Virtual visits at HZB and 360° Panorama
We now also offer virtual tours. © HZB
Many HZB laboratories do offer a 360° panorama. © HZB
Due to Corona, it is currently not possible to welcome groups of visitors at HZB and guide them through the facility. Nevertheless, we open our doors virtually for you and provide insights into research facilities and labs at HZB. Make yourself comfortable and start your own virtual tour through BESSY II. Move through 360-degree images, have a look and linger at selected stations.
BESSY II: Follow the path of light
Have you always wanted to walk through an accelerator? Then let's get started! The two tours "The Path of Light" and "The Experiment" start in the control room of BESSY II. Continue to the place where electrons race through and emit light at almost the speed of light - the storage ring tunnel. Follow the light and see how we experiment with it.
Enjoy the digital tour!
Tours Wannsee site
At the HZB Wannsee site, for example, we are investigating novel catalyst materials needed for the generation of hydrogen with sunlight or the electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into fuels. We are working on better battery systems and analyzing materials with different X-ray methods. In cooperation with the Berlin Charité, we offer eye tumor therapy with protons, which takes place at a particle accelerator. Take a look around our laboratories and discover how we do research. A blue sign in the 360° panoramas points to video clips or graphics showing important processes.
Enjoy the digital tours!
More panoramas
Some of the HZB's research facilities can be visited as 360-degree panoramas. These panoramas do not contain any explanations and are mainly available to our researchers and cooperation partners for guided tours or lectures.
- Peat as a sustainable precursor for fuel cell catalyst materialsIron-nitrogen-carbon catalysts have the potential to replace the more expensive platinum catalysts currently used in fuel cells. This is shown by a study conducted by researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and universities in Tartu and Tallinn, Estonia. At BESSY II, the team observed the formation of complex microstructures within various samples. They then analysed which structural parameters were particularly important for fostering the preferred electrochemical reactions. The raw material for such catalysts is well decomposed peat.
- Helmholtz Investigator Group on magnonsDr Hebatalla Elnaggar is setting up a new Helmholtz Investigator Group at HZB. At BESSY II, the materials scientist will investigate so-called magnons in magnetic perovskite thin films. The aim is to lay the foundations for future terahertz magnon technology: magnonic devices operating in the terahertz range could process data using a fraction of the energy required by the most advanced semiconductor devices, and at speeds up to a thousand times faster.
- The future of corals – what X-rays can tell usThis summer, it was all over the media. Driven by the climate crisis, the oceans have now also passed a critical point, the absorption of CO2 is making the oceans increasingly acidic. The shells of certain sea snails are already showing the first signs of damage. But also the skeleton structures of coral reefs are deteriorating in more acidic conditions. This is especially concerning given that corals are already suffering from marine heatwaves and pollution, which are leading to bleaching and finally to the death of entire reefs worldwide. But how exactly does ocean acidification affect reef structures?
Prof. Dr. Tali Mass, a marine biologist from the University of Haifa, Israel, is an expert on stony corals. Together with Prof. Dr. Paul Zaslansky, X-ray imaging expert from Charité Berlin, she investigated at BESSY II the skeleton formation in baby corals, raised under different pH conditions. Antonia Rötger spoke online with the two experts about the results of their recent study and the future of coral reefs.