… especially when it involves strange phenomena or mysterious creatures under the microscope. But also when new perspectives or unusual research methods come into play. Five surprising research projects at Radboud University.

1. The letter b is yellow
The letter b is yellow, the letter e is blue. If this sounds familiar, you may have synaesthesia, a phenomenon where one perception triggers another.
As a student, cognitive neuroscientist Tessa van Leeuwen discovered that she has a form of synaesthesia herself. Until then, she had always thought it was perfectly normal to see colours when looking at letters. “I believed that everyone saw certain colours as a kind of aura around the letters.” Although she was not as average as she thought, she was not exceptional either: it is estimated that one in twenty-five people have a form of synaesthesia.
Van Leeuwen studies what happens in the brain of synaesthetes. Everything points to their brain being overactive, with several junctions between brain regions firing. Somewhere between registration and processing of a signal, the brain region controlling another sensory organ is also activated. In other words, a blending of senses occurs.
This can happen in various ways. Some synaesthetes, like Van Leeuwen, see colours when looking at letters, others taste raisins when they touch a table. Still others see colours when listening to music.
Why some people have synaesthesia is as yet unclear. Van Leeuwen tries to find as many test subjects as she can, but this proves difficult. “Only a small percentage of the population has synaesthesia, and many in that already small group don’t even know it.” Interested in how well your senses work together? Do the tests on http://gno.mpi.nl/tests.

2. The bacteria that will save the world
Don’t try this at home! Rooting around in volcanic mud pools is an extremely unhealthy activity, and surely they don’t contain anything of interest. Nijmegen microbiologists, however, know better.
As it turns out, volcanoes are treasure troves for microbiologists, as they are the abode of weird and wonderful bacteria with remarkable properties. One volcanic bacterium eats methane (the greenhouse gas), and converts it into biomass and carbon dioxide. Without these bacteria, all volcanic methane gas would enter the atmosphere. This microorganism thus contributes to reducing the greenhouse effect.
There are more remarkable volcanophilic bacteria. The research group of microbiologist Huub op den Camp regularly dives into Italian volcanic springs to study them. Op den Camp and his colleagues obtain their samples from volcanic mud pools near Naples and Rome and on the isle of Vulcano, north of Sicily. The method they use is simple: scooping mud from the pool with a special cup attached to a pole and then transferring the sample to test tubes.
The bacteria live under extreme conditions in the volcanoes. Temperatures range from 50 to 100°C and the mud’s acidity is very high. No wonder, then, that they have such extraordinary properties.

3. A new approach to the greatest killer among infectious diseases
Since the start of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa two years ago, more than 65 people suspected of having the disease have been admitted to Dutch hospitals. Although none of them turned out to have Ebola, many of them did have malaria. This is not a coincidence. The symptoms of malaria resemble those of Ebola but, more importantly, malaria is far more common. Each year, the malaria parasite infects 207 million people. The disease is particularly lethal in African and Asian infants and young children.
A major problem of malaria is the rapid spread of infection. Ebola patients die in next to no time, which prevents them from infecting a lot of other people. In the case of malaria, infected individuals contribute to the spread of the disease to a far greater degree. Each mosquito biting a patient becomes infected and will then pass on the disease to its next victim. Thus, one person with malaria can transmit it to over a hundred others.
Although existing medication cures the patient, it does not stop the spread of the disease. Malaria researchers from Nijmegen are now also targeting the transfer of infection from human to mosquito. Malaria researcher Teun Bousema has developed a combination drug which not only kills the parasite and thereby cures the patient, but also destroys a mosquito biting that person, thus eliminating the threat posed by that mosquito. And the good thing is, the drug also works against parasites and mosquitoes that are resistant to existing drugs. Bousema is optimistic: “For the first time, we feel that we have a real shot at eradicating the disease.”

4. A different slant on gaming
Educators usually emphasise the negative sides of gaming, and whenever there has been a mass shooting, games are mentioned in a negative light. It is assumed that playing shooter games for hours in total isolation must have been an inspiration to the killer.
Educational scientists from Nijmegen are now focusing on the positive instead of the negative effects of gaming: what you can learn from it, how it reduces anxiety and aggressive behaviour and improves social skills. PhD candidate Marlou Poppelaars studies the effect of existing entertainment games on the wellbeing of young people. “We have selected specific games – Flower and Journey – that have a fairly abstract plot and thus give gamers the opportunity to create their own stories.”
Poppelaars expects that the plot developments will give gamers a different perspective on life and teach them to cope with its ups and downs. Journey allows gamers to cooperate online to get to the next level. This introduces a social aspect: the characters are able to communicate via sounds. “Such games are a safe environment for shy people: no one sees it when you become red in the face.”
The 290 participants in her study are each given a copy of one of the games, which they can play out in their own time, while also keeping a logbook to record how they feel. Poppelaars hopes that this will provide a more realistic understanding than having subjects play a game for 45 minutes in a stuffy booth in the psych lab. A control group is only given questionnaires to complete. “We want to discover which elements in games stimulate wellbeing. We can then develop our own game that uses these elements and is also fun to play.”
In other words, a therapy that people really want to undergo. The gamers are, of course, closely monitored. “We don’t want them to become video game addicts.” / Timo Nijssen

5. Drinking beer for science
Men drink more after seeing alcohol ads and watching a film in which the actors drink. If popular peers state that they do not drink, others in the peer group also drink less. These facts were not collected with long questionnaires – a standard methodology for studying behaviour – but from observations in the Nijmegen pub lab.
The lab is situated in the Spinoza building. It is a real-life pub, with a bar and subdued lighting. The research subjects, often students, can talk among themselves and have a beer, while researchers can observe them unnoticed from an adjoining room. Who do the subjects buy drinks for? Do they adjust their drinking to the pace of those sitting next to them? What happens when someone gets another beer without having asked for one? Will they have it anyway?
The advantage of the pub lab over a real pub is that it allows researchers to control more variables, such as the music, the number of patrons, their age and gender and the time of day. This ensures that the only factor influencing the subjects’ drinking behaviour is peer pressure.
The pub used to have a table football game and a billiards table but these were removed eighteen months ago, as they were deemed old-fashioned. “We decided to modernise the pub’s interior,” says coordinator Roel Hermans. “It has become less of a traditional pub and more like a lounge space. Now it can be both a pub and a living room.” / Martine Zuidweg