Published 21 December 2021 Niels Koning and Daniel Strand. Photo: Johan Joelsson. A research team at Lund University in Sweden has succeeded in producing two molecules that are otherwise only formed by microorganisms from extremely contaminated wastewater in an abandoned mine in South Korea. The method, which took four years to develop, could pave the way for new types of drugs. The study is publi

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-crack-synthetic-code-rare-molecules-sought-after-drug-development - 2025-07-01

Published 11 January 2022 Kerstin Johannesson, professor of marine ecology at the University of Gothenburg and Georg Kresse, professor of physics at the University of Vienna, have been appointed new honorary doctors at the Faculty of Science. Photo: Susanne Liljenström/private. Kerstin Johannesson, an evolutionary biologist who readily goes to sea to find answers to the big questions, and Georg Kr

https://www.science.lu.se/article/biologist-involved-popular-education-and-prolifically-cited-physicist-have-been-appointed-new - 2025-07-01

Published 11 February 2022 Brittle stars clinging to mussels. The size of the brittle stars corresponds to that of the Silurian echinoderms examined in the study. Photo: Lea D. Numberger-Thuy. A research team has succeeded in analysing two temporally consecutive species of fossilised brittle stars. The findings show that a marine catastrophe 428 million years ago contributed to a radical change in

https://www.science.lu.se/article/brittle-star-fossils-gotland-provide-unique-insights-evolutionary-change - 2025-07-01

Published 27 January 2022 The sun. Photo: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Solar Dynamics Observatory, Aerospace Industries Association, Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory. Through analyzes of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, a research team led by Lund University in Sweden has found evidence of an extreme solar storm that occurred about 9,200 years ago.

https://www.science.lu.se/article/ancient-ice-reveals-mysterious-solar-storm - 2025-07-01

Published 31 January 2022 Illustration by Bibiana Prinoth. Using high-resolution spectroscopy, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have succeeded in mapping the atmosphere of an exoplanet located 322 light years from Earth. The knowledge gained about the hot gas surrounding the Jupiter-like planet is important for the understanding of Earth-like planets. WASP-189b is a planet outside our own

https://www.science.lu.se/article/exotic-cocktail-atmosphere-extreme-exoplanet - 2025-07-01

Published 17 February 2022 Illustration of of electrons transferred between aromatic and non-aromatic rings in a hydrocarbon molecule. Illustration: Daniel Strand and Jonas Ahlstedt. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have succeeded in developing a simple hydrocarbon molecule with a logic gate function, similar to that in transistors, in a single molecule. The discovery could make electric c

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-create-molecule-can-pave-way-mini-transistors - 2025-07-01

Published 21 February 2022 Tönu Pullerits and Kaibo Zheng by the laser spectroscopy setup used in the study. Photo: Pavel Chabera. A research team led by Lund University in Sweden has shown how solar power can convert carbon dioxide into fuel, by using advanced materials and ultra-fast laser spectroscopy. The breakthrough could be an important piece of the puzzle in reducing the levels of greenhou

https://www.science.lu.se/article/breakthrough-converting-co2-fuel-using-solar-energy - 2025-07-01

Published 25 February 2022 The McDonald Observatory in Texas. Photo: Ethan Tweedie. A research team led by Lund University in Sweden has provided an important clue to the origin of the element Ytterbium in the Milky Way, by showing that the element largely originates from supernova explosions. The groundbreaking research also provides new opportunities for studying the evolution of our galaxy. The

https://www.science.lu.se/article/astronomers-map-mysterious-element-space - 2025-07-01

Published 14 March 2022 Professor Mats Eriksson, sculpture artist Esben Horn and researcher Johan Lindgren. Photo: Johan Joelsson. Geologists at Lund University in Sweden have mapped 300 years of research on the prehistoric marine reptiles known as ichthyosaurs. Using a uniquely well-preserved fossil, the team has also created the scientifically most up-to-date reconstruction of an ichthyosaur cur

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-reconstruct-ancient-fish-lizard - 2025-07-01

Published 1 March 2022 A flooded village in Demak, Indonesia. Photo: Aji Styawan/Getty Images Climate Visuals Grant recipient. On Monday, the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a new report on how climate change is impacting nature and people worldwide, and on the necessity for adaptation. According to the researchers, more than three billion people live in

https://www.science.lu.se/article/uns-climate-change-panel-world-must-act-now - 2025-07-01

