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Danish News in Brief: Wrecks an eyesore, but not dangerous

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August 3rd, 2017


This article is more than 7 years old.

In other news, a Russian nuclear sub returns to Danish waters, the oldest ever trace of life is found in rocks from Greenland and the mysteries of glass are unravelled

It may ruin the sea-view from the promenade, but it’s not dangerous.(photo: CT Cooper)

The Environment Ministry has rejected concerned expressed by organisations and opposition politicians that visible shipwrecks pose a threat to their surroundings.

Shortly before the summer holidays, the environment minister, Esben Lunde Larsen, told Parliament the wrecks should be allowed to remain in situ for an indefinite period.

And now in a written answer to Ingeniøren, his ministry has said  the wrecks do not constitute an environmental threat.

Lars Siedelin from the biological institute at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) added that “the problem here is that you can see them. The others that you can’t see don’t get any attention.”


Russian giant sub in Danish waters again
Anyone who missed the sight of the world’s largest nuclear submarine passing through Danish waters two weeks ago will have another chance to see it today and tomorrow. The ‘Dmitry Donskoj’ is on its way back through the Baltic, DR Nyheder reports. Just before midnight, the sub was spotted south of Bornholm and is expected to pass under the Great Belt bridge at around 20:00 on Thursday. The sub, which will be accompanied by a tug and a destroyer from the Russian navy, is 172 metres long and is sailing at a speed of around 10-12 knots.

Is there life on Mars – or only Greenland?
Danish scientists have found the oldest discovered traces of life encased in a 3.7 billion-year-old stone from Greenland. New techniques used by researchers from the nano-science centre at Copenhagen University and the Natural History Museum have been able to prove that small amounts of carbon dioxide in the rock derive from living organisms. This opens up exciting possibilities for finding traces of life in samples from Mars – or anywhere else where life has potentially existed.

Through a glass darkly
We all think we know what glass is, but to scientists it is far from straightforward, as they tend to concur it is in between a liquid and a solid. Researchers from Roskilde University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been investigating what really happens when a liquid stiffens and  becomes glass. The research can provide useful insights into making more durable glass – for example for use in smartphones, new medicines and perhaps also providing new information about the Earth’s core, reports Videnskab.dk


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”