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Science Newsroom - Faculty of Science and Engineering - UG
@sciencenewsroom-ug.bsky.social
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The Science Newsroom shares the Science News of the Faculty of Science and Engineering @rug.nl. Follow us and stay up to date! 📰 ✅

🧪Check out all our Science News via 👉 www.rug.nl/fse/news/
📧 fse.sciencenewsroom@rug.nl
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🔎What are #perovskites and #quantumdots?

Prof. @rug.nl Maria Antonietta Loi uses these minerals and 'super atoms' to create new materials for solar cells and LED lights - materials that turn light into electricity, or vice versa.💡

Curious? Read more 👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/ene...
🧪 #SciComm
Maria Loi is using quantum dots for various technological applications. By tweaking the size of the dots, Loi can determine their properties - including their colour. | Photo Leoni von Ristok
November 28, 2025 at 10:18 AM
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🧠 What if we classified mental disorders differently?

Prof. @rug.nl Martien Kas wants to update the #DSM5 handbook to enable more targeted treatment by diagnosing the underlying biology. E.g. by using blood tests to look for #biomarkers.🩸

Curious? Read more👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/hea...
🧪 #SciComm
Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) sometimes benefit from deep brain stimulation by an electrode in the brain. This shows how important the working of the brain is to the symptoms that the patient experiences. | Image: NIH award-winning artist impression of deep brain stimulation by Andrew Janson, Butson Lab, University of Utah
November 21, 2025 at 11:44 AM
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🤖 Rockets, robots, and regulations

What good can #AI bring us?

In the #ELSAlab @rug.nl, Prof. Ming Cao researches the inner workings of fish, humans, and computers to figure out how to control complex systems.🐟

Read more about Cao's work as an #engineer👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/dig...
🧪 #SciComm
Ming Cao (left) and colleagues with a robotic arm| Image Bram Belloni
November 19, 2025 at 11:24 AM
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🍼More children, shorter #lifespan?

Researcher Euan Young @rug.nl found clear evidence in #parishrecords from the Great Finnish Famine.📖

'Our findings suggest that under harsh conditions, reproductive effort certainly affects lifespan.’

Curious? Read more 👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/hig...
🧪 #SciComm
Image Nynke Wemer. Reference: Mothers facing greater environmental adversity experience increased costs of reproduction, Science advances, November 7, 2025.
November 14, 2025 at 2:38 PM
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🔋#4 A battery’s life: from raw material extraction to end-of-life disposal.🚮

Researchers @rug.nl Xin Sun and Xiaohua Li study this cycle, and investigate how recycling can be made more effective and greener.♻️

Read our 4th story on #batterydevelopers of #FSE👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/sci...
🧪 #SciComm
Lithium extraction pollutes groundwater, reduces water levels and endangers birds like flamingos. In this image flamingos are standing in a lake on the Atacama salt plane (Chili) | Image Wikimedia
November 12, 2025 at 1:21 PM
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‘I am fascinated by #robotics & dream of replicating the remarkable abilities of the human body,’ says Raffaella Carloni, Prof. of Robotics @rug.nl.

She develops artificial limbs & studies how #AI can help to make #prostheses 'smarter'.🦿

Curious? Read more👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/dig...
🧪 #SciComm
Raffaella Carloni develops artificial limbs, including the bionic leg, for which she received the Ben Feringa Impact Award 2024. Recently, visitors to the European Researchers’ Night (ERN) had the opportunity to see the bionic leg in action.
November 6, 2025 at 12:33 PM
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🔋#3 There is a small chance that rechargeable #lithium batteries will ignite, leak or explode. How to make them safer?

🪙 Giuseppe Portale's team @rug.nl is building small coin batteries using solid #polymers.

Read our 3rd story on #batterydevelopers of #FSE👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/sci...
🧪 #SciComm
PhD students Yongsheng Zhang (left) and Harshan Madeshwaran work on safer batteries in the research group of Giuseppe Portale. | Image Portale Group, University of Groningen
October 31, 2025 at 10:24 AM
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👀 When’s the last time you saw a #mustelid?

Weasels, stoats, & polecats may be silently disappearing from the Dutch landscape, or are they just hiding? 🐾

Biologists @rug.nl are finding out how to monitor them.🔎

Curious? Read more👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/hig...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom #GELIFES
A stoat caught by a regular camera trap | Image University of Groningen
October 29, 2025 at 11:44 AM
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🌀 Inspired by the #ShanghaiTower.

