Amsterdam Science

Issue #01 March 2015 Amsterdam Science

Hunting for Machines learn Interview starquakes in to interpret Michel Mandjes, magnetars events in video Mr. Network preface index

WELCOME TO AMSTERDAM SCIENCE !

Amsterdam Science ABOUT THE COVER IMAGE: Welcome to the very first edition of the magazine . Why this The earliest cell cleavage combination? Amsterdam has a history as a city of scholars. With two universities, stages in an embryo of the sea anemone Nematostella two academic medical centres and more than a dozen research institutes and vectensis. Individual cells are made visible by injecting national research centres, the Dutch capital offers a unique environment for all those RNA that encodes a fluorescent 6 22 fusion protein. More Mr. Networks How mites, moths and captivated by nature and the science developed to describe and understand it. information on pag. 5. butterflies acquired a In an effort to make this science accessible to all we decided to make a bacterial gene to survive on poisonous plants popular science magazine for Amsterdam. Almost a year ago the first steps were taken: organisation of an editorial board, financial support, developing a format with our designers. Although this initiative was born in the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam, the editors ofAmSci soon realised that the many 13 20 Neuregulin-3 tagged as VideoStory: teaching interactions we have with the whole Amsterdam science community called for a impulsivity gene machines to interpret events in wider scope. Scientists from the VU University Amsterdam and CWI were welcomed video footage to the editorial board and the team behind the magazine you are now reading took form. We cover all research areas being pursued in Amsterdam: mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, physics, biological and biomedical sciences, health science, ecology, earth and environmental sciences, forensic science, computer science 11 23 and logic. The core of the magazine is formed by articles from Master’s and PhD Hunting for Starquakes in Eight questions for the dean students, as well as from postdocs and senior researchers. The goal is the same Magnetars – that of communicating the newest and most interesting science taking place in Amsterdam to a broad audience. This is an opportunity to show each other, and the rest of the world, the enormous creativity, quality, diversity and enthusiasm that characterises the Amsterdam science community. Each issue also carries an 14 25 in-depth interview, a column and information for and from alumni. Flame Nebula: a view from “Green gold”: how to use sunlight smartly We are proud of the first edition. It has been quite an adventure, creating a A’ d a m magazine starting from scratch, and we hope you enjoy browsing through some of the best science Amsterdam has to offer. We will have reached our goal if this first issue stimulates you to participate and to submit a contribution via our & more website: www.amsterdamscience.org. If you have any remarks about the content of the magazine or if you have suggestions for interesting subjects, then please 04 highlights colophon contact us ([email protected]). Our special thanks goes to all those 12 then&now who have contributed articles and other material for the inaugural issue, to the Editors in Chief: Hamideh Afsarmanesh; Jeroen Zuiddam 16 column Mark Golden; Michel Haring; Sabine Magazine manager: Heleen Verlinde 17 other members of the editorial board and to our highly organised and irrepressibly Spijker E-mail: [email protected] highlights Members of editorial board: Renée Website: www.amsterdamscience.org 18 cheerful magazine manager, Heleen Verlinde. van Amerongen; Sarah Brands; Harry Design: VanLennep, Amsterdam infographic Buhrman; Eline van Dillen; Swip Draijer; Copy Editor: DBAR 24 alumni Finally, we wish you an inspiring and informative read. Monalisa Goswami; Dorota Kawa; Photographer: Siesja Kamphuis Julienka Mollee; Coralie Pluut; Anne Printer: GTV Drukwerk 26 fun van de Poel; Yash Satsangi; Noushine Shahidzadeh; Héctor Serna Chavez; 27 about On behalf of the Editors-in-Chief, Hans van der Spek; Jocelyne Vreede; 28 André Kuipers Michel Haring

2 3 highlights highlights

→ Plants grow wherever their seeds → Sunscreens are something that → The sea anemone Nema- → The interior composition of have landed. From that point on, we all use; here comes the sun and tostella vectensis looks deceptively planets orbiting other stars than they do not have the ability to mi- along comes the UV radiation. Ex- simple, but it uses many of the same our own Sun provides a valuable grate to a more friendly environ- posure to UV radiation can cause regulatory genes as more complex constraint for theories of planet ment, so they must be able to adjust sunburn and even skin cancer. Ide- multicellular animals, including formation and evolution. Howev- to their surroundings. This requires ally, the chemicals in a sunscreen humans. This is because humans er, this knowledge is currently very a mechanism that perceives exter- convert this harmful radiation to and sea anemones share a common limited. The recent discovery of two nal conditions, referred to as stress, (harmless) heat on a picosecond ancestor, which lived more than peculiar planets, known by their and then switches on − often multi- timescale. However, prolonged ex- 700 million years ago. By studying catalogue numbers KIC 12557548b PAULA VAN KLEEFF step − signalling pathways leading ERIC TAN posure of the sunscreen still leads ADA DATTOLI our closest living relatives, such as RIK VAN LIESHOUT and KOI-2700b, may change this. to adaptations on the physiological to harmful reactions. Why this oc- Nematostella, scientists hope to un- These planets orbit so close to their PAULA VAN KLEEFF obtained level. ERIC TAN was awarded a PhD curs is still a big mystery – after all, ADA DATTOLI performed her derstand how humans, and other RIK VAN LIESHOUT is PhD stars that the stellar radiation heats her PhD in Biology from the Often this is achieved by mod- from the University of what can happen on a timescale of doctoral research in the complex animals, have evolved and student at the Anton Pannekoek them up to the point of evapora- VU University Amsterdam ification of proteins, for example by Amsterdam on 25 November 2014 picoseconds? section of Molecular Cytology how developmental processes are Institute for Astronomy at the tion. The evaporation peels off their in September 2014. She is attachment of a phosphate group for research conducted at the With this question in mind, we at the Swammerdam Institute organized. University of Amsterdam. outer layers, leading to the ejection currently working as a postdoc Van ‘t Hoff Institute for for Life Sciences of the in the Plant Physiology to specific amino acids; a process Molecular Sciences (HIMS). used high-resolution spectroscopy University of Amsterdam. Our group focuses on early of large amounts of dust, which group at the University of known as phosphorylation. This to demystify the photoprotection embryonic development in Nema- form a tail like that of a comet. Amsterdam. process changes the properties of mechanism of sunscreens by stud- tostella. To study this dynamic bio- These discoveries were made these proteins such as their activi- ying the octyl methoxycinnamate logical process we have developed using the Kepler satellite, a space ty. To maintain a stress signal long (OMC) molecule which is widely a novel live imaging technique: by telescope monitoring thousands of enough, the signalling protein has used as a UV-B filter. This molecule injecting RNA that encodes a fluo- stars for periodic dips in brightness. Guardian to be protected from enzymes that Better is believed to absorb the UV radi- Lighting up rescent fusion protein, we are able The These dips indicate a planet pass- would remove the phosphate group ation and go into a ‘bright’ excited to specifically visualize the actin ing in front of the star, temporar- proteins via dephosphorylation. Eukaryotic sunscreen? state thus using up the energetic animal and tubulin proteins in the cells comet-like ily blocking some of the starlight. cells have proteins, called 14-3-3, radiation before it reaches our skin. that make up the ‘cellular skeleton’ Because planets are almost perfect protect that are able to bind to the phos- Just add Then, in a step where it falls back to development of an animal. These proteins play tails of spheres, the dips caused by planets phate groups on other proteins, the original ground state, it releases an important role in maintaining tend to be symmetric in time. The thus stabilizing and protecting their this UV radiation as heat. Contrary the structural integrity network of dips made by KIC 12557548b and plant’s signalling status. In some ways, the water! to this expectation we found1 out the cell. evaporating KOI-2700b, however, are asymmet- 14-3-3 proteins are guardians of that the OMC molecule makes a This approach has allowed us ric because their dusty tails block stress signalling processes. It is therefore small detour after absorbing the to image different stages of Nema- planets part of the starlight. not surprising that plants carry a UV radiation where it goes into a tostella development, from the By analysing the exact shapes sensors collection of genes that encode for ‘dark state’. The amount of time that earliest cell cleavage events to the of the dips in starlight, we were these guardian proteins. The model it spends in this intermediate state adult polyp. By literally making the able to measure the tail length and plant species Arabidopsis has thir- is actually more than ten thousand skeleton of a subset of cells light investigate how this constrains the teen of such genes. times longer than the desirable up, we can follow individual cells composition of the dust in the tail. So what happens if we knock ‘bright state’ which in turn makes it as they divide, yielding sharper and As dust grains drift away from the out these guardians? In order to almost a million times less effective more informative images than ever planet, they evaporate. The pace of study the role of the 14-3-3 guard- than nature’s own UV filter, that is, before. For example, we found that this process depends on the ma- ian proteins, we created a collection melanin. Moreover, this extended cell division in Nematostella occurs terial properties of the dust: vol- of 24 mutant plant lines in which period in the dark state can also through a mechanism that involves atile materials evaporate quickly different combinations of the 14-3- lead to formation of unwanted nuclear envelope breakdown, in a and produce short tails, while 3 genes were inactivated (two, three harmful photoproducts. way that is very similar to the pro- refractory dust species survive for or four genes at a time). We then Additionally, we also found cess that is employed in higher a longer amount of time, yielding studied plant growth and devel- a plausible solution to this prob- vertebrates. As some of these fluo- long tails. The observed tail lengths opment for all these mutant lines. lem by using a similar molecule rescent proteins are stable in vivo of our two planets suggest that the The results indicated that specific called methyl-4-methoxycinn- for up to two months, we can still dust in their tails could be an iron- combinations of different 14-3-3 mate (MMC). Using a technique observe organ boundary dynam- rich silicate or aluminium oxide. proteins are required for proper called microsolvation, the MMC ics and muscular contractions in Considering that the tail is due to root growth, meaning that not all molecule was attached to one mol- ↑ Figure moving adult anemones. a peel-off process, this information 14-3-3 genes have the same func- ecule of water, and used as a UV A juvenile Nematostella polyp (about The technique described in our provides insight into the interior tion2. One mutant that had four filter. We found that under these 5 mm in size) lights up under the recent publication can be used to composition of the planets, which fluorescent microscope. The brightest inactive 14-3-3 proteins, did not conditions the bottleneck created signal is visible in an area where cells answer important questions be- can be put to use for the develop- flower under short-day conditions, by the unwanted ‘dark’ state was no contract as the animal moves around. yond evolutionary biology, too: ment of theories on the formation while other mutants flowered early. longer present, and that the MMC other types of fluorescent fusion and evolution of planets such as our These observations allow us to con- was more efficient than the widely Photo credit: proteins could be used to reveal own Earth. Ω clude that specific 14-3-3 proteins used OMC molecule. Thus, the A. Dattoli how Nematostella succeeds in effi- are important in either root or shoot answer to better sunscreens might ciently regenerating damaged tis- growth. In on-going work, their lie in just adding water! For practi- sues, a fundamental research ques- role in other processes like stress cal applications, such conditions can tion in stem cell biology. Needless References: responses or defence against path- easily be created by dissolving the to say, we expect to uncover many 1) Van Kleeff, P.J.M. (2014). Arabidopsis Non-Epsilon 14-3-3's: Analysis of Their ogens is now being assessed in a UV-B filter molecules in reverse References: more exciting details about cellular Mutants and Targets. http://dare.ubvu. similar way. Ω micelles of which the outside Link to publication: mechanics in these tiny animals in vu.nl/handle/1871/51554 is hydrophobic and the inside http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ the future. Ω hydrophilic. Ω pubmed/25433655 Photo credit: 2) Van Kleeff, P.J.M., Jaspert, N., Li, DuBuc, T.Q., Dattoli, A., Babonis, L.S., NASA/JPL-Caltech K.W., Rauch, C., Oecking, C. and de References: Salinas-Saavedra, M., Röttinger, E., Boer, A.H. (2014). Higher order Arabidop- 1) Tan, R.W., Hilbers, M. and Buma, Martindale, M.Q. and Postma, M. (2014) Reference: sis 14-3-3 mutants show 14-3-3 involve- W.J. (2014). ‘Excited state dynamics ‘In vivo imaging of Nematostella R. van Lieshout, M. Min and C. ment in primary root growth both under of isolated and microsolvated cin- vectensis embryogenesis and late Dominik, 'Dusty tails of evaporating control and abiotic stress conditions. namate-based UV-B sunscreens’, development using fluorescent probes’. exoplanets - I. Constraints on the J. Exp. Bot. 65: 5877-5888 J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 5, 2464–2468 BMC Cell Biol. 15(1): 44 dust composition', A&A 572, A7

