Abstract The report gives a simple personal view of the 60th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting and some understandings during the seven days' trip around Germany.

Our journey started with a new email address offered and a letter of invitation in that mailbox. A magic call just a few days before Chinese Lunar New Year, it informed me about a magic moment awaits later to meet many Nobel Laureates in Lindau, a small Island in the eastern part of the Bodensee. The excitement and the sound of fireworks of celebration of a coming new year together are still vivid now. That is the Chinese saying "good things come in pairs" in real life.

 Tips: What is the 60th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting?

 The 2010 Lindau Meeting took place from June 27 till July 2. It is the 60th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting and also the 3rd interdisciplinary meeting which brought together more than 650 young researchers from around the globe with 59 Nobel Laureates from the fields of physiology or medicine, physics and chemistry. These annual meetings are being held continuously since 1951 with the great efforts of Bernadotte family of Sweden settled in Germany. Every year many Nobel Prize Winners interact with more than 500 young researchers here in Lindau. The Laureates give lectures on topics of their own choice. Panel discussions are held and students participate in more interacting way for several hours in the afternoons.

After a long time wait when cicadas flourished and indefatigably sang the song of summer, we took a 10 hours flight from Beijing to Munich. The sky was clear enough at that day for us to really dip ourselves in the scorching sunshine and enjoy the really WARM Bavaria welcome after our landing. Football was another word of first impression and it would also be along side with us during our two weeks' journey. See, Shao Jiayi (a famous football player, Fig.1) was the first Chinese we meet at Germany at the airport.

Quite different from Xiamen where I live in China, it takes much longer time for the sun descends there. We arrived at Lindau at nearly 9:30 pm and the island still glowed with sunset colors, and red wine color clouds softly floated across the sky as down below Bodensee darkens in deep blue.(Fig.2) Far away we heard ducks and their flipping on the water. A few people wandered at leisure on the bridge which connects the island and the outside. Our bus stopped in the front of Inselhalle in which the opening ceremony would be held. Our guesting hotel was also nearby that is just about 3 minutes walk distance away. You may check the meeting map via google map1 (No year). Those blue spots on the map indicate the locations of afternoon's panel discussions.(Fig.3) During the trip in Germany we were provided with an account each to have a convenient access on the Internet through WiFi connection. And it was really helpful.

The next day we registered and the then later afternoon the opening ceremony started with music playing. Yes, it started with a female musician playing a harp and a female musician playing about thirty bottles with different amount of water. While his finger gently felt the verge of the bottle, Quavers, crotchets and minims and other notes jumped out while the harp made silk of different color circled around. People in the hall quieted down and just enjoyed the pleasure of art. Art and Science were in perfect harmony here.(Fig.4)

On the next day, we gathered at the Inselhalle for the first session of the Meeting.(Fig.5) The lectures covered many different scientific fields since it was a interdisciplinary meeting. From biology and medicine to chemistry and physics, brilliant Nobel Laureates gave their passionate speeches. Educate, Inspire, and Connect, those were subjects of this meeting, and I think it really did. Humor, passion and rigorousness in their speeches and lectures impressed me a lot.(Fig.6) And there is a small tip about how one can watch their speeches even back home. Visit Lectures of Nobel Laureates on line2 (No year). We can freely download or watch those lectures on line there. You can select which year, which Nobel Laureate and which discipline, and also search topics interested to watch there. Interesting to say that some speeches were almost the same, well, but to watch a real Nobel Laureate on the stage to give the speech rather than watch a digital Nobel Laureate speaking are quite different then. Anyway thanks to the great work of Internet and the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, many more people can learn from the Laureates. For people who are interested in physics, I would recommend another website at Nature.com3 (No year). It contains the 2008 Nobel Laureate Meeting which covered only physics, and some speeches were also the quite similar. Since this year's meeting was just over, there were not many videos now to download but quite soon I believe there would be.

