T-Licht Association magazine of T.S.V. ‘Jan Pieter Minckelers’
JANUARY 2019 VOLUME 23 EDITION 02
Interview with:
Wilco Weggemans
Thomas on research:
Classroom shortage
Good day readers, My name is Joppe and this time you can read my introduction for the T-Licht. I initially thought that every board member got to write an article about him or herself this year. It appeared that this is not the case. After I heard that, I was pretty bummed out. But then Raoul decided to give me a piece of text in this T-Licht! Sadly, he only gave me the introduction which is much shorter than a complete article. Now I have to write an article in about 300 words and I already spent over 100 words on this introduction. So in short, name: Joppe Schulten, age: 21 years old, nationality: Dutch, function: Commissioner of Acquisition, board: 61st, past committee experience: IntroCie and STC, sports: baseball and speed skating on ice, music: I like all music.
07 Sustaining for the future Symposium: In October a symposium has been organised by Octave and Japie once again. This time the theme was sustainability in the chemical industry.
I would like to wish you all a lot of fun reading this issue of the T-Licht. If you want to know more about me than the given short summary, come by at Japie and ask for me. See you around! Joppe
19 Japie’s birthday Diesweek: If Japie has it’s birthday, there is always a week full of all kind of fun activities; the diesweek. Read all about this week in the article dedicated to it!
T-Licht January 2018 04
By the Chairman: The year in music
05 Education: Innovation in education 06
Van de donateur: Ode aan de nostalgie
19 Diesweek: Japie’s birthday: Time to party! 22
Science news: Redefining the basics
24
Letting off some steam: The march against reason
26
PhD article: Quick fix with a good mix
28
Interview with: Wilco Weggemans
30
Chemistry in real life: Having a blast at New Years Eve
07 Symposium: Sustaining for the future 10 Collection: The pleasure of a fountain pen 12
Thomas on research: The costs of classroom shortage
14 Puzzle: Envisioning with some logical help 16 18
Beer of the quartile: Join the dark side, we have stouts
32 Internship: Get the London look 34
Trophy case: Broken victory
Carte blanche: Welcome to Eindhoven
internationals!
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Beer of the quartile: the dark side Colophon Volume 23, edition 2, Circulation: 600 Editor in chief: Raoul Hendrix. Editorial board: Bart van den Bersselaar, Mariska Brüls, Alex van de Greef, Limi Kalapurackal, Marle Vleugels, Woutje ter Weel, Thomas Werkhorst, Marc Willemsen. Printer: Gildeprint Drukkerijen info@gildeprint.nl
The T-Licht is the association magazine of T.S.V. ‘Jan Pieter Minckelers’, study association of the department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry of the Eindhoven University of Technology. Contact: T.S.V. ‘Jan Pieter Minckelers’ Attn. Het T-Licht Helix STW 0.25 Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven Tel: 040-2473756 tlicht.st@tue.nl | www.tsvjapie.nl
The editorial board always reserves the right to edit or decline the provided copy. Index of advertisements: Pg 11: Dow Pg 15: ExxonMobil Pg 25: KNCV
The year in music By the chairman
By the time you read this, we left 2018 behind and I have been chairman for almost half a year. As a chairman, I try to keep an eye on our goals and targets and for this I think it is very important to look back and evaluate. Apart from this, predicting the future is almost as important for a good policy and therefore I decided to try both in this article! I will try to predict the most streamed songs of 2018 and connect this to something special that happened within the association in 2018. On #1 I expect “Havana” by Camila Cabello. Even though Japie did not visit Havana, we went to other beautiful (and fun) cities, such as Porto, Manchester and Tokyo. As a close second place, I go for “One kiss” by Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa. Definitely more than one kiss was exchanged between Japie members, but in 2018 there was a special event for the most romantic Japie-kisses: the Lustrum gala! Everybody was dressed fancy and there was an amazing band. Third in this list is “Lil Craney” by Kraantje Pappie. This song is about Crane being back and in 2018 something really important also came back to us... The F.O.R.T. in the Matrix. After waiting for a long time and enjoying ourselves in the temporary F.O.R.T., we celebrated the reopening in a fitting way: with an opening drink. Then I think #4 will be “New rules” by Dua Lipa. It is not about rules, but we do have a better insight on the opinions of our members about
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the goals and regulations of Japie, thanks to the future evenings. Many members were present and we had interesting discussions about what should be Japies ‘new rules’. Furthermore, we won the ONCS due to the committee not really paying attention to the rules this year! Then, there was a song called “Jackie Chan” in 2018, by Tiësto. Even though Jackie Chan is from Hong Kong, the lyrics “I just ordered sushi from Japan” remind me of the study tour of 2018 to South Korea and Japan. It was a wonderful trip and I bet on this song to be on the fifth spot.
“I think these new activities show how our association is changing for the better.”
For the last popular song on my list I decided to go for “New Light” by John Mayer. Of course, our association loves to talk and sing about lights, but also many new things happened during 2018. The very first craft beer festival was organized! Furthermore, the ChefCie organized their first dinner after the Thursday drink. I think these new activities show how our association is changing for the better, while keeping fine traditions.
WRITTEN BY:
Rosa Geveling Rosa took the time at the end of last year to predict the most streamed song and linked them to Japie.
Innovation in education Education
By the time you are reading this, the holidays are already some time behind us. I hope that all of you had a great time and entered the second part of the second quartile with some newly found courage! Of course educational matters have definitely not stood still since my first article. For example, last November the educational day of our faculty took place about which I would like to tell you some more. The educational day is a one-day event organized by the faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. During this year’s edition of the educational day, innovations in education for our department have been and discussed. The day started with an overview of our department and a welcome speech by our dean, Emiel Hensen and program director Peter Janssens. After this, the strategy for our university in 2030 was explained by the dean of the Bachelor College. Challenge-based education is one of the core terms of this strategy: “Education, which involves solving real-life challenges from industry in (multidisciplinary) teams.” Hereafter, two projects were presented for the visualization of molecular- and solid structures. The first one includes the 3D-printing of molecules, their molecular orbitals,
and the 3D-printing of catalytic surfaces. The second one already appeared in the current quartile. A visualization component has been added to the course Inorganic Chemistry and Materials. The idea is to use software for the visualization of structures and in this way gaining a better understanding of structures in inorganic chemistry! Another innovative project was the industrial challenge from ICMS, the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems. In this project a challenge from industry is submitted to a group of students to solve it. Sounds like challenge-based education doesn’t it? The final innovative project discussed was the course Device Integrated Responsive Materials. This course will be cross disciplinary for students of our own department and the departments of Applied Physics,
“One of the core terms of this strategy is challenge-based education “ Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Industrial Design. The course is about smart devices and smart materials. I hope that all of you have gained some more insight in the current innovations in education and of course. I wish you good luck with your exams for the second quartile!
WRITTEN BY:
Rick Arts Rick attended the educational day and wants to share what has been discussed.