4 5 interview interview

An interview with Michel Mandjes of the Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics at the University of Amsterdam Mr. Networks

authors: Dorota Kawa, PhD researcher Plant Physiology UvA and Mark Golden, professor of Condensed Matter Physics UvA

The consortium you head has in many of the real-life networks a fair way, meaning interaction just won a 29M€ Gravitation where a balance is required bet- between customers is also an im- grant from NWO. What's the ween performance and cost. In portant factor. main aim of this project? the end, the global aim is to know The project NETWORKS is how to design, control and ma- Mandjes collaborates with rooted in mathematics and the- nage such networks so as to keep more than 30 scientists from oretical computer science, and the network's customers happy. all over the world. The list aims to provide the fundamental includes scientists at Exxon mathematical tools to deal with How does this work? For Mobile and financial insti- large-scale networks. We take example when a bike rider tutions, as well as academia inspiration from networks that or car driver uses a traffic and the telecom companies are unpredictable and difficult network? one may expect. All in all to describe. We use two types On a more global level, insight these institutions represent an of methodologies to study their from math can be crucial in de- immense amount of private structural properties. Firstly, signing a good network. What are capital. So, can't these compa- in stochastics, we try to say so- the data volumes that are entering nies be mobilised to support mething about the probabilistic it and what variability in demand fundamental research in this properties of the networks. The can you expect? Zooming further “We take area? randomness can come from the in on the individual user, we con- Not every aspect of mathemat- use of the network or the struc- tribute to strategies to help the inspiration ics fits the interests of industry. ture of the network itself. The traffic flow go smoother, much as What we are doing now, or the second branch is algorithmic, the matrix signs above the mo- from work I was involved in when I meaning: given a network, how torway try to influence driving was at Bell Labs is very much at can it be controlled in an optimal behaviour. You can imagine that networks the fundamental end of the spec- manner? Motivating examples the advent of driverless cars will trum. My KPN period was closer include: road traffic, (tele)com- also mean a re-think of the de- that are to the centre-ground between the munication, logistics networks sign and management of road unpredictable fundamentals and immediately or the energy grid. My own area traffic networks. The internet is applicable work. Nowadays, in the is operations research. That's all no different: data streams need and difficult case of fundamental projects, the about the allocation of scarce to be merged smoothly and re- private sector doesn’t want to pay. resources, and this comes back sources need to be distributed in to describe” It’s about the time horizon. You

6 7 interview interview

cannot promise you will come up In particular, we should have al- Born excellently, such as Robbert Dijk- scientific excellence can go hand the role-model issue. Looking at topic you can easily solve a lot of with brilliant ideas, especially if gorithms that can deal effectively 1970, Zaandam, graaf and Ionica Smeets. At pres- in hand with direct connections Amsterdam with our high density “Math grows problems and it doesn’t require a The Netherlands that has to happen in a five-year with local disturbances without ent, I don't see this as my primary with the outside world. of women in scientific leadership in an lot of study to do well. Initially, I time period. Ironically, this lack compromising the performance Study task, partly as I have my hands roles - for example at the faculty chose econometrics, and during of private funding for fundamen- of the network as a whole. 1988-1993, pretty full at the moment. Some During your recent and university level - this should organic way: my first year I got interested in tal research is even an issue in fi- Generating good models for user MSc Econometrics (cum colleague mathematicians find it sabbatical stays in the US work out well here! pure mathematics and ended up nancial mathematics. Although behaviour remains a big chal- laude) and MSc Mathematics hard to do outreach, as you may you were affiliated to a Man- each new, thin studying both. As a teenager, I (cum laude), both at the VU my kind of work has - together lenge: for example, how users University Amsterdam have to oversimplify things and agement Science and Engineer- With your experience and also liked writing a lot and I still with my colleagues doing statis- react to getting a better (or worse) some of what you say may not be ing school at Stanford and the huge network of collaborators, layer is built like it, but in the end, it has not tics - the closest links to industry performance from the network. PhD strictly correct. I don't have such Business School in New York. you could probably find a good become more than a nice pastime. within our math department, still When we arrive at a general 1996, Operations a big problem with that, and I see Is the Dutch way of organising position anywhere. onto previous only a few of my PhD students are framework for this, it will be Research, I am able to get things across to maths departments the best? Why Amsterdam? You often hear that in mathe- VU University ones” funded by the private sector. for the psychologists and others Amsterdam people outside the field, as I saw That's a good question. I think I like Amsterdam and feel very matics if you haven't had your to fill in the relevant individual when I gave a ‘Wakker Worden’ a major part of this is down to much at ease in the UvA and am brilliant idea before you’re 30, So, how do you see the balance and social-behavioural models, Work Sunday morning lecture for tradition. I collaborate with col- happy with the freedom in my it is not going to happen. As between fundamental science which sometimes involve game 1996, KPN Research, young kids at the Science Centre leagues from math faculties in research that the university and someone aged 45, what’s your such as that supported by theory, for example. Leidschendam, The NEMO. However, right now I feel Cambridge or Melbourne. Other faculty grant me. Now the NET- view on that? Netherlands NWO's Gravitation pro- In 2024 we also should be bet- more comfortable appearing in, collaborators - for example one in WORKS programme is my new Certainly the pure brainpower gramme and the more applied ter at setting up a simulation of 1999, Mathematical let’s say, the science supplement Jerusalem - work in a humanities little baby, and that also keeps me that you can mobilize starts to de- form of research, which is very a network that’s good but eco- Sciences Research Center, of the newspaper than becoming faculty. In the US my colleagues here. My wife is in the process of cline at a certain moment. At the much at the centre of attention nomic, not by simply measuring Bell Laboratories/Lucent a household name on TV. I think are indeed in business schools, getting her doctoral degree in same time, having an overview nowadays? everything going on. These are Technologies, Murray Hill Robbert and Ionica do a marvel- operational research departments Medicine here, which is also a in a field or discipline helps. Fur- NJ, United States I don’t see the interest in applied areas where our research will lous job, but I am happy for now but also in electrical engineering. natural binding factor. I cannot ther on in your career you sim- research as a problem. It is a cy- start to meet big-data approach- 2000-2004, Full Professor not to be asked for my opinion on At the Master’s level, I studied exclude the possibility that I will ply know more and in my work clic system, with fundamental es. Although this is not such a of Stochastic Operations each and every item that comes mathematics within a science fac- leave in the future; I enjoyed my I’m aware that I take advantage research like ours being very central theme in NETWORKS Research at the University along with a math angle… ulty as well as operations research sabbatical time in Stanford a lot, Mandjes is an engaging of this. If it’s all about proving much inspired by the real world. program right now, in time it of Twente, The Netherlands within an economics faculty. The for example, although for such a character, continually seeking an extremely deep conjuncture We model this at a higher level could become one. 2000-2006, Department of The structure and role VU has a business analytics pro- singular 'year out' one can choose eye contact with his intervie- it's probably true that young of abstraction and there is a lot Probability, Networks and of NWO has been subject gramme and a maths one, side by exactly what one does and does wers and using measured yet is better, but when it comes to of interesting math going on. The Mathematics is the Algorithms, Center for of much discussion recently. side. If the departments at the two not do, which after a time at any animated hand movements questions that ask for the com- output from that math can then language of science, and Mathematics and Computer How do you look back at Amsterdam universities were to new place is no longer the case. to underscore his points. He bination of different paths and improve the real applications and thus is crucial to all the Science (CWI), Amsterdam, your period as staff member grow into one, this could give a weighs his words and certain- require well-developed intuition The Netherlands thus this cycle continues. This is disciplines covered by the of the NWO institute CWI ? really strong combination. What influenced you to take ly thinks before he speaks. into different types of math, then close to the ideal picture of what Amsterdam Science Since 2004, Full Professor I enjoyed it a lot that there was a I don't see my current maths/ path of maths? His English is fluent, the US age and experience are certainly science can be and how it can in- magazine. Are there other of Applied Probability chunk of my early career in which science affiliation as a problem. When I was a kid, the idea of be- years occasionally making assets. teract with society. NETWORKS research fields that at the Korteweg-de I could really focus on research. When I graduated from high coming mathematician had never themselves heard in words Anyway the Abel Prize doesn't gives us the space to invest seri- mathematics cannot Vries Institute (KdVI) For mathematicians in particu- school, it was cool to do busi- crossed my mind. In high school such as ‘model’ (mahdel) and share the Fields Medal’s age limit, for mathematics at the ously in fundamental research, to do without? University of Amsterdam lar it's necessary to have room to ness school and stay away from I realised that math is a field in ‘math’ (singular). so there's hope for me yet - at least think deeply about the underlying Yes! I think in terms of inspi- focus. Having said that, it is also difficult topics. Nowadays it’s which once you understand a in principle! Ω math, unhindered by the short- ration for problems for math to Family important to move on to another different. Young people want to term horizon of the market. This solve, other disciplines play a vi- Married, father of a place, thus making room for new, distinguish themselves and it is is important because if it all has tal role. It gives me a buzz to see daughter young people in an incubator in- cool to study complicated issues; to be directly related to industry how math inspired by needing to stitute like CWI. we benefit from that here in the then the stream of good new ideas describe resource allocation in a science faculty. I’m really pleased will simply dry up. Upwards of wireless network can also be set My six years at CWI showed me when young people ask for the de- two thirds of NETWORKS' 35 to work in the setting of prices at what a key place it is for the math- tails of proofs and techniques and PhD positions are highly funda- an auction in a marketplace set- ematics and computer science they are genuinely curious about mental, but almost ten are dual in ting. Mathematicians are good at communities across the Nether- how the world works. nature with one leg in academia stylizing their model of reality, lands. For myself, the network of and the other in industry. This considering the evolution of the ex-CWI people was vital for the Like many maths institutes, mirrors my belief that there is no system towards an asymptotic writing of the NWO Gravitation the Korteweg-de Vries single type of math student: ei- result, rather than describing grant. This is a huge investment Institute doesn't seem to ther pure or applied. I think these the moment-by-moment de- of time and so a lot of trust is re- have many senior female two groups can exist next to each tails. This is what makes math “When I quired between the partners that staff. Do you have an other. As far as this is concerned, both valuable and at the same they all will pull their weight. This explanation? I think that I’m a kind of bipolar time transportable to wholly was a kid, factor of trust enabling sharing of Actually, the majority of my cur- person and I like both poles. new areas. the risk is often underestimated rent PhD students are women. the idea by policy makers at universities In our BSc programme, I think Let's fast-forward to 2024, What role do you think pushing for large-scale grants. women account for around 35% when the NETWORKS project you can play in advancing of becoming right now. However, after you has run for 10 years. Where the general public's Of course CWI has to have a clear obtain your PhD in mathematics will this research have got to? understanding and mathematician message as to why they are rele- you need to develop some kind Math grows in an organic way: appreciation of mathematics? had never vant, and the current line with a (healthy) obsession to become each new, thin layer is built onto Outreach is of great value, and stronger focus on research done really good. What I see is that previous ones. My hope is that the thus it is extremely important crossed my together with companies and this last step seems to be hard for algorithmics and the stochastics that some people do it. There NGO's is a good development, women here in the Netherlands. will have grown closer together. are examples of people doing this mind ” as I for one am convinced that I think this has a lot to do with

