Guus Veldkamp The concept of vaccination has been around since the 18th century. It was a British doctor named Edward Jenner who first tried to use a scientific approach to controlling an infectious disease by the deliberate use of vaccination [1]. His work introduced the world to an entirely new concept of fighting diseases. A concept that is so common in these modern times, we cannot imagine a world without it. Or can we? Data from the National Institute for Public Health and the … [Read more...]

Simon Crox Sitting through the first lecture of our research internship program, the lecturer invited us to introduce our subjects. After Pietje (for the sake of anonymity) had spoken about his subject, the lecturer smilingly said ‘ah, one of the sitters’. Apparently, five out of 20 students were involved in the popular research topic of sedentary behaviour (i.e. sitting and lying down). You probably know the phrase “sitting is the new smoking”,  but you probably did not know “the chair … [Read more...]

Tanja Reutelingsperger This time of year, the temperature drops below zero and together with the bleak wind this results in a freezing cold winter. However, these temperatures are nothing compared to the temperatures people are voluntarily exposing themselves to in whole body cryotherapy (WBC). They even pay big bucks for three minutes in -110 degrees of Celsius in wellness centers. Is this something we should all try or should we leave these crazy colds up to Wim Hof, the … [Read more...]