From the Dutch pages

Hans Heerkens, lecturer aviation industry at Technology and Management, was a sough-after expert in the media last week when the merger of KLM and Air France was announced. He was not surprised about the merger. 'You could have seen it coming since last September, when the American partners of KLM and Air France, Northwest and Delta announced their co-operation. From that moment onwards there was only one option for KLM, because Northwest would not have liked her Dutch partner to say no to a co-operation with Delta (and therefore Air France). Which would have resulted in KLM remaining behind on its own.'

At the first joint conference of study societies Arago (TN) and Alembic (CT) since the merger of their faculties a number of nanotechnology stars spoke about their field. One of them, the well-known Don Eigler from IBM, put the current hype in perspective. 'I do not think that nanotechnology will develop fast enough to satisfy the expectations of Wall Street.' And on the importance of nanotechology: 'By investigating structures at nanoscale we can discover possibilities to do things fundamentally different. Please note, different, not better.'

The current batch of students taking their first year in Friesland's capital Leeuwarden is moving to Enschede earlier than expected. Because only 22 students enrolled in Leeuwarden 'we had to decide that the students will leave Leeuwarden in December for the start of the second trimester. The group is too small to do justice to project education.' This according to the head of the Friesland department Nynke Beintema.

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