8 9 physics astronomy

Electronic corkscrews

The regular arrangement addition to not fitting into the atom- © densely packed regions of electrons of atoms within a solid, crys- ic harness, they also spontaneously JASPER VAN WEZEL are linked in a spiral shape (bottom Assistant professor in talline material forms a con- develop a handedness. That is, cork- Condensed Matter Theory of Figure 2). We have recently been stant background to which screws look different from any of at Institute of Physics able to experimentally confirm its electrons must conform. their mirror images, just like your University of Amsterdam. our theoretical description of this We recently discovered that right hand always looks the same highly orchestrated assembly of it is possible for electrons in as your left hand when viewed in electrons into corkscrews patterns. certain materials to break a mirror. free from the rules imposed Corkscrew technology → References by such atomic arrangements, How to become a spiral 1) Van Wezel, J. (2011). ‘Chirality and Or- The presence of a collective organi- and assemble into collective Spiral structures are well known bital Order in Charge Density Waves’, sation of electrons defying the rules structures shaped like cork- to develop in magnets, where they Europhysics Letters 96, 67011. of the underlying atomic structure Hunting for screws. The possible appli- also emerge being neither left nor brings with it significant conse- cations of these electronic right-handed despite the underly- 2) Castellan, J.-P., Rosenkranz, S., quences for the material properties corkscrews in technology ing atomic lattice. In these cases, Osborn, R., Li, Q., Gray, K.E., Luo, X., of their host. The characteristic fea- as well as fields of science however, the corkscrew is formed Welp, U., Karapetrov, G., Ruff, J.P.C. tures of traditional patterns such starquakes in and Van Wezel, J. (2013). ‘Chiral ranging from chemistry to by the microscopic bar magnets Phase Transition in Charge Ordered as stripes of electrons, for example, robotics are currently being that make up a magnetic materi- 1T-TiSe2’ Physical Review Letters 110, are used in switches and memory investigated at the University al, while the electrons themselves 196404. devices and even feature in sus- magnetars of Amsterdam. do not form a spiral. The bar tainable energy applications. The magnets are good escape artists, corkscrew's special contribution → It has been known for several easily escaping the restrictions of of developing a handedness could Photo credit: decades that given the right cir- the atomic background because find use in areas such as molecular NASA’s Goddard Space Flight → Off all phenomena that our uni- on the crust of the neutron star tiny ripples on top of much larger cumstances, electrons in semicon- they can rotate the orientations of “We recently motors for nanobots, specialized Center/S. Wiessinger verse has to offer, neutron stars are with sufficient force that it cracks. variations in the magnetar bursts ducting materials refuse to march their north and south poles around light detectors and in steering ste- undoubtedly among the most ex- What happens next is reminiscent we observed. in time with the atomic lattice in three independent directions. Elec- discovered reospecific chemical reactions. Next treme. They are remnants of stellar of tectonic plates grating past each We developed a new method that which they live, and instead gath- trons, which do not have a north that it is also to these more applied aspects, elec- explosions and the densest objects other: a starquake occurs. The star could detect ripples even in a storm er into collective structures that or south pole, are unable to copy tronic corkscrews have been argued we know. We can use them to study oscillates and waves travel through or, in our case, in the complex pat- do not fit snugly into their atomic this rotation trick and need to be possible for to be important in the fundamen- properties of matter that we cannot the interior of the neutron star, terns of the light that we receive backgrounds. Typical arrange- much more organized in order to tal physics of superconductors: a reproduce in an earth-based labora- which provides the remote ob- from magnetars during a burst. In ments formed by the electrons generate a corkscrew structure. electrons mysterious and currently poorly tory, which may help us constrain server (us) the opportunity to ef- common with previous approaches as they rebel against the order of understood class of materials that theories of nuclear physics. There fectively probe the interior parts of to this problem we used a special the atomic lattice include stripes, The first step for the electrons is in some lose all electrical resistance when is just one big problem: how does the star that we cannot see. representation of the data, called checkers, honeycombs, and their to assemble into lines, standing a cooled with liquid nitrogen. Our one look inside a solid ball of matter Finding the (Oscillating) Needle a Fourier transform. The trans- crystals to © three-dimensional equivalents (see little more closely together than ongoing work at the University of DANIELA HUPPENKOTHEN hundreds of light years away? in the Magnetar Burst Haystack formed data were compared to Figure 1). We recently discovered normally between every third pair congregate Amsterdam, supported by an NWO was awarded a PhD Magnetar Bursts and Starquakes The oscillations described above a model of the noise (the storm) that it is also possible for electrons of atoms (see top of Figure 2). Next, Vidi grant, will thus help define the from the University One possible solution comes in have only been found in the and outliers were identified, corre- of Amsterdam on 14 in some crystals to congregate into three sets of such lines, each ori- into spiral role played by electronic corkscrews October 2014 for the form of a magnetar, a type of brightest of bursts, known as gi- sponding to the periodic signals of spiral structures. These electronic ented along a different direction, both in future technologies and research conducted at neutron star. Magnetars have the ant flares. Because only three gi- the bursts. Unlike previous studies, corkscrews are special because, in combine in such a way that the structures” fundamental aspects of science. Ω the Anton Pannekoek strongest magnetic fields ever de- ant flares have been observed so we found a way to characterize the Institute for tected: about a quadrillion times far, there are few signals on which special and complicated noise in Astronomy Figure 1: Figure 2: that of the Earth’s magnetic field. scientists have been able to base our data (the ocean waves dur- Typical arrangements Step-by-step instructions for → References Changes in these strong magnetic their theoretical models of these ing a storm), thus boosting our of electrons breaking the formation of an electronic Huppenkothen D. et al. fields cause the magnetars to emit sources. That is why we undertook sensitivity to the signals we were the rules of the under- corkscrew. (2014) Quasi-periodic bright flashes of light at random in- a study of hundreds of much faint- actually looking for (the ripples). lying atomic lattice (a) Electrons line up, bunching Oscillations in Short include stripes (top), together between every Recurring Bursts tervals. These flares are often rela- er bursts. Naturally, oscillations Using Bayesian statistics, in which checkerboards (bottom third pair of atoms. of the Soft Gamma tively faint and short-lived, which are much harder to find in these probabilities are seen as a measure left) and honeycomb (b) Many such lines together Repeater J1550–5418, makes them difficult to detect. But weaker bursts, and the methods of belief in an outcome, we could structures. fill up the cubic arrange- Astrophysical Journal ment of atoms in the 787, number 2 sometimes — very rarely — the developed for the giant flares are incorporate previous information material. flash is so bright that we can meas- less well suited for the more com- into the analysis, and thus rule out (c) Finally, putting together ure its effect on the Earth’s magnet- plicated cases we were now con- false detections much better than three sets of lines, running ic field. In the tails of these bursts fronted with. Imagine standing at a ever before. in three orthogonal directions, yields a spiral scientists have detected oscillations still pond. If you throw in a pebble, Our newly developed methods pattern, shown here as in the light intensity with frequen- the ripples it produces are easy to succeeded in detecting several of coloured lines. cies that exactly match those one see. Now imagine doing the same the elusive oscillations, even those Figure reproduced from: would expect if parts of the star it- from the deck of a ship, on the from fainter bursts. These newly Van Wezel J. and Littlewood, self were oscillating. But how could ocean, during a storm. The waves discovered bursts are important P. (2010). ‘Chiral symmetry this happen? The leading hypothesis already present make it extremely as constraints for theoretical mod- breaking and charge order’, is that the magnetic field of the star hard to see the ripples your pebble els of magnetars, especially of the Physics 3, 87 slowly changes over time. At the produced. This was the situation origin of the light we observe as same time the magnetic field pulls we found ourselves in: trying to see magnetar bursts. Ω

