Hi

I am Hans. I grew up in Vienna/Austria, studying chemistry and mathematics at the University of Vienna, finishing with a Doktorandum in Chemistry.

Photo: Summer School in Theoretical Chemistry in Innsbruck/Austria (Sep 1973)

Then I moved to South Africa for a couple of years, working in research.

Photo: Study the kinetics of gold adsorption onto activated carbon, using radioactive Gold-198 isotope.

Photo: Me (without lab coat) with some of my colleagues, Johannesburg (Aug 1992)

After emigrating to New Zealand, I studied philosophy at Massey University. With my BA hons I moved to Auckland University for one year, but then returned to Massey to finish with an MA in Philosophy of Science.

The idea to this blog on science and philosophy was conceived some ten years ago (we are now in 2025). There are two reasons for the long gestation period. Firstly, there are already countless blogs out there dealing with these and similar topics, some of them with excellent content and lively discussions. Why add another one? Secondly, the initial aim was to post a series of professional argumentations on various topics, complete with introduction, summary, conclusions, references – in short, really professionally looking. But perfectionism always goes hand in hand with its best friend, procrastination ….

In the end, instead of constructing polished academic articles, I decided to simply jot down ideas, observations and news items that I found interesting.

Current activity: digital imaging and isolating gold and other PGMs from scrap materials.

Photo: The author in his dream laboratory (curtesy of Andreas Libavius) making gold, the old fashioned alchemistic way.

Enjoy, and please leave your comments!.