New timetable postponed Vibrating fork Insect girl Student-staff Council votes It won’t really help you Cupboards full of insect snacks in against fast-track launch | p.6| lose weight | p.9| your student room | p.25| RESOURCEFor everyone at Wageningen University & Research no 19 – 1 June 2017 – 11th Volume Growing pains Survey shows: the limits are in sight | p.12 2 >> picture BLOOD WEDDING A young woman leaves her bridegroom standing at the altar and goes off with a former lover. That is the gist of the Spanish play Blood Wedding, performed this week in the Belmonte Arboretum by Pierrot and Columbine, the Ceres Drama Society. Although the play is over 80 years old, it is still relevant today, says student Jelle Leeuw. ‘The men in the play are proud and hardworking, while the women are stuck at home all day. They are not allowed to express their sexuality because that makes them sluts. Exactly what happens nowadays with ‘slut shaming’ of girls in student societies.’ There are more open-air performances of the play on 1,2,3 and 4 June. LvdN, photo: Sven Menschel RESOURCE — 1 June 2017 ILLUSTRATION COVER: PASCAL TIEMAN >>CONTENTS no. 19 – 11th volume >> 10 >> 20 >> 24 SACRED NATURE DISPOSABLE SCIENTISTS PIANO OUT OF THE WINDOW Communication on ‘wilderness’ ‘After footballers, scientists are most A bizarre student house tradition in often has religious overtones often in temporary employment’ the Heerenstraat SUNNY FOR NOW Resource asked all the professors and study coordinators what effect the growth in student numbers is having on their work. A big effect, it turns out. Lectures are AND MORE more crowded so not surprisingly more students ask for a personal explanation or 5 Two Vidi grants a pat on the back. Of course it makes a difference if you have to explain something 6 Arnold Bregt is new Dean of 20 times or 70 times. But there were some surprising results too. Based on what Education I’d been hearing on the grapevine, I’d expected our survey to show that the pres- 8 Tree tweets about its sap flow sure of work had become much too much. But that turned out not to be the case. 10 Measuring soil moisture by Most professors still see the sunny side of Wageningen, helped by creative solu- satellite tions, constructive thinking and a large dose of enthusiasm and loyalty. If you read 18 Bioplastics: fact and fiction the opinions on pages 12-15 and run through all 26 questions on resource-online. 22 Which student party are you nl, you have to conclude that WUR’s creative staff are keeping their spirits up. At voting for? the same time, some have clearly reached their limit. So I am curious to know what 26 Another 1400 rooms needed the results will be if growth continues and we ask the same questions next year. 27 Meanwhile in Great Britain I forecast clouds. Edwin van Laar >> ‘Bonus packaging is misleading’ | p.8 1 June 2017 — RESOURCE 4 >> news SURVEY: EDUCATION IS UNDER PRESSURE The continuing rise in student and 70 percent of the programme numbers is putting pressure on coordinators. Chair groups are Wageningen education. Teach- reaching for various means of ers’ workloads are heavy and get- coping with the pressure. Col- ting heavier, teaching methods are leagues, PhD candidates and stu- being adapted and are becoming dent assistants are being brought less personal. This is clear from a in to help. If funding allows, addi- survey by Resource. tional staff are being appointed, but that is a luxury not all chair The editors sent a questionnaire to groups can afford. full professors and programme co- Most teachers are adapting ordinators in all 86 chair groups. their teaching methods to make The survey consisted of a combina- their job doable. Instruction is tion of statements and open ques- taking place via films, practicals tions about growth, its conse- are being overhauled, shortened quences for teachers, and the or simplified. Excursions are standard of the education offered. sometimes cancelled because the The results make clear that the group is too big. To keep grading growth in student numbers is put- within bounds, fewer writing as- See all the survey results ting almost all the chair groups un- signments are being required of on resource-online.nl der pressure. As an example, 90 students. Multiple choice ques- percent of the respondents feel tions are replacing open ques- TIEMAN PASCAL ILLUSTRATION: that the workload of permanent tions and students are peer- staff is increasing because of the reviewing each other’s work in and commitment of the teachers, that have been introduced are not growth, and three quarters spend ‘thesis circles’. who often spend far more of their