10 11 then & now human life sciences

Fifty years Neuregulin-3 tagged as ago impulsivity gene

In 1965, the Nobel Prize in © Pasteur Institute in Paris led to two ence. In fact, when the human geno- © In the October 2014 issue of terms of their impulsivity. In this How long did this work take you? RENÉE VAN AMERONGEN SABINE SPIJKER, professor Physiology or Medicine was assistant professor at important discoveries. The first was me project was completed early in Molecular Mechanisms of Biological Psychiatry, part of chromosome 14, the gene “We started in 2007 and half-way awarded to François Jacob, Swammerdam Institute for that of so-called messenger RNA the 21st century, it came as quite a Cognition, VU University Maarten Loos and Neuregulin 3 (Nrg3) was located. through 2009 we found the Nrg3 André Lwoff and Jacques Life Sciences, University of (mRNA), a single-stranded nucleic shock to many that our DNA con- Amsterdam co-workers describe how they From then on, we had to prove gene. The functional studies proving Amsterdam Monod for their 'discoveries acid that is dynamically transcri- tained only 20,000 structural genes. MAARTEN LOOS, scientific detected a gene named whether this gene was causally in- the link between Nrg3 and impul- concerning the genetic regu- bed from (and therefore comple- This means that the remainder of officer, Sylics, Amsterdam Neuregulin-3 (or Nrg3 in volved in impulsivity.” sivity each took about 6 months. Be- lation of enzyme and virus mentary to) the DNA sequence of a our DNA, a whopping 98%, may short) that is responsible for fore my thesis defence in May 2012, synthesis’. This brief snippet → Weblinks given structural gene. This mRNA have a regulatory function. As such, impulsivity in mice. How did you link Nrg3 I started to work at biotech company from the award ceremony 1) http://www.nobelprize.org/ travels to the ribosomes, the protein the fundamental work of Jacob and to impulsivity? Sylics, here in Amsterdam. Luckily, nobel_prizes/medicine/ factories of the cell, where it is used Monod has become indispensable Why did you start this “First, we used recombinant viruses together with my former group, and doesn’t really do justice laureates/1965/press.html to the importance of their 2) https://www.pasteur.fr/ip/resource/ as a template for protein synthesis to research now being carried out research line? to add more Nrg3 to the brain and with the help of various HLO intern- work. It even manages to filecenter/document/01s-000046-03 – although it took until 1968 befo- across the world, including myriad “Impulsivity is a prominent tested what this did. More specifical- ship students, we were able to finish make it sound a bit boring. t/genetic-regulatory.pdf re scientists finally figured out the Amsterdam laboratories. Examples symptom that occurs in several ly, we added the Nrg3 to all neurons all the experiments smoothly.” 3) http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/f.m.j. But looking back, one might jacobs/ precise way in which that occurs. at the Amsterdam Science Park psychiatric diseases. It is one of of the medial prefrontal cortex, a re- argue that these scientists 4) http://www.vanamerongenlab.nl To date, however, Jacob and Monod include the research by Dr Frank the hallmarks of attention deficit gion known to be involved in the con- What do we learn from this? laid the foundation for our remain best known for their second Jacobs on neural gene regulation, hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), trol of impulsivity, because all neu- “Nrg3 is a growth factor, which present-day understanding discovery, which every student in as well as my own Vidi research but also occurs in substance abuse, ron types express Nrg3 (see figure). binds and activates Erbb4, a recep- of how each cell in our body the biological and biomedical scien- programme into the genetic me- bipolar disorder and schizophre- And… mice with extra Nrg3 were tor tyrosine kinase that regulates is able to use the information ces still encounters in their genetics chanisms that control mammary nia. Because there was no genetic indeed more impulsive! In addition, cell proliferation and differenti- encoded in its DNA to make courses: the famous gene regulati- stem cell activity. But it all started screening that showed causal in- we tested mice that lacked the Nrg3 ation, and could be implicated in the right proteins at just the on model of the bacterial lac operon fifty years ago, when Jacob, Lwoff volvement of genes contributing to gene, so called Nrg3 knockout mice. the construction and development right time. (see Figure 1). and Monod discovered how bacte- impulsivity, we set out to do so using They showed a decrease in impulsiv- of neuronal networks. This could rial cells control the rate of protein a panel of mice, and measuring their ity,” says Maarten enthusiastically. entail, for example, the migration → Think about it for a second. Hu- Although the precise genetic regu- synthesis. Their work is an excellent impulsivity,” clarifies first author, “We were in the fortunate position of neurons to their final destina- man beings are complex, multicel- latory mechanisms are different for example of a fundamental research Maarten Loos, whose PhD gradu- of having collaborators at the Max tion, or the formation of contacts lular animals. Our bodies not only bacteria and higher eukaryotes (in- breakthrough that has become an ation in 2012 was based on part of Delbrück Center for Molecular Med- between certain neuron-types. contain a lot of cells (approximately cluding humans), these experiments integral part of modern-life science this work. icine in Berlin - Dr Thomas Mueller Moreover, both Nrg3 and other 1013, in case you were wondering), continue to impact present-day sci- research and teaching. Ω and Professor Carmen Birchmeier genes from the Neuregulin family but also many different cell types. How did you measure - who generated these Nrg3 knock- have been suggested to play a role Each type fulfills a distinct, speci- impulsivity in mice? out mice, but our German colleagues in schizophrenia. This study was alised function. Neurons are de- “Impulsivity is the inability to in- had not yet identified what the effect well-received in the field, as classi- dicated to transmitting electrical Figure 1: containing a cluster of co-regulated hibit or hold back a response. For of knocking out the Nrg3 gene was, cal studies have always been aimed Gene regulation in the bacterial lac genes) harbors more than just the pulses to transport and store infor- operon. structural genes (blue) encoding the example, you could think of having something that we then could bring at detecting associations for genes mation. The enterocytes in our gut required enzymes; it also contains a “Mice difficulties waiting for one’s turn, to the collaboration. Finally, we test- related to neurotransmitters, such as are experts in absorbing nutrients. In trying to understand how bacteria regulatory gene encoding a repressor with or blurting out answers before the ed whether bringing back Nrg3 in dopamine and serotonin. This study Lymphocytes travel through our use lactose as a food source, Jacob (red), which is always actively tran- questions have been completed.” these adult knock-out mice would adds the concept that the wiring and Monod were intrigued by the fact scribed. The encoded repressor protein blood stream to help fight infec- that the enzymes required for lactose binds to a so-called operator sequence extra Nrg3 explains Maarten. “In patients this ‘cure’ them from their reduced im- of the brain set up during devel- tions. All of these cells carry the processing (encoded by the structural in the DNA (yellow), thereby preventing can be measured with computerized pulsivity. However, this was not suc- opment is also critical for aspects exact same DNA sequence in their genes lacZ, lacY and lacA) were only the structural genes from being tran- were indeed response tasks. These tasks have ex- cessful. This shows that when Nrg3 is of behaviour we see in societally produced in the presence of lactose. In scribed into mRNA and, consequently, nucleus. Yet they each use this ge- its absence, the bacteria didn’t waste from being translated into protein. cellent rodent counterparts, such as not present when the brain develops, important psychiatric diseases. In netic information very different- precious energy producing enzymes Repression is relieved in the presence more the five-choice serial reaction time this leads to irreversible changes that this respect, it might come as no ly, as if they are only reading and for which there was no need. Jacob of lactose (black), which blocks binding task, which has been used in this impact impulsivity. However, in a surprise that Nrg3 is involved in executing a portion of their code. and Monod found that the so-called lac of the repressor protein to the operator impulsive!” study. In this task, mice can obtain relatively ‘normal’ brain, increasing other developmental diseases, such operon (an operon is a stretch of DNA sequence. a food reward when they respond levels of Nrg3 in the prefrontal cortex as ADHD and schizophrenia.” Ω In the mid-20th century, the to a light stimulus. Impulsivity is could make an individual more im- so-called one-gene-one-enzy- “What was defined as a response in the absence pulsive,” explains Maarten. me hypothesis, which postulates of the light stimulus, a so-called pre- that each protein is encoded by a unknown, mature response.” distinct structural gene, was well was how this → References → This image shows where Nrg3 mRNA accepted. What was unknown, was Maarten Loos, M., Mueller, How did you find Nrg3? (green) is located in the medial how this genetic information was genetic T., Gouwenberg, Y., Wijnands, “We used a genetic approach start- prefrontal cortex of mice. In two translated into the actual synthesis R., van der Loo, R.J., Neuro- ing with two mouse strains that different experiments, merged into BSIK Mouse Phenomics this one picture, the red colour of a polypeptide chain. Moreover, information consortium, Birchmeier, differed in impulsivity. From these depicts the expression of a marker it was clear that cells were able to C., Smit, A.B. and Spijker S. parents, a so-called recombinant infor inhibitory neurons (left side) and respond to changing circumstan- was translated (2014) ‘Neuregulin-3 in the bred population was generated and for excitatory neurons (right). Overlap ces, such as the presence or absence mouse medial prefrontal cortex for 41 individuals a correlation was in localization of Nrg3 with these into the actual regulates impulsive action’. neuronal markers is visible by the of specific growth factors in their Biological Psychiatry, 76(8): made between the origin of their yellow colour. Nrg3 mRNA is present environment. Obviously, protein synthesis of a 648-55. genes and their level of impulsivity. in the both types of neurons. synthesis was regulated… but how? Doing so, a part of chromosome 14 polypeptide was identified as having a significant Twenty years of hard work by contribution in explaining the dif- Lwoff, Jacob and Monod at the chain.” ferences between different mice in

