Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften 2025
There will be two Max Planck locations in Erlangen for the 12th Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften on October 25, 2025: Both the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) and the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin (MPZPM), which opened just under a year ago, will be participating and opening their doors to science enthusiasts. With lectures, lab tours, hands-on experiments, and “ask the researchers” sessions, our scientists will be actively engaged in making their research accessible to the public.
Interested? Then see you at the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften!
Experience how new knowledge is created – directly in our research laboratories
Take advantage of this unique opportunity and gain insights into how scientists work directly in their laboratories. Several exciting tours will take you to our high-tech laboratories at MPL and MPZPM, where you will learn about fundamental research on all aspects of the interaction between light and matter, as well as the interface between physics and medicine. Visit the research groups and state-of-the-art technology development and service units as well as core facilities.
Labtours at MPL
- 3D printing of glass
- Live fiber drawing – come up close!
- Glass melting
- Tracking life at its smallest scale – proteins and hydrogels in the laboratory
- Micro- and nanostructuring
Labtours at MPZPM
- Fighting Cancer with Evolution: How to manage dense cellular populations
- Immune cells in gastrointestinal inflammation and cancer – friends or foes?
- Touching the Invisible: on luminous cells and nanomechanical forces
- Discover the hidden world of cells
- Invisible Architects of Your Body: Watching Skin and Kidney Cells at Work
- From Microstructures to Medicine: A Lab-on-a-Chip Tour
- A laboratory window into research: How scientists study the nervous system
Learn interesting and unexpected facts in entertaining keynote speeches
Learn how our scientists are researching, mastering, and manipulating the interaction between light and matter in entertaining short talks at MPL. Interesting and unexpected facts are presented for everyone interested – from quantum communication and laser technology to nanoquantum optics and biophotonics to the use of artificial intelligence in physics.
Let our researchers at MPZPM inspire you with a whole new approach to collaboration between physics and medicine. They are investigating fundamental questions in medicine from a completely new physical perspective. Learn how these findings contribute to our understanding of living systems and can be transferred to diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
Keynote speeches at MPL
- 18:15 Photonic crystal fibers with (almost) any microstructure (Dr. Michael Frosz)
- 19:15 Exotic Phases of Matter (Prof. Flore Kunst)
- 20:15 The sound computer and quantum sound (Prof. Birgit Stiller)
- 21:15 Artificial intelligence for better quantum computers (Prof. Florian Marquardt)
- 22:00 Nanoparticles in Motion: Using Light Interference to Watch the Nanoworld (Dr. Anna Kashkanova)
Keynote speeches at MPZPM
- 18:15 How physics helps improve new cancer therapies (Dr. Jona Kayser)
- 19:15 Wrinkles welcome! How the brain gets in shape (Prof. Kristian Franze)
- 20:15 Detecting diseases in the blood (Dr. Felix Reichel)
- 21:15 Exciting news from cell culture (Dr. Sandra Diebold)
Please note: All talks will be in german language.
MPZPM: New understanding of life processes from a physical perspective
What do physicists do in medicine? The best way to find out is to try it for yourself! You will have plenty of opportunity to do so in the foyer of the research center. Visit the exhibition with hands-on experiments and exhibits. Ask the scientists directly: The researchers will explain their fields of science using concrete examples, answer your questions, and let you join in their research.
