All on board at Ulm University: around 2,000 visitors, including many families, came to the Long Evening of Science on Friday 23 May to get a taste of university life. More than 90 lectures, experiments, guided tours and hands-on activities were offered, many of which revolved around the smallest building blocks of the universe in the quantum year 2025.
How practical it would be to be a quantum particle: Then you could be in several places at once and, for example, play the musical instrument theremin and find out how a lemon battery works. The guests at the Long Evening of Science at Ulm University, on the other hand, had to make a selection from many offers last Friday evening: Immerse themselves in the world of quanta with the series of lectures "Quantum Night", this year's focus of the Long Evening? Take a guided tour of the Botanical Garden's greenhouses? Or practise how to stitch up a wound in the training hospital?
The University's scientists had come up with numerous offers, and many guests were amazed, whether they were seven or 70 years old. The large lecture hall 4/5 was packed, where the opening lecture of Quantum Night explored the question of what cats have to do with quantum physics. The same animals later played a role in explaining the properties of the "miracle material" graphene, namely as a unit of measurement: this superhero among materials is so thin and so reinforced that a one square metre graphene net can support a four-kilogram cat - and only weighs as much as a cat's whisker. Those who like to move about could literally experience what it feels like to travel at almost the speed of light: on the Einstein bicycle in an interactive computer simulation by the Albert Einstein Discovery Centre.
Hands-on technology
But of course, the Natural Sciences were not just about quantum physics: a series of lectures was dedicated to battery research in Ulm. President Professor Michael Weber celebrated the Cluster of Excellence POLiS, which will receive millions in funding for a further seven years, with those present. At a Biology booth, visitors could observe the behaviour of bumblebees and their queen up close, go on a selfie treasure hunt or extract plant DNA in the Botanical Garden. There was also plenty going on at the booths of the Faculties of Engineering, Computer Science and Psychology. Young visitors were particularly keen to get their hands on technology. From vehicle simulators and VR goggles to duels against AI in the Rush Hour game, or from educational programming games to soldering courses and electronic construction kits.
Chips developed in Ulm for 6G communication, quantum clocks for satellite navigation and highly automated demonstration vehicles were also on show. Insights into current psychologist research were provided in short presentations and science pitches. Mathematics and First choice also presented themselves confidently with material modelling and computer simulations, data analyses and the numerical secrets behind footballs and shoals of fish. As always, the Medical Faculty's offerings were extremely popular: whether it was plastering your own arm and measuring blood pressure in the training hospital, or resuscitation, which children were able to practise on mannequins.
The evening ended with cocktails and music from the Brass Twins in the Botanical Garden. The event was organised by the Marketing department of the Central University Administration, and many non-scientific employees of the University supported the researchers in implementing the event.
Further information:
Vera Löw, Marketing Department, e-mail: vera.loew(at)uni-ulm.de
Text and media contact: Christine Liebhardt, Andrea Weber-Tuckermann