May 5 marked the official opening of the new special exhibition Physics of Life as part of Technische Sammlungen Dresden's Showcases of Research series. The exhibition is a collaboration between TU Dresden’s Physics of Life Cluster of Excellence, DRESDEN-concept and the City of Dresden.

How life begins

How does a complex organism develop from a single egg cell? How is that salamanders are able to grow back lost limbs? Researchers with backgrounds in physics, biology and computer science are researching these and other questions at TU Dresden’s interdisciplinary Physics of Life Cluster of Excellence. Together, they investigate the laws of physics that enable the composition and development of living matter in cells, molecules and tissues.

The interactive Physics of Life exhibition in the Showcases of Research series invites visitors to experiment for themselves with magnetic liquids, phase separation and the construction of molecules.

Spectacular microscopic videos allow you to witness how life is organized at the most minute level, how a cell divides and how a fish embryo is formed. Large-scale images show how the interplay of molecules, cells and tissues shapes an organism, what role chance and genetic information play in this process, and how physical forces give shape to an embryo.

Clusters of Excellence, advanced technology and cutting-edge research: Dresden is one of the most important locations for scientific research in Germany.

Showcases of Research is a space where visitors can learn about the current research projects at Dresden’s institutes, as well as their objectives, methods and results. The Physics of Life exhibition and accompanying program were developed in collaboration with TU Dresden’s Physics of Life Cluster of Excellence.

Accompanying program

May 14, 2023, 2:00 pm: Lecture by scientist Alison Kickuth: “Was wir noch über Zellteilung lernen können” (“What else we can learn about cell division”)

June 30, 2023 – Dresden Science Night and July 8, 2023 – Museum Night: Tours and experiments live at the exhibition with scientists from the Physics of Life Cluster of Excellence

Physics of Life Cluster of Excellence

At the interdisciplinary Physics of Life (PoL) Cluster of Excellence, established in 2019, researchers from the fields of biology, physics, medicine and computer science are conducting research to understand the organization of life in molecules, cells and tissues and to explore which laws of physics underlie the organization of this living matter. PoL is a collaboration between researchers based at TU Dresden and the research institutes of the DRESDEN-concept network, including the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS), the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research (IPF) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR).

Exhibition dates

May 6, 2023, to May 5, 2024

Location

Showcases of Research
Technische Sammlungen Dresden
Junghansstraße 1-3, 01277 Dresden

Opening Hours

Tuesday to Friday: 9 am – 5 pm
Saturday and Sunday: 10 am – 6 pm

For more information, please visit https://www.tsd.de/en/mm

Contact:

Stefanie Düring-Schmidt
Technische Sammlungen Dresden
Public Relations
Tel.: +49 351 4887254