The CT-scanned feather details (left) need to be converted to a complete 3D model of the feather (right) in order to develop numerical tools to realise a geometric model of the feather. This model in turn will be the basis for the development of a highly Birds are masters of flight and can even outperform aircraft. Bar-tailed godwits, for example, can fly from Alaska to New Zealand – 11 600 km – i

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/making-aircraft-wing-feather - 2025-08-25

Photo: Shutterstock Variations and changes in the genetic code in our cells are of great significance for many of the most widespread diseases. In recent years, researchers have made important progress in finding new ways to correct the genes that are causing problems. They have developed a technique that enables changes to the genetic sequence in living cells.  “It is possible to cut out the bad

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/new-gene-technique-inspired-bacterias-immune-defence - 2025-08-25

Faster, more efficient, thinner, more energy-saving! These are some of the watchwords used in the development of better mobiles, solar cells and LED lighting. The common denominator for improving transistors in electronics or lighting diodes are ultra-small semi-conductors known as nanowires. Using a new “supermicroscope”, Reine Wallenberg, professor of solid state physics, is studying how nanowir

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/new-technology-shows-how-nanowires-are-born - 2025-08-25

Mike Olsson is developing the right tools for materials that are difficult to process, such as: pure copper, tungsten, niobium, tantalum and molybdenum. Photo: Kennet Ruona If you use your tools correctly, they last longer and you will not have to throw them out and buy new ones. Many of us agree with this sustainable and profitable approach. The same applies to manufacturing companies that want t

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/optimisation-tools - 2025-08-25

The cells that produce insulin and glucagon are difficult to access, as they are located inside the fragile pancreas. Researchers looking to understand how they function and what underpins the development of diabetes are therefore often advised to conduct their experiments on animals. The Human Tissue Lab, on the other hand, provides researchers with access to cells from deceased human donors; thi

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/gold-diabetes-researchers - 2025-08-25

Bo Hansson was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when he was 64. His elevated blood sugar was discovered during a routine visit to the Occupational Health Service. A mapping conducted at Lund University shows that 40 per cent of all adults that has the disease got it at an average age of 67. Bo Hansson received his diagnosis the year before he retired during a routine visit to the Occupational Health

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/risk-type-2-diabetes-increases-age - 2025-08-25

MERGE research team has studied drill cores up to three kilometres deep taken from the Greenland ice sheet. Photo: NEEM gallery A three-kilometre-long cylinder of ice sheds light on what the climate was like one hundred thousand years ago. The ice contains traces of periods of higher or lower temperatures on Earth, but also of whether there were violent volcanic eruptions and high solar activity.

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/tracing-climate-back-100-000-years-greenland - 2025-08-25

I-Ju Chen, Yang Chen and Xulu Zeng are all on the track to find better ways of harvesting sunlight using solar cells made of nanowires. Photo: Kennet Ruona Increased use of solar cells in the future requires higher efficiency and lower production costs. Innovative research from the interdisciplinary centre NanoLund wants to optimize the nanowires so that sunlight can be harvested more efficiently.

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/sunhunters-knowledge-collect-light - 2025-08-25

Image credit: Greasy Faced Dial by Shane Gorski, via Flickr (licenced under a CC BY-ND 2.0 licence) Cycling becomes a lot harder if you don’t oil the bicycle chain! Similarly, you can’t cut metal, turn metal on a lathe or press sheet metal without lubricant. Previously in engineering works there was a flow of lubricant that is hazardous for health and the environment, but now the technology exists

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/more-efficient-lubricants-using-sawdust - 2025-08-25

How did we end up here? What do we do to get out of it? In climate research, it is important to understand how the world works if we are to change our behaviour and prevent future catastrophes. Researchers use mathematical formulas to try and visualise reality, in order to find out what changes we need to make. “We build models in an attempt to represent nature’s behaviour using mathematical equat

