Recharge overview
Adopted children retain unconscious knowledge of forgotten birth language
Do adopted children forget everything they have learned about their native language when they learn their new language? Or is knowledge about that language still hidden somewhere in the brain? New research by linguists Wencui Zhou, Anne Cutler and Mirjam Broersma on Dutch children who were adopted from China shows that abstract knowledge persists.
Freeze to decide
A threat! One person runs away while the other faces the fight. How do we decide what to do? Research shows that our body’s freeze reaction plays a role in these types of decisions.
How are the Dutch Olympians prepared for the heat of Tokyo?
The Olympic Games will take place in extreme weather conditions, which increases the risk for performance loss and the development of heat related illnesses. Dutch Olympians of TeamNL have prepared for these challenging conditions based on a personal acclimation and cooling advice after participation in a study led by researchers from Radboud university medical center.
Using the summer holidays as an exercise in time perception
Monk and Professor of Liturgy, Thomas Quartier, claims that something extraordinary has happened to our perception of time since the outbreak of the coronavirus. ‘Time has become endless.’ According to his advice, we should use our time off during the summer holidays to reinstate the demarcation lines.
How to cope abroad when you do not speak the language
Hand gestures, facial expressions, or simply pointing things out can all go a long way to helping you cope when you are abroad. However, you will need to learn to speak the language if you want to have a more meaningful conversation. The good news is that when it comes to learning, hand gestures can also be useful.
Dark tourism: chasing death
Taking a trip to Auschwitz or visiting the tunnel where Princess Diana died are examples of dark tourism. It involves travelling to places that are associated with death and has proven to be quite popular. Although there are a number of ethical dilemmas associated with this form of tourism, its popularity is not set to decline over the next few years. “There’s money in this type of tourism, which means that the demand is only going to increase.”
What ‘kudos’ can do for your motivation and sports pleasure
Do sports apps like Strava make exercise more fun or do they get in the way of pleasure? And how do they affect motivation? Vox editor and amateur cyclist Ken Lambeets got on his bicycle and explored the ‘athletes’ Facebook’.
Too much to sense at once
Imagine that every detail you see, hear or smell triggers your thoughts simultaneously. From every tiny inscription on the packaging to all the massive sales signs, from a nearby whisper to the distant traffic… It is all too much to sense at once: this is what sensory overload feels like.
The walk of the world: a march through history
For the initiators of Waalpaintings, a project that represents the history of Nijmegen with murals, the Nijmegen Four Days Marches are a walking history book. A painting about the largest multi-day hiking event in the world cannot be missing in the project. 'Not only the history of the city of Nijmegen, but also the national and international history can be seen in this event.'
From quantum gravity to strange metals
A team led by researchers from HFML-FELIX at Radboud University has now shown that the golden rules of ordinary metals do not hold for a certain type of superconductors. Only the theory that comes from the string theoretic approach known as quantum gravity is able to explain this observed behaviour. It would be a first clue of physics far beyond the usual model of metals and would bring two seemingly disparate fields – condensed matter and quantum gravity - together.
Memorial tourism: Reflecting on the past, looking towards the future
Cycling along the battlefields of World War I, to the beaches of Normandy where the final phase of World War II was ushered in in June 1944 or visiting the Anne Frank House – tourists who take the time to reflect on war and peace are less unusual than you might think. And you don’t even have to travel that far to find such places: when it comes to World War II memorial sites, the Province of Gelderland - the main battle ground in the Netherlands and the most affected province - has several locations that you can visit.
The seasonal brain
We can all agree that weather and seasonal changes affect us. But how much this has to do with our brain?
‘Holidays are vital to your career’
Crowds are swelling once again at Schiphol, the CoronaCheck app for accessing borders is overloaded, and demand for the Janssen vaccine is high. All of this should tell us what we already know: we are all in desperate need of a summer holiday. Beatrice van der Heijden, Professor of Strategic Human Resource Management at Radboud University, discusses the reasons why holidays may also be critical to your career.
Lack of consideration of sex and gender in COVID-19 clinical studies
Although COVID-19 affects men and women differently, the large majority of current clinical studies of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 makes no mention of sex/gender.
How we can travel and still reduce our environmental footprint
Now that the world is slowly opening up again, we will start travelling more for our work and holidays. Environmental scientist Joyce Bosmans explains how we can reduce our environmental footprint as much as possible.
Gamification in education is more than just a game
Games are no longer just for fun. In teaching for example, game elements are increasingly used to improve motivation and learning among students and pupils. But does gamification actually work?
‘Every thought that you have increases the chaos in the universe’
What can astronomy teach us about the meaning of life? Professor Heino Falcke is one of the scientists behind the very first photos of a black hole. In our online interview, he talks about the journey through outer space, and what this can teach us about who we are - and what we believe in.
Economists shed new light on the mutability of ethnicity
For a long time, economists considered ethnicity an immutable fact. But PhD candidate Robbert Rademakers’ research shows that people can and do change their ethnicity. The paper he wrote with André van Hoorn has been accepted by the leading Journal of Development Economics.
Warmer lakes harbor slower methane consumers
Radboud University ecologists carrying out a long-term freshwater experiment have discovered that a shift in the types of bacteria living in the water may be the reason that warmer lakes produce more greenhouse gas emissions
Why Radboud University purchased a medieval prayer book
The university came across a unique fifteenth-century prayer book thanks to Radboud Heritage. The manuscript is now the official property of Radboud University. But how does one acquire such a unique book? And perhaps more importantly: why would you buy it in the first place? The Radboud Heritage team offers a behind-the-scenes look at the acquisition and collection-building process.