News overview 2018

SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research has designed a device which is able to filter just one wavelength of far-infrared light from a light beam and can be used in astronomical observations. Bachelor’s student Carolien Feenstra first built a prototype and then the real instrument, which was tested in Canada in late November.

Global spikes in carbon concentration which occur sporadically may help us pinpoint historic events to a single year. Unfortunately, the cause of the spikes may also create chaos for our civilization.

Microbiologists from the University of Groningen (UG) and the University of Lausanne describe a new mechanism by which Streptococcus pneumoniae can become competent, and why biofilms may be important in this process. Their results were published in Cell Reports on November 27.

Scientists from the University of Groningen, together with colleagues from Germany and Spain, have described a system that combines a pore and a transporter to import potassium ions into cells against an extreme concentration gradient. The results were published in Nature Communications on 26 November.

Wouter Roos, professor of Molecular Biophysics at the RUG, described as first with colleagues from Amsterdam and Utrecht the mechanical properties of these exosomes from red blood cells. The results have been published in de scientific journal Nature Communications on 23 February.

A year ago, astronomers identified the first interstellar visitor to our solar system, ‘Oumuamua.Despite a whopping 33 hours of observation time, ‘Oumuamua proved too faint for the Spitzer space telescope to see. Nevertheless, this allowed the observation team to draw significant conclusions.

An ambitious plan to create a yeast cell that will turn cellulose into styrene, the building block of polystyrene plastics, has brought success to the University of Groningen team participating in this year’s iGEM competition.

Recensie: wetenschapsjournalist Esther Thole heeft het boek ‘Makers van leven’ geschreven, over het bouwen van leven en op de biologie geïnspireerde materialen om uit te leggen hoe dat gaat.

Science LinX newsletter for December 2018

Science LinX newsletter for November 2018

The Blaauw Observatory of the University of Groningen welcomed a record number of 420 visitors on October 27, for the annual Night of Nights.

Tijdens de Open Dag van de RUG op 9 november kun je op de Zernike Campus terecht met vragen over je profielwerkstuk in de profielwerkstuk-EHBO-truck.

Using ferroelectricity instead of magnetism in computer memory saves energy. If ferroelectric bits were nanosized, this would also save space. University of Groningen (UG) physicists show how this could become a reality in a paper published in Nature Materials on 22 October.

University of Groningen physicists have developed memristors, resistors with a memory, made from niobium-doped strontium titanate, which mimic how neurons work. Their results were published in the Journal of Applied Physics on 21 October.

Roboticist Raffaella Carloni wants to build artificial muscles that are inspired by nature, made from nanofibers that, once bundled together, form artificial myofibrils and fascicles. Carloni’s idea has become a European research project and has its kick-off meeting on 15 October at the University of Groningen.

An array of venues opened their doors in the city centre on Saturday 6 October and at Zernike Campus on Sunday 7 October during the 'Zpanned Zernike' science fair.

University of Groningen scientists, led by Associate Professor of Chemical Biology Giovanni Maglia, have designed a nanopore system that is capable of measuring different metabolites simultaneously in a variety of biological fluids, all in a matter of seconds. The electrical output signal is easily integrated into electronic devices for home diagnostics. The results were published in Nature Communications.

In the first systematic study of leucism (the total or partial lack of black and brown pigments in feathers) in blackbirds, biologists from the University of Groningen show that it is more common in urban than in forest populations. They have a number of explanations for this phenomenon, some of which could have consequences for human city dwellers.

An international team of scientists led by the University of Groningen's Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials has identified a way to create quantum bits that emit photons that describe their state at wavelengths close to those used by telecom providers.

Science LinX newsletter for October 2018

University of Groningen physicists in collaboration with a theoretical physics group from Universität Regensburg have built an optimized bilayer graphene device which displays both long spin lifetimes and electrically controllable spin-lifetime anisotropy. It has the potential for practical applications such as spin-based logic devices.

A collaborative project between the UG, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences and two businesses has produced a ‘green’ ink for a special type of 3D printer. An academic article about this was published at the start of the year and the experiment has also now been filmed for the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE).

ACTIE ←→ REACTIE lab tijdens Noorderzon 2018

Physicists from Groningen and Manchester have developed a method to control the direction of electron spins in devices. By being able to conrol the spin, they open the way to produce efficient and low-cost spintronic electrodes, with potential applications to magnetic random access memories under industrial development.

