2,069 search results for “this week s discoveries” in the Public website
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Veenendaal, Does Smallness Enhance Power-Sharing? Explaining Suriname’s Multiethnic Democracy
The smallness of Suriname, according to political scientist Wouter Veenendaal (Leiden University), strongly affects and shapes the nature of democracy in the country. On the one hand, clientelism ensures that members of each ethnic group included in power-sharing arrangements have access to state resources…
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The EU’s Conceptualisation of the Rule of Law in its External Relations: Case Studies on Development Cooperation and Enlargement
On 26 June 2019, Lisa Louwerse defended her thesis 'The EU’s Conceptualisation of the Rule of Law in its External Relations: Case Studies on Development Cooperation and Enlargement'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. C.A.P. Hillion.
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Fertility and fontanels: women’s knowledge of medicinal plants for reproductive health and childcare in western Africa
Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. Smets, Co-promotor: T.R. van Andel
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Earliest known alphabetic word list discovered
A flake of limestone (ostracon) inscribed with an ancient Egyptian word list of the fifteenth century BC turns out to be the world’s oldest known abecedary. The words have been arranged according to their initial sounds, and the order followed here is one that is still known today. This discovery has…
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A chemical connection that affects your immune system
A group of chemists, that includes Sander van Kasteren and Hermen Overkleeft, has discovered that azides, a certain type of chemical compound, can determine whether or not T cells respond to or ignore a vaccine. Their discovery is set to be published in Angewandte Chemie.
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King opens new wing of Leiden Instrumentmakers School
King Willem-Alexander visited Leiden on 6 December to open the new wing of the Leiden Instrumentmakers School. Students of this vocational programme make instruments needed for scientific research.
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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.
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Unique mosaic floor discovered in Israel
A marvelous mosaic synagogue floor has been discovered at the Israeli excavation site of Horvat Kur. The timeworn stones of the mosaic clearly form the name ‘El’azar’. Leiden University researcher Jürgen Zangenberg and a group of Leiden students played a role in the excavation. ‘El’azar was likely an…
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‘Building blocks for life' may originate in space
Amino acids are the building blocks for life on earth. They may originate in space and reach the Earth via comets and meteorites. Daniël Paardekooper examined part of this hypothesis. PhD defence on 5 July.
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Minute molecular movements might lead to more efficient biofuel cells
Leiden researchers have found minute movements in the laccase enzyme. This discovery could lead to the development of much more efficient biofuel cells. Publication in Biophysical Journal.
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New tenure track: understanding and engineering microbial metabolism for health and sustainability
On 1 March, Lennart Schada von Borzyskowski will start on a tenure track position at the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL). With a focus on the natural and synthetic biochemistry of environmental bacteria, he wants to apply their features to health and sustainability issues.
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Ewine van Dishoeck interviews minister Dijkgraaf - Astronomy celebrates 60 years of ESO
With a special symposium at Museum Boerhaave, ESO celebrated its 60th anniversary on Monday, 26 September. More than 100 scientists, politicians and people from industry were present to look back on collaborations, milestones and discoveries. Leiden astrochemist Ewine van Dishoeck was one of the pre…
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Human DNA softer than DNA single-celled life
Single-celled organisms have stiffer DNA than multicellular lifeforms like humans and rice. Theoretical physicists managed to simulate the folding in full genomes for the first time to reach this conclusion. Publication in Biophysical Journal on February 7.
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How can we increase the financial sector’s resilience to cyber attacks? Get inside the mind of a hacker!
The financial sector is an appealing target for hackers. For that reason, lawmakers and regulators are going to great lengths to make the sector more resilient to cyber attacks. One recent measure was the introduction of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). This new EU regulation is extremely…
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Nationale Studenten Enquête and Elsevier: Top rankings for LUC The Hague
The Nationale Studenten Enquête 2014, a study of around 73,000 students, has named Leiden University College (LUC) The Hague the best university college in the Netherlands.
