The Finnish State Art Commission, VTT Centre for Nuclear Safety, Otaniemi, Espoo, Finland
The Nuclear Physicist’s Apple
The work continues the story of Newton’s Apple suggesting that a nuclear physicist, instead of seeing an apple fall, would rather be interested in splitting an apple. The work consists of 9 granite sculptures placed as shown in the site plan. When walking from south to north (in the site plan from right to left) even an amateur can understand the principle of nuclear fission as the sculptures can be read as metaphors for neutrons, atoms and isotopes.
What would a nuclear physicist do, if presented with an apple? Isaac Newton is said to have discovered gravity upon seeing an apple falling from a tree. A sculptural installation stands outside the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland’s Centre for Nuclear Safety. It features apples, hewn from stone, that seem to have appeared from nowhere. The biggest of them is cut in half. The single apple found inside the building foyer has a hole running across its diameter, through which a split apple outside can be glimpsed.
Nuclear fission is a process during which the atom splits as it is hit by a neutron. The nucleus breaks up into lighter nuclei, releasing energy and neutrons. Representing this reaction as a straightforward equation would be impossible, even if you wrote it in stone.
The apples at the VTT Centre for Nuclear Safety are cut from stone that was once carried and put to the test by the awesome forces of a continental glacier. Only the most solid pieces of the bedrock remained, losing their edges as the ice swept over them, turning them into the glacial erratics and other rocks now found in the local environment. They serve as reminders of the hundreds of millions of years that have passed before our time, along with the ice ages that have been and the ice ages that are perhaps still to come. It is fascinating to consider the significance the nuclear safety research being pursued today will have in future. What meanings will these stone sculptures hold years from now?
Anne Koskinen
The Nuclear Physicist’s Apple
2016
Stone sculpture comprising nine parts
Granite, Bodom granite, granite gneiss, rapakivi granite, granodiorite
Commissioned by: Finnish State Art Commission
The sculpture installation is held in the Finnish State Art Deposit collection
YDINFYYSIKON OMENA
Ydinfyysikon omena lähestyy ydintutkimusta omenan halkaisemisen kautta. Omenan siksi, että omena liittyy olennaisesti fysiikan tutkimuksen historiaan. Uskotaanhan Isaac Newtonin keksineen painovomalain nähdessään omenan putoavan. Tätä kertomusta ehdotus jatkaa. Ajatuksena on, että omenan putoamisen sijaan ydinfyysikon kiinnostus kohdistuu omenan ytimeen.
Kokonaisuus koostuu graniitista valmistetuista suurikokoisista omenoita esittävistä veistoksista. Suurimmat omenoista on halkaistu. Näin niistä paljastuu nähtäväksi ydin. Teoksen äärellä voi amatöörillekin selittää fission periaatteen.
Kuljettaessa etelästä pohjoiseen (kartassa oikealta vasemmalle) kulkijalle avautuu kertomus fissiosta, jossa neutroni 1 (pieni omena) osuu halkeavaan ytimeen 2 ja 3 (halkeava omena kahdesta osasta). Parkkipaikan yhteyteen sijoitetut veistokset 4 ja 5 (omenan puolikkaat) on sijoitettu tien kummallekin puolelle, ne kuvaavat syntyneitä isotooppeja. Viimeiseksi pienet veistokset 6, 7 ja 8 (pienet omenat) kuvaavat vapautuneita neutroneja. Neutroneiksi voi tulkita myös omenan siemenet. Lisäksi aulaan sijoitetaan veistos 9, jonka voi ajatella olevan niin prosessin aloittava neutroni kuin atomiydinkin.
Ydinfyysikon omena (nimimerkki Halkaisija)
