News
-
Evolution of bacterial movement revealed 28 April 2020
An international team with researchers from Leiden revealed how a bacterium repurposed an internal system to control its movements. Movement control i...
-
Longevity gene discovered in plants 14 April 2020
Harvesting rice from the same field, without planting new rice plants? A discovery may bring this scenario closer. Leiden scientists have discovered a...
-
Snake venom glands grown in lab 23 January 2020
For the first time, researchers were able to grow organoids from snake venom glands. The lab-grown 3-D structures can produce snake venom molecules. T...
-
Altruism in bacteria: colonies divide the work 16 January 2020
Bacteria found in soil specialise in the colony by division of labour. Some of the bacteria produce antibiotics, even when it comes at the expense of ...
-
Student hauls in NWO grant for research into 'rejuvenating gene' 16 December 2019
Master's student Thalia Luden receives an NWO grant for her research proposal about a gene that brings flowering plants back into a growth phase. Comp...
-
These animal species are dear to us, but can we protect them? 11 October 2019
Animal species that are dear to us in the Netherlands often spend a large part or all of their lifecycle in other parts of the world. But their habita...
-
Ten thousand types of plant outgrowths bundled 08 October 2019
For nine years he worked on the three-volume standard work Plant Galls of Europe. It yielded 2300 pages about 10,000 species of European galls, abnorm...
-
Ben Wielstra about newts, bizarre evolution and Naturalis 30 September 2019
Newts of which half of the offspring die before birth. Evolutionary biologist Ben Wielstra is investigating how this can exist in nature. In his resea...
-
Birds around airports may be deaf and more aggressive 27 August 2019
Birds around airports are more aggressive and sing as if they have hearing loss. Collaboration between researchers of Manchester Metropolitan Universi...
-
Counting plants and small freshwater creatures for citizen science 17 June 2019
Local residents, scientists and students are investigating riverbanks in Leiden for the 'Bank Plants' citizen science project. Which plant species are...
-
Experts provide three necessary solutions to the biodiversity crisis 20 May 2019
It came as a shock to many people: one million plant and animal species are threatened to become extinct. But this number isn’t the most relevant aspe...
-
@ThroughOcular shows the beauty of plants, fungi and algae 28 March 2019
Beautiful microscopic specimens play the leading role in the course 'Biodiversity Plant' for first-year Biology students. Normally these are put back ...
-
Economic expansion and land use cause bird extinction 05 March 2019
Population growth, economic expansion and the associated land use caused an increase in the number of bird species facing extinction and a reduction i...
-
Untangling the Evolution of a Balanced Lethal System 22 February 2019
Ben Wielstra strives to unravel the evolution of balanced lethal systems. On 1 February he started his own lab at the Institute of Biology Leiden. Wie...
-
Female budgerigars like smart males 10 January 2019
If male budgerigars can successfully open a puzzle box with food, they become more attractive to females. Biologist Carel ten Cate and Chinese colleag...