Current program
How does the air connect us? Answers in 630 breaths and a castle in the air
Neli Wagner & Nele-Hendrijke Lehmann
Curators of the exhibition "Air. One for all"
September 30, 2025 | 5:30 pm | Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden, Great Hall
You can only rarely see and feel it, but air connects you to the world. What you inhale now may have just been exhaled elsewhere: humans, plants and animals are in constant exchange via the air. In this lecture, we will trace some of these connections and follow the movements of the air into the past and future. Together we will build a castle in the air - we don't need any materials for this, a great imagination is all we need!
As a child, Nele wanted to be a radio presenter and Neli wanted to be a singer.
Why isn't all garbage the same?
Benjamin Schwan, M.Sc.
Research Associate at the Institute of Waste Management and Circular Economy, TU Dresden
October 21, 2025 | 5:30 pm | TU Dresden, Schönfeld lecture hall
Waste is not just waste - there are many different types! Paper, plastic, glass, organic waste or residual waste - each belongs in its own garbage can. Why? Because we can make new things out of many things: Waste paper becomes new paper, old bottles become new glasses! This is how we protect animals, plants and our environment. If we separate things properly, waste becomes treasure. But why is that? How can recycling protect our environment? What does waste have to do with climate change? And what is waste anyway?
Benjamin Schwan wanted to be a newsreader as a child.
High-tech instead of band-aids - what will the operating theater of the future look like?
Prof. Dr. StefanieSpeidel
Professor of Translational Surgical Oncology at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT/UCC) Dresden
November 04, 2025 | 5:30 pm | TU Dresden, Schönfeld lecture hall
Surgery today is a truly high-tech science. In modern operating theaters, doctors are increasingly working together with robots. These robots can perform particularly precise movements - controlled by humans and supported by artificial intelligence (AI). In her lecture, Professor Stefanie Speidel will show you how surgical robots work and how AI can be used to teach them to perform certain tasks independently. You will learn how these systems can think for themselves during an operation, provide important information or even recognize risks at an early stage. Immerse yourself in the world of digital medicine - and take a look into the operating theater of the future!
As a child, Stefanie Speidel wanted to be a detective on the Three Question Marks.
Sounding plants - what music is in a cactus?
Ulrike Gärtner, director and curator
Albrecht Scharnweber, clarinettist
Both founded the PflanzenKlangLabor Dresden.
November 11, 2025 | 5:30 pm | Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden, Great Hall
Can a cactus be a musical instrument? Can carrots, celery and leeks become a vegetable orchestra instead of a vegetable soup? Can electricity come from a potato and can we hear it?
Ulrike Gärtner and Albrecht Scharnweber from the Plant Sound Laboratory have researched how plants can sound. In the lecture, you can immerse yourself with them in the world of sounding plants and find out which sound is in which plant.
As a child, Ulrike Gärtner wanted to be a construction worker and Albrecht Scharnweber wanted to work at the post office.