12 13 Flame12 | Nebula: a view from A’ dam

→ The Anton Pannekoek Obser- vatory, located on the roof of the UvA's Science Faculty building, houses the largest optical telescope in the country. We used it to take this picture of the Flame Nebula - an interstellar gas cloud - as seen on a clear January night. The beautiful structure is not on fire, but the light comes from gas atoms in the cloud, which are ionized by radiation from a nearby star. First, four separate black-and-white images are taken, each in a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Then, each image is assigned an individual colour after which the four images are combined into the full-colour photograph. Ω

→ Image ADRI DUIVENVOORDEN Master's student in Physics at the UvA,ELINE WIELDRAAIJER Master's student in Physics at the UvA, ELINE WIELDRAAIJER Master's student in Physics at Nikhef

“Gas atoms are ionized by radiation from a nearby star”

14 15 column highlights

three proteins known to play a role in Alzheimer’s disease: amyloid-beta42, Philosophy: Tau and hyperphosphorylated Tau (pTau). Amyloid-beta42 is thought to reflect toxic amyloid accumulations an adventure for found in the brain of Alzheimer’s disease patients, while (p)Tau mainly reflects loss of nerve cells as Alzheimer’s disease progresses. science students ARGONDE C. VAN HARTEN We found that abnormal values of ARGONDE C. VAN HARTEN, these proteins in the cerebrospinal obtained her PhD in November fluid predicted future cognitive 2014 for research done at the decline in patients who, at the ≥ ‘Philosophy is no longer cool. Useless stuff, so away with it!’ Alzheimer's Centre of VUmc. moment of the investigation, only showed subjective complaints. The I think this is shortsighted and senseless, for philosophy gives us the cognitive decline that then followed ability to review issues of the day from an often surprising perspective. for the patients with abnormal An example: In 1990 - at the time of “die Wende” - most students at the protein readings was not restricted Link to the NYM system: http://newyorkmelange.com to memory alone: global cognition Humboldt University in the former DDR studied philosophy or history. and the ability to do multiple things at Nowadays the popular courses there are economics and law. Predicting once was also affected. We also found New of New York's places of interest, evidence of an order in which these their associated photos and text I was there in 1991 and got involved because the Rector, Heinrich Fink, Alzheimer’s proteins change over time: patients Amsterdam descriptions. Using state-of-the- was dismissed by the Federal Republic of Germany on the charge that he with abnormal levels of amyloid- art machine learning techniques, disease beta42 had a ten times increased NYM automatically analyses visual had been an Informeller Mitarbeiter (IM) of the Stasi during the DDR. risk of developing a very early stage of Melange content of the images as well as the I was a member of the international Informelle committee that was going Alzheimer’s disease, or dementia due associated text and extracts topics using to Alzheimer’s disease. Patients with describing venue properties and to dispute those charges. Successfully, at first. a combination of abnormal levels of the preferences of social network It is certainly not my intention to use a first column in this eminent sci- cerebrospi- amyloid-beta42 and (p)Tau had a 23 users. NYM matches topical pref- entific magazine to defend communism. It is just that the memory of this times increased risk compared to erences of the interacting user with nal fluid those with normal biomarker levels. those of the like-minded social net- experience illustrates the connectedness of students' choices of cours- With this research it is possible to work users and recommends rele- es to the dominant ideas at a certain period in time. A generation ago, make Alzheimer’s disease visible at vant venues as part of their profile. → Cerebrospinal fluid is a fluid found an earlier stage with the possibility → When visiting a new city we are students at the University of Amsterdam were popping into courses on in the brain and spine, important for to interfere with the disease sooner faced with the dilemma about what New Yorker Melange is going mo- critical methodology and on the sociology of knowledge. Nowadays the waste clearance and protecting the than before. Ω places to visit, or where to go to eat. bile and international. Want to brain’s cortex. We found it can be used Nowadays, people use Foursquare, help build the New Amsterdam popular courses are economics and law, and increasingly science-based as an early warning of Alzheimer’s Yelp or TripAdvisor to help them Melange? Ω subjects. The Minister of Education should be aware of this and should disease: the fluid shows changes make such choices. While these are many years before patients develop excellent resources when looking take a long-term perspective. © this disease. Especially a decrease of for venues enjoying great general Dear Jet Bussemaker: please find the time to read a philosophy book, for JACQUELIEN a protein called ‘amyloid-beta42’ is popularity, they rarely reflect the DE SAVORNIN LOHMAN “NYM example René Munnik’s Time Machines: the submission of transience and an early sign of subsequent cognitive individuality of a city’s inhabitants, Prof. Jacquelien decline over time. Thesis A.C. van Harten or that of the visitors. Understand- matches permanence to technology. It may not be a page-turner, but it certainly is de Savornin Lohman The road less traveled. CSF biomarkers ing a visitor's preference towards obtained her PhD in The brain and spinal cord are for Alzheimer’s disease: predicting a particular venue in the city and fascinating for science students. Munnik defends the proposition that Criminal Law from earliest cognitive decline and exploring topical the University of enveloped by cerebrospinal fluid. The microrna as a novel biomarker source. the aspects that make two venues ‘to the extent that we realize ourselves as rational beings and experi- Amsterdam, where she contents of this fluid reflect many of (7 november 2014) similar is a non-trivial task. preferences also worked as a the biological processes taking place ence our world as rational, to the same extent our world is becoming professor from 1982 of the increasingly mythical’. to 1995. After a long in the brain. Could it also signal Assuming these aspects may be career in science and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease? encoded in a large-number of ven- interacting At first sight you may say: ‘Huh? Seems illogical to me...’ But after having politics, Jacquelien To look for so-called biomarkers in ue-related images and associated de Savornin Lohman cerebrospinal fluid we investigated metadata hosted on social media read the book you might say: ‘OK, that makes sense!’ is now an author, RI Scans Show Images of Amyloid user” educator and theatre 132 men and women with a mean Plaques in Rabbit Model sites, we devised the New Yorker Munnik argues that we are all busy expressing everything in technical, personality, bringing age of 61 years (and replicated our Source: Melange (NYM), an interactive her one-woman show findings in an overlapping sample of http://www.healthinformer.net/ city explorer that navigates New scientifically sound terms: quantification, efficiency, effectiveness, all of Liedvermaak to alzheimer-disease-plaques-seen-with- JAN ZAHÁLKA 224 persons), all of whom came to York City venues through the eyes PhD candidate, theatres throughout conventional-mri-in-animal-model-for- STEVAN RUDINAC which are taken to be indifferent to the historical context. But beware: the Netherlands. our outpatient clinic with so-called the-first-time.html of New Yorkers who have similar subjective complaints. This means tastes to those of the interacting postdoctoral researche and the way people experience those ‘facts’, depends on the dominant beliefs MARCEL WORRING they experienced memory deficits, user (the visitor). associate professor of that particular time period. but their performance on cognitive from the Intelligent Systems tests was normal. Most of these The system introduces a novel Lab at the Informatics We need philosophy to help us take the correct steps in our everyday Institute UvA won the recent patients remained stable over time way of analysing content origi- Grand Challenge 1st prize life, also as we approach the next turn. Sometimes it may lead us down but 10% did show cognitive decline nated from different social media award at the ACM Multimedia the wrong path, but so what? Just enjoy the experience of trying and in the subsequent 2-4 years. platforms, and iteratively learns 2014 conference with their relevant preferences through in- contribution ‘New Yorker learning. Ω Melange: Interactive Brew For this study, we measured teraction with the user. The system of Personalized Venue cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of works with a large-scale dataset Recommendations’.