05
Ode
aan de nostalgie Van de donateur
Je zou het niet denken, maar als student lijkt de wereld wel bijna beperkt tot het kleine clubje van je studie en eventueel wat mensen eromheen. Daarom vond ondergetekende tijdens zijn tijd als T-Lichtredacteur het ook bijzonder raar dat donateurs ontzettend vaak hun deadline leken te missen en absoluut geen tijd hadden om een stukje uit hun mouw te schudden voor het T-Licht. Nu ben ik zelf ondertussen al weer een jaartje aan het werk ben, en het blijkt dat dit fenomeen volkomen normaal is. Gedurende mijn studententijd kon ik altijd wel even tijd vinden om tussen colleges door of onder het koffie drinken, euh... afstuderen, even wat te regelen voor de een of andere commissie. Pas als je zelf een flink aantal keren door de nieuwe hoofdredacteur van het T-Licht gepord wordt om wat aan te leveren, valt ineens het briefje van €500 en realiseer je dat je precies datgene bent geworden wat je altijd zo raar vond: een burger. Stiekem is het studentenleven dan toch verruild voor rustig een avondje op de bank ploffen na een lange dag beunen, waarin het weekend te kort blijkt om alle dingen gedaan te krijgen en waarin file daadwerkelijk een probleem is geworden, in tegenstelling tot de capriolen die de NS uit haalt iedere winter. Sterker nog: je bent een echte burger geworden, zo eentje die het niet meer trekt om eens een avondje tot sluit op Stratum rond te dwalen, waarna toch echt de volgende dag vrij genomen moet worden om bij te komen. Gelukkig zijn er ook
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altijd zaken die hetzelfde blijven, zoals dat de F.O.R.T. ‘Pie Debye’ stipt om 16.00 uur zijn deuren opent voor de gelukkige studenten (en sporadische oudgedienden) om daar het overheerlijke goudgele gerstenat te serveren. Als er dan weer eens een groepje oudgedienden in de F.O.R.T. te vinden is wordt er gemerkt dat er stiekem toch wat dingen veranderd zijn, sommigen ten goede van de ruimte, sommigen wat minder. Een van de zaken die mij vooral is bijgebleven is dat er tegenwoordig niet meer stevig uitgezet wordt (luisteren jullie mee, commissie?), zodat er nog tot treurens aan toe sjaarzen blijven hangen... Gelukkig is de sfeer altijd goed gebleven in Eindhoven en zolang men sporadisch een bezoekje brengt aan de Japiekamer en/of de F.O.R.T. gaat dit altijd gepaard met gezellige praatjes met oude bekenden, de Huismeester, en het nieuwe bestuur en de commissie. Daarom zou ik ook vooral aan de jongere generatie willen meegeven: verbreed je horizon voor je afstudeert, kijk eens buiten de vereniging, doe een commissie, praat eens met de oudjes, en vergeet vooral niet om veel plezier te hebben ;).
Geschreven door:
Floris Hieselaar Floris kwam geschrokken tot de conclusie dat hij toch echt burger is geworden en dat zijn leven als student nog niet zo erg was.
Sustaining for the future
Every two years, Octave and Japie join forces to set up a committee that organizes an educational day that is entirely focused on elucidating a topic that is interesting for (upcoming) chemical engineers. On Friday October the 5th , faculty members, people from industry and from other universities, PPD’ers, bachelor and master students came together to share their thoughts on sustainability in the chemical industry. It ended up being an inspiring day.
07
“Only 2% of the plastic is recycled into the same (or similar quality) products in the Netherlands� It was way too early when we started our preparations on the day of the symposium. We had been working towards this day for eight months, but as usual a lot had to be done at the very last moment. Luckily for us, we had Kitty Nijmeijer as our chairman of the day, and if anything was not going according to plan, it certainly was after she fixed it. After a welcome from Maxime, Kitty opened the day by stressing the need for a change in our way of living; if every person on this earth would live like us in the Western world, we would need four to five earths. Of course we only have one, so this instantly stated the relevance of the discussions that we were yet to have that day. Personally, I was looking forward to the interactive parts of the program: we would kick off with a water purification experiment, and after lunch we would ask ten questions about sustainability in general to the public with the Kahoot app. The first
part, the experiment, turned out quite well. Sleepy faces of an early morning turned into smiling faces when we all got the chance to transform filthy black water into drinking water. For me it was fun to do this experiment with this many people, and to drink my own purified water. The first lecturer of the day was Hans Goebel from Fluor. He gave a lecture on sustainability through engineered technology. Unfortunately, I have not heard this one because I had to man the counter. Second, Gerard van Rooij from DIFFER told us about the donkey he hired for his children on vacation and about plasmolysis to store energy. After each talk, people in the audience could ask questions, which were stressful moments for us as committee members, since we had to throw the dice microphone to the person with the question without hurting anyone. We almost succeeded.
Third, we heard about blue energy. Diego Pintossi, from our own faculty, told a well-structured story and once again we saw that membranes do not only have the power to convert dirty water into clean water but can also be used to generate electricity. Boelo Schuur came all the way from Twente and gave us a little peek into the world of biorefineries just before lunch. Lunch was interesting, since the caterer delivered 150 sandwiches more than ordered. It does not look very sustainable when there are still 160 sandwiches left on the table after everybody is finished with lunch. Unfortunately these sandwiches had to be thrown away. After lunch we did the Kahoot quiz, which also went surprisingly well. I liked that the audience had to think about sustainability more actively than just listening. More speakers shared their knowledge, and in spite of the late Friday afternoon, the audience had barely shrunk in size. Unfortunately for me, because this way more people could witness my little slip on the stage. Jan Kolijn told us about how plastic is recycled now and what the difficulties are with recycling plastic (mainly the combination of different kinds of plastic in one product). An eye-opener for me was that only 2% of the plastic is recycled into the same (or similarly-quality) products in the Netherlands . Frank Kuipers from Sabic talked about how the necessary environmental perspectives on energy and resources will dramatically disrupt the chemical industry. After a lot of delays with planes and trains and his wife to the rescue, Emile de Jong arrived just in time from Bangalore, India to share his vision on energy sources in the future. And last but definitely not least, Michael Debije entered the stage
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to enlighten us with technologies that use light from the sun as energy source: luminescent solar concentrators and photomicroreactors. The bright colors of the solar concentrators were pleasing for the eye, and this was an important aspect of the technology. Although devices with higher efficiency are available, the solar concentrators Michael told us about are made in such a way that they can be applied almost everywhere - in a city or within buildings, because of their aesthetic appearance. After such a smooth day, difficulties in the preparations are easily forgotten. However, I still remember that it was quite tricky that in the week before the symposium only seventy people
“If every person on this earth would live like us in the Western world, we would need four to five earths”
had subscribed. My fellow committee member from Octave could almost not believe that we were going through all this trouble of organizing the symposium while we were not even sure whether people from Japie would be interested. He himself was already sure from the start his efforts would not be in vain: all PPD students were obliged to attend the symposium. This made me think: is there enough support from the members of Japie for a symposium like this? In the end, 150 people attended the symposium, the same amount as two years before. Personally I liked the fact that (relatively) many first and secondyear students had subscribed. Some of them gave the feedback that they got really inspired that day or that they gained a lot of new ideas. This was of course very nice to hear, since this was our intention from the start. Organizing a day like this requires a lot of communication with a lot of people. For me this was a big learning point: I got the chance to operate within a multicultural committee. Every collaboration is a challenge in terms of communication, but if there are different cultures represented within one committee this is especially the case. We all had different ways to communicate our thoughts and we all had different views on issues. The
cultural differences became evident when we, for example, got invited to attend an Egyptian-Moroccan Muslim wedding when Ismaail got married. The ceremony was accompanied with rituals I had never seen before. Or when the Dutchies in the committee were planning on presenting a (rather unoriginal) bottle of wine to the speakers as a thank you. However, two of my fellow committee members were not allowed to buy nor transport alcohol (and I could not carry all the bottles by myself), so we had to think of something else. In the end, the speakers liked their honey, nuts and sustainability mugs a lot. Because we learned to deal with these differences, this committee has been a good preparation for our future work, where working groups are becoming more and more international. Therefore, unexpectedly, being part of this committee has broadened my horizons not merely in the field of sustainability.
