JUNE 2000

ISSN 0804-6042

NEWS FROM THE RESEARCH COUNCIL OF NORWAY

Scallop killsbacteria in humanbeings and fishPage 40

A 4D in-the-bodyexperiencePage 14

Garbage burstingwith energyPage 30Protectingnature through technology

The focus of this issue is man’s interaction withnature and technology. The image of gushingsprings and roaring waterfalls symbolises thechallenges we face in respect of energy, theenvironment and prudent resource management.

Seabed divulgesnew secrets Page 20

Aurskog

Bergen

Tafjord

Stavanger

Trondheim

Geirangerfjorden

Tromsø

Oslo Ås

Horten

Svalbard78 0 N 17 0 E

Spitsbergen

The map shows the location of places referred to in this issue of Tell‘Us

NORWAY

CONTENTS

8Ominous Arctic Omens

12Fjords – food factories of the

future?

14A tale of the 4th dimension

18You can’t get blood out of a stone,

or can you?

20At the core of climatic change

22Climatic complexities

24Senses and sensibility

26It’s a small, small, small small

world

28Saltpower

30Waste not, want not

32More health in every byte

The ResearchCouncil of Norway

Smøla

Finnmark

Sleipnerfeltet

Jan Mayen

Bjørnøya

Picture on cover:Telefocus/Phil LauroSmall pictures from

top to bottom:GE Vingmed Ultrasound

Eystein JansenSamfoto

Frank Gregersen, Fiskeriforskning

– 3 –

The theme of theworld’s fair EXPO2000 in Hannover,

Germany, is “Humankind– Nature – Technology”.The Norwegian Pavilionfocuses special emphasison energy and the envi-

ronment, two fields of great importance thathave long traditions in Norway.

The Research Council of Norway hasdevoted this special issue of Tell’Us to pre-senting some of the most outstanding con-temporary Norwegian research projects thatfall within the relatively broad parametersof the overall theme of the world’s fair. Theeditorial board has slanted its selection ofarticles to accord with Norway’s approachto the Hannover theme.

The Norwegian pavilion at EXPO 2000has three separate areas for communicatingwith visitors:

The falls – a replica of the raging SteindalFalls, symbolising a powerful, clean, nat-ural and renewable source of energy. Thewaterfall is 15 metres high, and features awater flow of 450 litres per second, addingup to 38 million litres per day. This is aninvaluable source of renewable energy,reminiscent of Norway’s abundanthydropower resources that provide powerfor industry as well as panoramic beautyfor tourists.

The second area features an artistic installa-tion created by the internationallyrenowned Norwegian artist MarianneHeske. Besides being a large work of art,the room itself is a product of high-techNorwegian innovation. The walls, measur-ing 15 metres across and 15 metres high,are covered by abstract natural patterns.The images have been burned into morethan 600 specially-treated aluminiumsheets which were produced byhydropower. The overall effect imparts avery special feeling about man’s role in thescheme of things.

Heske’s point of departure for this digi-tal image processing is a digitised picturefrom a small power-producing mountainvillage on the west coast of Norway,Tafjord, magnified more than two milliontimes. The installation aspires to communi-cate the wish that humankind hold technol-ogy in high esteem.

The third area, the in-depth room, isintended to give visitors the opportunity tolearn a little more about some of theresearch and development being conductedin Norway. All major industrial enterprisesagree that research is crucial to productdevelopment. Accordingly, it seems naturalfor Norway to present examples from someof its leading research facilities, both thoseoperated by private enterprises and thosewithin scientific institutions.

The Research Council would like to projectan image of Norway as a country whichassigns high priority to research, and whichhas made considerable progress in keyfields of research. The presentations are allunder the same roof, which, by the way, isheld in place by huge Norwegian glulam(glue laminated timber) girders, developedas a result of advanced research that openswhole new horizons for numerous types ofconstructions.

If you are lucky enough to visit EXPO – letthese myriad impressions flow over you! Ifyou are reading Tell’Us without havingexperienced the wonders of EXPO, you canlook forward to learning more about a widerange of incredibly exciting research pro-jects. In fact, the magazine contains morecomprehensive and in-depth informationthan what we can possibly present at theNorwegian pavilion!

Paal AlmeExecutive Director The Research Council of NorwayNorway EXPO 2000 Board Member

Norway’s main target area, marineresearch, was the focus of a spe-cial issue of Tell’Us in 1998.

This issue contains brief reviews of pro-jects from a number of other fields ofparticular importance to Norway, includ-ing energy, the environment and polarresearch. In addition, it takes a more in-

depth look at several ways in which technology is helpingpeople lead better lives. For example, modern ultrasoundtechnology is making it possible to see the inside of ahuman heart in real time, or to perform a virtual brain oper-ation; computer technology is appreciably broadening therange of career and leisure opportunities available to thehandicapped; and telemedicine is wiping out the distancebetween patients and the world’s foremost specialists.

The overall topic addressed in this issue is how research-based innovations can contribute to solving the problemsfacing humankind. We have to have energy. We want toprotect the environment. We want to be healthy and leadcomfortable lives. We are biological creatures and, as such,we are dependent on the nature that surrounds us, even aswe increasingly surround ourselves with technology.

Yet people are also spiritual beings, despite their affinityfor technology and the natural sciences. Accordingly, youare invited to join us on a journey 1000 years back in time,as we take a new look at some rune stones and the mes-sages our forefathers left behind.

Once praised as a panacea for humankind, science andtechnology are now being blamed for many of our prob-lems. Yet it is only through research and the acquisition ofknowledge that humankind has a hope of remedying itsproblems. After all, it is almost inevitably the possibilitythat they might make progress, through either applicationsor recognition, that drives researchers to pursue their ideas.There are also countless examples of how research has hadunintended consequences or led to unexpected discoveries.

This touches on the very essence of what fascinates scien-tists – the chance that they may manage to overcome a newbarrier, that is, the idea of setting out on an odyssey intothe unknown. By the same token, we hope this issue ofTell’Us will transport you, our readers, on an pioneeringjourney into new terrain.Enjoy!

Mona Gravningen RyghEditor

Energy, the environment and technology

EDITORIALSApropos

– 5 –

DNA codes can be programmed to carryalpha-numeric information using a PC.Artificial genetic material with thedesigned DNA code produced in a DNAsynthesis machine can subsequently beused to imbue living or dead organicsubstances with an ID. This process doesnot use genes in the ordinary sense of theterm, but rather molecules coded to con-tain numerous items of information.

It was Professor Peter Aleström atthe Norwegian School of VeterinaryScience who conceived the idea for thisnovel application of gene technology.The idea has resulted in a new Nor-wegian company, ChemTAG AS, beingestablished to offer the internationalmarket DNA-tagged bunker oil withinthe next few years. DNA tagging willmake it easy to trace the culprits respons-ible for oil spills at sea, a major environ-mental problem the world over.

If the huge oil cargoes carried bysupertankers were DNA-labelled, theoil itself would contain informationabout the vessel’s owner, name, origi-nal point of loading the oil, when theoil was produced and by whom. Inprinciple, any information can be

included in a DNA code. ChemTAG isnow collaborating with Det NorskeVeritas (DNV) on a research projectdesigned to find a foolproof system forDNA tagging all types of bunker oil.The company’s CEO, Kjell J. Johnsen,expects that a similar tagging systemfor cargoes of ordinary oil will beready for launch soon after the systemfor bunker oil is in place.

To foster the establishment of busi-nesses based on the commercialisationof research results, the NorwegianIndustrial and Regional DevelopmentFund, the Research Council of Norway,universities, colleges and the country’sresearch parks have joined forces to ini-tiate a programme called FORNY,designed to promote research-basedinnovation. The research parks will bein charge of finding partners and fund-ing, and then administrate projects asthey are launched. One of the most suc-cessful projects to come to fruitionunder the FORNY programme, Chem-TAG is affiliated with the ResearchPark in Ås.

Mona Gravningen Rygh

– 4 –

Norway has proud traditions as a sea-faring nation. However, it takes energyto propel even the most environment-friendly ships, and the use of fossil fuelsleads to CO2 and NOx emissions. NowNorwegian researchers believe theymay have a solution in sight. The Nor-wegian University of Science andTechnology (NTNU), the Institute forEnergy Technology and Norsk Hydrowill be joining forces to determine thefeasibility of using hydrogen fuel cellsto power the Norwegian transport sec-tor. The researchers plan to build ahydrogen-powered ferry by 2003–04.

The project is receiving support fromthe Research Council of Norway’s pro-gramme for Efficient and RenewableTechnologies (NYTEK).

Considering that its discovery datesback to 1839, the fuel cell is hardly anew invention. Yet research on fuelcells did not really ‘take off’ until inthe 1960s when NASA demonstratedtheir potential as an energy supplier ona journey into outer space (where theastronauts drank the waste productproduced by the fuel cell – water!).

“There is a great deal going on in thisfield today”, comments Steffen MøllerHolst, a researcher at NTNU. “Severalautomotive manufacturers are talkingabout putting hydrogen-fuelled cars intomass production already from 2003 or2004. A significant portion of Norway’sCO2 and NOx emissions comes from sea

transport. As both an energy nation anda seafaring nation, we are in an excellentposition to take advantage of opportuni-ties that arise in this area.”

A fuel cell is a voltaic couple, that is,it generates electricity from chemicalreactions. A fuel cell stack (a seriesconsisting of many individual cells)might best be compared with a batterythat never runs out of energy. Whenhydrogen fuel is added, the fuel cell’senvironmental advantages becomeobvious: A high utilisation factor,exhaust that consists of steam, and aprocess that is virtually silent.

There are a number of differenttypes of fuel cells available today, andeach one will no doubt eventually findits market niche. “The transport sectorwill use PEM (polymer electrolytemembrane) cells. They have a simpledesign, high energy density, high effi-ciency and low operating temperaturewhich ensures quick starting”, explainsMøller Holst, who has great confidencein the future of the fuel cell.

Mette Irene Dahl

OIL SPILLS: DNA-labelling oilshould make it easy to track downpolluters. From Ytre Sula, Norway.(Photo: Samfoto)

A fuel cell is an electrochemicalenergy device which produces elec-tricity, water and heat on the basis offuel (hydrogen) and oxygen in the air.

DNA coding of oilThe electric car TH!NK is the firstfully fledged automobile Norwayhas ever exported to Europe. Type-approved pursuant to EU standardsin 1998, the car is made of a solid-colour moulded thermoplasticpolyethylene shell, supported by asteel undercarriage and a weldedaluminium space frame.

The idea behind TH!NKis based on three principles: 1)environment-friendly production– including painting; 2) environ-ment-friendly operation – electric.3) environment-friendly disposal– simple to disassemble, easy torecycle.

Based on materials neverbefore used in car production,TH!NK cars are made using inno-vative new assembly technology,a specially developed assemblyline and a special factory layout.

TH!NK is manufactured inNorway by TH!NK Nordic AS,which is in the process of buildingup an international centre ofknowledge and expertise aboutlight, ultramodern cars. The ideais for Norway to be the centre forR&D and technological develop-ments in the field of energy effi-ciency, drive systems, materialsand building and process technol-ogy, while the car will be assem-bled in the field, i.e., in the indi-vidual markets. TH!NK Nordic isengaged in continuous R&D in

respect of the various models ofTH!NK, co-operating with otherR&D groups in national and inter-national arenas.

The initial idea for the TH!NKproject was conceived in 1973,and a development companyunder the name Pivco AS wasfounded in 1990. The enterprisehas received substantial state sup-port through the Research Councilof Norway and the State Industrialand Regional Development Fund.The project was awardedEUREKA (European network formarket-oriented R&D) status in1993. In 1999, the Ford MotorCompany acquired 51 per cent ofthe enterprise and changed thename to TH!NK Nordic AS. Atthe beginning of this year FordMotor Company acquired the restof the shares. The cars are beingproduces at Aurskog, approxi-mately 50 km East of Oslo.

The plant has the capacity toproduce 5000 vehicles per year.

Norway has been the site ofnumerous measures designed topromote the use of electric cars,ranging from reducing automotiveregistration fees, annual licencefees and scrapping fee, to offeringfree passage on toll roads and freepublic parking.

Website: www.think.noMona Gravningen Rygh

TH!NK of a car

Clear skies ahead for a billion viewers

Entrepreneur Karl Eggestad deliv-ered his first weather forecastingsystem to Norway’s national com-mercial broadcasting station TV2 in1993. In 1994, Denmark’s TV2bought the system and in 1996,Eggestad signed a contract with theUS-based broadcaster CNN. As ofFebruary 2000, Metaphor Systemshas supplied weather forecastingtechnology to nearly 70 TV stationsin every corner of the globe, reach-ing more than 1 billion TV viewers.

“When CNN asked me to come toAtlanta and install our production andpresentation system, I realised we hada success on our hands”, smilesEggestad in retrospect.

In 1993, TV stations all over theworld had employees entering highpressure ridges and cold fronts intodrawing programs, often on the basisof hand-sketched instructions madeby the stations’ meteorologists. Natu-rally, their interest was piqued whenthey saw Eggestad’s invention: Aproduction and presentation systemthat went straight to the heart of mete-orologists’ complex calculations,converting their results into animatedTV images automatically.

When Danish TV2 bought the sys-

tem in 1994, Eggestad decided it washigh time to cash in on his idea. Hetherefore contacted the ResearchCouncil of Norway’s Programme forthe Commercialisation of Research-based Ideas (FORNY). They agreedto finance a market survey in the sum-mer of 1995 to find out what sort ofweather technology European TV sta-tions were using and what their goalswere in this area.

In December 1995, Eggestadfounded Metaphor Systems in collab-oration with SINTEF. The system isten times larger now than it was then.Metaphor Systems:http://www.metaphor.no/

Svein Tønseth, SME Review

GLOBAL WEATHER. Metaphor Systems has supplied weather forecasting tech-nology to nearly 70 TV stations in every part of the globe. The weather forecastsseen by roughly 1 billion viewers reach their TV screens through the marvels ofNorwegian-produced software. (Illustration: Metaphor Systems)

FOR THE FUTURE: TH!NK cars offer environmentally friendly production, use and disposal. Picture from Oslo.(Photo: TH!NK Nordic AS)

Fuelling a silent revolution

Ill.:

Ste

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Møl

ler-

Hol

st, N

TNU

“Do we face an ethicaldilemma if fish can actuallyfeel pain, and is their suffer-ing, if it does exist, of inde-pendent moral importance?”asks Senior Lecturer AndreasFøllesdal of the Faculty ofArts at the University of Oslo(UiO). He is heading aresearch project entitled “Cansalmon suffer?” which is partof the Research Council’s“Salmon production” pro-gramme. The project willdetermine whether fish cansuffer in the sense referred toin regulations concerningexperiments on animals andin general ethical reflections.The project calls upon theexpertise of theologians,philosophers, biologists andfish physiologists.

