In the field hockey world, it’s common for teams to get psyched up before a match starts by gathering in a circle and shouting a traditional rallying cry.
However the Dopie field hockey club’s men’s first-team takes this ritual to another, unique level, explains Pieter Verhoeven, a Dopie player.
“We wait until our opponents finish their team rallying cry, and then each Dopie player takes his position in the field. Our most senior player then shouts out a longer, three to six line rallying cry that always ends with the rest of our players shouting: three cheers for our opponents, the refs and the audience: Hiep hoi! Hiep hoi! Hiep hoi!”
A new team rallying cry is thought up for each match, but the lines are always somehow related to that days’ match: “For example, we’ll shout: Today we’ll get all three points/With three new players in our starting line-up/We’ll show them who’s boss! You can then see our opponents thinking: what the heck did we get ourselves into? The audience always enjoys our rallying cries, and our players are always extremely motivated by the words we shout.”
Sometimes the coach will wait until an hour before the match to say which senior player is responsible for quickly thinking up an appropriate team rallying cry, and this of course is always nerve-racking for the chosen player.
After each match the team gives out three awards. A silver plaque for the ‘man of the match’; a blunt ax for the player who was penalized for the clumsiest challenge; and the ‘rundshirt’ (literally, ‘beef shirt’), an old, unwashed shirt for the guy who made the stupidest play of the week. These prizes are always handed out to the players during the ‘hard won’ third half (i.e. during the post-match beer-drinking session).
Moleculair biologen scheiden DNA-fragmenten door ze door een gel te laten lopen om zo het DNA te analyseren. Een team van onderzoekers, onder leiding van Vici-winnaar dr. Serge Lemay van het Kavli Institute of Nanoscience (faculteit Technische Natuurwetenschappen), heeft voor het eerst gezien hoe de gel de verplaatsing van DNA beïnvloedt. De resultaten van het onderzoek werden op 29 maart gepubliceerd in Nature Physics. De onderzoekers dreven één enkel DNA-molecuul door een nanogaatje en maten de benodigde kracht.
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