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 - 2025-07-05

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 - 2025-07-05

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 - 2025-07-05

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 - 2025-07-05

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 - 2025-07-05

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 - 2025-07-05

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 - 2025-07-05

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 - 2025-07-05

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 - 2025-07-05

Published 16 August 2022 When you take a dip in a Swedish lake, it is not unusual to find you cannot see the lake bottom. Lake water coloured brown by organic material can be an inconvenience for swimming tourists, but mainly causes problems for the ecosystem and drinking water. Focusing on Lake Bolmen, researchers, public authorities and local organisations are now joining forces in a research pr

https://www.science.lu.se/article/many-reasons-take-care-lake-water - 2025-07-05

Published 25 August 2022 Photo: Unsplash. By analyzing DNA with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), an international research team led by Lund University in Sweden has developed a method that can accurately date up to ten-thousand year-old human remains. Accurately dating ancient humans is key when mapping how people migrated during world history. The standard dating method since the 1950s h

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-develop-first-ai-based-method-dating-archaeological-remains - 2025-07-05

Published 1 September 2022 Photo: Unsplash. The most common analytical method within population genetics is deeply flawed, according to a new study from Lund University. This may have led to incorrect results and misconceptions about ethnicity and genetic relationships. The method has been used in hundreds of thousands of studies, affecting results within medical genetics and even commercial ances

https://www.science.lu.se/article/study-reveals-flaws-popular-genetic-method - 2025-07-05

Published 19 September 2022 Photo: Albin Belsing. Solitary bees that ingested the pesticide clothianidin when foraging from rapeseed flowers became slower. In addition, the strawberries pollinated by these bees were smaller. This is shown by a new study from Lund University in Sweden. Strawberries are known to become bigger if bees have visited their flowers, but how strawberry growth is affected

https://www.science.lu.se/article/strawberries-were-smaller-when-bees-ingested-pesticides - 2025-07-05

Published 26 September 2022 Illustration: NASA JPL-Caltech R. Hurt (SSC Caltech). Using data from the Gaia space telescope, a team led by researchers at Lund University in Sweden has shown that large parts of the Milky Way's outer disk vibrate. The ripples are caused by a dwarf galaxy, now seen in the constellation Sagittarius, that shook our galaxy as it passed by hundreds of millions of years ag

https://www.science.lu.se/article/mysterious-ripples-milky-way-were-caused-passing-dwarf-galaxy - 2025-07-05

Published 30 September 2022 Photo: Tariq Sulemani/Istockphoto. A new study led by Lund University in Sweden shows that cities negatively affect the diversity of birds. There are significantly fewer bird species in urban forests compared with forests in the countryside - even if the forest areas are of the same quality. The researchers examined 459 natural woodlands located in or near 32 cities in

https://www.science.lu.se/article/less-bird-diversity-city-forests - 2025-07-05

Published 9 November 2022 Markku Rummukainen. Photo: Kennet Ruona. The UN’s annual climate change conference is currently ongoing in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Over the course of two weeks, representatives of the world’s nations will gather to discuss how to achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement and contribute to the climate transition. At this year’s COP, the focus will be on topics such a

https://www.science.lu.se/article/uns-climate-change-conference-cop27-topics-agenda - 2025-07-05

Published 9 November 2022 Photo: Ulrika Ervander. Almost one fourth of Sweden’s last unprotected old-growth forest was logged between 2003 and 2019. At this rate, all of these ecologically unique and valuable forests will be lost in about 50 years. These findings add to the growing body of evidence for widespread cryptic forest degradation across the global north. A small fraction of Sweden’s fore

https://www.science.lu.se/article/study-uncovers-widespread-and-ongoing-clearcutting-swedish-old-forests - 2025-07-05

Published 6 December 2022 The winning picture: The eyes of a Helena's treefrog seem to glow in the dark. Photo: Roberto García-Roa. Roberto García-Roa, postdoc at the department of Biology has won yet another prestigious photo award. This time he’s the overall winner of “Capturing Ecology”, the British Ecological Society photo competition. Congratulations Roberto, what does this award mean to you?

https://www.science.lu.se/article/sharp-shooting-biologist-winner-international-photography-award - 2025-07-05

Published 5 January 2023 The researchers used ultrafast laser spectroscopy. Photo: Pavel Chabera. With the help of mirrors, placed only a few hundred nanometers apart, a research team has managed to use light more efficiently. The finding could eventually be useful for controlling solar energy conversion during photosynthesis, or other reactions driven by light. For example, one application could

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-take-first-step-towards-controlling-photosynthesis-using-mirrors - 2025-07-05

Published 5 January 2023 Jan Dhont. Jan Dhont, a chemist whose major achievements have been significant for life science and food science, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Science at Lund University. Jan Dhont is a professor at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf and Director of the Institute of Biomacromolecular Systems and Processes at Forschungszentrum Jülich in Ge

https://www.science.lu.se/article/colloid-chemist-new-honorary-doctor-science - 2025-07-05