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FAIR kick-off event

“Fifteen countries are now involved in this unique project,” says Prof. Jürgen Mlynek, President of the Helmholtz Association. FAIR will eventually cost around €1.2 billion, 75 percent of which will be covered by Germany, the rest being contributed by the other participating countries.

“FAIR is intended to answer some very fundamental questions of physics that up to now have been impossible to investigate experimentally,” Mlynek explains. Why protons weigh more than the three quarks they consist of, for example, is a mystery. And the powerful force that binds together the particles in the nucleus of an atom can also be examined more closely in experiments at FAIR. These will enable physicists to understand how atoms and heavy elements formed to create matter following the big bang.

NB: Press conference at 5:10 p.m. on the GSI premises, with:

• Prof. Horst Stöcker, Scientific Director, GSI

• Dr. Annette Schavan, Federal Minister of Education and Research

• Roland Koch, Minister-President of Hesse

• Representatives of cooperating countries

• Prof. Jürgen Mlynek, President, Helmholtz Association.

Further information on FAIR:

From this afternoon you can access a podcast on FAIR and an interview with its project director, Prof. Hans Gutbrod, in German and English at: http://www.helmholtz.de/de/Aktuelles/Helmholtz-Audio.html

More detailed information is available at: http://www.gsi.de/fair/index.html

The Helmholtz Association contributes to solving major challenges facing society, science and industry with top scientific achievements in six research areas: Energy; Earth and Environment; Health; Key Technologies; Structure of Matter; Transport and Space. With 26,500 employees in 15 research centres and an annual budget of approximately €2.3 billion, the Helmholtz Association is Germany’s largest scientific organisation. Its work follows in the tradition of the great natural scientist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894).

Contact for the press:

Thomas Gazlig
Dipl.-Biol./Dipl.-Journ.
Leiter Kommunikation und Medien
Berlin Office
Anna-Louisa-Karsch-Straße 2
10178 Berlin
Tel/Fax: 030 206 329-57/60
presse@helmholtz.de

Dr. Ingo Peter
Leiter der Öffentlichkeitsarbeit der GSI
Tel: 06159 71 2598
i.peter@gsi.de

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