News

: Popular lake balls under threat; Algae are not what immediately spring to mind when people think of threatened species. But even among algae there are species that have a difficult time, such as ‘Aegagropila linnaei’. In the magazine BioScience Christian Bödeker describes the worldwide decline of this species. He calls for the species to be protected.; Read more

: Symposium by Lorentz Fellow Richard Gill; On 22 March, five days after his final attendance at the Lucia de B case, Professor of Statistics, Richard Gill, will be appointed Distinguished Lorentz Fellow 2010-2011. To mark the award, Gill is organising a breakfast symposium on the relationship between the media, science and law.; Read more

: Horseshoe-shaped 'Parkinson's' proteins form clumps; More news has come to light about the alpha-Synuclein protein that plays an important role in Parkinson's disease. Biophysicist Martina Huber and colleagues show how these proteins clump together when they come into contact with a membrane. Their article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) is now online.; Read more

: Jewellery in context; Jewellery has a history stretching back over 100,000 years. Yet it has only been studied seriously as a phenomenon since the fifties. 'Resulting in misconceptions and tunnel vision,' in the opinion of Marjan Unger. On 17 March she will defend her doctoral dissertation on a multidisciplinary vision of jewellery.; Read more

: NWO subsidises research resources; As part of the 'NWO Medium-sized Investments' programme, NWO has awarded a number of subsidies for the procurement of equipment, setting up data collections and making software and bibliographies. Of the 31 subsidies allocated, five have been awarded to proposals from Leiden University.; Read more

: Bishop Lowth was not a fool!; Bishop Robert Lowth, author of one of the most important grammars of the English language, was born in 1710, which makes 2010 the 300th anniversary of his birth. Ingrid Tieken, Professor of English Sociohistorical Linguistics, has just launched a website and is preparing a book about Lowth.; Read more

: Sleep(less) in Leiden; More than 10,000 nerve cells in the brain see that we wake up in the morning and that we fall asleep at night. But what happens if this biological clock stops working properly? On 18 March the LIBC is organising a symposium presenting the latest scientific insights into sleep and sleeplessness.; Read more

: In continual fear of the people; With the fall of the Balkenende IV cabinet, the debate on the functioning of political parties within our democratic system is flaring up again. Puffed-up egos, over-ambitious politicians and party political power struggles all stand in the way of true democracy. But the debate is nothing new.; Read more

: Aphid genome unravelled; Leiden evolutionary biologist Maurijn van der Zee has co-operated on an enormous international project to describe the genetic material of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum. The more than 100 authors involved in the project have published their findings in the online magazine PLoS Biology.; Read more

: Functional architecture of the brain revealed; An international partnership of brain researchers from 35 research centres - from the US to China - including the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), has collected resting-state functional MRI data from more than 1400 healthy volunteers and put the information online so that it is available for research.; Read more

: Finally, concern for workers in the oil industry; Revolutions, wars and the discovery of oil have determined the course of world history. The history of the oil industry has also been described extensively. But one important aspect is still missing. Social historian Touraj Atabaki has received half a million euro to carry out his research.; Read more

: HIV-infected children in Ukraine worse off in orphanages; Children infected with HIV are better off in a disadvantaged family than in a materially well-provided orphanage. This is the outcome from research carried out by Leiden child education specialists among HIV-infected children in the Ukraine. Their findings will be published this month in Child Development.; Read more

: International experts on renal disease in agreement; Jan Anthonie Bruijn, pathologist at the LUMC, has devised a classification for renal disease caused by diabetes. The classification is published in the online version of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. There had previously not been any uniform system of classification.; Read more

: Newton's international breakthrough achieved through Leiden; The Boerhaave Salon is entering its second season. The central theme for the period up to the summer vacation is: 'The Scientific Revolution in the Netherlands.' In a course of six lectures, prominent Dutch historians of science explain how they view particular historical figures from the stirring period between 1550 and 1750.; Read more

: High blood pressure can be healthy; High blood pressure for people aged 85 and above need not necessarily be a problem. On the contrary: reducing their blood pressure can have fatal consequences. These are the findings of PhD research by Thomas van Bemmel.; Read more

: A personal physician or care manager for everyone; ‘The problem is that medicine divides people into separate specialisms,' according to specialist in geriatric medicine, Rudi Westendorp, who will deliver the Dies lecture on 8 February. He advocates an integrated system of healthcare and a coherent approach to the human body. 'We are pushing the limits of the added value of medical specialisation.'; Read more

: Late diagnosis of rare bone disease; Patients with the rare bone disease SCCH in many cases live with symptoms for years before being properly diagnosed. This increases the likelihood of developing chronic pain or even becoming disabled. Researchers in Leiden published an article on this subject in ‘Arthritis Care & Research’.; Read more

: Scotch whisky as symbol of Greek identity; If asked what is typical of Greek national culture, whisky would probably not be the first thing to spring to mind. Nonetheless, the Scottish variant of this beverage is an integral part of the Greek national identity. How come? Anthropologist Tryfon Bampilis, himself Greek and a whisky-lover, decided to base his PhD research on this phenomenon.; Read more

: Four Vicis for Leiden researchers; Leiden has scored highly with the recent Vici awards. Of the 31 Vici winners announced by NWO, 4 are researchers in Leiden. The winners are: Professor of Family and Child Studies Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, information scientist Peter Grünwald, astronomer Linnartz and Professor of Buddhism Jonathan Silk.; Read more

: Counter-terrorism, a question of performance; ‘What's important is not whether the government adopts a soft or hard attitude to terrorism, but how they react to it,' historian Beatrice de Graaf stated on 28 January at the first conference organised by the Centre for Terrorism and Counter-terrorism (CTC). She also presented her book ‘Theatre of anxiety’ (in Dutch).; Read more

: University invests strongly in research profile areas; The Executive Board has decided to award each of the University's eleven research profile areas a subsidy of € 1 million over the period from 2010 to 2014. The LUMC is also contributing to the subsidies in the research areas in which the LUMC participates.; Read more

