PANalytical-sponsored students head to Spitsbergen
Expedition looks back 55-million years in order to prepare for the future
As part of the company’s ongoing sponsorship of activities that stimulate interest in the sciences, PANalytical (Almelo, the Netherlands) is pleased to be supporting two students in the 2008 ‘Expedition to the Greenhouse World’ - an initiative that is the brainchild of Utrecht University. Students competed for a place on the expedition with the winning pair being Barbara Terlouw and Robin van der Bles.
On the week-long expedition to Spitsbergen, Norway, the students will look back 55 million years and explore the climate change that took place at that time. In a world that was much warmer than it is now, large quantities of methane gas emitted by vegetation led to a significant greenhouse effect. The consequences were catastrophic, with many species becoming extinct. Parallels with today’s concerns are manifold. Many believe that if we continue to burn fossil fuels at the current rate, we may reach the atmospheric CO2 concentration present at that time.
In Spitsbergen the students will examine the prehistoric traces of this ‘greenhouse world’ - rocks full of plant fossils, carbon-containing layers (originating from peat) and the footprints of the first hippopotamus-like creatures from the early Paleocene and late Eocene eras. From 24 August 2998, a daily weblog at: www.expeditiebroeikaswereld.nl/blog will chart the expedition’s progress.
The competition for a place on the expedition challenged students to make a short film portraying their vision of the causes and consequences of climate change. What will the conditions be like in 2508, in an increasingly warm climate? Some 40 films were submitted and a panel of experts put the top 10 forward for final judging. On 4 June 2008, in a packed auditorium at NEMO science center in Amsterdam, these 10 films competed for the main prize. In the winning entry, ‘Space Investigation’, an alien from Mars analyses the demise of our planet caused by the carelessness of ‘homo non-sapiens’, the non-thoughtful people.
PANalytical places great emphasis on its own environmental management with, for example, a policy that all company waste is collected separately to allow for recycling. Over the last ten years, electricity consumption has remained the same and gas consumption has decreased by 10%, despite a doubling of production.
PANalytical is the world’s leading supplier of analytical instrumentation and software for X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), with more than half a century of experience. Applications include minerals, mining and environmental monitoring. For more information on PANalytical products, visit: www.panalytical.com
About PANalytical
PANalytical is the world’s leading supplier of analytical instrumentation and software for X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), with more than half a century of experience. The materials characterization equipment is used for scientific research and development, for industrial process control applications and for semiconductor metrology.
PANalytical, founded in 1948 as part of Philips, employs around 900 people worldwide. Its headquarters are in Almelo, the Netherlands. Fully equipped application laboratories are established in Japan, China, the USA, and the Netherlands. PANalytical’s research activities are based in Almelo (NL) and on the campus of the University of Sussex in Brighton (UK). Supply and competence centers are located on two sites in the Netherlands: Almelo (development and production of X-ray instruments) and Eindhoven (development and production of X-ray tubes). A sales and service network in more than 60 countries ensures unrivalled levels of customer support.
The company is certified in accordance with ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001.
The product portfolio includes a broad range of XRD and XRF systems and software widely used for the analysis and materials characterization of products such as cement, metals and steel, nanomaterials, plastics, polymers and petrochemicals, industrial minerals, glass, catalysts, semiconductors, thin films and advanced materials, pharmaceutical solids, recycled materials and environmental samples.
Visit our website at www.panalytical.com for more information about our activities.
PANalytical is part of Spectris plc, the precision instrumentation and controls company.
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