A Pass Is a Snapshot

We looked back at 119 young children who passed the Dutch newborn hearing screening but were later referred to our centre with sensorineural hearing loss. The screening works as intended, but it measures hearing on a single day. Children who passed only in the third round turned out to be strongly overrepresented.

Auditing the Lights

Last month I wrote about the five-palette colour system behind this site. This week I finally did what I should have done then: computed the WCAG contrast ratio for every semantic colour, in every palette, in both light and dark mode. Fifty checks. Ten failed.

Listening Beyond the Audiogram

An audiogram measures what becomes audible. Reaction times to spectral and temporal changes can show what happens after that: how efficiently a listener uses audible sound.

Clinical Physics in 2035

The Dutch Society of Clinical Physics has published its vision for the profession towards 2035. Four themes, one clear direction — and some uncomfortable choices ahead.

Switching the Lights

This site has five named colour palettes, a built-in dark mode, and four reading fonts. Press p to cycle palettes, d to toggle dark mode, f to change the font — your choices are remembered between visits.

Five Walks Across Madeira

A levada walk above Boaventura, a scramble up Pico Grande, a coastal drive to Madeira's edges, the cliffs of Ponta de São Lourenço by foot and by boat, and the short, crowded, unmissable walk to Pico Ruivo.

World Hearing Day 2026

Today is World Hearing Day. Ninety million children globally experience hearing loss, and more than 60% of those cases are preventable. This year's WHO theme puts children at the centre. So, coincidentally, does a children's cartoon — and the latter might end up doing more good in a single episode than a decade of public health campaigns.

A New Digital Ecology

A personal website should hold the whole person. Some notes on why I rebuilt this site from scratch — adding structured research project pages, a runtime theme switcher, and a handful of small design decisions that make the whole thing feel more like a place I want to return to.

Hearing Loss and Vestibular Function in Usher Syndrome Type 2A

Our longitudinal CRUSH study shows measurable hearing progression in USH2a beyond presbycusis, stable speech understanding, and an unexpected pattern of subclinical otolith dysfunction — with implications for follow-up, counseling, and cochlear implant timing.

May Holiday Adventures Berlin (improved)

Exploring Berlin by bike during the sunny May holidays—from the iconic East Side Gallery to hidden art hubs and digital wonderlands

Phase 1 Audiological Outcomes of Intratympanic AC102

A first-in-human phase 1 trial of intratympanic AC102 shows only a transient, volume-dependent conductive loss at high frequencies, with preserved bone conduction and otoacoustic emissions.

Genetic Insights into Cochlear Implant Outcomes

New findings from a Dutch cohort reveal that subject-specific factors—not genetic site-of-lesion—best predict CI outcomes.

Advancing Teleaudiology with AI: Jan-Willem Wasmann's Thesis Defence

A closer look at Jan-Willem Wasmann's PhD thesis on AI-aided teleaudiology and its potential to make hearing care more accessible worldwide.

May Holiday Adventures Berlin

Exploring Berlin by bike during the sunny May holidays—from the iconic East Side Gallery to hidden art hubs and digital wonderlands

First Light with the Carbonstar 150

First light images captured with the Apertura Carbonstar 150 Newtonian

North America Nebula

Colorful monochrome imaging of SHO data

Rainbow

Rainbow

I see stars

First Light

Ellis Island

Ellis Island, gateway of millions of immigrants trying to save themselves in times of war. About all the people that made it and those that didn't.

Choros

Choros

What is that sound

One of the first hearing aids applied

OMA

A child processes grief while visiting her dying grandmother through dreamlike imagery.

One Bright Dot

A little light rises from the deep sea.

Ever changing

From 20,000 miles up, our home planet is a hypnotic swirl of the familiar and the sublime

'brand' new site

Keeping watch

about a surgeon who for the first time performed a heart transplant

Thunder

Pilot Flies Above The Thunderstorm To Get A Perfect Shot Of It At 37,000 Feet

Juno

After a few years of slumbering

Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) threshold measurements

choices, choices...

ISH 2015

In a city, far far away