At Uppsala Health Summit on childhood obesity, which starts today on World Obesity Day, experts from health organisations, the academic community, the business sector and non-governmental organisations meet to discuss how we can work together to combat the ongoing obesity epidemic.
Geologists at Uppsala University have traced magma movement beneath Mt. Cameroon volcano, which will help monitoring for future volcanic eruptions. The results are published in Scientific Reports.
An environmentally friendly, efficient and low-cost method for hydrogenation of graphene with visible light has been developed by researchers at Uppsala University and AstraZeneca Gothenburg, Sweden. The research study is presented in an article in Nature Communications.
The one millimetre long roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans has been used as a model organism in scientific research, and has therefore been extensively examined. A research group at Uppsala University has now demonstrated that the worm is an even more complete model system than previously thought, which could enable more detailed research into areas such as early embryonic development.
In 1968, the scientific status of economics was strengthened by the creation of the “Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences”. In a new book, Uppsala researcher Gabriel Söderberg and Avner Offer at Oxford University draw the conclusion that the Economics Prize indirectly has also contributed to undermining the scientific status of economics.
In a new thesis in psychology, Kirsti Jylhä at Uppsala University has studied the psychology behind climate change denial. The results show that individuals who accept hierarchical power structures tend to a larger extent deny the problem. The papers in the thesis are published in the scientific journal Personality and Individual Differences.
In the animal kingdom colourful traits can be both a blessing and a curse. A new study from a group of researchers at Uppsala University has studied the conspicuous wing coloration of two species of damselflies. Their results imply that males, but not females, pay a high cost when using colour to communicate with other damselflies, both in terms of predation risk and visibility to prey.
A group at Uppsala University has investigated how levels of endocannabinoids – which target the same receptors as cannabis – are affected by short sleep duration, and whether acute exercise can modulate this effect.
Researchers at Uppsala University have used computer modelling to study how brain tumours arise. The study, which is published today in the journal EBioMedicine, illustrated how researchers in the future will be able to use large-scale data to find new disease mechanisms and identify new treatment targets.
Both heredity and environmental factors influence our risk of cardiovascular disease. A new study, by researches at Uppsala University, shows now that the memory of a heart attack can be stored in our genes through epigenetic changes. The results have been published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics.
Uppsala University has received its first donation for sociology to be used for the Hans L. Zetterberg Prize “to be awarded yearly to a younger researcher, Swedish or foreign, who, with his/her scientific work in sociology, preferably through fruitful combination of theory and practice, has moved the research front forward.”
A report has been released for the upcoming Uppsala Health Summit on ending childhood obesity, outlining the challenges, including the effectiveness of the much debated sugar-tax, how to target interventions for immigrants and the role of industry. The report is produced to prepare the 200 delegates for discussions on concrete solutions.
This week in Nature, an international team of researchers shows that fossils of the 360 million-year-old tetrapod Acanthostega, one of the iconic transitional forms between fishes and land animals, are not grown-ups but all juveniles. This conclusion sheds new light on the life cycle of Acanthostega and the so-called conquest of land by tetrapods.
A research team at Uppsala University has determined the complete genetic code of 11 members of a flycatcher pedigree. Doing this, they have for the first time been able to estimate the rate of new mutations in birds. When they combined the new results with mutation rate estimates from other organisms, a clear pattern emerged: The more common a species is, the lower its mutation rate.
The amount of time a blood sample used for medical research has been stored at a biobank may affect the test results as much as the blood sample provider’s age. These are the findings of a new study from Uppsala University, published in journal EBioMedicine. Until now, medical research has taken into account age, sex and health factors, but it turns out that storage time is just as important.
Heparan sulphate occurs as carbohydrate chains which are very important for human body cells both for normal foetal development and during the course of various diseases. All new molecular knowledge concerning these chains is therefore important. Researchers can now show that the same enzyme which determines the charge pattern of the chains also determines their length.
Cell lines are cultured cells that are commonly used in medical research. New results from Uppsala University show that such cells are not always what they are assumed to be. Using genetic analyses, the researchers showed that a commonly used cell line which was established in Uppsala almost fifty years ago does not originate from the patient it is claimed to stem from.
Being able to determine magnetic properties of materials with sub-nanometer precision would greatly simplify development of magnetic nano-structures for future spintronic devices. In a new study Uppsala physicists make a big step towards this goal - they propose and demonstrate a new measurement method capable to detect magnetism from areas as small as 0.5 nm2.
Many people suffer from anxiety and fears, and a common treatment for these problems is exposure therapy. In a new study published in Current Biology, researchers at Uppsala University have shown how the effect of exposure therapy can be improved by disrupting the recreation of fear-memories in people with arachnophobia.
Research has shown that the growth of cancerous tumours is affected by the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) in the body’s cells; TGF-beta both suppresses and stimulates tumour development, but it has not been understood how this happens. A new study published in the journal Science Signaling today reveals important details behind this process.