Über kleine Teilchen und kleine Physiker:innen
I think it’s worth it to look at the little phenomena sometimes, to find the wow moments in everyday life and to ask yourself silly questions sometimes. You guessed it: The other day I had such a stupid question in my head. I was sitting in a café eating an excellent chocolate tartlet. The logical thought that came to me as I ate was: what is the food with the most calories? Does that even exist?
It’s over! Six months after submitting my doctoral thesis, 5 years after starting my doctorate, 10.5 years after my first day at university – doctor rerum naturalium! The end boss is defeated, the disputation is over! And of course, I want to share with you what this defence is all about, how I prepared for it and also how disputations can differ from one another.
It’s 8th of March and that means: it’s International Women’s Day! In Berlin, it’s even a public holiday! This year’s motto is #BreakTheBias – for a world free of stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. As a woman in physics, you can be sure that I can say something about this subject. Today, I don’t want to feed you too many numbers (there are plenty on the web), but rather tell you about my own personal experiences.
Even scientists are only human. That’s why success stories often read like a comic book: great heroes fighting for the good of humanity. From another perspective, however, it sometimes seems more like the nagging of old white men arguing over who is right. We have already seen a few examples of this: Boltzmann and Planck fighting over entropy, Thomson and Rutherford decoding the atom, Newton and the rest of the world racking their brains over the nature of light. And the Stern-Gerlach experiment, which celebrated its hundredth anniversary this month and which is a milestone of quantum physics, was ultimately the invention of a scientist who desperately wanted to be right.
Polar ice, the moon, the quantum world – what do these places have in common? There is no Wi-Fi? Possibly. It’s uncomfortable? Probably. They are uninhabited? Not at all! All these places have (allegedly) already been seen by a certain living being. Sometimes by choice, sometimes by design, sometimes by accident. What kind of creature is it that hangs around in such exotic, hostile places? It is small, chubby and it’s name: Tardigrade! In 2014, tardigrades were found in the Arctic that had been “hibernating” for over 30 years. Since a crash landing of an Israeli space probe in 2019, a few tardigrades have been lying on the moon. And according to a group of researchers, tardigrades have now also made the leap into the quantum world! But is that really true?
Santa’s gift tour is a headache for children every year: How does he manage to visit every child in the world in a single night? But Santa’s travel speed is not the only problem. I wonder: how does he know if the child whose chimney, balcony or front door he is standing in front of has been naughty or nice? Does he carry around the naughty-nice-list in paper form? Is he in radio contact with the North Pole? Or does he have a completely different method? We will ask the question: Is communication faster than the speed of light possible?
I am the German Vice-Champion in Science Slam 2021! I’m really happy and think this is a great opportunity to take you with me into the world of the Science Slam. Hopefully, I can answer some of the most frequently asked questions about Science Slam and maybe I can motivate some of you to venture on stage and share your hard-earned research with the world.
It’s been a bit quiet on my blog for the last few months, but finally I have some good news: my thesis is finished! Yippee yay, it’s done! Today I want to review the process with you, tell you about my experiences, think a bit outside the box and tell you why it’s not over yet.
Facebook surprised me this week with a reminder: seven years ago, I submitted my Bachelor’s thesis. Seven years – time flies! And almost exactly seven years later, I’ll be handing in my doctoral thesis. I’m in the absolute final sprint right now (keep your fingers crossed for me). I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for a little review: What has changed in the last seven years? What was the path like from the Bachelor’s degree, through the Master’s, into the doctoral studies, (almost) all the way to the Ph.D.? Am I really smarter now than seven years ago?
My PhD is slowly coming to an end and I thought this is the perfect time to take you to the heart of the matter. In my series “How to PhD”, I would like to show you different aspects of my life as a physics PhD student, and today I’m getting down to the nitty-gritty: What exactly does it mean to do a PhD? What exactly do I have to do to get it? And also in the context of the current #IchBinHanna debate in Germany: Is this all above board?