No. 90

CATALYSTS OF CHANGECATALYSTS OF CHANGE

THE POLISH SCIENCE VOICE

Innovation is not necessarily about developing something com-pletely new. It is often about improving something that already

exists—to make it more efficient, less expensive or more user-friendly on the basis of someone’s talent, hard work and funds. This is the essence of many Polish inventions and innovative ideas in science and technology—in part because upgrading things that already exist is often less capital-intensive and takes less time to produce results than inventing something from scratch.

One case in point is Apeiron Synthesis, a Polish company from the southwestern city of Wrocław, which is finishing work on a project that seeks to develop a range of more efficient chemical catalysts—the substances that speed up chemical reactions. The company’s catalysts are designed to make it easier to pro-duce various new-generation drugs as well as fragrances, resin and rubber additives and polymers at a lower cost.

Apeiron Synthesis offers its catalysts to customers worldwide in powder form. It started developing them several years ago. Now it is working to upgrade them as part of a project formally entitled “Efficient Heterogeneous Catalysts for Olefin Metathesis.” Michał Bieniek, the company’s CEO who has a Ph.D. in chemical sciences, says Apeiron Synthesis has increased the efficiency of catalysts “dozens of times over” as a result of the project.

Another innovative project we report on in this issue of The Polish Science Voice is about improving something that peo-ple have done for a long time—but employing a completely new idea in the process. In simple terms, the project seeks to make life easier for drivers by sparing them problems—such as detours and traffic jams—created by workers repairing and

renovating bridges. In this project, a Warsaw-based company called Centrum Badawcze Powłok Ochronnych (CEBAPO) has undertaken to upgrade the way in which workers repair, clean and rustproof bridges. The aim is to avoid the usual situation in which bridges are closed to traffic for as long as it takes to repair them. CEBAPO has built a special water-borne renovation platform to enable renovation crews to access a bridge from the water below.

Most traditional methods of renovating and maintaining bridges require them to be either completely or partially closed to traffic. This is necessary because renovation crews use heavy-duty machinery and equipment and also need workshop and storage space. An additional problem is that many bridges do not have a separate lane for pedestrian traffic and closing them to traffic often causes problems for local residents.

“We have demonstrated that corrosion protection work can be done from the water level and that this is safe for workers,” says Malwina Wodzyńska, the project manager.

The platform designed by CEBAPO consists of six segments and can be easily transported by road. It is self-sufficient in terms of power supply because it is equipped with a power generator.

CEBAPO plans to sell its platform together with a “compre-hensive corrosion protection service” and expects the demand to run high.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

No. 90 THE POLISH SCIENCE VOICE

2

Published by WV Marketing Sp. z o. o.Publisher: Andrzej Jonas

Editors in Charge: Danuta Górecka, Witold Żygulski

Layout: Magdalena JonasAddress: Warsaw Voice S.A.

64 Księcia Janusza Street,01-452 Warsaw, Polandtel. (+48 22) 33 59 700

A publication co-financed by

THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

www warsawvoice.plvoice@warsawvoice.pl

All Rights Reserved ®

Chemical Catalysts: Magic Powder from Wrocław 3

Repairing Bridges Without Stopping Traffic 8

Cladribine: Polish Wonder Drug for Leukemia 10

Protecting with Parasites 12

Asking Questions About the Universe 14

Staying Eco-Friendly in a Body Shop 18

Adhesives Instead of Nuts and Bolts 20

Keeping Tabs on Heavy Metals 22

3

CHEMISTRY

A range of new chemical catalysts developed by Apeiron Synthesis, a company from the south-

western Polish city of Wrocław, makes it possible to more easily and economically produce a variety of new-generation drugs as well as fragrances, resin and rubber additives and polymers.

A catalyst is a substance that enables a chemical re-action or increases its rate without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change. Catalysts are indis-pensible in the production of most chemicals.

Apeiron Synthesis offers its catalysts in powder form. They must meet several conditions: above all, they cannot be too expensive. Apeiron Synthesis sells its catalysts to customers around the world.

The company started developing its products sev-eral years ago; now it is working to upgrade them. “We started out with homogeneous catalysts that dissolve in other substances in the same way sugar dissolves in wa-ter,” says company CEO Michał Bieniek, who has a Ph.D. degree in chemical sciences. “They are cheap, do their

CHEMICAL CATALYSTS: MAGIC POWDER FROM WROCŁAWA Polish company is set to revolutionize the market for the production of chemical catalysts, the substances that speed up chemical reactions.

4

job fast and can be used in small amounts.” But some customers, especially those from the pharmaceutical industry, needed substances that would not dissolve but would instead form a suspension and could be easily drained off after the reaction. These are called heterogeneous catalysts.

While various companies offer such catalysts, the problem was that those substances were not acceptable for industrial production, Bieniek says. Large amounts of them were needed to trigger a reaction and they were expensive as well, making production uneconomical. The Polish researchers undertook to change that.