16 17 infographic infographic

Amsterdam, city of science

1 VUMC ration with the Faculty of Science of VU medical centres), industry and SMEs. VU University Medical Centre Amster- University Amsterdam (VU-FEW/FALW). dam (VUmc) is part of the VU University 13 NIN Amsterdam campus. With over 700 7 AMC The Netherlands Institute for beds and a staff of nearly 7,000 VUmc University Medical Centre of University Neurosciences (NIN) focuses on how also houses VU’s Faculty of Medicine. of Amsterdam. With about 1.000 beds networks of neurons enable the cog- Research area: human health & life and 7.000 staff, AMC also houses UvA’s nitive functions of the brain, including sciences; focusing on five themes: Faculty of Medicine. consciousness, perception, movement, cancer & immunology, neurosciences, Research area: human health & life learning and social interaction, in cardiovascular disease, public health, sciences; focusing on cardiovascular health and disease. primary care & long-term care and diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, Research areas: NIN addresses three human movement sciences. infection and immunity, metabolic levels of biological complexity: genetic disorders, neurological and psychiatric and molecular approaches, 47 32 2 AMOLF disorders, oncology, public health cellular approaches and network 55* FOM Institute AMOLF is one of the and epidemiology. function, and system and behavioural 59 research laboratories of the Foundation approaches. for Fundamental Research on Matter 8 ACTA (FOM), part of the Netherlands Organ- The Academic Centre for Dentistry 14 NLR isation for Scientific Research (NWO). Amsterdam (ACTA) is a joint institute The National Aerospace Laboratory nki Its mission is to research complex of the University of Amsterdam and VU (NLR) is the independent knowledge molecular and materials systems. University Amsterdam. enterprise in the Netherlands on aero- Research area: the physiology and space. Its overall mission is making air 52 3 ARCNL pathology of the tissues in and around transport and space exploration safer, 175 The Advanced Research Center for Nan- the oral cavity, like infectious diseases more sustainable and more efficient olithography (ACRNL) is a collaboration such as caries and periodontitis. through a multidisciplinary approach. 183 between ASML, FOM, NWO, UvA and VU. Research area: new and cost effective With the first research groups already in 9 NKI technologies for aviation and space, place, the AMOLF-based collaboration The Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), from design support to production will become an independent institute in including its 180-bed Antoni van Leeu- technology and Maintenance, Repair 2015, growing into a centre of expertise wenhoek Hospital, is the only dedicated and Overhaul (MRO) ARCNL consisting of 100 researchers. cancer centre in The Netherlands and AMOLF plays an important role as a national Research area: fundamental physics and international centre of scientific 7 7 for current and future key technologies and clinical expertise, development 17 17 in nanolithography, primarily for the and training. semiconductor industry. Research area: human health VUmc 24 3 (biochemistry, cell biology, oncology, 56 4 NIKHEF immunology, radiotherapy) Nikhef is the Dutch National Institute Nikhef UvA-FNWI for Subatomic Physics and part of the 10 CWI Netherlands Organisation for Scientific CWI is the national research institute 990 313 Research (NWO). for mathematics and computer 1286 38 science in the Netherlands, part of the 80 173 Research area: the interactions and Netherlands Organisation for Scientific aa structure of all elementary particles Research (NWO). 104 35 369 and fields at the smallest distance 612 161 scale and the highest attainable Research areas: mathematics and 1757 energy. computer science. CWI concentrates on 398 120 surfsara CWI five broad, societally relevant themes: software, information, life sciences, VU-FEW/FALW 69 5 VU-FEW/FALW NLR 7 Faculty of Science of VU University logistics and energy 1 20 157 Amsterdam. 2733 257 Research and education areas: com- 11 SANQUIN RESEARCH 32 puter sciences, physics and astronomy, Sanquin Research deals with a com- 5 308 chemistry and pharmaceutical scienc- plementary range of subjects including es, mathematics, earth sciences, fundamental biology and biochemistry 390 296 ecological sciences and various areas of blood cells and plasma proteins, 2011 of the life sciences (e.g. biomedical hematopoiesis, immunohematology, science, neuroscience). coagulation, immunopathology, blood- RESEARCHERS Research and education at VU-FEW are borne infections, blood transfusion done in strong collaboration with the technology, transfusion monitoring, POSTDOCS Faculty of Science of the University of transfusion medicine, and donor amc Amsterdam (UvA-FNWI). studies. PHD STUDENTEN

6 UVA-FNWI 12 SURFSARA MASTERS STUDENTS Faculty of Science of the University of SURFsara provides a complete package 1372 1500 Amsterdam. of services in the field of high-perfor- NIN BACHELOR STUDENTS Research and education areas: phys- mance computing (HPC), networking, ics, astronomy, chemistry, mathemat- data services, visualization, e-science 29 50* 978 1209 * BOTH MASTER ics, logic, biodiversity and ecosystem support and cloud services. SURFsara AND BACHELOR dynamics; life sciences and computer works together with the academic 48 science. Research and education at community (including researchers, 43 UvA-FWNI are done in strong collabo- educational institutions and academic

18 19 artificial intelligence artificial intelligence

→ Figure 1: VideoStory: teaching Left: traditional, low-level representation of the video shown at the top. machines to interpret events Right: the results from the semantic VideoStory representation of the same video. in video footage

→ Teaching computers to automat- challenge involved in automatic → In order to fill the semantic gap to learn a valuable pixel-to-word ically interpret events in a video is interpretation of videos is to find between the visual features and the correlation, the authors propose video content, we proposed a an important and long-standing an efficient and informative rep- high-level video representation, in an algorithm that learns to com- challenge in the field of artificial resentation of the video. A rep- which each video is represented by bine the interrelated words so that intelligence. Given the growing resentation is an encoding, which its salient concepts, as shown in their correlation with the video Figure 1. This new representation, popularity of social media and encapsulates information present called VideoStory, is able to solve pixels become more visible. As video sharing websites such as in a video in a form that can be un- problems for which the traditional an example, consider the words → Figure 2: YouTube, Snapchat and Vimeo, derstood by computers. One way of low-level representations are not ‘bike’ and ‘motorcycle’. Instead of Examples of the YouTube videos and their captions that were used to train VideoStory. there is also a large societal de- representing videos is as a collec- applicable, including: extracting the correlation of each mand for this technology. Auto- tion of thousands of meaningless 1) Event search, where given a word individually with the video matic recognition of events in a low-level visual features extract- particular video as a query, the most pixels, they are first combined video could enable numerous new ed from the content. Examples of similar videos are found from a large to give a more abstract concept, © collection. For this purpose, the About the authors applications in robot perception, these could be a histogram of edg- similarity between the query and i.e. ‘vehicle’. Then the algorithm surveillance and environmental es as illustrated in → Figure 1 (left). each video is measured by matching learns how the ‘vehicle’ concept AMIRHOSSEIN HABIBIAN is monitoring. Recent advances in However, even the most advanced their VideoStory representations. is correlated with the video pix- a PhD candidate at the The experiments by the authors Intelligent Systems Lab of the the field of multimedia retrieval of visual representations of videos validate that the VideoStories are els. As is experimentally validat- University of Amsterdam. He information promises an exciting developed to date have failed to more effective than the current ed in the paper, by grouping the received his BSc in Software and feasible solution to this prob- enable the interpretation of these state-of-the-art approaches. interrelated words together their Engineering (2008) and his lem. We have recently proposed a videos. It is mainly because there 2) Video translation, whereby descrip- connection with the video pixels is MSc in Artificial Intelligence tive texts are generated by rendering (2011) from the Electrical new method to advance the auto- is a large semantic gap between the analysed video concepts into captured more effectively. We also and Computer Engineering matic interpretation of events in the low-level visual descriptors, sentences. These translations can show that the inexact nature of the Department of the University video. Our research was awarded such as edges and corners, and the be used to summarise what is hap- title words used for learning is no of Tehran, Iran. His research pening in the video in a few words, or interests include computer the best paper award at the 2014 high-level human understanding obstacle to obtaining high-qual- to serve as input for traditional text → Figure 3: vision, machine learning and ACM International Conference on of the videos. search engines like Google. ity annotations, as long as large information retrieval. Multimedia, which is the world- quantities are used. Moreover, for How VideoStory learns.

CEES SNOEK is a Principal wide premier conference in the From pixels to VideoStories video interpretation, VideoStory Engineer at Qualcomm Research multimedia field. VideoStories can be conceived as outperforms best-in-class low-lev- Netherlands and an Associate a projection of video pixels into el representations, with the addi- Professor at the Intelligent In this paper we describe an al- a set of words. The projection is tional benefit that interpretation Systems Lab of the University of Amsterdam. Previously gorithm that projects the pixels learned from a large training col- of the video content is provided he was at Carnegie Mellon of thousands of videos and their lection of videos and their textual for free. University, UC Berkeley and noisy (in the sense of inexact) captions by means of machine Euvision Technologies. His research interests focus on user-provided description onto learning techniques. The training Towards intelligent machines video and image retrieval. an intermediate multimedia rep- collections can be movies and their VideoStory represents videos by resentation, which is called a Vid- subtitles, news videos and their its salient concepts, which are THOMAS MENSINK is a eoStory. This new representation is transcription, web videos and automatically detected from the postdoctoral researcher at the Intelligent Systems exploited in two innovative video their surrounding comments; or video content. → Figure 4 high- Lab of the University of search engines. The first search -en YouTube videos and their titles, as lights three example videos and Amsterdam. He received a PhD gine allows automatic recognition shown in → Figure 2. their salient concepts. VideoStory degree from the University of Grenoble (France) in 2012, and retrieval of videos containing is not just a nice idea; experiments and a cum laude MSc degree in complex events such as 'birthday How does the training work? As- “The first and on more than 700 hours of inter- → Figure 4: Artificial Intelligence from party', 'flash mob', etc. The sec- suming correlations exist between net video footage demonstrate VideoStory representation for three video examples. Note how the content of the video footage on the left the University of Amsterdam ond search engine automatically the video pixels and the occurrenc- that VideoStory provides a much is described using the predicted terms in the representation on the right. in 2007. During his doctoral most important research, Thomas worked both translates any video into a set of es of words in the captions, we aim better representation for searching at the LEAR team of INRIA keywords best describing its visual for learning a high-dimensional challenge events in video than is current- Grenobe and at the Xerox content, thereby making digital joint space that embeds the pixel ly possible using low-level rep- Research Centre Europe. His involved in research interests include video as searchable as text, a me- and word correlations, as illus- resentations. Moreover, VideoSto- machine learning and computer dium in which Google and other trated in → Figure 3. The learned automatic ry allows translating video pixels vision, with a special search engines are already fluent. pixel-to-word correlations are then into text, a capability that existing interest in learning semantic The results show that our method used by the system to predict the methods cannot achieve. It is a representations for images. interpretation of outperforms the most advanced relevant words for each new input step toward the ultimate goal of → References algorithms for recognition and video, resulting in its VideoStory videos is to find developing intelligent machines, Amirhossein Habibian, Thomas translation of complex events in representation. which can understand whatever Mensink, and Cees G. M. Snoek, an efficient and Ω "VideoStory: A New Multimedia videos measured, using standard- they see. Embedding for Few-Example ized datasets. Often, the pixel-to-word correla- informative Recognition and Translation of tions cannot be effectively extract- Events," inProceedings of the How do computers ed for individual words. In cases ACM International Conference representation on Multimedia, Orlando, perceive videos? when words in captions appear too Florida, USA, 2014, pp. 17-26. The first and most important infrequent to allow VideoStory of the video”

