Science

Short news science

Biomass
Energy company Essent, part of RWE, announced this week that it will join the BE-Basic research programme into bio-based commodities and fuels.

BE-Basic is coordinated by TU Delft and connects industries, research institutes and academic partners. Essent New Energy will focus on biomass as fuel for energy production. In practice, for the past 20 years smaller quantities of wood have been mixed with coal. Essent now wants a better survey of the availability and accessibility. Plus it strives for a certification standard.


Rain master

MSc student Mikel Porras Hoogland (IDE) has made a website which will tell you when it’s going to rain near you. Just enter your location and see what’s in store. “It’s very popular among my friends,” Hoogland says. Professor Nick van de Giesen (CEGS) adds: “It looks fine. The site seems to be based on weather radar and so it’s just as (un)precise. But it may be a more practical format.” www.buie.nl

De site van de TU Delft valt in de categorie Educatie. Daarin zijn er twaalf concurrenten, waaronder de sites van de Vrije Universiteit en Hogeschool Utrecht, maar ook die van de Leidse Onderwijsinstellingen, TheorieTV en Studenten.net.

Andere categorieën zijn onder meer Automotive, Carrière, Games, Entertainment, Telecom, Overheid, Shoppen en Sporten.

Simpel
De verkiezing van de website van het jaar is een jaarlijks evenement van onderzoeksbureau MatrixLab en Emerce. De opzet is simpel: de site die de meeste stemmen krijgt van het publiek wint de strijd. Er zijn daarnaast per categorie winnaars voor de aspecten ontwerp, navigatie en inhoud.

Hogeschool Utrecht werd vorig jaar de beste onderwijssite, terwijl Scholieren.com aan de haal met de prijs voor de populairste onderwijssite.


Reappeared

He was hidden for almost two centuries behind a Spanish judge, but now a French general has reappeared. Conservationists of the Rijksmuseum used a technique called scanning macro X-ray – fluorescence spectrometry to look through layers of paint of Goya’s masterpiece ‘Portrait of Don Ramón Satué’ (1823). This technology was developed by TU Delft researchers and researchers from the University of Antwerp. In 2008 they used this technique to unveil a hidden, unknown portrait of a woman by Vincent van Gogh.


Gaming team

Most student projects (or DreamTeams) make tangible things like a solar car, hydrogen cart or solar boat. Now there’s a website, too. Five students (TBM and EEMCS) have set up a serious gaming website on traffic jams, titled ‘Catastraffic’. The Android App forces players to make decisions which may seem insignificant at first, but they do contribute to the emergence of traffic congestions. Interested to look or to join? Visit the website.

www.catastraffic.com

Editor Redactie

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