News overview 2023

Professor Sijbren Otto is working on a chemical system that shows signs of life, but that is made up of entirely different molecules than life as we know it.

In 2010, UG Professor of Systems Chemistry Sijbren Otto accidentally discovered molecules that copy themselves. Since then, he has been working on artificial life in the lab.

An international team of researchers has discovered a giant and extremely faint stream of stars between galaxies.

Against the trends for many shorebirds, sanderlings have been doing relatively well in the Wadden Sea for the past years. The key to that success lies in the timing of these little birds' main food: shrimp on the mudflats.

Materials scientist Patrick van der Wel contributed to measurements that helped discover the root cause of a deadly metabolic illness called Barth syndrome. This could be a step towards a cure.

Researchers Clemens Mayer and Danny Incarnato of the University of Groningen have been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant.

On November 4, 1953, Professor Frits Zernike received the Nobel Prize in Physics. Exactly 70 years later, the University of Groningen is celebrating its platinum anniversary with a symposium and a microscopy public day at seventy locations throughout the province.

On 7 November, the first full-colour images of the cosmos taken by ESA’s space telescope Euclid were presented. The University of Groningen is responsible for part of the data processing.

Adri Minnaard builds pieces of the tuberculosis bacteria. According to him, this is the route to a more effective vaccine and simpler, more robust diagnostics.

When medical implants are infected, a layer of harmful bacteria forms on the surface of the implant: a biofilm. A team of 14 passionate graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Groningen and Minerva Art Academy took part in the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) to tackle this problem. From November 2nd to 5th they will travel to Paris to present their final project to a panel of experts in the field of synthetic biology. Their name? Bye-o-film.

Worldwide, scientists search for novel materials to build computer microchips for brain-like computers. However, there are no theoretical guidelines for the creation of these computers, even though this is crucial, argues Herbert Jaeger, Professor of Computing in Cognitive Materials at the University of Groningen.

Scientists at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, have just reproduced two famous paintings at the micrometre scale.

Astronomers at the University of Groningen are involved in the design and deployment of the European Extremely Large Telescope, while huge parts for this mega-telescope are being built at a special facility in Dwingeloo.

An international team of scientists has developed a method to detect thousands of lipid molecules that are displayed to the human immune system. This information can be used for the development of vaccines or anti-microbial treatments.

Léon Koopmans wants to put a telescope on the moon to peer into the Cosmic Dark Ages

An international team of researchers have resolved the fundamentals of the molecular switching behaviour of a specific class of switchable molecules called azonium compounds. This paves the way towards actual application of these compounds in developing light-controlled drugs.

Giovanni Maglia has developed a method to transport proteins through a nanopore

UG researcher Prajal Pradhan aims to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals from failing

In an article that was published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution on 14 September, Biologists from the University of Groningen show how European pied flycatchers can adapt to climate change.

Macromolecular chemist Qi Chen from the University of Groningen used a problematic weed to build a tiny, self-powered sensor.

From September 15th to 17th, teams from all over the world will compete in the European Rover Challenge, an event taking place at the Kielce University of Technology campus in Poland. On a special Mars circuit, known as the Mars Yard, participants will have their own designed Mars rovers perform various tasks on-site or remotely, based on real NASA and ESA missions. This ninth edition marks the first time a Dutch team, Makercie, is participating.

Scientists at the University of Groningen have developed an oscillating system that contains a catalyst and exhibits periodic catalytic activity.

Bart Verheij thinks that responsible AI should be capable of logical reasoning.

An international team of marine scientists, led by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the Center for Coastal Studies in the USA, has studied the DNA of family groups from four different whale species to estimate their mutation rates. Using the newly determined rates, the group found that the number of humpback whales in the North Atlantic before whaling was 86 percent lower than earlier studies suggested.

A chemical system of synthetic replicators showing the first signs of Darwinian evolution: two different replicators compete for a common building block, and which one wins depends on the environment. As the replicators can also change their environment, ecological-evolutionary dynamics ensue. This finding shows that Darwinian principles extend beyond biology to synthetic systems.

Nature in the Wadden area is under pressure, but what the consequences of climate change, tourism, environmental pollution or sea level rise are is still unclear. Using six bird species, researchers from the RUG, NIOZ, and the UVA want to find out what is going wrong and what protective measures work. Artists also play a role in this.

In the struggle to survive, plants have numerous tactics to ward off enemies. The wild tomato has a secret weapon as well: tiny hairs on its stem that act as a glue trap for flies and insects that wish to feast on the nutritious leaves. This weapon is a type of natural pesticide that proved to be the source of inspiration for Abinaya Arunachalam, a PhD student at the University of Groningen.

For approximately 3,000 years, generations of green sea turtles have returned to the same seagrass meadows to eat. This highlights the importance of protecting seagrass meadows along the coasts of North Africa.

Adéla Melcrová, biophysicist at the University of Groningen, and her colleagues discovered that the relatively new antibiotic AMC-109 affects the cell membrane of bacteria by disordering its organization. This differs from most other antibiotics and could open up new directions for future treatment and drug development.

Professor of neurogenetics Jean-Christophe Billeter is convinced that all life is in essence social, even that of fruit flies