Article | Teaching history of science through its material heritage | Roland Wittje | 2013
Nina El Laban-Devauton
06 janvier, 2026
While historians of science often rely on written sources, Roland Wittje argues that engaging with the material culture of science offers insights that texts alone cannot provide. When recent material heritage is introduced by the scientists or witnesses who once worked with it, these encounters reveal details and impressions extending beyond written records.
Wittje illustrates this by recounting his visit to the Garching atomic egg with a group of students, describing the careful preparation prior to the excursion, the experience of being on site, and the unique perspectives gained – from the surrounding public controversies to the reactor’s sheer scale and health risks.
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“The security gate and the radiation screening of everything, including our own bodies, made the space of the reactor outstanding compared to anything we had experienced before.”
Next to the description of the preparation for the excursion, the article emphasizes how such experiences can deepen both students’ and teachers’ understanding and engagement with their subject by connecting intellectual knowledge to tangible experience.
Link to the source
Wittje, Roland. “The Garching nuclear egg: Teaching contemporary history beyond the linguistic turn” in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part A, Vol. 44:4 (2013), pp. 683-689, ISSN 0039-3681, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2013.07.016.