: Grammar, boring? No way!; In the Middle Ages, the teaching of Latin grammar and rhetoric was the cornerstone of a good education. Generations of young people were taught according to a tradition that dated from classical antiquity, but was subject to constant change. Ineke Sluiter has brought these textbooks together in a weighty volume.; Read more

: Why are plants not black?; All kinds of reasons have been put forward for why plants apparently fail to make maximum use of the available light. None of these reasons can explain why after two billion years of evolution they are not black, like industrial photovoltaic solar cells. Are we missing something?; Read more

: ‘Migraine increases the risk of brain damage’; People suffering from migraine have an increased risk of incurring brain damage. Neuroradiologist Mark Kruit came to this conclusion after having put hundreds of Dutch citizens through an MRI scanner. There is no reason for panic yet, as we do not know what the effect will be. He defended his doctoral dissertation on 20 January.; Read more

Two young chemists win Marie Curie subsidy

The Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) is to be joined by a further two talented young chemists. Bela Bode and Michele Pavanello have each won a Marie Curie subsidy. Bode will be studying electron transport in photosynthesis and Pavanello will be using computer models to study charge transport in large molecules.

: Migraine and depression: common genetic factors; It is no surprise that migraine causes people who suffer from it to be depressed. Their depression does not, however, originate from headaches but from a genetic predisposition. A team of researchers from Leiden and Rotterdam has published an article about this topic in the journal Neurology.; Read more

: Navigation to the cubic millimetre in Medical Delta; Many surgical interventions are already possible using MIS. But this technique calls for completely different skills on the part of the surgeon. 'Trainee surgeons first ought to train in a ‘skills lab’, something like a flight simulator,' Frank Jansen will suggest on Monday 11 January at his inaugural lecture.; Read more

: Urbanisation forces blackbirds to evolve; For some time blackbirds have been settling in towns as well as in woods. As a result, town blackbirds have now begun to develop differently from their counterparts in forests. These are the findings of the PhD research carried out by behavioural biologist Erwin Ripmeester who defends his dissertation on 15 December.; Read more

: ‘Please only use this piano by conventional keyboard playing’; Playing the piano with your forearm, plucking the strings, sawing through the piano: pianist Luk Vaes's doctoral dissertation covers all the techniques of play for which a piano is NOT designed. His defence ceremony will consist of three concerts and a public defence. 'Musicians were using the interior of their instruments 'as early as 1790.'; Read more

: Major European subsidy for Leiden evolutionary biology; Paul Brakefield, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the Institute of Biology in Leiden (IBL) has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for his research. He will receive 2.5 million euro to develop his research programme over a period of five years.; Read more

: ‘Migrant adolescents benefit from limited assimilation’; We are constantly hearing in the public debate that migrant adolescents have to integrate, and preferably assimilate. 'This is a misconception,' is the opinion of remedial education specialist Mitch van Geel. ‘Young migrants who retain their ethnic values have a better sense of self-worth and exhibit fewer behavioural problems.' He defended his PhD dissertation on this subject on 9 December.; Read more

: Photosynthesis works with valves; Photosynthesis is the origin of life on earth, but it is a phenomenon that is still barely understood. Take, for example, the extremely efficient mechanism of electron transport. Leiden researchers demonstrate for the first time where one particular cause of this might be found.; Read more

: Functional networks in healthy and sick brains; Are disturbances to the brain, such as Alzheimer's or autism, linked to specific defects in the underlying communication networks in the brain? If this is the case, subtle changes in the networks can act as a marker for brain disturbances. Neuroscientist Serge Rombouts will be investigating this, together with a national consortium of researchers.; Read more

: Success for Leiden with Vidi subsidies; NWO has awarded a Vidi subsidy to a total of 89 young and innovative researchers. Leiden researchers have won twelve of these subsidies and three subsidies have gone to the LUMC. Each researcher will receive up to 800,000 euro to develop a particular research theme or to set up a research group.; Read more

: World-famous Dmanisi skull in Leiden; The Dmanisi skull is the oldest example of a hominin skull to be found outside Africa. It therefore plays a crucial role in the debate on the migrations of our ancestors. The skull was into Schiphol airport on Friday 27 November to be exhibited in Naturalis. The exhibition opened with a symposium led by Spinoza prize winner Wil Roebroeks.; Read more

: Video storybooks promote language development in children in high-risk groups; Multimedia additions to traditional storybooks increase the understanding of language and the vocabulary of children in high-risk groups. This is the discovery made by PhD researcher Marian Verhallen . ‘The structural use of video storybooks in teaching reduces the likelihood of learning difficulties.'; Read more

: Songbird passes grammar test using mnemonics; Songbirds apparently use mnemonics rather than more complex grammatical rules to recognise structures in which they have been trained. Leiden behavioural biologist Caroline van Heijningen published an article on this subject on Tuesday 17 November in PNAS.; Read more

: NWO subsidies for digital revolutions and black photography; Four Leiden professors have been awarded almost a million euros to spend on research. There are two pairs of researchers: Peter Pels (anthropology) and Chris Goto-Jones (Japanese), and Patricia Spyer (anthropology) and Robert Ross (history). Each pair will receive € 450,000 from NWO's Cultural Dynamics Programme.; Read more

: Eleven million euro for transplantation for type 1 diabetes; People with type 1 diabetes can now produce insulin themselves thanks to the transplantation of islets of Langerhans. Because there is a shortage of organ donors and it is difficult to use these islets optimally, this treatment is only available for a small group of patients. A sum of 11 million euro has been made available to develop this cell replacement therapy further and to make it available for a larger number of patients. A large part of the funds has come from the Economic Structure Enhancing Fund (FES) in the context of the Topinstituut Gezond Ouder, Ti-GO.; Read more

: Wat do PAHs do in space?; Xander Tielens, Professor of Physics and Chemistry of the Interstellar Space, has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant to study polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in space. The combination of astronomical observations, computer models and lab research makes the research highly interdisciplinary.; Read more

