The second stop of my Europe trip was Switzerland. In Zürich, I visited places where Boris Belousov (the discoverer of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction I am using in my lab) lived and studied during his time in exile (1910-1915). But the theme of that part of my science history project keeps validating “Searching for a ghost”.
None of the buildings mentioned in publications still exist. And searching for original document is two archived did not provide any new information. Therefore, two impressions from Zürich: the beautiful Zürich train station and the street sign of the street Belousov supposedly lived in.
From Zürich, I traveled to Les Diablerets in the southwest of Switzerland to attend the Gordon Research Conference on Oscillations and Dynamic Instabilities in Chemical Systems. This is a beautiful location at 1200 m to interact with scientists from all over the world and to spend the free afternoons. One afternoon, I ‘ran’ up the switchback road to the Col de la Croix and took several hiking trails back to the village – to be back in time for a poster session.
After the conference, I walked towards the Lake Geneva to take the ‘train’ at the last possible ‘train station’ before the track winds into the next valley. It was a beautiful hike to relax the brain.
Thanks, Mark! I enjoy reading your posts as well.