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Dutch state returns stolen artefacts: ‘Make sure to tell the full story’
The Netherlands returned 478 artefacts to Indonesia and Sri Lanka this week, on the advice of a Dutch committee. Rightly so, says Leiden professor Pieter ter Keurs from the Museums, Collections and Society interdisciplinary research programme. ‘But do make it clear why you are returning something.’
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Rogier Kegge on important provincial elections issue: nitrogen emissions
Dutch provinces must finalise their plans this summer to meet the government's targets on nitrogen emissions. Can the outcome of the provincial elections this week still change nitrogen policy? The NOS spoke about this issue with various parties including Rogier Kegge, assistant professor in administrative…
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5 Grants for Leiden Physics in 10 years ERC
This weeks marks the 10th anniversary of the European Research Council. For the past decade, the council has contributed to many scientific projects all over Europe, including Leiden University. It has funded almost 7,000 researchers, leading to just short of 100,000 scientific articles. A total of…
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Visit to Ghana: Leiden University strengthens ties with partners in Africa
Leiden University will deepen its cooperation with knowledge institutions in Africa. During a trip to Ghana, a delegation spoke with several African knowledge institutions about intensifying their collaboration.
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Cabinet formation negotiations in The Hague: latest developments
The Dutch cabinet formation – a process that has now been underway for five months – is at a standstill for the time being. Formation discussion leaders Elbert Dijkgraaf and Richard van Zwol are due to publish their report in mid-May. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, updates listeners…
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Academic Integrity
The integrity and reliability of academic research are of fundamental importance to the University. All parties, both within the University and outside, must be able to have confidence that our research is conducted in a scrupulous, fair, verifiable, impartial and independent manner.
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The Van Loon Project
The Van Loon project sets out to safeguard the archives of Dutch archaeologist Maurits van Loon (Amsterdam, September 22, 1923 - Montpellier, October 12, 2006) and make them accessible for further study.
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Natural deep eutectic solvents: A new green solvent from nature
- Which metabolites could be components of NADES? - How can we prove the presence of NADES in nature? - What are the roles of NADES in nature? - How to apply NADES in life sciences?
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To the edge of space and time
Large telescopes can look so deep into the Universe that they can also look back billions of years in time. From 2018, the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, will be able to see the period just after the Big Bang, when the first stars and galaxies formed. Astronomers…
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Postponement of the Congress on the Social Benefits of Higher Education to the autumn
The organising committee of the congress 'Social Benefits of Higher Education' has decided to postpone the congress.
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Martinique
Since 2005 Leiden fieldschools have maintained local collaborations with archaeologists on Martinique carrying out surveys and excavations.
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Chemical biology of glucosylceramide metabolism: fundamental studies and clinical applications for Gaucher disease
How can we develop new chemical biology tools and approaches to understand and interfere with glucosylceramide metabolism in relation to Gaucher disease?
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SAILS
SAILS (Society, Artificial Intelligence and Life Sciences) is a universitywide initiative aimed at facilitating collaboration across disciplines on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is one of Leiden University's interdisciplinary programmes.
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Allosteric Modulation
Allosteric modulation has long been recognized as a general and widespread mechanism for the control of protein function. Modulators bind to regulatory sites distinct from the active site on the protein, resulting in conformational changes that may profoundly influence protein function. This concept…
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Autonomy and Objectivity
The aim of this project is to foster a historiography that does justice both to the realization that scientific knowledge is constructed by local, contingent, and contextual processes, and the claims of science to objective validity.
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Testimonials
Read about experiences of former students.
