225 search results for “animal” in the Student website
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A new environment boosts your memory (but not for everyone)
However tempting it may be to lock yourself in your room or in favourite library nook in the days running up to an important exam, it's not a very wise choice, stresses neuroscientist Judith Schomaker.
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Alumnus Asa Splinter: ‘LGBT+ identities are not a burden but a source of inspiration’
Even as a teenager Asa Splinter was determined to study Japanese in Leiden. A HAVO diploma and a change in legislation threatened to throw a spanner in the works, but Asa persevered. After ten years of studying, Asa obtained a master’s degree in Japanese and was nominated for the IHLIA thesis award…
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What does biodiversity mean to us? Honours students produce podcasts about extinction
For the Bachelor Honours Class 'Mass Extinction', students produced podcasts about the past, the present and the future of mass extinctions. What exactly is lost when a species goes extinct? What are the practical consequences? But also: does humanity have the moral duty to protect other species?
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What drives humans? How Mariska Kret manages to touch science with her emotion research
In zoos, at festivals and in a mobile lab at the market: everywhere, Mariska Kret tries to understand human and animal emotions with her distinctive behavioural research. Now she has received the Mercator Sapiens Stimulus of €1 million for her efforts.
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Leiden biologists find nanoplastics in developing heart
Nanoplastics can accumulate in developing hearts, according to a study by biologist Meiru Wang from Leiden University. Her research on chicken embryos sheds new light on how these tiny plastic particles pose a threat to our health.
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European subsidy for Ellen de Bruijn: ‘Hormonal fluctuations in women have been ignored for too long in brain research’
Psychologist Ellen de Bruijn studies the effects of hormonal fluctuations on behaviour and on the brain over a woman's life course. With an ERC Consolidator grant, she and 3 PhDs and a postdoc will further her EEG research on the different stages at which girls and women experience strong hormonal f…
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What is there to do at Leiden University in 2023? Six events to look forward to
From sponsored runs to festivals and from open days to concerts: Leiden University hosts lots of events each year. We are highlighting six of them for 2023.
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Bioart plays with genetic building blocks
Biotechnological developments are moving fast. From genetically modified plant varieties we are now moving to cultured meat. These developments require moral interpretation - and they get it in the form of art. Lotte Pet wrote a dissertation about it.
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Leiden archaeologists involved in grant for state-of-the-art laboratory for isotope geochemistry
The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded a €4.84 million NWO Large grant to set up a new state-of-the-art laboratory for isotope geochemistry. The new lab, the “Netherlands Isotope GEochemistry Laboratory” (NIGEL), will be built in the brand new VU Research Building at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.…
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Exhibition sculpture ‘Zie Justitia’ at Leiden Law School extended until January 2023
The art committee of Leiden Law School has extended the exhibition of the sculptures by the Leiden artist Koen de Vries in the C-wing of the KOG building until January 2023. On Thursday 8 December, the finissage of the exhibition will take place in the C-wing at 16.45 hours with drinks and light sna…
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These are the nominees for the Leiden Teaching Prize 2023
Paul Gobée (LUMC), Kirsty Rolfe (Humanities) and Frank Takes (Science) have been nominated for the Leiden Teaching Prize 2023.
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ERC Award for Mariska Kret bringing science to the zoo
Mariska Kret, Professor in Cognitive psychology has been awarded the European Research Council (ERC) Public Engagement with Research Awards 2022. Kret convinces the jury with 'RecognizeYourself - Bringing science to the zoo. Involving the public into the study of great apes emotions'.
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Be amazed and inspired during the Leiden Science Family Day!
On Sunday 8 October 2023, during the Weekend van de Wetenschap, the Faculty of Science of Leiden University will open its doors to anyone curious about science from 11.00 to 16.00 hrs! Explore a world of wonder and discovery; where science is transformed into an unforgettable adventure. Intriguing…
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How do you help a child suffering from depression?
What causes depression in a child and how can they get over it? Leiden Professor of Psychology Bernet Elzinga and behavioural scientist Carine Kielstra recently hosted a webinar on the subject of depression in teenagers. The level of interest was overwhelming.
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Training courses for student organisations
Board members and other key figures within student organisations can follow specially developed training courses free of charge. Your entire student board can also take part in tailor-made group training sessions.