"We modified both the catalyst and the medium in which it is em-bedded,” says Bieniek. “As a result, catalyst efficiency improved dozens of times over.”

The new substances produced by Apeiron Synthesis met the expecta-tions of most pharmaceutical companies.

“Our customers include companies with large research departments in the United States and Western Europe,” Bieniek says. “At the moment, we are carrying out a project together with a company that produces fragrances for perfumes and fragrance fixatives,” says Bieniek.

Production of drugs is subject to various restrictions. The final product may not contain too many heavy metals, yet catalysts are largely made

CHEMISTRY

KEY ADVANTAGES OF APEIRON SYNTHESIS’S CATALYSTS:

➤ fit for use in a broad range of temperatures (from 0 to 140 degrees Celsius)

➤ compatible with various solvents, including water

➤ easy and irreversible deposition on various solid supports—catalyst heterogenization

➤ easy cleaning of reaction mixture from residual ruthenium

➤ Most of the researchers working at Apeiron Synthesis come from academia. CEO Michał Bieniek is a chemist who completed his doctoral studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he learned how to produce catalysts un-der Prof. Karol Grela. Before they founded Apeiron Synthe-sis, Bieniek and his colleagues worked for companies in the United States and Germany on an occasional basis and found that there was a lot of interest

in catalyst production technology. Apeiron Synthesis was founded in 2009 as an academic startup. Today the company has 20 employ-ees, most of whom are based in Wrocław, where the company’s research and production department is located. Two years ago, a branch opened in Boston, Massachusetts, staffed by two employees. The company also has a representative based in Britain.

5

CHEMISTRY

Apeiron Synthesis’s catalysts have won over customers worldwide. The company offers both soluble and insoluble catalysts. The latter, which are especially useful for drug and perfume producers, have been developed thanks to financial support from Poland’s National Center for Research and Development (NCBR).

6

CHEMISTRY

of metals. In the case of Apeiron Synthesis, the metal is ruthenium, which must be removed after the reaction. If the catalysts are insoluble, it is easy to drain them off. With homogeneous catalysts, the metal is much more difficult to remove.

Insoluble catalysts are easier to remove from the post-reaction mixture. They can also be reused and are thus suitable for the production of pharmaceuticals.

“Production of a pharmaceutical consists of five to 40 synthesis stages. Many of these stages are catalytic

7

CHEMISTRY

reactions,” says Bieniek. “Production of the catalyst itself is also a multistep chemical synthesis process that con-sists of eight to 12 stages.”

Apeiron Synthesis’s catalysts have won over cus-tomers worldwide. The company offers both soluble and insoluble catalysts. The latter, which are espe-cially useful for drug and perfume producers, have been developed thanks to financial support from Po-land’s National Center for Research and Development (NCBR).

Apeiron Synthesis’s core technology is called cata-lytic olefin metathesis. The company developed it as part of the “Efficient Heterogeneous Catalysts for Olefin Metathesis” project in response to growing in-ternational demand for efficient heterogeneous cata-lysts. Metathesis is a reaction is used in the production of drugs, polymers, aromatic compounds, rubber and fuel additives and various other types of additives. Olefins are synthetic fibers used for the production of polymers such as polyethylene—the most common plastic in the world—and polypropylene.

The results of the heterogeneous catalyst project are encouraging and many companies that produce various compounds in industrial quantities have shown interest, says Bieniek. “For example, we have received an order from a major pharmaceutical com-pany in the United States,” he adds.

The project started in January 2014 and is sched-uled to run until the end of this year. Several types of catalysts have been developed as a result of the proj-ect. They differ slightly from one another because ev-ery customer has different requirements, Bieniek says.

The first catalysts are ready for use. Their develop-ment has resulted in a number of research publica-tions and patents.

The project cost about zl.2.5 million, including zl.1.7 million from the National Center for Research and De-velopment. Apeiron Synthesis contributed the rest from its own funds.

The company’s chemists have won a number of grants to finance research and development, imple-mentation, and intellectual property protection in Europe, the United States and Japan.

Karolina Olszewska

P r o j e c t c o - f i n a n c e d b y t h e E u r o p e a n U n i o n u n d e r t h e E u r o p e a n R e g i o n a l D e v e l o p m e n t Fu n d

THE TECHNOLOGY: CATALYTIC OLEFIN METATHESIS➤ Olefin metathesis is a chemical reaction in which two carbon-carbon double bonds (olefins) join with one another, forming new olefinic prod-ucts.

The story of olefin metathesis originates in the industrial laboratories of the mid-1950s when chemists at DuPont, Standard Oil and Phillips Pe-troleum reported some novel transformations—disproportionation—of olefins. A research group at Goodyear was the first to call this “transforma-tion olefin metathesis” in 1967. The intriguing re-sults obtained by these pioneers drew the attention of other researchers to the potential of this new class of reactions.

