SNORW-tag

Dying for the Cause? Not really. The Far-Right has its own take on “martyrdom”.

Suicide attacks are virtually absent in far-right terrorism. A recent study of the subcultural, strategic, and historic references to martyrdom, self-sacrifice, and suicide in the contemporary far right shows the potential reasons for this, highlighting the peculiar political mythology of “martyrdom” that characterizes this extremist environment.

The hidden threat of the home office

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Working from home has given many people the opportunity to arrange their working hours more freely than usual. But has it really given us more freedom?

The ‘plastic rivers’ of Asia play a key part in the fight against plastic in the ocean

OPINION: Near half of the global plastic leakage from land to sea comes from a few countries in Southeast Asia. To overcome the plastic problem, we need to treat the cause and not just the symptoms. We must turn the spotlight on the sources.

Epidurals do not in themselves improve birth experiences

OPINION: Epidurals may slow down a birth and are associated with lower levels of satisfaction with the birth experience. While sometimes necessary, we are skeptical of the extent to which they are offered and used.

We are putting a lot of pressure on tinned tuna

Can tinned tuna become even better if exposed to high pressure? We are about to find out.

Why do we condemn, blame and stigmatize people who have experienced something traumatic?

OPINION: Some trauma victims are met with negative social reactions when they tell others about what they have experienced. Why does this happen?

Menstrual capitalism: A lot of people profit from your monthly menstruation

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Menstruation presents an endlessly renewed commercial opportunity for period-product manufacturers, who are finding new ways to infiltrate wider markets in an era when taboos are being chipped away. But issues remain that products can’t solve.

Being labelled as “violent extremists”: The consequences of soft repression

What are the consequences of being labeled as a “violent extremist”? How does labeling affect individual activists, their organizations, and the social movement they are part of?

At one point fish packaging even told you who caught the fish you just bought

Pictures of fish packaging, taken over several years in the 2000s, show that clear changes have been made regarding the information given to consumers about the fish they buy.

Social media “likes” and comments lead to poorer self-esteem

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Girls who “like” and comment on what others post on social media develop a worse self-image over time. Posting on your own profile doesn’t have the same effect.

Far-right people in the US want to shut the borders to Muslim immigrants to counter Jihadism. Here’s why they are wrong.

How to commit financial crime

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: A convicted felon defends fraud.

Greece: More far-right violence than any other country in Western Europe

In recent years, Greece has experienced more severe right-wing violence per capita than any other country in Western Europe. It is long past time for a more comprehensive and effective response to far-right extremism.

On academia and diversity: It wasn’t overt racism, but I have been sidelined.

OPINION: Having spent 25 years as a brown man in Norwegian academia, here are some reflections on diversity and inclusion in Norwegian science.

Flawed experiment sends misleading message about corona-safe gyms

OPINION: Without the presence of coronavirus, the researchers’ hypothesis, that the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in training facilities with good hygiene and social distancing measures would be low, cannot be tested.

Fish is fish - isn’t it?

A range of different COVID-19 vaccines are already being tested in humans. But how will the vaccines actually work?

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: At least 200 different vaccines against COVID-19 are under development and more than 20 candidates are being tested on healthy individuals. This gives hope that one or more will give protective immunity. But how are the vaccines designed and are there any obstacles?

Coronavirus and training in gyms: Misunderstandings about Randomized Training Trial

OPINION: Joar Vittersø has misunderstood the rationale, design and results of our randomized trial on re-opening of gyms in Norway, write the researchers behind a Norwegian study on the transmission of coronavirus in gyms.

Norwegian coronavirus “experiment” was misleading. People who train in gyms can infect each other with COVID-19.

OPINION: An undocumented message about it being safe to work out in gyms during the coronapandemic has been disseminated.

Preferring to be social on social media rather than face-to-face is not deviant. It’s the new normal.

OPINION: Are you secretly dreading the day when social distancing is just a vague memory? When you once again have to physically interact with other people, whether you like them or not? Chances are you are not a social deviant or a freak, but a representative of the new normal.

Black Lives Matter and the archaeology of heritage commemorating bigoted white men

OPINION: White society has actively resisted critically reconsidering the significance of commemorative statues of colonialism. Rather than wait for the next statue-gate – let’s have a self-critical debate about what these statues actually represent.

Norway needs coronavirus-style measures to start the green shift along the coast

OPINION: Norway’s coastal communities and ocean industries want stricter regulations and greater investment in becoming more sustainable. Governments around the world have acted swiftly to suppress the coronavirus – a similar coordinated effort would be an effective tool to combat the climate changes we are facing.

The Polish Presidential Election 2020: which role does far-right politics (not) play?

In less than two weeks, and amid much turbulence, Poland will choose its next President. Far-right politics plays a complex role in the election.

The coronavirus pandemic has taught us something important: Technocrats are no longer precautionary

OPINION: In present-day Sweden, an expert – state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell – is de facto head of state. Tegnell has based his strategy on model projections rather than testing and tracing, and the venture is proving a spectacular failure, writes Emil Flatø

Is it ok to publish racist representations if your intention was for it to be funny and cute?