An international consortium led by University of Groningen chemical engineer Erik Heeres has received EUR 4 million in funding from the European Union’s Horizon2020 research programme to develop a new, more efficient method for the production of liquid fuels from biomass. Within four years, the new process should be working in the lab.

Astronomers using a global network of radio telescopes have produced one of the sharpest astronomical images ever. The resulting image demonstrates that dark matter is distributed unevenly across a distant galaxy.

The UG team that entered this year’s International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition, in which student teams use synthetic biology to give organisms new properties, began working full time on its entry this week. In their lab in Linnaeusborg, they want to teach yeast cells to convert cellulose into styrene, a building block for plastic.

Science LinX newsletter for July/August 2018

Pupils from primary and secondary schools have been busy since January devising and implementing ways to save energy at school. On Friday, 29 June, teams from 28 schools met at the North Netherlands Energy Challenge Final on the former Suikerunie site in Groningen.

For the last seventeen years, University of Groningen astronomer Mariano Mendez has been working hard to give this same opportunity to over 1,500 astronomers from developing countries. On 15 July, he will receive the COSPAR Distinguished Service Medal for his efforts.

University of Groningen chemists have created a new enzyme with an unnatural amino acid as its active centre. Further modifications of the reactive site can create different enzymes for use in chemical synthesis. A description of the new enzyme was published in Nature Chemistry on 2 July.

De “Pretty Smart Power Girls” uit Noordhorn, die dit jaar de met steun van onder meer Science LinX en het Groningen Engineering Center naar de wereldfinale van de FIRST LEGO League in Detroit gingen, hebben maandag 18 juni het nieuwe ‘Nationaal Techniekpact’ aangeboden aan Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap.

University of Groningen astronomers have discovered relics of merger events in the Milky Way halo. Five small groups of stars appear to represent mergers with smaller galaxies, while a big ‘blob’ comprising hundreds of stars appears to be the remnant of a large merger event.

The human glutamine transporter ASCT2 is upregulated in several forms of cancer. It is also the docking platform for a wide range of pathogenic retroviruses. A team of University of Groningen scientists have used cryo-electron microscopy to elucidate the structure of the protein, which may generate leads for drug development.

Science LinX newsletter for May 2018

Vijf middelbare scholieren gingen namens de RUG naar deInternational Conference for Young Scientistsin Belgrado om hun profielwerkstuk te presenteren. Ze sleepten daar twee gouden medailles in de wacht.

Zo’n zeshonderd scholieren, ook uit het Netwerk Noord scholierennetwerk, deden dit jaar mee aan de Hannover Messe Challenge, het ‘grootste schoolreisje ter wereld’. Na een voorbereidingsdag aan de Universiteit Twente vertrokken ze naar Hannover.

The second data release of the European Gaia mission, which aims to make the largest, most precise three-dimensional map ever of our own and neighbouring satellite galaxies, will have an impact on astronomy across the board, from the Solar System to dark matter and cosmological models. That is the opinion of University of Groningen astronomy professor Amina Helmi, who was involved in the quality assessment for the release.

Zeven onderzoeksinstituten hebben een grote Europese subsidie ontvangen om een nieuw type beenprothese te gaan maken. Robot-ingenieur Rafaella Carloni van de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen leidt het project van 4,5 miljoen euro. De officiële start vindt dan ook plaats in Groningen, op 16 en 17 april.

Maandag 9 april streden 144 scholieren van twaalf middelbare scholen met elkaar in de finale van de Bèta Battle 2018. Scoren op de workshops en hoog vliegen met je waterraket, daar draaide het deze dag om.

In May, molecular biologist Geert van den Bogaart will open his lab at the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen. This newly appointed professor has just received a prestigious grant from the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP).

Renske de Jonge is the new programme manager of Science LinX, the science centre of the Faculty of Science and Engineering (University of Groningen). From April 2018, she takes over from Bart van de Laar, who founded Science LinX in 2008.

University of Groningen physicists have induced magnetism in platinum with an electric field created by a paramagnetic ionic liquid. As only the surface of the platinum is affected, this creates a switchable 2D ferromagnet. The study was published in Science Advances on 6 April.

