Pünktlichkeit, Gastfreundschaft, Gemütlichkeit. Three German expressions all 500 young researchers traveling to Lindau should keep in their active vocabulary. How are these 500 selected anyway?

You’re unlikely to find a larger congregation of Nobel-prize winners than on the island of Lindau in southern Germany. Each year, a couple of dozen laureates from one of the four Nobel disciplines descend on Lindau’s ‘Inselhalle’ conference centre for a week of talks and discussions in the picturesque surrounds of Lake Constance. The 2009…

Who once had the opportunity to join Lindau, will never forget it and ask itself at many other conferences and meetings, why one may not succeed in creating a similar atmosphere. Most conferences are a dust-dry matter – except the evenings at the hotel bar or the special dinner. Lindau against it is a living…

A look at the program for the Lindau meetings this year indicates to me that the topics of the presentations and talks could be roughly split into three categories, by no means mutually exclusive. The kinds of topics that are covered also indicate the diversity of research that chemistry involves itself in. 1. Personal talks:…

Exactly one hundred years ago the chemist Wilhelm Ostwald received the Nobel prize for his work on the topic of catalysis. And as we see today his research work have really been pathbreaking: Without catalysts modern chemistry would not be possible. It is only logical, that catalysis also plays a major role in this year’s…

The tradition of apprenticeship has long and august roots. Through the millennia, young men and women wanting to acquire knowledge have traveled far and wide to learn at the feet of the masters of the trade. In China, India and Europe for instance, it was customary for students to travel hundreds or thousands of miles…

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a bike trip. Starting at the Rhine Falls, Europes biggest waterfall, I rode from Switzerland towards Lake Constance. For lack of a digital camera I did unfortunately not constantly take pictures of the landscape. Nevertheless there are many, many, many users on flickr who did. The lake…

Every year – always starting at the last weekend of June – the Nobel Laureates meet in Lindau at Lake Constance. This year’s meeting is all about chemistry. ScienceBlogs accompanies the conference in this blog. With live reports directly from the island hall in Lindau and with many articles about this unique scientific event. It…