Netherlands

Coral reefs found growing at a depth of thousand meters in the Atlantic Ocean

Coral reefs found growing at a depth of thousand meters in the Atlantic OceanAmsterdam, Nov 5: A team of researchers has found coral reefs growing at depths of six hundred to a thousand meters in the Atlantic Ocean.

Furu Mienis, a researcher from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), led the research team.

Mienis studied the development of carbonate mounds dominated by cold-water corals in the Atlantic Ocean at depths of six hundred to a thousand meters.

New hydrogen-absorbing metal alloy sixty percent lighter than battery

Amsterdam, Nov 5: A researcher has shown that that an alloy of the metals magnesium, titanium and nickel is excellent at absorbing hydrogen, and is sixty percent less than a battery pack, which brings the world a step closer to the everyday use of hydrogen as a source of fuel for powering vehicles.

The researcher in question is Robin Gremaud, who was sponsored by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

In order to find the best alloy, Gremaud developed a method that enabled simultaneous testing of thousands of samples of different metals for their capacity to absorb hydrogen, which led to the creation of the new alloy.

Hydrogen is considered to be a clean and therefore important fuel of the future.

Dutch honour "humanitarian deeds" of Wehrmacht soldier

Amsterdam  - A memorial sculpture was unveiled on Tuesday in the southern-Netherlands city of Riel to honour the "humanity" of a soldier from the German army during World War II.

The initiator of the memorial in Riel in the southern Netherlands, Herman van Rouwendaal, 76, said the sculpture "honours the humanity displayed by a soldier of the German army, or Wehrmacht, during WW II".

Karl Heintz Rosch was an 18-year-old soldier when he saved the lives of two young Dutch children on October 6, 1944.

Process of detecting illegal nuclear tests improved

Amsterdam, Nov 4 : Researchers working at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute KNMI has improved the entire process of measuring, analyzing and interpreting infrasound, which would help them detect events that have ‘inaudible’ sounds like illegal nuclear tests.

Sources of infrasound are often large and powerful, like meteors, explosions, ocean waves, storms, volcanoes, avalanches, earthquakes and nuclear tests.

Infrasound is measured with arrays (series) of highly sensitive microbarometers.

TU Delft PhD student Laslo Evers, who works at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute KNMI, has now improved the entire process of measuring, analysing and interpreting infrasound.

Saving-account guarantees should be lowered, Dutch banks say

Amsterdam - Guarantees for Dutch savings accounts should be lowered, the Dutch banks said in a letter to Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos Monday.

Holders of savings accounts at Dutch banks are guaranteed for up to 100,000 euros (128,500 dollars) per person if a bank collapses.

In October, the sum guaranteed under Dutch law was increased for one year from 38,000 euros per account holder.

The Dutch central bank increased the guarantee to boost consumer confidence in the banking system, which reached a low in early October, when the government nationalized the Dutch division of former Belgian-Dutch Fortis bank and the Dutch subsidiary of Iceland's Landsbanki, Icesave, collapsed.

Netherlands sex trade to feel a longer arm of the law

Amsterdam - Patrons visiting one of the Netherlands' red- light districts may soon find themselves on camera.

One by one, authorities in cities across the country are stepping up their efforts to regulate, scrutinize and generally clean up the country's sex business.

This week the mayors of the cities of Alkmaar and Utrecht followed moves by Amsterdam in 2007 to toughen regulation and reduce the ability of the sex trade to act as cover for and cause of other illegal activities.

Authorities have cited drug-dealing, money-laundering and the trafficking of women as crimes that are to be targeted.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance of sex districts is just one method that has been proposed.

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