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A new geological age

Lectures about the Anthropocene on August 1-2, 2019

Freiburg, Jul 23, 2019

A new geological age

Photo: Baschi Bender

In 2000, the chemist Paul J. Crutzen and the biologist Eugene Stoermer diagnosed a new geological age: the Anthropocene. As a result, man not only had technologies that were equal to or even exceeded the effects of nature; man also inscribed himself irreversibly into nature, according to Crutzen and Stoermer. In the Cluster of Excellence “Living, Adaptive and Energy-autonomous Materials Systems (livMatS)” at the University of Freiburg, researchers are developing materials systems that combine biological and technological principles and adapt to changes in the environment as in the biological world. The workshop “livMatS as Part of and Reaction to the Anthropocene” looks at the cluster’s topics from different perspectives in terms of the Anthropocene. In his lecture “Bio-inspired motile materials systems,” Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck, one of the spokespersons for the cluster and director of the Botanical Garden, will examine the relationship of these material systems to the Anthropoene. In his lecture, the chemist Prof. Dr. Andreas Walther will address the question “What is life in the world of materials systems?” In the course of the event the philosopher Prof. Dr. Harald Schwaetzer will also talk about “Nature! We are surrounded and embraced by it – the Naturalness of the Anthropocene.”