Resistance

GERMAR RUDOLF, RESISTANCE IS OBLIGATORYtion of one “g” and under the influence of relativistic dilatation of time.Apparently I had been insufficiently challenged in high school.For me, my university studies were not a mere gauntlet to a steep career,but rather an adventurous voyage into the world of knowledge. Ihad always wanted to know what forces held the world together, in theFaustian sense.While the structure of undergraduate studies in chemistry is ratherrigid, as one has to follow a rather strictly prescribed program, the curriculumduring graduate studies opens up elective options. With myinitial enthusiasm I made excessive use of these options. Instead ofchoosing a single required elective as is customary, I began with four:biochemistry, electro-chemistry, nuclear chemistry and theoreticalchemistry, which in principle is applied quantum mechanics. Pleasenote that I was studying these elective subjects in addition to the requiredsubjects of organic, inorganic and physical Chemistry. In additionto these, I occasionally attended lectures on nuclear physics at thephysics institute, lectures on information technologies at the institute formathematics, and since I at that time was residing in a student dormitoryimmediately adjoining the meteorological institute, I could not resistvisiting lectures there as well.It goes without saying that by doing so I severely overloaded myself.I developed serious symptoms of stress, and so after a year I had to dropsome of the electives. I finally chose as my two elective subjects nuclearchemistry and electro-chemistry, which presented a problem with thefaculty administration, since there was room on the diploma for onlyone single elective subject.Thanks to my straight “A” on my master’s certificate, every doorstood open to me in my choice of institutions for my PhD dissertation.The options of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research inStuttgart and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainzwere especially attractive because of the reputation of the Max PlanckSociety as the pinnacle of German science. Thus I was rather disappointedto learn that most of the PhD candidates considered the MaxPlanck Institute in Stuttgart, where I eventually ended up, as nothingmore than just a means to further their career for a future with highprestige and material wealth. It seemed as though the mildew of publicservice had infected the entire Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart. Notonly the staff, but many researchers shared a bureaucratic mentality. Notrace had remained of that scientific pioneering spirit which I had55