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Schon Goethe äußerte in seinen letzten Lebensjahren die Hoffnung, dass es einmal möglich sein werde, auch die chemischen Prozesse in der Pflanze in einer ebenso befriedigenden Weise zu verstehen, wie ihm selbst das auf der morphologischen Ebene gelungen war (Kuhn 1988). Im... Read More

In the polarity of action and perception in chemistry the emphasis seems to be on action. Several stages in the development of the concepts of ‘Optical Activity’ and ‘Chirality’ since the 17th century show that physical experiments (actions) lead to several mathematical... Read More

Despite the very important role of chemistry in technology, civilisation and shaping our view of the world it has been neglected by philosophy and the humanities. For several reasons, it cannot be regarded as an appendix to physics and treated as such in the theory of science... Read More

The variation in colour of the human skin is mediated by the coloured substances melanin and haemoglobin, and to a lesser degree by carotene. Spectrophotometric analysis reveals that the distribution of these three pigments within the human organism is differentiated. On the... Read More

One reason for investigating medicinal plants is that it gives hints from empirical experience about their therapeutic effects. It is generally believed that this experience is obtained by chance. Thus deducing therapeutic effects from exact observation of the plant,... Read More

Through investigating the relation between light and colour, Goethe’s method of natural science is applied to the ”gestures of ideas” of modern research in physics.

In section 1 of this paper an explanation is given in some detail of how the processes of generating... Read More

The simplest arrangements of edges that give rise to the phenomenon of light diffraction are presented. Especially two of them are of particular importance. They imply two different types of optical imaging and generate diffraction patterns of opposite character. One involves... Read More

In der Schule passiert täglich Kurioses. Nicht nur im Zwischenmenschlichen, sondern auch mit dem Unterrichtsstoff selbst. Immer wieder leben im Unterrichtsgespräch meist vage und tastend formuliert - Fragen auf, welche die Lehrerinnen und Lehrer zu neuen, unkonventionellen... Read More

In Veröffentlichungen in den Elementen der Naturwissenschaft der letzten 30 Jahre spielt der Begriff der Gegenläufigkeit eine wesentliche Rolle. Jochen Bockemühl (1966, 1967) stellte beim Vergleich von Blattmetamorphosereihen mit der Ontogenese individueller Blätter eine... Read More

When teaching second year undergraduates about biochemistry, I am bound to use the language and metaphors of modern science. Nevertheless, I try not to be limited by their rigidity and endeavour to introduce concepts that are more fluid and therefore more akin to living... Read More

Based on a discovery of Haidinger, cyclic sequences of images as a result of an interplay of the optical elements analyser, transformer and polarizer are investigated. The change of the image intensity shows characteristic deviations from Malus’ law. Following a hint given by... Read More

In seinem wenig bekannten Artikel «Grundlinien einer Theorie der Farbmetrik im Tagessehen» hat Erwin Schrödinger (1920, in: Annalen der Physik 21) gezeigt, dass die Farbwahrnehmung ein Gebiet ist, in dem man auch ohne Zuhilfenahme der so genannten primären Sinnesqualitäten... Read More