GEMINI - Research News from the SINTEF group and NTNU
1996/1997Contents
Introduction
News & Features
- Virtual Reality vs Arachnophobia
- Arachnophobia (the irrational fear of spiders) and other phobias can be treated by means of Virtual Reality. The "artificial world" supplements and substitutes objects and situations for those which cause the phobic anxiety attacks for the sufferers.
- Rocket technology can solve violin mystery
- Norwegian researchers are making use of rocket technology to discover the secrets of the old violin makers, and to build tomorrow's instruments.
- Norwegian wave-power to Java
- The former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland sealed a contract worth 53 million NOK during her visit to Indonesia this summer.
- The wind blows from all sides in Lahti
- Memories of Lahti could destroy the sleep of even the bravest ski jumper. Pro-fessor Helge Noerstrud at NTNU have calculated ex-actly how bad the wind con-ditions are on the infamous Finnish ski slopes.
- POWER LINES MAY CLEAN AIR POLLUTION
- High-tension cables can work to purify the air, but we do not know how effective they are.
- «Nice» microbes can make you sick
- Moulds are harmless when you inhale them outdoors. After a stay in a ventilation system they may give you respiratory infections, allergies or other respiratory problems.
- A NEW WEAPON FOR OUR IMMUNE DEFENCE SYSTEM
- The discovery of an immune-stimulating substance in seaweed and kelp seems promising with regard to the treatment of serious infections.
- «At last I can grasp without breaking»
- Carefully, he grasps a plastic cup with his new artificial hand, and smiles.
- Tumours removed through tiny holes
- Surgeons at the University Hospital of Trondheim (RiT) are now able to remove brain tumours without exposing the brain surface. Tumours can be sucked out through a narrow channel while the surgeon watches an ultra-sound screen.
- Pressure chamber treatment for sports injuries
-
Stig Aftret (18) got rid of his football injury much earlier than his prognosis said - after pre-season preparations carried out on
a simulated water depth of 15 metres.
- Can «see» blindness in diabetics at an early stage
- Researchers at Ullevaal Hospital in Oslo and SINTEF Materials Technology are developing an instrument which can register anomalies in the retinal structures and reveal blindness development in diabetics at an early stage.
- New blood test may provide more accurate diagnosis
- A new method for the testing of blood and other bodily fluids has been developed by two researchers at NTNU.
- Multiple-storey housing for farm-raised halibut
- This could become the living accommodation for the farm-raised halibut of the future. Norwegian researchers and fish farmers are among the first in the world to try multiple-storey housing for fish.
- Experimental fertilizing of the sea
- In 1998, researchers will fertilize parts of the small Hopavaag sea basin in Mid-Norway in order to study the ecologic effects of increased nutrient supply.
- Sticklebacks reveal dangerous oestro gen substances
- Sticklebacks which come in contact with small amounts of organic tin from boat impregnation during an experiment, lose the ability to evade predatory animals and fish.
- New advanced aquaculture technology
- A Trondheim engineering company supplies expertise and advanced equipment to land-based fish farm plants all over the world.
- The modern «fairy-tale» mountain
- The hollow mountain of the Norwegian fairy tale world rises in a modern industrial version from the Alta fjord in Northern Norway. Industrial minerals are excavated from mines hidden far behind the steep mountain wall. These mines are the highest of their kind in the world.
- A wheelchair for developing countries
- This wheelchair will cost you around one thousand NOK. It comes flat-packed and is easily assembled with basic hand tools.
- Leaning over - for your comfort
- You are comfortably seated in the fast InterCity-express between Cologne and Mannheim. The hostess has just served you a fillet of venison in a game sauce with a 1987 Burgundy to go with it. The sun is shining, the Rhine drifts along very calmly, and life seems to be just wonderful. But just before you reach the Lorelei, the engine driver fails to reduce the speed in front of a curve and centrifugal force starts to have an effect.
- «Green» Power Plants at Sea
- Imagine the Norwegian oil field Statfjord, in a few years: On an abandoned oil platform you could find a gas power plant that supplies electricity to Norways main oil fields - without generating CO2 emissions!
- Fertilizers versus oil-spill
- Oil glistens along the shores of the Svea mines at Sval-bard. Researchers clad in overalls spread fertilizers over it. They reckon that micro-organisms will flourish and devour most of the spilled oil within the next couple of months.
- Bacteria in small «hotels» cleans wastewater
- A Norwegian professor is the brains behind billions of little plastic cogwheels used in water-purifying systems all over the world.
- A closer look at aircraft noise exposure
- This is what the aircraft noise contours from an F16 jet fighter operating at Narvik airport in Northern Norway looked like Ð before and after the computers were told what the terrain around the town looks like.
- A Punishing Time for Materials and Structures
- They are being shot at, stretched, bent, twisted and dropped from heights
- The robot that picks out drinking cartons
- Even used packaging could become big business for Autosort AS. Together with SINTEF , they have developed a machine that automatically separates milk and juice cartons from other types of household rubbish.
- They teach you how to work and survive in the cold
- SINTEF Unimed's training course "Health, Protection and Survival in the Cold" is tailor-made for producers of equipment, for doctors, for military personnel and for others who want to master the challenges they find in arctic regions.
- Rescue operations after a plane crash
- A rescue operation after a plane or a helicopter crash in a desert of ice can offer many challenges to those who arrive on the scene first.
- Norway`s research capital and historical centre
- For its own patriots, Trondheim is above all else the Norwegian capital of technology. But it is also the medieval capital of Norway, as well as the country's national football and sports capital.
- Back to the middle ages with Virtual Reality
- The Department of Computer Systems and Telematics at NTNU uses "virtual reality" (VR) to recreate Trondheim as it would have appeared in the 14th century.