News
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Royal decoration for Jo Hermans and Jan Schmidt 06 May 2010
Two of our colleagues received a royal decoration. Professor Jo Hermans became “Ridder in de Orde van Oranje Nassau”, and Professor Jan Schmidt became...
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Why are plants not black? 18 January 2010
All kinds of reasons have been put forward for why plants apparently fail to make maximum use of the available light. None of these reasons can expla...
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Photosynthesis works with valves 01 December 2009
Photosynthesis is the origin of life on earth, but it is a phenomenon that is still barely understood. Take, for example, the extremely efficient mech...
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Success for Leiden with Vidi subsidies 24 November 2009
NWO has awarded a Vidi subsidy to a total of 89 young and innovative researchers. Leiden researchers have won twelve of these subsidies and three subs...
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Folded DNA unravelled 06 October 2009
Leiden physicist Maarten Kruithof has discovered how our DNA is infallibly able to fold itself and to unfold again. In his dissertation he demonstrate...
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Understanding the game of marbles 04 September 2009
Not many scientists can claim to have received funding from NWO to blow bubbles and play with sand, but Martin van Hecke definitely can. Van Hecke, Pr...
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Wim van Saarloos New Director of FOM Foundation 01 September 2009
The FOM Executive Board has appointed Professor Wim van Saarloos (1955) Director of FOM Foundation, effective 1 November 2009.
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Casimir Research School to receive € 800,000 for talented PhD candidates 18 August 2009
The Casimir Research School is to receive an € 800,000 subsidy from the NWO Graduate Programme to further integrate the master's study and PhD researc...
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Two research schools partnered with Leiden University participate in Graduate Programme 12 August 2009
The Casimir Research School and the Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences will be participating in the first Graduate Programme. This was announ...
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Widow endows Casimir fund for interdisciplinary physics 30 June 2009
This summer, the Casimir Research School celebrates its first lustrum. To mark the occasion and to commemorate the fact that Hendrik Casimir would be ...
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Physical reality of string theory demonstrated 29 June 2009
String theory has come under fire in recent years. Promises have been made that have not been lived up to. Leiden theoretical physicists have now for ...
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Ultra-thin material absorbs all the light 23 June 2009
It appears to be a paradox: ultra-thin material that absorbs all the incident light. Nonetheless, it does exist. Two Leiden researchers report on thei...
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DNA folded in compliant helix 20 April 2009
In an Advance Online Publication biophysicist John van Noort and others show using magnetic tweezers that DNA is folded in compliant helices of chroma...
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Graphene is a thoroughbred that has to be tamed 17 March 2009
Electrons in graphene behave like light particles; they have no mass and can penetrate everything: very useful if you dream about nano-electronics. Bu...
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Spinoza prize for Jan Zaanen 13 June 2006
Jan Zaanen, Professor in Theoretical Physics of condensed material, has been awarded a Spinoza prize. His pioneering ideas about the collective behavi...