: Breakthrough against chronic genital infection with HPV16 virus; Stimulation of the immune system can help combat a chronic infection by the human papilloma virus. This is the outcome of research by the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine.; Read more

: Computer predicts reactions between molecules and surfaces, with ‘chemical precision’; Good news for heterogeneous catalysis and the hydrogen economy: computers can now be used to make accurate predictions of the reactions of (hydrogen) molecules with surfaces. An international team of researchers, headed by Leiden theoretical chemist Geert-Jan Kroes, published on this subject this week in the journal Science.; Read more

: First KNAW Merian Award for Naomi Ellemers; Naomi Ellemers, Professor of Social Psychology of the Organisation, is to receive the first KNAW Merian award for women in science in recognition of her excellent scientific research and her active commitment to equal opportunities for women in academia.; Read more

: Eveline Crone wins Science and Society Prize; At the tenth Evening of Science and Society, on Monday 2 November in the Ridderzaal in The Hague, Eveline Crone won the Science and Society Prize for her research into the child and adolescent brain and the way in which she makes her work accessible to society.; Read more

: 18 Veni subsidies for Leiden; This year, NWO has awarded a Veni subsidy to 143 young researchers who have recently obtained their PhD. 17 of these researchers are at Leiden University and one works at the LUMC. The successful applicants will each receive 250,000 euro to develop their ideas and carry out research over a period of three years.; Read more

: The evolutionary added value of sex; Asexual procreation in female wasps leads to an accumulation of genetic mutations, and the shrivelling of their sex organ. Leiden biologist Ken Kraaijeveld published this discovery in Evolution. His research is one of the first experimental studies into the consequences of asexual procreation.; Read more

: Climate change and irrigation systems; A change in climate in Mesopotamia led to the development of a new shared identity. The communities in the Zerqa valley in Jordan have been building irrigation systems for 13,000 years, but the irrigation systems also built communities. This is the conclusion reached in two PhD dissertations in the field of archaeology.; Read more

: Poisonous colours increase chances of sexual success; Warning colours ensure that predators remember that certain prey are poisonous. But now it appears that the colours of poisonous Panamanian frogs are also influenced by fastidious females: partner choice can also lead to colour change in these frogs, as Leiden researcher Martine Maan has reported in PNAS.; Read more

: Brains that don't read well; Illiteracy is a major problem in the US. Leiden education specialist Paul van den Broek was flown to Washington DC by the National Academies of Sciences to inform them about cognitive and neurological research into reading comprehension. He will deliver his inaugural lecture on 2 November.; Read more

: Major subsidy for interdisciplinary research into biofuel; The Barbados nut or Physic nut (Jatropha curcas) produces a high quality oil that is suitable for use as a biofuel. Promising tests have been done with this oil in the aircraft industry. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research are financing a five-year research project headed by the Van Vollenhoven Institute.; Read more

: Wiser with wisebits; ‘Is it possible to get used to absolutely anything?’ ‘In science you can't lie.’ On 16 October, as part of the Key of Life festival, two series of wisebits will be shown at the Central Station. The project is a co-production by the RVU (an educational media company) and Leiden University.; Read more

: GPs should have a scientific role in society; Ninety per cent of all medical care is delivered via primary care providers, but scientific research is not part of their remit. On Friday 16 October Research Professor Jacobijn Gussekloo will deliver her inaugural lecture entitled: 'We can carry on for years. On minor complaints, prevention and geriatric medicine.'; Read more

: Folded DNA unravelled; Leiden physicist Maarten Kruithof has discovered how our DNA is infallibly able to fold itself and to unfold again. In his dissertation he demonstrates how DNA is folded in a single long, very flexible spiral.; Read more

: New light on dark matter; An international team of astronomers has found an unexpected link between dark matter and visible stars in stellar systems. This discovery may even cause us to reconsider our understanding of gravity. They published on their discovery in 'Nature' on 1 October.; Read more

: Professor Judi Mesman receives ERC Starting Grant of € 1.6 million; Professor Judi Mesman of the Department of General and Family Studies has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). Professor Mesman will be studying the possible differences in upbringing between boys and girls within the family.; Read more

: Islam adviser to Obama at Opening of Leiden Islam Centre; Wednesday 14 October will mark the start of the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam and Society (LUCIS), with a conference on Islam, Science and Public Policy. Mayor Cohen of Amsterdam will present his scientific questionnaire, and Dalia Mogahed, Islam adviser to President Obama, will talk on ‘What a billion Muslims really think.’; Read more

: The x-factor of trauma surgery; Trauma surgery, previously a neglected branch of medicine, needs to be placed firmly on the map. This was the message delivered by Inger Schipper, Professor of Trauma Surgery, on Monday 28 September in her inaugural lecture. Schipper is the only female professor of surgery in the Netherlands.; Read more

: How genes are reused; Minor changes in genes can lead to major diversity. Patricia Beldade has been awarded a Vidi subsidy by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research to research how existing genetic 'shifts' evolve for the development of organisms and contribute to the development of new characteristics such as colour patterns on butterfly wings.; Read more

: Strange spinning binary star explains 30-year enigma; An international team led by Leiden astronomers has discovered why the two stars of binary star DI Herculis rotate so strangely around one another, which once even proved problematic for Einstein's theory of relativity. Their findings were published in Nature.; Read more

: Freek Vonk gets his own show on Discovery Channel; Biologist Freek Vonk had already appeared in the Time Warp programme, where he was shown milking a snake for its venom, which he needed for his doctoral research. On Friday 18 September, he explained his fascination for snakes to Matthijs van Nieuwkerk in ‘De wereld draait door’, a Dutch news and entertainment programme.; Read more

: 30 million for Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity; Leiden University, together with Naturalis and the Universities of Amsterdam (UvA) and Wageningen, has set up a single centre for biodiversity. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) has committed 30 million euro for this initiative from funds available from natural gas reserves.; Read more