WRITTEN BY:
Roos Krösschell Roos wanted to tell the readers about the symposium that was organized this year.
Speakers Prof. Kitty Nijmeijer Dr. Hans Goebels Prof. Gerard van Rooij Ir. Diego Pintossi Dr. Boelo Schuur Ir. Jan Kolijn Ir. Franks Kuipers Ir. Emile de Jong Dr. Michael Debije
- TU/e - Fluor. - DIFFER - TU/e - University of Twente - TUSTI BV - SABIC - Shell - TU/e
09
The pleasure of a fountain pen Collection
In the current day and age, fountain pens are mostly seen as vintage instruments, as a way to look to the past. Because speed has become the norm over the last few years, writing has become less appreciated. People need to pump out as much information in as little time as possible, thus keyboards and computers have replaced pen and paper as writing peripherals. There is no longer a need to worry about spelling and undecipherable handwriting. There is a downside to this speedbased typing though: the loss of penmanship and the feeling of writing with a good fountain pen. This feeling is hard to describe; the smoothness of pen on paper, the flow of ink and the subtle differences in line width and color while writing makes it a unique experience for everyone. I am certain that once someone has tried a good fountain pen, they will recognize this special feeling and quickly get captured by it. Due to arthritis I had to give up writing entirely at a young age. Over the years I used many different writing utensils: rollerballs, fine liners and gel pens just to name a few, even the best gel pen would not allow me to move away from a keyboard. It was not until I turned 13, when I received my first good fountain pen, that I was finally able to write again. Not having to use pressure while writing, as you have to when using a ballpoint, made a world of change for me. The fountain pen made it possible to write again. Over the last few years I have had many changes in my script. It may not be the most beautiful writing the world has ever seen, but it is mine and my own.
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T-Licht Issue 23.2
“The fountain pen made it possible to write again.� After using my first and second fountain pen, I quickly fell down the rabbit hole. I wanted to feel the difference in every pen. I wanted to know what makes them different. At this point, they are not just writing utensils to me, but also pieces of art. With the most beautiful colors, stories and amazing craftsmanship behind them. Modern pens contrast
nicely with vintage ones, making use of different designs, materials and mechanisms. This combination of new and old creates a huge diversity of pen, making sure there is one for every person. The huge variety of ink, from deep black to vanilla-scented gold, is another big part of collecting and using fountain pens. Currently, I have over 50 pens, 100 inks and work in a store specialized in selling pens, and I would never want it any other way.
WRITTEN BY:
Teun Prinsen Teun wanted to tell the reader more about his love for fountain pens.
EindhovEn Terneuzen
Debottlenecking of the Ethylene-3 Debutanizer Since its start-up, this debutanizer has been running close to its maximum capacity. Occasionally, the debutanizer becomes limiting for the total production of our plant. A revise is needed in order to identify opportunities to overcome this production limit and allow for a capacity increase. Strategic plan for replacement of underground piping The Terneuzen site has a lot of underground pipes for the distribution of water which are old and need to be replaced. Replacing them one by one is very cost intensive. Aim of this internship is to study the routing of all underground piping and define a strategic replacement plan.
Multiple internships on improvement projects within the supply chain department where the main focus is put on improving supply chain processes by using analytical and quantitative methods. Plastics PE recycling In a world of increasing awareness of the impact of plastic on the environment, it is essential to develop various methods to tackle this world scale phenomenon. As there will not be a one size fits all solution: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover are the 4 R's that encompass the working space. Within the recycle area the constraints are often related to the final product properties and the loss of quality due to (multiple) heat treatments. This project is aimed at investigating which materials could be used for blending with virgin material, possibly with a blend enhancer, such that final property requirements are not sacrificed.
The costs of classroom shortage Thomas on research
In the past five years the number of students has increased by 35% at our university. This means more crowded classrooms in order to keep the education efficient. With only two real lecture rooms in the Helix building, this means that you have to move to the different buildings spread out over the campus. How much inefficiency is there involved in this migration and what could be done if it would be improved? There seems to be a stereo image of Industrial Engineering students skipping lectures and watching them back online a week before the exam. This stereo image could be very true since their department has more than five times the amount of online courses as we do. At our department only 12 courses were recorded, accounting for approximately 30% of the courses with lectures. Where they can choose for courses which are recorded, we as chemical engineering students have no choice but to go to the lecture rooms (not all information is given in the books). More and more the TU/e optimises the lecture room size to the number of students of a course, and not necessarily the location. Last year the lecture rooms in the Matrix building were sacrificed to Innovation space and the capacity of the Flux building is only modest compared to the increase in the number of students. We can, therefore, expect more and more trips
to the outskirts of our campus since the shortage of classrooms will most likely not disappear in the upcoming years. Of course the problem of the spacing at the TU/e is huge, but what hurts everyone the most is being unable to follow lectures in our own beloved Helix building. Because of the limited space in STC 0.01 and STC 0.02, it seems obvious that the younger cohorts need to enjoy their lectures somewhere else since they simply won’t fit in these halls. However, the problem stretches beyond our newest students. One of the most important group of students is, of course, the master students! These cohorts would fit just fine in the lecture halls in Helix, but the planning responsibles of the TU/e, however, chooses to put them somewhere far away. Especially the new lecture hall in Luna or the “Van Trier”hall in Traverse are favorites this year. The logical question to arise at this point is of course; is this the most logical decision? To make sure we’re able to give a good insight into this information, the courses of a CPT-master student of last year were tracked. From here, it was concluded that a different location than the Helix was used 58,5 % of the time. The favorite locations, except for the Helix, were Metaforum and Traverse as can be seen in figure 1. This data is then extrapolated
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to be representable for the entire group. Although the distance from location to location on-campus might not feel like a lot, this starts adding up quickly when considering the entire group of students that would fit into the TNO building that the TU/e did not buy. According to an article in the Cursor, TNO would grant space to 3500 students. The average CPT-student travelled 110.08 km annually more with the current schedule than would have been the case if the Helix building was reserved solely for CEC students. With the capacity of TNO being estimated at 3500 students, this would mean 385 thousand kilometres per year! However, from own experience after only 2 quartiles of MSMC courses it can already be noted that these students were not able to follow any lectures within the Helix building, meaning even more wasted kilometres. “Time is money” has never been more true. When taking a look into how much extra distance is traveled, this can of course be translated into time that is being wasted on walking around, which good have been spend working as well! Assuming a healthy (read: nonhungover) student walks with a pace of around 5 km/h, it can be calculated how much time is wasted on a yearly basis.
During the entire last year, all 3500 students combined would have spent over 77.000 hours walking around campus, when they also could have been spending this time on a student assistant job for the university. An average wage of €13.44 per hour is used for this calculation, based on a student having earned 180 ECTS. This means that the students walking around cost them a grand total of 1.03 million euros last year! Interestingly, there was an opportunity for the TU/e to purchase the building of TNO, where 3500 students could have been seated. As published in the Cursor in April 2016, Fontys bought this building for 20 million euros. For a regular CPT student who is a
“the students would have earned back the money within 19.5 years!” bit into process design, the term ‘rate of interest’ (RoI) is of course known. Making the assumption that this extra mile walked is representative for all 3500 students that could be seated in the TNO building, with just their student jobs, the students would have earned back the money within 19.5 years!
