Signals in Post-War Ruins, Five Orders of Magnitude and Pore Spaces Explored by NMR Diffusometry

The 10 Bologna Conference on “Magnetic Resonance in Porous Media” was among the impressive events which, dedicated to the 600 anniversary of Leipzig University in December 2009, attracted colleagues from all over the world. The conference excursion took the participants to Ferropolis, a place north of Leipzig, equipped with impressive remainings of an old mining site, including huge conveyer bridges. Ferropolis also visualizes, in some way, Leipzig as a center of industry and science, with coal mining in its vicinity as one of the sources of industrial development and, hence, as a promoter of scientific progress. With pleasure I followed the invitation to talk on this occasion, by merging a plenary lecture with an after-dinner speech, about Leipzig’s special affection towards the topic of the conference. This contribution is a reproduction of my talk, accompanied by most of the presented slides.