From the tiniest particles to the greatest discoveries – artificial intelligence in microscopy

To understand the bigger picture, Dr. Oliver Plümper focuses on very small things: the geoscientist studies minerals that are components of rocks. But what stories do these components tell – and how do they help us understand the secrets of our planet Earth? To find this out, Plümper relies on engineering and technology: microscopes – and artificial intelligence.

Plümper very clearly remembers the moment of decisive change in his professional life. It was in the mid-2000s while studying geosciences at the University of Münster. “When I saw atoms under a microscope for the first time, these tiniest particles that determine the big picture of planet Earth,” he says, “something just clicked. That’s when I realized: this is the field I want to work in.” His mother, by the way, tells this story a little differently. “She says that when I was a kid, I used to crawl into every hole in the ground and take a good look at everything,” Plümper reports, laughing.

Back in reality, the geoscientist is not only interested in understanding the world – but also in improving it sustainably. Intelligent microscopy and the associated technologies such as artificial intelligence are helping him to achieve this. For example, he is currently investigating underwater volcanoes in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. These hydrothermal vents spew tiny nanoparticles into the ocean. “We are currently looking at what influences these particles have on the ocean and what we can learn from them, for example for industrial production,” explains Plümper. For example, new raw materials could be researched that are created when the particles are repelled into the sea. The fascinating thing is that “the eruption of underwater volcanoes is a huge process, but what comes out in the end are tiny particles,” he says.

Earthquakes also determine part of his work. However, he says, these forces of nature are particularly difficult to study. Nevertheless, Plümper and his colleagues are tackling the issue. “Earthquakes are processes that occur inside the Earth but have an effect on us humans,” he says. “So it’s important to understand what’s going on.”

Climate change also concerns the scientist. “We’re looking at the water and carbon cycles over a long period of time,” Plümper says. He needs microscopes for that, too, because carbon is stored in tiny components: minerals. “But how is it stored and how is it released? That’s what we’re trying to find out with the help of microscopy,” Plümper explains. Another aspect in this connection is the topic of CO₂ storage: because if minerals store water inside them, why not also climate-damaging carbon dioxide? These are questions that he is investigating – and where microscopy, digitalization and AI are a great help.

He therefore sees continued relevance for his work. “It’s always important to know how the Earth works,” Plümper says, “because processes that happen inside the Earth have an effect on us humans.” Why are we here? Why is the Earth the way it is? Why are we able to live here? “The answers to all these questions are found inside the Earth,” the scientist explains. It is also these aspects that drive him. His ambition: “We need to understand the very small things in order to be able to influence the very big picture.” This is another reason why he passes on his knowledge: to the students at Utrecht University, but in the future also to his two-year-old son, to whom he wants to leave a planet worth living on.

We live from the Earth, he says: in the past from oil and gas, in the future from raw materials for renewable energies: metals that come from the Earth. “We have to mine these well and use them sustainably. We only have this one planet – our Earth,” says Plümper. On this point, he moves from the small to the large. Quite the opposite to microscopy.