Although we know of course that using the time of a student directly proportional to a certain amount of money is not the correct approach, writing this article did raise a question. Maybe it would be nice to have someone from the mathematics department to perform a Dijkstra shortest path analysis on the problem on the TU/e? It would save us all some time walking around campus, leaving more time for earning money!
WRITTEN BY:
Thomas Werkhorst & Bart van den Bersselaar By writing this article, Thomas and Bart wanted to show how much time gets wasted by having to cross the entire campus.
Source: https://www.cursor.tue.nl/ nieuws/2016/april/fontys-betaalt-20miljoen-voor-tno-gebouw/
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Envisiong
with some logical help. Puzzle
A chemist needs to be able to both think in a logical manner and be able to envision whatever he/she is currently creating. Therefore we would like to test this ability using a puzzle called a nonogram. To solve this logic puzzle, use the following rules: The numbers next to each row and above each column show how many black squares are connected in that row or column. Multiple numbers next to a row or column mean that there are more than one set of connected black squares in that row or column. The numbers are given in the correct order; the leftmost number next to a row means that that number of connected black squares in that row is also on the leftmost position. The puzzle consists of 25 x 40 squares. (Tip: The solution of the puzzle resembles an image found in every T-Licht.) Example:
Last edition the winner, Koen Jongejan, received a JBL E65BT NC wireless headphone. This time, the three winners will receive a Richardson Sheffield knife block , Courtesy of ExxonMobil. In order to win this prize, you need to mail a scan of the finished puzzle to tlicht.st@tue.nl before the 25th of February 2019. Disclaimer: only regular members are eligible for the prize.
15
Join the dark side,
we have stouts! Beer of the quartile
Another T-Licht means of course also a new Beer of the Season. Six stock managers have once again stuck their taste buds together in order to find some decent taste. However, just decent? No! This time we went searching for a next level, uncompromising taste. Hopefully unlike anything you have ever tasted before. When tasting the Beer of the Aeason, the stock managers of the F.O.R.T. are always looking for exceptional beer. The standards for the Beer of the Aeason are pretty high, and in my opinion have gotten quite a bit higher over the last few years. In other words, the stock managers might be slightly spoiled when it comes down to tasting beers. This can be interpreted in two ways. Either the stock managers are just snobby beer drinkers – which, I can tell you, is not always true – or they want to make sure that the Beer of the Aeason is a delicious drink, uncompromising in taste and appearance. The latter is definitely the case for this editions Beer of the Aeason. And there is more good news! The way in which the new Beer of the Season is determined is very simple. A certain amount of stock managers tastes a certain (rather large) amount
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of beers, and rates them between zero and ten. The beer ending with the highest average score is the new Beer of the Season. Of course, as in any competition, it is possible that two competitors end up both occupying first place. That is exactly what happened during the tasting this time. Since no-one wanted to reconsider their scores, we ended up with two Beers of the Season! As said before, these two beers are uncompromising not only in taste, but also in the amount of alcohol and their looks. I’m sorry to say so, but these beers are probably not everyone’s cup of tea. Or actually… I’m not sorry, these beers are just amazing in my opinion. The two beers have a few things in common, namely their high alcohol contents (ten and twelve percent, respectively) and their styles. Both are big, bold and thick imperial stouts.
Another thing they have in common is that their breweries are in the top notch of the modern craft beer scene. Both are trying to constantly come up with not only new beers, but also new beer concepts. They do it in very different ways however. Whereas To Øl distributes their beers across the world, De Moersleutel is still a very small brewery and their beers are a tough thing to lay your hands on outside the Netherlands.
This year’s Miss Denmark The first of the two beers, just like the previous Beer of the Season, comes from a gypsy brewery originating in Copenhagen, Denmark. Not Mikkeller this time around, but their world famous cousin To Øl. The beer is called Ms. Black 2018, and is part of the Ms. series the brewery launched this year. In the series, each beer is assigned a color. This is not
In need of some lubrication?
necessarily the color of the beer as it is for Ms. Black. She was for example preceded by Ms. Magenta, Ms. Grey and Ms. Violet. Mostly however, the colors have at least something to do with the taste or ingredients of the beer. In the words of the brewers, the attempt for Ms. Black was to make “an evil and beastly black imperial stout”. According to the name of the beer, one would say they succeeded. And they did. Seldom will you see a beer more black than this one. In order to make it even more challenging, they added copious amounts of licorice, as well as some buckets of dates. Obviously, licorice is a love-it-or-hate-it ingredient and not appreciated by too many people. It works brilliantly in this beer however. The anise flavors are partially masked by the rich and sweet taste of the dates, and complement the bitter dark malts beautifully. All this tastefulness secretly covers the alcohol content of this lovely Miss. That does however not mean the beer is an easy-drinker. It can better be enjoyed as a slow sipper. While the beer warms up a bit, the taste reveals some more sweetness and the bitterness is toned down a little. Embrace this Miss slowly and she will caress your tongue with beautiful sweet taste, do it too fast and she will unforgivingly knock you down.
Our second beer is one with a motto. The can of Motorolie Coffee Vanilla clearly states “Zonder smering loopt alles naar de tering” – freely translated to “Without lubrication, everything goes to complete and utter shit”. The Dutch version rhymes, so one could say it is true. And it is definitely clear the brewers believe in this motto. The Motorolie Coffee Vanilla surely has the appearance of a thick lubricant, but luckily has an amazing smell from the moment the can is cracked. As with Ms. Black, the alcohol is again hidden very well by the ingredients added to the beer. The coffee and vanilla are very successful in disguising the twelve percent of alcohol going around in your glass. It is of course no secret that the addition of vanilla and coffee is the perfect marriage with an imperial stout, provided that it is done in the right way. And, as one would almost be sure to expect with a beer from this brewery, it works out beautifully in this Motorolie.
All of this sounds like De Moersleutel is an established brewery run by experienced brewers. However, the opposite is true! The Alkmaar based brewery is the result of hard work by four brothers, all aged around twenty. As they say themselves, they are Beer Engineers who do not brew for everyone. They want their beer to be looked upon as legendary, so that everyone who drinks it is spoiled for life and would not want anything else anymore. It sounds like quite firm language from a bunch of young brothers. But it works! The young guys make collaboration brews with leading breweries throughout Europe, and are always looking for uncompromising, big flavor.
WRITTEN BY:
Dennis Thuy The stock managers have once again endured the tasting of the Beer of the Season, but they were not too good at making a choice this time around.