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Reading list - our favourite books this summer
Did you also read a lot this summer? We made some real headway on our bookshelves. After all, nothing beats reading a beautiful or thrilling book outside. In this reading list, you'll find our favourite books for the summer of 2022. If you have any suggestions, let us know via Twitter, Facebook or I…
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Voice of the ocean
There are many tributaries to Rosalin Kuiper’s story and they all lead to the sea. The 28-year-old sailor was one of the five-person Team Malizia in the world’s most prestigious sailing competition: the Ocean Race.
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A diversity of mind-provoking media at the Humanities Lab Film Festival
How does digitalisation affect the humanities? The introductory course for the Honours College Humanities Lab challenges students to reflect on this through the production of their very own short film.
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How ‘sleeping’ microorganisms can determine the fate of a population
Microorganisms that temporarily ‘go to sleep’ play an important role in the evolution and survival of a population. Mathematician Shubhamoy Nandan conducted research on the effect of this characteristic called ‘dormancy’ in a novel mathematical model.
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Guide dogs: anything but a modern invention
For a long time, even many researchers thought that guide dogs were a relatively modern invention. An accidental encounter with archival material showed university lecturer Krista Milne that guide dogs helped their blind owners as far back as the Middle Ages. Milne now has received an NWO XS grant to…
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Robots and Society (RO-SO) Tutorial at RO-MAN 2021 Conference
The University of Oslo and Leiden University have joined forces to organise a Tutorial on Robots and Society: Ethical, Legal, and Technical Perspectives on Integrating Robots in the Home and Healthcare Systems and Services at the IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communica…
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Efficient phosphorus use can prevent cropland expansion
More efficient use of phosphorus fertilisers would make it possible to meet food demand in 2050, without using more of the world’s land for agriculture. This is what environmental scientists José Mogollón and colleagues have discovered by working out various future scenarios for food production and…
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Embryos of the bitterling perform a somersault. This teaches us something new about natural selection
Even embryos can become embroiled in an evolutionary arms race with another species. Leiden biologists demonstrate this with larvae of the rosy bitterling that parasitize the gills of freshwater mussels. They published their research on February 19 in PNAS.
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Tropical bananaquits lose song quality in the city
I think we should go this way. This way! THIS! WAY!! Making yourself heard in a city can be difficult. That is not only the case for humans, but birds seem to be hindered by urban noise as well. Researcher Hans Slabbekoorn of Leiden University already showed that great tits in Leiden communicate differently…
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Start pilot cultivating rice on peatland
Is polder rice a feasible circular alternative for cows on peatland? A pilot experiment started this week. On May 22nd, researchers from Leiden University and Wageningen University & Research (WUR) planted roughly 3,000 rice plants on the Polderlab near Leiden. The researchers want to test rice as a…
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At LUC, the Hague Forest is a classroom
Rain or shine: in the course ‘The Ecology Project’ students of Leiden University College visit the nature of The Hague each week.
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The most read stories of 2021 from Leiden University
Research into depression in children, Leiden alumni in the Dutch House of Representatives and an exceptional achievement by one of our students: what do this topics have in common? They are among our most read stories of 2021.
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Medical Delta AI for Computational Life Sciences
The fact that scientists are increasingly better able to access molecular cell and tissue data also brings with it a new challenge: how can scientists find the information they need for research among the vast amount of data available?
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Flu stops when you block the enzyme that cleaves off virus particles
A flu virus could cause a pandemic. And then we would be poorly armed because flu viruses are starting to become resistant to flu medications like Tamiflu. Chemist Merijn Vriends successfully worked on an improved version of such medications. He will be awarded his doctorate on September 12th.
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How cells talk by pulling on a fibre network
Mechanics play a larger role in blood vessel formation, and other developmental biology, than previously thought. Cells appear to respond to mechanical signals, such as pressure. Through the extracellular matrix, a network of fibrous proteins, cells can supposedly exchange those mechanical signals over…
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ERC Advanced Grants for four Leiden researchers
From a new generation of antibiotics and more-effective vaccines to a map of dark matter and new light on Hindu traditions. Four researchers from Leiden University have received a prestigious €2.5m ERC Advanced Grant to develop their research.
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Annaya Taradyla Rangkuty and Femke Verhelst win Political Science bachelor’s thesis prizes 2023
All Political Science graduates have good reasons to be proud of themselves, having successfully completed their studies and having demonstrated considerable personal growth. This October, fifteen bachelor students can be extra proud: their theses were nominated for a thesis prize. In the class of 2023,…
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How fungi are helping us be more sustainable
Professor of Fungal Genetics and Biotechnology Arthur Ram explains how fungi can help us be more sustainable.
