Here you find some short texts on colloids, sciences, and universities. This blog is closed due to my retirement.
April 6, 2021
My Research StorySome of my former scientific colleagues and friends might be interested to know how everything started and why we ended up where we were. For this reason, I decided to write this short story about my scientific background. Its highly personal and hardly complete. more...
September 2, 2020
UniversityXUniversities are conservative institutions with rigid structures. That’s no surprise, as some of them have already survived almost a millennium. But in the past, they also were forced to adapt to new situation, for example, during the reformation or the industrialization, and they are now facing such a new situation again. more...
February 5, 2018
Foreign Researchers in SwitzerlandSwitzerland is world best - namely concerning the number of foreign researchers. In 2011, the fraction of foreign researchers working in Switzerland was 57%, with close runner-ups being Canada with 47%, Australia 45%, USA and Sweden with 38% each. Why is that? more...
February 7, 2016
Van Riemsdijk effectWillem van Riemsdijk was surely one of the best scientists I ever worked with. Most of his career, he was professor of soil chemistry at the University in Wagenigen, Netherlands. Here you can find some of his views how to do science. More...
February 23, 2015
Trouble with open access to scientific literatureScientific publishing has problems. While libraries are unable to bear the ever increasing costs of journals, researchers at most universities struggle to access some of the articles they need. They are unwilling or unable to pay $50 for viewing an article, which often turns out to be useless. More...
December 30, 2014
How one can get fooled in scienceThis little story illustrates how a large group of scientists may go terribly wrong, even with a simple thing such density measurement of water. Water has a density maximum at 4°C. This fact is well established scientifically, and is taught in most introductory chemistry and physics courses, together with the amazing consequence that fish can survive winters at the bottom of lakes. More...
November 14, 2014
Order of authors on scientific publicationsEver paid any attention to the order of authors on your publications? Are you first, are you in the middle, are you last, or are you corresponding author? Would you like to pursue a career in science? If so, do consider these aspects. More...
July 10, 2014
Deciding who does science or notAt the university where I work, we had an interesting incident. This event indicated how one could stop scientific activities anywhere in the world. To carry out scientific research at a decent level one needs capable scientists, freedom to travel, laboratories, computers, and literature. Access to literature is crucial, especially to journal articles. More...
June 21, 2014
Good news for colloid science made in SwitzerlandMany researchers in colloid science would immediately agree that this topic is one of the most fascinating and important research fields. However, this view is not shared by everybody. Especially, in Switzerland, the situation is bit unique, and that's the topic to be discussed here. More...