1,320 search results for “nwo” in the Public website
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Daily grind: the biography of a stone axe
Tom Breukel analysed some 250 stone axes from the Caribbean and reconstructed their biographies. This increases our knowledge of production and trade in the period around the arrival of Columbus. PhD defence on 18 April.
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A word from Lara Weiss: visit to Saqqara
This week Dr. Lara Weiss (of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden), who together with Dr Christian Greco (of the Museo Egizio in Turin) heads the project "The Walking Dead: The Making of a Cultural Geography in Saqqara", was visited by the NVIC team. During the visit she introduced them to the…
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Unique collaboration between knowledge institutions and municipality of Leiden
The city of Leiden has a unique combination of knowledge institutions. To ensure this knowledge flourishes and the city gains the maximum benefit from it, the Leiden City of Knowledge partnership was launched five years ago. A new partnership agreement will be signed on 11 November.
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Health psychologist Jos Brosschot professor by special appointment
Jos F. Brosschot has been appointed as a professor by special appointment on the chair ‘psychophysiological mechanisms of stress in daily life’. This chair has been created by the Foundation for Research into Psychosocial Stress.
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Do placebos help against itching?
If a pill containing no active ingredients still helps, this positive expectation is called a placebo effect. A negative expectation is called a nocebo effect. Both can be produced by verbal suggestions and conditioning. According to Andrea Evers’ research group, combining these is the most promising…
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Espionage Techniques of Seventeenth-Century Women
Spying in the seventeenth century was a man’s job. That had been the prevailing impression, until the Veni research by Nadine Akkerman from Leiden University...
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Science Agenda Starting Incentive invests in Leiden research
Eight major scientific consortia are to receive research investment funding from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO. Leiden University is involved in all these project and is the lead applicant for four of the awards.
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Graphene sensors detect HIV DNA
Leiden and Jülich researchers discovered an elegant and simple approach to improve the sensitivity of graphene biosensors. These so-called ‘next generation graphene electronic biochemical sensor devices’ are able to detect very low amounts of HIV DNA thanks to their very low electronic noise.
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Rethinking drug discovery: Vidi grant for Laura Heitman
Laura Heitman has been awarded a VIDI grant for her innovative drug research. Heitman strives to optimize a drug’s binding kinetics at its target in order to ultimately fight diseases effectively. She even pleads for a paradigm shift in drug discovery.
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Caterpillars listen to voicemail by eating soil
Leaf-eating caterpillars greatly enrich their intestinal flora by eating soil. Even effects of plants that previously grew in that soil can be found back in bacteria and fungi in caterpillars. Researchers from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) and Leiden University write about this discovery…
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Jan Kolen Director of LDE Center for Global Heritage and Development
Archaeologist Professor Jan Kolen has been appointed Director of the LDE Center for Global Heritage and Development (CGHD) with effect from 1 July 2013. This new inter-university heritage center is due to start in the autumn of 2013 within the framework of the strategic alliance between Leiden University,…
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Hoe beïnvloedt de fysieke leefomgeving de gezondheid van mensen?
The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) has received a 4m grant for the ECOTIP project. In this project researchers will study how our physical environment affects our health. The aim is to find tipping points: at what point is there a real lack of greenery, healthy food or clean air in a neighb…
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Population size fails to explain the evolution of complex culture
The logic seems inescapable indeed. The bigger the population, the higher the probability it contains an Einstein. Hence, bigger populations are more likely to develop complex culture.
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Art and Academia: do they go together?
The PhD students at the Academy for Creative and Performing Arts of Leiden University include a composer, an artist and a baroque flautist. Henk Borgdorff, who studied the phenomenon of PhDs in the Arts, says, ‘Artistic research in all disciplines of the Arts is a booming business worldwide.’
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Jan Hendrik Oort: star of Dutch radio astronomy
The success of Dutch radio astronomy in the last century was largely due to Leiden astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort. He made astute use of circumstances in the post-war period. Historian Astrid Elbers' research focuses on this golden period.