The transformation remained a laboratory cu-riosity without significance for advanced organic chemistry until well-defined homogeneous catalyst systems developed in the early 1990s, accompa-nied by corresponding research in academic lab-oratories. Today metathesis reactions are widely used for synthesis in pharmaceuticals, fragrance chemicals, pheromones, modified rubbers, lubri-cants, specialty surfactants and polymers. New olefinic products present unique opportunities; Apeiron Synthesis aims to seize these opportuni-ties and bring innovations to its customers.

Apeiron Synthesis uses both proprietary technol-ogy, which is the result of an in-house research program, and external intellectual property li-censed from leading European industrial and aca-demic partners.

Source: company website (apeiron-synthesis.com)

8

TECHNOLOGY

Designed by Centrum Badawcze Powłok Ochron-nych (CEBAPO), a Warsaw-based company that

conducts research on corrosion and protective coat-ings, the platform enables crews to access a bridge from the water below it. This makes it possible to avoid stopping traffic and creating congestion on nearby roads.

Most traditional methods of renovating and main-taining bridges require them to be either completely or partially closed to traffic. This is necessary because renovation crews use heavy-duty equipment such as power generators and compressors, in addition to cleaning devices and scaffolding. They also need workshop and warehouse space as well as quarters for workers. An additional problem is that many bridges

do not have a separate lane for pedestrian traffic. As a result, closing a bridge to traffic often causes major problems for local residents as well as for drivers af-fected by detours and slow traffic.

Some bridges are equipped with suspended main-tenance platforms. However, these are usually not designed to withstand the considerable weight of the machinery used by renovation crews. The floating water-borne platform developed by CEBAPO solves this problem.

Malwina Wodzyńska, the project manager, said ini-tially “there were many question marks: if this new method would be safe to humans, whether we would be able to spread out the equipment in such a way so that it would not sway, and if ships and motorboats

REPAIRING BRIDGES WITHOUT STOPPING TRAFFICA Warsaw company has invented a special water-borne renovation platform that makes it possible to repair, clean and rustproof bridges without closing them to traffic.

9

TECHNOLOGY

passing by would not make excessive waves, making it difficult for renovation crews to do their work.”

The floating bridge-renovation platform cost a total of zl.4.51 million to design and build in a project that began in March 2012 and ended in December 2014. The National Center for Research and Development granted zl.2.25 million to help construct and test the invention. CEBAPO picked up the rest of the tab. The Institute of Precision Mechanics in Warsaw and the AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow also contributed to the project.

“The results are very promising,” says Wodzyńska. “We have demonstrated that corrosion protection work can be done from the water level and that this is safe for workers.”

The platform can be easily transported to the site by road. It consists of six segments that are joined upon arrival into a stable floating platform. Equipment on board includes a combustion compressor unit and equipment for abrasive blasting and coating. The plat-form is also equipped with a power generator, which makes it self-sufficient in terms of power supply.

CEBAPO is still testing its innovative platform as a prototype before the invention is ready for commercial use. The company says it must first raise more funds before it launches large-scale production.

CEBAPO expects demand to run high, especially once Poland begins spending more money on regu-lating rivers nationwide. Bridges must regularly under-go anti-corrosion treatment, and the effectiveness of such work depends on the method used.

“One method used internationally for a long time is thermal spraying,” Wodzyńska says. “Structures protect-ed with it can survive up to a hundred years. In Poland, however, steel structures are most often protected with paint coatings and these are less durable.”

The main reason is money. Thermal spraying is about 30 percent more expensive than the paint coating method. Meanwhile, companies providing anti-corro-sion treatment through metalizing offer a 25-year, 50-year or even lifetime warranty. Considering value for money, it turns out that metalizing is the better choice in the long term, the project leader says, especially be-cause corrosion is not only a financial problem but also a cause of accidents that have serious consequences for people and the environment. In total, corrosion causes losses of about zl.100 billion annually in Poland, she says.

The floating platform built by CEBAPO can also be used to renovate and rustproof railroad bridges with-out stopping rail traffic, Wodzyńska says. In this case, the thermal spraying method works best, especially as it also works for metal structures such as corroded rail-road electrification systems.

“We will be selling not just the platform itself but a comprehensive corrosion protection service,” says Wodzyńska.

Usually renovation work means closing a bridge to traffic for several days, weeks or even months. It may also require scaffolding and other structures that have to be assembled on site. “In our case, we just dock our floating platform and do most of the work without dis-rupting traffic in any way,” Wodzyńska says. “Our meth-od is convenient and the cheapest out there in terms of its long-term effect.”

Karolina Olszewska

P r o j e c t c o - f i n a n c e d b y t h e E u r o p e a n U n i o n u n d e r t h e E u r o p e a n R e g i o n a l D e v e l o p m e n t Fu n d

MEDICINE

10

Since then, cladribine has been the drug of first choice in treating a form of leukemia known as hairy cell

leukemia. It is also used to help patients with lymphoid leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Leukemia, or malignant tumors of the human hemo-poietic system—the bodily system of organs and tissues involved in the production of blood, primarily the bone marrow, spleen, tonsils and lymph nodes—attacks the bone marrow and the lymphatic system. There are acute and chronic leukemias and their symptoms and course of development vary. Treatment is primarily based on chemotherapy. Bone marrow transplants are also used.