Fish farming is Norway’ssecond most important sourceof export revenues. In thefisheries industry, reference ismade to production-relatedsuffering which involvespushing a species’ biologybeyond the limits of what isnatural, in the strictest sense.Such pragmatic considera-tions put a fine but urgentpoint on the question of ani-mal welfare and fishingindustry management. Whyare we less concerned aboutfish welfare than mammalwelfare?

“Our perception of ani-mals is anthropocentric, thatis, it is based on man beingthe centre of the universe. Wesee animals either with thecallousness of the hunter orthe scientist, or with caring,compassion and empathy”,

contends dr.med.vet. BergljotBørresen, author of “TheLonely Ape.” According toher, we do this because peo-ple are equipped with a tog-gle switch in their brains thatallows them to turn on andoff their ability to get emo-tionally involved with otherspecies. For example, ahunter views an animal exclu-sively as prey, ‘turning off’his sense of compassion dur-ing the hunt. Then he carrieshis prey home, lights the fire-place and ‘turns on’ the emo-tional toggle switch to cuddlewith his dog. Fish, on theother hand, do not exchangecontact signals with people,nor do they signal pain,meaning they do not arouseany feelings of empathy inpeople. In plain English, their‘Bambi factor’ is too low.

Yet the concept of ‘pain’can be interpreted in differentways. According to TrondBrattelid from the School ofVeterinary Science in Oslo,fish receive pain signalsthrough pain receptorslocated in the tail, finns andaround the mouth and eyes.The signals are transmittedthrough the neural system tothe cortex of the brain, wherethey are processed and possi-bly interpreted as pain.

“Fish have a small cortex,and they are not equippedwith a neocortex, which somewould contend is a prerequi-site for feeling pain. There istherefore considerable uncer-tainty about whether fishactually experience what wedefine as pain”, Brattelidpoints out. “Yet fish have atelencephalon or endbrain,and it may play a part in fear,suffering and learning. In anyevent, it will be up to thesalmon researchers or fishfarmers to interpret piscinepain signals based on fishbehaviour.” Brattelid addsthat attempts to escape,changes in pigmentation andsimilar behaviour may all beindicative of pain.

Anita K. L. Thorolvsen

– 6 –

Suffering salmon?

BIG SALMON: Do we face anethical dilemma if fish feelpain?

(Photo: Samfoto)

1983 was a watershed year for the Internet. Itmarked the very first meeting convened to dis-cuss the idea of a global network, and the meet-ing was held in Oslo. The main players fromNorway were Pål Spilling, then of the Norwe-gian Defence Research Establishment, now aprofessor at the University of Oslo, and RolfNordhagen, then EDP manager, also now at theUniversity of Oslo. The two are considered the‘fathers’ of the Internet in Norway.

Yet the real history of the Internet dates backto the University of California in 1969: Twocomputers were linked together for the first timeto form the Internet’s predecessor, the USnational network called Arpanet. In 1973, Nor-way became the first country outside the USA tobe linked to theArpanet.Spilling was workingat the Norwegian Defence Research Establish-ment in 1974 when he was invited to take part inArpanet,a collaborative project that made Nor-way a pioneer in Internet development outsidethe USA.

As time passed, Norwegian universitiesbegan developing a system that eventuallybecame the academic computer network Uninet.In the early 1980s, there were still just two coun-tries outside the USA trying to implement anational computer network: Great Britain withJanet and Norway with Uninet. Somewhat later,the Nordic countries began collaborating, result-ing in the Nordunet, and making the Nordicregion a major power in European network co-operation.

Larry Landweber of the University of Wis-consin, the man in charge of the AmericanCSNet, took the initiative for the historic meetingconvened to consider establishing a globalresearch network. A dozen representatives fromvarious walks of life and different countriesattended the meeting. At a hotel with apanoramic view of Oslo and the vast forests,fjords and mountains in and around the city, theparticipants managed to find common groundand a common pioneer spirit, despite the fact thatthere was some disagreement about technologi-cal solutions. The Oslo meeting was the first in aseries of events that preceded the first officialinternational conference of the Internet Societyin 1991. Rumour has it that back in the summerof 1983, the founding fathers’ discussion contin-ued in Nordhagen’s garden into the wee smallhours of the morning, waiting for the darknessthat never came in the Land of the Midnight Sun.

Mona Gravningen Rygh

“Groups of astronauts who spend long periodsof time in outer space often develop a strongsense of loyalty to each other and tend to per-ceive those outside the space station as theirenemies. This mechanism allows them todeflect their aggressions and avoid unpleasantdisagreements”, reports Senior Lecturer GroMjeldheim Sandal at the Department of SocialPsychology at the University of Bergen. Sandalis part of an international space research pro-gramme aimed at identifying the psychologicalreactions of individuals who spend long peri-ods of time in outer space.

“Good communication is essential in thistype of group. Communication can be mea-sured against the extent of misjudgements.Even though the astronauts channel theiraggressions towards the outside to preserve

their sense of solidarity, irritation and the lackof privacy are among the most significantstress factors. The most critical phases of aspace odyssey appear to be at the midwaypoint and towards the end. This may havesomething to do with the special perception oftime which cosmonauts develop”, states San-dal.

Many of the psychological finds from spaceresearch are probably applicable to the every-day lives of people in general.

“A large part of my research focuses onhow to put together teams that work. Businessand industry are crying out for this type ofdocumented knowledge”, says Sandal, whosemain field of interest is personality and organi-sational psychology.

Hilde Bøyum, På Høyden

THE BIRTH OF THE INTERNET: In 1983,Oslo’s Holmenkollen Park Hotel was the venuefor the very first meeting convened to considerestablishing a global computer network.(Photo: Pippip)

LOYALTY. Cosmonauts who spend long periods of timein space often develop a strong sense of solidarity witheach other and tend to perceivethose outside their groupas ‘the enemy’. (Photo: Image Bank)

The enemy without

Internet kick-off in Oslo

Human beings are not the only ones fond of the taste ofthat much sought-after delicacy, the scallop. Edible crabslike them too. What is more, the edible crab, also knownas the brown crab, prefers cultivated scallops to wild scal-lops of the same size and age. In a project under the aus-pices of the Research Council’s programme “Farmedmarine species”, researchers at the Institute of MarineResearch, Centre for Aquaculture, have now shown that 30cm high steel plates erected like fences on the seabed arean effective means of keeping edible crabs on the rightside of the fence to prevent them from feasting on beds ofvulnerable farmed scallops.

“We are testing the system in collaboration with someindustrial players. With a few modifications to the methodsand equipment, this looks as though it may be a cost-effec-tive way of protecting farmed scallops destined for humandinner tables”, comments Øivind Strand, a researcher atthe Institute of Marine Research.

“Scallops are delicious, I love them! As do most peo-ple. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t like scallopsthat have been prepared correctly”, adds Strand. Since1996, he has been working on how to cultivate scallops onthe seabed. More research will be necessary to developscallop farming methods that are sufficiently commercialto take advantage of the huge export market demand thatexists. More than 50 000 metric tonnes of scallops are soldeach year in France alone.

Anita K. L. Thorolvsen

Seabed segregation

– 7 –

Pho

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Arctic sea ice is a sensitiveindicator of climatic change,and climate models predict

that global warming due to the green-house effect will have a strongerimpact on the areas around the NorthPole than other places. Accordingly,it created quite a sensation whenoceanographer Ola M. Johannessenand two of his colleagues recentlyused satellite observations to deter-mine that multi-year Arctic ice hasbeen reduced by a whopping 14 percent over the past two decades.

Earlier research results, includingresults produced by Johannesen’sown group, indicated that the total icecover had been reduced by about 6per cent during the same period. Thenew results indicate that the Arcticice is melting twice as fast as previ-ously believed. No wonder Johan-

nessen has been contacted by somany people from all over the worldsince the results were publishedrecently in Science, the prestigiousUS research journal.

NO ICE IN 50 TO 100 YEARS“In 1995, we published an article inNature, confirming that the total Arc-tic ice cap had been reduced by 3 percent per decade from 1978 to 1995.This time round, we’ve had a look atmulti-year ice, which is thicker thanfirst ice, so it creates more volumeand mass. We were surprised to as-certain that the area covered by multi-year ice had diminished by 14 percent, the equivalent of, 7 per cent perdecade. These results are highly sig-nificant since they indicate that theentire relationship between first iceand multi-year ice is in the process of

The latest results indicate that the Arctic ice cap is melting

twice as fast as previously expected. Should this trend con-

tinue, the entire Arctic could be sans summer snow and ice just

50 to 100 years from now.

BY BJARNE RØSJØ

– 9 –

OminousOminousArcticArcticOmensOmens

THE ARCTIC ICE IS MELTING: If the multi-year Arctic ice continues tomelt at the same rate it has done for the past 20 years, the seas surroundingthe North pole could be completely ice-free during summertime in 50 to 100years’ time. (Photo: Samfoto)

– 8 –

– 11 –– 10 –

FIRST ICE AND MULTI-YEAR ICE: The total amount of ice in the seas surrounding the North pole (left on map) consists in reality of multi-year ice(right) and first ice. The area covered by multi-year ice has diminished by 14 per cent since this survey was first conducted in 1978. (Illustration: NRSC)

changing. It is not yet possible to tellwhether this is being caused by globalwarming since satellite measurementsare only available for the past 20years. On the other hand, it is a strongindication”, states Johannessen.

“Does this mean the Arctic icemay disappear completely?”

“We don’t know yet, but the trendis ominous. If the cover of multi-yearice continues to diminish at this rate,there will be no summer ice left in theArctic 50 to 100 years from now”, isthe response. “But that also dependson whether this is a natural long peri-odic fluctuation caused by ‘the ArcticOscillation’, which is primarily anatmospheric phenomenon.”

ABSORBING MORE CO2“What would happen if the sea icewere to disappear?”

“The ocean’s capacity to absorbCO2 from the atmosphere increases astemperatures drop. Today, the oceansof the world contain about 50 timesmore CO2 than the atmosphere. Atthe same time, six or seven giga-tonnes of Carbon, or 22 to 26 giga-tonnes of CO2, are being released into

the atmosphere every year as a resultof human activities, and one-third ofthat amount is absorbed by the oceanafter a certain number of years. If theArctic areas with cold, open waterswere to expand, even more CO2would be absorbed. In the long run,this might help reduce global warm-ing, which would be a positive effectof the melting of sea ice. But we arestill not sure how much CO2 would beabsorbed”, continues Johannessen.

Preliminary rough estimates indi-cate that ice-free Arctic seas couldpotentially absorb between 0.3 and 0.6gigatonnes per year, an increase of 15to 30 per cent compared with today’sabsorption level. To put this into per-spective, this amount accounts for 5 to10 per cent of the today’s anthro-pogenic emissions of greenhousegases, which is about the same amountas the Kyoto Protocol is attempting toreduce.

A CLIMATIC HARBINGERIn the December 1999 issue ofScience, the journalist Richard Kerrexplains that climatologists use theArctic ice to harbinger danger, the

same way miners used to use canariesto detect hazardous gases in times past.

An ice melt “would convert theArctic Ocean from a brilliantly whitereflector sending 80 % of solar energyback into space, into a heat collectorabsorbing 80 % of incident sunlight,with effects on ocean and atmo-spheric circulation extending intomid-latitudes”, said the polarresearcher John Walsh of the Univer-sity of Illinois to Kerr.

This new information has beengleaned from studies of data trans-mitted by US satellites that havemeasured passive radiation levelsfrom the ice in the microwave range.

“We have had access to a 20-yearseries of measurements which beganwith the Nimbus 7 satellite in 1978.These very high-quality data arebased on the principle that first iceand multi-year ice, that is, ice whichhas survived the first summer, havedifferent radiation levels. This isbecause Arctic ice is formed fromseawater with a salinity of 35 partsper thousand. During the first winter,the salinity level of the ice is reducedto 3 or 4 parts per thousand, which

has an effect on radiation levels”,continues Johannessen.

“Multi-year ice is comprised ofwater which is virtually fresh, since itcontinues to desalinate. However, itis only possible to distinguish firstyear from multi-year ice if the snowcover is dry, meaning the distinctioncannot be made in the summer whenthe snow is wet”.

CORROBORATING EVIDENCEOther observations indicate littlechange in the Antarctic ice, and that isalso as expected on the basis of the cli-mate models. Johannessen also refersto other research results that corrobo-rate the conclusions drawn in the arti-cle published in Science.

“Russian researchers calculated icethicknesses in the Arctic from 1972 to1991 using equipment that measuredhow North Atlantic ocean swells aredampened when they propogate intothe ice. We found a remarkable corre-lation between the satellite measure-ments and the Russian measurements,which indicated that the ice thicknesswas being reduced by an average ofone-half centimetre per year. Unfortu-

nately, the Russian research was dis-continued in 1991 due to a lack offunding”, sighs Johannessen.

After studying a series of sonarmeasurements taken by US nuclearsubmarines, American researchersrecently concluded that the ice thick-ness has been reduced by 1.3 metresover the past 30 years. That comesout to an average of four cm per year.

“Granted, there is a huge gapbetween the Russian and Americanmeasurements, but whether the resultsare one-half cm or four cm, the deple-tion is disquieting. We need to take acloser look at the discrepancy betweenthe measurements. Generally speaking,it is no mean feat to measure ice thick-nesses over vast areas. More attentionshould be devoted to this in future.”

At this point in the interview, itwas time for a few words of comfort.

“I have no desire to be a prophet ofdoom, so I must add that this emerg-ing trend may also have positiveeffects. A reduction in Arctic icemight make it easier to operate fishfarms and to open shipping lanesthrough these areas. It is also veryimportant to bear in mind that ocean

water levels will not rise as Arctic icemelts”, he points out.

A NORWEGIAN RESPONSIBILITYJohannessen observes that, on thedown side, melting would producehuge volumes of freshwater, whichcould have tremendous consequences.The ocean’s thermohaline circulation(affected by temperature and salinity)is largely determined by deepwaterformation in the polar areas, and thatwould be disrupted if large quantitiesof freshwater were introduced at thesurface. Less deepwater formationwould raise havoc with ocean circula-tion, and could even have a mitigatingeffect on the Gulf Stream, which car-ries warm water from the Gulf ofMexico to northern Europe.