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Self-interest versus group interest
People are less willing to give up an interest when in a negotiation situation than when they can do it of their own free will, as Leiden University psychologist Eric van Dijk discovered. Knowledge of this kind can be used by policy makers, for instance, to motivate people to adopt certain desirable…
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Making and creating with ages-old knowledge
The ability to create objects and structures with our hands has been essential to human development. This ability is something modern society is at risk of losing. Leiden archaeologists gather knowledge about ancient processes of ‘making and creating’ over the centuries, knowledge that helps our current…
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Unfolding secrets of catalysts
To construct catalysts that can produce fuels from CO2 innumerable times, we need to learn much more about how catalysis works. Irene Groot is conducting groundbreaking research into catalysis at the atomic level.
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The skeleton as a source of information
Bones contain information about people’s lives such as where they came from, their age at death and which diseases they suffered from. Researchers can deduce a lot from them about a person’s life and about human evolution. This generates leads that could help solve present-day problems, such as how…
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Robots that empathise with humans
If we want to build robots and computer systems that are not only smarter but also possess more social skills, we first need to find out more about how humans interpret information. Max van Duijn and Tessa Verhoef conduct research at the intersection of cognitive science and AI.
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Unravelling the genes responsible for life history traits in the giant woody cabbage (Brassica oleracea)
Which genes are involved in woodiness and associated traits such as drought tolerance, flowering time, stem elongation, life span, and plant herbivory, and how do these gene regulatory pathways overlap?
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More efficient learning thanks to sleep
Young children, adolescents and students may experience learning difficulties as a result of lack of sleep. Dr Kristiaan van der Heijden investigates sleep problems and solutions for various age groups.
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The adolescent brain
Fundamental insights into the working of the adolescent brain help lecturers and parents to teach adolescents to function better. Professor Eveline Crone studies executive functions – such as planning and behaviour – in the adolescent brain.
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Data Science
The majority of scientists, from archaeologists through to zoologists, collect huge volumes of data. Their massive databases contain large amounts of information which is difficult for humans to filter. With a solid grounding in statistics, we can develop algorithms for analysing and identifying patterns…
- Career prospects
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About this minor
AI-tools are introduced within our infrastructure, work, communication, interpersonal relations, economy, democracy, health, science etcetera, to overcome limitations and/or increase efficiency, speed, reliability, convenience. Given the impacts across society, AI requires broad action and reflection…
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Image-based Computational Biology
In this research group, led by Dr. Joost Beltman, the aim is to employ mathematical and computational dynamical modelling approaches in order to quantitatively and mechanistically understand the dynamical behaviour and regulation of intracellular networks of genes, proteins and metabolites as well as…
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EXALT: Excavating Archaeological Literature
We will use Artificial Intelligence to make an intelligent, multilingual search engine for archaeological texts, which will enable new discoveries about the human past.
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The Relief of Leiden turns 450
Leiden has much to celebrate: first, 450 years of the Relief of Leiden and then 450 years of Leiden University. And that is no coincidence.
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Postdoc: Algorithmic developments to automatically detect RiPP structural features
Science, Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL)
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China’s industrial carbon emissions: Historical drivers at the regional and sectoral levels and projections in light of policy targets
Has the industrial sector in China effectively been decarbonizing in recent years, across different regions and subsectors, and is it plausible that it will reduce its CO2 emissions in conformity with national and internationally pledged emission goals?
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Words and Laments: A Narratological Analysis of Esmāʻil Fasih’s War Novel, The Winter of 1983 (Zemestān-e 62)
Saeedeh Shahnahpur defended her thesis on 13 September 2016.
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Women as Agents of Change: How has Women’s Political Mobilization Restructured Political Networks and Changed Local Governance?
Will women’s increasing electoral participation in rural India improve governance? On what terms are women being incorporated into politics – through existing patriarchal and clientelist relationships, or through collective action against the patriarchal and clientelist system?
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Finding unique drug structures with artificial intelligence and chemistry
In the search for new medicines against diseases such as cancer, a Leiden team has developed a new workflow. This approach combines artificial intelligence (AI) with molecular modelling and is suitable for finding unknown and innovative drug structures, the researchers proved.