Cladribine is one of three comparable chemical compounds known as purine analogs. The two others

are fludarabine and pentostatin. All are similar to com-pounds present in the human body and used for build-ing nucleic acids—including deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA)—which participate in fundamental biological processes such as protein pro-duction. Purine analogs inhibit DNA synthesis in leuke-mic cells, causing them to die. Thanks to their properties, they are widely used as anti-cancer drugs. Purines are natural substances found in all of the body’s cells, and in many foods. They provide part of the chemical structure of human genes and the genes of plants and animals.

Researchers in Western Europe and the United States have focused mainly on the fludarabine purine analog. Cladribine was first administered in an American center

CLADRIBINE: POLISH WONDER DRUG FOR LEUKEMIAResearch on a chemotherapy drug called cladribine has won international acclaim for Polish hematologists. The story begins in the early 1980s, when Polish chemist Zygmunt Kazimierczuk developed an innovative method for the chemical synthesis of cladribine.

Prof. Tadeusz Robak

(center) and his team at

the Medical University

of Łódź

MEDICINE

11

to a patient with hairy cell leukemia, a rare form of lymphoid leukemia. The result was a remission, or temporary disappearance, of the disease. However, the cladribine synthe-sis method was expensive and complicated, even by American standards.

In the early 1980s, Kazimierczuk developed a simpler method for the chemical synthesis of cladribine while on a fellowship in the United States. He described his method in an article, and the university submitted the invention to the patent office. After coming back to Poland, the scientist modified and patented an up-dated method for the synthesis of cladribine and subsequently, together with Prof. Paweł Grieb, launched production of the drug at the Diagnosis and Therapy Development Founda-tion in Warsaw, in quantities sufficient for pre-clinical and clinical trials. Assistant professor Tadeusz Robak, then the youngest member of the pathophysiology committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences, proposed that a group of professors and clinic heads team up to con-duct a nationwide study of the drug. Today, research conducted by many centers working together is the norm, but in those days, such joint research was rare in Poland.

The Hematology Clinic in the central city of Łódź, where Robak worked, focused on researching and treating lymphoid leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The Łódź hematologists began to notch up spectacular successes in 1992, using cladribine obtained from Grieb. Their first hairy cell leukemia pa-tient treated with cladribine 20 years ago is still alive. At one point they diagnosed a relapse of the disease in him, but they administered the drug again and the disease subsided. They subsequently compared cladribine with chlorambucil, a drug routinely used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia. At the same time, American scientists were conducting a similar study, but were using fludarabine. The Polish research clearly showed that cladribine was more effective than fludarabine. It was tested in different configurations and com-binations and for different types of leukemia. In 2000, the Polish scientists published the results of their research in the American jour-nal Blood. This was the first publication that showed that the drug produced in Poland

was more effective than the standard, com-mercially available drug.

“We pressed ahead with our research on the drug for the next 20 years,” says Robak, who since 1997 has been heading the Hematology Department and Clinic at the Medical Univer-sity of Łódź, which played a leading role in this research and where most of the patients were treated. “We published our findings in interna-tionally recognized medical journals, The New England Journal of Medicine and The Journal of Clinical Oncology. Today, leading international magazines are asking us for articles. This is a great success for us.”

Cladribine is still in use around the world. Half of the publications cited on this subject are from Poland. Typically, a week-long round of treatment with the drug results in many years of health for the patient, Robak says. And if a relapse occurs the drug can be used again and produces an improvement that lasts for the next few years.

Even though it has been 25 years since it was used for the first time, cladribine is still used to treat lymphoid leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and it is the drug of first choice in treating hairy cell leukemia.

It is estimated that hairy cell leukemia af-fects four to five people per 1 million every year. This represents about 2-3 percent of all leukemia cases in adults. The average age of a patient diagnosed with the disease is 52 years. In Poland, there are around 100 cases of hairy cell leukemia a year. Hairy cell leukemia is an incurable disease that affects men four times more often than women.

In 2012, The Journal of Clinical Oncology pub-lished the findings of a Polish study focusing on the use of cladribine in acute myeloid leu-kemia. The study was by Prof. Jerzy Hołowiecki from the Medical University of Silesia in the southern Polish city of Katowice; he now works at the Institute of Oncology in nearby Gliwice. Acute myeloid leukemia accounts for 80 per-cent of all cases of acute leukemia in adults, and for 18 percent of all leukemia cases in chil-dren. The incidence of the disease increases with age. In Poland, the risk for those over 18 is 2.1 per 100,000. Men suffer from the disease significantly more often than women.