“The Norwegian Sea, the Green-land Sea, the Barents Sea and theArctic areas are the key to a large partof global ocean circulation! Remem-ber, a given volume of water carrieddown into the Greenland Sea in con-nection with deepwater formation,emerges again in the Pacific about800 years later”, the oceanographerpoints out by way of conclusion.

Research in the name of NansenProfessor Ola M. Johannessen is an oceanographer and founding director ofthe Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre (NERSC) in Bergen.He also works at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Bergen. Theresearch discussed in this article has been performed in collaboration withElena V. Shalina of the Nansen International Environmental and RemoteSensing Centre (NIERSC) in St. Petersburg (Russia), and Martin W. Miles ofthe Nansen Centre in Bergen and the Institute of Geography at the Univer-sity of Bergen. The Research Council of Norway, the Norwegian SpaceCentre and the International Association for the Promotion of Co-opera-tion with Scientists from the New Independent States of the former SovietUnion (INTAS) have provided funding for this research.

NERSC scientists have been inspired by the life of Fridtjof Nansen(1861–1930), renowned Norwegian biologist, oceanographer, polar ex-plorer, diplomat, humanist and 1922 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The Framexpedition, conceived and led by Nansen to chart Arctic waters by freezing aship into the pack ice and allowing it to drift for three years, was completedin 1896, laying the foundation for research in the Arctic Ocean.

NERSC and NIERSC: http://www.nrsc.no

AN ECO-MELTDOWN?If the Arctic summer ice disappears,possibilities may open up to operatefish farms and open shipping lanesthrough these areas. However, theincreased amount of fresh water mayalso disturb the climate along theNorwegian coast. (Photo: Samfoto)

Slicing incisively into the westcoast of the country, Norway’sfjords were formed by glacial

action and some are more than 1000metres deep. The idea of turning thefjords into food factories is based onthese extreme depths and on the factthat the rivers at the heads of thefjords ensure a constant supply offresh water.

Tremendous quantities of wasteare produced in seas, oceans andfjords. The waste breaks down andacts as a sort of natural fertiliser to

make oceans and fjords into seem-ingly inexhaustible reservoirs ofnutrients. The problem is that most ofthese nutrients are never used. Theysimply fade away as they sink, disap-pearing to depths at which they aretransformed into nothing more thanputrefaction gases. Generally speak-ing, sunlight penetrates only about 50metres (the euphotic zone), leavingthe deeper strata of the oceanic pro-vince and the Norwegian fjordspitch-dark watery wastelands.

A very small part of the total area

covered by oceans, mainly the areasalong coastlines and in shallow fish-ing grounds, accounts for almost allthe production of fish and othermarine foods harvested by man.

SIMPLE AND CHEAPIt was Professor Arne Foldvik of theGeophysics Institute at the Universityof Bergen, who conceived the idea ofcapitalising on the vast amounts ofnutrients that normally turn into oozeat the bottom of the deep fjords. Heproposed enclosing the two lastmetres of the river at the head of afjord in a pipe, then diverting theriver water down towards the bed ofthe fjord. So doing would stimulatecirculation in the seawater, stirringup the vast quantities of nutrientsfrom the fjord floor and bringingthem up into the euphotic zone.

The same currents would alsohelp to bring new, nutrient-rich sea-water into the fjord from the oceanoutside it. The freshwater currentwould quite simply act as a catalystfor a process through which theinflux of new nutrients would ini-

tially fertilise the phytoplankton inthe fjords. The phytoplankton wouldthen be eaten by the zooplankton,which would in turn be eaten by fishor shellfish, which would ultimatelybe eaten by humans.

Professor Jarle Berntsen of theDepartment of Applied Mathematicsin Bergen undertook the task oftranslating Professor Foldvik’s into ahuge arithmetical problem. Berntsenwas quick to realise that he neededlarge amounts of heavy-duty com-puter power to calculate and quantifythe effects of currents, factoring inseawater, nutrient salts and other bio-logical variables. Accordingly, he fedhis problem into UiB’s Cray Origin2000 supercomputer, which is capa-ble of performing more than 50 bil-lion calculations per second. Not-withstanding its incredible capacity,the Cray used several days to workits way through the problem. Ulti-mately, however, the answer wasclear: The Norwegian fjords shouldbe able to convert enormous amountsof unexploited nutrients into a verita-ble marine feast.

THE FIRST TESTResearchers in Bergen have beengiven a green light to test whether thewhole concept is feasible in practice.The test will be run in the SamnangerFjord, south-east of Bergen. The ex-periments should show whether, forexample, the influx of new nutrientswill support large numbers of seatrout. Or perhaps the production ofshellfish in the longer fjords could beincreased by 500 to 800 per cent?

Professor Berntsen underscoresthat the point is not to introduce artifi-cial nutrients from an external source,as is the case with ordinary fish farm-ing. Instead, the project is based onusing existing nutrients for genuinelynew food production. On paper, itlooks as though this type of produc-tion has far more potential thansalmon farming, even though salmonfarming in Norway is second only topetroleum as an export product.

The supercomputer in Bergentells us that the project is possible intheory. Soon we will know whether itwill work in actual practice.

– 13 –– 12 –

WEATHER FORECASTING is one ofthe most demanding computationaloperations done today. Without thesupercomputer at the University ofTrondheim, Norwegian weather fore-casting would hardly have been pos-sible at its current level of detail.

CLIMATE RESEARCH is a field inrapid growth. One important part ofclimate research involves studying theextent to which man influences theclimate. Climate researchers are high-volume users of supercomputers.

AIR POLLUTION in cities such asOslo and Bergen is a serious problem

in the winter months. Ordinary mon-itoring stations can report pollutionlevels at any given time, but it takessupercomputers to forecast urbanpollution levels a day in advance.

OCEAN CURRENTS in the NorthSea have been charted in more detailthan ever before by a graduate stu-dent in Bergen, thanks to a calculationof six months’ duration (!) he did onthe supercomputer at the university.

PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH calls

for the investment of tremendousresources. A research group inTromsø has used the university’ssupercomputer to make sophisticatedmodels to determine how drugs willaffect the body.

SUPERCONDUCTORS is a field ofbasic research with an immensepotential. A group of physicists atthe University of Trondheim hastaken an impressive leap forward bymaking new discoveries about thefactors that impede superconduction.

Powerful computers, also referredto as supercomputers, currently playa key role in a number of fields ofresearch. The supercomputers at theuniversities of Bergen, Trondheimand Oslo have brought Norwegianresearch many small, and a few giant,steps forward.

Over the past four years, the Re-search Council of Norway has chan-nelled more than MNOK 100through the Computational ScienceProgramme to finance the threesupercomputers and their operation.The investment has enabled a largenumber of Norwegian researchersto keep up with the work done by

their colleagues abroad, and it hasput a few researchers at the fore-front of developments in their cho-sen subject areas. The outstandingresearch done on superconductorsat the University of Trondheim is asterling example of this.

1000 PROJECTSSupercomputers have become as in-dispensable as lab equipment infields such as chemistry, physics andgeophysics. Mathematicians andpharmacists are also turning theirattention to computational science,and subjects such as biology, eco-nomics and medicine are likely to

account for important applicationsin future.

The Computational Science Pro-gramme has supported a total of 169post-graduate students and 149 gradu-ate students by giving them time onthe three supercomputers. In one wayor another, more than 1000 researchprojects have benefited from thecomputational resources provided.

STILL GOING STRONGOne rule of thumb in the computerworld is that you will get twice asmuch data capacity for your money in18 months. Accordingly, when an ex-pensive supercomputer rolls through

the gates of a university, it is essentialto get it up and running as soon aspossible.

When the Cray Origin 2000 wasinstalled at the University of Bergen inautumn 1996, it was the first of itskind in Europe, a short-lived distinc-tion at best. The computer had acomputational capacity that was al-most unparalleled, allowing research-ers to perform calculations hardlyanyone had been able to make earlier.

The “Computational Science Pro-gramme 1999–2003” will be carryingthe Research Council of Norway’sefforts in the field of supercomputingforward in the years ahead.

According to calculations performed by an interdisciplinary

group of researchers associated with the University of Bergen

(UiB), it may some day be possible to make the fjords along

the west coast of Norway into veritable food factories. The

researchers have used the university’s supercomputer to verify

that their theory is valid, and now it is about to be tested in

practice.

BY BÅRD AMUNDSEN

Crunching problems by crunching numbers Number crunching for pharmaceuticals, pollution and the climate Number crunching for pharmaceuticals, pollution and the climate

FJORD FOOD FACTORIES: TheGeiranger Fjord and the other beauti-ful fjords along the west coast of Nor-way’s are among the country’s fore-most tourist attractions. In future, theymay also be making important contri-butions to the world food supply.(Photo: Samfoto)

– food factories of the future?Fjords

In 1895, the picture of the X-rayedhand of Wilhelm Conrad Roent-gen’s wife Bertha created quite a

stir, and the X-ray image with the ringon the finger is widely known. Today,large parts of the world have becomeso blasé when it comes to technologythat many people may not even besurprised by a 3D image of the handof a living foetus. The latest develop-ments in ultrasound instrumentation,digital image processing and visuali-sation techniques entail that 3Dimages of the inside of the body canbe used for several applications,including diagnostics, research andnon-invasive surgery.

The technique involves convertingultrasound images into 3D volumes. Itfacilitates the imaging and analysis ofstructures and pathologies with com-plex geometries. Vingmed, an enter-prise located in the small Norwegiantown of Horten, has been activelyengaged in research on ultrasoundvisualisation since 1985, focusingstrongly on 3D ultrasound imagessince 1990. The company has estab-lished unique co-operation with manyresearch institutions in the area of ITand image processing, as well as withclinical communities. These effortshave put Vingmed in the vanguard oftechnical and clinical testing inrespect of this exciting imagingmodality.

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY“Vingmed’s main expertise is car-diology”, explains Research DirectorBjørn Olstad. He himself has played akey part in designing the algorithmsfor the type of image processing withwhich the company works. He wasappointed professor at the NorwegianUniversity of Science and Technologyin 1993 at the age of just 29, withimage processing as his speciality.The university’s collaboration withVingmed subsequently led him toaccept an offer to become the com-pany’s director of research.

“The three-dimensional ultrasoundrecordings of the heart are accom-plished by guiding a mechanical orelectronic ultrasound probe through a

spatial search pattern. A computer fol-lows the movements, automaticallytaking numerous pictures from everyposition, synchronised with the heartrate. The huge set of original picturesis then converted into a set of vol-umes”, he explains.

“After this spatial conversion, thecomputer can be used to simulate theplacement of the probe. This allowsus to use “virtual probes” which canbe placed completely independentlyof where the physical probe wasplaced originally. In addition, a set of sophisticated image processingalgorithms has been developed, mak-ing it possible for spatial data to bevisualised as an image. The user canchoose the calculation method bestsuited for the clinical problem beingtreated (surface visualisation or spa-tial visualisation). This technique hasgreat potential for further applica-tions for ultrasound as a medicalimaging modality, both in respect ofnew applications (for example realtime support during heart operations)and in providing more reliable diag-noses in difficult clinical cases”, saysOlstad.

FROM THREE TO FOUR DIMENSIONSThe next generation of ultrasound sys-tems from Vingmed will be based ondigital technology and computerarchitecture. Applications renderedpossible today by post-processing on acomputer will be integrated with thescanner, meaning that some computerprocessing can take place in virtuallyreal time. That is, the imaging is four-dimensional, the fourth dimensionbeingtime.

“We are also directing researchefforts at fields other than ultrasoundtechniques per se. Among them aredata processing techniques, imageprocessing, production techniques andfunctionality”, remarks Olstad,

emphasising the importance of thecompany’s interdisciplinary collabo-ration with a variety of Norwegianresearch institutions.

It takes tremendous computingpower to convert ultrasound signals.To manage it, the company has devel-oped its own specialised computers,known as System Five.

3D WITHOUT MECHANICALMOVEMENTSThree-dimensional work is performedin collaboration with a group ofresearchers from the Department ofInformatics at the University of Oslo.In the journal Diagnostic Imaging, in1998, the group’s work was describedas “Some of the most advanced acade-mic work being done in this field”.

“The goal is to develop the tech-nology needed for real-time data col-lection and visualisation”, explainsProfessor Sverre Holm, head of thegroup. “Almost all ultrasound requiresthat the ultrasound probe be rotated,tipped or moved. It is this movementthat facilitates the capture of the thirddimension. “The unique aspect of ourproject is that we are testing consider-ably more sophisticated ultrasoundprobes which can guide an ultrasoundbeam over a volume without anymechanical movement. This also callsfor a considerably more complicatedultrasound scanner, but we believethat it will be a reality within a fewyears, thanks to advances in micro-electronics.

The advantage is that we can col-lect data more quickly, thus achievinga more rapid updating rate on theimages. This is what makes it possibleto monitor the movements of theheart, for example. Holm adds thatthis is an EU project in collaborationwith Vingmed and ThompsonMicrosonics of France. In addition,the Research Council of Norway isfunding a doctoral fellowship.

– 15 –

th dimension

– 14 –

Super sophisticated ultrasound technology is revolutionising

medical diagnostics and treatments, opening up exciting new

horizons: Imagine, 3D images of the heart and circulatory

system as seen from the inside, virtual brain operations and

full overviews of organ development in foetuses as tiny as nine

millimetr es in size while still in the womb.

BY MONA GRAVNINGEN RYGH

A tale of the

DEVELOPMENT: 100 years separate the sensational X-ray imageof Mrs. Roentgen’s hand and the 3D image of the hand of a livefoetus. New technology is facilitating increasingly better images ofthe inside of the body, in three and four dimensions. (Photo:SPL/NPS Billedbyrå)

A PIONEER: Bjørn Olstad, Vingmed’sdirector of research. (Photo: Mona Gravningen Rygh)

4

during an operation. Ordinarily, thesurgeon will make a tiny additionalhole in the cranium to get good pic-tures of the brain, while the proce-dure itself is performed throughanother hole. The surgical instru-ments can be guided using the ultra-sound images”, expounds Grøn-ningsæter.

BETTER QUALITY OF LIFEProfessor Geirmund Unsgård of theUniversity Hospital in Trondheim isa pioneer when it comes to usingultrasound for brain surgery. “Oncethe equipment is commercially avail-able, it will be possible to improvethe quality and safety of brainsurgery. What is more, it will be pos-sible to operate on some patientswho are inoperable today. We alsoexpect that the technique willimprove the quality of life for manyof our patients, reducing hospitalisa-tion and recovery time. For manypatients, the technique will lead tomore radical surgery of malignantbrain tumours, thus increasing theirexpected survival time”, reportsUnsgård.

