The Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences and the Department of Materials Science together with the Institute of Microbiology, who share a home in the HCI building on campus Hönggerberg, will launch the festive events planned for this year. Under the title of "Materials, Molecules, Medicine, Microbes" material scientists present new developments and trends surrounding their subject, chemistry scientists explain their research with molecules, pharmacists put medicine at the centre and microbiologists describe their projects on microbes.

- The "Materials" sector is presented by the Department of Materials Science: applying, developing, modelling and recycling materials–from unscratchable surfaces to flowing polymer molecules to the memory of metals.

- Highly effective vaccines against dangerous tropical infections, nanoparticles that can function as catalysts, energy sources of the future and substances designed on the computer–these themes are presented by teams from the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (D-CHAB) under the heading of "Molecules". The same department will also be presenting the sector "Medicine", focussing on drugs.

- The Institute of Microbiology is responsible for the theme of "Microbes". The focus of this presentation is on yeast, amoeba and, at an experiment station, visitors can ascertain their own blood group with an antibody test.

Making materials: The Department of Materials offers a summary of its research.

Poster from the field of chemistry: Professor Peter Seeberger and his team demonstrate how glucose based vaccines can be used to treat tropical diseases. Picture: Susanne Reimann

The festivities in HCI building (4) have been planned to coincide with the official "Opening Day" of HCI, the 15th March, when the last two "fingers" of the HCI extension will be inaugurated and presented to Switzerland's media.

The 16th March is "Research Day", and targets, above all, scientists. The Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences has chosen the theme of "Drugs in the Postgenomic Era"; the Department of Materials calls its presentation "Materials and Life", and the Institute for Microbiology is organising a workshop on "Swiss Molecular Biology".

Thursday, the 17th March, is devoted to school classes, primarily from the vicinity, for 12 to 16 year-old pupils. With lectures, experiment stations and tours on diverse themes chemical scientists, pharmacologists, material scientists and microbiologists want to offer an insight into their research. On "History Day" (the 18th March) a bridge to history will be drawn. This will lead from historical documents from the chemistry museum and the pharmacognistic collection to old-fashioned apparatus and exhibits all the way to modern methods used in the natural sciences, which the "Information Centre Chemistry Biology Pharmaceutics" is not just offering in print, but also electronically (5).

The culmination of this first festive event will be the "Open Days" during the weekend 19th–20th March from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The programme includes around forty experimental stations, fifty touring stations and numerous lectures–including a trial lecture (on Saturday and Sunday, from approx. 4 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.).

Furthermore, HCI's indigenous population will not be neglected; a house party is planned for Friday evening (18th March). The highlight of the party is a lecture entitled "The Magic of Molecular Machines“ by David A. Leigh, Forbes Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, with musical accompaniment from Rupert Bopp from Starnberg.