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Face-to-face politics: why small states matter
Political scientist Wouter Veenendaal received an NWO Veni grant for his research on the political stability of small states. 'I find small states fascinating, they are almost always excluded from comparative research, while in fact they often challenge existing theories in political science.'
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Substantial investment in Leiden centre for NMR spectroscopy
Paramagnetism. An obscure occult practice? No. It’s one of the newest scientific methods for mapping the behaviour of proteins with great precision. Marcellus Ubbink has been awarded 3 million euro by NWO and Leiden University to purchase a very powerful instrument. The goal: to acquire greater insight…
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Archaeologists present Queen Beatrix with research on burial mounds at Het Loo
Archaeologists from Leiden University and the municipality of Apeldoorn have excavated two prehistoric ancestral mounds dating from 300 years BC at the 'Echoput' royal estate. The findings were presented to Her Majesty Queen Beatrix on Friday 2 November.
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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.
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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…
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Logos in ancient Egypt
The ancient Egyptians knew about marks as well as script. The New Empire (ca. 1550-1070 BC) in particular provides a rich harvest. The script has now been deciphered, but the same does not apply to the system of marks used at the time. Egyptologist Ben Haring has been awarded a subsidy by NWO from the…
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Brain connections predict adolescent impulsiveness
There is a link in adolescents between brain connections and impulsiveness. Leiden researchers have discovered that these connections also predict which adolescents will make more impulsive choices two years further on.
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Veni grant for Jeroen Wolbers for research on how crisis managers can deal with fragmentation
Jeroen Wolbers is Assistant Professor of Crisis Governance at the Institute for Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University. In the coming 4 years, Jeroen will study command tactics during sudden-onset crisis operations with his Veni grant. He will investigate how crisis managers can deal with fr…
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Daniela Kraft appointed professor of Experimental Physics
Daniela Kraft and her research are a familiar fixture at the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION). Both have been awarded fellowships, grants and frequent media coverage. Effective July 1, Kraft has been appointed professor of Experimental physics, particularly in soft and biological matter.
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Introducing: Oran Kennedy
Oran Kennedy
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Miranda van Eck inaugural lecture: detergent tablets for clean, fat-free blood vessels
In her inaugural lecture on 11 September, Miranda van Eck, Professor of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Therapeutics, addressed her research related to developing medications to keep our blood vessels clean.
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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.
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What makes us human? Or modern human?
Two Vidi subsidies for Faculty of Archaeology.
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Interdisciplinary approach benefits brain research
How do practice and theory reinforce one another in neuroscience? Professor Birte Forstmann’s inaugural lecture on 2 October will be about building interdisciplinary bridges between cognitive neuroscience and cognitive models. Her approach may lead to brain research with fewer side-effects for patie…
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Interdisciplinary approach benefits brain research
How do practice and theory reinforce one another in neuroscience? Professor Birte Forstmann’s inaugural lecture on 2 October will be about building interdisciplinary bridges between cognitive neuroscience and cognitive models. Her approach may lead to brain research with fewer side-effects for patie…
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Chasing nanoplastics
How dangerous are micro- and nanoplastics? Do they affect the environment? What harm can they do to our bodies? Questions that we can now finally answer because of Fazel Abdolahpur Monikh. Together with his colleagues, he developed a method to detect and quantify nano-sized plastics. Their paper has…
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Recently published: Encoded correspondence - edited by Nadine Akkerman
Coming four years after part II, and totalling more than one thousand pages, the long awaited first part of the Correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart (1596–1662), daughter of James I, King of England and Scotland has been published.
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Personal chair in ‘Stress-related psychopathology’ for Bernet Elzinga
Clinical psychologist Bernet Elzinga has been appointed as Professor of a personal chair at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. This professorship will contribute both nationally and internationally to the broader promotion of Leiden University in the field of stress and psychopathology.
