Submarine cables carry 97 per cent of our internet traffic, but they are increasingly being sabotaged. Cables on the seabed first became an international issue when the global telegraph network expanded in the nineteenth century. Regulation concerning these cables then introduced international law to the bottom of the sea. Such rules were contested during World War I, when the seabed became a battlefield. This project analyses how regulation nevertheless endured. It not only clarifies how today’s rules about submarine cables were created but also shows how they can be retained in times of conflict.

This proposal investigates the misleading potential of graphs with dual vertical axes: one on the left and one on the right. While graphs help convey complex data, they can also cause misinterpretations. This study fills a gap in literature and design advice by examining if and how dual-axis graphs mislead, and how alternatives compare. Quantitative and qualitative research will test currently unsupported claims about how readers (mis)interpret such graphs and explore interpretation strategies. The findings will offer insights into best practices for data communication, helping journalists, editors, and analysts present information accessibly and accurately.

Today, people increasingly use digital technologies to collect data on their bodily functions and everyday habits. They measure aspects such as sleep patterns, physical performance, and calorie intake, in the pursuit of self-knowledge and self-improvement. The rapidly growing popular interest in "self-quantification" has been hailed by journalists and sociologists as a revolutionary development. This project however, suggests that self-quantification has a history that goes back to the mid-nineteenth century. The aim of The Quantified Self is to demonstrate the importance of self-quantification in the historical development of the modern self. Building on insights from the history and sociology of science, the body and selfhood, and with the help of a new notion of numeracy, this project shows how the scientific tool of quantification was appropriated at the individual level and became a new mode of self-examination that changed peoples understanding of themselves. Why did groups of people start to apply numbers in certain historical periods? What role do numbers play in conceptualizing new identity categories and new hierarchies? How did numbers become an incentive to self-improvement? These questions are answered through three case-studies (1850-present) from the Netherlands, in which I will show how nineteenth century phrenology enthusiasts quantified their own heads, how early-twentieth century men and women purchased weighing scales to measure their weight, as well as how in the 1970s, IQ tests became available for home-use to quantify intelligence. The case-studies will allow me to explain the changes and continuities in self-quantification and self-making over time. My research shows how the "quantified self" did not develop at once but was shaped over several historical phases and contexts. Not only does this provide an innovative approach to the history of the modern self, it also suggests ways in which modern digital technology emerged from the history of self-quantification.

Psychotic disorders are devastating mental illnesses with an enormous impact on patients and society. Functional outcomes benefit significantly from interventions prior to the overt manifestation of psychosis, but it is currently difficult to accurately and objectively predict the occurrence and onset of the illness. Research on language dysfunction as a risk factor for psychosis can improve prediction and promote early interventions, as there are strong indications that psychosis is foreshadowed by atypical language characteristics. However, research on psychosis risk in the general population is hampered by the need for very large samples to determine associations between risk factors and subsequent psychotic development. To address this pressing issue, I will investigate language in a population with a genetic condition that manifests in both language problems and a strongly elevated risk of psychosis. The 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is widely viewed as a unique model for studying psychosis risk in the general population, as the illness is similarly expressed in patients with and without 22q11DS. I will be the first to examine the association between language dysfunction in 22q11DS and psychosis risk. Using a repeated measures design, I will combine standardized language assessment and computational analyses of spontaneous language. I will relate language characteristics of adolescents with 22q11DS, including phonetic cues, vocabulary, semantic coherence, and grammatical complexity, to (pre)psychotic symptoms. In addition to understanding the role of language as a risk mechanism for psychosis, this will allow me to identify predictive markers which can easily be assessed and objectively measured before the overt manifestation of the illness. The findings will not be limited to 22q11DS, but can be applied to the general population. Furthermore, I will be able to provide a detailed description of language development in adolescents with 22q11DS, which is currently lacking. This description will inform interventions and improve prognosis.

Personal digital assistants like Siri highlight the possibilities and challenges of building a computer that interacts with people using natural language. This research will create computer algorithms that automatically find sentence meanings by combining state-of-the-art ”deep learning” techniques from computer science with linguistic work on structure and meaning of sentences.