. There are many factors involved in ensuring they reach their destinations safely, one of which is choosing the right packaging. Specialist researchers are able to simulate real-life shipping conditions in the laboratory.

  • Intelligent objects

    Ever more industries are using radiofrequency identification tags. The latest examples were presented at a user conference held by the Center for Intelligent Objects under the motto “Using RFID and Friends for Success.“

  • Safer runways

    Parts often become detached from aircraft during take-off and landing — putting subsequent runway users at risk. Scientists are developing a new radar system which will make airports safer by detecting even the smallest objects on a runway.

  • Swarming and transporting

    A single ant is not particularly intelligent. However, within a community the insects are able to solve complicated tasks. Now, scientists want to use this “swarm intelligence” in logistics. Many autonomous transport vehicles are set to replace the traditional conveyor technique.

Life Sciences

  • First aid after tick bites

    They come out in the spring, and each year they spread further — ticks. Thirty percent of them transmit borrelia pathogens, the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis that can damage joints and organs. The disease often goes undetected. In the future, a new type of gel is intended to prevent an infection — if applied after a tick bite.

  • Migratory cancer cells

    Many cancer patients do not die of their primary tumor, but rather from metastases. Current study findings indicate that cells actually begin to break away from the initial tumor and travel around the body in the very early stages of the disease.

Federal President‘s Award

  • Electronics made of plastic

    The German Future Prize 2011 was won by a team comprising existing and former Fraunhofer researchers. Professor Karl Leo, Dr. Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth and Dr. Martin Pfeiffer were honored for their pioneering achievements in the field of organic electronics.