How do new ideas come about? Dr. Bernd Reifenhäuser opened his presentation on innovations with this leading question. "If you really want to create something new, you have to be a little crazy," he quoted the physicist and Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr. Reifenhäuser pinpointed the human brain's tendency to stay in tried-and-tested thought paths when solving problems as the biggest obstacle to innovation. This so-called path dependency, however, can be overcome by an interdisciplinary approach. He illustrated this with the example of the universal genius Leonardo da Vinci, who became famous as a painter and sculptor, but was also an outstanding engineer and scientist. The Bauhaus also linked various disciplines, including architecture, furniture making, painting and textile design, and thus created an entirely new style.

Reifenhäuser expects a technological leap from the linking of two originally distant disciplines, namely computer technology and synthetic biology. "DNA computing will continue to evolve over the next decade and open up a completely new field," the GIP executive predicted. He sees applications in a variety of fields, including energy, pharmacology, medicine, agriculture and the environment. "All of a sudden, we have a toolbox here that we can use to fix the problems we're going to get from climate change," Reifenhäuser said. That will spark a revolution, he said, just as the Internet did.

Biochemist Karl-Heinz Friedrich, professor at the University of Jena, delved into the enormous innovation potential of synthetic biology. His lecture began with a foray through the history of genetic research, which began in 1953 with the discovery of the DNA double helix. Since then, the field of research has developed tremendously. It is now possible to equip bacteria with a completely synthetic, i.e. man-made, genome that reproduces like natural organisms. Even artificial life is no longer a utopia. "Synthetic biology can create structures and systems that do not exist in nature," Friedrich said. In the future, genetically modified bacteria would perform a variety of tasks, from breaking down toxic substances to producing artificial blood or customized immune cells that can be used to fight disease.

However, DNA can also be used to store data. Instead of in binary form, DNA encrypts information with a fourfold code that results from the four DNA bases. As a result, the data density is several thousand times higher than that of previously used digital storage media. "One gram of DNA, about a teaspoonful, could theoretically store 100 petabytes of information," Friedrich said. Another advantage is that, unlike digital storage media, DNA is very stable - as evidenced by the fact that millennia-old DNA from Neanderthals or mammoths can still be read today. Some experts believe that DNA will be a standard storage medium in about ten years.

Another example of a technology-based social innovation is the "Quantum Grid," which GIP developed and for which it holds patents in many countries. This is a decentralized power grid. Analogous to the Internet, small packets of electricity independently find their way through the lines - even in areas with different voltage or frequency, Bernd Reifenhäuser explained. In the Quantum Grid, special routers interconnect subnetworks. This means that the grid no longer requires central control and would also be open to the smallest energy producers, such as individual solar plants or wind turbines.

Such a network would be ideal for many regions of Africa where there are no nationwide power grids. "It takes about 130 days for a company in sub-Saharan Africa to get a power connection. And after that, there is no electricity for about 700 hours a year because of power outages," explained Eduard Esau of the Department of Organization and Business Management at the University of Mainz. The lack of electricity, he said, is blocking development in Africa. According to Bernd Reifenhäuser, the Quantum Grid could effectively solve the electricity problem. It would enable every village to organize its own power supply simply and reliably. New businesses, jobs and Internet connections would be created locally, and the economic situation would improve permanently.