Sir

Your News story “Max Planck plans double blow to chemistry” (Nature 422, 105; 200310.1038/422105a), reporting that the Max Planck Society is seriously considering closing its departments of cosmochemistry and geochemistry in Mainz, is most disturbing. Insofar as the Max Planck Society is concerned with pursuing cutting-edge scientific research programmes, such action is difficult to understand.

Research in cosmochemistry is a vital laboratory activity, linked with astrophysics and observational astronomy. It has active and strong connections to study of the early chemical evolution of the Universe, cosmology, and the Solar System's formation and evolution. Important pioneering work, both in terms of new discoveries and the development of new generations of instruments, is being carried out under the direction of Günter Lugmair and is the focus of widespread and active interest. Cosmochemistry is an intellectually and technically exciting area and will continue to be so during the next few decades.

The area of terrestrial geochemistry has grown enormously in terms of the depth of understanding of the chemical processes related to Earth's structure and dynamics and of the geophysics of Earth's thermochemical and dynamical engine. There are important new possibilities in studies of environmental geochemistry, both in measurements and in theory, that are key to understanding the migration of elements, not only in Earth's deep interior, but also in its near-surface aqueous environments. A whole new array of techniques and instrumental approaches are now being developed, some being pioneered at Mainz under the leadership of Albrecht Hofmann.

The absence of these research areas from the Max Planck Society's science programme will, in our view, have a devastating effect on the level of science in Germany and will be negative for the rest of Europe. There is no doubt that some restructuring of German research is needed for fiscal and management reasons. However, closing leading institutes that are doing vital and innovative research is an action that we must deplore.