– 17 –

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASEThe use of ultrasound for diagnosingcardiovascular diseases sparespatients from invasive proceduresand considerable discomfort. UsingVingmed’s equipment, the Nor-wegian cardiology professor LivHatle, ably assisted by the doctorsand engineers who worked withherin Trondheim, laid the foundationfor ultrasound diagnostics basedon blood flow measurement. Themethod is invaluable to modernmedicine for diagnosing heart diseaseas well as diseases of other organs.Hatle is internationally recognisedfor her research (see Tell’Us no.2/99).

Ultrasound machines that measureblood flow velocities are based on aphenomenon known as the Dopplereffect which takes advantage of thefact that sound frequencies arealtered when sound is reflected off abody in motion. Liv Hatle demon-strated how the Doppler effect couldbe used to diagnose heart valveabnormalities and to assess pressureconditions in the heart. The genius ofit is that she made it possible toperform these examinations non-invasively. The doctor simply placesa sensor on the skin, and the resultscan be seen instantly on a screen.

STRESS ECHO“For the past three years, we havebeen working on a Research Councilproject to develop a new techniquefor stress echoes, an ultrasound tech-nique used for diagnosis and riskassessment of patients with known orsuspected coronary disease. Interpre-tation is based on a visual compari-son of the heart’s movements at restand under stress. We have nowdeveloped automatic, objective mea-suring techniques, and the resultsindicate that we have achieved ahigh level of quality assurance forthis type of examination”, reportsOlstad. He adds that Liv Hatle, whois now working at the UniversityHospital at Leuven, Belgium, is a keyfigure in the clinical testing of thenew technique.

New techniques have been devel-oped for visualising blood flows, as have techniques for imaging thecontraction of the cardiac muscle.Studies of patients indicate that thenew techniques will increase the sensitivity of early diagnoses, pro-viding an important new tool for cardiologists.

FOETAL DIAGNOSTICSEmbryology used to be based onaborted foetuses, but now thesesoon-to-be people can be studied in

utero, that is, while they are still inthe womb. Norway is on the cuttingedge when it comes to using thisnew technology for embryonicresearch, so-called sono-embryol-ogy. This represents yet anotherimportant new application forVingmed’s technology. Three-dimensional ultrasound images offoetuses down to seven weeks of agehave been developed by the NationalCentre for Foetal Medicine at theUniversity Hospital in Trondheim.The foetuses are a mere nine to 40millimetres long.

“With good 3D images, the doc-tors can learn more about foetalanomalies, and make presentationsof organs while they are developingincorrectly”, says Professor SturlaEik Nes, a specialist in foetal medi-cine and head of the centre. Heexplains that these new opportunitiesare a result of interdisciplinary col-laboration among doctors and com-puter engineers, while Vingmed isresponsible for making the machine.Vingmed has set up a special team towork in close contact with theNational Centre for Foetal Medicine.

VIRTUAL BRAIN SURGERYBrain surgeons will soon be able tooperate while their eyes are fixed ona computer screen rather than on the

patient’s brain. Using new ultra-sound technology, surgeons can nowget 3D images of the brain during anoperation. “Virtual reality” technol-ogy will make it possible for sur-geons to be “present” inside thebody, making it easier to navigatethrough complex structures.

The method is now the object ofintensive research and developmentat the University Hospital in Trond-heim, the Norwegian University ofScience and Technology and theresearch institute SINTEF Unimed,in collaboration with commercialisa-tion partner Mison, with supportfrom the Research Council of Nor-way, among others, and based onequipment from Vingmed.

Traditionally, the surgeon locatesthe area on which he or she willoperate using magnetic resonanceimages (MRI). They are of excellentquality, but cannot be updated dur-ing the operation. The general man-ager of Mison, Åge Grønningsæter,explains that brain surgery usuallyentails shifts and changes in thebrain, meaning the MRI imagesbecome outdated very quickly.Using ultrasound, it is possible torecord 3D images in just minutes,keeping up to date with changes asthey occur. It is also possible torecord live, 2D images at any time

– 16 –

GE Vingmed Ultrasound is an international supplier ofultrasound hardware and software for medical pur-poses. The enterprise is a European market leader inthe field of advanced ultrasound equipment for cardiacexaminations based on measuring blood flow in theheart. Intensive research is now in progress on theuse of 3D ultrasound imaging, at the same time asefforts are being directed towards eliminating the timelag engendered by acquisition and data processing.

Since it was founded in 1985, Vingmed has co-operated closely with the Department of Physiologyand Biomedical Engineering at the Norwegian Univer-sity of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Thecompany actually has its own seven-member researchteam affiliated with the department. Vingmed also hasa research department with a staff of five in Oslo,where it collaborates with a number of otherresearch institutions. Over the past 10 years,Vingmed has spent 16 to 20 per cent of its sales rev-enues on research and development. Thus far, morethan 50 doctoral theses based on Vingmed’s technol-ogy have been written in the fields of medicine, nat-ural science and technology. The Resarch Council hassupported Vingmed every step of the way, not leasttrough PROGIT, The Research Council’s ICT productcommercialization programme.

Vingmed was acquired by General Electric in 1998.Most of the enterprise’s 170 employees are located atthe main office in Horten, Norway, from where thecompany serves a global market. Of the company’saggregate sales of about MNOK 750 in 1999, approxi-mately 60 per cent went to Europe, 15 per cent toAsia and 25 per cent to the USA. Sales in the USA are

rising rapidly, largely as a result of becoming part ofthe General Electric Corporation.

In 1995, Vingmed won the EU Commission’s ITEA(Information Technology European Award) GrandPrix for System Five. The enterprise was one of threewinners in a competition that included 650 leadingEuropean technology enterprises. The prize, a goldtrophy and ECU 200 000, is awarded to companiesthat have most successfully used modern informationtechnology to develop commercial products.

VIRTUAL SURGERY:In future, it is likelythat surgeons willoperate using joysticks while watchingultrasound images ona big screen. Robotswill actually performthe operation insidethe patient’s brain.(Photo: FraunhoferInstitute)

Internet addressesSINTEF Unimed, Ultrasound Department http://www.us.unimed.sintef.no/

Department of Computer and Information Science,Norwegian University of Science and Technology. 3D images in the form of a live film showing how the mitralvalve of the heart beats, viewed from inside the ventricle:http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~sevald/stuff/anomal/mitralinsuff030998_1.avi

Three-dimensional visualisation of ultrasound (images)http://www.idi.ntnu.no/IDT/grupper/AK-grp/presentation/3d-visualisation/

The Data Analysis, Signal, and Image Processing Group ofthe Department of Informatics of the University of Oslo3D ultrasound systems (projects):http://www.ifi.uio.no/~sverre/3dsys.html

More about the projects:http://www.ifi.uio.no/~sverre/nice.html

MISON - A spin-off company from the Ultrasound Groupin Trondheimhttp://www.mison.no/

LIVE: This picture illustrateshow the results of two new ultra-sound imaging techniques can beused to demonstrate how the car-diac muscle contracts. The valuesproduced by these pictures areused to provide objective mea-surements of how well the car-diac muscle is working. Based onthis, it is possible to diagnosewhat type of coronary disease thepatient has.

PROJECT MANAGERS: Three of Vingmed’s researchproject managers pictured with the prototype for theadvanced System Five. Left to right: Håkon Høye (ultra-sound probes) Reidar Christiansen (the CardiAssist pro-ject, 4D), and Erik Steen (3D visualisation). (Photo: Mona Gravningen Rygh)

th dimensionA tale of the4 TEENY TINY: Sono-embryology is a newfield in which 3Dultrasound images offoetuses down to amere seven weeks ofage allow researchersto learn more aboutanomalies and dis-eases among theunborn.

Vingmed

The Kuli Stone, a rune stone inscrib-ed about 1000 years ago and discov-ered on the island of Smøla in the1800s, has taken its own sweet timeto divulge its story. Mentioned in thewritings of a Norwegian minister inthe 1860s, the stone seems subse-quently to have sunk into oblivion.Even when the stone was turnedover to the Norwegian Museum ofScience in 1913, no one showed anyparticular interest in the inscription.Then in 1956 the stone was ‘rediscov-ered’ by a man named Aslak Liestøl.The researcher’s astonishment wasgreat when he realised the stone actu-ally represented the oldest known oc-currence of the country name “Nor-way” in writing.

The 1956 examination disclosedthat Christianity had been in Norwayfor twelve winters when the stonewas erected, and the inscription stat-ed explicitly that it had been erectedby Tore and Hallvard. Years passed.Then one mild evening in 1998, theKuli Stone divulged another secret.Runologist Jan Ragnar Hagland turn-ed to a physical geographer who hadlaser and micro-surveying equipment,Dr. Jan Swantesson. As a physicalgeographer employed by KarlstadCollege, Dr. Swantesson has spent atremendous amount of time trudgingabout in Swedish bogs with his home-made equipment which consists of aframe equipped with a laser, an elec-tronic control unit, and a laptopcomputer.

MOUNTAINS A MILLIMETRE HIGHOne gets an idea of the accuracy ofthis system when hearing that Dr.Swantesson intended to survey devi-ations less than 1-millimetre high onthe surface of the Kuli Stone, just ashe has done out in Swedish fieldsand forests to record the deteriora-tion of cultural artefacts. Slowly, infi-nitely slowly, the laser recorded theminute height differences on the sur-face. The result will be a map osten-sibly indicating valleys and mountainpeaks. The only difference is that thismap measures highs and lows intenths of a millimetre.

Professor Jan Ragnar Hagland ofthe Norwegian University of Scienceand Technology (NTNU) in Trond-heim follows along enthusiastically.He is looking forward to an objec-tive new reading, as he calls it. Asthe plotter finally begins, he throwshimself over the map of the runicinscriptions on the Kuli Stone.

“This confirms what we’ve alwaysbelieved: ‘Tore and Hallvard erectedthis stone…’.”

The text is readily legible, eventhough it is covered with red writing.The top of the Kuli Stone is missing;it was probably used to build a barnbridge centuries ago. Up towards thefracture, runologists have interpret-ed the runes to say: “…after Ulv-ljot”. In other words, the stone wasbelieved to have been erected in me-mory of a man named Ulv or Ulvljot.A few researchers have let their

imaginations run wild, envisaging anoble warrior behind the name.

“No, that can’t be right. Thereare five runes, but they can’t meanUlv or Ulvljot.

“Should we cross him off our list,then?” asks Swantesson.

“I would say so”, replies Hagland.

HAGLAND LETS THE FACTS SINK IN“No doubt about this, though. Thissays ‘Christianity’. Fantastic! The stoneactually mentions Christianity”, shoutsHagland. Then doubt rears its uglyhead; earlier readings have inter-preted the whole sentence to read:‘Twelve winters had Christianitybeen in Norway’. However, deep inone of the valleys, Hagland findsrunes that indicate otherwise.

The reading of what’s called lineB appears to justify a significantchange in linguistic content. The cruxof the matter is the reading of runes27 to 31 as um rit rather than uirit.

“An interpretation of line B ac-cording to the new reading may thenbe: ‘Twelve winters had Christianityimproved things in Norway or per-haps even ‘Twelve winters had Chris-tianity secured law and order in Nor-way. The new reading of line B inparticular seems to strengthen ourimpression of the inscription as amonument of missionary propagandafor the new faith at an early phase ofthe Christianisation of Norway”, con-cludes Professor Hagland.

– 19 –

You can’t get

, or can you?

Runes and Christianity• The runes are a Germanicalphabet believed to have origi-nated at about the time ofChrist’s birth. The oldest runicalphabet consisted of 24 signsand is called “the elder Futhark”,after the first six letters in thealphabet (‘th’ was one letter).

• In about 700, the aboriginalNordic alphabet was replaced bya new one, the younger Futhark,with just 16 letters.

• The Viking expeditions endedin approximately 1050. At aboutthe same time, Norway wasunited into a single kingdom, andChristianity was introduced. TheLatin alphabet was introducedvia England, accompanying Chris-tianity. Runes existed parallel tothe Latin alphabet quite far intothe Middle Ages, then graduallydisappeared from use.

Lasers and micro-surveying equipment have put a new face

on inscriptions etched into rune stones a millennium ago.

BY ARILD HOKSNES, GEMINI

ORIENTEERING INTO THE PAST. A contour map of theinscription on the Kuli stone. The runes in the ancientinscription look like elevations on an orienteering map. (Illustration: Jan O.H. Swantesson)

DIVULGING NEW SECRETS: TheKuli Stone was erected by Toreand Hallvard on the island ofSmøla nearly 1000 year ago. (Photo: Jens Søraa, Gemini)

blood out of a stone

– 18 –

– 21 –

The sludge and sediments alongthe path of the Gulf Streamand in the fjords along the

west coast of Norway contain detail-ed information about past climaticchanges. In summer 1999, research-ers took a large number of samplesfrom the seabed. Over the next twoyears, examinations of the samplesare expected to shed some new lighton the climatic changes the world isexperiencing today.

Thanks to technology carried bythe French research ship, the MarionDufresne, sediments can be used as achronological archive of climate-related information, facilitating thereconstruction of climatic trends overseveral thousand years. Today’s re-searchers are able to detect tempera-ture variations of as little as plus/minus one degree through several iceages (several hundred thousandyears).

“To be able to say anything aboutclimatic change today, we need toknow as much as possible about thereasons for earlier temperature fluctu-ations. We now know that rapid, nat-ural changes in average temperatureshave occurred previously, with fluc-tuations of as much as five to tendegrees in as little as a decade”, ex-plains Eystein Jansen, professor ofpaleoclimatology at the University of

Bergen. Along with Professor Lau-rent Labeyrie of the French univer-sity Paris-Sud, Orsay, Jansen co-headed part of the Marion Dufresneexpedition along the Gulf Streamfrom the Caribbean to the coast ofnorthern Norway.

BLESSED BY THE GULF STREAMThe climate along the coast of Nor-way is exceptionally mild, consider-ing its proximity to the Arctic. Thereason is the Gulf Stream, which car-ries warm water from the Gulf ofMexico to the Norwegian coast, mak-ing it possible for people to enjoy adip in the briny deep at latitudeswhich otherwise lend themselves bestto icebergs. That being said, overtime, temperature and climate aredetermined by a more complex glo-bal network of variables, and eventhe Gulf Stream is influenced by theatmosphere and the location of highand low pressure systems.

“We don’t know what it wouldtake to disrupt the Gulf Stream, but itis part of an extremely sensitive sys-tem. We have recorded small temper-ature fluctuations in recent years.However, we don’t know whetherthey are due to natural climatic fluc-tuations or are harbingers of lastingchanges. It is still too early to tell”,says Jansen.