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/mathematic-visualize-climate-changes - 2025-08-25

Small sensors do a big job. Increasing numbers of things can now be controlled and measured, detected and regulated via small sensors on machines, in nature or in and on our bodies. These sensors gather and transmit large amounts of information via wireless communication, while requiring very little electrical power. To reduce electricity consumption, researchers must work with each tiny electroni

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/tiny-savings-big-results-energy-efficient-electronics - 2025-08-25

The adverse effects of dust storms on health, the environment, and the economy led Hossein Hashemi and his research colleagues to start up a new research project. Photo: Kennet Ruona Dust storms used to be a weather phenomenon associated with aridity and desert. This has now changed, and today they are occurring in places all over the Middle East, and more frequently than before. This peaked the i

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/eye-dust-storm - 2025-08-25

Agriculture and forestry are two sectors that are often considered separately. In fact, they are closely connected. Both from an ecological and an economic perspective, they must be considered together”, says Professor Yann Clough. Photo: Kennet Ruona Research and society in close cooperation: that is the basis for Farm2Forest, a project aiming to produce evidence guiding Swedish and European agri

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/farm2forest-sustainable-agriculture-biobased-future - 2025-08-25

Edith Hammar, Johan Ekroos and Cecilia Akselsson deal with issues related to ecosystem services and biodiversity in a changing climate.Photo: Kennet Ruona In recent years, ‘ecosystem services’ has become an increasingly common concept within the research community, as well as in municipalities, public authorities and industry. In simple terms, ecosystem services can be described as the benefits hu

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/human-and-nature-symbiosis - 2025-08-25

When everyday life is not recognisable, when conversation is silenced, when memories disappear. Alzheimer’s disease is contracted by 60 000 people in Sweden annually and accounts for 60 per cent of all types of dementia disease. There is no cure, but research has come a long way in diagnosing the disease at an early stage. “Over the past ten years there has been a revolution concerning our possibi

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/pursuit-early-signs-alzheimers-disease - 2025-08-25

A dung beetle rolling its ball under an artificial moonlit sky. (Photo: Chris Collingridge) Of all nocturnal animals, only dung beetles can hold their course using polarized moonlight. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now shown that the beetles can use polarized light when its signal strength is weak,which may allow them to find their bearings when artificial light from cities swamp n

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/dung-beetles-navigate-better-under-full-moon - 2025-08-25

Shovels, brushes and dusty excavations sites? For many people this is what comes to mind when they think of archeology. But the field has developed at an unprecedented pace during the last few decades, and now includes tools and methods such as 3D modelling, spatial analysis and even laser cameras mounted on drones. Nicolo Dell'Unto, researcher at Lund University, is part of a growing number of ar

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/archaeological-finds-without-digging - 2025-08-25

The fact that smoking is the most common cause of lung cancer has been known for a long time. However, ten to fifteen per cent of those affected have never smoked. Researchers believe that air pollution can also cause lung cancer. Each year approximately four thousand people in Sweden are diagnosed with lung cancer and nearly as many die each year from the disease. It is the fifth most common form

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/lung-cancer-early-diagnosis-leads-better-targeted-treatment - 2025-08-25

There are significant environmental and economic benefits to be achieved if there is a better understanding of ‘dangerous Less waste. Better quality. Reduced environmental impact. A safer work environment. By understanding burr formation, that is, of how much undesirable material is formed, in connection with cutting in the manufacturing industry, for example, it is possible to achieve significant

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/understanding-burr-formation-can-provide-competitive-edge - 2025-08-25

Greya politella and Greya obscura on a Lithophragma cymbalaria. (Photo: Magne Friberg) A research team that includes researchers from Lund University in Sweden, the University of California Santa Cruz, Cornell University and the University of São Paulo, has discovered that the scent of flowers of the same species can be completely different - despite growing only some10 kilometres apart. The study

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/scent-flower-varies-locally - 2025-08-25