Jens Scheer (30 May 1935 – 18 July 1994), was a

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

, professor of

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

at the

University of Bremen The University of Bremen (German: ''Universität Bremen'') is a public university in Bremen, Germany, with approximately 23,500 people from 115 countries. It is one of 11 institutions which were successful in the category "Institutional Strategi ...

and one of Germany's best-known

anti-nuclear activists The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, nationa ...

. Scheer was a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). For reason of his KPD-membership and his political activities, Scheer was threatened in 1975 with the loss of his academic position at the University of Bremen and an interdiction of enacting his profession, as membership in the KPD and his position as university professor were considered incompatible. The legal proceedings lasted for about five years, after which the final verdict was the payment of a fine. One of Scheer's main research interests was low-level radiation and its effects on human beings. He claimed that radiation exposure at critical moments in life weakens the immune system, thus leading to a higher susceptibility to infectious diseases. After the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

of 1986, he invested considerable efforts in attempting to determine the extent of damage caused in the longer term by this disaster. In an article, Scheer claimed that low-level radiation had caused the death of millions, when all direct and indirect effects of radiation are taken together. His view was criticized as unfounded. Scheer also published on several stochastic models proposed in the context of quantum theory, in particular those advanced by

Jean-Pierre Vigier Jean-Pierre Vigier (16 January 19204 May 2004) was a French theoretical physicist, known for his work on the foundations of physics, in particular on his stochastic interpretation of quantum physics. Education A native of Paris, Vigier earned ...

and by J.C. Aron, and he criticized a prevalence of

positivism Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...

in quantum physics. In 1994, Scheer died of heart failure.Obituary Jens Scheer
University of Bremen, downloaded 27. November 2011

Publications

;Articles relating to low-level radiation and Chernobyl: * Jens Scheer
''Neonatal mortality in Germany since the Chernobyl explosion''
British Medical Journa
1992;304:843.3
Letter, March 1992, * Jens Scheer

Scientific Correspondence, ''Nature'' 326, 449, April 1987, ;Articles and book chapters on quantum physics: * Jens Scheer
''A view of EPR non-locality problems based on Aron's stochastic foundation of relativity''
Foundations of Physics Letters, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 577–580, 1990, * Jens Scheer, Klaus Götsch, Thomas Koch, Günter Lüning, Michael Schmidt, Heiko Ziggel
''A possible evidence for a violation of Heisenberg's position-momentum uncertainty relation''
Foundations of Physics Letters, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 71–79, 1989, * Jens Scheer, Michael Schmidt: ''Remarks on EPR-related concepts from a realistic point of view'', In

Alwyn Van der Merwe Alwyn van der Merwe (born November 1927 in South Africa) is an American theoretical physicist. He is Emeritus Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Denver. Life and career As a young man, Alwyn van der ...

Franco Selleri Franco Selleri (Bologna, Italy, 9 October 1936 – 20 November 2013) was an Italian theoretical physicist and professor at the Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro. He received his Doctorate / Ph.D. cum laude at the Università di Bologna in 1 ...

, G. Tarozzi (eds.): Microphysical Reality and Quantum Formalism: Proceedings of the Conference, 1988, Kluwer Academic Publishers, (vol. 2)
p. 253
��266 ;Other: * Jens Scheer: ''Gegen die Kopenhagener Deutung der Quantentheorie'' ("Against the Copenhague interpretation of quantum mechanics"), interview with Jens Scheer by Klaus v. Bloh, held in June/July 1994
Streitbarer Materialismus
no. 20 (in German language) * Jens Scheer: ''Lebendige Debatte über tote Katze'' ("Live debate about dead cat")
Streitbarer Materialismus
no. 20 (in German language) * Jens Scheer: ''Radioaktive Niedrigstrahlung'' ("Low-leel radiation")
Streitbarer Materialismus
no. 16 (in German language) * Jens Scheer: ''Kommunismus – Naturalismus – Humanismus'' ("Communism – Naturalism – Humanism")
Streitbarer Materialismus
no. 14 (in German language) * Jens Scheer: ''Niels Bohr vom Kopf auf die Füße stellen'' ("Putting Niels Bohr from his head back on his feet")
Streitbarer Materialismus
no. 12 (in German language) * Jens Scheer: ''Eine tote Katze in Schrödingers Kasten'' ("A dead cat in Schrödinger's box")
Streitbarer Materialismus
no. 12 (in German language)

References

External links

Obituary Jens Scheer
University of Bremen {{DEFAULTSORT:Scheer, Jens 1935 births 1994 deaths German anti–nuclear power activists 20th-century German physicists German Communist Party members Shorty Award winners

Publications

See also

References

External links