De winnaars van de Jan Kommandeurpriijs 2018 zijn Sacha Brons en Wytze Walstra met het werkstuk ‘Growing Pavements’. De Jan Kommandeurpriijs is een wedstrijd voor het beste profielwerkstuk met een exact onderwerp.

Science LinX newsletter for April 2018

Op 21 maart was het feest bij het Groningen Engineering Center (GEC). Het was namelijk de Dag van de Ingenieur, een jaarlijks evenement van het Koninklijk Instituut Van Ingenieurs (KIVI). De editie van 2018 vond plaats in het Energy Academy Building in Groningen met het GEC als gastheer. Ook Science LinX was erbij.

Blackbirds live longer in cities than in forests, but city birds have a much poorer health status than their rural cousins. These findings from a study in five European cities led by University of Groningen biologists were published in Biology Letters on 21 March.

University of Groningen physicists, and colleagues from Nijmegen and Hong Kong, have induced superconductivity in a monolayer of tungsten disulfide.  Their results show the typical 'dome-shaped' superconducting phase, and finally provide an explanation for this phenomenon.

Bacteria and Archaea must have evolved from the putative Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). One hypothesis is that this happened because the cell membrane in LUCA was an unstable mixture of lipids. Now, scientists from the University of Groningen and Wageningen University have created such a life form.

On Thursday 8 March ten young scientists gathered at Groninger Forum for the regional heat of FameLab Netherlands, the annual international science communication competition organized by the British Council. The aim was to share their passion for science with the audience in a three-minute presentation.

University of Groningen physicists have managed to alter the flow of spin waves through a magnet, using only an electrical current. This is a huge step towards the spin transistor that is needed to construct spintronic devices. These promise to be much more energy efficient than conventional electronics. The results were published on 2 March in Physical Review Letters.

Science LinX newsletter for March 2018

The Dutch LOFAR radio telescope, which fans out over a large part of Europe from the Northern Netherlands, can observe the creation of lightning flashes. These high-resolution observations may lead to better lightning protection. The results were published on 16 February in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

A solar park is sustainable, but it can spoil your view if you live next door to one. Neighbours of the planned Midden Groningen solar park in Hoogezand were therefore invited to have their say on how to make the panels blend into the landscape. Science LinX also attended the meeting in De Gouden Zon restaurant on 6 February, with a popup version of its RE:charge exhibition.

On Friday 2 February 10,000 prospective students (some accompanied by their parents) came to Groningen to explore the city and find out more about the programme they are considering studying at the UG. Over 4,000 visited the science department in Antonius Deusinglaan, Bernoulliborg and the Energy Academy.

University of Groningen microbiologists have visualized tiny islands in the cell membrane of baker’s yeast. These membrane compartments appear to store transport proteins before use. They made these observations with state-of-the-art super-resolution optical microscopy. The results were published in Nature Communication on 5 February.

During the World Economic Forum, the annual meeting of leaders in industry, science and politics, University of Groningen chemistry professor Ben Feringa was also given the floor. In a live-streamed interview, he stressed the importance of fundamental research.

In a sustainable society, we need to use renewable sources for the manufacture of carbon-based products rather than fossil fuels. Lignocellulosic biomass is available in abundance, but refining this into useful compounds is tricky. Now, University of Groningen chemists have developed a catalytic method that completely breaks down lignocellulose and converts the resulting molecules into a variety of useful building blocks.

One of the big challenges in computer architecture is integrating storage, memory and processing in one unit. This would make computers faster and more energy efficient. University of Groningen physicist Tamalika Banerjee has taken a big step towards this goal. Her results were published on 22 January in Scientific Reports.

Photons with energy higher than the 'band gap' of the semiconductor absorbing them give rise to what are known as hot electrons. The extra energy in respect to the band gap is lost very fast, as it is converted into heat so it does not contribute to the voltage. University of Groningen Professor of Photophysics and Optoelectronics Maria Antonietta Loi has now found a material in which these hot electrons retain their high energy levels for much longer. Her results were published on 16 January in Nature Communications.

University of Groningen PhD student Siddhartha Omar has analyzed the noise in spin transport. His findings, which were published in the journal Physical Reviews B, pave the way to improving spin transport. This is necessary for building a transistor based on the principle.

Science LinX newsletter for February 2018