Leiden Institute of Physics

How can we detect gravitational waves? 🌌 🔭 Distances shrink and stretch almost immeasurably when a gravitational wave passes by. So you need an incredibly sensitive telescope to measure them: the Einstein Telescope! 💡 Leiden scientists and companies receive 1.37 million euros to develop vibration-dampening technology for the Einstein Telescope. Their expertise in quantum and low vibrations at extremely cold temperatures will help the underground telescope reach the required sensitivity. 👉 Read more now: https://lnkd.in/epQeVJ95 Bas Hensen, Max Kouwenhoven, Luciano Gottardi, Onnes Technologies, SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research

🎉 Celebrating the Grand Opening of the Gorlaeus Building! 🎉  Today, we proudly opened our new Gorlaeus Building! With confetti, stilt walkers, and the launch of the stunning Einstein Fountain, it was a day filled with celebration. 🌟 Together, Dean Jasper Knoester and President of the Executive Board Annetje Ottow pressed the button to activate the Einstein Fountain, designed by physicist Vincent Icke. The 74 water sprayers beautifully simulate light in a rotating black hole. ✨ 🌊 Next, Constantijn Van Oranje-Nassau, Special Envoy from Techleap, together with our students, cut the ribbon to mark the occasion. Dean Jasper Knoester highlights: ‘The building is here; now it’s up to our students and researchers to lay the foundation for tomorrow’s knowledge and innovation.’ 🏛️ In a talk show prior to the festivities, various involved people discussed the development of the building and the future of the faculty. In the first part, the architects from INBO, Sweco Architects and EX Interiors, along with project director Ramon Janssen from Heijmans Construction Company, looked back on the design phase and 13 years of construction. Rob van Wijk, now an assistant professor but 13 years back still a student who also happened to be our assessor, looked back on his contribution: at the time, he drove the first sheet pile into the ground to mark the start of construction. Our new assessor Berber Verhalle, praised the building’s role in enhancing student connections and providing a welcoming space with modern lecture halls, a bar, and study areas. 👩🏽🏫 📚 ‘Just as important as the building itself is the impact we aim to achieve with it,’ said Dean Jasper Knoester. The second part of the show focused on the state-of-the-art facilities, innovation, and collaboration within Leiden Bio Science Park and beyond. Together with the faculty's top researchers, this makes the new Gorlaeus Building a starting point for growth and innovation. 🚀🔬    Here’s to a new chapter of growth and discovery! 🎉

🇳🇱 ⏱️ In recordtijd DNA-gedrag onthullen 🧬 Het is nu mogelijk om miljoenen DNA-moleculen binnen een week meten in plaats van jaren tot decennia, dankzij een nieuwe techniek van Delft University of Technology en Leiden University 👉 https://edu.nl/xxuby ⏩⏲️ Tot nu toe was het één voor één onderzoeken van DNA-moleculen een langzaam proces. Biofysici Ivo Severins, Carolien Bastiaanssen, Sung Hyun Kim, Chirlmin Joo en John van Noort ontwikkelden een techniek die het onderzoek van individuele DNA-moleculen minstens duizend keer sneller maakt. 💡💊 Door te bestuderen hoe afzonderlijke DNA-moleculen zich gedragen, kunnen we genetische aandoeningen beter begrijpen en betere medicijnen ontwerpen. - - - 🇬🇧 🧬 Revealing DNA behaviour in record time ⏱️ It is now possible to measure millions of DNA molecules within a week instead of years to decades, thanks to a new technique from Delft University of Technology and Leiden University 👉 https://edu.nl/7utcj ⏩⏲️Until now, examining DNA molecules one-by-one was a slow process. Biophysicists Ivo Severins, Carolien Bastiaanssen, Sung Hyun Kim, Chirlmin Joo and John van Noort developed a technique that speeds up screening of individual DNA molecules at least a thousand times. 💡💊 Studying how single DNA molecules behave helps us to better understand genetic disorders and design better drugs. #DNA #singlemolecule #sequencing #genetherapy #medicine #innovation #science #technology

Quantum at Lowlands, that must be a first! 🎶⚛️ How cool is it that Julia Cramer and Vincent Koeman got to take their pop-up exhibition to the festival to study its effectiveness? With hundreds of participants from all backgrounds, it is the perfect spot to do science communication research.

