'Misschien is dit de betekenis van deze Schriftpassage: bijbel en rationaliteit bij de copernicaan Georg Joachim Rheticus (1541-1543)

In the early 1540ies G.J. Rheticus wrote an anonymous treatise entitled both Epistola de Terrae Motu and Dissertatio de Hypoth[esibus] Astron[omiae] Copernicanae. In this letter he discusses why proclaiming the motion of the earth does not need to be considered as an impious act incompatible with the words of Holy Scripture. Based on an analysis of authorities mentioned by the author in this letter, I conclude that Rheticus’ strategy on the one hand consists in playing down the importance of the traditional Aristotelian-Ptolemaic notions on the universe in the field of astronomy and by emphasizing the indirect character of Biblical authority in these matters. On the other hand, he claims the absolute, immediate authority of mathematics in astronomy by which he consequently challenges the traditional medieval hierarchy of sciences. Rheticus considers the achievements of Copernicus to be part of divine providence

Sarah Kirsch und das versteckte Zitat in Christa Wolfs Sommerstück : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in German at Massey University

Christa Wolf's novel Sommerstück, written between the mid-seventies and 1989 (the year of the collapse of the socialist East German state), when it was published, stands as proof of the author's sense of disillusionment, partly as a result of the authoritarianism of the leadership of the GDR since the time of the forced emigration of poet and songwriter, Wolf Biermann, in 1976. Yet more than that Wolf portrays in her novel the 'outbreak' or unleashing of a universally destructive, demonic power or spirit. This theme is also reflected in Sarah Kirsch's lyric poetry from that time, especially in the 'Vogel-Gedichten' ('bird-poems'), which Christa Wolf, by way of quote, reference and allusion, brings into Sommerstück. For this reason the analysis - firstly as independent works - of the poems which appear in Wolf's novel focuses primarily on the three 'Vogel-Gedichte'. The second chapter deals Christa Wolf's Sommerstück. The third chapter concerns the location and function of the poems of Sarah Kirsch within the context of the novel. It is concluded that the lyric poetry of Sarah Kirsch, in conjunction with the characterisation of Bella in the novel, who shows similarities to the poet, provides a background of rich association for Wolf's own thematic treatment, which in turn renders an often inaccurate and unflattering portrayal of Sarah Kirsch, but more particularly - as determined within the scope of this thesis - a distortion of her art

Microbial biosurfactants : is mainstream on the horizon?

Microbial biosurfactants have been holding the promise as environmentally friendly alternatives for petrochemical derived surfactants for the last decade. Indeed, across the market (large) companies are investing in these technologies and microbial biosurfactants are already applied in quite some consumer products today. The remaining hurdles for these technologies to really lift off can be summarized as high costs in comparison to the market references and a limited variety in molecular structures to satisfy the plethora of sought for functionalities. Moreover, most of the technologies are still in their infancy, characterized by suboptimal processes often resulting in batch to batch variation, a lack of knowledge and a of scale up evidence. A last issue is the fact that the use of so-called first-generation renewable substrates, such as sugar and vegetable oil, as substrates negatively impacts the LCA for microbial biosurfactants. At BBEPP and InBio.be we focus on all the above-mentioned shortcomings and aim to increase the microbial biosurfactant market segment in the coming years. We apply an integrated approach where microbial strain engineering, process (fermentation and purification) development and -optimization, scale up and application testing are tightly linked and interconnected. We recently succeeded in the development of a battery of Starmerella bombicola yeast strains producing a library of over 20 (new-to-nature) glycolipid biosurfactants and developed sustainable and scalable (continuous) fermentation and purification processes for these biosurfactants. The biosurfactants were screened in high throughput for a range of relevant properties for the industry, such as foaming, rheology, surface tension (and CMC), emulsification, but also biological properties such as anti-microbial and -viral properties. Moreover, efforts were done to develop the bioprocesses starting from waste- and side streams instead of 1G substrates, thus positively impacting the environmental impact of the new microbial biosurfactants. The combination of the described efforts is expected to result in a commercial breakthrough of microbial biosurfactant in the next ten years

The cooperative identity is a key competitive advantage

The cooperative identity is a key competitive advantage