From rugby refereeing to film and television work, a poll reveals scientists’ first jobs and what they learnt from them. Nature Rosemary Green had many side jobs as a PhD student. Most of them bring back fond memories — but not all. She wouldn’t recommend taking part in a battle scene for the 2011 superhero film Thor, for example, because for her it involved “lying in mud for ten hours and getting really, really cold”. Green, who now researches diet
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If Geert Wilders’s party can form government, it could restrict international students and scrap key climate policies. Science Magazine Last week, a day after voters in the Netherlands delivered a surprise victory to far-right parties that have vowed to restrict immigration, Vinod Subramaniam, a nanoscientist and president of the board at the University of Twente, sent a letter to students and employees. “We are concerned about the effects of these results on higher education in general, and about the feelings
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Many scientists credit teenage jobs and university or summer side roles for imparting important transferable skills and valuable life experiences. Nature When Vijay Ravikumar was in secondary school, he would go on long evening walks with his best friend, exploring the city they lived in: Chicago, Illinois. One night in 2000, they passed a rundown shopfront. In the window, many puppets were on display, and a sign read: “Apprentice wanted”. Ravikumar, now a mathematician, had no particular affinity for puppets,
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Investigation: Rare adverse reactions after Covid vaccinations After the introduction of the Covid vaccinations, an international community evolved consisting of patients who developed serious, Long-Covid like complaints after their shot. Doctors and scientists are slowly seeing these injuries. "Someone has to stand up for these people." De Groene Amsterdammer (Dutch national weekly), february 2, 2023 / Images: Milo Cardiologist Bernhard Schieffer had planned to take it easy during his final years leading up to his retirement. The professor and
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Science Magazine, 29-4-2021 / online 27-4-2021 The Eurovision Song Contest, known best for its over-the-top performances and outrageous costumes, has a new feature this year: It will be the site of a massive field experiment to see whether concerts and other events can be held safely in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nine rehearsals and televised shows, staged 18–22 May in Rotterdam, Netherlands, will each be attended by 3500 visitors who will have to show a recent negative SARS-CoV-2
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Science Magazine Severe allergy-like reactions in at least eight people who received the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech over the past 2 weeks may be due to a compound in the packaging of the messenger RNA (mRNA) that forms the vaccine’s main ingredient, scientists say. A similar mRNA vaccine developed by Moderna, which was authorized for emergency use in the United States on Friday, also contains the compound, polyethylene glycol (PEG). PEG has never been used before
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"I thought everyone would be going down the elimination path and follow the success of Asia." Reporters Online Exclusive While populations across Europe and North America are preparing for a harsh winter and the most austere Christmas in ages, their fellows in a country far away are in an entirely different situation. Early in the pandemic, New Zealand decided to go for elimination of the coronavirus. At just 100 cases and zero deaths, the experts ascertained they were - just
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The growing group of people who get sick twice suggests protection can wane relatively quickly. Or something else might be happening. Science Magazine In late June, Sanne de Jong developed nausea, shortness of breath, sore muscles, and a runny nose. At first, she thought it might be lingering effects from her COVID-19 infection in the spring. De Jong, 22, had tested positive on 17 April and suffered mild symptoms for about 2 weeks. She tested negative on 2 May—just in
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Global Public Health Professor Devi Sridhar What should we do to save and improve WHO? What has made the difference between the strategy in countries such as England, Sweden and the Netherlands and many others across Europe? And what lessons from the first months should we apply now? I asked Devi Sridhar, professor of Global Public Health. Reporters Online exclusive interview It’s quite a miracle that in between all her other duties, Devi Sridhar found the opportunity to talk to
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The corona crisis painfully exposes the vulnerabilities of the usually dominant West. Not the virus itself, but society will determine how we get out of this. (Translation of article published in De Groene Amsterdammer on May 27th 2020) On Tuesday May 20th, a remarkable situation occurred during the technical briefing on the coronavirus in the Dutch House of Representatives. In reaction to messages from the attentive twitterer Edwin Veldhuizen, Jaap van Dissel (Director of the Centre for Infectious Disease Control
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