German and Czech young people attended the event "Atoms - the building blocks of life".
The visit to the ETK by the 'Geo-Zentrum Zittau' on November 22 was linked to the event "Atoms - building blocks of life". Organized as an association, represented by Mr. Küpper, it offers various events on the subject of geology throughout the year. Moving the event to the ETK has already become a tradition. The target group for the event was actually supposed to be young people from the region, including young Czech people and their translator. However, the appeal in the local press also aroused the interest of many adults, so that in the end a mixed crowd of around 50 visitors had to squeeze together in the ETK seminar room. The focus of the event was to be metrological investigations of various minerals with regard to their radiation potential. Prof. Schönmuth from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, who had prepared a number of interesting experiments in advance with laboratory engineer Uwe Heidrich, was recruited to carry out and provide scientific support for this radiological investigation. As the primary target group was German and Czech young people, the focus was on practical experiments. True to the Democratic view that the best learning effects result from action-oriented comprehension. After a brief introduction to the world of atoms by Mr. Heidrich, the practical demonstrations continued immediately. Prof. Schönmuth used exciting and effective examples, which naturally aroused the interest of the many young people, with the bravest among them carrying out one or two experiments on their own.
One particularly exciting experiment involved using nitrogen (boiling point at minus 196oC) to cool a ceramic high-temperature superconductor to an extremely low temperature and then positioning it over a magnet. The so-called superconductivity, in which the electrical resistance tends towards zero, causes the superconductor to remain in a state of suspension above the magnet. As expected, it is not completely attracted by this magnet, but the magnet induces electrical currents in the superconducting material, which generate a kind of counter-magnetic field, resulting in this state of suspension. Incidentally, this is also the operating principle of a high-temperature magnetic levitation train. After heating, this force effect diminishes and the material is completely attracted to the magnet.
Further exciting experiments with liquid nitrogen followed and captured the attention of more than just the young people.
Even towards the end of the interesting event, the interest of many visitors was still unbroken and their thirst for knowledge not yet satisfied. At the beginning of the event, visitors who had already arrived (the bus with the Czech visitors was late) were given a demonstration of the cloud chamber, but now many took up the offer from the head of the ETK, Mr. Wodarczack, and had the former research reactor explained to them in an entertaining way. The event, which lasted more than two hours, was a complete success for everyone involved and some of the young people were already interested in studying engineering. The 'Geo-Zentrum Zittau' association will see this response as a nice confirmation of its work, and the university may be able to recruit new students from it, making it a win-win situation and therefore a great success for everyone involved.