The sociologist Mayer, who used to be a professor at Yale-University in the US, visits each and every institute of the community. There is quite a broad range from the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine to the Social Science Research Center Berlin. They all aim to be intermediaries between basic research and applied research. In Potsdam, Mayer got informed about ongoing work - for instance calculating global warming scenarios first and then using this to give advice to small island states who cannot afford research on their own. But one major concern of his was also talking to junior scientists in an intimate circle.
Their answers will not be forgotten. Mayer pulled out his notebook to write down some of the things he was told. And he didn't seem to be unhappy with what he heard.
