8,429 search results for “were” in the Public website
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The ancient Egyptians were just like us
The people who lived in Saqqara, City of the Dead in Egypt, died thousands of years ago, but they are not all that different from us. This is what a study by the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, The Netherlands concludes. If you wanted to prove that you had good taste in ancient Egypt then…
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Assyrians were more 'homely' than we thought
Archaeologist Victor Klinkenberg examined an old Assyrian settlement in Syria, near to the IS stronghold Raqqa. 'Social life was more important than military life.' PhD defence 27 October.
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How the lessons learned from Afghanistan were soon forgotten
The mission in Uruzgan Province in Afghanistan was a formative experience for Dutch soldiers in which many lessons were learned. But most of those lessons have already been forgotten.
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VOC and WIC were not above the law
The powerful Dutch East India Company and West India Company were summoned before the High Court more often than historians have assumed. The complainants varied from competitors, to the Companies' own staff and even poor citizens. This is what Leiden historian Kate Ekama has discovered. PhD defence…
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An educational tool? Japanese children's books were more than that
It was long thought that the early development of Japanese children's books served mainly as a propaganda tool of the state: the literature was supposed to have been written to shape children into perfect citizens. PhD student Aafke van Ewijk nuances this image. Children's book writers wanted to have…
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Climate and elections: these were your top stories from 2023
The year 2023 saw the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the Wagner Group rebellion and wildfires and floods as all the weather records were smashed. Our most-read stories were about the climate crisis and the elections: here’s the list.
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Lecture Adam Zamoyski - What were the Napoleonic Wars really about?
On 27 september historian Adam Zamoyski held a captivating lecture on his new book Napoleon: the Man behind the Myth. During this lecture, which was an initiative by Polen in Beeld and the Central and Eastern European Studies Center, Zamoyski answered the question: ‘what were the Napoleonic Wars really…
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Seventeenth-century Dutch were masters in fake news
LUC historian Jacqueline Hylkema unmasks forgeries from the early modern Dutch Republic in the research project
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‘The ancient Egyptians were concerned with more than just death’
When we think about ancient Egypt, the first things that come to mind are usually mummies and sarcophagi. According to researcher and Rijksmuseum van Oudheden curator Lara Weiss, that impression is unjustified. She made an audio tour for the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden that focuses on living Egyptians…
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These were Leiden University’s interdisciplinary milestones of 2023
Connecting worlds, enhancing research and teaching, and providing innovative solutions to complex social issues: that is the idea behind interdisciplinary research. In that respect, a huge amount happened at Leiden University in 2023.
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These were Leiden University’s interdisciplinary milestones of 2024
Connecting scientific fields, enhancing research and teaching, and providing innovative solutions to complex social issues: that is the idea behind interdisciplinary research. What did the university achieve in 2024? A small sample.
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What if superbugs were as tall as buildings?
In Sci-Fi comic book Resist NOW!, wondrous adventures will illustrate possibilities to combat antimicrobial resistance. But the comic book will only be produced if enough money is raised to make the project into reality.
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Willemijn Waal in National Geographic Portugal: ‘Hittites were very pragmatic’
Senior university lecturer Willemijn Waal was quoted in a National Geographic Portugal article about Hittite culture.
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Sex, power and colonialism: 'Marriages and sexuality were fundamental to colonial power'
Sex and power are closely linked, and this was certainly true in the former Dutch colonies. PhD student Sophie Rose investigated how sexual and love relationships influenced eighteenth-century power structures there. 'You can see that there was constant fighting over who stood where in the social hi…
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Mysterious metal depositions were ‘the most ordinary thing in the world’
In Bronze Age Europe many bronze objects such as axes, swords and jewels were deliberately left at specific spots in the landscape. PhD research by Leiden archaeologist Marieke Visser shows that these practices were expressions of people’s relationship with the world around them. ‘It was a completely…
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Catholics in the Dutch Republic were creative directors of their own lives
The Catholics were by no means pitiable victims over the two centuries that they had to practise their religion underground, Caroline Lenarduzzi writes in her PhD dissertation. They managed to keep their faith alive from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. PhD defence 25 October.