– 20 –

Many wonder whether today’s unstable climate is

anthropogenic, that is, caused by man, or whether

it is due to the whims of Mother Nature. Scientists may

find some of the answers to that question on the seabed where

organic and inorganic residue builds up layers of sludge year

by year. In stable sea areas, the layers can be traced thousands

of years back in time.

BY INGAR MYKING

At the core of change

DANGEROUS CLIMATE: Several houses were reduced to fire wood when the

River Moksa in southern Norway changed its course 2 June 1995 during the

country’s worst flood since 1789. Climatic researchers are investigating whether

the on-going climatic changes are natural or man-made. (Photo: All Over Press)

changeclimatic climatic

global basis, and the annual meantemperature has increased bybetween 0.5 and 1.0° C in most partsof Norway. The special thing aboutNorway is that average temperaturesin parts of northern Norway and onthe Svalbard archipelago were ashigh in the 1930s as they are today”,observe climatologists Eirik Førlandand Inger Hanssen-Bauer at the Nor-wegian Meteorological Institute(DNMI) in Oslo. The researchers areparticipating in the Research Coun-cil’s project Regional climate devel-opment under global warming (Reg-Clim).

REGIONAL CLIMATE MODELSNorway is an exciting, but complexcountry in terms of climatology. Thecountry’s varied topography meansthat the global climate models devel-oped for international use are not par-ticularly suitable for Norway’s cli-matic trends. RegClim climatologistsare in the process of developingregional climate models that can pre-dict something about Norway’s futureclimate, based on global climate mod-els and regional meteorological data.

It can be raining heavily for dayson the west coast of Norway, while itis clear and sunny in Oslo in the east-ern part of the country. Such varia-tions are not captured by the hugeglobal climate models, which, amongother things, do not have particularlygood terrain resolution. These modelsproduce useful results on a largescale, but are not useful for forecast-ing climate changes in specific areas,for instance, Norway. However, byexamining historical climate data, it ispossible to find correlations betweenlarge-scale and local climates.

As the global climate changes,RegClim participants will be trying topredict the most likely regional climatedevelopment trends in Norway. Itappears that temperatures in northernNorway have increased in the springand summer, while those in the south-ern part of the country have increasedin the spring and autumn. The high

annual temperature in the 1930s wasthe result of high temperatures in thewinter, summer and autumn. In recentyears, mild winters have been the mainexplanation for the rise in averageannual temperatures.

IT’S RAINING, IT’S POURING …Most places in Norway have noted amarked increase in precipitation lev-els over the past century, although thescope of the increase differs consider-ably from one part of the country tothe next. North-western Norway hasseen the most significant increase.There are also pronounced regionaldifferences in the seasons experienc-ing the increase: northern Norway hasnoted increases in the spring andsummer, while southern Norway hasrecorded the greatest increases in theautumn. Winter precipitation has alsoincreased significantly in most partsof northern Norway.

Also globally, there has been anincrease in precipitation, especially inthe northern hemisphere where precip-itation has climbed by 10 per cent overthe past 100 years. The increase hasbeen particularly pronounced in theNorwegian part of the Arctic, (Spits-bergen, Bjørnøya and Jan Mayen),where precipitation levels are as muchas 25 to 30 per cent higher now than atthe beginning of the 20th century.

GREENHOUSE EFFECTClimatologists ascribe the rise in pre-cipitation in some areas of Norway tomore frequent or stronger winds fromthe south-west. They have, in fact,found that a large part of the changein temperature and precipitation isrelated to systematic fluctuations inthe pattern of atmospheric circulationover northern Europe. These changesmay be attributable to the growingseverity of the greenhouse effect.

The temperature increases noted inour areas over the past 20 years areprobably due in part to global emis-sions of greenhouse gases. However,the global rise in temperatures duringthe early half of the 1900s is difficult

to explain fully using the global cli-mate models developed to simulateclimate trends caused by an increase inthe greenhouse effect. Nor can thetemperature rise in Norway during this

period be explained solely by chang-ing circulation patterns. This demon-strates the importance of long-termstudies to climate research, accordingto Førland and Hanssen-Bauer.

– 23 –

In this sense, the waters offthe Norwegian coast are a keyarea for learning more about fluc-tuation patterns in the climate andocean currents. “Here, it is possi-ble to study the Gulf Stream’stransport of heat. The sedimentson the fjord floors and on theslope of the Continental Marginare particularly good places forstudying these phenomena”, con-tinues Jansen, who expects theresearch expeditions to produce adetailed new picture of how theoceans affect climatic change.

ATYPICAL TIMES“In the long term, we hope to col-lect enough data to form a solidfoundation for saying somethingabout whether today’s climaticchanges are natural, man-made,or both”, says the professor fromBergen.

The debate regarding the rea-sons for today’s unstable climatehave revolved around the green-house effect, the influence ofsunspots, cosmic radiation, majorvolcanic eruptions, etc. Severalresearchers have recently ques-tioned whether or not most of theblame should to attributed toman-made pollution. Jansen is ofthe opinion that there are indica-tions that our current climatic sit-uation is different from those ofearlier times. Using climatic data,it is possible to make a graphshowing temperature trends over

past millennia. Against that typeof historical timeline, our own erais atypical”, continues the profes-sor.

The Marion Dufresne is theonly research ship in the worldable to take continuous sedimentcore samples up to 60 metreslong.

“The French have developedhighly sophisticated samplingequipment. This field needs huge,stable vessels to collect samplesthat show sufficient detail”, addsJansen.

MAKING THE RESULTS PUBLIC“Norwegians have considerableexpertise in analysing sedimentsfrom the fjords and the Continen-tal Shelf. As a result, our groupsmake a good team which is help-ing to glean more knowledgeabout climatic fluctuations, notleast at the international level”,says Professor Labeyrie.

Jansen’s paleoclimatologicalresearch has attracted internationalattention, and his group has pub-lished its results in the prestigiousscientific journal Natureon severaloccasions over the past few years.

Altogether, Jansen andLabeyrie managed to collect akilometre of core samples. Thescientific analyses will be per-formed on terra firma over thenext two years. After that, all thesample material will be madeavailable to the public.

– 22 –

In the summer of 1999, the Marion Dufresnemade its fifth consecutive annual expeditionunder the auspices of the French Polar Institute(IFTRP). On two legs of the voyage, the vesselcarried researchers from seven or eight nations,including a total of 20 Norwegian graduate stu-dents and researchers from the Norwegian Insti-tute of Polar Research, the university courses on

Svalbard and the universities of Tromsø, Bergenand Oslo. Most of the Norwegian funding wasprovided by the Research Council of Norway.

“Norwegian and French experts have beendecisive for getting the vessel to our coastalareas, and for obtaining joint international fund-ing. In this context, by virtue of support andguarantees, the Research Council has played a

vital part in facilitating the expeditions”, statesProfessor Eystein Jansen emphatically.

The expeditions are part of an internationalprogramme entitled IMAGES (InternationalMarine Global Change Study), which is, in turn,part of Past Global Changes (PAGES) related tothe international research programme GlobalChange (IGBP).

International co-operation

THE CLIMATE OF TOMORROW: The first climate scenarios indicate that Nor-way will be experiencing warmer winters and wetter autumns. (Photo: Samfoto)

Over the past century, av-

erage temperatures have

risen in Norway and glob-

ally. Nonetheless, Norway

is in a class of its own.

While the 1990s was the

warmest decade from 1860

to 1999 on the global level,

average temperatures in

northern Norway were

just as high in the 1930s

as at the end of the 20th

century.

BY SIW ELLEN JAKOBSEN

In certain years, there wereclear differences between av-erage global temperatures and

those in Norway. Globally, forexample, 1998 was the warmestyear ever recorded using reliabletemperature measurements, but itwas a normal year in Norway.Here, nearly half the years since1900 have had higher or equallyhigh annual mean temperatures as1998.

“The annual mean tempera-ture has increased by about 0.7° Cover the past 100 years on a

Climatic complexities

Milder winters in NorwayNorway’s future climate is expected to feature milder winters and wetterautumns, according to the first climate scenarios presented by Norwegianresearchers. In December 1999, the researchers involved in RegClim pre-sented their first forecasts for climatic and weather conditions in Norwayin the decades ahead. Eirik J. Førland and Thor Erik Nordeng emphasisethat their calculations are still subject to a great deal of uncertainty, andthat they expect the models to improve considerably. With that proviso,they presented the following main conclusions about the period from2000 to 2050 in a newsletter from the Cicero Research Foundation:• If atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to increase,

average annual temperatures in different parts of Norway are expectedto rise by 0.2 to 0.7° C. per decade;

• Temperature increases are expected to be most significant inland, andleast along the coast;

• All seasons will be warmer, but winters will see the most significant rise;• Svalbard and the Barents region will probably experience the greatest

temperature increase;• Annual precipitation will rise in most parts of Norway, but most in the

western part of the country;• The rise in precipitation will be most pronounced in the autumn, except

in eastern Norway;• Eastern Norway will probably receive less precipitation in spring, while

the greatest increase will be in winter.

sign language. However, the situationdoes not appear to be inhibiting theirconversation. Randi carries a coupleof lapel microphones which she fas-tens to the lapels of the people withwhom she is talking. Thanks to asmall device Randi has in her pocket,her conversation partner’s voice isrecognised and presented as text,either on a hand-held PC, or on a pairof computerised glasses that displaya tiny screen in front of one eye.

At the moment, this is no morethan a vision of the future, but scien-tists are getting closer to a solutionall the time. Efforts are being madeto set up a test service for speakingphones and textphones for the hear-ing- and speech-impaired.

“Today, a hearing-impaired per-son who wants to speak to someonewho has a regular phone has to ring amanual switchboard service where an

operator “translates” text into speech.In future, it will be possible to trans-late automatically in both directions“,explains Georg Ottesen of SintefTelecom and Informatics.

Speech synthesis takes placewhen text is keyed in by the hearing-impaired person, then translated intospeech by the hearing person’s re-ceiver. This requires a voice recogni-tion system with a relatively limitedvocabulary, so that the voice of thehearing person appears as text oneither a textphone or a PC.

“In addition to recognising speech,it would be a great advantage if itwere possible to indicate the way inwhich words are spoken. For exam-ple, anger, laughter or sadness couldbe conveyed using colours, fonts,underlining and exclamation points”,explains Ottesen.

BRAIN IN A BOXIn the not too distant future, peoplewith cognitive disabilities such asconcentration, memory and/or lan-guage problems will be able to getinvaluable help from PCs equippedwith the appropriate software. TheEU’s TASC (Telematics Applica-tions Supporting Cognition) project,

aimed at developing such software, isalready being tested by differentgroups of people in several countries.Groups in Northern Ireland, Den-mark and Sweden have been asked toexamine more closely the potentialneeds of and applications designedfor the mentally handicapped. In Fin-land, efforts are focusing on patientssuffering from senile dementia, andin Norway, people with acquiredbrain damage (ABD) will be tryingout a variety of models. The softwareis based on daily schedulers. Some-one enters all the different tasks to beperformed during the day in chrono-logical order on a PC. An alarm willthen announce when it is time to startmaking dinner, for example. It is pos-sible to receive messages in the formof text, sound, images, or a combina-tion of the above.

“Mind you, memory problems area double-edged sword”, smiles Svein-ung Tornås at the Sunnaas Rehabilita-tion Hospital outside Oslo. The sys-tems being developed under the aus-pices of the Norwegian TASC Projectare being tested and verified at thehospital’s cognitive rehabilitation unit.

“Our participants have all led nor-mal lives, but they are now subject to

many roles/expectation related to theperson they were before they wereinvolved in an accident. What’smore, most of their faculties are in-tact. Nonetheless, there are manythings they can no longer do due totheir cognitive problems. Most ofthem would like a tool to help themplan and structure their everyday rou-tines”, remarks Tornås.

Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital:http://home.sol.no/~kress/English/english_frameset.htm

Sintef Telecom and Informatics:http://www.informatics.sintef.no/

– 25 –

There is a 20-year-old girl fromBergen with cerebral palsy.She thinks, sees, hears and

writes just as you and I, but, alas, shehas no voice. And she would like tohave one: “I want the voice of ayoung women with a Bergen dialect.I want a computer that I can operatewith my brain. A computer like thatwould let me roar when I need toroar; I could talk like everyone else,expressing anger and joy. Maybe Icould even whisper, so my mothercouldn’t hear. I have a lot to say andmany opinions, but talking is a long-drawn out process for me.”

Few can envisage what it must belike not to have a voice of one’s own.Anger, grief, joy and laughter are notthe same in writing. But the day israpidly approaching when languagetechnology should be able to makesome of this young lady’s dreamscome true. Over the next four years,the Research Council of Norway’sprogramme entitled “IT for the dis-abled” (IT-Funk) will be spendingMNOK 25 on the development ofuser-friendly IT products and ser-vices for the disabled.

“As many people as possibleshould benefit from the progress

being made in the field of informa-tion and communications technol-ogy”, says Tron Espeli, an adviserwith the Research Council.

UNDREAMT-OF OPPORTUNITIES Voice recognition software is alreadyon the market, as are a variety ofspeech synthesis programs. Naviga-tion systems for the sight-impairedare currently in the pipeline, and anelectronic memory is being tested forindividuals with acquired brain dam-age (ABD). Certain research groupshave made major advances in theminiaturisation of electronics, whileothers are working on miniaturecommunications equipment that iscordless and battery powered. Suchadvances will open up a new hori-zons for the disabled. Many havefeared that IT would alienate and iso-late vulnerable social groups. Thishas been a very real concern for thedisabled, and justifiably so, sincethey have usually been at the end ofthe queue when it comes to thedevelopment and adaptation of newtechnologies and services.

“The goal should be for as manyas possible to benefit from the tech-nological advances being achieved in

the field of information technology.This should be what drives productdevelopment forward for those of uswho are concerned about access touser-friendly IT products and ser-vices for the disabled”, points outMaja Arnestad, project manager forthe Research Council of Norway’s“IT-Funk”, a programme designed topromote IT for the disabled.

TALKING MAPSThe first global positioning systems(GPS) for vehicles appeared on themarket years ago. They guide driversalong unfamiliar roads using mapsand messages. Similar technology isnow being developed for pedestrians,according to Ingrid Svagård of SintefTelecom and Informatics. She ismanager of a project aimed at devel-oping a portable, speech-based sys-tem called “Speech Navigator”. Thesystem is designed to help the blindand sight-impaired find their wayaround. Based on electronic mapsand a compass, the system featuresspeech-based interaction between theuser and the system. Users can deter-mine where they are at any giventime, then get directions for the bestway to reach their destination. In the

digital world, this is known as getting“on-line, interactive information aboutposition, direction and route.”