always seen as positive, either. extra time solving ‘growth prob- Only a small minority, however own time on their teaching work Growth has forced people into in- lems’. (11 percent of the professors and than they really should. Their re- novations which would not other- Groups are getting bigger and 28 percent of the programme co- search work suffers as a result. In wise have been introduced, or on- bigger, and lectures and practi- ordinators) feel that the quality of their explanatory comments, nu- ly at a much later stage. RK cals too. This is making the edu- the education has suffered from merous respondents say the lim- cation more impersonal for stu- the growth. They think that is be- its have been reached. Read too the article on p.12: dents, think half the professors cause of the tremendous efforts The educational innovations Growing pains at WUR WILL IT STAY UP…? ... or will it tumble down? Com- petitors in the Battle of Wagen- ingen University & Research are trying to keep their Jenga tower upright. The Battle is a regular feature of the annual WeDay, which took place last Tuesday. Departmental teams locked horns on the athletics field at De Bongerd Sports Centre. At other locations on and around the campus, WUR staff threw themselves into a range of sports such as archery, pole-dancing, golf, boxing, climbing and canoeing. Or they could try their hand at motorcy- cling, an ‘escape room’, the See the photo series Dutch card game klaverjassen, PHOTO: GUY ACKERMANS GUY PHOTO: on resource-online.nl and craft activities. RESOURCE — 1 June 2017 news << 5 TWO VIDIS FOR WAGENINGEN OLUMN|STIJN Joris Sprakel and Mark Zwart have each ‘That would be revolutionary for the world © been given a prestigious Vidi grant by of nanomaterials.’ the Dutch Organization for Scientific Mark Zwart of Genetics will be trying to Research (NWO). They will get 800,000 discover the secret of what are known as Rejected euros for their research. multipartite viruses. They have a segment- Dear editor, ed genome, spread across multiple virus el- I always knew it was a bit of a gamble. Actual- Joris Sprakel of Physical Chemistry and ements. ‘It’s as if you post an item in sever- ly, it’s a gamble whenever you submit a manu- Soft Matter will be looking for the plan that al different envelops,’ explains Zwart. ‘That script to an academic journal. First you need nature uses to construct complex molecu- seems to be a terribly inefficient and eccen- the editor to approve of the study, and then lar structures. That construction process tric way of infecting things. So what’s the you need the reviewers to agree. goes wrong surprisingly rarely. Sprakel: advantage? I have some ideas about that, So hey, that my evening should begin with a ‘Nature uses helper molecules that make which I want to test out.’ standard rejection email is par for the course. sure that the building blocks are in the The funding body NWO granted a total of Anyway, you have prepared me well for rejec- right place at the right time.’ Sprakel com- 89 Vidis. They are part of the innovation in- tion by announcing the rejection percentages pares it to building an IKEA cupboard. centive scheme of Veni, Vidi and Vici grants loud and clear – and repeatedly – on the web- That works fine if you follow the instruc- for early-career, experienced and very expe- site. ‘Please be aware that more than half the tions. He wants to find those instructions. rienced scientists respectively. RK articles we receive are not even forwarded to reviewers.’ What I mean to say is: I am an experienced re- in brief ceiver of rejections and I have a lot of under- standing for your situation. You must get flooded with manuscripts from PhD candi- >>STERKSEL her art will raise awareness. ‘The human dates. Each one the work of a young research- Two-storey pig shed impact on the North Sea is huge, but we er whose contract has probably already run WUR’s experimental pig farm, Sterksel, don’t know exactly what effects we have. out, and whose next job probably depends en- gained a new two-storey pig shed on 17 I want to give people an experience which tirely on whether they can get their work pub- May. A raised platform one metre above the will sensitize them to that.’ Research- lished in your journal. It can’t be much fun to ground increases the pigs’ space by 25 per- er and diver Joop Coolen of Marine be confronted with that misery day in day out. cent, making it easier for them to withdraw Research is going to record sounds for But it is crucial for the sciences that journals and giving them some space to rootle and her and measure vibrations in the North remain critical.