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Neanderthals knew what they were doing when it came to making the oldest known glue
Adhesives are an incredibly important part of every day life. They help hold together everything from shoes and mobile phones to satellites in space. But we didn’t invent adhesives: Neanderthals did, to make handles for stone tools over 191,000 years ago. Leiden researchers now found that Neanderthals…
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Neanderthals were hunting pond turtles in Central Europe 125,000 years ago
Wil Roebroeks was part of an international research project examining turtle shells from Neumark-Nord. The 92 shell fragments were carefully and thoroughly cleaned by Neanderthal hunters about 125,000 years ago. It is likely that they were not hunted for food but for the shells themselves as the site…
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Dutch armed forces were willing to accept high casualties in Indonesia
The decolonisation war in Indonesia was violent partly because the Dutch military operated on the conviction that ‘an uprising had to be forcibly suppressed.’ This what historian Christiaan Harinck from the KITLV discovered in his PhD research.
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Interdisciplinary minor ’Violence Studies’: ‘It felt like we were going to fight a group of people’
The interdisciplinary, English-taught minor ‘Violence Studies’ looks at violence from very diverse scientific perspectives. What are the benefits from this approach? Students and lecturers evaluate: ‘This minor’s a goldmine’.
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This is how astronomers found out how three stars were ejected from star cluster R136
Astronomers led by Simon Portegies Zwart used simulations to reconstruct how three stars were ejected from the star cluster R136, 60,000 years ago. The analysis reveals that five stars were involved in the event in the Tarantula Nebula.
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How gas conflicts between Ukraine and Russia were the precursor to war
The war between Ukraine and Russia is playing out not just on the battlefield but also on the geopolitical playing field of gas. Conflicts at the start of this century about this energy source were, says PhD candidate Ilia Barboutev, a precursor to today’s war.
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'One in five bacteria we tested were capable of breaking down plastic'
Leiden PhD candidate Jo-Anne Verschoor discovered that nearly twenty percent of the bacterial strains she studied could degrade plastic, though they needed some encouragement to do so. ‘Bacteria are just like people,’ says Verschoor. Her research was published in the journal Communications Biology,…
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Home magazines of yesteryear: Upholsterers were the interior designers of the eighteenth century'
Today, anyone wanting a new look for their living room watches a home decorating programme or buys an interior design magazine. In the eighteenth century, people went to an upholstry specialist, who would provide you with new wall coverings, curtains and much-needed accessories. PhD candidate Aagje…
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‘The university has many roots in the colonial past. How deep and wide were they?’
Historians recently started preliminary research on Leiden University’s role in colonialism and historical slavery. Our knowledge about this is too limited and fragmented. They are looking with fresh eyes at Leiden’s archives and collections. An interview with historians Alicia Schrikker and Ligia G…
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Astronomy in corona times: 'All the big telescopes were at a standstill.'
Astronomer Ignas Snellen studies exoplanets using telescope observations. But how is that possible when all the big telescopes are more or less at a standstill? Luckily, he has contact from home with a robot telescope in Mexico and his WIFI is finally working well.
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‘We couldn't really celebrate our vaccine being approved, but we were over the moon’
On 11 March, pharmaceutical company Janssen received approval to launch its corona vaccine on the European market. This made Janssen the fourth company to be given the green light by the European Medicines Agency. As Lead of the Janssen Campus in the Netherlands, Biology alumnus Bart van Zijll Langhout…
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Catholics were slow to respond to the Revolt in the Netherlands
Historians have long known that Catholics played a significant role in the Revolt of the Netherlands (1520-1635). But what did the Revolt mean to individual Catholics? Professor of Early Modern Dutch history Judith Pollman has published a book on the subject.
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A fulltime job and a ten for your master’s thesis: ‘I thought they were joking’
After working full-time for twenty-four years, Wendy Tonks decided to enrol in the executive master's in Cyber Security. She now proudly reflects on her time in the programme after receiving a ten for her thesis and graduating summa cum laude. ‘I could not believe it when I got my grade.’
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Eric Storm in UP ideas podcast: ‘Comparative studies on nationalism were missing ’
Historian Eric Storm discusses how nationalism shapes our world in Princeton’s UP Ideas podcast.
