Tag: researchers zone

This bacterium outsmarts our defences, but we are on its heals

Share your science: Meet Staphylococcus aureus, the ultimate microscopic escape artist that invades, adapts, tricks, and thrives within our bodies.

Arctic sea-ice monitoring: from the Vikings to satellite observations

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: The first Arctic sea-ice observations were documented by the Vikings, and later followed by the first polar explorers and sailors. Today, the IceBird programme is part of an international monitoring series, documenting the Arctic ice cover as it undergoes rapid changes due to climate warming.

Bacteria have a new mortal enemy: DNA

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: We all know about DNA. It lives inside every cell in our bodies and shapes who we are and how we look. But what if we could use it as a tool against bacteria?

Warm water is bad news for ancient species

As the Norwegian fjords are getting warmer, species who have been present since the Ice Age are now gone from the fjords.

Do pollutants harm birds’ sperm cells?

Pollution reduces fertility in men. We tested whether it also affects sperm in the tree swallow, a North American songbird. The results were surprising.

Nature's strangest collaboration

Evolution talking, the greatest concern of all life is to leave behind successful offspring. Species must band together to ensure future generations. The fig and the fig wasp are the perfect example.

Bente Træen had cancer surgery: "What will this mean for my sex life?"

OPINION: When you’re a patient, you're not exactly at the top of your game. And yet healthcare personnel expect patients to take the initiative in talking about their most intimate issues. It goes without saying that this doesn’t work.

The beauty of a swirl: We continuously reveal the secrets of the heart

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: The heart is perhaps the most romanticised, and most studied human organ. The blood flow in the heart has fascinated physicians and researchers for decades, and our understanding of the cardiac mechanics are ever evolving.

Many people who have sex with both men and women perceive themselves as heterosexual

This has consequences for their sexual health. We should help people find their right sexual identity so that they can align their self-reported sexual orientation with their sexual behaviour, writes Bente Træen.

How conscience enables companies to realise their sustainability strategies

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Companies lack expertise on sustainability, fail to prioritise climate change and lack the commitment to drive environmental and social commitments into the core of the business. Why?

Why is it so difficult to talk with your partner about sex, and how can you make it easier?

When we don’t explicitly express our needs, we force our partner to guess what we need, writes Professor Bente Træen.

Why are sperm cells so diverse when they all have the exact same job?

Why are sperm cells so diverse in shape, when they all have the same simple task? To solve this mystery museum scientists sample bird sperm from diverse species around the world.

Development of battery metal exploration strategies for European resources

The ongoing climate change affects our society through impact on a range of social and cultural areas as well as the effect on the environment and on natural resources. Reducing CO2 emissions is one way to limit this impact.

The food processing technologies we fear the most

OPINION: For the most part, there are some types of food processing technologies that we accept, while we are more sceptical towards others. Why is this, and what does it mean?

Is the Natural History Museum digitizing its collections to save space?

Do relationships suffer from the seven-year itch?

Both men and women feel most close to their partner at the beginning of their relationship. These feelings then steadily erode, especially for women, writes Bente Træen.

Why has the Norwegian Minister of Research fired the board of the Norwegian Research Council? Because he can.

A shocked and worried Norwegian academia are still not closer to understanding last week’s events. Part of the answer is political: As long as voters don’t care, Ola Borten Moe from the Centre Party can set the Norwegian research world on fire.

Even successful studies show how poorly dieting works

OPINION: Many people manage to lose weight, commentators and experts agree. But research still shows that lifestyle interventions don’t work well against obesity.

Research fraud is nothing new: Here's how scientists manipulated data in the 1800s

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Fraud and manipulation, big data challenges and the decline of science. None of this is new. These issues were already on the agenda in the UK in the 1830s.

The deep blue Arctic Ocean: A scientific diver's tales of life under water

"I love the ocean, I love the Arctic, I love the knowledge of this stunningly beautiful world I have gathered over the years. This is why I wanted to become a marine biologist."

Twenty years of sequencing genes… for better or for worse

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: It’s been 20 years since the first draft sequence of the human genome was published in the journals Nature and Science. Sequencing 30 000 genes has changed the world, but in a different way than expected.

Violent extremism is not a uniform phenomenon: The key differences in prevention of left-wing, right-wing, and Islamist extremism

Policies to prevent radicalization and violent extremism frequently target militant Islamists, right-wing and left-wing extremists. In a recent study we have examined what distinguishes the ways in which local practitioners perceive and respond to each of the milieus. Our results show that there is a clear discrepancy between the uniform way violent extremism is presented in policy, and how front line practitioners experience the different forms of extremism at the local level.

What type of food will you need when you get sick or old?

Imagine that you have difficulty chewing your food because you have poor chewing and swallowing functions – this is the situation for many elderly and sick people. A personalised fish soup that has a high protein content is a good solution to this problem. It tastes great, is nutritious, requires little chewing and is easy to swallow.

