Recharge overview
Is love blind? Assortative mating says “no”
What qualities do we look for in our search for “the one”? Evidence from assortative mating might surprise you. This blog will tell you why.
Drought is damaging our ecosystems: beavers set a good example
There has been no shortage of hot weather in recent summers. But water is becoming increasingly scarce. Although more rain has been recorded in the last century, drought is becoming a chronic problem. And that problem could get even worse in the future: “The greenhouse gases released when aquatic ecosystems dry out cause even higher temperatures.”
‘Students back then weren’t focused on society at all, were they?’
Officially, Dolly Verhoeven said goodbye as professor by special appointment of Nijmegen History last year. But on 28 August, she will present her farewell book Het Nijmegengevoel (‘That Nijmegen Feeling’). For the book, she interviewed dozens of Nijmegen locals who played a role in city life in recent decades. Het Nijmegengevoel. Een naoorlogse stadsgeschiedenis is a post-war city history published by Vantilt. This is an excerpt from the chapter on Nijmegen as a student city, with a prominent role by former prime minister and Radboud alumnus Dries van Agt.
Curaçao slave register and emancipation registers online
Last week, the Curaçao slave register (1839-1863) and emancipation registers (1863) became available online via the websites of the Curaçao and Dutch National Archives. This project is a collaboration between Radboud University, the Curaçao National Archive, and the University of Curaçao Dr Moises Da Costa Gomez, with the support of the National Archives of the Netherlands.
'Embrace the heat': working from home in a heatwave
It’s extremely warm at the moment, with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius. How can you possibly work well from home in a warm attic room without air conditioning? Professor of Physiology Maria Hopman shares some useful tips. Like: “Expose yourself to the heat”.
Hedonism is as important as self-control for a happy life
Enjoying activities that don’t contribute directly to long-term goals, such as relaxing on the couch or eating delicious food, contributes at least as much to a happy life as self-control, according to new research from the University of Zurich and Radboud University. The researchers therefore argue for a greater appreciation of hedonism in psychology. Their findings were published published on July 27 in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Is everyday Googling affecting our brains?
Let’s be honest. Would you feel 100% comfortable with sharing your Google search history? We ask Google about everything, from recipes to quick and dirty medical diagnoses. Google seems to be a great friend of ours. Is this the case for our brains too?
Are we egocentric when we speak?
In a conversation, we often take into account the knowledge of the other person. You will probably talk differently, less technically, to your family about your work or studies than to your colleagues. But do we take others into account in every situation? And do some people do this more often than others?
We are more creative than we think
The Nobel prize winner Linus Pauling used to say “I think I think harder, think more than other people do” to explain his remarkable creative performances. And he was probably right: not everyone could have unravelled the mystery of how atoms are arranged and bounded together (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1954). Yet, does it mean that creativity isn’t within everyone’s reach? What is creativity really and how can we master it?
How we ‘hear’ the shape of a drum
How is it that we can recognise the shape of an object despite only seeing a limited range of wave lengths? Radboud mathematician Walter van Suijlekom explains in a new publication in the journal Communications in Mathematical Physics on 14 July. ‘We can compare this to MP3s: with a limited range of sound waves, we easily get the impression we are listening to an analogue recording of music.’ This finding eventually means that we should be able to calculate the shape of our universe.