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Welcome to Eindhoven, Internationals! Carte blanche
I came to this city of Eindhoven a year ago and I think I now have the right to give a reflection of my thoughts and experiences of living in the Netherlands for a year. So, the first thing I noted straight after getting off the bus here is how much nature there is in this city! These parcs are especially nice when you just want to spend an afternoon outside chilling with your friends or host a picnic. But wait! For that you need the sun and we all know how rarely the Dutch get the sun. On the first day at uni (the International students day before Intro week), we had a game station where we were going to play tug-ofwar (outdoors). However, suddenly it started to rain and I was about to run inside when I realized I was actually the only one who was going to run indoors. To the people who had been living here for a while this was perfectly normal- “Welcome to the Netherlands”, they said and that is how we ended up playing tug-of-war in the rain. So tip number 1: Make sure you have a raincoat. Jokes aside, to be honest with you, the weather isn’t that bad. It’s just unpredictable and sometimes likes to play games with you but otherwise over time you will agree with me that it is bearable. My favorite thing about the Netherlands, is their biking culture of course. Coming from Vienna, Eindhoven seems small and cute to me. The combination of the city being small and the biking culture being huge makes it easy to get around everywhere by bike. The only difficult times for me are when it snows or when the wind is too strong but even then you will see a lot of Dutch people biking like it’s a normal day. It’s really great how the state promotes biking so much because not only does it ensure everyone does a minimal amount of sport, but it is also a more sustainable
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way of transportation. Life is so much easier with biking being the major mode of transportation but that is also because the public transportation system including the OV-chip card is something I can write a whole new article about, so let’s forget about that for now. Coming to the Dutch people, I must say they are one of the most open and friendliest people I have met. It is easy to hold a conversation with most of them but I must add that it can be difficult to become close friends with them. One has to remember that most of them are also not used to having internationals in their classes and when we suddenly approach them it might be difficult for them too but it obviously also depends on how much effort you put into trying to get close to them. I personally think it is quite necessary to put in that extra work, just because we all moved here and to get the true Dutch experience I believe it is quite essential to have some good Dutch friends as well. Now what about learning the language, is it necessary? Necessary… uhmm… well to survive in the city, English is good enough because as crazy as it may sound almost everyone speaks English (and not bad English). It was hard for me to believe that even the vendors at the Saturday open markets speak English (maybe it’s because I
am Austrian and our willingness and fluency to speak English is not that great). Regardless of this, I do still recommend you to take up a Dutch course and learn the language (the university offers free courses) because it’s just a vital part of integration. When it comes to tradition there is so much to talk about. Like the Zwarte Piet tradition (controversial topic currently) or how the whole country parties for the King’s birthday. It is heartwarming to see how the entire city/country comes together for celebrations. I could go on and on about the Dutch culture but I will let you experience the rest by yourself ;) Veel Plezier!
WRITTEN BY:
Limi Kalapurackal Limi wanted to welcome the internationals to Eindhoven.
Japie’s birthday: Time to party! Diesweek
Just like every person, Japie also ages. Although the young and bright faces of the members might imply otherwise, the association already turned a whopping 61 years last December. Of course, this has not gone without notice! According to tradition, the entire association celebrated the birthday of Japie with an activity packed week of fun!
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Monday The fun all started at Monday. After the board was done with her weekly board meeting, they went to the pantry to bring the party to everyone’s attention. Whilst Rosa gave a nice speech about the association, everyone looked at the cake full of desire. Although not all board members were fully visible on the cake, everyone enjoyed the delicious treat. This was of course only the start of the first day of the diesweek. The board went back to the Japiekamer to prepare the final parts for a special evening. For the first time in quite some years there would not be a diescafé! As we all know Japies are not the best at handling changes, but offer them a drink with free beer and you know for sure they will come! The diesreception was a nice occasion to start the week with a little drink. During the drink, of course Laurent Nelissen and Emiel Hensen were also present. On behalf of the entire faculty board they donated a molecule to symbolize the fact that the F.O.R.T. is allowed to order a giant model of a
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molecule to put on one of the walls. Of course everyone is extremely grateful for this nice gift. Luckily for the true die-hard party people the evening did not stop after the drink. A group of hungry Japies went to “De Slak” to enjoy some Asian food and wine. I’d say a good way to kick of the diesweek!
Tuesday A dies is not a dies without a cantus! On Tuesday evening, thirty thirsty Japies went to the F.O.R.T. to give in to their inner desires and waited patiently for the Preasidium to arrive. Like every year, it was a true surprise which former committee wanted to come back for a night to their beloved bar. The 31st committee lived up to the expectations and arranged the 4th lustrumcommittee to teach us some manners and to let us enjoy some ‘gifts’ as they liked to called them. Unfortunately, not the entire committee could make it to the F.O.R.T., but they were replaced by someone from their cohort and with the desired experience as a board member. The cantus was great fun,
except for a slight PVC tube incident. All in all it had everyone eager for more and ready for the rest of the diesweek.
Wednesday The week was already flying by and had us halfway through our partying before we even noticed what was happening. The Wednesday of the best week of the year was here and the board had prepared an amazing activity. Although the previous years the diesworkshop might not have had the highest amount of subscribers, the board managed to ‘lub’ an amazing amount of 37 persons. Unfortunately, only 25 lucky Japiemembers got the chance to participate in a shooting and sabering workshop. They were welcomed in a gym where the guns were already present and the participants got a chance to shoot some targets. Luckily, no one got hurt and everyone felt like a true Lucky Luke. After this great experience, the participants moved to the Markthal to learn how to open their beer bottles in the most fashionable way ever; sabering. Although some Japies
didn’t have the true feeling for it and the necks of some bottles died, the overall performance was one to be proud of! Ready for the last two days of the week, everyone went to bed in preparation for the pub crawl the next day.
Thursday On Thursday the annual pub crawl took place in our own Eindhoven. Of course, everyone had the opportunity to do a little pre-party in the F.O.R.T. from 16.00 until 18.31. At 21.00 everyone gatherer at the Catherina church to visit the first bar: Villa Fiesta, and a fiesta it was. Everyone got a welcome shot/beer. People started to get loose, dance a bit and hum along with the songs, so it was the perfect time to go to the Ameezing. In the karaoke bar, the Japies were given a platform to show their singing skills and many promising boy and girl bands passed the line-up. Before people were able to get sore throats from singing, we went to the next bar: The Feestfabriek. As true chemical engineers are ought to, we optimized the party in this factory.
Once we were happy with the results we went to the next bar, the Costa, where the party was continued. As the evening passed into the night, so the Japies passed from the Costa to the Sgt. Peppers, the last bar in the line-up. Unfortunately, here the party had to end, but not before we thanked Stratumseind with a final song: the Japiesong.
Friday Being drunk is like transferring the happiness of tomorrow to the current party. Luckily the board prepared for his and made sure there was happiness to spare of Friday morning. With many colorful bottles of pancake batter, they allowed the hungover Japies to both express their creativity and have some breakfast or lunch. In order to make sure there was enough room, the board transferred the Japieroom couches to the F.O.R.T., also allowing some members to catch up on their sleeping. In the afternoon, the F.O.R.T. transformed into a theater when a movie was played on the beamer. As the credits for the movie rolled, so did the credits
for Japies 61st birthday week. Here’s to another year filled with great Japie activities!
WRITTEN BY:
Bart van den Bersselaar Marc Willemsen Bart and Marc celebrated Japies birthday and wanted to share the events in case somebody missed them.
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Redefining the basics Science news
One of the most basic and fundamental areas in science, metrology, is undergoing a major change in four out of seven of its key definitions- the definition of the kilogram, mole, ampere and kelvin. The decision was made at the 26th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) were representatives from 60 countries voted for the redefinition of four of the basic International System of Units (SI).