OPINION: In the face of criticism far too many people tend to hide behind the “intention” of their words, writes senior researcher Edwin Schmitt. But does it matter that Norway’s national broadcaster didn’t intend for a children’s song to be racist against Chinese people, if in fact it is?

Why Black Pete matters: Institutional racism and police violence in the Netherlands

Black Lives Matter has shaken up political discussions about racism across the globe. In the Netherlands, it has led to yet another escalation around the ‘Black Pete’ controversy, Iris Beau Segers argues that the empty rhetoric, inaction and opportunism of (radical) right politicians indicates their continued reluctance to tackle institutional racism at its roots.

Should Norwegians tear down their Churchill-statue?

OPINION: Campaigns to remove statues from our common spaces is history making, not a rejection of history, as many have recently claimed. Statues are representations of who we want to be, not what the past was. This issue is being debated contentiously and with insufficient historical awareness around the world, including in Norway.

Who cares for the men who are left behind?

OPINION: We need more research and less scorn, and a better understanding of the incel phenomenon in order to prevent radicalisation, writes Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair.

How Right-Wing Violence in Western Europe Changed in 2019

While the year 2019 in Western Europe was neither very violent in terms of fatal attacks, nor particularly deadly in terms of fatalities, we witnessed a worrying emerging global trend of right-wing lone-actor terrorists carrying out, or trying to carry out, mass-casualty attacks.

The EU’s global response to Covid-19: The challenge of promoting ownership

An effective external response to Covid-19 by the EU must be rooted in the requirements and priorities of southern partners, argue Niels Keijzer and David Black.

Face masks: Why do different countries in the world have such different recommendations?

Some of the answer to this question lies in the history of face masks and western prohibitions and unease related to the covering of faces in public.

Another brick in the wall: Covid-19 and the crisis of the liberal order

Covid-19 risks being another hit to the liberal world order, argues GLOBUS researcher Sonia Lucarelli.

Translating economic growth into sustainable development in Africa during Covid-19

EU aid policies in Africa must continue to address the broader challenge of African socio-economic development while dealing with the specific challenges of Covid-19, writes GLOBUS researcher Pundy Pillay.

Do you think we know whom we share this planet with? Then you are mistaken.

Learning from corona: Climate change, security and justice

Just as the coronavirus, climate change is an existential threat that requires urgent measures. So why are we not treating it with the same kind of urgency, asks GLOBUS researcher Thomas Diez.

The EU and Covid-19: Overcoming the lockdown mindset on migration

While the EU seems even less inclined to change its restrictive approach to migration during the coronavirus, the pandemic offers a window of opportunity to advance measures that would fit with the EU’s purported stance as a liberal vanguard in the international landscape, argues GLOBUS researcher Michela Ceccorulli.

How miniature human organs are giving hope to cancer patients

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Organoids. The good, the bad and the beautiful.

High levels of pollutants in polar bears from the Barents Sea – what are the reasons behind?

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Levels of exposure vary according to what the polar bears eat, where they move, and how much energy they need to get through a day in their polar bear lives.

Can the Coronavirus lead to more peace?

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Researchers have never before seen so many countries declaring a ceasefire because of the same reason.

Food fraud: Do you really know what fish species you are eating?

When you buy fish from a store, or when you are served a fish dish in a restaurant, you expect to get what the label says or to eat what you ordered. Unfortunately, the reality is sometimes far from expectations.

CasaPound Italia: Contemporary Extreme Right Politics

How does a relatively small far right group, with little electoral support, attract international media attention and influence national politics? A recently published book by C-REX researchers Pietro Castelli Gattinara and Caterina Froio uses the example of CasaPound Italia to illustrate the new and often surprising forms that right-wing extremism is taking across the globe.

Multi-drug resistant bacteria: When the immune system during COVID-19 is attacked from two fronts

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Norwegian COVID-19 patients who get a secondary bacterial infection leading to pneumonia, are better equipped in their struggle against this than Italian patients. Are we doing enough to find new technology against multi-drug resistant bacteria?

Professor and immunologist: I don't want COVID-19

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Anne Spurkland, professor of moleculary immunology, has devoured available research on COVID-19. What she's found, has made her worried: “Give me a vaccine against this virus as soon as possible. “

Quarantining Hungarian Democracy

The Covid-19 crisis is exploited by Viktor Orbán to consolidate power and undermine democracy. The increasingly authoritarian Prime Minister has used the pandemic to further authoritarian ends. Democratic backsliding in Hungary has for long been a cause of concern for the European Union.

Ensuring meaningful stakeholder involvement in the EU's external policies

While engagement with stakeholders is an increasingly popular approach to national and international decision-making, the EU needs to exercise greater caution when exporting multistakeholder arrangements to other countries, argues Diana Potjomkina.

A revolution in vaccine development – but will we all benefit?

OPINION: By manipulating the “instruction manuals” that control cell function in our bodies, we will soon be able to combat many diseases, including the new coronavirus outbreak. But in the worst-case scenario, such innovations will only benefit the rich.

A Story about the Plague

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: A classic which is perennially up-to-date all of a sudden became urgently topical.

