Ramona Backhaus

“Du sollst den Wald nicht vor dem Hasen loben-You shall not praise the forest before the hare” is a thought-provoking, touching and oftentimes funny piece about forgetting, remembering, repression, and losing oneself; a play that questions what it means when a person drifts into dementia and there are no longer…

Oxide glasses are an integral part of the modern world, but their usefulness can be limited by their characteristic brittleness at room temperature. Megan Cordill et al. show that amorphous aluminum oxide can permanently deform without fracture at room temperature and high strain rate by a viscous creep mechanism. These…

Particle accelerators are often thought of as large, expensive facilities or instruments. Typically, these machines have a variety of uses from fundamental science and medical applications to manufacturing semiconductors. How can particle accelerators be reinvented and downsized by the use of advanced nano fabrication and laser technologies? Additionally, what significance…

Brian Nosek, Executive Director of the Center for Open Science (COS), is increasing openness, integrity, and reproducibility of research by challenging and changing the research culture to accelerate expansion of knowledge and discovery of solutions. COS provides infrastructure to make all research available regardless of outcome, catalyzes grassroots efforts to…

Bryan John Magoling is addressing the global issue of breast cancer, which poses a significant threat to women’s lives. His research involves using a genetic reporter called PalmGRET to label and track extracellular vesicles (EVs) in the body, revealing that EVs released by cancers promote tumor growth. By modifying the…

Climate Action Future – Falling Walls Circle Plenary Table 2023 With climate change being the most pressing challenge of our time, securing a sustainable future depends on aligning core human needs with sustainable climate solutions. Despite growing awareness and international commitments, progress in climate action has been inadequate and slow,…

PRESENTED BY Antje Venjakob NOMINATED BY Technische Universität Berlin

HOW PEER-TO-PEER WIRELESS MESH NETWORKS ARE REPLACING CENTRALISED CONNECTIVITY On 28 January 2011 the Egyptian government, after three days of massive anti-regime protests, mostly organized through social networks, switched off 93 percent of the nation’s Internet. The top-down vulnerability issue of the web was obvious: most individual users are connected…

To remove heavy metals from produced wastewater, Praise Eromosele proposes using sawdust, a natural adsorbent from wood factories, in place of the more expensive methods, ultimately creating a sawdust “cycle”.

In this Falling Walls Breakthrough Conversation, digital participants had the chance to engage in a live conversation with Laura Hassink. She talked about her role as Managing Director for STM Journals at Elsevier and the current challenges and developments in academic publishing. The interview series provided an intimate personal atmosphere,…