Fundamental Surfaces

After Peter Grünberg (together with Albert Fert from France) has yesterday been honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the giant magnetoresistance (GMR), which is widely applied in hard disks today, today Gerhard Ertl – on his birthday! – follows with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his fundamental research in surface chemistry, which yielded new insights in various areas such as catalytic converters, rust and ozone destruction. Congratulations!

:clap:

German research may be not that bad in general as it seems sometimes – it shouldn’t rest on these laurel’s, though, since there are other areas of research where it’s looking less “nobel”…

1 Comment

  1. jL

    Die deutsche Forschung ist tatsächlich international an dritter Stelle. Wo ich das gelesen habe und welche Faktoren in diese Rangliste eingingen, weiß ich nicht (mehr). Aber durch die Debatten in den letzten Jahren (Pisa, Abwanderung, Studiengebühren etc) hat man schon ein verfälschtes Bild von der Forschungslandschaft in Deutschland. Vor allem weil hier sehr viel Grundlagenforschung betrieben wird, die ja (laut Vorurteilen) in den USA aus finanziellen Gründen nicht so gefördert wird.

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