Danuta K. Gruszczyńska

F A C T F I L E

➤ Prof. Tadeusz Robak is head of the Hematology Clinic at the Medical Uni-versity of Łódź in central Poland. He is the winner of the prestigious international “Eminent Scientist of the Year 2010” award present-ed by the International Re-search Promotion Council.

Robak is a member of a number of scientific societ-ies, including the Polish So-ciety of Hematologists and Transfusiologists (PTHiT), the American Society of Hema-tology (ASH), the European Hematology Association (EHA), and the European Society of Medical Oncol-ogy (ESMO). Since 2006 he has been a member of the ESMO Faculty. In 2009 he joined the scientific board of an American foundation called the Hairy Cell Leu-kemia Consortium. He has authored and co-authored more than 500 scientific articles published in sci-ence journals included on the Thomson Reuters Master Journal List, which is com-monly referred to in Poland as the “Philadelphia List.”

MEDICINE

12

PROTECTING WITH PARASITES

Some parasites inhibit the activity of the human immune system. As a result, they can be used to fight autoimmune diseases such as asthma, allergies and lupus, says a Polish scientist, who plans to develop drugs that will affect the human immune system the same way as parasites such as the whipworm (Trichuris trichiura) and the hookworm.

The hookworm: Studies show that parasites can help patients with conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease

MEDICINE

13

In order to survive in the hu-man body, parasites had to

learn to inhibit the activity of a person’s immune system. “In the course of evolution they became our inseparable companions, teaching our immune system how not to become hyperactive,” says Piotr Bąska, Ph.D., from the

Warsaw University of Life Scienc-es (SGGW).

This mechanism worked when the living standards and sanitary and hygienic conditions of the population were not high. Para-sitic infestations were the order of the day back then. Today, es-pecially in Europe and the United States, medical science has got-ten rid of some parasites. Bąska says as a result, the human im-mune system has lost its braking mechanism, which leads to aller-gies, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease or autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, lupus and multiple sclerosis. All these conditions are caused by excessive activity of the immune system, Bąska says, and

their incidence is growing espe-cially in developed countries. In addition to health problems, they entail economic losses. “In the Eu-ropean Union, asthma and inflam-matory bowel disease alone gen-erate losses running into billions of euros a year,” Bąska says.

For this reason, doctors some-

times have little choice but to administer parasites to patients. One of the most effective para-sites is a nematode called the whipworm. This is a roundworm that causes trichuriasis when it infects a human large intestine. It is commonly known as the whip-worm because it looks like a whip with wider “handles” at the poste-rior end. Studies have shown this worm can help patients suffering from inflammatory bowel dis-ease. This is a chronic condition with bloody diarrhea, fever and other unpleasant symptoms.

Another parasite that may be used is the hookworm. This in-habits the intestines of humans and other animals and has hook-like mouth parts with which it at-

taches itself to the wall of the gut, puncturing the blood vessels and feeding on the blood.

Although clinical trials have not shown the expected effective-ness of the hookworm, this may be because only 10 worms were administered to patients during tests on humans for safety rea-sons, according to Bąska. “Such a dose may simply be too small to produce the desired therapeu-tic effect,” he says. He plans to use parasites, particularly hook-worms, in a research project to weaken the symptoms of inflam-matory bowel disease. Subse-quently he wants to check how parasites affect the human im-mune system, which biochemi-cal pathways they activate and which pathways they inhibit.

This will make it possible to de-sign modern drugs emulating the effect produced by hookworms. These would be safer for humans than parasites. “We hope to be able to isolate, and offer in the form of a pill, what’s best in hook-worms while eliminating the ad-verse effects,” says Bąska.

If someone is suffering from bloody diarrhea and life-threaten-ing asthma attacks and must con-tinually take steroids, Bąska says, the side effects of parasite-based therapy may be less burdensome than what the patient is going through every day.

At the same time, Bąska says he strongly discourages patients from taking parasites on their own. Such a “cure” can have ad-verse health effects, he says, and that’s why it should be supervised by a doctor. “People can react dif-ferently to a parasite invasion; for some it may be very dangerous,” Bąska says.

Olga Majewska

Trichuris trichiura

COSMOLOGY

Cosmology is a discipline of science that seeks an-swers to questions about how the universe has

evolved since the beginning of time, and how galaxies were formed. In short, cosmology seeks to understand the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.

Dark matter and dark energy

Scientists dealing with cosmology want to get an insight into issues such as the role of dark mat-ter and dark energy—an unknown form of energy

that is hypothesized to permeate all of space, tend-ing to accelerate the expansion of the universe, says Agnieszka Pollo, Ph.D., a Polish cosmology researcher and a former student of Juszkiewicz. “Polish cosmology is strong and we can be proud of it,” she says.