The afternoon's panel discussions were much more fun. Different discussions were held simultaneously. Young researchers like us could be more interactive during the discussion rather than simply listening. We could ask questions, require a more precise illustration on some specific ideas or even question some points we don't believe. There was a bonus extra of fun for the panel discussion I like, that is to locate the position of the speech. Lindau is a small island through it is not that much easy to quickly find the point of treasure. We were provided a small map of indication with much less details, and the speech may be held in a Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall), or in a Forum am See (City Forum Hall), or even in a dark theater, or in a busy hospital with nurses and doctors and patients. First I have to decide which discussion to participate, and quickly usually 15 minutes to get the location where it was held. Thanks to the WiFi connections I can use my M8 mobile phone to locate my location on the google map then quickly found the easiest way to get where I intented to go.(Fig.7)

The Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings also orginized a ball and different culture gatherings such as a concert and a barbeque during the seven days. (Fig.8)We established good relations with many young and experienced scientists from different countries. We exchanged our name cards and email-address, and I also keep in touch with them after the meeting now. I even met one of them after the meeting back home, really amazing.

On the last day of the Meeting, all of us young researchers along with the visiting Laureates enjoyed the traditional boat trip to the island Mainau. All the Laureates were present on the boat to disseminate knowledge and their lifelong experiences in their respective fields.(Fig.9) These 32 hours (to Mainau and back to Lindau) of close contacts were extremely beneficial for many active minds. The conference ended at Mainau Castle with brief speeches by a German minister, Countess Bettina Bernadotte af Wisborg(Fig.10), a young participant kind of shy and nervous though and a Laureate of chemistry.

During the meeting in Lindau, we got a chance of having face-to-face discussions and informal scientific interactions with the legends in the world of science through lectures and personal sittings for one week in the highly prestigious Meeting. We remained prominent by asking meaningful and intelligent questions during the lectures and panel discussion sessions. Well since I can only join the meeting once unless I become one of the Laureates at an old age then:-), it was much valuable for me to learn in every second there. It was one of my most precious memories in my life, and when I look back and still feel the emotion of joy and the responsibility as a Chinese scientist to develop our own country.

After the meeting we took a road trip around Germany to visit many universities and scientific facilities.(Fig.11) Also it was a culture visit to meet many different people in different cities in Germany. Different styles of buildings and personalities. We drank beer in Berlin with locals to watch the World Cup Competitions. We celebrated victories of Germany beat Argentina with people in a small village near Munich(Fig.12), and we sighed when just got Munster in time to witness the defeat of Germany vs. Spain. The proud and patriotism of its people impressed not only I see many flags of three colors on their windows but also it quietly covered a thermal experiment equipment in Dresden Low Temperature Experiment Lab(Fig.13). Science has no nationality but scientist has his own nationality. We have our own responsibility to improve our own science research as well.

In Cologne I took a trip to climb up the Cologne Cathedral on foot. Through the dark corners of the stairs I felt the same audible silence and tangible darkness in history as the young Van Loon climbed the old tower in Rotterdam. The clock of the Cathedral remain silent during my trip, the a glimpse of its dark figure reflects no light from the outside window as it was solitary all alone here during the past hundreds of years. Finally the top tourist could reach arrived suddenly. I could have a overview of the city through the fence to protect people to drop.(Fig.14) Doodles of names and blurry signatures were squeezed on the wall, many different people from different country climbed this cathedral just have a quick view or a simple content of pleasure of I had been here(Fig,15). History reveals itself during the past years of silence, and here I heard the sigh of city down below and had a comprehension of the past of the prayers.

History is the mighty tower of experience which time has built amidst the endless fields of the bygone ages. It is no easy task to reach the top of this ancient structure and get the benefit of the full view. There is no elevator, but young feet are strong and it can be done. In his book The Story of Mankind, Van Loon once wrote. It is also my favorite sentence of meditation. Science is book of reason on the tower of history, and it is my honor to try to get there to see it as well.



acknowledgments Sincere thanks to Prof. Han Jianguo and Dr. Armin Krawisch, Prof. Chen Lesheng and Prof. Zhao Miaogen. Thanks to Sino-German Center for Research Promotion for the organization to join the meeting and the travel around Germany. Thanks again to Dr. Armin Krawisch, Prof. Chen Lesheng and Prof. Zhao Miaogen for their guiding and accompaniments in Germany. And the author would like to thank the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings and the Bernadotte family that their dedication and hospitality create a international platform between Nobel Laureates and young researchers. This journey was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).

References http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=112398453237903994151.000487f679552095b7ebd

References http://www.lindau-nobel.org/LecturesOnline.AxCMS?ActiveID=1173

References http://www.nature.com/video/lindau/index.html




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