Gewichtstoename bij Bomen en Weegschaal 1 (Weight gain at Trees and Scale 1)
2009
Collection of the Verbeke Foundation
“When I was working on weight gain at trees and scale 1, I found out that already in the 17th century the Flemish alchemist, physiologist and physician Jan Baptist van Helmont was working on an experiment to show that a plant not only grows by converting the soil in which it stands.
Jan Baptista had a pot filled with soil and a small tree of two kilos. He dried the Earth, the tree and the Earth and weighed them separately. Then he planted the tree back into the soil. Five years later he dried the soil again and weighed the soil and the tree one more time. The tree was now seventy-seven kilos, but the soil weighed about the same.
He concluded that the tree had grown by converting water; water was the only thing that he had added. Although this conclusion was not quite accurate, his research turned out to be the last step to the discovery of photosynthesis.
Reizend steentje (Travelling stone)
2003
Collection of the Verbeke Foundation
Traveling Part goes mainly on the movement of energy. Energy in the form of a stone, usually not moved so quickly.
Most stones don’t travel, this one does.
Regenverplaatser (Rain mover)
2003
Collection of the Verbeke Foundation
The Regenverplaatser (Rain mover) is a machine that lets you, together with the rain, decide the place where a drop falls.
It is an examination of what happens when a plant gets another raindrop than it did expect.