“Demo models have been made inboth the US and the UK, but thetechnology was not good enough, soit undermined user confidence. Weneed to do something about that”, re-marks Svagård.

One of the problems remaining tobe solved is that GPS users have to bewithin free range of a GPS satellite.This can be a problem in big citieswhere skyscrapers can get in the way,sporadically leaving the sight-impair-ed user with no means of spatial ori-entation. Better digital maps are need-ed as well. Once the maps can pro-vide more information about trafficlights and pedestrian crossings inaddition to road information, they willbenefit more groups of people.

“As time passes, the system willlend itself to other applications, forexample, for helping tourists getaround in unfamiliar cities”, addsSvagård.

ELECTRONIC CONVERSATIONSRandi and Ole are sitting in a café,talking. Randi is deaf and, althoughOle can hear, he has no knowledge of

sensibility

– 24 –

A RANGE OF POSSIBILITIES: Infor-mation technology is opening up newpossibilities for the physically chal-lenged. Now, speech-based naviga-tion systems are being developed tohelp blind and sight-impaired findtheir way around. (Photo: Rune-Petter Ness)

Can you imagine a talking speech pros-

thesis for someone without a voice, or a

listening prosthesis that can translate

speech into text for a deaf person?

What about a personal navigation sys-

tem to help a sight-impaired person

know where it is safe to step off the

pavement? Information technology is

opening up a tremendous range of pos-

sibilities for the physically challenged.

BY ANNE-LISE AAKERVIK, GEMINI

andSensesIT-FunkThe Research Council of Norwayhas been commissioned by theMinistry of Trade and Industryand the Ministry of Health andSocial Affairs to draw up a planfor IT for the disabled. Theresultant research programme iscalled IT-Funk, and is intended,among other things, to augmentknowledge and awareness of theimportance of information tech-nology for the disabled.

“More than any other group,the disabled need the equipmentbeing developed in the field ofmodern IT and language technol-ogy. New tools can make func-tional disabilities irrelevant inareas where they previously pre-sented an insurmountable bar-rier to social contact”, com-ments Maja Arnestad, the Re-search Council’s contact in theIndustry and Energy Division.

“The truth is that user-friendly products are an advan-tage for all users, not just thedisabled, meaning they will be agood investment. The manufac-turing industry simply hasn’trealised it yet,” Arnestad con-cludes.

– 26 – – 27 –

NANOENGINEERING: The com-puter chip being carried by thisminuscule ant is just one of manyexamples of how far microtechnolo-gies have already progressed. Thepicture was taken by researchers atHuddersfield University in the UK.(Photo: Reuters)

“Micro- and nanotechnology will become just as important in the years

ahead as computer technology has been in recent years. This technology

will take science to entirely new levels”, remarks Project Director Anders

Hanneborg of SINTEF Electronics and Cybernetics in Oslo.Researchers at this SINTEF institute are currently developing machines

so tiny that one needs a microscope to see how they are assembled. In

fact, microtechnology is so small that it is based on a scale measured in

micrometers, that is, thousandths of a millimetre. And today’s researchers

are diving even deeper into the microcosmos by moving into nanotechnol-

ogy, where accuracy is measured in nanometres, that is, thousandths of a

micrometer.

50 DOCTORATESThe summer of 2000 will see the start of construction of a new MNOK

200 microtechnology laboratory in Oslo. The Research Council of Nor-

way is targeting this field, and will be providing funds for 50 doctorates

over the next five years in this very narrow speciality.“Every facet of society will be influenced by these minute machines.

Norway’s National Hospital is already co-operating with the University of

Oslo and SINTEF to develop a tiny device to be implanted in the skull of

patients suffering from hydrocephaly. When water pressure increases, the

sensor will detect it, and release excess water through a drain”, explains

Hanneborg.Researchers in a variety of fields are hard at work creating the technol-

ogy needed to build a machine so small that it can be injected into a blood

vessel using a syringe. There, the machine could perform tasks that cur-

rently call of surgical intervention, angioplasties, for instance, that is, the

unclogging of clogged blood vessels.The transport sector will also be totally changed. Several years ago, the

SensoNor company developed a microsensor that detects collisions,

instantly releasing airbags to protect the passengers. The next step will be

sensors that communicate with components embedded in the roadway, so

cars will navigate themselves, allowing drivers to read the newspaper or

enjoy the scenery.

KEYBOARDLESS KEYBOARDINGLike all other technology, it will also be possible to use micro- and nano-

technology for more jaundiced applications. For example, it will be possi-

ble to make remote-controlled camera systems and microphones the size

of a grain of sand. And development will continue relentlessly, regardless

of its potential adverse applications. The main challenge in respect of the

new micromachines is enabling them to communicate with the world

around them, which will open up an incredible number of potential appli-

cations. At the University of California at Berkeley, researchers are

attempting to create ‘smart dust’ that can be attached to fingernails, for

example, to detect your finger movements. That would make it possible to

enter information into a computer without using a keyboard. In other

words, you could send an email from wherever you might be at any given

time without having access to your keyboard!

Micr oscopic machines can be dispatched into the body torepair blood vessels, along with microcameras the size of agrain of sand. There are strong indications that nanotech-nology will come to dominate the early decades of the newmillennium.

BY PER KRISTIAN BJØRKENG, AFTENPOSTEN

Micr oscopic machines can be dispatched into the body torepair blood vessels, along with microcameras the size of agrain of sand. There are strong indications that nanotech-nology will come to dominate the early decades of the newmillennium.

BY PER KRISTIAN BJØRKENG, AFTENPOSTEN

For centuries, people haveknown that when saltwaterand freshwater are dividedinto two distinct chambersseparated by a semiperme-able membrane, a biologi-cal membrane made from apig’s bladder, for example,

excess pressure will build up, causingthe less concentrated solution (fresh-water) to dilute the more concentratedone (saltwater) until the two are inequilibrium, that is, until they reachthe same concentration. This process isbased on a simple principle known asosmosis and the pressure is calledosmotic pressure. Norwegian research-ers would like to take advantage of thisprocess on a rather grand scale bydiverting water from a river into apower plant, where it would meet salt-water pumped up from the ocean. Theexcess pressure created in the saltwaterwould be diverted to a turbine andused to generate electricity.

According to the most optimistic

prognoses, if researchers succeed, theresultant energy prices could bepressed down towards a mere NOK0.25 per kilowatt hour. Even better,this type of power generation createsno CO2 emissions. All in all, saltpower could turn out to be a substan-tial energy resource. Calculationsindicate that Norway could produce atotal of 20–25 TWh of energy peryear with the help of salt power. Bycomparison, the largest, most moderngas-fuelled power plant can producethree TWh per year.

THE MEMBRANE IS THE KEYThere are, of course, certain criteriawhich must be met before this type ofpower production will ever see abreakthrough. Researchers are work-ing relentlessly to develop a mem-brane that will lend itself to salinitypower plants. The membrane has tolet the freshwater through easily,while keeping the saltwater containedon the other side. “Herein lies thechallenge. We are not sure that we canmanage to develop this type of mem-brane”, admits Project Manager RuneØyan of Statskraft. The membranewould be similar to those used withreverse osmosis for desalination, thatis, for removing the salt from seawaterto produce freshwater. There are

already numerous desalination plantsall over the world. “We have tried allthe types of membranes currentlyavailable on the market, but so farnone of them has turned out to beworth what it costs. Membrane pricesand durability will determine the priceof the energy produced, and whetherthis energy generation technology willbe viable”, continues Øyan.

A MEDIUM-SIZED FOOTBALLSTADIUMFor financial and practical reasons, asalinity power plant would have to besituated at the mouth of a river, orbetween the sea and a nearby lake.The project would call for three rela-tively large-scale water pipes, one forfreshwater, one for saltwater and onefor brackish water. Brackish water iswhat forms when freshwater and salt-water mix, and it would be dis-charged back into the sea again. A50-megawatt facility would take upthe same amount of space as a foot-ball stadium if it were built at groundlevel. “The environmental disadvan-tages are minimal compared withmany other alternatives. This kind offacility would have no significantimpact on large wilderness areas, andthe method could be adapted to facil-ities of all sizes”, concludes Øyan.

– 29 –– 28 –

This salt power research projectfalls under the industrial auspicesof Statskraft, Norway’s largestnational power company. SINTEF(Civil and Environmental Engi-neering) is managing the project.The Helsinki University of Tech-nology and the Portuguese Re-search Institute Ictpol are con-tributing expertise and mem-branes to the project, which isbeing financed by Statskraft andthe Research Council of Nor-way’s programme for “Efficient,renewable energy technologies”(NYTEK).

With its long coastline and numerous freshwater lakes, Norway has a

huge potential for generating power, but its potential may be far greater

than previously expected. Research is currently in progress to determine

how freshwater, in contact with saltwater, can result in competitively

priced, environment-friendly power. Researchers believe that salinity

power plants might be an important contribution to Nor way’s future

energy production.

BY SIW ELLEN JAKOBSEN

With its long coastline and numerous freshwater lakes, Norway has a

huge potential for generating power, but its potential may be far greater

than previously expected. Research is currently in progress to determine

how freshwater, in contact with saltwater, can result in competitively

priced, environment-friendly power. Researchers believe that salinity

power plants might be an important contribution to Nor way’s future

energy production.

BY SIW ELLEN JAKOBSEN powerSaltOSMOSIS: A salinitypower plant would befitted with a membraneenclosed in a container.There would be cur-rents on both sides ofthe membrane. Fresh-water would be flowingon the one side, at thesame time as it wouldbe moving through themembrane to dilute theseawater flowing on theother side. Freshwaterand seawater wouldsubsequently be mixedin the seawater chan-nel, creating osmoticpressure which wouldin turn drive a turbineand generate electricity.

WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE:Norway has a long coastline, numer-ous lakes and plenty of space. Thismakes it a very interesting place forinvestigating how to generate powerby bringing saltwater and freshwatertogether. (Photo: Samfoto)

SaltResidual fresh water back to the river

River

Freshwater pump

Seawater pumpTurbine

Electric power

Sea

Many membrane modules in parallelMembrane foil

SCHEMATIC OF SALT POWER FACILITY

In the shadow of the huge paperfactory next door, a nondescriptlittle building in Ranheim near

Trondheim hides an environmentaltechnology company that seems to be‘burning out’ a niche for itself on theexport market. This little village iswhere the energy enterprise Energosbuilt its first, apparently low-key,waste-to-energy facility in 1997. Amere three years later, European en-ergy companies are practically queu-ing up to sign co-operation agree-ments.

Energos achieved its internationalbreakthrough in 1998, when the CEOsigned a letter of intention to build aMNOK 750 refuse-to-fuel plant in

Germany. But that was only the be-ginning, as the company signed onecontract after the next. Now, in 2000,the enterprise has sales and operatingcontracts for facilities destined forGermany, Portugal, Sweden and Fin-land. Over the coming decade, thecontracts will be worth an estimatedNOK 2 billion.

AN OFFER HE SIMPLY COULDNOT REFUSEThe technology per sewas developedby founder Helge Rosvold at a testfacility at the SINTEF ResearchFoundation in Trondheim. Aftergranting Rosvold financial supportfor nearly 10 years, in 1994 the

Research Council issued an ultima-tum, stating in no uncertain termsthat the time had come to test com-mercial potential. In other words, anyfurther assistance would be contin-gent upon taking the product to mar-ket and testing the technology.

“The ultimatum was the incentiveI needed. Had the Research Councilnot been willing to make such high-risk capital available to me, the pro-ject would probably never have cometo fruition,” confesses Rosvold.

THE KEY TO SUCCESS“What makes your facilities polluteso much less than other ones?”

“The key to success lies in control-ling the combustion process. Waste isfar from homogenous, so differentparts of it require different tempera-tures to be broken down. By control-ling the process, we can optimiseenergy recovery in the form of steam”,clarifies Rosvold. The paper factorynext door and the Trondheim sanita-tion company deliver refuse to thefacility. All the energy generated isbought by the paper factory, which

used to be oil-fuelled. Emissions arefar below the EU standards for inciner-ation facilities. “Actually, what comesout of the smokestack is considerablycleaner than the ambient air”, smilesHelge Rosvold. On average, Energosincinerates two tonnes of waste perhour, or 16 000 tonnes per year.

Senior Process Engineer HansOlav Midtbust adds that operatingcosts are minimal since each facilityonly needs two operators on the dayshift. All other operations are remote-controlled from an operations centre.

LOOK OUT WORLD!In addition to its success in Germany,the company is in the process ofbuilding energy plants linked to a fishprocessing plant and a paper factoryin Norway, and recently signed anagreement with 34 municipal andinter-municipal companies. “First,we will get 10 or 20 plants up andrunning in Norway, then we intend tomove out into the world!” says HelgeRosvold, who believes it is realisticto deliver as many as 20 units peryear.

Using technology that ensures record-low pollution levels and

modest operating costs, Energos’ waste-to-energy facility has

attracted considerable attention from environmentalists,

investors and international energy companies.

BY INGAR MYKING AND BJARNE RØSJØ

– 30 –

Energos develops, builds and operates small-scale power plantsbased on waste-derived energy recovery. The company appliestechnology based on a waste incinerator that results in excep-tionally low levels of pollution. All combustible waste can beconverted into energy in the form of steam, hot water or elec-tricity.

Energos engenders double environmental dividends: it helps reduce thetip volume of waste and the environmental problems such waste entailsin terms of methane emissions, etc. Energy based on fossil fuels willincreasingly be replaced by various types of alternative energy sources.The Norwegian authorities wish to encourage this trend towards energyswitching. The application of Energos’ waste-derived energy recoverytechnology is a prudent financial investment at the same time as itsemissions are well within national and international pollution controllimits.

Energ

os

Waste not, want not

Efficient, renewable energy technologiesThe Research Council of Norway helped finance the project through theNYTEK programme which aims at supporting R&D on efficient, renewableenergy technologies. The programme focuses on development up to pro-totype testing. For the purposes of the programme, the term ‘renewableenergy’ chiefly refers to solar, bio-, wind, geothermal and wave energy.Other renewable energy sources such as ocean currents and salinity gradi-ents, as well as micro hydropower plants, may also qualify for NYTEK.The programme is intended to concentrate on areas with commercialpotential for Norwegian enterprises. Special emphasis is attached to high-risk projects and projects with major domestic wealth creation potential.

Operating a power plant that

generates 10 MW of electricity

calls for the incineration of about

30 000 tonnes of refuse.

There are approximately 400 million

people living in western Europe. Each year,

they produce a total of 200 million

tonnes of combustible waste.