: Eco-friendly farmers do what they say; Farmers who commit to environmentally friendly working methods also actively practise nature conservation in their farming - particularly when this is not financed by the government. These are the findings of research carried out by Anne Marike Lokhorst, who will receive her PhD on 17 September based on this study.; Read more

: Minerva's new grant system; Student association Minerva will shortly be awarding its first grants to students to want to carry out a special or exclusive project as part of their study. Minerva is the first student association in the Netherlands to take this initiative.; Read more

: Beauty and science in Florence; Gert Jan van der Sman is fascinated by the relation between humanism - the scholarly world of the 16th and 17th centuries - and art. He will deliver his inaugural lecture on Friday 11 September. 'Science can be a something of a straitjacket, so I want to loosen the bonds.'; Read more

: Ethnicity as risk factor for pregnancy complications; The number of mothers who become seriously ill as a result of a pregnancy is rising in western countries. Joost Zwart has studied the frequency and the risk factors of this serious form of maternal morbidity and has also looked at factors that might indicate shortcomings in healthcare. Zwart: 'Policies in this area are already changing.'; Read more

: Understanding the game of marbles; Not many scientists can claim to have received funding from NWO to blow bubbles and play with sand, but Martin van Hecke definitely can. Van Hecke, Professor of the Organisation of Disordered Matter, delivered his inaugural lecture on Friday 4 September, under the enigmatic title of: ‘Bellen, bollen, ballen’ (that translates roughly to: Bubbles, Grains and Balls).; Read more

: Wim van Saarloos new Director of FOM Foundation; The FOM Executive Board has appointed Professor Wim van Saarloos (1955) Director of FOM Foundation, with effect from 1 November 2009.; Read more

: Language evolution down to the individual; Language change is comparable with the evolution in the plant and animal world. In language there is variation in word choice, meaning or pronunciation. According to PhD candidate Frank Landsbergen, an individual language user can set evolution in language in motion.; Read more

: Genome size of wild tulips determined; Leiden researcher Dr Ben Zonneveld has determined the size of the genome - the amount of DNA per nucleus - of wild tulips. His conclusion is that there are more than 87 wild species. Various possibly new species have been discovered.; Read more

: Casimir Research School to receive € 800,000 for talented PhD candidates; The Casimir Research School is to receive an € 800,000 subsidy from the NWO Graduate Programme to further integrate the master's study and PhD research. Minister Plasterk judged the Leiden-Delft Casimir plan to be one of the best.; Read more

: Wrestling with SUMO proteins; The work done by SUMO proteins in the cells of our body is of vital importance. Molecular cell biologist Alfred Vertegaal has been studying these proteins for nine years, first with a Veni subsidy and then with a prestigious Vidi subsidy.; Read more

: Two research schools partnered with Leiden University participate in Graduate Programme; The Casimir Research School and the Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences will be participating in the first Graduate Programme.; Read more

: Villagers steal meat from lions; Researchers from Leiden see hungry villagers in the north of Cameroon steal meat from the prey of lions.; Read more

: New chance for the Philippine crocodile; Researchers from the Institute of Environmental Sciences hope that by releasing fifty Philippine crocodiles bred in captivity, they will be able to speed up the recovery of the crocodile population.; Read more

: Mosaic subsidies for highly talented ethnic minority researchers; Four of Leiden's young, talented ethnic minority graduates are to receive an award as part of the Mosiac programme of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The award will allow these budding researchers to fund a four-year research period leading to a doctorate.; Read more

: What happens when two galaxies collide?; When galaxies collide, do the black holes at their centre form a supersized black hole? This is what we think happens, but it's not as simple as that, according to Simon Portegies Zwart. Zwart, computer scientist and astronomer, has been awarded a VICI grant to research this phenomenon.; Read more

: Patient to become partner in scientific research; All patients treated in the LUMC for a number of chronic illnesses and forms of cancer will at the outset of treatment be asked to provide data for scientific research. This is one aspect of CuraRata, a new healthcare system integrating research and patient care.; Read more

: Leiden receives two major NWO subsidies for conflict research; NWO has honoured a total of 11 applications on the theme of Conflict and Security. Two of the applications are from Leiden. Dr Carsten Stahn of the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Campus The Hague received half a million euro for research into the effects locally of international criminal interventions.; Read more

: 25 million euros for research into energy from plants and algae; On Friday 10 July the Towards Biosolar Cells research programme was granted a budget of 25 million euros by the Dutch Government. The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality recommended the programme because it will contribute to green energy, improve food supplies and a create a more sustainable biomass.; Read more

: Borderline between cancer and thrombosis; Winning a prestigious award for PhD researchers, even before you have your doctorate: that's what Yascha van den Berg managed to do with his research proposal on alternatively spliced tissue factor, a protein that may be involved in tumour growth. Van den Berg: ‘It all started as a Friday afternoon experiment.'; Read more

: Resolution of electron microscope greatly improved; The use of a new type of detector has generated a strong improvement in the resolution of electron miscroscopes. The 'low-energy electron microscope '(LEEM) can now be used for reseach on the thinnest materials possible. The tests with the detector represent the first result of the ESCHER project.; Read more

: 'Fall of the Wall' had dramatic effect on East German professor corps; After the Fall of the Wall, higher education in the former DDR was radically reformed. What were the consequences of this for the professors of the Humboldt University in Berlin? Adriaan in 't Groen was awarded his PhD on this subject on Monday 29 June.; Read more

: Excavation of Merovingian settlement provides wealth of information; A former course of the Rhine with a hundred-metre-long, oak retaining wall for the dike, house foundations, wells, pottery and bones. This is just a selection of the findings from four weeks of excavation by students from the Faculty of Archaeology on a site next to Corpus alongside the A44.; Read more

: First step in converting solar energy using 'artificial leaf'; Two things are needed to produce fuel from sunlight: an antenna that harvests light, and a light-driven catalyst. The most efficient antennae contain bacteria. An international team headed by Huub de Groot imitated them and discovered how they function.; Read more

