German scientist's cosy home around Rhein's banks (6)
I believe the answer is:
nernst
'german scientist's cosy' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'home around rhein's banks' is the wordplay.
'home' becomes 'nest' (a bird's home).
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'banks' suggests removing the centre (the banks are the edges of the word).
'rhein' with its middle removed is 'rn'.
'nest' placed around 'rn' is 'NERNST'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nernst that I've seen before include "Physicist" , "German chemist" .)