Pollo is part of an international team of researchers working on the so-called Vipers survey, which focuses on distant galaxies and is managed by Prof. Luigi Guzzo of It-aly. French and British researchers are taking part as well. A group of more than 40 scientists has been conducting ob-servations for the project since 2008, using an eight-meter

ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE UNIVERSEAn international crowd of cosmology experts descended on Warsaw in late August for a symposium on the universe, including such issues as dark matter and the evolution of galaxies. The symposium was held in honor of Polish astrophysicist Roman Juszkiewicz, a major contributor to international cosmology research who wrote nearly 100 research papers before his death in 2012. More than 70 experts presented their research projects at the event.

14

telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile.“We have already measured almost 100,000 galaxies,”

says Pollo. “We are preparing a detailed, three-dimen-sional map of the universe—the way it was 8-9 billion years ago. We are trying to answer questions about dark energy whose activity began to be visible in the universe around that time.”

In her everyday work, Pollo deals with a so-called large-scale structure of the universe. Single dots that we see as the Milky Way are each galaxies, which cre-ate a complex three-dimensional network and cluster

into groups. How did this whole structure come about? How has it evolved? These are among the puzzles that cosmology is trying to solve.

Galaxies, quasars and gravity

Prof. Ewa Łokas from the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in Warsaw, another onetime student of Juszkiewicz, started out in the area of theoretical analysis in cosmology; today she studies the shape and evolution of galaxies.

COSMOLOGY

15

F A C T F I L E➤ Prof. Roman Juszkiewicz (1952-2012) was a Polish astrophysicist whose work concerned fundamental issues of cosmology. He dealt with the theory of galaxy formation, gravitational instability and cosmic microwave background, the thermal radiation that fills the entire universe and is the remnant heat left over from the Big Bang.

Born in Warsaw, Juszkiewicz studied at Moscow State University under Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, where he graduated in 1976. In 1981, he obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Warsaw. From 1984 to 1986 he worked at the University of Cambridge and the University of Sussex in Britain; he spent 1986-1987 at the University of California at Berkeley, and 1987-1991 at Princeton. He also worked at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics and the University of Geneva.

Juszkiewicz was a professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in Warsaw. His scientific interests included the theory of gravitational instability, the origins of the so-called large-scale structure, microwave background radiation and Big Bang nucleosynthesis. He wrote nearly 100 research papers, mostly in the area of cosmology.

COSMOLOGY

16

Prof. Bożena Czerny, from the Astronomical Center, and Agnieszka Janiuk, Ph.D., from the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Center for Theoretical Physics in Warsaw, both research the role of quasars in cosmology. Qua-sars are the brightest objects in the universe. For a long time scientists had no clue as to what causes quasars to be easily seen from a distance of billions of light years despite their small size. Now there is general sci-entific consensus that a quasar is a compact region in the center of a massive galaxy surrounding a central supermassive black hole.

Meanwhile, Prof. Marek Biesiada from the University of Silesia in the southern city of Katowice focuses on what is known as gravitational lensing, a field of as-trophysical research that involves the distribution of matter (such as a cluster of galaxies) between a distant source and an observer. Gravitational lensing is based on the observation that light passing near a massive body is attracted by it. On the basis of how the light of distant sources is deformed, scientists are trying to develop theories about the distribution of dark matter in the universe.

Scientific simulations

Researchers dealing with cosmology employ a vari-ety of calculations and equations to answer such fun-

damental questions. However, not all equations can be solved in a simple way or written in a simple form. That’s where computer simulations are useful, because they can take into account more factors. Artificial uni-verses are simulated like those that emerged shortly after the Big Bang, when matter began to clump to-gether and evolve. A large part of the symposium was dedicated to simulations.

One of the world’s largest cosmological simulations is in progress at the University of Warsaw’s Interdisci-plinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM). The project, called COpernicus COm-plexio (COCO) and managed by Wojciech Hellwig, Ph.D.—who worked with Juszkiewicz at the University of Zielona Góra—seeks to answer questions about the nature of dark matter, which betrays its existence only indirectly. It does not emit light, and astronomers con-jecture about its presence on the basis of gravitational interactions with normal matter.

The University of Warsaw’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling has extensive information and IT infrastructure, including powerful computers, data processing systems and a broad spectrum of scientific software and tools. The COpernicus COmplexio project is being carried out using the center’s Boreas supercomputer.

Karolina Olszewska

COSMOLOGY

17

A huge 5,000-square-meter data management center will soon open its doors in Warsaw’s Białołęka district to help scientists predict ex-

treme weather events and to enable doctors to better adapt medical treatments to patients’ needs.

The zl.87 million center, referred to as Ocean, will be part of the University of Warsaw’s Interdisciplinary Cen-tre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling. It will collect what is known as big data—data sets so large and complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate—continually and process it for analytical needs, says Prof. Marek Niezgódka, director of the Univer-sity of Warsaw’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling.

Ocean will handle “large-scale calculations, including those related to precise weather forecasts,” says Niezgódka. The center has been collecting meteorological data for 20 years and making forecasts, but “we want to improve their quality, which is very important now that we are dealing with so many extreme weather events.”