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‘In the second half of the eighteenth century, decisions were made in the stadtholder’s audience chamber.’
The stadtholder’s court in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands has long been underestimated. Real courts and the associated court culture were to be found elsewhere in Europe. PhD candidate Quinten Somsen is trying to reverse this image. ‘The stadtholder’s court was actually very lively.’
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In early modern England, children were sold to the highest bidder: 'This was presented as a care system'
Children who lost their fathers in early modern England ran the risk of being sold to the highest bidder. Although Shakespeare wrote about it in his plays, the practice disappeared from collective memory for a long time. University lecturer Lotte Fikkers is bringing it back to light in a new Vidi research…
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Kuijpers in Science Magazine: 'This is a blow to the idea that elites were running the show'
A new study sugggests that through informal networks, Mesopotamian merchants established a standardized system of weights that later spread across Europe, enabling trade across the continent. The advance effectively formed the first known common Eurasian market more than 3000 years ago. “This is…
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"What Were They Thinking?" Using Open-Text Responses to Validate Constructs in Survey Experiments
Lecture
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A country of immigrants no more? The securitization of immigration in the National Security Strategies of the United States of America
This article studies the securitization of immigration in the United States of America (U.S.), through the analysis of the National Security Strategies (NSS) published between 2002 and 2017, using a two-layered analytical framework that combines securitization theory and agenda setting theory.
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Characterization and skin permeation of ketoprofen-loaded vesicular systems
PURPOSE: To determine the effect of elasticity on the skin permeation of ketoprofen from surfactant-based vesicular formulations and elastic liposomes.
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Type design for visually impaired children
This doctoral research project in design seeks to shed a light on legibility in the context of visually impaired beginning readers.
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Patterns of Paleomobility in the Ancient Antilles
Patterns of paleomobility in the Caribbean were studied through an inter-disciplinary approach using a combination of archaeological, osteological, mortuary, and isotopic data.
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Using Rhetorical Structure Theory for contrastive analysis at the micro and macro levels of discourse: An investigation of Japanese EFL learners’
On March 12th, Jonathan Brown succesfully defended his doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Jonathan on this great result.
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Nanoparticulate Impurities in Pharmaceutical-Grade Sugars and their Interference with Light Scattering-Based Analysis of Protein Formulations
PURPOSE: In the present study we investigated the root-cause of an interference signal (100-200 nm) of sugar-containing solutions in dynamic light scattering (DLS) and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) and its consequences for the analysis of particles in biopharmaceutical drug products.
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Phylogeny and species delimitation within the moss genus Dicranum Hedw.
Promotor: Prof.dr. E. Smets, Dr. M. Stech
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Non-target effects of GM potato: an eco-metabolomics approach
Promotors: Prof.dr. P.G.L. Klinkhamer, Prof.dr. P.M. Brakefield
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Culturally responsive teaching in Dutch multicultural secondary schools
In this dissertation, Dutch secondary school teachers’ attitudes, knowledge, noticing skills and reasoned practices regarding culturally responsive teaching in a multicultural classroom context, were examined.
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Death Revisited
The excavation of three Bronze Age barrows and surrounding landscape at Apeldoorn-Wieselseweg
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Reading Rubbish
Using object assemblages to reconstruct activities, modes of deposition and abandonment at the Late Bronze Age dunnu of Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria.
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Pelagic fish and harbour porpoise at North Sea wind farms Acoustic investigation and science communication
This thesis was embedded in the APELAFICO project and focussed on investigating effects of sound from North Sea offshore wind farms on pelagic fish and harbour porpoise.
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Environmental and metabolomic study of antibiotic production by actinomycetes
Promotor: Prof.dr. G.P. van Wezel
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Constructing Communities
Clustered Neighbourhood Settlements of the Central Anatolian Neolithic ca. 8500-5500 Cal. BC
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Vamping the Stage: Female Voices of Asian Modernities
Announcement of the publication of Vamping the Stage: Female Voices of Asian Modernities, the first book-length study of women, modernity, and popular music in Asia (University of Hawai'i Press, 2017).
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Stereotype
The role of grave sets in Corded Ware and Bell Beaker funerary practices