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Ecologist Michiel Veldhuis is the Discoverer of the Year 2020
Michiel Veldhuis received the most public votes for the C.J. Kok Public Award and may therefore call himself Discoverer of the Year. Veldhuis researches how climate change affects savannah ecosystems in Africa and how we can protect them.
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‘Forgotten books inspire a love of reading’
The compulsory reading list is infamous among secondary school students, and for all the wrong reasons. This prompted the Faculty of Humanities and the Onderwijsnetwerk Zuid-Holland (South Holland Education Network) to launch the Alternative Reading List Award, in search of books that motivate young…
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Leiden researchers organise first Week of Ancient Writing
This month marks the two-hundredth anniversary of the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. NINO, the Language Museum, Things that Talk and the National Museum of Antiquities are seizing the opportunity to organise the first Week of Ancient Writing.
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Supergenes make bizarre traits possible
Within the same species of butterfly many different wing patterns can occur. How is this possible? According to researchers Ben Wielstra and Emma Berdan, of the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), the answer lies within supergenes. A supergene is a part of a chromosome that contains many strongly linked…
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Tackling climate change with the ground beneath our feet
Soil ecologist Emilia Hannula has been awarded a Vidi grant by NWO to examine how soil could become a promising ally in combating climate change and improving biodiversity. ‘Soil creatures might be invisible’, she says, ‘but they play a huge role in creating a healthy environment.’
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Master’s student fundraising for research into lost human sense
Can humans sense where north is, using what is known as magnetoreception? This question had master’s student Björn Keyser (Media Technology) so intrigued that he started crowdfunding to be able to study this together with the California Institute of Technology.
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Ecology PhD student wins Dutch award for investigative journalism
PhD student and research journalist Sebastiaan Grosscurt won a Tegel in May. In the data category, Grosscurt and his colleagues won the prestigious Dutch journalism award. 'For me, ecological research and journalism are two ways of achieving the same thing.'
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Seeking new concepts to treat diseases
Scientific Director of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) Hubertus Irth: ‘We test substances and look for new concepts for treating disease.’
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Investigating inflammation: new leads for treating atherosclerosis
How do you detect people at high risk of heart attacks and strokes? And how can we improve the treatment of atherosclerosis? These are the questions that keep LACDR researcher Marie Depuydt busy. She is investigating the immune cells that contribute to the worsening of atherosclerosis. ‘It's a challenging…
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Beavers had a big influence on how people in the Stone Age lived
For thousands of years, beavers had a big influence on the Dutch ecosystem and the people that lived there. This is the conclusion of research by archaeologist Nathalie Brusgaard.
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Bacteria without cell wall gobble up DNA from environment
A bacterium hiding from the immune system and picking up bits of DNA from its environment. The result: gaining new traits, such as better protection against antibiotics. Fortunately, we have not found such a damning scenario yet. However, PhD student Renée Kapteijn did find the first clues, which…
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Cod behave differently in noisy environment
Underwater noise from seismic surveys affects the behaviour of Atlantic cod. These are the results of research by Leiden biologists in collaboration with colleagues from Belgium. During such surveys the fish are less active than usual and their circadian rhythm is disrupted; soon after exposure they…
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During the next pandemic, this mathematical model will speed up the search for treatment
Do you recall all those drugs that were hastily proposed as potential treatments for COVID-19? In the event of a future pandemic, the goal is to offer an effective treatment more quickly and efficiently. To achieve this, a team led by Coen van Hasselt is developing a platform that can speed up the process…
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Maktub shortfilm night with passion talks
Short film night
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Leiden vegan student association off to a flying start
Good food. This is an important topic in the interview with Chair Ruben Venema and Activities Director Martine Feteris from the Leiden Vegan Student Association, which was launched in May. An interview rounded off with an extra helping of recipes.
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Report: Tracking down green spaces in The Hague in places you don't always want to be
Although there is considerable evidence that nature in the city is beneficial to both people and animals, we still do not have an overall picture of those benefits. To rectify that, a Leiden PhD candidate and a student – armed with a cargo bike – are using The Hague as a life-size laboratory.
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Visible hands, audible voices: Economy as a Matter of Fact and a Matter of Concern by Douglas R. Holmes (Binghamton University)
Lecture, Research Seminar