Since 1977 the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathemati-cal and Computational Modelling has been operating the Meteo.pl online service, which has more than a million hits a day. The Ocean center’s more accurate analysis of meteorological data should lead to a better understand-ing of extreme weather events with an impact on energy, transportation and logistics. Precise weather forecasting is especially needed in areas such as renewable energy production, Niezgódka says.

The center will store and process large data sets, de-velop new applications and models, and include a labo-ratory for building computer systems. The facility will also be available to research teams from other units and insti-tutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The center is due to be completed later this year. The total cost of the project is more than zl.87 million, funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the Innovative Economy Operational Programme.

Ocean will also help develop new, more effective medi-cal treatments. Its modern infrastructure will make it pos-sible to introduce treatment methods better adapted to the needs of individual patients in what is known as per-sonalized medicine.

Bartosz Borucki, head of the visual analysis labora-tory at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, says personalized medicine is based on the precise adjustment of medical diagnoses and treatment processes to the genetic profile of a spe-cific patient.

Łukasz Bolikowski, Ph.D., head of the center’s applied data analysis laboratory, says that by enabling Polish sci-entists to work with large data sets, the facility will help them join the world’s top research teams in making breakthrough scientific discoveries. Exploration of large data sets is revolutionizing disciplines such as medicine, earth sciences, and social sciences.

Wojciech Sylwestrzak, deputy director of the Interdis-ciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, says that in today’s world scientific commu-nication takes place not only through publications in sci-entific journals, but via data sharing. The Interdisciplinary Centre runs a Virtual Science Library that provides access to vast national and international knowledge resources and plans to expand its range to include popular research data sets. It will also enable researchers to publish their own data sets.

The new data management center will house a hard-ware laboratory intended for the assembly and imple-mentation of innovative, pilot IT systems. The lab will test new solutions—including those designed for scien-tific institutions—concerning issues such as new types of power supply, for example. The laboratory will also host specialized theoretical and practical training sessions for technicians, administrators and researchers.

The center’s name is a reference to Oceanus, a divine figure in classical antiquity, believed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to be the divine personification of the sea, an enormous river encircling the world. Today, the world is surrounded by a vast amount of data in digital form.

The new data management center is intended to become an “island” for outstanding scientists and pro-fessionals to work together. The center has jobs for highly qualified computer scientists, mathematicians, physicists, and experts in nanotechnology, materials and environmental sciences, biology, medicine and sociology.

BIG DATA CENTER AND PERSONALIZED MEDICINE

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

18

Air exchange plays an important role when car bod-ies and furniture parts are painted. The method

developed by the engineers—Piotr Nikończuk, Ph.D., and Prof. Bogusław Zakrzewski from the West Pomera-nian University of Technology in the northwestern

city of Szczecin—is based on applying paint coatings while ensuring an exchange of air and the recovery of waste heat. The invention is intended for car body shops, furniture plants and companies that manufac-ture wood products.

STAYING ECO-FRIENDLY IN A BODY SHOP

Two Polish engineers have come up with a new eco-friendly and economical method for painting car bodies and furniture that ensures heat recovery and an optimal temperature throughout the process.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

19

In Poland there are about 4,500 car paint shops, and there is a huge market for their work, which can ben-efit from the new method developed by the Szczecin engineers. In 2006-2008, the number of road accidents and collisions recorded by police in Poland ranged from 436,000 to 458,000 a year. The method is also ex-pected to generate interest in the wood and furniture industry as well as other sectors where manufacturing processes include painting.

The engineers say most paint booths use three op-erating modes: spraying, drying and ventilating. In

the painting mode, the air in the booth is constantly exchanged. It is collected from the outside and pre-treated using a coarse filter. It is then heated to 20-21 degrees Celsius and fed into the paint booth using a ceiling filter. The air containing paint mist is cleaned with a “paint stop” filter and then removed from the booth via a floor canal. In the drying mode, the cham-ber temperature is from 40 to 60 degrees Celsius. After the process is completed, the booth is ventilated. The air circulation is the same as in the spraying mode ex-cept that during the ventilation stage, the air supplied to the paint booth is not heated, the engineers say.

Normally, when hot air is removed from the paint booth and fresh air is collected, large amounts of heat are lost. To recover heat, many paint shops use special devices. Ventilation systems are often equipped with recuperators, or heat exchangers, that exchange the air in layers. The air ejected from the booth is not com-pletely purified. The floor filter removes from 93 to 97 percent of the particles, according to the engineers. The rest is deposited and forms a residue that can-not be completely cleaned or is difficult to clean. This means that after about five years of intensive work, the recuperator becomes clogged up. In addition, the en-gineers explain, the paint residue formed in this way is an effective good insulator, which results in a con-tinuous decrease in the efficiency of the heat recovery mechanism. The thermal conductivity of such a resi-due is comparable to that of mineral wool.

