A physics student at the Faculty of Humanities

A scientist at the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology

Immersed in the natural sciences

As a student of physics, and I probably speak for my fellow students in biology and chemistry here, you start with the basics and spend the time during your degree learning everything about your science. My Bachelor’s degree was made up of lectures in experimental physics and theoretical physics with some laboratory course and programming courses in between. There was very little time for electives, unfortunately.

At the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology

Even though it was step outside my comfort zone to leave my usual surroundings at FAU Campus Erlangen (South) and to venture to the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology, I believe it’s very important for scientists like myself to think outside the box and expand their horizons. As my degree program is geared towards providing purely scientific training, I missed the contact to the outside world and the opportunity to find out what happens when science meets society. This is exactly what I have been able to explore during the seminars offered by the Chair of Science, Technology and Gender Studies.

Where science meets society

During my Master’s degree program, I have more freedom to participate in seminars outside the Department of Physics and to gain ETCS credits for my degree. With the desire to find out more about the interface between science and society, I started my search in campo, which is where I found the Chair of Science, Technology and Gender Studies led by Prof. Dr. Maria Rentetzi, which combines the sciences with their history and society. In her seminars, she discusses topics such as the history of science during the Cold War, the history of women in physics or radiation objects that wrote history.

What happens when a physics student, a history student, a sociology student and a philosophy student come together

Another three students took part in the seminar “Radiation Objects that Made History” held by Prof. Dr. Maria Rentetzi and Dr. Aske Nielsen, which enabled physics to meet history, sociology and philosophy. In our small group, we discussed topics such as the significance of objects and their materiality, the definition of a scientific object and a historical object as well as their connections to museums. The interdisciplinary nature of the seminar was especially important to me as everyone had their own view about the topics, which was influenced by their academic discipline.

Studying objects: A concept from museum and history studies

Whereas the study of objects is already well established in museum and history studies, this technique is now also being used by science historians to investigate the historical significance of objects with a connection to radiation (X-rays and radioactivity in this case).

Radiation objects that made history – the background

For a long time, scientific objects have fascinated us, caused anxiety and triggered debate and include everything from the discovery of X-rays and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the reactor meltdowns of Chernobyl and Fukushima. All these events have influenced our attitudes towards science and made scientific history. The one thing they have in common is that they can be traced back to radiation objects. But what are radiation objects exactly?

What is a radiation object?

A radiation object can be an X-ray tube that produces X-rays or a Geiger counter that measures radiation or the electricity generated by a nuclear power station. But less physical and tangible objects such as the Radiation Protection Ordinance are also radiation objects.

Radiation projection objects

After discussing radiation objects and radiation protection, in our seminar paper we were given the task of looking for unusual radiation protection objects, that is, radiation objects that provide radiation protection such as the lead aprons used in doctor’s practices for taking X-rays, for example. My objects included soap and water. They may not sound like something that protect you against radiation, but the first step of decontamination is washing with soap and water. The interesting thing here is the fact that any soap can be used, however, lukewarm water must be used. Why? Using hot water would enable radioactive material to be absorbed into the body due to the increase in blood flow, whereas if cold water is used, radioactive material can be enclosed in the pores in the skin. Hair conditioner must never be used since it can lead to radioactive material being enclosed in the hair. Other radiation protection objects include protective glasses made from lead glass invented around 1900 or the “sarcophagus” built around the destroyed nuclear reactor in Chernobyl in 1986 in order to prevent radiation from escaping and that was replaced in 2016.

The synergy of an interdisciplinary approach

What made the seminar particularly valuable to me was the small size of the group on the one hand, which made for great discussions where the participants were able to contribute their own viewpoints from the various disciplines they represented. And on the other hand, it was the interdisciplinary nature of the topics we discussed from museum studies and science history to physics – we talked about everything! Finding the connections between various subjects was something that I had not come across before in my degree programs and it was something I really enjoyed. It showed me that physics does have several connections with society that I only noticed during the seminar and that are essential for understanding the development of science in history.