© HZB/M. Setzpfandt
Thank you for a fantastic Long Night of Science!
© HZB/M. Setzpfandt
© HZB/M. Setzpfandt
© HZB/M. Setzpfandt
© HZB/M. Setzpfandt
© HZB/M. Setzpfandt
© HZB/M. Setzpfandt
© HZB/M. Setzpfandt
© HZB/M. Setzpfandt
© HZB/M. Setzpfandt
On 6 June 2026, we opened our doors once again for the Long Night of Science. With 3,100 visitors, BESSY II welcomed 500 more people than last time. We would like to thank everyone for their interest! We captured the best moments of the evening in the photo gallery.
The tour of the BESSY II accelerator was packed in many places. Lots of people stood on the bridge, marvelling at the experiments and asking plenty of questions. The hands-on experiments were once again particularly popular. There was also a crowd at the stands run by the Competence Centre for Photovoltaics, Battery Research and Protein Crystallography. The BESSY III team provided information about the new successor facility and received a great deal of positive feedback from our guests.
On Instagram there is a video with highlights from the evening.
“This is not something to be taken for granted” – Great interest in science across Berlin
“The Long Night of Science in Berlin is the largest science festival in the whole of Germany. Almost 60 institutions and many researchers are involved. We had around 30,000 visitors – that’s not something to be taken for granted. What better way to build support for science than through direct encounters?” says Dr Christina Quensel, Managing Director of the Long Night of Science Association.
The next Long Night of Science is scheduled for 19 June 2027.
- Nanosilver as an electrocatalyst for CO₂ reductionVia electrolysis, CO2 can be reduced to CO, a raw material for further chemical products such as fuels. Within the GreenQuest Project, an internation team led by HZB chemist Prashanth Menezes has now systematically investigated catalyst layers made of silver nanoparticles, varying both the size of the particles and their density. The best yield was achieved with nanoparticles with diameters of around 10 nm, which were loosely distributed. Furthermore, they demonstrated how the economic efficiency of the electrochemical cell can be enhanced by integrating an additional chemical reaction at the anode, enabling the simultaneous production of a valuable formic acid, hydrogen, and CO in one device.
- BESSY II: Evaporated perovskites in tandem solar cells improvedPerovskite-silicon tandem solar cells achieve significantly higher efficiencies than silicon solar cells on their own. One particularly attractive method is co-evaporation of the perovskite precursor molecules on top of the silicon subcell. Scientists at HZB have analysed film growth on the nanoscale at BESSY II and found a new way to improve the quality of the perovskite layer: adding a thin seed layer of caesium chloride between the two sub-cells promotes uniform perovskite growth and suppresses the formation of undesired lead iodide at the interface.
- Discover HZB at our Open Day on 28 AugustWe warmly invite you to our Open Day at the Lise Meitner Campus of the Helmholtz Centre Berlin (HZB) in Wannsee! A varied programme awaits you, featuring around 20 stations, guided tours, talks and hands-on activities for all.