Kosmische Regen (Cosmic Rain)
VPRO Noorderlicht / 25 min / 22-02-1998
Every minute, Earth is being hit by 20 snowballs as big as a house. In the history of Earth, these so-called small comets were the origin of water on Earth. This at least is claimed by the American physicist Dr Louis A Frank from the University of Iowa. Is he just interpreting noise or is he a Noble-prize candidate?

Continued…

Genezen in de Baarmoeder (Cured in the Womb)
VPRO Noorderlicht / 25 min /11-01-1998
Last spring two American researchers (Dr Janet Larson from Ochsner Clinic and Prof Craig Cohen from Louisiana State University, both in New Orleans) did a first ever succesfull eperiment in gene therapy. They cured cystic fibrosis in mice by treating them in the womb. Others researchers are ignoring their findings. But they tell their controversial findings for the time ever in Noorderlicht.

Continued…

Verborgen Gebreken (Hidden Defects)
VPRO Noorderlicht / 25 min /23-11-1997
Good news when your computer get stuck again. It’s probably not your fault. Software experts Dr Les Hatton and Watts Humphreys (Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh) claim that computer programmes are of poor quality and that error-free software simply doesn’t exist. Software engineering should shape up and become a mature engineering science, or we might get very unpleasant surprises. A tragicomedy on computer software.

Continued…

De Lege Zee (The Empty Seas)
VPRO Noorderlicht / 25 min / 1997
Are fishery models suitable tools to manage fisheries? Up to the crisis at the Grand Banks at the Canadian eastcoast, people generally thought they were. But after the collapse of the worlds largest cod stock, there is solid reason for doubt. Uncertainties in the estimates, variability in nature and the short term perspective of managers make it necessary te develop another way of fisheries management. So claim fisherybiologists Robin Cook (Schotland), Sidney Holt (ex IWC) and Willem Dekker (rivo).

Continued…

Het Beest in de Mens (The Beast in Man)
VPRO Noorderlicht / 25 min /1997

“Eight people are dying every day in want of a donor-organ” says Dr David White. In 1985 he started the investigation of use of animal (pig) kidneys and hearts for transplantation into humans. Rejection and the fear of unknown virussen are the main stumbling blocks. Recently though, he made a breakthrough in controlling the first step of rejection. And now, in spite of the English government who does not allow transplantations on humans as yet, the genie of xenotransplantation (as use of animal organs in humans is called) is out of the bottle. And many think it will be quite a usual technique within 10 years.

VPRO-page

Dutch version –>

Overlast Ondergronds (Inconvenience Underground)
VPRO Noorderlicht / 25 min / 1997
The Netherlands is drilling its first tunnel in Heinenoord. Previously, all tunnels were made by sinking prefab elements. But the drilling technique which was developed in Japan and Germany seems especially suitable for making tunnels in dense city areas. Once the specific Dutch problem of the soft soil has been mastered, what influence will this technology have on our cities?

VPRO-site

dutch version –>

Buckyball - Image: Godunov.com

Hoe vul ik een Buckyball? (How to fill a buckyball?)
VPRO Noorderlicht / 25 min / 1996
Prof Gerard Meijer wants to fill buckyballs (footballshaped carbon molecules) with gasmolecules. A portrait of a group doing the kind of fundamental research for which the justification is recently questioned so much. What is the need of fundamental research if no practicall spin-offs are in sight?

To the VPRO page

Dutch version–>

De drijvende hypothese (The floating hypothesis)
VPRO Noorderlicht / 25 min / 1996
Ten years ago, in 1986, a fullsized replica of the Trireme was built. Triremes are ancient Greek rowed warships which kept Athens free from the Persians. Now, a Dutch professor wants to build another one on the basis on the not fully satisfying sea-trials with the first reconstruction.

To the VPRO page

Dutch version –>

Budding yeast - University of Miami

Gist als Genmachine (Yeast as Genemachine)
VPRO Noorderlicht / 25 min / 1996

The Belgian Professor Andre Goffeau led the yeast-genome project which resulted in 1995 in the publication of the complete DNA of yeast. Since, yeast can be used -even better than before- in cancer-research or in studying heritary metabolic diseases.

To the VPRO page

Dutch version —>

VPRO Noorderlicht / 25 min / 1996
Hydrogen is the clean fuel for the future. At Netherlands Energy Researchcentre ECN they are working on fuelcells which convert hydrogen directly into electricity. This might give electric cars a longer range and thereby more feasibility.

More info on VPRO webpage

Dutch version —>