Quantum, cows and paleoclimate – An update on my 7th semester

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Me learning in front of my laptop

LIFE STORIES Even in my seventh semester at university, I still find it difficult to find the right balance between work and relaxation. My Bachelor’s thesis is coming up soon and I’m faced with physical problems that I can’t yet imagine tackling on my own.

Christmas break 2024/25. This semester, I’ve decided to give you an early brief update on my current university life. Don’t worry, nothing bad has happened. Just the usual battle with the cold and the balance between spherical cows and half-empty ice bonus cards.

All cows are balls

I just looked at the calendar. 2/3 of the semester is already over. Once you get into university life, it somehow goes by really quickly. Christmas is four days away and to be honest: I could hardly wait for the two weeks of Christmas break.

The semester actually got off to a very relaxed start. Apart from my last compulsory course, ThePhy II (Theoretical Physics of Electrodynamics), I was able to choose my own modules this time. I opted for General Principles of Geophysics and Climate Physics, with the latter being split into two smaller seminars.

ThePhy II went quite well from the start. After I had survived ThePhy I, ThePhy II could hardly get any worse. The exercise sheets, which we handed in individually this semester and which were only supposed to contain 2 exercises (as our professor said), contained up to 4 exercises and took up 3 to 8 hours of work per week.

Yes, the exercises are annoying. Theoretical physics never quite made sense to me and the exercises are really difficult. Not impossible to do, but very math-heavy. Without ChatGPT I wouldn’t have got any further at times. The AI can’t calculate very well and you should check all the steps by hand, but if you can’t find a solution, ChatGPT is really a tool that can help you – although I would always trust solutions in books more.

The lectures are also quite okay. Our professor, who is passionate about telling the history of all theoretical physicists, has a good comment on almost everything. For example: “Dirac, he didn’t know any algebraic signs either, that’s why he invented antiparticles” or “Yes, theorists. All cows are spheres”.

I have to agree with him on the last one. Even calculating the solution of the hydrogen atom (the simplest atom of all) in spherical coordinates is incredibly complex and can only be done with various approximations. No physicist wants to calculate the moment of inertia of an asymmetrical, three-dimensional cow on a carousel. So you quickly turn them into spheres or cylinders.

Climate History for Future

Geophysics is a little closer to everyday life. Although I have to say that some professors (like our geo-professor) simply can’t teach and make learning very difficult, it can be very exciting to get to know aspects of plate tectonics and seismology in more detail. In particular, I can explicitly apply the mechanical laws I have learned to the earth.

I used to deal with climate change from time to time. The fact that so many students took to the streets for Fridays for Future seemed crazy to me. What had suddenly changed, that an issue that had never been addressed in previous years suddenly gained such a strong media presence?

In my home country, there were many climate sceptics and people who described the sudden uproar as “scaremongering”. I wanted to know what was really behind the statements, but I soon realized that my knowledge was in no way sufficient to form my own scientifically based opinion. Perhaps, I thought, I would be able to judge this problem better after my physics degree.

The big fuss about climate change has now faded. Now, after 10 weeks in the lecture Climate History of the Earth, I know that I know (almost) nothing (Socrates was right). Climate change, like most physical problems, is an incredibly complex process that simply cannot be explained in a simple thesis.

I only recently wrote my first term paper on the topic of data acquisition in paleoclimate research. Knowing the climate of the Earth’s earlier history is an important point of reference for placing today’s climate change in the context of previous natural climate processes and predicting further developments.

Paleoclimate: Temperatures of the Holocene
Temperature curves of various reconstructions of the last 12000 years during the Holocene. A stable temperature trend can be seen until about 100 years ago. The current temperature rise exceeds the temperatures of the last 125,000 years.
(Source: https://www.zamg.ac.at/cms/de/klima/informationsportal-klimawandel/klimavergangenheit/palaeoklima/12.000-jahre)

One thing is clear: current climate changes (+1°C in around 100 years) are due to the increase in man-made greenhouse gas emissions, particularly CO2, and no longer correspond to natural climate fluctuations. Climate researchers are now even talking about a new geological era, the so-called “Anthropocene” (from the Greek “anthropos” – human).

