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The Russian space station Mir is soon to come to the end of itsfifteen-year life. The Utrecht X-ray telescope COMIS (Coded MaskImaging Spectrometer) will plunge into the sea along with Mir.COMIS was constructed by the Space Research OrganizationNetherlands (SRON) in collaboration with the University ofBirmingham. The telescope was designed to monitor cosmic X-raysources, such as supernovas, all-consuming black holes and neutronstars. COMIS discovered and located not fewer than seven new X-rayemitting binary stars. Re-entry to the atmosphere is expected earlynext week. Once the majority of the station has burnt up, theremainder will disappear into the sea around 2,000 kilometers southof Australia.

Utrecht climbs

The growth of the law, economics and social science sectors atUtrecht University is remarkable. The University of Amsterdamovertook Utrecht last year as the country's largest in terms offirst year numbers. But Utrecht has climbed back into top position,thanks to a number of new degree programs it was able to set upunder relaxed guidelines from education minister Loek Hermans.Domain-driven Economics with 236 first years and Language andCulture Studies with 226 are real crowd-pullers but theunaffiliated Communication Studies program also drew 75.

Drug-users

The high-flyer diplomats educated at the Institute forInternational Relations are the heaviest drug users of all Russianstudents. A survey by the University of Moscow, which incidentallyshares top spot, suggests students on elite programs use the mostdrugs. Cocaine and heroin have risen enormously in popularity sincethe fall of communism and around five million Russian now regularlyuse drugs. Twenty percent of the growing army of addicts are stillat school.

Equal opportunities

Too few women get top jobs in the Netherlands. For instance,only 4.9 percent of Dutch full professors are women, as opposed to22 percent in Turkey. Professor Joop Schippers voiced hisdisapproval during his inaugural lecture Wednesday. Schippers, whoholds a chair in labor and equal opportunities economics, sees itas a huge waste of potential labor if women find themselves unableto combine caring for children with a demanding career. "Dutchsocietal structures need shaking up", he said. "Equal opportunitiescannot remain peripheral to government policy. To the contrary,that should be one of its central tenets." If there is no change inattitude, the professor sees serious problems arising as societygrays.