’’ ’’

’’ ’’– 30 –

– 31 –

ENERGY TO BURN:There are tremendous amounts of energy in this garbage. The energycan be released through combustion, but that causes pollution. Hence it is necessary to con-trol the incineration process. (Photo: Samfoto)

THE ENERGY RECOVERY PROCESS:1 The fuel is ground up and deposited in a silo.2 The fuel is transported to the fuel magazine.3 The fuel is added to the furnace in portions as needed.4 The fuel is mechanically shovelled over a grid in the primary chamber of the furnace.

Combustible gases are burned in the secondary chamber.5 The flue gas is then channelled into a boiler where it is cooled down to steam.6 Energy in the form of steam.7 The flue gas goes to a reactor where calcium and active carbon are added.8 A filter removes dust particles, calcium and active carbon from the gas.9 The cleaned flue gas is released from the smokestack into the air.10 The entire process is controlled by an innovative new control and monitoring system

so the facility operates optimally, satisfying all environmental requirements.

– 33 –– 32 –

ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS: Opthalmologist Kristian Fossen receives a picturefrom a local hospital by email. The picture has such high resolution that he is ableto diagnose the patient’s problem just as accurately as if the patient had been inthe same room. (Photo: National Centre of Telemedicine.)

EMAIL DIAGNOSES: Here, a diabetic is being screened for diabeticretinopathy at a local hospital. A nurse takes a picture of the back of thepatient’s eye, then sends it by email to an opthalmologist at the RegionalHospital in Tromsø. (Photo: National Centre of Telemedicine.)

Today, northern Norway is the world’s most sophisticated

telemedicine laboratory. In a region where patients and med-

ical experts are separated by vast geographical distances,

regional disadvantages have been turned to advantages.healthIN EVERY BYTE

MoreBY SIW ELLEN JAKOBSEN

position in Norway would have beenfilled,” said Minister Dagfinn Høy-bråten at the Telemed ´99 Confer-ence organised in Tromsø lastautumn.

COST EFFECTIVEIn Pedersen’s opinion, telemedicineis cost effective in most municipali-ties in Norway. Health economyanalyses indicate that it is the patientbase which generally determineswhether telemedicine is more prof-itable than having a patient visit aspecialist or vice versa. In fact, stud-ies have shown that telemedicine isthe most profitable solution for ser-vices such as teleradiology, teleder-matology and teleendoscopy.

Telemedicine affects the finances,organisation and administration ofthe established public health system,and it is not yet clear exactly who isresponsible for what. “One majorproblem is that those who invest inthe equipment for telemedicine arenot the ones profiting from it”, Peder-sen says. “Equipment costs seemhigh to the municipalities, constitut-ing a barrier to the establishment oftelemedicine. What the state ’saves’on the reimbursement of travelexpenses for patients is not passed onto the municipalities or doctors. Wehave to figure out how to co-ordinatethe various public administration lev-els to make it easier to financetelemedical equipment.”

Not only are there organisationaland financial barriers to the develop-ment of telemedicine, there is alsosome uncertainty attached the legalissues. “The various telemedicalmethods differ so widely that it isdifficult to draw up a general assess-ment of the legal situation. The legal

advisers at the National Centre ofTelemedicine are now working onincorporating quality assurance intothe areas of telemedical practicewhich are subject to legal issues”,continues Pedersen.

BOUNDLESSIn principle, telemedicine has no nat-ural geographical borders. The net-work currently in the process ofevolving will eventually be global.This means that specialists can beanywhere in the world, totally inde-pendent of patient location, as longas both parties have access to the re-quisite technology.

Combined with favourable pricetrends for telecom services, techno-logical developments will make itpossible to transfer the concept oftelemedicine to developing countries.The National Centre of Telemedicineis currently involved in a number ofinternational projects. For severalyears, the Centre has co-operatedwith north-west Russia to find solu-tions that will work in a region thesize of France, but with a populationof 1.5 million inhabitants andextremely difficult infrastructure.The collaboration has led to a num-ber of inquiries about co-operation,advisory services and training fromcountries in the Third World. Theplans of the World Health Organisa-tion (WHO) to make the Norwegianbody a “collaborating centre” fortelemedicine will lead to evenbroader international co-operation.

“The whole time, our idea hasbeen to share our knowledge and nothave any secrets about our activities.We are willing to take a chance onbeing good enough to do just that”,concludes Pedersen.

– 35 –

Nowadays, a person living onthe Russian border in Finn-mark, Norway’s northern-

most county, can be remotely diag-nosed by highly qualified medicalexperts from the peace and quiet ofher own home. Using an ordinary PCequipped with a modem to facilitatecontact with the Regional Hospital inTromsø, the patient no longer needsto travel 800 km to get an accuratediagnosis. This part of Norway is fre-quently at the mercy of difficulttravel conditions and there is ascarcity of public health personnel.

Steinar Pedersen, head of theNational Centre of Telemedicine at theRegional Hospital in Tromsø, feels thesystem provides a glimpse of what thepatient’s role will be like in the future.Telemedicine gives patients more free-dom and more power: “Why spendhours or days getting to the doctorwhen modern technology makes itpossible to have routine check-ups andtests straight from home?”

HEALTH ON THE INTERNETFor the most part, telemedicine isused for remote consultations anddiagnoses aided by sound/imagecommunications, and the patient andphysician are present at the sametime. Consultations with specialistsusually take place in the presence ofa doctor or nurse at a local doctor’soffice or at a local or regional hospi-tal. From there, it is possible to com-

municate with specialists locatedsomewhere else who pose diagnosesor offer advice regarding furthertreatment.

Several groups of patients haveexpressed the desire for home healthservices, for example, expectantmothers, cancer patients, elderly peo-ple and those who have chronic di-seases such as diabetes, asthma andepilepsy which call for frequent visitsto the doctor. Surveys among patientsindicate that if given a choicebetween visiting the doctor and usingtelemedicine from home, mostpatients would prefer the latter. Tocut down on the number of days theyhave to spend in the hospital, a num-ber of elderly patients in northernNorway have already been equippedwith videophones upon being dis-charged.

Steinar Pedersen believes thestandard will move increasingly inthe direction of Internet-based solu-tions. “Internet technology will bethe catalyst for a dramatic increase inwhat might be called ’seamless’communications. This will form thebackbone of telemedicine services

for many years. At the moment, how-ever, there are organisational, techno-logical and legal impediments tooffering open networks. At present,we generally work on a closed net-work to which patients do not haveaccess.

DEMOCRATIC MEDICINEInternationally, telemedical servicesare experiencing exponential growth.The most advanced countries are theUSA, Canada, Australia, Israel andthe countries of western Europe,including those in the Nordic region.Concerted international efforts arecurrently being made to developtelemedicine concepts that can com-pete with the Norwegian solutions.However, northern Norway is amongthe world leaders.

According to Steinar Pedersen,northern Norway is so far advancedbecause Norwegian politicians havebeen receptive to innovation in thisfield, placing Norway among theworld elite in terms of developingtelemedicine technology. “We alsohave a sparse, exceptionally wide-spread population, a factor that might

initially be viewed as a disadvantage.However, broad political consensusabout maintaining settlement in out-lying areas and a political decision toensure that patients have equal accessto health services regardless of wherethey live has turned Norway’s settle-ment pattern to our advantage.Telemedicine will be a critical tool inthe efforts to achieve the ambitiousgoal of making public health servicesavailable to everyone”, confirms Ped-ersen, who also believes thattelemedicine may help remedy therecruitment problems experienced bythe public health system, since it willreduce the professional isolation feltby many doctors working in periph-eral areas.

Norway’s former Minister ofHealth, Dagfinn Høybråten, hopestelemedicine will help increase theefficiency of the public health systemby relieving doctors of some routineadministrative work. “Today, Norwe-gian physicians spend about 600man-years of labour filling in forms.Had these physicians been allowed tofocus exclusively on what they weretrained to do, every vacant doctors’

– 34 –

Telemedicine services: Distance education:Currently used on a regular basis to provide decen-tralised training. Video conferences:Used for meetings where there is a need for visualisa-tion in addition to audio transmissions. Video conferences are used forteaching, diagnoses and treatment. Teleendoscopy in ENT consultations:Ear-nose-throat (ENT) consulta-tions require a two-way video connection between the primary physicianand the specialist. The primary physician uses an endoscope (the instru-ment used to examine the inside of hollow organs, equipped, in this case,with a video camera) for the examination. One positive side effect of thecommunication between the primary physician and the specialist is that ashe or she gains experience, the primary physician becomes a sort of “semi-specialist” and is able to treat more cases without contracting the specialist. Teledermatology:Like the ear, nose and throat consultations, it is possibleto consult dermatologists about skin diseases by video conferencing. Teleradiology: Special educations are required to draw correct medicalconclusions on the basis of X-rays. Where a radiologist is not available,either the X-ray must be sent or a specialist must be called in. Today, tel-eradiology is used routinely for transmitting images over a regular offlineservice. The radiologist’s response is recorded instantly by the informationsystem, then made available immediately to the hospital that requisitionedthe X-ray. Telecardiology: Routinely used for ultrasound examinations of the heart(see the article on Vingmed, page xx). The patient is examined at his or herlocal hospital, which transmits the sonogram of the heart by video confer-encing with a specialist at a larger hospital. For many types of heart prob-lems, it is difficult for local hospitals to provide specialist expertise. Thatbeing said, many small hospitals have the equipment needed, but it juststands there unused because they have no cardiologist. Guided by a special-ist via video conferencing, local physicians can learn to use the equipmenton their own. Telepathology: Frozen specimens are often essential for determiningwhether a tumour is malignant or benign. Many times, several specialistsexamine a specimen to confirm a diagnosis. Instead of sending preparedslides by post from one hospital to another to get a second opinion, theseconsultations can now be handled by video conferencing, with both partiesexamining images of the frozen specimen at the same time. It is also possi-ble to send pictures of such slides by email. Teleopthalmology: A project is currently underway to investigate theexpediency of remote diagnoses for diabetic retinopathy. If the systemproves good enough, the service will become routine. Telepsychiatry: The National Centre of Telemedicine has been testing theuse of telemedicine for psychiatric consultations by video conferencing.Experience indicates that the physical distance which the media createsbetween patient and psychiatrist is conducive to more openness. Diabetes:Diabetes-induced leg ulcers can be photographed and the imagescan be transmitted as ordinary email attachments. A specialist can look atthe pictures, pose a diagnosis and give advice about further treatment.

Located at the Regional Hospital inTromsø (RiTø), the Centre wasopened in 1992, six years after thefirst telemedicine experiments wereconducted in Finnmark County. TheNorwegian public health authoritieshave now designated Tromsø as theNational Centre of Telemedicine.The most recent national budget allo-cated MNOK 24 for the Centre’soperations and an additional NOK 5

was earmarked for building up anonline northern Norwegian healthnetwork. All hospitals in the regionand a number of physicians’ officesare now linked to the common healthnetwork, which is structured like anIntranet. The plan is eventually toexpand the network to cover theentire country. Through research,development and consultations, theCentre has been established to ensure

better health care for everyonethrough telemedicine. The Depart-ment currently has about 50 employ-ees, and there are plans to recruit 30to 40 more during the current year.About half the staff are technicians orengineers, and the rest consist ofphysicians, nurses, psychologistssocial anthropologists, economists,political scientists, sociologists andlawyers. The World Health Organisa-

tion (WHO) is discussing designatingTromsø a ‘collaborating centre’ fortelemedicine. The Research Coun-cil’s Medicine and Health Divisionand Industry and Energy Divisionhave funded some of the activities atthe National Centre of Telemedicinethrough the programmes “Informa-tion technology in medicine and pub-lic health services” and the “NationalInformation Network (NIN)”.

National Centre of Telemedicine:

healthIN EVERY BYTE

More

For nearly 180 years, the 17th ofMay has been the day on whichNorway celebrates itself and itsConstitution with marching bands,the Royal family, decorative birchbranches, ice cream, soft drinksand parades made up of children ofall ages waving colourful Norwe-gian flags and shouting “Hurrah”.Norway’s Constitution Day istotally devoid of military symbols.Even otherwise rather reserved

Norwegians tend to let down theirhair on this day, celebrating withtheir families and generally enjoy-ing life.

Yet 17th of May celebrationsare not all parties and flag-waving.The class struggle, the EU debateand controversial immigrationissues are all reflected in thenational ritual, challenging andthreatening the tradition. Whilesome criticise the celebration forbeing chauvinistic and ethnocen-tric, others react to the fact that17th of May parades are becomingincreasingly “colourful”.

A group of social scientists atthe Diakonhjemmet Hospital andCollege in Oslo have taken a closerlook at this conflict under the aus-pices of the Research Council pro-ject “Ethnic relations and nationalsymbols”. The scientists did fieldwork among immigrants in Oslo in1998 and 1999 to determine

whether the Constitution Day cele-brations accentuate the exclusively“Norwegian” in a way thatexcludes Norway’s new residents.

“The answer is no. Immigrantsgenerally participate in 17th ofMay celebrations and view the dayas a holiday”, comments re-searcher Ånund Brottveit. “Forthem, the day commemorates uni-versal values such as indepen-dence, democracy, human rightsand freedom from oppression. Atthe same time, they see the day asbeing very pleasant and fun forchildren, a day filled with life andvitality. Brottveit believes thereare signs of changes in publicopinion. Following a bomb threatin the 1980s, immigrants gained aclearly more legitimate place inthe ritual. Since then, the Osloschools have made the immigrantrepresentatives more visible in thechildren’s parades. Last year, Osloappointed a Pakistani Norwegianwoman to head the city’s 17th ofMay Committee. “The celebrationof Norway’s Constitution Day hasbecome very inclusive, signallinga nationalism that is less ethnicand more democratic”, Brottveitconcludes. It appears this ritual hasa capacity to adapt and change thatwill allow it to survive in a moreglobalised world.

Siw Ellen Jakobsen

– 36 –

Work-related stress, too much cof-fee, too little sleep, irregular meals.These factors are everyday realitiesfor many people. Individuals wholead this lifestyle are often botheredby bloating and stomach pain, andsometimes also by aches and painsin other parts of the body.

Some cases of indigestion, ordyspepsia as doctors call it, are soserious that they require medicaltreatment. For a long time, doctorswere uncertain as to whether thesepains are really in the heads orstomachs of these patients. Now,psychiatrists and physicians atHaukeland University Hospital inBergen have discovered thatpatients who suffer from indiges-tion often struggle with anxiety anddepression as well.

