From as early as classical antiquity there has been an interplay between literature and medicine.

In this thesis, we present new laboratory data of interstellar dust analogues.

Freshwater is an important resource, but at a great risk of species decline due to habitat loss, pollution and over-exploitation, and invasive alien species.

Interview with political scientist Hans Vollaard (Leiden University) about “Nexit” speculations, the strengths and weaknesses of Geert Wilders’s Party for Freedom, and the general attitude towards Europe in the Netherlands.

Streptomyces are filamentous bacteria that produce more than two-thirds of known antibiotics.

In this article, Kuipers and Timmermans analyze the first lady's relationship with policy problems in the period 1945-2013.

The thesis describes experimental steps towards reduction of friction on the macroscopic scale by scenarios of thermo- and superlubricity well-known on the nanoscale.

In this thesis, we aim to shed light on the diverse and often opposing roles of integrin α3β1 in cancer.

Leiden-Yale collaboration uncovers a tale of samurai same-sex love in a library manuscript.

The CC chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2), a member of the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily, is widely involved in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. However, no drugs for this receptor have made it to the pharmaceutical market yet.

Nowadays, it is well known that hydrogen and helium (and small traces of lithium and beryllium) were created shortly after the Big Bang, while the heavier elements are created in the cores of stars at different evolutionary stages. When these stars explode as supernovae, they expel metals synthesised…

Shining a light on the nefarious netherworlds of espionage, this is the first book to concentrate on the actual techniques and technologies used by early modern spies —from ciphers to counterfeiting, invisible inks to assassination

In this thesis, we have studied cell images from two types of cells, including pollen grains and the immune cells, neutrophils. These images are captured using a bright field microscope and a confocal microscope.

The Sun and all the stars in the night sky reside in the Milky Way galaxy. In the at-rest reference frame of the Galaxy, typical stars travel with velocities of about 100-200 kilometres per second.

On 30 September 2021 Babette van Hazebroek defended her thesis 'Understanding delinquent development from childhood into early adulthood in early onset offenders'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. J.W. de Keijser and Prof. A. Popma (VUMC).

Of all the mass in our Universe, 80% is thought to consist of a hypothetical and invisible substance called dark matter (DM).

Despite an increased EU role in the preparedness, monitoring and coordination of health emergencies over the past two decades, Member States’ responses to the first wave of COVID-19 were surprisingly uncoordinated. In light of calls to improve cooperation regarding future health emergencies, this article…

How do educational philosophies, discourses and practices spread around the globe, and how are they transformed and adapted locally?

The stratum corneum is the outermost skin layer and consists of dead cells embedded in a lipid matrix.

The authors examine the handling of cybercrime cases by law enforcement officers, focusing on bottlenecks and potential improvements noted by experts in the field.

The origin and evolution of galaxies are closely linked to many different physical phenomena.

By growing in a soil plants change the biotic and abiotic properties of the soil in which they grow.

In a new study, we found that when we are exposed to potential harm to the other person, it improves our automatic attentional processes to avoid harm to that person.

Self-assembly offers a promising route to create complex structures and materials using simple building blocks. Through, colloidal self-assembly, we can understand the governing principles of the self-assembly process and unlock its potential in diverse applications in materials science, photonics and…

Ramesh Ganohariti will examine legal identity in three post-Soviet aspirant states and outline four common scenarios in this article.

Acute cardiovascular syndromes, including myocardial infarction or stroke, are the principal cause of death in the Western society. The main underlying pathology of cardiovascular diseases is atherosclerosis, which is caused by the accumulation of lipids and inflammatory cells in the vessel wall, in…

Across many decision-making tasks, people and animals systematically repeat (or alternate) their choices - even when the choices they make are intrinsically uncorrelated. This phenomenon (also known as 'sequential effect' or 'choice hysteresis') has been known for at least a century, and may be a stable…

Stars and planets form within cold, dense clouds of gas and dust drifting through interstellar space. Although dust makes up only a small fraction of this material, it plays a key role in shaping the chemical evolution of these environments.

The studies described in this thesis deal with glycosidases, in particular alpha-galactosidases.

The aim of this dissertation is to provide insight in interethnic prejudice of children in the Netherlands and attitudes and ideologies that they are exposed to through two socialization agents (parents and children’s books).

The thesis explores micromammal fossils from the Afşar section in Anatolia, a crucial locality for understanding the Pliocene epoch and the transition to the Villafranchian Age.

Religion and ethnicity are inextricably linked in discourse within and about Central Asia. One common narrative suggests that as a result of differences between historically sedentary and nomadic populations, ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks are naturally more religious and more likely to radicalise than their…

Taught from primary school to the university level – where new courses on the globalization of the Arabic writing system have cropped up (Abdallah 2014) – the Arabic script, with all its orthographic peculiarities and multiple facets, continues to shape languages other than Arabic, their communities…

This thesis highlights the significant role of surface geometry and oxidation state in determining CO adsorption behavior on copper surfaces.

This thesis explores how electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy can be used to investigate key biochemical processes.

Effective policy-making requires understanding what truly causes a problem. Only then can policymakers develop targeted interventions that achieve desired outcomes.

The sixth issue of Ex Novo explores how ‘peripheral’ regions currently approach both the practice and theory of public archaeology placing particular emphasis on usually underrepresented regions of Eastern and Central Europe, the Mediterranean and beyond.

Yi Kyubo (1168–1241) was the foremost writer and poet of the Koryŏ dynasty (918–1392). Not Everything Unfolds as Anticipated is a miscellany of work from his Tongguk Yi Sangguk chip, a collection containing more than two thousand texts and considered the earliest substantial oeuvre of a Koryŏ writer…

PhD defence

More than a thousand 17th- and 18th-century Dutch letters from seized ships are now available online. The letters are a gold mine for researchers wanting to study the everyday language used by men and women during this period.

During the ‘Hour of Remembrance’ on 4 May, the University community remembers its students and staff who were killed in the Second World War. It also looks at freedom and oppression today. Three questions for Sara Polak, chair of the Hour of Remembrance committee.

Farmers do not love them all. Microbes can cause tragic consequences for crops. Even the presence of just one pathogenic fungus or bacterium can drastically reduce yields. Still, there are exceptions. In that case, a pathogenic microbe is present in the soil, but does not cause any harm. Adam Ossowicki…

A specifically designed collection of gears is soft on one end and rigid on the other. These are robust properties of the system that hold even in the presence of manufacturing imperfections. This emerging research area may lead to new ways of designing geared devices like satellite trackers or watches.…

The ERC has awarded a Starting Grant to five promising researchers from Leiden. Two are from the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, one is from the Faculty of Humanities/Governance and Global Affairs, one from the LUMC and one from the Faculty of Science.

“Neighborhood solidarity cannot compensate the absence of the State: a response from the local administration is needed”

A Dutch-led team of astronomers has discovered that high-mass stars are formed differently from their smaller siblings. Whereas small stars are often surrounded by an orderly disk of dust and matter, the supply of matter to large stars is a chaotic mess. The researchers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter…

LIACS receives grant from Intel for research and development of innovative technology to program multi-processors.

Dr Amany Soliman joined the NVIC as a postdoctoral research fellow in October 2017. She is a lecturer of modern history and international relations at the Mediterranean Studies Institute at the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University. For her PhD thesis, she examined the nationalist movements in Spain,…

Lecture, Studium Generale

An international team led by Leiden astronomers has, after years of searching and defying the boundaries of a telescope, for the first time directly captured polarised light from an exoplanet. From this light they can deduct that a disk of dust and gas orbits the exoplanet. In this disk moons are possibly…