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Topics: Science, technology

  • Krill provide insights into how marine species can adapt to warmer waters

    Krill in our northern waters show how key marine species can adapt genetically to cope with climate change. This is the discovery made by researchers at Uppsala University in collaboration with an international research group. According to the researchers, their study, published in Nature Communications, provides important knowledge that can help protect marine ecosystems when the climate changes.

  • Greater attention needs to be paid to malnutrition in the sick and elderly

    As many as half of all patients admitted to hospital, other healthcare facilities are malnourished. This has serious consequences for the individual in terms of poorer quality of life and mortality. Providing nutrients can alleviate these problems, but not enough attention is paid to this knowledge, writes researchers from Uppsala University and the University of Gothenburg published in the NEJM.

  • Consensus is far from the whole story

    20th century Swedish labour market policy was not solely shaped by inter-class cooperation, but also by tough conflicts. Industrial rationalisation and investments in new technology were met with protests from workers. A new doctoral thesis reveals parallels between technological changes during 1920-1950 and the transition we face today with, for example, artificial intelligence and automation.

  • Potential long-term volcanic activity on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula

    Given the volcanic activity on Iceland over the last three years, researchers from six universities anticipate recurring, moderately sized eruptions of similar style in the coming years to decades. They therefore stress the need for preparedness in view of the risks posed to local populations and critical infrastructure. Their study was recently published in the scientific journal Terra Nova.

  • From pets to pests: how domestic rabbits survive the wilderness

    Rabbits have colonised countries worldwide, often with dire economic and ecological consequences, but their secret has before been a mystery. In a new study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, an international consortium of scientists sequenced the genomes of nearly 300 rabbits from three continents to unveil the key genetic changes that make these animals master colonisers.

  • Ancient polar sea reptile fossil is oldest ever found in Southern Hemisphere

    An international team of scientists has identified the oldest fossil of a sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere – a nothosaur vertebra found on New Zealand’s South Island. 246 million years ago, at the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs, New Zealand was located on the southern polar coast of a vast super-ocean called Panthalassa.

  • UCDP: record number of armed conflicts in the world

    Never before have there been so many armed conflicts across the globe. This has been shown by new statistics from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, UCDP, at Uppsala University. In 2023, the number of conflicts involving states totalled 59, the highest number ever since the data collection’s starting point in 1946. Previous peaks were seen in 2020 and 2022, each with 56 conflicts.

  • Women vulnerable in peace processes

    New research: Post-war peace processes are a dangerous period for women, who are forced to live close to men who committed serious abuse during the war, which can be stigmatising. Women safety is not a political priority after war. There is great potential for improvement, if the UN were to start making more space for women’s perspectives, writes peace- and conflict researchers in PLOS One.

  • New mechanisms behind antibiotic resistance

    Two newly discovered mechanisms in bacteria have been identified that can contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance. Changing the number of copies of resistance genes in bacteria increases antibiotic resistance. These two mechanisms, along with a third known mechanism, can occur independently of each other, even within the same bacterial cell. (published in Nature Communications)

  • Robots' sense of touch could be as fast as humans

    Research at Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet could pave the way for a prosthetic hand and robot to be able to feel touch like a human hand. Their study has been published in the journal Science. The technology could also be used to help restore lost functionality to patients after a stroke.

  • Return of a cermic child sarcophagus to university museum Gustavianum

    Uppsala University Museum Gustavianum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston have reached an agreement on the return of an ancient Egyptian ceramic child sarcophagus, dated to the 19th Dynasty (1295–1186 BC). The sarcophagus belonged to a boy named Pa-nefer-neb.

  • Computer game in school made students better at detecting fake news

    A computer game helped upper secondary school students become better at distinguishing between reliable and misleading news. This is shown by a study conducted by researchers at Uppsala University and elsewhere. “The students improved their ability to identify manipulative techniques in social media posts and to distinguish between reliable and misleading news,” says Professor Thomas Nygren.

  • New antibiotic class effective against multidrug-resistant bacteria

    Scientists at Uppsala University have discovered a new class of antibiotics with potent activity against multi-drug resistant bacteria, and have shown that it cures bloodstream infections in mice. The new antibiotic class is described in an article in the scientific journal PNAS.

  • Vole fever spreading further south

    Researchers have discovered that bank voles in Skåne, southern Sweden, carry a virus that can cause hemorrhagic fever in humans. This finding was made more than 500 km south of the previously known range. This is revealed in a new study from Uppsala University. The researchers were surprised that such a high proportion of the relatively few voles they caught were actually carrying a hantavirus.

  • When words make you sick

    In a new book, experts in a variety of fields explore nocebo effects – how negative expectations concerning health can make a person sick. It is the first time a book has been written on this subject.

  • Lower survival rates for women than men with germ cell tumours

    Women with a type of ovarian cancer known as germ cell tumours have a worse prognosis than men with similar tumours, i.e. testicular cancer. After five years with the disease, 98 percent of men were alive while the survival rate for women was only 85 percent. This has been revealed by a new study from Uppsala University and Uppsala University Hospital published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

  • Stone Age strategy for avoiding inbreeding

    Blood relations and kinship were not all-important for the way hunter-gatherer communities lived during the Stone Age in Western Europe. A new genetic study, conducted at several well-known French Stone Age burial sites, shows that several distinct families lived together. This was probably a deliberate system for avoiding inbreeding.

  • Uppsala University sets new world record for CIGS solar cells

    Uppsala University is the new world record holder for electrical energy generation from CIGS solar cells. The new world record is 23.64 per cent efficiency. The measurement was made by an independent institute and the results are published in the journal Nature Energy.

  • Death and grief in Swedish children’s books

    Death is blue, or a flying animal. This is how death is most commonly illustrated in Swedish children’s literature, according to a new study from Uppsala University based on analyses of 62 books. Just six out of ten books use the word ‘dead’, which may be a problem.

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