“We believe the pains are part ofa viscous circle: When patientsstruggle with psychological prob-lems, their stomachs hurt, and viceversa. We are the first to prove thatthese patients have a subnormallevel of activity in the vagus nerve.Our theory is that the vagus nerve, along nerve that runs from the stom-ach to the head, acts as a linkbetween mental and physical health,meaning it does not make much dif-ference whether patients are treatedfor their psychological problems orstomach pains, as long as they gettreatment”, explained ProfessorArnold Berstad during a presenta-tion of the research project at aninternational conference entitled“Clinical Neuroscience and MentalHealth”. The research project hasreceived funding from the ResearchCouncil’s “Mental Health” pro-gramme over the past few years.

Researchers have determined thatboth cognitive therapy and musclerelaxants, for example nitroglycerin,bring patients relief. When ulcerbacteria were discovered 12 yearsago, those suffering from ulcers gotbetter as soon as the offending bac-teria was removed. However, onelarge group of patients with similarsymptoms did not show improve-ment.

Previously, indigestion was oftenmisdiagnosed as an ulcer. Berstad isafraid that many of these samepatients are currently being givenother diagnoses which are not cor-rect either. A research project will

now be initiated to see whether thestomach pains of patients diagnosedwith fibromyalgia might have thesame causes as those of indigestionpatients.

Berstad is also of the opinionthat a large number of ailmentsdiagnosed today as food allergiesactually belong to this category.According to the professor, text-

book medicine has not taken stom-ach pains seriously enough, and theresult is that food allergies havebecome a growth industry for alter-native medicine.

Haukeland University Hospital:http://www.haukeland.no/utsiden/english/index.asp

Siw Ellen Jakobsen

Can life be hard to digest?

STRESS: According to researchers at Haukeland University Hospital,patients who suffer from indigestion are frequently experiencing problems athome and/or at work. (Photo: Samfoto)

The growing internationalisation of the Nor-wegian petroleum sector entails new chal-lenges in terms of research on culture, politicsand the social sciences, as well as in the eco-nomic sphere. One of the imperatives inherentin these international challenges involves theneed to link technological and social scienceresearch in the petroleum sector. In response,the Research Council of Norway has launchedPetropol, a research programme which focuseson the challenges imposed by the international-isation process. Among other things, the pro-gramme will be exploring the demands inter-nationalisation places on the petroleum indus-try, how companies adapt to change, and thepotential economic and political consequencesof change.

Petropol represents an effort to enhance re-searchers’ expertise on countries outside Nor-

way and the North Sea region, which couldpotentially influence Norwegian petroleumactivities. Projects under the auspices of thePetropol programme are comparative, andrequire close contact with leading researchersand research centres abroad. The programmewill be showcasing areas such as technology,the impact of geopolitical and cultural factorson the petroleum industry, the organisation ofmarketing efforts, forms of corporate co-opera-tion, general national and international condi-tions, and other factors which affect corporatestrategies and competitiveness. Additionally,the program has put human rights and democ-racy building on the agenda in terms of theproblems involved in trading with regimes thatviolate human rights. Thirteen research com-munities located in Bergen, Stavanger, Trond-heim and Oslo, respectively, are participating

in the Petropol programme.“By linking technology research to more

and better research on organisational, socialand political issues related social scienceresearch in the petroleum sector, it may bepossible to gain essential new insight and iden-tify better strategies”, comments HelgeHveem, chairman of the Programme Commit-tee for the Petropol programme. http://www.sol.no/forskningsradet/program/profil/ petropol/

Anita K. L. Thorolvsen

CHALLENGE: The internationalisation ofNorway’s petroleum sector calls for researchinto its potential economic, political andorganisational consequences. (Photo: OceanDrilling Programme)

Human rights in the petroleum sector

A Colourful Constitution DayA RAINBOW: Different skincolours have increasingly becomepart of Norway’s already-colour-ful Constitution Day. Will the cel-ebrations survive a multi-culturalsociety characterised by increas-ing internationalisation and glob-alisation? (Photo: Anne Schanche Kristof-fersen)

The good old stethoscope has seen littlechange since it became a common toolamong physicians nearly 180 years ago.The last stethoscope-related sensationwas in the 1950s, when someone discov-ered the wisdom of placing microphonesin the most sophisticated instruments tomagnify the sound. Since then, changeshave mainly involved improvedergonomics and/or microphone technol-ogy.

The Norwegian company MeditronAS now intends to revolutionise the con-cept of what a stethoscope is by introduc-ing sensor-based, electronic instruments.As a result of inter-disciplinary productdevelopment, the company has createdan entirely new concept: stethoscopesequipped to listen to, store and analysebody sounds.

In addition to having vastly improvedlistening qualities compared with old-fashioned stethoscopes, the high-techvariety can be linked to a computer.Sound signals can be visualised, storedand retrieved for later comparisons withnew recordings. Doctors can also emailsound files to specialists, when sorequired.

One of the advantages of the newstethoscope systems is that the listeningfrequencies have been vastly expanded,at the same time as the patented sensorsystem captures and reproduces soundsmore clearly and with less electronic andambient noise than ordinary stetho-scopes. What is more, the system is

module based, meaning different ele-ments can be combined to expand theareas of application. For example,there are modules for use with childrenand modules for mechanical listeningdevices designed for car mechanics!The stethoscopes can also be used tolisten to other sounds, from breathingto blood flow – in humans and animalsalike. It is also possible to add a dis-tributor, allowing several scopes to belinked to listen to the same patient.

The company’s founder, BirgerOrten, was awarded the Inventor’sPrize by the Norwegian Industrial andRegional Development Fund in 1995,while Terje Meyer’s design won theNorwegian Design Council’s Out-standing Design Seal in 1998.

Mona Gravningen Rygh

New stethoscopes talk to computers

HIGH TECH: The modern stetho-scope transmits sounds to a computerfor analysis. (Photo: Meditron)

– 37 –

– 38 –

The age of enlightenment

Carbon dioxide stored under the seabed

A salve is rubbed on the patch of skinaffected by cancer, then a speciallight is directed at the area. The can-cer cells become overly sensitive tothe light and die, while the healthycells tolerate the light without anyproblem. Known as photochemother-apy (PCT) or photodynamic therapy(PDT), the method is based on photo-sensitising substances which turntoxic in the presence of light.

A group at the Norwegian CancerHospital has specialised in the use ofa derivative of 5-amino lavulinicacid, ALA, which can be blendedinto a salve and rubbed directly on apatch of cancerous skin. A few hourslater, the area is subjected to lightfrom a halogen bulb.

More than 90 per cent of thepatients suffering from basal cell car-cinomas, a very common variety ofskin cancer, are permanently curedby this treatment. In addition toobtaining excellent cosmetic results,the method has few side effects and

is far less expensive than conven-tional cancer treatments.

Methods are currently beingdeveloped for using photochemother-apy to treat carcinomas in the buccalcavity (mouth), respiratory tract,oesophagus, stomach, colon andbladder. Such cures would involveshining the light from inside thepatient, which would be facilitated byan endoscope. The beauty of themethod is that photochemotherapycan be used to cure cancer withoutresorting to the removal of all or partof the organ in question.

Researchers at the NorwegianCancer Hospital are currently co-operating with colleagues in China. Inthe Henan Province, along the YellowRiver, the incidence of oesophogealcancer is 200 times as high as it is onaverage in Norway. Under the aus-pices of a joint research project, thepatients selected for pho-tochemotherapy are in an early stageof cancer, meaning there is time to

test the treatment. The first follow upshowed a cure rate of about 50 percent, and scientists expect that abouthalf those not cured after the firsttreatment will respond to a secondtreatment, which translates into a suc-cess rate of at least 75 per cent. How-ever, the patients will have to be fol-lowed up for quite some time sincethere is a strong chance of relapse.

While clinicians are testing how tooptimise the treatment itself, anothergroup is continuing to pursue pioneer-ing basic research first started in the1970s. They are now working onderivatives of ALA which are sopromising that a separate company,PhotoCure, has been set up to handlethe business aspects of the patentapplications currently pending in morethan 30 countries. A group of investorsis now involved in the company, alongwith the Norwegian Industrial andRegional Development Fund and theResearch Council of Norway.

Mona Gravningen Rygh

ENLIGHTENED: A special lamp isused to illuminate the cancer duringtreatment. (Photo: Trond Warloe)

The Norwegian enterprise Statoilhas developed a technique for inject-ing carbon dioxide (CO2) producedin conjunction with natural gas pro-duction into huge reservoirs beneaththe seabed.

“Studies indicate that the emis-sions become encapsulated in thereservoir and stay there”, commentsKristin Bremer Nebben, Statoil’shead of information.

Natural gas from the Sleipnerfields in the North Sea contains nineper cent of the greenhouse gas CO2,while customers in Europe wantnatural gas containing a maximumof 2.5 per cent CO2. Consequently,most of the CO2 is extracted andpumped into aquifers in sandstoneformations 1000 metres below theseabed.

“While CO2 is used to enhanceoil recovery at other production sites,on the Sleipner fields, it is injectedinto an empty reservoir. This is theunique aspect”, says Nebben.

The Sleipner technique is now thesubject of a research project designedto test methods of exploring for andproducing oil and gas. It can also be

used to trace how CO2 will dispersethrough porous sandstone when thepores are filled with saltwater. Theproject is intended to establish broadconsensus between energy compa-nies, research communities and theauthorities regarding how CO2 stor-age can be planned and monitoredsafely and efficiently. The goal is tohave the technology ready for imple-mentation the day international envi-ronmental agreements order for in-dustrial countries to make major cut-backs in their CO2 emissions.

“We believe that Sleipner hasbeen an inspiration for a number ofsimilar projects currently ‘in thepipeline’ in Canada, Australia andthe USA”, says Statoil researcherOlav Kårstad, as his colleague ToreTorp nods his agreement.

IEA GreenhouseGas R&D Programme:http://www.ieagreen.org.uk/Statoil: http://www.statoil.com

Bjarne Røsjø

The co-operation between the EUand Norway is based on the Europ-ean Economic Area Agreement,and comprises the EU’s 5thFramework Programme for R&D.Norway participates on equal termswith EU member states, andcontributes to the budget of theframework programmes.

The Research Council ofNorway has a special informationcentre for EU research: theNorwegian EU R&D InformationCentre (EU ForskningsInfo),which can be helpful in providingadditional information. The Centreis an associated member of theEuropean Network of InnovationCentres (Associate InnovationRelay Centre).Internet address:http://www.forskningsrådet.no/-fag/eu/

EU information

UNIQUE: Statoil has stored two million tonnes of CO2 under the ocean floorof the North Sea’s Sleipner field since October 1996. The project is currentlythe only one of its kind. (Photo: Statoil)

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Tell’Us is published by The Research Council of Norway.

Articles from this publication may bereproduced, provided the source and

publisher are acknowledged.

Editor-in-Chief: Paal AlmeEditor: Mona Gravningen RyghAssociate editors: Bjarne Røsjø,

Anita K. L. ThorolvsenEnglish translation:

Linda Sivesind, Informatic

The Research Council of Norway is the country's central

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all disciplines, and for advising the Government on

research policy matters. As a strategic body, the

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Vol 7, No 1June 2000

The Research Council of NorwayStensberggaten 26

P.O.Box 2700 St. HanshaugenN-0131 Oslo

NorwayTelephone: +47 22 03 70 00

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ISSN 0804-6042

Norwegian scientists recently

discovered an enzyme in the

Iceland scallop. Chlamys

islandica, which kills bacteria

in human beings and fish.

The substance is now being

produced in such large

quantities that commerciali-

sation is a distinct possibility.

BY SIW ELLEN JAKOBSEN

Decades of antibiotic use haveled to new strains of infectiousbacteria which are resistant to

drugs. Over the past few years,several different groups of researchershave found that marine organismsmay be a source of a variety ofpotential new pharmaceuticalcompounds. Researchers at theNorwegian Institute of Fisheries andAquaculture Ltd. (Fiskeriforskning) inTromsø have discovered a substancein Iceland scallops – chlamysin – thatappears to have an anti-bacterialeffect on disease-producing bacteria inhumans and animals. The scientistsnow know the gene that codes theproduction of this substance, meaningit is possible to reproduce itrecombinantly, that is, in yeast cells.The substance occurs in Icelandscallops in such small amounts that itwould have been neither practical norfinancially feasible to extract it fromscallops alone, but now it is possible tomanufacture such large quantities ofthe enzyme that commercialisation isa distinct possibility.

Until recently, this research wasshrouded in considerable mystery, butnow that the patent is pending,scientists are free to talk about theproperties of the substance. Theirresults were published in FEBSLetters, the journal of the Federationof European Biochemical Societiesthis past December.

UNIQUE “The enzyme we’ve discovered isentirely unique in a scientific context”,observes Bjørnar Myrnes, theresearcher in charge of the Institute’swork with marine enzymes in cold-water habitats. “We found thesubstance in the crystalline style, anorgan found only in the digestivegland of molluscs. It appears that theenzyme plays a dual role in themollusc, being involved in both thedisease defence system and thedigestion of bacteria”.

Myrnes explains that the structureof chlamysin is similar to lysozym, anenzyme derived from a scallop foundoff the coast of Japan. There is a greatdeal of lysozym in spit and tears. Infact, it is this enzyme that keepsbacteria at bay in these body fluids.Although lysozym and chlamysin havesimilarities, they work differently.

To date, researchers havediscovered four different anti-microbial substances in the Icelandscallop. However, chlamysin is theonly substance shown thus far to havean effect on disease-producingbacteria, including Listeria whichcauses disease in human beings.

MARINE POTENTIAL For quite some time, scientists havespeculated that Arctic marineorganisms must possess some veryspecial qualities to survive in the coldwaters of the north. They live at

constant low temperatures, rangingfrom -1° C. to +4° C. The organisms’enzyme activity levels are actuallyhigh at low temperatures, and theyrarely tolerate much heat. However,chlamysin is an exception to that rule.

“Thirty days at room temperatureor being heated to 70° C. for 15minutes does not lower the enzymeactivity level. Now that is unique”,explains Myrnes. “The discovery ofthis enzyme is indicative of thetremendous potential inherent inArctic organisms. Norway hasfocused almost exclusively on oil for along time, but now we have to begintaking a closer look at our othermarine resources. They representundreamed-of possibilities.”

Return address:The Research Council of NorwayP.O. Box 2700 St. HanshaugenN-0131 Oslo

New anti-bacterial substance from the sea

GOURMET: The muscle in the Iceland scallop, Chlamys islandica, has long been a gourmet favourite, and nowresearchers have discovered a substance in the mollusc that may be able to prevent or cure diseases in humans. (Photo:Frank Gregersen, Fiskeriforskning)