Column | Goodbye! – NRC

Since 2009 I have been writing a column every five weeks in the science section of the NRC. Recently the editors invited me to write columns more often. I thought that was a very honorable request; However, I have decided not to comment on it, because I don’t raise that. As a result, this is my last column.

I say goodbye to this newspaper with regret. With my parents – and perhaps also my grandparents – the New Rotterdamsche Courant In the bus. That was an authority they trusted. It is a shame that my father and mother have not experienced how their son could represent the voice of science in it. It gave me the chance to tell the world how food and health and with energy and climate are.

It is a nice intellectual challenge to sort out a scientific question to the soil and to formulate an understandable answer in eight hundred words. Without those deadlines every five weeks I would never have come to that. My columns again led to interviews with other media. My book Food myths Is also based on columns. Two columns were used in the tasks of the VWO end exam Dutch. I also thought it was wonderful when I got an app from a grandchild that I am in her VWO leather book Dutch.

Why did I have to tell the people how I think it is like? Status, vanity, yes, that will probably play. But thanks to the taxpayers, I have had the opportunity to devote my life to science; That creates the obligation to explain what that science has discovered. My explanation must be substantiated, that’s why I always have my sources mentioned.

Sink up

Have my writings helped? Not much. We stay sink up in coal -fired power stations to supposedly the co₂-emission. Also green hydrogen and CO₂-Stol Marching happily on the way to their final failure. Furthermore, we still have no tax On sugary drinks, while that is such a simple, effective measure against obesity. Something is sliding with alcohol. It is increasingly accepted that someone does not drink, and more and more people are aware of the diseases caused by alcohol. Maybe I have contributed to that with that columns In this newspaper, lectures to students, in -service training for doctors and media performances.

A difference with such a college or in -service training is that you never know how it happens to a column. With a lecture I hear the smile, the surprise or the stillness in the room that tell me that my story is coming in, but a column disappears into a black hole. By accidental encounters I regularly get praise from strangers. That is encouraging, but it says nothing about how many people in total read my piece and what they thought of it.

The professionals who make this newspaper asked me for more columns, so apparently I am doing something right. Only more columns would become too heavy a load for me; Then rather stop, better too early than late. Ideas was, there is no lack, but to build such an idea into a first version is a tough job. Each column must form a coherent and easy -to -read story with a clear message, and it must be true with the position of science. That means critically studying many scientific articles. I also have to stay enthusiastic about a topic, because without the eagerness of ‘yes, I want to tell’ the writing process ends halfway through. Long shower helps; Many a column started as an email to myself that I entered on my phone, wrapped in a bath towel and dripping with the water.

When the first version is ready, I put it to my wife. That yields a second version and it goes to my readers, a group of family members and friends plus sometimes an expert on the subject in question. Then follows the final version that goes to the newspaper. Finally, the editor -in -chief and I come up with a head together. He can do that much better than me, but I do keep control. A few weeks later the entire process starts again. In terms of subject, I try to alternate between food and climate, with a trip to the Jewish Biblethe Old Testament. I hope I have been able to introduce some readers to the beauty and wisdom of those old texts.

Career

That is all over now. I thank Louise Fresco who introduced me de Volkskrant And with that my career started as a newspaper writer, my wife and my readers who with their comments boosted the quality of my pieces and the science editors of NRC who dealt with my contributions so conscientiously. Sixteen years ago I switched from Volkskrant Unpleasant NRC Because I didn’t want my texts to be changed without my permission, there the NRC strictly kept. Also thanks to you, unknown reader, because without you no newspaper and no science columns. Goodbye!

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