Blij met onze publicatie in Physical Review Research! Daarin brengen we in kaart wat de huidige experimentele grenzen zijn van een nieuwe theorie die zwaartekracht (onze alledaagse wereld 🌍) en kwantummechanica (de wereld van het allerkleinste 🔬) met elkaar probeert te verenigen - ook wel bekend als een "theorie van alles". Zo'n theorie is belangrijk als we willen begrijpen hoe zwarte gaten werken en hoe ons heelal eruitzag net na de Big Bang. In ons paper reageren we op een voorstel van onze collega-natuurkundige Jonathan Oppenheim, die voorstelt dat ruimte en tijd eigenlijk diffuus zijn, een beetje wazig. Dat betekent dat je niet meer precies weet hoe laat het is of waar je je bevindt in de ruimte. Een nieuwe interpretatie van de zwaartekrachtstheorie van Einstein dus. Met experimenten uit labs over de hele wereld, waaronder ook ons eigen lab in Leiden, brengen we preciezer in kaart hoe realistisch deze nieuwe manier van kijken naar zwaartekracht is. 📄 Lees hier ons paper: https://lnkd.in/eS-bpNzh 🗞 En lees vooral ook het interview met Jonathan Oppenheim over zijn theorie in de Volkskrant: https://lnkd.in/e9G5F9J5 Dennis Uitenbroek Loek van Everdingen Jaimy Plugge Bas Hensen Tjerk Oosterkamp

Our former scientific director Jan Aarts does not sit idle after his retirement! He leads the Quantum Leiden hub of Quantum Delta NL, temporarily oversees the national education initiatives in the ecosystem and is committed to strengthening the connection between Leiden research and Una Europa. 🙏 👉 Read more about his work at our institute: https://lnkd.in/eV-TFp32

The paper “Orbital Angular Momentum of Light and the Transformation of Laguerre-Gaussian Laser Modes,” published in 1992 by a team of researchers from Leiden University, among whom was cosine Founder and Managing Director Prof. Dr Marco Beijersbergen, has reached 10,000 citations. The paper, which introduced the concept of orbital angular momentum of light and methods to generate it with laser beams, has been a cornerstone in the fields of optics and physics. Its influence was already recognized by its election as one of the “Three Classics” papers in the 50-year history of Physical Review by the American Physical Society. This significant milestone underscores the profound impact of their research on the scientific community! Read more about it on our website: https://lnkd.in/gggjdA7H

🔥 Vincent Koeman and Julia Cramer are taking their quantum research to Lowlands Science! 🧑🔬🎉 Their pop-up exhibition about quantum is travelling across the country to find out whether festival-goers view the world of the smallest particles differently after visiting the expo. 🧐 Vincent explains why his research is so important: 'Quantum is going to have a big impact on society. If people become more interested and want to know more about a particular technology, the acceptance of that technology also increases and its introduction into society is easier.' Not a big fan of festivals? You can also see the exhibition for yourself at the BplusC, Bibliotheek plus Centrum voor kunst en cultuur library in Leiden until August 13! 💡 #LowlandsScience #LL24 #LLScience #LLFest

Congratulations to Alessandra Silvestri, who has been appointed as one of the four Core Cosmology coordinators in the Euclid Consortium! 👏 🤩 🧠 This means she is now part of the very restricted group of scientists that steer the science of the whole consortium consisting of ~2000 members. Euclid is an European Space Agency - ESA mission that will create the most detailed map of the universe ever made. 🌌 'What is particularly exciting for me and my colleagues working in theory, is that it is the first time that a member of the Theory Working Group in Euclid becomes part of the Science Coordination Group. Traditionally, the four Core Cosmology coordinators have been observational scientists studying weak lensing and galaxy clustering, the two main probes of Euclid. And now finally, a theorist makes it in there! This is crucial for achieving the best possible synergy among observers and theorists in anticipation of the first data release.' #Euclid #ESAEuclid

Can humans observe a single particle of light?🕯👀 And why do we want to know this in the first place? Well, Wolfgang Löffler, Tom van der Reep and Steffi Blankers have the answer!💡 ‘The eye is a passageway to the brain. So if we shoot single photons, particles of light, into someone’s eye, that might teach us something about how our brain works.’ 🧠 👉 Read the article now: https://lnkd.in/efjPmsXY