: Physical reality of string theory demonstrated; String theory has come under fire in recent years. Promises have been made that have not been lived up to. Leiden theoretical physicists have now for the first time used string theory to describe a physical phenomenon. Their discovery has been reported this week in 'Science'.; Read more

: Ultra-thin material absorbs all the light; It appears to be a paradox: ultra-thin material that absorbs all the incident light. Nonetheless, it does exist. Two Leiden researchers report on their research in ‘Applied Physics Letters’. The article is among the Top 20 of the most downloaded articles of this reputable journal in May.; Read more

: Newly discovered gene regulates balance of 'bad' cholesterol; In an article in Science, Noam Zelcer from the LACDR describes a previously unknown mechanism for regulating the amount of LDL cholesterol. This offers opportunities for supplementing and improving the effect of so-called statins: medicines that remove 'bad' cholesterol from the bloodstream.; Read more

: Millions for Child and Family Studies; A research project into the social integration of Turkish children in the Netherlands, Germany and Norway has been awarded a major subsidy by NORFACE (New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Co-operation in Europe). The Dutch part will be led by Dr Judi Mesman and Professor Rien van IJzendoorn.; Read more

: ‘Don't underestimate Ahmadinejad’; Even if the pro-reform Mir Hossein Mousavi had won the presidential election last Friday, the authoritarian character of the Iranian regime would not have changed fundamentally, in the opinion of political scientist Peyman Jafari.; Read more

: First Dutch Neanderthal; The discovery along the coast of Zeeland of a bone remnant of a Neanderthal man is the first of its kind in the Netherlands. Wil Roebroeks hopes that ‘Krijn’ will be the key to research and conservation of the North Sea floor archive. The fragment of a skull was unveiled by Minister Plasterk in the National Museum of Antiquities on Monday 15 June.; Read more

: Intellectual giftedness is more than IQ; Intellectual giftedness is more than IQ alone. This is the proposition of psychologist Dr Marcel Veenman. Together with the ICLON he will be researching this hypothesis among participants in the Pre-University College. The project was recently accepted for funding by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.; Read more

: Molecular mystery in space; The space between the stars isn't simply a void; it also contains substances such as methanol and carbon dioxide. So far, chemical theories have been unable to explain how these substances originate under circumstances that should make it impossible. Fedor Goumans has been awarded a Veni subsidy to try to resolve this mystery.; Read more

: Co-operation between Palestine and Leiden Archaeology renewed; On 8 June the Faculty of Archaeology and the Department of Antiquity and Cultural Heritage (DACH) of the Palestine Ministry of Tourism and Antiquity signed an agreement in Ramallah on the West Bank. The aim of the agreement is renewed and sustainable co-operation in the field of archaeology.; Read more

: Intercontinental supercomputer unravels the structure of the universe; An international team of astrophysicists and computer scientists headed by Professor Simon Portegies Zwart, has managed to carry out a large-scale calculation using two linked computers. The team intends to use the calculation to chart the large structures of dark matter.; Read more

: Christians in the Middle East caught between Islam and the West; Christians in the Middle East are often regarded as the outpost of the West. But this vision ignores the particular characteristics and development of Christianity in the Middle East. This will be the message of Professor Heleen Murre-van den Berg in her inaugural lecture on Friday 12 June.; Read more

: Spinoza prize for 'migraine professor' Michel Ferrari; Neurologist Professor Michel Ferrari has been awarded the Spinoza prize. 'In biomedical research you can only make breakthroughs at the borders between sciences,' according to Spinoza, doctor and scientist. 'This prize is proof that co-operation works.' Together with clinical and fundamental researchers from different fields he is little by little unravelling the puzzle that is migraine.'; Read more

: Plant species disappear and reappear; The disappearance and reappearance of species of plants in the Netherlands is a normal phenomenon. In the period from 1981-2000 the number of plants that disappeared was considerably lower than previously, whereas the number of species rediscovered was much higher. Climate change may be the cause.; Read more

: Illnesses also have a cultural dimension; I had my first official introduction to cultural diversity in physical health and sickness during the programme on Intercultural Psychological Phenomena. I learned that depression occurs throughout the world, but that it is manifested differently according to the culture. Master's student Lian van de Krieke experiences the importance of cultural diversity in her professional practice.; Read more

: West reads East; The study of modern literature from the Middle East with Nobel Prize winners such as Pamuk and Mahfoez, is relatively new and there is as yet little international co-operation. The workshop on ‘West Reads East’ held in Berlin on 23 and 24 May is the first of its kind. Petra de Bruijn reports.; Read more

: BABELonian untwisting of tongues; Three important subsidies, each worth € 200,000, have come to Leiden. The aim of the EuroBABEL research theme is to study languages threatened with extinction, and to use the findings of this research in forming general theories about language. A total of five projects were given awards.; Read more

: Prose as experiment; Prose was once a daring experiment. Up to the thirteenth century all Dutch literature was in rhyme. Then Dutch authors started to discover prose. In his Veni project, Dr Joost van Driel has been researching why authors opted for prose.; Read more

Iranian refugees write hybrid literature

Esfaindyar Daneshvar Tehranizadeh (1974), born in Iran, moved with his mother and father to France when he was ten years old. His rather, a writer, was already living in France. This background partly determined the subject of Daneshvar's doctoral research. Daneshvar was awarded a Mozaic subsidy for his research.