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Young Academy Leiden: young researchers drastically affected by lockdown
Childcare, no access to labs and extra time for online teaching. These are the main reasons why young researchers at Leiden University have seen a significant drop in their productive working hours since the beginning of lockdown. These are the results of a Young Academy Leiden survey of over 200 early-career…
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Veronica Tamorri comes to Leiden with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie post-doctoral fellowship
Since November 2022, Veronica Tamorri has been a new face at the Faculty of Archaeology. Originally from Rome, she joined the Faculty with a two-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie post-doctoral fellowship. Here she is studying human remains from early Egypt and Nubia (Sudan) using bioarchaeological methodologies.…
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VIDI Grant for Alexander Geurds
NWO has awarded a VIDI grant to Alex Geurds for his research proposal entitled Networked practices of contact: Cultural identity at the Late Prehistoric settlement of Aguas Buenas, Nicaragua, AD 500-1522. Geurds will investigate material culture exchange along the frontier of the Mesoamerican and the…
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Hans ten Napel Awarded Research Fellowship at Princeton University
Hans-Martien ten Napel has been awarded a Research Fellowship in Legal Studies at the Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI) at Princeton University, USA, which enables him to be in full-time residence at CTI for the academic year, 1 September 2014 to 31 May 2015.
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2 new Veni-grants: investigating malaria in the Middle Ages and coinage in Rome
Two researchers at the Faculty of Archaeology have received a Veni award from the Netherlands Organisation for Academic Research (NWO). This award offers promising young researchers the opportunity to further develop their ideas for a period of three years.
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2008 Culture and cognition of Palaeolithic hominins
The Palaeolithic period extends from the earliest stone tools (and in Europe, earliest occupation) to the beginning of the current warm period.
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Random walks: wandering the streets like a group of drunk students
Mathematician Oliver Nagy still vividly remembers the first time he learned about a random walk. ‘The lecturer told us to imagine a company of drunken students who wander in the streets. At each intersection, they would spin one of them around and all would go in the direction where he or she came to…
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Royal decoration for Jo Hermans and Jan Schmidt
Two of our colleagues received a royal decoration. Professor Jo Hermans became “Ridder in de Orde van Oranje Nassau”, and Professor Jan Schmidt became “Officier in de Orde van Oranje Nassau”. They receive the decoration as an acknowledgement for their extraordinary and selfless contribution to others…
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A tweeting medievalist
Dr Erik Kwakkel, Leiden specialist on medieval manuscripts, has one foot in the world of medieval book production and the other firmly planted in the modern environment of social media. He is co-editor of Author, Reader, Book aimed at specialists in medieval authorship, and tweets daily to bring the…
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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…
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Prof. Bakels celebrates half-a-century scholarship at Leiden University
Prof. C. Bakels is an archaeobotanist who devoted most of her career researching farming, its (pre)history and influence on the landscape. Born in 1942, she got her first appointment as a lecturer at Leiden University in 1968. On Monday 16 April, we celebrated her 50th work anniversary.
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Customer-friendly Dutch chatbots
Ever heard of conversational artificial intelligence (AI)? Anyone who has ever interacted with Siri or Alexa is familiar with this technology. We use conversational AI every day these days and it is becoming increasingly important in service and sales. A consortium of Dutch scientists and companies…
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Building bridges between science and business
The scientific world is under increasing pressure from all directions: the money that society invests has to show clear returns. ‘The best thing we can do is to go along with this development,' says Ivo de Nooijer, Director of Luris, Leiden University's valorisation institute.
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Multiple-criteria landscapes with valleys and hills
Computer scientists from Leiden University and the University of Münster describe a new theoretical starting point for approaching difficult optimization problems. They can take into account several criteria simultaneously, instead of just one at a time.
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Dutch people are understanding the term ‘violence’ to mean more and more
When do we say violence was used in an incident? The answer may seem obvious at first. But interim results from a study by Jolien van Breen show that Dutch people are labelling events in increasingly broad contexts as violent.
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Wim van Saarloos New Director of FOM Foundation
The FOM Executive Board has appointed Professor Wim van Saarloos (1955) Director of FOM Foundation, effective 1 November 2009.
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Sword fighting in the name of science
Archaeologists from Leiden University cast replicas of Bronze Age European swords and used them in simulated fights. They wanted to find out more about prehistoric combat. Article published in the Journal of Archaeological Science on 25 March.