What? Currently the SI units are kilogram, seconds, kelvin, ampere, candela, metres and moles which correspond to the seven base quantities - mass, time, thermodynamic temperature, electric current, luminous intensity, length and amount of substance. After the revision of the SI units being done on the 16th of November 2018 at the CGPM in Versailles, France it has been decided that four out of them have to be redefined in terms of measured constants of nature such as the speed of light. Four base quantities- mass, electric current, amount of substance and thermodynamic temperature will
be redefined in terms of the planck constant (h), the Avogadro constant (Na), elementary charge (e), and the Boltzmann constant (kb) respectively. The most major change out of these is the change in the definition of mass since until now it was defined as the kilogram which was based for over 130 years on the International Prototype of the Kilogram (IPK). This material artefact has now been retired and replaced by the simpler and more fundamental planck constant.
Why? The redefinition of the SI units is considered to be necessary for the future development and sustainability of scientific theories, technology and commerce. The material artefact, IPK’s mass being considered the standard unit for mass limited the reproducibility of it in different places, time and people. Switching the SI unit to a constant of nature ensures that the SI unit is able to be realized at any place or time and by anyone. It was also seen that the mass of the IPK fluctuated over the years. The following graph by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) illustrates the mass change over the year from 1889. Hence it is clear that a constant of nature, planck’s constant, ensures more stability than a material artefact. Redefining the SI unit for the amount of substance from moles to the Avogadro’s constant ensures that it is not dependent on mass anymore although that too is redefined in terms of a constant now. The Ampere is derived from mass and hence defining it also in terms of the constant, e, ensures stability. The
Left: Graph depicting the change of mass of the IPK since 1889
Kelvin till now has been defined on the basis of a property of water that should theoretically not vary but the purity and isotropic nature of water have an impact and hence a constant like the Boltzmann’s constant allows for sustainability of the unit. Another advantage of using constants is that it forms a sort of coherent system where scientific equations can be used easily. Overall, with all the advantages with the redefinition, scientists believe to trigger science and industry, especially the measurement industry.
Impact on everyday life It is important to note that the size of the units will actually not change (a kilogram will still be a kilogram). Therefore, in everyday life there will be no difference. Additionally, it is also important to make sure that the calibration laboratories do not face a change since it is them who then supply to the customers. So at these levels, there will not be any change. The revised definitions will be put into action from the World Metrology Day 2019, May 20th. As said by Martin Milton, director of BIPM, “The SI redefinition is a landmark moment in scientific progress”.
WRITTEN BY:
Limi Kalapurackal Limi wanted to warn all chemists that their beloved SI units are about to be changed.
References: 1. National Physical Laboratory. “Kilogram, ampere, kelvin and mole redefined: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 November 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/ releases/2018/11/181116115556. htm>. 2. BIPM. “On the Revision of the SI.” BIPM - Measurement Units, www. bipm.org/en/measurement-units/ rev-si/.
23 Left: The IPK (© Credits: BIPM)
The march against reason Letting off some steam
When looking back at the last decade of political and public behaviour, one thing stands out for me like a stick in the mud: The slow but steady rise of authoritarianism and the subsequent rise of victimhood (and falsehood) culture. When viewing authoritarianism, famous figures the likes of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping (secretary general of China) might pop up as longstanding political figures that have slowly consolidated power over the past years. However, the last couple years have had surprising additions to this list in the forms of the re-election of Turkish president Erdogan in June this year or the election of extreme far right winged Brazilian president Bolsonaro. Some would even go so far to argue that our lovely friend Trump should be part of this infamous list. As of this moment, a third of the world lives in a declining democracy. Authoritarian leaders and campaigns often focus on three different tactics. Firstly, projecting strength by organising military marches like seen in China or Russia. Secondly, demonising enemies, and thirdly dismantling institutes. The second of these three tactics brings in mind the cultural development that has arisen as of late: the victimhood culture. Some authoritarian leaders tend to demonise their enemies by victimising not only themselves, but also the target audience they wish to gain support from. A good example of these tactics can be found practiced
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“The balance is shifting away from democracy, for better or worse.” by the man currently sitting in the white house. Unfair is one of his favourite words, he calls the federal investigation into his actions “a rigged witch hunt”. He accuses the FBI of infiltrating his campaign with spies. He insists the media is running a sophisticated disinformation operation to discredit him. Moreover, he demands apologies for myriad criticisms and slights. Trump has time and time again used both the tactics of victimization and holding the truth hostage as a means to instil a sense of shared prosecution between him and his followers, gaining masses of support for no other apparent reason. Even when personally confronted year after year with news on these authoritarian leaders and their slow rise, I still found myself believing that these things don’t happen here. But then I realised they do, even in small amounts: The current and ever more heated ‘Zwarte Piet’ discussion in the Netherlands and the rise of populism in Italy to name a few. Even from
personal experience I have found more and more people unwilling to take or give criticism in even the slightest of cases. All of these are signs that society is changing. Victimhood culture, misinformation, authoritarianism, populism: not merely problems of the future or the past anymore. Where does this all end? Time will tell.
WRITTEN BY:
Alex van de Greef Alex noticed some striking changes happening in the world and reluctantly found out that these changes hit closer to home than he would have thought.
Going for a chemistry degree Join the KNCV Get your one year free student membership at www.kncv.nl!
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Quick fix with a good mix PhD article
In the research group of Chemical Reactor Engineering we are working under the framework of Process Intensification with novel equipment, aiming to become more sustainable, reduce waste and energy consumption, and keep or even improve product quality. Some colleagues are working on industrial applications together with companies to improve processes, others focus on green energies like biomass, and others, like me, are getting more fundamental knowledge about new technology to implement it in the industry. Here I want to share with you my research. But first, let’s talk about mixing. First of all, what is mixing? My favorite example has been, and will always be, with coffee. When we add milk or sugar to our hot cup of coffee in the morning, we need to agitate it, usually with a spoon, to blend everything together (Figure 1). But if we just slowly pour the milk or drop the sugar into the coffee and wait for molecular diffusion to do its task, our coffee will be cold way before we achieve an uniform drink. So I like to think of the spoon as a mixer, and stirring as the mixing process to get a homogeneous product. But this is just one of many examples that we can observe every day. Some applications of mixing in industrial processes can be seen
when the content of a vessel is stirred to minimize gradients in temperature and concentration, which enables reactions to occur at optimal conditions. Mixing is also used to create uniform dispersions, increasing the rates of mass and heat transfer. So if instead of coffee and milk and sugar we picture an acid and a base, the importance of mixing becomes more evident. Typically, a neutralization reaction is so fast that it is considered “instantaneous”; kinetic rates have an order of magnitude of 1011 mol/s. This means that the reaction will happen as soon as we allow the reagents to meet each other in the reactor. The speed of reaction is directly linked to the speed of mixing of the reactants.
Figure 1. Mixing is the process of homogenizing.
