A guest column appears on Kennislink every two weeks. The columnist is always a different researcher, who writes from his or her field about the science behind an event in society or from our daily lives. This week:Aukje Lettinga of the International Institute of Social History on radioactive water
Columbus discovered America. Or was it the Vikings? Neither, really, because America had long been inhabited by humans. Even thousands of years earlier than previously thought:around 15,000 years ago, before the Clovis civilization. America has been inhabited by humans for over ten thousand years.
Sixteen hundred years ago, in the summer of 410, Rome was taken and sacked by the Goths. The event is regarded as the beginning of the final downfall of the Roman Empire. In recent decades, however, there has been a lively historiographical debate about this. The question is:did the Roman Empire fal
Financial crisis, inflation or the collapse of the feudal system are not matters directly associated with ancient Rome. Yet that is the case. Rome did not have a developed banking system, but entrepreneurs played a central role in the economy. Only they could not manifest themselves too openly. For
Dmitri Medvedev, Harry Truman and Louis XV have something in common with the Roman emperor Tiberius:to increase their legitimacy they ruled in the spirit of their predecessor. Tiberius, the saddest of all men, was 55 when he succeeded his stepfather Augustus. In an effort to win the appreciation of
Around 1600 Leiden University had a major tourist attraction:the anatomical theatre. Here, doctors dissected the corpses of criminals in public. Not because of the sensation but because knowledge of man would lead to an understanding of creation and God. This happened in several places in Europe. Ho
Last November a gold treasure was excavated in the Maastricht district of Amby that turned out to come from the Eburones, predecessors of the Batavians. This Celtic tribe lived in the 1st century BC. in the Dutch-Belgian border area, until he was massacred by the Romans. Or is it different? The disc
More than two thousand years ago, in AD 9, Rome suffered one of the most ignominious defeats in its history. In a surprise attack by the Germans led by Hermann der Cherusker, better known as Arminius, 18,000 soldiers, led by the Roman governor Varus, were cut to pieces near the Teutoburg Forest. Cla
When you think of Roman gladiators, everyone will think of strong men competing against each other in the arena in a fight to the death. Careful study of the sources has convinced historians that women also fought as gladiators. This gives cause to reconsider material sources:isnt the tough gladiato
My God. My God, have mercy on me and this poor people. Those would have been William of Oranges last words before Balthasar Gerards murdered him on 10 July 1584 in the Prinsenhof in Delft. Many people know those words by heart. A new interpretation of the original autopsy report from 1584 recently s
April 15, 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. National Geographic Channel takes a look back at Belfast, the city where the Titanic was built, with Felix Maginn. How did the ships construction affect the city, and what happened after it sank? On April 15, 1912, the passenger
Maria Skłodowska-Curie, together with her husband Pierre, was the first to conduct systematic research into radioactivity. She discovered two new chemical elements based on the phenomenon. Kennislink did a fictional interview with the diligent but publicity-shy scientist from Poland. Together with
Within physics he is placed in the same category as Einstein or Newton. Yet he is often an unknown name to the outside world:James Clerk Maxwell. He took crucial steps in understanding electricity, magnetism and light. Possibly his brave character was the reason for his relatively limited fame. The
The fifth Week of the Classics will take place from Tuesday 17 to Thursday 26 April. Time to dive back into the Classics and choose your favorite book about Antiquity. As part of the fifth Week of the Classics, the History &Archeology editors of Kennislink have once again listed a number of recentl
Why was the cradle of mankind located at Lake Turkana in Africa? Earth scientist José Joordens is well aware:Lake Turkana was an inexhaustible source of water, even during dry periods. It is hot and dry, in the vast desert plain that forms the border between Kenya and Ethiopia. A trip to Lake Turka
It was 3 a.m. on November 9, 1979, when the bedside telephone of Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser to US President Jimmy Carter, started ringing alarmingly. On the line was William Odom, one of Brzezinskis military aides. “The Soviet Union has launched 250 nuclear missiles in our direct
It turns out to be only 14,500 to 11,500 years old, the strange human skull that was found in 1979 by a Chinese geologist in a cave in Longlin, in southern China. An international team of archaeologists recently analyzed the skull extensively using modern techniques. The skull now appears to have al
The university:not only a place for groundbreaking research, but also a true training factory. Who are the kneaders and molders of the new generation of academics? Where do students hang on to their teachers lips, and where do they fall asleep? Kennislink puts it to the test and goes back to the lec
During an investigation into captured letters, a letter from skipper Tjebbe Rinkes was found. At the end of October 1780 he gave it to a colleague in Lisbon, but on the way to Holland the English intercepted the boat. The letter never reached his wife Fok Sierds in Warns, but ended up in the Nationa
In the rich medieval book collection of the University Library in Leiden, a special manuscript was discovered by Erik Kwakkel, researcher at the Faculty of Humanities. It concerns a book from the first half of the eleventh century that was made entirely from waste from the processing of animal skins
Replacing gates and wickets and carrying a cart to the roof of the barn are just some of the slightly eccentric, but also forgotten old customs and New Years Eve pranks. The magical atmosphere of one such night of the year made our ancestors come up with the strangest ideas. Where did New Years Ev
A good diplomat knows that serving the Homeland requires sacrifice. Especially from the liver. When he risks his own health by drinking the obligatory sea of vodka, he must remember not to splash something. And not to compromise myself or my country ... Veterans of the diplomatic service say t
Half of todays Germany belonged to the Slavs a thousand years ago. Today there is almost no trace of them there. This was due to a series of mishaps. Here are the top 5 of them. As a warning. 5. The hunter becomes the game In 955, the coalition of the Lutykos and Obodrites (the two largest tri
1413 year. King Jagiełło still does not have a male heir. The conspirators want to put a descendant of the Hohenzollern on the throne. Meanwhile, there is a series of cruel killings. From dawn, they traversed tall, un-strewn oak-hornbeam trees, an icy thicket of oaks, beeches, hornbeams and firs,