It could be a new, promising combination of two therapeutic approaches and a key to better combating advanced-stage cancer. Two strong partners have joined forces to explore this possibility: The biopharmaceutical and translational research institute TRON in Mainz with its highly specialized oncology research and the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt with its worldwide unique accelerator facilities and the cancer therapy with ion beams developed here. Researchers from…

Thomas Stöhlker, head of the research division for Atomic, Quantum and Fundamental Physics at GSI/FAIR, Director of the Helmholtz Institute Jena and Professor at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, receives an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). His project HITHOR has been awarded the European Union's research funding prize for established scientists. The prestigious award enables intensive research with highly-charged 229-thorium ions to pave the way for the…

The first patients were treated with heavy ions 25 years ago – whereas therapy was long limited to the head and pelvis, today tumors in the upper body, for example in the lungs, liver and pancreas, can also be treated, even though they are constantly in motion due to breathing. Some methods are already in clinical routine, other developments from the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung offer new hopes and opportunities for cancer treatment.

Since the turn of the century, six new chemical elements have been discovered and subsequently added to the periodic table of elements, the very icon of chemistry. These new elements have high atomic numbers up to 118 and are significantly heavier than uranium, the element with the highest atomic number (92) found in larger quantities on Earth. This raises questions such as how many more of these superheavy species are waiting to be discovered, where – if at all – is a fundamental limit in the…

Recently, an international research team has successfully carried out a high precision x-ray spectroscopy measurement on helium-like uranium, the simplest and heaviest many-electron atomic system. The obtained results allow, for the first time in this regime, to disentangle and to test separately high-order (two-loop) one-electron and two-electron quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects and set a new important benchmark for QED in the strong field domain. Moreover, the achieved accuracy of 37…

GSI and FAIR mourn the loss of an outstanding scientist and pioneer of nuclear physics who shaped nuclear physics research at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung for decades. The former GSI division head Professor Dr. Gottfried Münzenberg passed away on January 2, 2024 at the age of 83.

The program of the “Wissenschaft für Alle” lecture series of GSI and FAIR will continue in the first half of 2024 to offer the audience an insight into the newest findings in physics. Interested parties can either attend the event in the lecture hall of GSI/FAIR following a registration or dial into the broadcast of the event via video conference using an internet-enabled device such as a laptop, cell phone or tablet. The program will begin on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, with a talk by Dr. Haik…

Professor Christian Graeff from GSI’s Biophysics Department has been awarded the highly sought-after Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The prestigious research funding award supports a project to improve tumor therapy with a funding sum in the millions. Christian Graeff will lead this research project as principal investigator and conduct it with a corresponding team. The renowned prize also underlines the outstanding quality of...

It was both a tribute to an exceptional lifetime achievement and an encouragement for the next generation of scientists: With a solemn memorial colloquium held at the GSI/FAIR campus in Darmstadt, the GSI Biophysics department paid homage to biophysics Professor Gerhard Kraft, who passed away in March 2023. This event was combined with the annual awarding of the Christoph Schmelzer Prize to three young scientists....