news 2025

Mitochondria, tiny energy factories in muscle cells, were long thought to function poorly in people with type 1 diabetes. But new research from physiologist Richie Goulding of VU Amsterdam challenges this idea, showing that lifestyle and fitness, not diabetes itself, have the biggest impact on muscle health.

A comprehensive new study by econometrician Philip Hans Franses of Erasmus School of Economics, analysing the relationship between Chinese loans and economic growth across 49 African countries, reveals a striking conclusion: in general, Chinese loans do not associate with significant positive economic development on the continent.

Analysing gravity data collected by spacecraft orbiting the moon reveals groundbreaking insights about the Moon-s deep internal structure without having to land on the surface. The study offers evidence that a warmer interior on the Moon-s near side compared to the far side created the conditions for volcanic activity, that may have lasted far longer than expected.

Sophie Adelaars researches sweat and saliva testing as an alternative to blood sampling. What if we could monitor patients in the future without taking blood samples every time? TU/e researcher Sophie Adelaars investigated a promising alternative: measuring biomarkers in sweat and saliva. This week, she defended her thesis at the Department of Electrical Engineering.

Sugars come in all shapes and sizes. We need them for energy and we enjoy them, but complex variants may also be used as medicine. Chemist Peter Moons from Radboud University developed these types of sugars. He will defend his thesis on 16 May. When you think of sugars, you think of sugar cubes or carbohydrates, but sugars are more than just the sweet tasty stuff.

A new study reveals that nearly 70% of climate adaptation plans in European cities contain significant inconsistencies, severely limiting their effectiveness in addressing rising climate risks. "As Europe warms twice as fast as other continents, this 'adaptation gap' poses growing threats to the 75% of Europeans who live in cities", says UT researcher and lead author Diana Reckien.

The universe is decaying much faster than thought. This is shown by calculations of three scientists at Radboud University on the so-called Hawking radiation. They calculate that the last stellar remnants take about 10^78 years (a 1 with 78 zeros) to perish. That is much shorter than the previously postulated 10^1100 years (a 1 with 1100 zeros).

Nitrous oxide is known as the gas used in whipped cream cartridges or as an anaesthetic in hospitals. But it's much more than that. This potent greenhouse gas is also released from biological wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), posing a real threat to our climate. PhD candidate Nina Roothans (TU Delft), who recently graduated cum laude, has identified practical strategies to reduce nitrous oxide emissions.

Alessandro Ingrosso, researcher at the Donders Institute for Neuroscience, has developed a new mathematical method in collaboration with colleagues in two Italian research institutions, which enables the prediction of the effectiveness of transfer learning in neural networks. T he problem of limited data AI systems are typically trained with large amounts of data.

By adding a sound-mediated way to control light to the toolkit of light-based chips, University of Twente researchers have pushed the boundaries of the technology. This opens up the possibility of making atomic clocks small enough to fit in satellites and drones, helping them navigate without GPS. Imagine having to find your way with only a compass and the stars and being handed a GPS.

Scientists have been divided for centuries by the question of what consciousness is. The two major theories have now been put to the test by a group of researchers, including neuroscientists Floris de Lange and Yamil Vidal from the Donders Institute at Radboud University, and have been found to be partly incorrect.

A new study has suggested that habitual coffee consumption is associated with a reduced risk of frailty. The study, funded by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC), is the first to analyse the relationship between coffee consumption and the underlying components of frailty. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam scientists Mette van de Linden, Margreet Olthof, Laura Schaap, and Hanneke Wijnhoven and Amsterdam UMC scientist Emiel Hoogendijk were part of the research group and worked together with Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA).

Study into combining microbubbles and radioactive microspheres for more accuracy and effectiveness  Primary liver tumors are among the most common cancers worldwide. Unfortunately, only 10-20% of patients can undergo potentially curative treatments like surgery or transplantation. For most patients, the options are palliative treatments, such as radioembolization (RE).

Parental genetic traits linked to changes in children's DNA methylation A new study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry , shows that parents' genetic traits-especially those of mothers-can influence how their children's DNA is expressed, even when those traits are not directly inherited.

Tongsheng Wang defended his PhD thesis at the Department of Mechanical Engineering on April 8th. What if the next big breakthrough in biotechnology was inspired not by machines-but by microscopic hairs? Deep within the intricate world of microfluidics, where tiny volumes of fluid are manipulated with extreme precision, a new player is emerging: programmable magnetic artificial cilia.

A small international team of astronomers including Silvia Toonen (UvA) and Gijs Nelemans (Radboud University) has discovered two white dwarf stars orbiting each other that will merge and explode into a type Ia supernova. This missing link of astronomy has long been predicted and has finally been found.

Missing species show human impact on biodiversity greater than thought A new global study, published yesterday in Nature , shows that in human-disturbed regions, many native plant species are missing from places where they could grow. Traditional methods of measuring biodiversity-such as simply counting species present-do not give a complete picture.

An invention from Twente improves the quality of light particles (photons) to such an extent that building quantum computers based on light becomes cheaper and more practical. The researchers published their research in the scientific journal Physical Review Applied. "This technology is an essential part of any future photonic quantum computer." Quantum computers are at a tipping point: tech giants and governments are investing billions, but there are two fundamental obstacles: the quantity of qubits and the quality of these qubits.

Research by TU/e, the Catharina Ziekenhuis, and Philips shows that the image quality of ultrasound improves with two ultrasound transducers. Vera van Hal defended her PhD thesis cum laude at the Department of Biomedical Engineering on 1 April 2025. For the diagnosis of disorders and the monitoring of patients, healthcare providers need to be able to look not only at a patient but also inside the body of a patient.

While medical centres use ultrasound daily, so far this technology is not capable of observing body tissues at the scale of cells. Physicists from TU Delft have developed a microscopy technique based on ultrasound to reveal capillaries and cells across living organs-something that wasn't possible before.