: The arms industry in the Bronze Age; Technical tours de force cast in bronze with no other purpose than that of serving as a lethal weapon: swords. Manufacturing such items required a multiciplicity of technologies. David Fontijn will be using his Teaching Prize to trace the production process and to gather teaching materials.; Read more

: Islamic law in practice; The world was recently shocked by the news that Sharia was being introduced in the Swat valley in Pakistan. But what does this mean for the inhabitants of the region? Dr Nadia Sonneveld intends to investigate this, funded by the Rubicon subsidy she recently received.; Read more

: Emotional problems of children in Uganda lead to medicalisation; Medical anthropologist Grace Akello-Ayebare has carried out research into orphan children growing up in Gulu in North Uganda, a region plagued by civil war. Emotional problems lead to somatisation and extensive use of medication. Akello-Ayebare obtained her PhD on Wednesday 20 May.; Read more

: Light doesn't always reflect in the same way; A bundle of focused light that falls on a mirror behaves differently from a bundle of parallel light and doesn't conform to the law of reflection formulated in classical times. Researchers report on their finding in the journal Nature Photonics.; Read more

: Where were comet crystals formed?; Silica crystals can only form in a red-hot environment, whereas comets originate in the icy cold outer regions of the solar system. Then how do these crystals come to be found in comets? A team of researchers provide the answer in Nature.; Read more

: The quest for more antibiotics; Streptomycetes are similar to moulds, but these bacteria live in the soil. They are very popular in biotechnology because they produce a great many antibiotics and enzymes. Gilles van Wezel will be using his Vici subsidy to study ways of increasing their production.; Read more

Why there was no industrial revolution in China

Four Global History experts will be in Leiden on Monday and Tuesday next week at the invitation of Leiden's history students. They will be debating the role of the state in The Rise of the West, Europe's great escape from the general pre-industrial pattern. An interview with Peer Vries, Professor of Economic History in Vienna.

: Super-fast evolution; Certain cichlid fish in Lake Victoria seem to have adapted super-fast to changing circumstances. Dr Frans Witte from the Integrative Zoology section has been awarded an NWO subsidy (approx. € 240,000) to carry out PhD research into the rapid changes apparent in this fish species.; Read more

: Researchers determine the structure of very efficient light-harvesting antennae in green bacteria; An international team of scientists, including researchers from two Dutch universities, Leiden and Groningen, has resolved the structure of chlorophyll in chlorosomes of green bacteria. Chlorosomes are the light-harvesting antennae of these bacteria. They are elongated small pockets which can accommodate up to 250,000 chlorophyll molecules.; Read more

: Time periods are a poor instrument; Dutch-expert Olga van Marion is conducting research into the literature of the Golden Age, approached from a new perspective. Her ideas on the subject have earned her a Veni subsidy. 'The Middle Ages, like classical antiquity, belong to the literary world of the Early Modern Period, but we are not yet sure how.'; Read more

: Digital fiascos in autobureaucracy; Every citizen regularly comes into contact with the digital face of the government. Behind that face there is a world of implementing organisations, registration systems, applications and links between processes. Why this system increasingly fails is addressed by Frans Jorna in his PhD dissertation.; Read more

: Teaching, Chinese-style; That Chinese lecturers think differently about teaching from Dutch lecturers is well known. But what exactly are those differences, and what causes them? To find the answer, Wu Wei conducted a survey among lecturers at Leiden University.; Read more

: DNA folded in compliant helix; A further step on the way to understanding gene expression. In an Advance Online Publication in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology biophysicist John van Noort and others show using magnetic tweezers that DNA is folded in compliant helices of chromatin. This allows enzymes access to the DNA needed for gene expression.; Read more

: A week immersed in solar biofuels; The Honours Class From Solar to Fuel with Bio consisted almost entirely of the workshop on Solar Biofuels from Micro-organisms that drew more than eighty specialist researchers to Leiden's Lorentz Centre in late March/early April. Students Erica Wenker (chemistry) and Jasper van Dobben de Bruijn (law) wrote an impression of the Honours Class.; Read more

: Planet formation: food for thought; Planet formation is a surprisingly homogeneous process that does not take place gradually from inside out, but that occurs everywhere at the same time in a proto-planetary disc, as Dave Lommen has discovered. He will obtain his doctorate this week based on his research into the dust around young stars observed using telescopes.; Read more

: Poetry and the justification of violence; Without the element of mysticism in his philosopy Khomeini would never have come to power. Mystic concepts dating back to the Middle Ages play a significant role in 20th century Iranian politics. In his Vidi project, Asghar Seyed-Gohrab will investigate precisely what role that is.; Read more

: In search of the pro-conception pill; With IVF, test-tube fertilisation, women are administered the required hormones by injection. This is a painful procedure, which can have unpleasant side-effects. Laura Heitman will obtain her PhD on 22 April based on the discovery of substances which could be administered in pill form.; Read more

: Paul Hooykaas Academy Professor; Professor Paul Hooykaas, Professor of Molecular Genetics at the Leiden Institute for Biology (IBL), has been appointed as Academy Professor by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).; Read more

: Help needed with identification; Very soon the roadsides and railway tracks will be a sea of yellow blossoms: is it oilseed rape (Brassica napus) or turnip rape (Brassica rapa)? And soon possibly with genetically modified wild oilseed rape? With a grant from the Commission on Genetic Modifications Dr. Sheila Luijten will try to answer the above questions.; Read more

: Brutish ape-men, with high-pitched voices; They are no longer regarded as brutish, club-wielding savages. But their subsequent label as gentle vegetarians is also outdated, as is their image as peace-loving but not very intelligent scavengers. Gerrit Dusseldorp obtained his PhD on Thursday 2 April based on new insights into the Neanderthals.; Read more

: Arabisation is not necessarily Islamisation; The Arab conquest of Egypt was not a watershed. It took centuries before the majority of the inhabitants became Muslim. The spread of the Arabic language was much more rapid. This is the message of Professor Petra Sijpesteijn in her inaugural lecture on Monday 6 April.; Read more

: New library organisation, new opportunities; The development of a new library organisation has its difficulties, but it also creates new opportunities, such as for extending the opening hours and facilitating the fast-moving developments in the digital field. These are the thoughts of chief librarian, Kurt De Belder.; Read more

: New research centre for studying planet and star formation; The ALMA Local Expertise Group (Allegro) is located in the Leiden Observatory (Sterrewacht). Professor Ewine van Dishoeck: ‘The Netherlands has played an important role in establishing ALMA. Thanks to this subsidy, we can now reap the scientific benefits.'; Read more

Sustainable energy from photosynthesis: ‘Europe mustn't get left behind’

Plants, algae and bacteria convert sunlight into chemical energy. In a workshop organised by the Lorentz Center researchers made an inventory of the possibilities for using and imitating this process of photosynthesis with a view to producing sustainable energy.