Research matters

Climate and geophysics remind me that there is still descriptive physics. Once you have worked through mechanics in the first semester, physics becomes more and more abstract. Who can imagine what electromagnetic waves really are? I can listen to the radio and watch TV with their help, but I’ve never been able to observe the waves themselves.

It gets even worse at the quantum level or in solid-state physics. Ultra-small particles that move on ultra-fast time scales. Light particles, called photons, move at around 1,080,000,000 km/h. Visualizing this is pure mind boggling.

It’s just a shame that I’ve chosen such an abstract subject area for my bachelor’s thesis. I’m going to hit gold-palladium particles with laser beams and transfer thermal energy to the tiny nanoparticles. This process is also known as “photoheating”.

I recently met the supervisor of my Bachelor’s thesis. He gave me a rough explanation of the basic terms and showed me around the lab where I’ll be doing research for the next few months. “Research” – that sounds really cool, but also scary. I don’t even want to know how expensive all the equipment in the lab is.

I don’t yet know how I will like researching a current research topic in physics. I hope so, because research will also play a major role in my physics master’s degree – and perhaps my entire career as a physicist. In the meantime, after some time getting used to this novel task, I am quite confident.

I’ve received an article with the latest results from my research group on this topic, so I’ll be able to read up on it in January. I will then be in the lab in the following months. If all goes well, I will have completed my Bachelor’s thesis and therefore my Bachelor’s degree in May.

Easier said than done, as I still have the usual lectures and exams to attend as well as a block seminar. But I don’t want to concentrate too much on the coming months yet, because it’s actually the vacations and I should use them to relax.

Mona Lisa jigsaw puzzle and ice cream bonus cards

During this semester, I made sure to use as much of my free time as possible for things other than university. In the end, the lengthy preparatory work hardly brings me any added value, except that I’m just all the more stressed.

Sunset over the fields
Break from university

Unfortunately, I had to stop playing volleyball due to an injury, but I still go to my dance company training regularly and take every opportunity to get to know my fellow dancers on a more personal level. Just last week, we had our Christmas party together and exchanged all sorts of things between a new Mona Lisa jigsaw puzzle and an ice cream bonus card that we had started (which I got, of course …).

I go to the canteen regularly, as I have done for the last two semesters, and enjoy the short university breaks there. When it suits my timetable, I arrange to meet up with others. Unfortunately, this has become less frequent because I’m doing all my modules on my own due to my timetable deviating from the standard study plan. I really hope that I’ll be able to make more contact with fellow students again during my Master’s degree.

I find it increasingly difficult to stay active in the winter semester. When I get up at 7 a.m. on a Monday morning to cycle to university in the 5°C cold, it’s usually still dark. The only advantage after the outward journey is that you’re awake and focused in class (and sweaty, but I wouldn’t call that an advantage …).

I then spend Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at the university until 4pm and cycle home – again in the dark. I’m often really exhausted by then, which is why I hardly feel like doing the planned sports sessions. Sometimes I skip them for that reason. But if I decide to go through with it anyway, I feel like I’ve achieved something physically and mentally that day and that’s a good feeling.

Luckily, I don’t have to go to university on Wednesdays and Fridays. These days are then used for anything else I haven’t managed to do at university and, of course, to relax.

As I’ve already mentioned, the workload has remained within certain limits compared to other semesters so far, so I had no problem doing nothing at the weekends. Looking back now, I realize that I should have thought of this much earlier: The more relaxed you are, the more effectively you can work during the week.

Despite all this, I really needed the Christmas break. And it wasn’t Christmas itself that I was looking forward to. (Catching up with all sorts of family members during the holidays can quickly turn from joy to stress). It was the fact that I hardly thought about university for almost two weeks. Because if we’re honest: It can be pretty consuming.

I know that the next few months will continue to be characterized by a lot of work for university. But I’m also looking forward to returning to everyday life and getting to know physics a little better. Do you think I can manage to keep my stress levels down?

Campus Golm in Winter
Campus Golm in Winter

My studies at Potsdam University

Here you can find the other articles from my time at university in Potsdam:

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