Science & Society

© Lisa Pothoven

Leonard Burtscher, together with international astronomers, has calculated that the face-to-face astronomy conference EAS2019 contributed 3,000 times more carbon dioxide than the online conference EAS2020. The 2020 event was due to be held in Leiden, but was moved online due to corona. The researchers suggest that a combination of online lectures with regional offline meetings could be a sustainable alternative for future conferences.

Photo: Jayshri Murli

What do reading and computer programming have in common? Well, stories are a great way of making children enthusiastic about programming, Felienne Hermans (left) and author Inge Strijker (right) thought. ‘It’s not a textbook or schoolbook, but an exciting story that lets children programme and experience exciting adventures,’ says Hermans.

When treating cancer, it’s important to know the patient’s survival probability, but making an accurate estimate isn’t easy. Based on worldwide cancer patient data, mathematician Anja Rüten-Budde (2nd from the right) developed a statistical method to calculate survival probabilities of soft-tissue sarcoma patients. Her results have been used to create a prediction app for doctors and patients.

At present, newly hatched chicks are sorted manually according to sex. As the males cannot lay eggs, they are destroyed immediately after hatching. Biotech company In Ovo, a Leiden University spin-off, was awarded a European Innovation Council Accelerator Pilot Grant . The company will use this grant of 2.5 million euros in its mission to stop the culling of male chicks.

Biology students had an environmentally friendly introduction to the Leiden Bio Science Park, with the help of Plastic Spotters Liselotte Rambonnet and Auke-Florian Hiemstra. Carrying rubbish bags and trash pickers, they toured the park and collected litter, and gathered data about the types of litter and litter hotspots in the area.

Illegal logging rarely leads to prosecution as studying the wood anatomy is one of the only ways to trace the origin of the timber. At the same time, wood anatomists are becoming increasingly scarce. Computer scientists Fons Verbeek, Mehrdad Jahanbanifard and Xiaoqin Tang, anatomists from Naturalis and internationally renowned wood experts are therefore working on a computer-aided tool for wood identification.

The Living Lab has contributed to the ban on the agricultural pesticide thiacloprid. Environmental scientists Martina Vijver and Henrik Barmentlo showed that the pesticide is up to 2,500 times more harmful to insects than had been estimated based on lab tests. The outdoor lab consists of 38 small water-filled channels in open nature, resulting in much more realistic research outcomes.

© Hendrik Lenstra and colleagues

In 2000, mathematician Hendrik Lenstra came across the unfinished artwork Print Gallery, a fractal-like lithography by Dutch artist M.C. Escher. Three years later, he and his colleagues managed to complete the artwork. Now, a further seventeen years later, Lenstra’s efforts have been described in Nature Physics as part of a review of an Escher exhibition in Italy.

Photo: Charlotte Ellerman

Once the backbone of Leiden’s laboratories, now the skeleton of two new buildings: our former Gorlaeus high-rise continues to live on. If you look closely, you can spot the metal beams in the skeleton of PLNT’s Circular Pavilion near Leiden Central Station. The beams have also been used for the circular construction of BioPartner 5 at the Leiden Bio Science Park.

Bachelor’s 719 9 57 cum laude summa cum laude

Master’s 483 110 13 cum laude summa cum laude