Qi Zhang & Ben Feringa @rug.nl developed the first synthetic dynamic helical polymer.

➿ At low temperatures, the molecule looks like a coiled spring, which unfolds again upon heating. 🌡️

Curious? Read more👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/hig...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
Qi Zhang (left) and Ben Feringa in front of Shanghai Tower | Photo Zhang / University of Groningen
October 27, 2025 at 11:37 AM
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🔋#2 For the stability of our #powergrid, large-scale energy storage is needed.⚡

Edwin Otten, Prof. @rug.nl, works on a #flowbattery which stores electric power in large containers of fluid. 💦

Read our 2nd story on #batterydevelopers of #FSE👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/sci...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
Vanadium flow batteries next to a solar park in China. The batteries can store excess solar energy. | Image Xinjiang local government, WeChat
October 24, 2025 at 12:37 PM
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🪸 ‘Humans are changing the world so quickly that corals can’t keep up anymore.’

Sancia van der Meij, marine biologist @rug.nl, researches various species inhabiting coral reefs and is deeply concerned for their future.🦀

Curious? Read more👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/cli...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
Coral reefs form nurseries for many species of fish | Image: Anderson Mayfield
October 23, 2025 at 2:47 PM
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🔋How do batteries work, and can they be improved?

Scientists @rug.nl develop batteries that are ✅efficient
✅cheap ✅eco-friendly and they study how to recycle old ones.♻️

Meet the #batterydevelopers of #FSE in our new 5-part series. 👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/sci...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
Batteries play a major role in the energy transition. How sustainably they are produced, the materials used, and how easily they are recycled have a significant impact on the environment. | Image Roberto Sorin / Unsplash
October 16, 2025 at 11:24 AM
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🤝 #ASML takes a share in #Mistral – But why does a hardware company need #artificialintelligence?

Ming Cao, Prof. of Networks and Robotics @rug.nl, explains why a chip-machine factory requires #AI.

Read more👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/dig...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
Prof. Ming Cao | ©UG, photo: Bram Belloni
September 25, 2025 at 11:15 AM
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🕧Reduced working hours for a smaller #carbonfootprint?

Prof. @rug.nl Klaus Hubacek analyses the effects of green solutions to reduce #CO2 emissions, such as planting more trees, sharing cars or working less.

Read our 3rd #carboncycle story👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/sci...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
How much we work and how we spend the rest of our time has an impact on the climate one way or the other. Changes in our habits can have a positive impact on the amount of CO2 that we emit into the atmosphere. This pictures shows people working together on installing a living roof | Image Brian (Ziggy) Liloia
September 23, 2025 at 12:41 PM
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📖 What can old Swiss parish records tell us about #siblingsurvival? Researchers @rug.nl found older brothers 👦 close in age reduced sisters’ survival, while older sisters 👧 helped both sexes.

Read more 👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/hig...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom

Study in @royalsocietypublishing.org
The village of Elm, from which historical parish data have been used. Image Erik Postma, University of Exeter Reference: Mark Spa, Euan A. Young, Virpi Lummaa, Erik Postma and Hannah L. Dugdale. Age- and sex-dependent associations between the number of older siblings and early-life survival in pre-industrial humans. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 3 september 2025.
September 17, 2025 at 1:58 PM
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🌊"The ocean is a massive carbon reservoir," say climate & ocean experts @rug.nl Richard Bintanja (@knmi.nl) & Rob Middag (@niozsearesearch.bsky.social).

But what happens if the temperature increases? 🌡️

Find out in our 2nd #carboncycle story👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/sci...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
Oceans are a huge reservoir that absorbs a lot of CO2 from the air. But there's a limit to how much oceans can absorb. During an expedition to investigate this, PhD student Florine Kooij took this photo in Antarctica | Image Florine Kooij
September 16, 2025 at 1:30 PM
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⚡How do you power molecular motors?

