Published today in Nature Communications a study about finding heterogeneity in SMLM data. Particle fusion for single molecule localization microscopy improves signal-to-noise ratio and overcomes underlabeling, but ignores structural heterogeneity or conformational variability. This study presents a-priori knowledge-free unsupervised classification of structurally different particles employing the Bhattacharya cost function as dissimilarity metric.

Academic programmes often produce specialists, each highly skilled in their own discipline but not necessarily well-prepared for a career in multidisciplinary companies. At Applied Sciences in Delft and Business Administration at the Rotterdam School of Management, however, they have been teaching their students for over a decade how to collaborate with people who think differently.

This week a study appeared in Nature Methods on the impact of noise on Structured Illumination Microscopy image reconstructions, and how this knowledge helps to make these reconstructions less sensitive to artefacts as well as to eliminate arbitrary user set parameters. The work was done by Carlas Smith, Kees Hagen, Jacob Hoogenboom, and Sjoerd Stallinga together with PhD-students and collaborators in Erasmus Medical Center and Oxford.

Together with colleagues from other institutions, Elizabeth Carroll has won a grant of up to 750,000 euros in the ZonMw Open Competition. The team will investigate stress in insulin-producing cells.

Eric Verschuur was elected in 2006 as the first lecturer for the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) Education Tour, with 15 lectures in a year throughout Europe, North Africa, Middle East and Russia. Since then he conducts the course 2-3 times a year throughout the whole world.

Het is Delftse onderzoekers voor het eerst gelukt om met licht een driedimensionaal beeld te maken van een cellulair onderdeel. Het gaat om het zogeheten ‘kernporiecomplex’ (nuclear pore complex), tunneltjes die het verkeer van en naar de celkern faciliteren. Het in 3D bestuderen van celonderdelen kan onder meer helpen bij het achterhalen van de oorzaak van verschillende ziekten. De onderzoekers hebben hun bevindingen gepubliceerd in Nature Communications.

Hoe werken onze hersenen? Een internationaal team van onderzoekers, waaronder hoofdauteur Daan Brinks van de TU Delft, heeft een volgende stap gezet in de beantwoording van die vraag. Ze hebben een nieuw instrument ontwikkeld waarmee ze elektrische signalen in de hersenen kunnen afbeelden met een nooit eerder vertoonde combinatie van precisie, resolutie, gevoeligheid en diepte.

Sobhan Haghparast joined ImPhys per May 1st. He will work on "Ultra-resolution with visible light" under supervision of Bernd Rieger.

Tom Haanstra recently started working as a technician at ImPhys. His focus will be on the support of the first year physics lab course.

Freek Pols published the article: What's inside the pink box? A nature of science activity for teachers and students as part of the dissemination of the Erasmus+ project SPOON. The project aims at professionalizing and supporting science teachers. The article highlights an important but underutilized part of science education: Nature of science. As elaborated in the article, Nature of Science can be taught with simple activities and materials.