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Kerstin Johannesson, an evolutionary biologist who readily goes to sea to find answers to the big questions, and Georg Kresse, a physicist with outstanding achievements in computational science, have been appointed honorary doctors at the Faculty of Science, Lund University. Kerstin Johannesson is a professor of marine ecology at the University of Gothenburg and director of the Tjärnö Marine Labor

https://www.science.lu.se/article/biologist-involved-popular-education-and-prolifically-cited-physicist-have-been-appointed-new - 2025-11-07

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 the animals’ appearance. The new study clarifies how environmental disruptions can set off major evolutionary processes. Brittle stars are a group of echinoderms that are closely related to st

https://www.science.lu.se/article/brittle-star-fossils-gotland-provide-unique-insights-evolutionary-change - 2025-11-07

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. What puzzles the researchers is that the storm took place during one of the sun's more quiet phases – during which it is generally believed our planet is less exposed to such events. The sun is a prerequisite

https://www.science.lu.se/article/ancient-ice-reveals-mysterious-solar-storm - 2025-11-07

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 solar system, with a dayside temperature of 3,200 degrees C

https://www.science.lu.se/article/exotic-cocktail-atmosphere-extreme-exoplanet - 2025-11-07

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 components on a molecular scale possible in the future. The results are published in Nature Communications. Manufacturing very small components is an important challenge in both resear

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-create-molecule-can-pave-way-mini-transistors - 2025-11-07

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 greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in the future. The study is published in Nature Communications. The sunlight that hits Earth during one

https://www.science.lu.se/article/breakthrough-converting-co2-fuel-using-solar-energy - 2025-11-07

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 study is published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Ytterbium is one of four elements i

https://www.science.lu.se/article/astronomers-map-mysterious-element-space - 2025-11-07

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 currently available. Fish lizards, or ichthyosaurs, were a very successful group of animals that, much like today's whales, migrated f

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-reconstruct-ancient-fish-lizard - 2025-11-07

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 environments that are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the same applies to many species. The researchers establis

https://www.science.lu.se/article/uns-climate-change-panel-world-must-act-now - 2025-11-07

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 altitude. The results are published in Current Biology. The b

https://www.science.lu.se/article/black-swifts-descended-rapidly-during-lunar-eclipse - 2025-11-07

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 of the brain that governs their behaviour, and how it evolved over 450 million years of evolution.

https://www.science.lu.se/article/two-researchers-receive-erc-consolidator-grants - 2025-11-07

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. However, a recent study from Lund University in Sweden reveals new information about the movement patterns of these puzzling stars. White dwarfs have a radius of about 1 percent of the Sun’s. They have about the same mass,

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-map-movement-white-dwarfs-milky-way - 2025-11-07

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 2010. When the war in Syria broke out in 2011, t

https://www.science.lu.se/article/role-drought-syrian-war-was-exaggerated - 2025-11-07

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. Unlike ferromagnetic states – which occur in convention

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-create-exotic-magnetic-structures-laser-light - 2025-11-07

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 dust also played a crucial role in the creation of our planet. It has become known as the pebble accretion theory. The radical i

https://www.science.lu.se/article/new-study-space-dust-strengthens-theory-earth-was-formed-pebble-accretion - 2025-11-07

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 specific time and place unlikely. In a cloud of smoke, NASA's spacecraft Perseverance parachut

https://www.science.lu.se/article/new-study-indicates-limited-water-circulation-late-history-mars - 2025-11-07

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. After the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, space was a veritable Wild West. Stars formed inside huge gas clouds that collide

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-find-ten-billion-year-old-ghost-stars-swallowed-galaxy - 2025-11-07

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 reversal may not be in the cards after all. The Earth’s magn

https://www.science.lu.se/article/earths-magnetic-poles-not-likely-flip - 2025-11-07

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 of whether it reproduces. If the temperature rises

https://www.science.lu.se/article/ostriches-can-adapt-heat-or-cold-not-both - 2025-11-07

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 project to find methods tha

https://www.science.lu.se/article/many-reasons-take-care-lake-water - 2025-11-07