In the method invented by Nikończuk and Zakrzewski, no residue is deposited. Moreover, the heat exchanger can be easily cleaned. Unlike with other methods, it is also possible to quickly cool the painted details and the paint booth.

In addition to providing financial savings for automo-tive companies, the invention is environmentally friend-ly. The waste heat recovered can be used to heat the building housing the paint shop. This reduces fuel con-sumption and leads to lower carbon dioxide emissions.

The inventors have secured financial support from Poland’s National Center for Research and Develop-ment (NCBR) under its Patent Plus program to patent their invention throughout Europe. Their method has also received a positive preliminary evaluation in terms of its patentability.

The new painting method developed by the Szczecin engineers has made it into the finals of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily newspaper’s Eureka! DGP competition, which seeks to promote innovative Polish technologies.

Karolina Olszewska

20

INNOVATION

The tape combines the advantages of various indus-trial adhesives, including those offered by the mar-

ket leader, U.S. giant 3M. It can replace fastening with nuts and bolts, riveting, soldering and welding.

Adhesives may be broadly divided into two classes: pressure-sensitive and structural. Pressure-sensitive adhesives bond metal and glass and can be applied at room temperature. Structural adhesives form highly durable joints that are resistant to shearing, for exam-ple. The new structural adhesive tape developed by researchers in the northwestern Polish city of Szczecin combines both qualities.

Similar tapes are made by 3M, and the production method is patented. The tape developed by the team of scientists from the Szczecin-based West Pomeranian University of Technology—working under the supervi-sion of Prof. Zbigniew Czech at the Laboratory of Ad-hesives and Adhesive Materials—is competitive with the 3M tapes.

Agnieszka Kowalczyk, Ph.D., who developed a base formula for the Szczecin tape as part of her doctoral project, says the Polish adhesive technology is a world first. Its uniqueness lies in an innovative combination of two substances that do not mix with each other, ep-oxyacrylate polymers and epoxy resin, Kowalczyk says. The formula also contains compounds that bond un-der the influence of heat or ultraviolet light.

The Polish tape is thinner than industrial tapes offered by foreign companies. It is also transparent, which makes it possible to join together glass surfaces with no visible traces left that could spoil the esthetic effect. Transpar-ent structural adhesive tapes were previously unavail-able, according to the Szczecin scientists. Another selling point is that the Polish tape has a longer shelf life. It re-tains its properties for six months in storage, while com-petitive foreign products can only be stored for a few weeks. Moreover, the Polish tape begins to bind at 140 degrees Celsius, much lower than rival tapes available on

ADHESIVES INSTEAD OF NUTS AND BOLTSPolish researchers have invented a thin, transparent structural adhesive tape that they say can safely replace conventional joining methods in today’s industry.

21

INNOVATION

the market. This means savings resulting from lower en-ergy consumption during the production process.

Such adhesive tapes are mainly used in the auto-motive industry. But the Szczecin scientists say their product could also be of interest to construction com-panies, ship and sailboat builders, furniture makers, air-craft producers and the aerospace sector.

According to the scientists, their product stands a good chance of being widely used in various industries worldwide, although this would require manufacturers to be open to introducing modifications in technologi-cal processes. For example, those who use screws to put together components need to be convinced that they would benefit from replacing them with adhesive tapes that are no less durable and reliable than conventional joining methods. Czech and Kowalczyk say their tape has passed strength tests and can safely be used in industry instead of similar products supplied by giants such as 3M.

Karolina Olszewska

KEEPING TABS ON HEAVY METALSResearchers from the West Pomeranian University of Technology in the northwestern city of Szczecin have found new ways of determining the concentrations of heavy metal ions in liquids used in industrial production.

22

ENVIRONMENT

Heavy metals are harmful pollutants and a dangerous component of waste. They may

contaminate surface, ground and waste waters as well as liquids used in industrial production. Water is most often contaminated with heavy metals such as lead, copper, mercury, cadmium and arsenic. Heavy metals do not undergo degra-dation under the influence of either chemical or microbial factors. Most are toxic. If they penetrate into the bodies of animals or humans, they may damage the liver, blood vessels, heart, nervous system and bones.

The new methods for determining the concen-trations of heavy metal ions have been developed by a team of West Pomeranian University of Tech-nology researchers led by Monika Gąsiorowska,

Ph.D., and Jacek Soroka, Ph.D. The methods are simple to use and inexpensive. They are also ac-curate and make it possible to detect even very low concentrations of heavy metals.

The new methods are intended for use in man-ufacturing plants whose products are vulnerable to contamination with heavy metals. They are also expected to attract the interest of laborato-ries monitoring environmental pollution as well as those dealing with product quality control.

The innovative methods have made it into the finals of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily newspa-per’s Eureka! DGP competition, which seeks to promote innovative and promising Polish tech-nologies.

Karolina Olszewska

23

ENVIRONMENT