Podcast 'Echoes - Stories from four centuries of University of Groningen' (Ukrant)

Echoes is the historical podcast of Ukrant.nl, the news medium of the University of Groningen.

In it, historian and journalist Christien Boomsma and science journalist Rob van der Wal introduce you to fascinating people and remarkable stories from more than four centuries of the UG's history. From persecuted Scottish students who sought refuge in 17th-century Groningen to a Russian spy who twisted a UG physicist round his finger.

Episode 1: The medical student who became a ruthless resistance fighter

Reint Dijkema was a completely ordinary medical student. He lived in a student room and was a member of a student association. He had a girlfriend he wanted to marry. Then came 10 May, 1940, everything changed when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands.

Episode 2: How Petrus Camper sought differences between black and white people

What is the difference between white and black people? Is there actually a difference? With that question in mind, anatomist Petrus Camper conducted a public dissection of the body of a black man. The date was April 16th, 1766. The location: the former sacristy of the Broerkerk in Groningen.

Episode 3: The day a steam car drove through Groningen

It wasn’t the Spijker brothers who drove the first car in the Netherlands in 1899. That honour belongs to the Groningen scientist Sibrandus Stratingh. As early as 1834, he drove through the streets of Groningen in a steam car of his own design. But at that time, he had to seek support for his revolutionary design — and that turned out to be more difficult than expected.

Episode 4: A Rebel Preacher

In 1683, three Scottish students arrived at the University of Groningen. They were members of a strict conservative movement and were being persecuted in their homeland. They shared one dream: to become ministers so they could preach and baptise people in Scotland. That dream became reality for one of them: the Scottish James Renwick was ordained, despite fierce protests from his opponents.

Episode 5: Why Charlotte Jacobs is more than just ‘Aletta’s sister’

Everyone knows Aletta Jacobs: the woman who, in 1871, became the first officially registered female student in the Netherlands. The first female doctor in the country, who spent her entire life fighting for women’s rights. But hardly anyone’s ever heard of Charlotte Jacobs. She was the second female student ever, but the first female pharmacist. She was older than Aletta, but someone who eventually managed to break away from what society expected of her. She deserves to be known as more than just ‘Aletta’s sister’.

Episode 6: The curse of a modern laboratory

When the Physics Laboratory on the Westersingel opened in 1892, it was one of the most modern laboratories in the world. Free of iron and almost vibration-free, it was designed so physicist Herman Haga could conduct his research. But what Haga couldn’t have known was that the very same laboratory would prevent anyone from replicating his experiments with X-rays. As a result, the brilliant researcher missed out on a Nobel Prize.

Episode 7: A Russian Spy in Groningen

Everyone was on high alert in the 1950s. Both the Russians and the Americans were conducting numerous nuclear tests in a battle for supremacy in nuclear weapons. Both power blocs deployed many spies to gather intelligence. And it was precisely during that time that University of Groningen (UG) physicist and nuclear scientist Hendrik Brinkman brought a promising PhD student to Groningen—or so he thought. Because Runar Gåsström was under investigation by nearly every Western intelligence agency.

Episode 8: The woman who could see the fourth dimension

Mathematicians and physicists today think and calculate in far more than three dimensions. In fact, string theory — which attempts to unify all the forces of nature — includes no fewer than eleven dimensions. But in the early 19th century, even the idea of a fourth dimension was revolutionary. Imagining what it might look like required a great deal of thought and calculation for Groningen mathematician Hendrik Pieter Schoute. Then he met Alicia Boole Stott — a woman from Great Britain who, without any formal education, built cardboard models that perfectly matched his complex calculation