: A joint doctorate - for better or for worse; A joint doctorate doesn't happen often, but on 24th March the second will be held this year. Marije Koopmans and Idske Kremer Hovinga have obtained their doctorate based on one dissertation. In parallen with their medical studies, they have worked together in the pathology department at the LUMC for several years conducting research into chimerism.; Read more

: ‘Discrimination is more serious than we thought’; Discrimination can lead to minority groups withdrawing from society. This is the warning issued by PhD candidate Katherine Stroebe. ‘Discrimination has more serious consequences than was previously realised.'; Read more

: Graphene is a thoroughbred that has to be tamed; Electrons in graphene behave like light particles; they have no mass and can penetrate everything: very useful if you dream about nano-electronics. But you do have to channel them. Carlo Beenakker will be researching how. He has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of 1.5 million euro to carry out this research.; Read more

: Millions of people to help with new synthetic skin cream; A team of researchers has managed to recreate the most natural skin cream in existence. Using the DUBBLE beamline in Grenoble, they have analysed the composition and structure of vernix caseosa – the skin cream in which newborn babies are covered. Robert Rißmann obtained his PhD on Tuesday 17 March.; Read more

: Three Rubicons from and to Leiden; Two young researchers will be coming to Leiden to continue their research, and one will be leaving Leiden for a prestigious research institute in London. NWO has awarded them a Rubicon subsidy to pursue their research.; Read more

: The reliability of news reporting; On Nieuwscheckers.nl students from Journalism and New Media check the facts in the news. Are the figures correct, what exactly was said, how reliable are the sources? There is one thing they agree on: there are plenty of errors to be found.; Read more

: Studying and obtaining your PhD with the excellent student programme; Rob de Lind van Wijngaarden is still a junior doctor, yet he has almost completed his PhD. He is the first PhD candidate from LUMC's excellent student programme whereby students can conduct PhD research during the bachelor's phase.; Read more

: LIBC Symposium: meditation changes brain activity; Meditation has the reputation of being vague and woolly. Some neuroscientists have a different opinion: meditation has measurable effects on the brain. They will present their findings on Friday 20 March during the first symposium of the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC): ‘Imag(in)ing the buddhist brain’.; Read more

: Major European subsidy for Leiden's Humanities; The idea of Vidi winner Dr Geert Warnar to set up an international training network for PhD researchers to study the exchange of ideas in the late Medieval period has attracted a European subsidy of in excess of a million euro. LURIS was instrumental in turning a good idea into a successful subsidy application.; Read more

: Leiden PhD researcher wins NASA Hubble Fellowship; Leiden PhD researcher Karin Öberg is one of the 17 winners of the NASA Hubble Fellowship. When she has obtained her PhD this autumn she will move to the United States for three years to conduct post-doctoral research into the role of ice in star formation.; Read more

: Stem cells: between hype and hypothesis; Currently, the benefits to patients of embyronic stem cell therapy are extremely limited. However, re-programmed adult cells offer good modalities for studying disease and testing medicines. In her inaugural lecture on Monday 9 March Christine Mummery will review 10 years of embryonic stem cell research.; Read more

: ‘Social support for dialysis patients not always effective'; ‘There is a clear relation between how a kidney patient experiences his or her health, and mortality,' says Melissa Thong, who obtained her PhD on 26 February. 'Patients who experience their health as 'poor', 'reasonable' or 'good' have a higher death rate than those who rate their health as 'excellent' or 'very good'.; Read more

Arab economies and western intellectual trends

Egyptian economist and author Galal Amin will give the fourth Snouck Hurgronje lecture on 6 March, entitled: Fifty Years of Economic and Intellectual Dependence: Arab Economic Development and the West. Amin: ‘The economic achievements of independence do not weigh up against the political prize.’

: Pride and respect essential for volunteers; Volunteers play a key role in many organisations. Yet, little is known about their recruitment and motivation. Emphasising the success of a volunteer organisation is often counter-productive as it can give the impression that there is no need for new volunteers, Edwin Boezeman has established from his doctoral research.; Read more

: What triggers rheumatism?; Why does one person with inflamed joints develop rheumatism, while in another person the disease disappears? And why do some people respond well to medication while others do not? An interdisciplinary European consortium with LUMC as initiator and co-ordinator will be studying how the biological processes underlying these questions work.; Read more

: Sick from stress; Stress: why does it make one person ill and not another? Genetic differences in the working of stress hormones may offer an explanation, according to research carried out by Vera Brinks. She defends her dissertation on 19 February.; Read more

: New: Leiden research profile and year book; During the celebration of the Dies Natalis on 9 February 2009 Rector Magnificus Professor Paul van der Heijden presented a new edition of the University Year Book this year entitled 'Developing Knowledge' and a brochure on the Leiden research profile ' Crossing Borders in Fundamental Research.'; Read more

: Vidi and Rubicon subsidies for Leiden; Four of the thirty Vici subsidies and six of the thirty Rubicons have been awarded to Leiden. Of the Vicis, three go to the University and one to the LUMC. Five young researchers will be leaving Leiden to study abroad and one will come from Groningen to Leiden.; Read more

: Iran: 30 years of the Islamic revolution that never was; In the night of 11 to 12 February 1979, revolutionaries in Iran took over the national radio and television stations and announced their victory, thereby officially ending the regime of the Shah. But how Islamic was the Islamic revolution? Professor Asef Bayat will address this question as one of the issues he will discuss in a lecture on 12 February.; Read more

: Ewine van Dishoeck shows us new worlds in Dies lecture; Her specialist field is molecular astrophysics, and she is the most quoted scholar in her field. In this, the year of astronomy, she is the ideal person to give the Dies lecture at the university with the world's oldest astronomy institute; it goes without saying that the lecture will be on the newest developments in the field.; Read more

