What the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin does
The short name for Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin is: HZB.
The HZB does research.
Many people work at HZB.
They investigate new materials.
These materials can, for example, produce electricity
when the sun shines.
Why is this research important?
We need a lot of electricity.
Today this often comes from coal or oil.
Unfortunately that is not good for the environment
and it causes many problems.
That is why we want to make electricity from
environmentally friendly sources.
For example, we can make electricity from sunlight.
For this we need good materials.
The people at HZB develop:
- Solar cells. They make electricity from sunlight.
- Batteries. They store electricity.
We want to make them even better. - New materials for mobile phones and computers.
They should need less electricity
and work faster.
How we work at HZB:
To discover new things
we work in laboratories.
There are many devices there.
In the laboratories we make small "samples".
Samples are pieces of a material
that interest us.
We examine the samples with the lab equipment.
We check if the samples work well.
We want to find out
why some materials produce more electricity than others.
The picture shows a laboratory.
©HZB / S. Grunze
There is a large round building at the HZB.
The picture shows BESSY II, a large round building.
The picture was taken by D. Laubner. ©HZB/D. Laubner
There is a facility called BESSY II.
It is pronounced: "Bessi Two".
It works like a very large magnifying glass.
With it we can look at very small things.
With very bright light
we can look inside the samples.
We can see much more with it
than with our eyes.
We learn a lot about the materials.
This helps us to make them better.
Everyone can see our results
We also need to be able to do calculations.
On the computer we calculate the results.
We also write reports about our results.
We publish the reports in a journal.
This way other researchers can read the results.
Cooperation is important.
Cooperation is
very important in a
research centre.
We talk a lot about
ideas and results
and help each other.
People with other jobs also work at HZB.
They do not do research themselves.
But they help with the research.
For example:
- They buy equipment for the laboratories.
- They help in the labs.
- They build new buildings.
You can do a vocational training.
There are 9 different jobs.
For example:
- You can learn to cook in the canteen (kitchen).
- You can work in the workshop.
- You can work in the office.
Many guests come to HZB.
Some come from Germany.
Some come from other parts of Europe or
from other countries in the world.
We help these guests.
They use the laboratories.
Or they work with the "giant magnifier" BESSY II.
At HZB there are laboratories
that other research centres do not have.
It is important
that the guests can work in
our laboratories.