The advent of improved drilling technology made the extraction of geological resources easier. However, today we have almost stretched the limits of the earth’s system to its breaking point.
The discovery of the x-ray in 1895 marks the start of medical imagery for diagnostic purposes. The ability to look inside a living body revolutionized the way we look at medicine and human anatomy.
The discovery of the nuclear chain reaction enabled the construction of atomic bombs and nuclear power plants—something never intended by the scientists.
The atmosphere can hold up to 1,500 billion tons of carbon dioxide and still keep global warming under 2°C; the consequences become uncontrollable once this limit is breached.
In the year 2000, Bill Clinton introduced a preview of the Human Genome Project and promised rapid progress for the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease.
During the 19th century engineers identified and developed precise solutions for problems in the production of commodities—like the Bessemer process, the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel.
The volume of air traffic increased drastically over the past 50 years as a result of globalization and mass tourism and has a significant impact on climate change.
On November 11, 1886, Heinrich Hertz, the pioneer of high-frequency and radio technology, for the first time observed the propagation of an electromagnetic wave with this setup.
This is a chapter of the virtual exhibition “Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Earth in Our Hands”—written and curated by historian Nina Möllers.
Together with the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, the Deutsches Museum hosted a major special exhibition on the Anthropocene from December 2014 – September 2016, which was curated by Nina Möllers. Coined by the atmospheric chemist and Nobel Prize laureate Paul J. Crutzen, the term “Anthropocene” describes the idea of a new geological era shaped by deep interventions into nature by humans as biological and geological agents.
Nina Möllers
This is a chapter of the virtual exhibition “Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Earth in Our Hands”—written and curated by historian Nina Möllers.
Together with the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, the Deutsches Museum hosted a major special exhibition on the Anthropocene from December 2014 – September 2016, which was curated by Nina Möllers. Coined by the atmospheric chemist and Nobel Prize laureate Paul J. Crutzen, the term “Anthropocene” describes the idea of a new geological era shaped by deep interventions into nature by humans as biological and geological agents.
Nina Möllers 