: Colliding protein beads reveal DNA; Nucleosomes, the beads of the chain in which DNA is wound, are much more dynamic than was previously assumed and they regularly collide with one another spontaneously. In such a collision, one of the nucleosomes loses a piece of protein that together with the neighbouring nucleosome forms a larger bead. This causes a piece of DNA to be released that was originally hidden in two original nucleosomes. This process could be a first step on the way to reading DNA.; Read more

: Honorary Doctor Susan Fiske in colloquium on stereotyping and inter-group relations; During this year's Dies celebrations, Professor Susan Fiske will be awarded an Honorary Doctorate by her honorary supervisor, Professor Naomi Ellemers. One day later, on 10 February, the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences will organise a symposium focusing on the work of psychologist Professor Fiske. During the symposium research will be presented where the classical problem of stereotyping will be examined using new methods (such as neuro-imaging and cardio-vascular indicators).; Read more

: MicroRNA: so small but so very important; The discovery in 2001 of the importance of microRNAs turned the world of molecular biology upside down. The small pieces of RNA also attracted the attention of university lecturer Erno Vreugdenhil. Vreugdenhil: ‘Within five to ten years the first microRNA-directed medicines will come onto the market.’; Read more

: Writing on the plastic of ancient times; A chest containing inscribed sherds of pottery turns up on an English estate. A group of papyrologists set to deciphering and describing the ‘ostraca’ from the island of Elephantine in the Nile close to Aswan. How did they find their way to an English estate, and what is the story behind their journey?; Read more

: Confident witness is not always reliable; A confident witness is generally more reliable than a less confident witness. This is the finding of doctoral research by psychologist Geralda Odinot. But, judges should beware: 100% confidence is no guarantee for 100% accuracy.; Read more

: Centuries-old letter gives up its secrets; A letter containing a lock of hair sent from St. Eustatius to a loved-one at home lay for centuries unopened in a London archive. Professor Marijke van der Wal recently opened this hi-jacked letter - one of almost 38,000. The activities of her research programme will be reported on line starting this week.; Read more

: Ethnic talent to conquer science; She is female and foreign; she graduated with distinction and has a PhD. Could she be seen as a threat to the established scientific elite? Serena Does, winner of a Mosaic subsidy from NWO believes that majority groups can be motivated to regard the rise of minorities more positively.; Read more

: Prestigious international subsidy for Korean language and culture; The department of Korean Language and Culture has been awarded a prestigious Korean subsidy of 700,000 euro for the project on History as Social Practice: Unconventional Historiographies of Korea. The subsidy will be spread over a period of five years.; Read more

: Getting to know the real China; With 850 million native speakers, Mandarin (Standard Chinese) is by far the most widely spoken language in the world. And with China's booming economy it is no surprise that an increasing number of school pupils are choosing to learn Chinese (Standard Chinese). A new Leiden teaching method will be unveiled on Thursday 4 December.; Read more

: Leiden bachelor's students discover unique planet; The exoplanet discovered at the end of last year by three Leiden bachelor's students is apparently unique: bigger than Jupiter and with almost five times its mass. It is the first planet to be discovered around a hot, fast orbiting star.; Read more

: New interpretation of the Kama Sutra; Herman Tieken has already explained in a previous newsletter that the Kama Sutra is not a sex manual. It was only once he had completed his translation that he saw what no other indologist had previously seen. The book is a parody of a treatise on kingship. Tieken's translation was published last week.; Read more

: HOPE interests students in entrepreneurship; Wednesday 12 November saw the official opening of the entrepreneurship programme HOPE in the Cruise Terminal in Rotterdam. Within this Holland Programme on Entrepreneurship three South Holland universities are working together on promoting entrepreneurship and business enterprise among students.; Read more

: Religion influences what people see; Calvinists pay more attention to detail than do atheists. This has been demonstrated by research carried out by psychologist Lorenza Colzato. She is the first to show that subconscious and automatic processes allow religion to influence how people experience the world.; Read more

: The right to fair-trade chocolate; What have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, civil law, the 'catalogue of values' of Minister Guusje ter Horst, and socially responsible business got to do with one another? Everything, in the opinion of Alex Geert Castermans, Professor of Civil Law. He will deliver his inaugural lecture on Friday 28 November.; Read more

: Leiden Genomics Centres win NGI Valorisation award; 5 Centres of the Netherlands Genomics Inititiative, of which the LUMC of Leiden University is co-ordinator, won the first NGI Valorisation Award worth 1 million euro.; Read more

Calendar

Inaugural Lectures, PhD Ceremonies, Conferences & Symposia, Lectures & Debates, Exhibitions.

: HOPE interests students in entrepreneurship; Within this Holland Program on Entrepreneurship three South Holland universities are working together on promoting entrepreneurship and business enterprise among students.; Read more

: Foster care for chimpanzees successful; In a unique experiment at the Yerkes primate centre in Atlanta Leiden education specialists and colleagues from the University of Portsmouth have demonstrated that young chimpanzees benefit from four hours a day personal attention.; Read more

: Social anthropology much older than imagined; The ethnological style of thinking had already developed by the eighteenth century, states Han Vermeulen. In his dissertation he places them in their historical and political context.; Read more

: Between completely closed and accessible; 'Since as early as the fifteenth century, the institutions which generate, safeguard and disseminate knowledge have been typified by conflict between inclusion and exclusion, accessibility and security.’; Read more

: Integration issue is of all times; Integration never runs smoothly and always takes at least three generations, according to Herman Obdeijn and Marlou Schrover.; Read more

: Physical impact; Leiden natural sciences and astronomy feature strongly in an article about science in the Netherlands in the 30th October edition of Nature.; Read more

: Legal-political bias in response to Islam; Prof. Maurits Berger is researching how Muslims in western societies shape their lives. His studies also include aspects of western society itself. Why does Islam act as such a catalyst in the social debate? Berger will deliver his inaugural lecture on 4 November.; Read more

News archive up to 11 November 2008

All research news reports up to 11 November 2008

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