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“It is important to work together to improve our processes and become more efficient.” The story gets more challenging for complex chemical systems, in which the local temperature and the local concentration of the reactants determine which products are formed. Because reactions occur at the molecular scale, we should also control the conditions at this small scale. The physical mechanisms that describe the way local gradients change are called micromixing. The impact micromixing can have on the selectivity of very fast reactions that
compete for a limiting reagent is huge. Let us assume that we have a tank filled with a mixture of A and B, and we add a third component C that can react with both the other reagents. However, we are only interested in the reaction of A and C. This is a parallelcompetitive reaction system and theoretically, the product distribution should only depend on the ratio of the kinetic constants, but in reality, if the reactions are extremely fast the selectivity will in fact depend on the speed at which we can provide fresh A to the reaction zone. Other examples are competitive-consecutive reaction systems, where the products can further react to undesired products. For that we can think of an aromatic Figure 2. Selectivity towards undesired products (XS) is reduced with increasing compound, and we want to perform a rotational speeds.1 single chlorination, but poor mixing leads to a further chlorination. real systems often involve very I am investigating the mixing quality complex behaviors. in the rotor-stator Spinning Disc Reactor (rs-SDR). This novel type All in all, what is important is to work of reactor consists of a disc inside together to improve our processes a cylindrical housing, rotating at and become more efficient. And very high speeds. Since the distance enjoy the next cup of coffee ;) between the disc and the wall is very small (a few millimeters), high shear forces are exerted into the reactor’s WRITTEN BY: contents, increasing the rates of mass and heat transfer and enhancing fast Arturo N. Manzano Martinez reactions. The high shear forces also create a high degree of turbulence, Arturo N. Manzano Martinez is on his which by nature promotes mixing, third year as a PhD student, working with making the rs-SDR suitable rs-SDR to achieve Process Intensification. equipment for very fast reactions. He also drinks too much coffee. So far, the results are promising. Recent research using test reactions on rs-SDR has shown micromixing occurring in the range of milliseconds to tenths of milliseconds. This assures higher selectivity for fast reactions, reducing undesired products and eliminating unnecessary separation steps. So now my focus is on characterizing the micromixing efficiency for highly viscous liquids, as well as immiscible liquids, because
[1] Manzano Martínez, A. N., Van Eeten, K. M. P., Schouten, J. C., & Van Der Schaaf, J. (2017). Micromixing in a Rotor-Stator Spinning Disc Reactor. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, 56(45), 13454–13460. https:// doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.7b01324
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Wilco Weggemans Interview
From Monday to Friday, Wilco Weggemans travels on his high speed electric bike from his home in Gemert to the TU/e in Eindhoven, a staggering 20 km. He started at the TU/e in 2007 and is now a research officer specialised in analytical chemistry. However, most students will know him as one of the teachers of their first-year lab course. Can you tell us something about your career path? In 1988, I finished the study HLO laboratory education. Afterwards, I worked at a research lab of AkzoNobel for one year. Subsequently, I became senior analyst at the Rijnland district water control board for another seventeen years. This is one of the oldest water control boards of the Netherlands. I worked there on a high-quality control lab. In 2007, I started at the TU/e in the research group of André de Haan. When André left in 2013, I continued in the group of Maaike Kroon. In their groups I made several publications. In 2014, I took over part of the second year organic practicum
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from Anja Palmans. When Maaike stopped at the TU/e, I took over part of the first-year practical course. Apart from assisting lab courses, now and then I’m also helping startup companies with analytical issues, such as Flowid. Why did you decide to switch from Rijnland to university? At Rijnland, I also supervised interns, which I really liked to do. They asked me if I didn’t want to become a teacher. I decided to take courses in education. I got a teacher degree in chemistry and physics in 2003 and 2005, respectively. Later, my company was involved in a fusion between different companies. I had to
move although I didn’t want to work in the new company. I heard about a vacancy at the TU/e for an analytical specialist and I decided to apply. What is the main difference between semi-government and university according to you? The main difference is that in a company you have to stick to certain procedures. On the other hand, with André and Maaike I had much more freedom to choose my own way of working.
“Study hard and don’t be afraid to make mistakes ”
Quick fire questions: What achievement are you most proud of? Working here as practicum teacher. What area of chemistry did you specialize in? Analytical chemistry Can you name one of your hobbies? Model trains. I’ve a table with model trains at home, including a landscape with mills, riding cars and a fair. If you had to choose another profession, what would it be? Working at a nice bike-store. I would also like to own a big room with train
What do you like most about working with the first year bachelor students? Students don’t know everything. I can help them with my experience because I went through the same struggles when I was young. I like to see them growing and becoming more confident about what they’re doing in the lab. Also, I like conversations with students a lot. During the lab courses, I have close contact with students. It’s like I’m “next to” students instead of “above them”. The big advantage of having this practical immediately at the beginning of the first year is that the students have a lot of contact with each other from the start. When they have a problem, they can discuss it with each other to find a solution. It’s important that they learn this. Where would you like to see yourself in ten years? I hope I’ll still be working here. Maybe then I could do other practicums as well. For example, I would like to do more with analytics. Maybe we could set up an analytical practicum for bachelor
students. I think that would be very useful for the students.
landscapes so that other people can visit
Do you have any advice for students?
One whole day practicum or two half
it.
days? I prefer to have no practicum on Friday.
Study hard and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Instead, ask yourself why you made those mistakes. Students usually come from schools where they were not allowed to make mistakes. Here they’re more than welcomed to learn from the mistakes. Sometimes a PhD student has a project that fails for three years, but in the fourth year they have a huge breakthrough.
More or less lab work? More. A lot of students miss the lab work after the first practicum, because it takes a long time until they have another one. Practical courses help a lot to understand the theory better. You only learn how it works when something goes wrong. Favourite holiday destination? I like to travel a lot and to see different countries in Europe.
WRITTEN BY:
Woutje ter Weel Mariska Brüls
More or less students at the department? Recently, the practicum lab was completely full. If that happens again, we need more space and more assistants. In the future they may have to renew the equipment.
Woutje and Mariska wanted to give the reader an insight in the life of a research officer everyone probably knows!
What would you take with you to a deserted island? My family. I’m married and have three sons. I’ve met my wife when she was an intern at Rijnland.
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Having a blast at New Years Eve Real life chemistry
Welcome to 2019! It’s a new year and also a new edition of real-life chemistry. With the turn of the year you probably have participated in one of the many New Year’s Eve traditions. Drinking champagne, making resolutions, eating oliebollen and of course fireworks! century, a military use was found for gunpowder. First firecrackers were attached to arrows to shoot at enemies, later in the 12th century the technology evolved into full-fledged rockets, which were not only used for combat, but also for fireworks in cultural celebrations.
Strontium salts Around 800 A.D., somewhere in or near China, alchemist mixed together saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal and invented the recipe for eternal life. Or so they thought, it literally exploded in their faces, as they just invented gunpowder. Luckily, they managed to find a proper use for this explosive mixture. The loud bangs and bright flashes were perfect for keeping evil spirits away . They put the gunpowder in bamboo shoots and threw these into a fire, causing an explosion. A couple of iterations and burnt fingers a fuse was added and paper was used instead of bamboo. Around the 10th
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In 1295, the technology was brought to Europe by Marco Polo. In Europe gunpowder was used in advanced weaponry, such as cannons and firearms. However, it also retained its original purpose as fireworks, and was incorporated into New Year’s Eve traditions, to again, scare evil spirits.
align fireworks with precision, which is needed for big firework shows with multiple rockets. The fuse is the piece of cloth or paper that you light. It allows for some time between lighting and actually shooting the firework into the air. For personal use, it is usually lighted with a match or a cigarette lighter, though for complex public displays often an electric fuse is used.
Nowadays fireworks aren’t used to scare away spirits, but to satisfy the primal human desire for bright colors and explosions. Generally, fireworks consist of five parts: the tail, the fuse, the charge, the effect and the head. The tail is the long wooden or plastic stick sticking out of the bottom. It makes sure that the firework shoots in a straight line, it is mainly for safety reason, but it can also help
Barium salts
time-delayed fuses. Each of these compartments hosts a mixture of fuel, an oxidizing agent, a binder and metal salts or oxides. Copper salts The charge is used to propel the firework into the air. While it is filled with coarse gunpowder, it does not cause the explosion or colors; it is only used to launch the explosive. When the powder packed into the charge burns, it gives off hot exhaust gases that fire backwards. The force of the exhaust gases firing backwards is like the blast coming out from a rocket engine and creates an equal and opposite “reaction” force that sends the firework shooting forward up into the air with speeds up to 180 km/h. The head itself isn’t as interesting, sometimes it has a point on top, to make the firework more aerodynamic, faster and improve the chance it goes into a straight line. It does however contain the visually most interesting part: the effects.
