The Institute

Important documents and data disappear from among a research group that analyses the bottom of the deep ocean in order to gain a better understanding of what is happening with the global climate. Despite their differences, the team of three women - the well-reputed leader, the ambitious post-doctoral researcher, the inexperienced student - two men - the tech nerd and the retired professor - have always had the same goal. But now, they start suspecting each other of secretly competing with and manipulating one another. The situation is made worse by the fact that currently a journalist is writing a book about the joint work, and by increased tensions in private relationships. Is someone out to steal ideas? Does he or she intend to publish results in advance in order to embellish their own reputation? Is it an act of sabotage? Or are they all just imagining things?

Ulrike Syha employs a classical ‹whodunnit› set-up, where clues are discovered and obscured, to shine a light on the working conditions of modern science. She puts it all on display: how science fascinates and is being demonised; the pressure it is under; how it is being forced to operate along economic and capitalist lines, to the extent that it needs to prove it is of relevance for the system; the inevitably provisional nature of its results; but also, its idealism and the pure joy of making discoveries. At the same time, it becomes clear that personal relationships are far less complex than life at the bottom of the ocean.