20 21 biology questions for the dean

© → KAREN MAEX, THE PERSON I LIKE TO INVITE TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS Dean of the Science IN THE NEXT ISSUE IS … How mites, moths and Faculties of VU University and … THE CHAIR OF THE PHD COUNCIL: the University of ROGIER VLIJM butterflies acquired a Amsterdam bacterial gene to survive on Q some women. As a student I used poisonous plants 1. to play the violin in an orchestra. The first experiment I ever As a conductor you give guidance did was… to many so as to make something … in the second year of my Bach- creative and beautiful. Do I like to elor’s in Engineering. We had to lead? Maybe! design a lens that would follow the © In the evolutionary arms race lineages have managed to survive evolution, since genetic information sun. We used martensites - materi- NICKY WYBOUW and against herbivores, plants have cyanogenic plant defences has puz- is not transferred from parent to als that undergo a phase transfor- 6. THOMAS VAN LEEUWEN developed diverse and sophis- zled scientists for over a century. offspring but between non-related mation at around 30°C - such that I am most creative when… Thomas van Leeuwen, Associate ticated defence mechanisms. species. The mite beta-cyano-ala- their volume change could be used … I get bored! What I need to be Professor in the group Evolutionary Biology at IBED Plants can defend themselves A bacterial gene was hijacked to nine synthase gene must have been to move an optical structure. The creative is to ‘switch off’ my mind: Nicky Wybouw, PhD candidate against herbivores by, for detoxify cyanide from plants acquired early in evolution because idea was that this could be applied when I’m not working towards a in the group Evolutionary instance, forming defensive Using the fully annotated spider its DNA code has completely adjust- to solar cells. And it worked! goal I can let my thoughts flow. For Biology at IBED, University physical barriers, like thorns, or mite genome, we compared gene ed to that of the host. example, on vacation or when I of Amsterdam by releasing poisonous biochem- expression patterns of the spider am sick. That’s when the best ideas ical compounds, like cyanide. mite, T. urticae, adapted to cyano- Our study also suggests that the 2. come. During my research years I Over time, some herbivores have genic and to the non-cyanogenic evolution of cyanogenic defences in My constant source came up with ideas for most of my References caught up, developing the tools lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus). Sur- highly specialized Burnet moths and of inspiration is… experiments during a week off, due 1) Grbić, M. et al. (2011). ‘The genome of to counteract plant defences. prisingly, one of the differentially longwing butterflies was likely to be … poetry (my favorite poet is M. to illness! Tetranychus urticae reveals herbivorous pest adaptations.’ The plant-herbivore arms race expressed genes found in T. urticae mediated by the acquisition of the Vasalis), classical music, a little bit Nature 479.7374: 487-492. has been going on for millions of could only be found in the genomes bacterial beta-cyano-alanine syn- of sun and a blue sky, and above all years, and only recently are we of plant-feeding spider mites, moths thase gene. Over the course of time, … happy people. 7. 2) Jensen, N.B. et al. (2011). ‘Conver- gent evolution in biosynthesis of beginning to unravel how some and butterflies. This remarkable some butterflies have developed their If I could choose my field of study cyanogenic defence compounds in herbivores have surpassed even gene encodes for an enzyme called own tools to use cyanogenic glyco- and university once plants and insects.’ the most toxic of plant defences. beta-cyano-alanine synthase, which sides as defence against predators. 3. again I would choose … Nature Communications 2: 273. is able to detoxify gaseous cyanide In fact, upon attack, these butterflies One book that I recommend … Biomedical Engineering in When plants kill enemies by linking it onto the amino acid cleave the cyanogenic compounds to to all young scientists is… Amsterdam or New York. I really with cyanide cysteine and producing beta-cy- release cyanide gas using the same … Hans Kung’s Der Anfang aller like what I do, so given the option I A great number of plants, includ- ano-alanine molecules. We then enzymatic steps as plants. It seems Dinge (The beginning of all things). would want to do something sim- ing the lima bean, elderberry and searched for the presence of the likely that the enzyme encoded by It explains the position of scientists ilar but applied to a different field. passionflower, are able to synthesize beta-cyano-alanine synthase gene the transferred bacterial gene gave in the world as well as the role of Amsterdam and New York are my molecules enriched with cyanide, in other animals, plants and bacte- butterflies not only the necessary religions through the history of favorite cities. People are liberal and so-called cyanogenic glycosides. As ria to reconstruct its evolutionary cyanide resistance but also helped science. It should be obligatory vibrant. These are big cities but with such, cyanogenic glycosides are not origin. To our surprise, the beta-cy- them adopt their own cyanogenic reading for all students, regardless a warm and local atmosphere. harmful to the plant or to the herbi- ano-alanine synthase gene in mites defence mechanism. of their field of study. vores: cyanide is only poisonous in and butterflies had no homologues its gaseous phase. When herbivores in the animal kingdom: the gene Our results revealed how animals 8. feed on them, however, cyanogen- has a bacterial origin. Our results can adapt by incorporating novel 4. When I am not being a “Over the ic plants cleave the chemical bond showed that the beta-cyano-alanine genes from unrelated species, estab- If I headed the Ministry scientist I am mostly …. between the cyanide and the sugar synthase gene had been integrated lishing horizontal gene transfer as of Science the first thing I … a mother and a friend. I couldn’t course of time, molecule, releasing the deadly cy- independently into the ancestral ge- an additional evolutionary force. Ω would change is… have done it otherwise. Being a re- anide gas. nomes of mites and butterflies by … to stop checking up on what searcher and a mother are both full- some butter- means of horizontal gene transfer researchers have done, start trust- time jobs and have their challenges. In spite of the efficiency of plants' from leaf-living bacteria (Methylo- ing the system and facilitate what At any given time, there is always flies have cyanogenic defences, mites, moths bacterium species). Horizontal gene The research article researchers can do for the future. one job where things go well, either was published in developed and butterflies have shown a sur- transfer is a relatively new concept eLIFE journal: Time and money now spent on at work or at home, so it’s good to prising resistance to cyanide, in the evolutionary biology of an- http://elifesciences.org/ excessive administrative reporting have them both! their own tools thriving on cyanogenic plants. imals. It defies how Darwin saw content/3/e02365 tasks should be invested in enabling Some butterflies, like the six-spot new research. to use Burnet moth, are known spe- → Figure 1: cialists and feed exclusively on An adult Tetranychus cyanogenic cyanogenic plants. Spider mites, urticae female feeding 5. like the two-spotted spider mite on plant tissue If I had to change roles with a fa- glycosides Tetranychus urticae (Figure 1), © J Van Arkel mous person for one day, I would as defence generalist herbivores feeding on a choose to be… “Hans Kung's Der Anfang aller broad range of plant species, have … conductor of an orchestra like against also been recorded living and feed- that of Het Concertgebouw. There Dinge should be obligatory ing in great numbers on cyanogenic aren’t so many female conductors predators” plants. How these two arthropod so it’s the perfect place to bring in reading for all students”

