Solving puzzles, experimenting, cracking codes: In the Science Escape Room, everything revolves around artificial photosynthesis. (Photo: Astrid Eckert/TUM)
For one week, the Science Communication Lab of the Deutsches Museum was bathed in purple light – and transformed into a gateway to another world: the abandoned, mysterious research station on the fictional planet Carbonia. Anyone who stepped inside embarked on a journey into the future, following the traces of brilliant scientists to unravel the secrets of artificial photosynthesis – and to save it, because each team had only one hour to master the Escape Room.
Every day, the room filled with curious visitors: families eager to explore, school classes full of scientific curiosity, and students brimming with energy. Working in teams, they deciphered messages, carried out mini-experiments, tinkered with nanostructures, analyzed mysterious samples, and attempted to uncover the scientific findings of the missing researchers. It quickly became clear: the Science Escape Room is more than entertainment. Here, the energy and materials research of the Excellence Cluster e-conversion became tangible, immersive and, above all, playable.
The Science Communication Lab offered the perfect setting. Designed as an experimental space for new forms of science communication, it once again proved to be a place where science turns into adventure – an interactive laboratory, a stage in the middle of the museum, enriched with a strong sense of future vision.
Escape from Carbonia’s final stop: Spielwiesn
After an intensive week at the Deutsches Museum, Escape from Carbonia traveled once more beyond Munich’s city limits – to a place where playing is officially at the center: the Spielwiesn 2025 in Augsburg. Between classic board, dice and card games, Escape from Carbonia became a surprisingly popular attraction on the Science Playground. Over three days, more than 150 visitors of the games fair successfully completed the Escape Room. Time slots filled up quickly and the enthusiasm was unmistakable. Spielwiesn thus marked the ideal finale for a project that has grown so successfully within just one year and has shown: creative formats like this are a real enrichment for science communication – and simply a lot of fun!
This event also marked the final public appearance of the Escape Room in its current form. A worthy conclusion – but not a farewell. One thing is certain: Escape from Carbonia will live on from 2026 onwards. Behind the scenes, we are already working on ideas for how we can continue to offer the format – and which scientific theme might be the basis for the next Science Escape Room.
The game was developed by an interdisciplinary team of students, doctoral researchers, and science communication professionals at TUM as part of the “Hochschulwettbewerb” (University Competition) by Wissenschaft im Dialog, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the Science Year 2025 – Future of Energy.
Impression from the Science Communication Lab and Spielwiesn:
