ERIBA researchers at the Noorderzon festival.

ERIBA scientists from the Veenhoff and Paridaen labs contributed to the 2019 Noorderzon festival for Arts in Groningen that took place 15-25 of August. As part of the Science Fair ‘University of Noorderzon’ organized by the Young Academy Groningen (https://twitter.com/i/status/1165962942220779520), the Paridaen lab developed ‘Kraak de code van het leven: wat weet jij over DNA?’; consisting of a quiz on DNA to teach curious kids and their parents about DNA, how it works, and how researchers study it in the lab. These kids then got a chance to see what DNA actually looks like by isolating it from a fruit of their choice.

A few days later, the Healthy Ageing Team organised ‘Escape Room, kraak de code van Geluk’ for which Anton Steen from the Veenhoff lab designed the Escape Rooms. The escape rooms were built around ‘Mental Health’, which is the central theme of the upcoming Healthy Ageing Week (October 4th to 13th). A large number of children (in the afternoon) and adults (in the evening) managed to crack the happiness code of the escape room and then joined various other activities, revolving around ‘mental health’. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JykdM5iYAfo for an impression and explanation by Anton!