News
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NWO grant of 350.000 for Wielstra lab 30 September 2021
Ben Wielstra and his team have received a ENW-M-1 grant. This grant of 354.000 euros is awarded by NWO, and will enable the researchers of the Institu...
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Tropical bananaquits lose song quality in the city 21 September 2021
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...
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Even a duck can parrot 06 September 2021
That a parrot can copycat sounds is nothing new. But vocal learning is not common in animals. Researcher Carel ten Cate of the Institute of Biology Le...
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Disrupted movement makes macrophages more lethal to tuberculosis bacteria 14 April 2021
Macrophages – the front line of our immune system – protect us from infections. But in the case of the tuberculosis bacteria, this often goes wrong. T...
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Sea sponges may seem like simple creatures, but… 12 April 2021
One of them turned out to be two thousand years old. And older giant barrel sponges appear to have a faster rate of cell division, unlike us. They pro...
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Free online course teaches you all about imaging 30 March 2021
How do you microscopically image zebrafish larvae? The new free online course ‘Imaging the Vertebrate embryo’ teaches you all about it. Leiden PhD can...
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Hybrid zones: a quick guide by Ben Wielstra 11 February 2021
Ben Wielstra studies hybrid zones, regions in which distinct populations of organisms meet, mate and produce genetically admixed offspring. In the jou...
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Noise pollution affects marine life worldwide 05 February 2021
Man-made sounds in and around the oceans stress marine life and have an impact on marine species and ecosystems by changing the underwater acoustic cl...
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How animals flirt with each other 01 February 2021
How do animals choose their partners? The answer is simple: it’s all about quality. While humans tend to wear clothes that happen to be in fashion, an...
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Spitting cobra leads to Science publication 22 January 2021
Spitting cobra venom composition has been influenced by defensive behaviour according to an international research team. This may have originated from...
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A multi-million grant to keep the biological clock healthy 25 November 2020
Dutch researchers are joining forces to conduct research together with a series of societal partners to keep the biological clock healthy in our moder...
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Underwater noise affects marine animals’ relationships. But to what extent? 02 November 2020
Human activity at sea makes a terrible racket. To what extent does this disturb marine animals? PhD candidate Annebelle Kok studied the effect on harb...
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MIGRADROME: new study on the impact of vessel sound pollution on fish behaviour 30 October 2020
Fishes rely heavily on sound to find their way during migration or dispersal. Many species are affected by noise pollution. Hans Slabbekoorn from the ...
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Women researchers shook up the world of bird song 15 September 2020
For a long time, bird song was considered as a typical male trait. But over the last twenty years, research has shown that a lot of female songbirds s...
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Cells ‘walk’ to firm ground 11 September 2020
A new mathematical model may explain how body cells get their shapes and what makes them move within a tissue. The model provides fundamental knowledg...