A 22 23 alumni chemistry

Life after graduation Alumni in numbers “Green gold”: how to use

→ That very special moment of sity Association of UvA or the VU networking meetings and addition- sunlight smartly graduating: it may be years ahead Alumni Association, attend activ- al training. These activities provide Alumni 17254 or feel like ages ago. ities specific to their own degree an opportunity to reconnect with Either way, it does not have to programme, or share their valuable former fellow students, make in- mean the end of your involvement experience with the next genera- teresting new contacts and stay © → Sometimes the valorisation of Although the original idea of Pho- light. These advantages can truly MICHEL HARING in what happens at your Faculty. tion of students. abreast of scientific developments scientific results can look incredi- tanol focussed on the production of disrupt the world’s production of As an alumnus, there are so many Activities for science alumni are or- in your field. Check the alumni bly simple. Take the example of the biofuel by cyanobacteria, changes chemicals and fuels. We believe ways to stay connected. Alumni ganized at various times through- websites to find out about upcom- UvA start-up Photanol. In 2008, in the global fossil energy market that our technology will become can join the Amsterdam Univer- out the year and include lectures, ing events. two experts in the physiology of and the negative image that the the new standard in agriculture countries of residence 63 bacteria and algae, the UvA profes- word ‘biofuel’ had come to possess, with a very positive impact on the sors Klaas Hellingwerf and Joost because of the competition with environment. Due to the small Teixeira de Mattos decided to found arable land for food production, amount of water needed, and the a company to put their theory into forced the company to re-think use of non-arable land, there is no practice. They reasoned that algae their strategy. Now the inherent negative impact on food production (in this case cyanobacteria) could strength of the concept became or deforestation. On the short term use their photosynthetic machinery apparent: the modular structure of Photanol will start the production to produce building blocks for more the production process inside the of high value chemicals like fra- complex chemical compounds. cyanobacteria means that not just grances and low calorie sweeten- 73% 27% These compounds could be gener- lactic acid, but virtually anything ers. Our solution delivers products ated inside the cyanobacterium by carbon-based can be produced! with constant quality and supply, Source: UvA alumni office ”The (UvA Faculty of Science alumni) introducing a gene into the algae Given the fact that these cyano- in a market that is prone to supply Photanol- from another organism. In their bacteria themselves are simple issues due to variability of feed- patent application they described plants, generation of plant-based stock. The efficiency of the Photanol Want to read more? concept how this approach could be used compounds is the most promising technology will enable lower pro- www.uva.nl/science-alumni to produce lactic acid. Introduction approach. This time insertion of a duction costs compared to current www.vu.nl/en/alumni directly of the ldhB gene from a bacterium plant gene would suffice to make fermentation-based technologies. (Lactococcus lactis) would result cell factories that produce flavour In a later stage, Photanol’s business Reactions? transforms in the production of the enzyme or fragrance compounds, based model will be geared towards the [email protected] CO2 into NAD(P)H-dependent L-lactate on CO2 capture and the energy of licensing of technology. As our key Finished together. The first graduates of Amsterdam’s joint (VU+UvA) Bachelor’s degree programme in Chemistry. dehydrogenase, which is its turn sunlight only. After proving the competence is in developing new predetermined would transform the algae into production of fragrances via cy- strains to produce different chem- little lactic acid factories. This anobacteria was possible, Photanol icals, a licensing model enables us products when small organic compound can then attracted the attention of AkzoN- to grow faster without needing a alumni@work diffuse out of the cell and can be obel Speciality Chemicals, which large amount of cash to build man- exposed to harvested from the culture medi- resulted in a strategic collaboration ufacturing sites. In the long term, Where do the alumni of the Faculty of Science end up in the worldwide job market? This um. The lactic acid can then be used for the production of organic acids Photanol also envisions providing a edition zooms in on two alumni who have taken the short step into science communication. out how to write about scientif- light” as a feedstock in numerous other from September 2014. cost effective alternative production ic subjects in an accessible way. chemical processes so as to produce Now, in March 2015, Photanol em- technology for bulk chemicals and I managed to attract a publisher the building blocks for plastics or ploys fifteen scientists, both chem- fuels. This will enable substantial and we wrote a book titled In de biofuels. ists and microbiologists. The pilot capacity for CO2 capture and will toekomst is alles fantastisch (Life The Photanol-concept thus trans- factory has now outgrown both the truly change the way we source our will be fantastic in the future). It forms CO2 into predetermined UvA-greenhouse and the Science commodity chemicals and fuels”. even made the shortlist for the 2007 products when the cyanobacteria Park. Chief Scientific Officer of Pho- Photanol is a real success story and NWO Eureka Prize celebrating the are exposed to light. tanol, Michiel Lensink, explains: an excellent illustration very close best popular scientific book in the “The Photanol-concept directly to home of how science and busi- Netherlands. General formula transforms CO2 into predeter- ness can successfully interact in an Edda alongside my courses. Because I Tim I now run my own lab at Boston Photanol concept: mined products when exposed to academic environment. Ω had to read a large number of pa- College, where I’m studying in- light + CO2  building blocks Heinsman pers during my studies, I learned van Opijnen fectious diseases. As a researcher + extra enzyme  product + → Figure 1: → Member of the editorial staff at how to scan through articles and I still contribute to popularising oxygen Photanol Laboratory at Science Park De Kennis van Nu, a Dutch plat- identify the main points quickly. → Founder of Sciencepalooza.nl science, for example through Sci- Amsterdam (source: Photanol bv) form for online, radio and TV items Moreover, I knew how to critically (blog) and the Discovery Festival encepalooza.nl. Doing so makes Specific formula about science assess research results. It helped I first started mobilising people on my work even more diverse and light + CO2  pyruvate + “My Astronomy curriculum in- that I wasn’t intimidated by mathe- issues I cared about as a Biology allows me to meet an even wider lactate dehydrogenase  cluded practical training and small- matical equations. Developing new student. range of people - something that I lactic acid + oxygen scale projects at a large number of items is the best part of my job. I “While the courses I took laid a consider to be the best thing about institutes including Nikhef, AMC- love contacting people, getting out strong foundation to write knowl- my job. Boston is really the place After first providing proof of con- UvA and AMOLF. This diversity in the world, consulting with re- edgeably about science, serving as to be. The possibilities are endless, cept in their research laboratories, really appealed to me and I discov- searchers and finding interesting a board member at CONGO and and you run into leading academics Photanol’s founders started a pilot ered that I enjoy talking and writ- topics to explain and illustrate.” organising several symposia taught on an almost daily basis.” factory in 2012, which was housed ing about science in the broadest me important organisational skills. in the greenhouse at Science Park sense. I got the opportunity to do → Insider’s advice As a PhD student at the AMC-UvA, → Insider’s advice and funded by UvA Holding. This a work placement at Het Klokhuis, Don’t reveal your scientific background I got the sense that young scientists There are lots of people trying to break facility attracted much attention a Dutch educational children’s TV when you’re meeting a researcher for weren’t getting the media attention into science journalism, with few and resulted in investment from a the first time. Otherwise, they tend to positions available. But if this is what programme, where I was basical- start using jargon and stop explaining they deserve. So I started a writing gives you energy and drives you, you venture capital source (ICOS cap- ly able to get started right away, things in real detail. club with a few friends to figure just have to go for it! ital) in 2013.

24 25 fun about Amsterdam Science

Puzzle Short information www.amsterdamscience.org about magazine Can you find one unique digit for

Biomedical Sciences each letter in the summation below MICHEL HARING Professor of Plant ANNE VAN DE POEL Physiology - editor in Master’s student Basic to make it work? chief and Applied Neuroscience MARK GOLDEN CORALIE PLUUT Professor of Condensed Head of Communications, Please note that the Matter Physics – editor SIX6 Faculty of Science, UvA in chief digits 6 and 2 are ELINE VAN DILLEN HAMIDEH AFSARMANESH already taken. SIX6 Communications advisor, Professor of Federated Faculty of Science, UvA Collaborative Networks editor in chief SIX6 HELEEN VERLINDE Magazine manager SABINE SPIJKER before April 30th SIX6 Professor of Molecular Neuroscience - editor in mail the answer to chief [email protected] SIX6 ↓Back row Front row: HARRY BUHRMAN (left to right): Dorota Kawa, Mark Golden, Eline van Dillen, Professor of Quantum win Hamideh Afsarmanesh, Anne van de Poel, Computing the first ten correct answers will SIX6 Harry Buhrman, Heleen Verlinde, win an Amsterdam Science T-shirt Michel Haring, Héctor Serna NOUSHINE SHAHIDZADEH + SIX6 Jeroen Zuiddam Chavez Associate professor of Soft Matter

Amsterdam HANS VAN DER SPEK Science ------Assistant professor of →Amsterdam Science gives Mas- Editorial Board Molecular Biology and ter’s students, PhD students and The editorial board of Amsterdam Microbial Food Safety FORTY2 researchers a platform for com- Science consists of Master’s stu- municating their latest and most JOCELYNE VREEDE dents, PhD students and other re- Assistant professor of interesting findings to a broad searchers of the science faculties of Computational Chemistry cartoon audience. This is an opportunity both the University of Amsterdam to show each other and the rest of and VU University Amsterdam. RENÉE VAN AMERONGEN the world the enormous creativity, Assistant professor of quality, diversity and enthusiasm Molecular Cytology that characterises the Amsterdam science community. MONALISA GOSWAMI Amsterdam Science covers all re- PhD researcher Catalysis

search areas being pursued in Am- DOROTA KAWA sterdam: mathematics, chemistry, PhD researcher Plant astronomy, physics, biological and Physiology biomedical sciences, health sciences, ecology, earth and environmen- HÉCTOR SERNA CHAVEZ tal sciences, forensic science, com- PhD researcher puter science, logic and cognitive Computational Geo-Ecology sciences. JEROEN ZUIDDAM PhD researcher Algorithms and Complexity

JULIENKA MOLLEE PhD researcher BART GROENEVELD Artificial Intelligence

YASH SATSANGI PhD researcher Informatics

Are you eager to share your exciting research with others? Are there develop- SARAH BRANDS share ments in your field that we all should know about? And are you conducting your send an email research at one of the Amsterdam universities or science institutes? Send a mail to Master’s student Have a look at our website (link) and upload your submission for consideration for [email protected] Astronomy a future issue of Amsterdam Science. Alternatively, send us an email or have a look at our website & Astrophysics ([email protected]). www.amsterdamscience.org One of the editors will contact you, primed to hear about your exciting story or SWIP DRAIJER striking image, and to discuss with you how it could reach a broad audience via Master’s student publication in the magazine.

2026 perspective

André Kuipers

≥ Three years ago my space mission PromISSe took off from the launch pad in Baikonur, Kazachstan. In reality, I started my mission years before that particular day, while preparing and being trained for my work in space.

I am still invited to speak about the unique perspective I had as an astronaut. This often refers to the view I had from space on planet Earth, while orbiting our planet as a living satellite. Indeed: this perspective is unique. Flying along a wall of water, while crossing the Pacific Ocean, witnessing the moon rise from a very thin atmosphere, set against the deep black backdrop of the cosmos, and the ever-changing pattern of clouds and landscapes changed my view on life forever. I will continue to share my experiences and my respect for our planet that makes all life possible.

Yet, there is another perspective I had as an astronaut: the perspective on technology, science and people. During my two space missions I was “Be inspired: privileged to work with the most passionate people imaginable: the smart- est engineers, the brightest scientists, gifted inventors, people who link my out-of-the-box thinking to discipline and perseverance. perspective on I recognize these qualities in many people who work in science. Whether Amsterdam they face technological challenges, tackle tough scientific problems or work on economically or socially relevant applications; they are always Science” passionate about their work. Exactly this is the prerequisite to get one step further in your own field, time and time again. Yet, to be able to achieve a common goal, one that is possibly incredibly complex, like spaceflight, it is important to speak each other’s language, both literally and figuratively, and to transcend different cultures and reach out to different disciplines. Why? Because of what the view from space makes plainly clear: everything is related.

Therefore I support this new magazine Amsterdam Science. It is a fantastic way to share your findings with your colleagues and fellow students, here and abroad, but also with the general public and the rest of the world. Let yourself be inspired and help make our planet a better place. Ω

Amsterdam Science­

Amsterdam Science