Little scientists meet Nobel laureates

Ati Nurbaiti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Lindau, Germany   |  Wed, 07/01/2009 12:36 PM  |  World

Three-year-olds at a kindergarten here were engrossed with pipettes, oblivious of who their guest on one of their little chairs was. It was the Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, spending an afternoon at the Hoyerberg Kindergarten just across the island of Lindau, in the German state of Bavaria.

The visit was on the sidelines of the 59th annual gathering of Nobel laureates in Lindau, a lake resort district, which opened June 28. This year, the event features 23 laureates from chemistry in the rare occasion of Nobel winners' reunions, and also includes 580 young researchers from 67 countries, selected from thousands of aspirants.

It closes on July 3 across the Lake Constance, with an exhibition on water on the isle of Mainau.

Known as the scientifically inclined member of her royal family, the princess joined in the experiment of the "instable water mountain", in which the toddlers delighted in trying to squeeze the air out of the pipettes before being able to fill them with water.

Accompanied by German Nobel laureate Theodor Hansch, Sirindhorn then took notes and pictures of the children and enjoyed their singing under the apple tree outside.

The kindergarten is one of several in Germany joining the House of Little Researchers project, which was started three years ago by a research organization and the country's education and research ministry.

"Education, connection and inspiration is the theme of the annual gatherings," said Countess Betina Bernadotte, president of the Council for Nobel Laureates, adding she hoped the events would help young researchers "carry on the torch" of the Nobel winners.

Indonesia this year is represented by two researchers from the Swiss German University in Serpong, Banten. Meritocracy is increasingly the basis of selection criteria, organizers said, along with reaching out and identifying young talents from across the world.

While the US delegation of young researchers was among the largest foreign delegation, with 91 young researchers, "25 percent are of different nationalities" currently attached to US institutions, said Wolfgang Schurer, board chairman of the Foundation of Lindau Nobel Laureates Meetings.

The morning session featured 2007 laureate Gerhard Ertl. His prize finally brought recognition to the scientific work in catalysts, the process of increasing the reaction of substances, one of the key technologies considered responsible both for improving food supply through fertilizers and for reducing environmental harm from fossil fuels.

The last speaker, laureate Paul Crutz, said constraints on experiments on reducing harmful emissions "should not stop the will" to do so, even though progress so far was limited. Germany will host a conference in Bonn on climate change, prior to the UN talks on climate change in Copenhagen, aimed at renewing commitments to reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases and other harmful substances.

Ertl and three other laureates will address a panel on the role and future of chemistry in renewable energy on Tuesday.

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