How lynx hide their dinner from scavengers

Many predators leave decomposing carcasses behind, allowing scavengers a meal. Eurasian lynx, however, have a trick for how to keep their dinners all to themselves.

Can the Covid-19 pandemic be a turning point for antibiotic resistance?

The use of antibiotics is plummeting in Norway during strict corona measures.

Men are more confident when it comes to cooking seafood than women

How confident you are in your ability to prepare tasty new seafood dishes may influence how often you eat seafood.

What is Happening to the Dutch Far Right? From Wilders to Baudet… and Back To Wilders Again

This week the Dutch Forum for Democracy (FvD) experienced yet another scandal, but this time the infighting did not favor Thierry Baudet. And so, four years after founding the party, and less than half a year before the next Dutch parliamentary election, Baudet has resigned as party leader, and withdrawn from the top spot on the electoral list, and we can all refocus our attention on the real leader of the Dutch far right, Geert Wilders.

Golden Dawn guilty verdict is a victory for Greek democracy. But will it solve the country’s deep political divides?

While the Golden Dawn verdict is a positive step for Greek democracy, it is still important to understand why circa 500,000 Greek citizens voted this criminal organization in the parliament, despite the fact that its violence was well known.

The case against the Nordic Resistance Movement in Finland: an overview and some explanations

The Supreme Court of Finland issued a ban on the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement in September of 2020. The historical decision follows a case that has been ongoing for several years and has already seen the Finnish right-wing extremist scene change in different ways.

Research cruising in the Barents Sea: When Murphy Wins

This post is about real scientists failing unspectacularly.

Risky business

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

What do crabs and fruit have in common?

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.

Unique Challenges at the start of an Arctic winter Expedition

Searching in the dark

Women sentenced to prison in Norway are treated favourably

OPINION: Contrary to popular belief, women sentenced to prison in Norway receive more beneficial measures than men aimed at reintegration into society. The general claim that women sentenced to prison in Norway are discriminated against, is a myth.

Heritage conservation and Climate Change: Introducing the Future of our past in the Norwegian context.

Transitions are changes in the way of do things, and to stimulate them it is necessary to expand our understanding of the world and its realities, so we can create new ways to relate to them. Although such proposals seem rather theoretical and abstract, this article will discuss how such transition is happening in the cultural heritage field.

A critical look at the EU's approach to peacekeeping

The EU has been commended for its engagement with women and the local indigenous population in its mission in Chad. However, from a postcolonial perspective, it can be argued that the EU's personnel displayed specific Western assumptions in their operation, explains Lea Augenstein.

Who is responsible for sustainable development?

Should past emissions matter when allocating responsibility for sustainable development? Former GLOBUS MA student Sigrid Jerpstad has analysed the EU's view on responsibility when negotiating the global sustainable development agenda.

Trafficking in human beings: A threat to European state security?

After the so-called ‘migrant-crisis’, the EU has described trafficking in human beings as a threat to EU states, societies and economies. What implications does this shift have for the victims of trafficking? GLOBUS MA Vera Skjetne discusses the recent turn in EU’s trafficking policies.

Into the Subglacial Tunnel

A POST FROM THE SUB-GLACIAL BLOG: After a steep walk up the mountain, we arrived in front of the tunnel entrance. There we stood, in shorts and t-shirts, suddenly realising that the heat and sunshine we were used to until now were about to become only a distant memory. With our winter coats, hats and gloves on, we followed Miriam as she opened the door leading into the mountain.

Arrival at Svartisen

A POST FROM THE SUB GLACIAL BLOG: On the 17th of July, our advisor Miriam Jackson and the three of us (French students Perrine, Sophia and Juliette) made an excursion from their internship in glaciology at the NVE in Oslo to the Svartisen Subglacial Laboratory.

How the EU combines normative and consequentialist motivations in its climate policy

The EU is often viewed as a key global actor in efforts to tackle climate change, but are the EU’s actions motivated by altruistic concerns for the environment or rather by pragmatic political and economic reasons, asks GLOBUS researcher Franziskus von Lucke.

World Heritage in Danger… What Danger?

Beyond a state-centric right to protect human rights: Operation Mediterranea by land and sea

Who will protect the human rights of migrants at sea when the state fails to do so? GLOBUS researcher Michela Ceccorulli (University of Bologna) discusses the role of the non-governmental project Mediterranea Saving Humans in light of the recent criminalisation of humanitarian efforts in Italy.

Charles-Joseph Minard’s map of Napoleon’s flawed Russian campaign: An ever-current classic

Brazil’s declining climate ambitions: A severe blow to global climate governance

The new Brazilian government’s seeming neglect of the climate issue causes instability in international climate negotiations, and puts pressure on other large economies like India and China to help fulfil the goals of the Paris Agreement, argues GLOBUS Researcher Solveig Aamodt. But are these countries up to the task?