biology

Maarten 't Hart

Maarten 't Hart is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Maarten 't Hart rather than just read about it. In short: Maarten 't Hart (born 25 November 1944 in Maassluis) is a Dutch writer. Trained as a biologist in zoology and ethology at the Leiden University, he taught that subject before becoming a full-time writer in the 1980s, having made his debut as a novelist in 1971 under the name Martin Hart with Stenen voor een ransuil ("Stones for a Long-Eared Owl").

Key takeaways

Maarten 't Hart belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Maarten 't Hart to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Maarten 't Hart from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Maarten 't Hart (born 25 November 1944 in Maassluis) is a Dutch writer. Trained as a biologist in zoology and ethology at the Leiden University, he taught that subject before becoming a full-time writer in the 1980s, having made his debut as a novelist in 1971 under the name Martin Hart with Stenen voor een ransuil ("Stones for a Long-Eared Owl"). He is the author of many novels, including Het Woeden der Gehele Wereld and De kroongetuige. His books have been translated into a number of European languages, and he is especially popular in Germany. Three of his novels, Een vlucht regenwulpen (A Flight of Curlews, trans. 1986), De aansprekers (Bearers of Bad Tidings, trans. 1983), and De zonnewijzer (The Sundial, trans. 2004) have appeared in English, as have a few of his short stories. The themes of his novels, which often have an autobiographical component, include:

the hometown of his youth, Maassluis the strict form of the Protestantism with which he was brought up, and his rebellion against it the love of a man for a woman the relationship between an elderly man and a young man (e.g. a father and his son, a teacher and a student) guilt His writings are full of detailed descriptions of nature (e.g. the weather, insects, plants) and show his passionate love for classical music (especially the music of the composers Bach, Mozart and Schubert). 't Hart has also written non-fiction, including Ratten (1973), published in an English translation as Rats by Arnold Pomerans (London/New York: Allison and Busby, 1982). 't Hart is supporter of the Party for Animals, and, in 2004, agreed with the party to underline that by becoming a candidate in the European elections. However, for this he needed an official identity document, and he has no driving licence, and had neither a passport nor another identity document (he had not been abroad for 10 years), and, for reasons of principle, did not want to get one for this purpose. He is also a prominent radio and television personality, and a regular contributor to daily newspapers. He currently lives in Warmond, close to Leiden, with his wife. His chief pastimes are music – he plays the piano and the organ – and reading. He says he reads six books a week, in Dutch, English, German, and French. He knows very little about films and rarely watches one. He does not want to be involved in films based on his books. He was, however, "rat consultant" to Werner Herzog for the film Nosferatu the Vampyre. This turned out to be a disagreeable experience about which he wrote a story, "Ongewenste zeereis", that appeared in 2004 in Granta under the title "Rats".

Selected bibliography (1971) Stenen voor een ransuil (1973) Ratten; English translation: Rats (1982) (1973) Ik had een wapenbroeder (1974) Het vrome volk (1978) Een vlucht regenwulpen; English translation: Flight of Curlews (1986) (1979) De aansprekers; English translation: Bearers of Bad Tidings (1984) (1980) De droomkoningin (1983) De kroongetuige (1984) De ortolaan (1986) De jacobsladder (1987) Het uur tussen hond en wolf (1988) De steile helling (1991) Onder de korenmaat (1993) Het woeden der gehele wereld (1996) De nakomer (2002) De zonnewijzer; English translation: The Sundial (2004) (2004) Lotte Weeda (2006) Het psalmenoproer (2019) De nachtstemmer

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Maarten 't Hart

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Maarten 't Hart claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Maarten 't Hart before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Maarten 't Hart ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Maarten 't Hart

In research: Maarten 't Hart appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Maarten 't Hart in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Maarten 't Hart is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1944 births, 20th-century Dutch writers, 21st-century Dutch writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Maarten 't Hart outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Maarten 't Hart in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Maarten 't Hart means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Maarten 't Hart out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Maarten 't Hart in simple terms?

Why does Maarten 't Hart matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Maarten 't Hart?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Maarten 't Hart.