SHS Prize 2021-2022: the ‘laboratory of nature'

Medya Tekes Mizrakli (Data Science), Gabriele Furlan (Energy Engineering), and Lukas C. van den Heuvel (Life Sciences Engineering) have been selected to receive the prestigious SHS Prize for their project, “Lab on Top, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure’s Laboratory of Nature”, which they completed as part of the course Experimental History of Science (HUM – 466), led by Simon Dumas-Primbault and Ion-Gabriel Mihailescu in the College of Humanities SHS program.

The trio will be honored at a ceremony in February 2023 at the SwissTech Convention Center.

Science on the summit

As part of their year-long project, Medya, Gabriele and Lukas followed the footsteps of the 18^th-century Swiss scientist Horace Bénédict de Saussure, who carried out his natural science experiments in the “laboratory of nature”: mountain summits. The three students wanted to find out how de Saussure’s experiments could have been so successful, despite the chaotic and unpredictable natural settings in which he chose to conduct them.

To achieve this, the students reenacted three of de Saussure’s experiments aimed at measuring the strength of the sun’s rays (using a heliothermometer), the density of the atmosphere (using a diaphonometre), and the ‘blueness’ of the sky (using a cyanometre).

Not only did the students travel to the summit of the Rochers de Naye near Montreux to conduct their experiments, but they also built each instrument themselves using de Saussure’s original instructions.

“By taking measurements with these instruments in the mountains, we understood that de Saussure placed himself – the observer – as a central component in his web of instruments. Doing so allowed him to share his measurements and communicate them to others objectively,” the students concluded.

They added that in addition to having a lot of fun building and troubleshooting the instruments, which allowed them to combine their different skills, they also found a lot of meaning in the work of de Saussure, whose scientific rigor helped pave the way for contemporary meteorological studies.

“We think that in the light of the current climate crisis, the “laboratory of nature” is more meaningful than ever. Objectively quantifying environmental phenomena remains necessary, and we can draw a lot of inspiration from natural philosophers like de Saussure.”