The #BenFeringa research group (@rug.nl) & UvA team report a strategy using upconversion #nanoparticles to turn near-infrared radiation into blue/UV light in @jacs.acspublications.org.
Curious? Read more 👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/hig...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
Nanoparticles convert near-infrared photons to ultraviolet/blue photons, which are capable to power molecular motors. Image: HIMS/RUG/JACS. Reference: Jinyu Sheng, Youxin Fu, Kefan Wu, Thomas Freese, Hong Zhang, and Ben L. Feringa: Highly Efficient Near-Infrared Light-Driven Molecular Motor Rotation Enabled by Upconversion Nanoparticles as Nanoscale Light Sources. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2025
September 11, 2025 at 10:57 AM
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#1 How does #CO2 leave a fingerprint in our atmosphere? 🐾

For 25 years, Prof Harro Meijer and his team @rug.nl have been measuring the composition of the atmosphere, including #carbondioxide levels.📈

Curious? Read our 1st #carboncycle story👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/sci...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
For twenty-five years, Harro Meijer and his team have been measuring the composition of the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide concentrations. The Earth's atmosphere can be seen here as the blue layer above the clouds | Image NASA Earth Observatory
September 10, 2025 at 10:21 AM
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🌍 The #carboncycle as Earth’s thermostat. 🌡️

Atmosphere, oceans, plants and rocks all exchange carbon, but human #CO2 emissions have disrupted this carbon balance, resulting in #globalwarming. 🏭

Curious how? Read our new overview article 👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/sci...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
Carbon is essential to all life on Earth. Atmosphere, oceans, plants and rocks all exchange carbon, which keeps the carbon cycle balanced. But human emission of carbon dioxide disrupts this balance and results in global warming. | Beeld Shawn Appel/Unsplash| Image Shawn Appel/Unsplash
September 9, 2025 at 2:12 PM
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‘In any case, it is a warning signal of potential local extinction,’ says Prof. @rug.nl Britas Klemens Eriksson.

🌊 New research by his group reveals many species are declining in the #WaddenSea, only a few are thriving.

Curious? Read more 👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/hig...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
Population trends show that many species are declining in the Wadden Sea area. At first glance, birds seem to be doing well, but among birds there are also many populations that are not doing well. Reference: Anika Happe, Kasper J. Meijer et al: Synthesis of Population Trends Reveals Seascape-Wide Reorganisation of Biodiversity From Microalgae to Birds. Global Change Biology, 18 June
July 16, 2025 at 1:14 PM
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🦠How to deal with #antimicrobialresistance? Read our finished three-part series on research at #FSE @rug.nl and find out!🔬

#1 New ways to fight infections 💊
#2 Beating resistance using light and oxygen 💡
#3 Why bacteria are stronger together 🧫

🔗Find all articles below👇

🧪 #ScienceNewsroom #SciComm
The furry coat of this E. coli bacteria protects it against antibiotics | Image Unsplash
July 8, 2025 at 10:49 AM
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'As far as we know, it seems unlikely that bacteria could become resistant to this type of treatment.'

Prof. @rug.nl Wiktor Szymanski hopes to find new ways to fight bacterial infections by attacking bacteria with light.💡

Curious? Read more👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/sci...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
With the help of imaging techniques and by attacking bacteria with light, Wiktor Szymanski hopes to find new ways to fight bacterial infections | Image Sean Sinclair / Unsplash
June 26, 2025 at 12:49 PM
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‘Arable farming systems used to be very diverse,’ says ecologist @rug.nl Raymond Klaassen.🌾Now, fewer crop variety mean trouble for species like the skylark.

🪺 How can farmers protect wildlife? Read our final #sustainable #agriculture story 👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/sci...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
The tiny nests are well hidden in the tall summer barley, making it difficult to find them. Photo: Leoni von Ristok
June 13, 2025 at 12:05 PM
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🔆Last Friday, the #TopDutchSolarRacing student team @rug.nl unveiled their brand-new solar car Green Falcon. They will compete in the #BridgestoneWorldSolarChallenge.

Their ambitions are high: ‘We are fully committed to winning.’

Read more👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/about-ug/lat...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
The Top Dutch Solar Racing team. (Photo: Reyer Boxem)
June 13, 2025 at 10:38 AM
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🌱 How do plants thrive in challenging conditions?

@rug.nl Kira Tiedge's group is investigating which plant species can best adapt to difficult conditions to select the most robust varieties.🌿

Read our 2nd #sustainable #agriculture story 👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/sci...
🧪 #SciComm #ScienceNewsroom
Kira Tiedge and her group are investigating which plant species can best adapt to difficult conditions. Here she is monitoring how different alfalfa species react when exposed to, for example, drought or increased salt concentrations in the soil. | Image Leoni von Ristok
June 6, 2025 at 2:29 PM