Published 17 March 2022 Black swift. Photo: Zak Pohlen. An international research team led by Lund University in Sweden has managed to study the flight behaviour of the mysterious black swift. They found, among other things, that the black swift rises to extreme heights during a full moon, seemingly catching insects in the moonlight. And, during a lunar eclipse, the birds simultaneously lost altit

https://www.science.lu.se/article/black-swifts-descended-rapidly-during-lunar-eclipse - 2025-07-01

Published 22 March 2022 Stanley Heinze and Anna Runemark. Photo: Johan Joelsson / private photo. Stanley Heinze and Anna Runemark, both researchers at the Department of Biology, have been awarded five-year grants from the European Research Council. Stanley Heinze, a researcher at the Department of Biology, will study insect brains and their neural circuits. His project deals with a specific part o

https://www.science.lu.se/article/two-researchers-receive-erc-consolidator-grants - 2025-07-01

Published 24 March 2022 Illustration of a white dwarf. Illustration: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and G. Bacon (STScI). White dwarfs were once normal stars similar to the Sun but then collapsed after exhausting all their fuel. These interstellar remnants have historically been difficult to study. Howeve

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-map-movement-white-dwarfs-milky-way - 2025-07-01

Published 13 April 2022 Photo: Ahmed Akacha. With the aid of satellite images, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have uncovered unique data on the severe drought that hit Syria between 2007 and 2009. Previously, many politicians and researchers believed that it was decisive for the outbreak of war in 2011. However, the new results indicate that agricultural land had already recovered by 201

https://www.science.lu.se/article/role-drought-syrian-war-was-exaggerated - 2025-07-01

Published 27 April 2022 Illustration: Claudio Verdozzi. Research at Lund University in Sweden has found a new way to create nano-sized magnetic particles using ultrafast laser light pulses. The discovery could pave the way for new and more energy-efficient technical components and become useful in the quantum computers of the future. Magnetic skyrmions are sometimes described as magnetic vortices.

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-create-exotic-magnetic-structures-laser-light - 2025-07-01

Published 2 May 2022 Artist’s conception of a young star and a disk of dust and gas. Illustration: NASA, FUSE, Lynette Cook. Last year, researchers in Lund, Sweden, launched a ground-breaking theory that Earth was formed by pebbles that were sucked together into a celestial body over millions of years. This explanatory model has now been further supported by a new study which shows that cosmic dus

https://www.science.lu.se/article/new-study-space-dust-strengthens-theory-earth-was-formed-pebble-accretion - 2025-07-01

Published 13 May 2022 3D rendering of the meteorite from Mars. Image: Josefin Martell. A research team led by Lund University in Sweden has investigated a meteorite from Mars using neutron and X-ray tomography. The technology, which will probably be used when NASA examines samples from the Red Planet in 2030, showed that the meteorite had limited exposure to water, thus making life at that specifi

https://www.science.lu.se/article/new-study-indicates-limited-water-circulation-late-history-mars - 2025-07-01

Published 14 June 2022 Two galaxies merging. Illustration: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva. Astronomers at Lund University in Sweden have found a group of stars in the Milky Way disk, that are most likely remnants from an unknown baby galaxy that was swallowed by the Milky Way over 10 billion years ago. Nothing like it has been discovered in the galaxy disk before. Af

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-find-ten-billion-year-old-ghost-stars-swallowed-galaxy - 2025-07-01

Published 14 June 2022 Illustration: ESA/ATG medialab. The emergence of a mysterious area in the South Atlantic where the geomagnetic field strength is decreasing rapidly, has led to speculation that Earth is heading towards a magnetic polarity reversal. However, a new study that pieces together evidence stretching back 9,000 years, suggests that the current changes aren’t unique, and that a rever

https://www.science.lu.se/article/earths-magnetic-poles-not-likely-flip - 2025-07-01

Published 14 June 2022 Photo: Charlie Cornwallis. The ostrich is genetically wired to adapt to rising or falling temperatures. However, when the temperature fluctuates more often, as it does with climate change, the flightless bird with a 40-gram brain finds it much more difficult. A research team at Lund University has shown that the ostrich is very sensitive to fluctuating temperatures in terms

https://www.science.lu.se/article/ostriches-can-adapt-heat-or-cold-not-both - 2025-07-01