5 tips for how to keep your team connected while working from home during the coronavirus pandemic

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: The idea of home office usually sounds tempting for most of us, but the corona virus puts working from home to an extreme test. Establishing a good communication norm and re-clarifying roles are keys to success.

Who cares about pellet saithe?

There’s one thing we can say about men from Northern Norway that are over 60: They sure care about pellet saithe. And not just a little – they care about it in a way that is statistically more significant than everyone else in Norway.

Using drones to accurately map life under water

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Gone might be the days when scientists had to manually count species and describe types of nature. And with better knowledge from drones will come better protection.

What is going on in Delhi and how is this connected to right-wing extremism?

Over this past week, the Indian capital of Delhi has been home to violence between Hindus and Muslims with a rising death toll each day. Eviane Leidig shows not only how this is the most recent manifestation of a legacy of right-wing extremist activity in India, but also that the response of global far right actors suggest a more disturbing connection between the extreme right in India and the West.

Matured cheese and ham - yes please, but what about matured clipfish?

A Norwegian google search for "matured food" displays results for balsamic vinegar, cured meat, fermented trout and many types of cheese. Why isn’t clipfish on the list?

Blackface in the name of tradition: the controversy around the Dutch ‘Sinterklaas’ festivities

In the aftermath of the festive month, Dutch PhD candidate Iris Beau Segers looks back on the annually recurring issue of Black Pete in the Netherlands, whose blackfaced appearance has been at the heart of a controversial public debate for almost a decade.

E-scooters – cities should embrace them

OPINION: E-scooters provide an opportunity to re-think urban transport, increase quality of life, and improve city dwellers’ mental and physical health, according to professor Stefan Gössling.

Development of right-wing violence in Western Europe

The RTV trend report recently published by C-REX shows that, since the 1990s, severe forms of right-wing terrorism and violence in Western Europe have decreased, particularly gang-related and unorganized forms of violence. Today, so-called ‘lone actors’ carry out most of the violence, a trend that has been reinforced by the emergence of various online platforms.

Managers need to be good with emotions – or they risk damaging their employee’s health and ability to perform at work

OPINION: At worst, managers who lack emotional intelligence can be playing Russian roulette with their colleagues’ health.

Norwegian salmon is a huge success story – but could it get even bigger?

The salmon industry creates thousands of jobs along the coast. Its export value is twice that of all other Norwegian fish combined. Could more unique products add even more value?

Is private finance a panacea for sustainable development?

The EU has pushed for a strong role of the private sector to finance the sustainable development goals. However, an increased role of the private sector might be at odds with the EUs fundamental rights commitments, argues Sunniva Hustad.

Do organisms find food when the sea ice retreats?

In times of climate change and retreating sea ice, important research questions are for example: How important are sea ice algae as a food source for organisms such as copepods, krill and fish? Are they affected by the sea ice retreat and if so, how will that affect the functioning of the Arctic ecosystem?

Environment vs Convenience; who wins in the supermarket?

OPINION: Recent research shows that focussing on the environment and convenience wins consumers. But who wins when we actually shop?

Far Right Politics Has Changed. So Should We!

As far right politics is becoming an ever bigger part of mainstream politics, opponents and scholars of the far right have to leave their 20th century thinking behind and critically review their received wisdom. What might have been true in the 1990s, might no longer be true today. Taboos have been broken, preferences have shifted, and the broader political context has become much more accepting to far right politics and politicians.

The naïveté of Academia: How Plan S could let pseudoscientific and predatory publishers take advantage of researchers

OPINION: Plan S is naïve in its approach to open publishing, making scientific articles available for re-use by whoever may wish to do so. Scientists need to retain the right to decide where their works are published.

What do crabs and fruit have in common?

Picking frost flowers in the Polar night

A couple of days ago when we were sailing between two of our process stations, we came across a beautiful icy garden covered with frost flowers. So we decided to go picking them.

Hot topics from the cold

More than 75% of the Earth’s surface is occupied by cold environments. Cold environments are hot spots for the organisms living there.

Care for you core!

We have recently drilled 34 ice cores from the sea ice. We expected to find very little life inside the ice, but we were proven wrong.

Reading to your child? Digital books are as important as print books

OPINION: Instead of propagating a false dichotomy between print and digital books we need to start asking which books work best for which children and families.

Looking for gender differences in Norwegian prisons is a distraction

Women sentenced to prison in Norway do not experience systematic discrimination. This does not imply that their – nor men’s – needs should not be taken care of.

Do the animals at the bottom of the ocean know it’s dark season?

Do the animals at the bottom of the ocean, that might never have been exposed to sunlight, notice the dark season as we do? It seems logical to assume that the polar night should go by completely unnoticed by them. But it doesn’t.

In the Arctic Ocean and on the shoulders of giants

Blowing in the Arctic wind

Imaging driving with an open cabriolet car at 90km/h inside a gigantic freezer box at -25 degrees C with all windows opens. This does not sound comfortable and most people would not be part of such a situation voluntarily. But this has been the conditions we had been facing for the first days of our Q4 expedition.