When the fuse ignites the gunpowder in the star, several chemical reactions take place, though the most important is the burning of gunpowder, which releases an impressive 3 megajoules per kilogram. 6 KNO3 + C7H4O + 2 S → K2CO3 + K2SO4 + K2S + 4 CO2 + 2 CO + 2 H2O + 3 N2 In the above reaction the KNO3 also acts as the oxidizer, providing the oxygen for the combustion, though chlorates or perchlorates are also commonly used.
Magnesium, aluminium, titanium bangs, just like 1200 years ago. I do however suspect its ability to drive away spirits has diminished over the years, as the spirits and beers were flowing prominently at the New Year’s Eve party.
WRITTEN BY:
Marc Willemsen Marc is starting 2019 with a bang and wanted to share why fireworks bang.
Calcium salts The burning of the gunpowder causes the electrons of the metal atoms to jump to the LUMO position. With the return of the electron to its original position it emits the excess energy as light. Different kinds of metals have different band gaps, thus the energy is different, which results in a different wavelength of light that is emitted. The binder, usually dextrin, holds the mixture together. It also helps absorb shocks and can act as extra fuel.
Sodium salts Fireworks can contain one or multiple effects. Each effect is packed into a separate compartment, called a star, which are all connected by slow,
Over the years fireworks have continually been developed, using different and safer methods to light up the sky with all kinds of colors. Yet still many kinds of fireworks use the gunpowder to create flashes and
Mix of copper and strotinum salts
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Get the London look An internship at Spirogen Internship
As a final part of my master studies I am now located in the UK for a three month internship at Spirogen, a small pharmaceutical company located in London, as you might have guessed by the title. For me a perfect opportunity to take my English to the next level, as well as getting an idea of what working at a pharmaceutical company is like. During my bachelor and master studies I followed some courses in pharmacology, biochemistry and clinical chemistry, so doing my internship at a pharmaceutical company has always been something I wanted to do. Being able to perform this internship in London even makes it more fun! While writing this article I have only been here for two weeks, so Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll try to give a first impression of my internship and of my time in London so far.
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T-Licht Issue 23.2
At my first day at Spirogen I was introduced to all employees at the same time, as everybody shares one big office. As I am not the most gifted person in terms of remembering names, you can image that that was quite the challenge. After getting to know the employees and the different departments/teams, it was time to get a bit more familiar with the research of Spirogen. Spirogenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research is focused on pyrrolobenzodiazepines (PBDs) as a
payload for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) which are targeting cancer cells. PBDs can crosslink DNA and block replication, therefore causing the apoptosis of cancer cells. Antibody-drug conjugates consist of an active substance (the drug, warhead or in this case the PBD) linked to an antibody via a (usually cleavable) linker. By linking the drug to an antibody, you create a more targeted drug delivery system compared to a naked drug.
Sounds good, right? But, of course there are still certain aspects of this technology that scientists continue to work to improve. One example includes the apoptosis of healthy cells when the ADCs bind to healthy cells instead of tumour cells. To understand more about potential toxicity and have a better understanding about the whole process it is important to be able to visualize things. My project will be about synthesizing new compounds for this purpose. After a few days of onboarding, I joined my mentor in the lab to focus on synthesis and so far, so good. Now, you might be wondering, why go all the way to London to just do more synthesis? So far I’ve noticed that research in a company, even synthetically, is different than at the university. There are more collaborations, more side projects and a mindfulness of resources, ensuring that everything is set up so that you can work in the most efficient way. Ordering intermediate building blocks is more common, and also lab equipment has a different ratio here (instead of 3 rotavaps for a whole lab here we have our personal one). Safety is also quite important here, and I’m learning more about working with hazardous reagents.
But of course, I am not only running around in the lab. With London being such a big and vibrant city, there are plenty things to do and explore. One thing that I did not realize beforehand, is how BIG London is. It doesn’t matter where or when you travel with public transport, there are people around all the time, and even on a Monday night at 11 PM the tube can be packed. Also, I have to commute to my internship every day for +/- 1 hour and to get to the city center takes approximately 30 minutes, but commuting to work is here quite common and people don’t seem to mind. Nevertheless, I’ve been exploring London bit by bit during weekends and also after work (lovely Christmas decorations around here which you’d prefer to see at night). 2 weeks ago I went to Primrose Hill from which you have a nice view over London (yes they actually have hills here, did not realise that as well) and I had a walk round the canals and little Venice (lots of houseboats). I’ve also been to a pub crawl and my prejudices about British night life were not refuted: they drink fast, the girls all dress as if it’s summer while they’re actually freezing and they do say mate to everyone eh? And, Dutch as I am, I went to a free entry day of St Paul’s cathedral, from which you have
quite a good view over the city center. Unfortunately, the sky turned grey when I was walking up there as you can see in the picture, but a grey sky is also very British of course. While I’m in the UK I’m also trying to explore a bit outside of London and I went to Oxford, which was filled with Harry Potter like colleges. With a good 2.5 months still to go I’m quite certain that I won’t be able to see and do all the things on my to-do list, but that only gives me more reasons to come back and explore London a bit more.
WRITTEN BY:
Marle Vleugels Marle is currently doing her internship in the UK until February.
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Broken victory Trophy case
The last few editions of your favorite magazine have been embellished with a page dedicated to strange things in our trophy case. Luckily, Japie has such a rich history that this column can go on for quite some more editions in the coming years. This time around: A broken prize and a nasty looking trophy.
What, when, where: A broken trophy of the ONCS 2004 in Enschede.
What,when, where: The second prize of the ONCS of 2003 in Groningen.
Best part of this thropy: Getting first place in 2004 in Enschede far away from home
Best part of the prize: Being in the cold north getting second. Also, this was the start of Japie winning the ONCS for six consecutive years!
Worst part of this trophy: Nothing lasts forever and this also holds for this prize unfortunately. Somewhere in the past years the little glass plate snapped of the plate . Luckily we still have both parts.
Worst part of the prize: The prize for sure is original, but this does not mean that it looks great. The ecosystem that has been alive in the trophy case for the past year has some nasty green look to it.
Wist je dat... ... Volgens Huub van den B. appelmoes heroĂŻne onder de driejarigen is?
... Tom vd B. bestaat uit weinig inhoud maar vooral veel drank?
... Michelle de L. gebruik maakt van mond-op-mond reclame?
... Volgens Jasmijn J. Linda S. op maandag vaak een smulRol koopt?
... je wist-je-datjes naar tlicht.st@tue.nl kan sturen of in kan leveren op de Japiekamer?
... Rosa G. vindt dat Dirk B. een grote heeft?
... Michelle R. een mutsenfetish heeft?
... Esther M. meer anciĂŤnniteit heeft voor boosheid?
... Volgens Joppe S. vredesvissen bestaan?
... Inge M. haar trampolineprijs nooit ingewind heeft?
... Rick A. van grote ballen houdt?
... Alwin v. K. wel eens Jerome S. kan pakken?
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