Introduction
The annual Scientific Report of the Institute for Solid State Research of the Research Centre Jülich will from now on be published in English. The report will then be available to the international scientific community and will replace the 'IFF-Bulletin', that previously was issued by the IFF semi-annually. The Scientific Report includes therefore the information that was previously covered in the Bulletin.
This report has been prepared mainly to inform the external Scientific Advisory Board which visits the IFF yearly to advise and criticise on the work of the institute and to report on this work to the Governing Board of the Jülich Research Centre.
The report is intended to complement the formal presentations by staff members by introducing the Scientific Advisory Board to additional selected themes addressed and results obtained in the institute. Selection of a cross section of work is inevitable in view of the more than 200 publications generated by IFF members in 1998.
Nevertheless, we believe that the report gives an accurate picture of our work, and a picture that we hope will interest friends and colleagues around the world. We would of course be happy to learn of questions, feedback, support and criticism on the report, and indeed on all matters pertaining to the work programme of the institute.
All large scientific institutions are today more than ever required to justify their existence, even of institutions like IFF that continually rejuvenate themselves and remain at the scientific cutting edge, whilst taking care to avoid merely ‘following trends'. In what respect(s) does the Institute serve the tax-payer? Perhaps I may comment on this by quoting some lines of Friedrich Nietzsche's:
... Die Wissenschaft aber kennt keine Rücksichten auf letzte Zwecke, ebensowenig als die Natur sie kennt: sondern wie diese gelegentlich Dinge von der höchsten Zweckmäßigkeit zustande bringt, ohne sie gewollt zu haben, so wird auch die echte Wissenschaft, als die Nachahmung der Natur in Begriffen, den Nutzen und die Wohlfahrt der Menschen gelegentlich, ja vielfach fördern und das Zweckmäßige erreichen - aber ebenfalls, ohne es gewollt zu haben. ...
.... No less than nature itself, science recognizes no end purpose: rather, as nature inadvertently creates things of the greatest utility, so also will genuine science, the abstraction of nature, occasionally, abundantly, satisfy the needs and welfare of people and so deserve the etiquette of ‘useful’ - but similarly, without intending it to be so.
G. Eilenberger
Managing Director 1999