News of the Year

After an intensive preparation phase and following the recommendation of the entire Kuratorium (Advisory Board), PTB has filed an application for the creation of an Innovation Center for Systems Metrology with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. This groundbreaking concept is to help PTB tackle future metrological challenges in its role as one of the world leaders in metrology. ...

PTB, together with other research partners and companies, has launched the GEMIMEG-II project in order to maintain the high quality level of the “made in Germany” label in the digitalized world, too. This project has received funding worth 12 million euros from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). Under the designation “Secure and robust calibrated measurement systems for...

Within the scope of the energy transition (or “Energiewende” in German), an intensive search for areas suitable for constructing new wind turbines is being undertaken; air navigation facilities (VORs) and new wind farms are competing for suitable locations. By means of a forecasting method developed at PTB, it is now possible to determine with much greater accuracy the extent to which wind energy...

The formats of measurement data used in new digital environments, such as the Internet of Things and cyberphysical systems, must be flawless and free of ambiguity for both people and machines alike. Digital applications such as those used in healthcare or for domestic meters would be absolutely unimaginable if the data formats used were not reliable. To this end, PTB, together with partners from...

Scientists from PTB have developed a facility for generating and testing very high DC voltages for future “power highways”. This facility is the first one worldwide that is modular and can easily be transported. This will contribute to making the power grid fit for the energy transition, as in the future, power will no longer be transported only by means of the well-established AC power technique,...

PTB in Braunschweig and the Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg hosted the 13th International Symposium on Hazards, Prevention and Mitigation of Industrial Explosions in July 2020. Instead of the planned on-site meeting, the hosts managed to organize a virtual discussion forum at short notice with 575 scientists participating from 38 countries. The large number of participants showed how...

Understanding dark matter, which makes up the major part of the matter in the universe, is one of the most important unsolved issues of physics today. It is assumed that dark matter is not evenly distributed in space, but that it concentrates in the form of lumps or layers through which the Earth can move. Researchers from France, the UK and from PTB have been investigating whether the transition...

From fundamental physics related to Einstein’s special theory of relativity to fundamentals of metrological applications in the nanometer range – the bandwidth of this year’s Helmholtz Prize is considerable. The Helmholtz Prize, which recognizes outstanding scientific and technological research for precision measurement in physics, chemistry and medicine, is awarded every second year. Three...

Within the scope of a project involving several divisions of PTB, a semi-automated bag valve mask (TaBea – short for German Teilautomatisierter Beatmungsbeutel) was developed under the auspices of Division 5 as an auxiliary ventilation device for disaster management. This development was initially prompted by the emergency situation at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The...

PTB has been working intensively on developing and metrologically characterizing single-photon sources for quantum radiometry. This has been done in collaboration with research partners in European metrology research programs (e.g. EMPIR). Within the scope of the ongoing EMPIR project titled “Single Photon Sources as New Quantum Standards” (SIQUST), a newly developed single-photon source based on...