An international team of scientists has identified the oldest fossil of a sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere – a nothosaur vertebra found on New Zealand’s South Island. 246 million years ago, at the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs, New Zealand was located on the southern polar coast of a vast super-ocean called Panthalassa.
Research at Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet could pave the way for a prosthetic hand and robot to be able to feel touch like a human hand. Their study has been published in the journal Science. The technology could also be used to help restore lost functionality to patients after a stroke.
The number of infections by the tick-borne TBE virus that are not detected by health services is far higher than previously assumed. This has been shown in a new study of Swedish blood donors from Uppsala University and the University Hospital in Uppsala. The results have been published in the journal Eurosurveillance, which is associated with the EU’s Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Over the period 1970–2016, small publishing houses became increasingly important for the publication of literature in translation in Sweden. More than ever, Nobel laureates are being published by relatively small independent publishers. A specialisation in translations often stems from a publisher’s personal interest in a language or geographical area.
About 350 million people across Africa speak one or more of the 500 Bantu languages. New genetic analysis of modern and ancient individuals suggests that these populations probably originated in western Africa and then moved south and east in several waves. The study has been published in the scientific journal Nature.
Whether infants at five months of age look mostly at faces or non-social objects such as cars or mobile phones is largely determined by genes. This has now been demonstrated by researchers at Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet. The findings suggest that there is a biological basis for how infants create their unique visual experiences and which things they learn most about.
Hopfions, magnetic spin structures predicted decades ago, have become a hot and challenging research topic in recent years. In a study published in Nature today, the first experimental evidence is presented by a Swedish-German-Chinese research collaboration.
Researchers at Uppsala University have developed an instrument that makes it possible to measure 21 biomarkers for cardiovascular disease simultaneously with great precision by means of a simple blood test. The aim is to use this type of tool to improve the prediction of cardiovascular complications and facilitate more personalised treatment for patients.
Researchers have identified a new neural circuit in the brain which produces a strong sense of discomfort when activated. The discovery also allows them to show for the first time that the subthalamic nucleus, a structure in the brain that controls voluntary movements, may also play a role in the development of depression. The results could lead to better treatments for Parkinson's disease.
Young children are able to talk in detail about their feelings and how things are at home. They are also good at reading their parents and their emotions by describing their behaviours, facial expressions and tone of voice. This has been shown in a new study by Uppsala University, published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies.
The fossils of a 170-million-year-old ancient marine reptile from the Age of Dinosaurs have been identified as the oldest-known mega-predatory pliosaur – a group of ocean-dwelling reptiles closely related to the famous long-necked plesiosaurs. The findings are rare and add new knowledge to the evolution of plesiosaurs. The study has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Women with a high genetic predisposition for blood clots are six times more likely to develop a blood clot during the first two years of using contraceptive pills according to a new study from Uppsala University. The results have been published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Contraceptive pills can reduce the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, while hormone treatment in connection with menopause can increase the risk later in life. In a new study of more than 200,000 women in the UK, researchers at Uppsala University have discovered connections between the use of sex hormones and the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.
Survival rates for men with metastatic prostate cancer have increased by an average of six months, something which coincides with the gradual introduction of ‘dual treatment’ since 2016. This is according to a register study of all Swedish men diagnosed between 2008 and 2020. The results are published in the medical journal JAMA Network open.
An international team of researchers has released a study on contemporary evolutionary change in natural populations. Their study uses one of the largest genomic datasets ever produced for animals in their natural environment, comprising nearly 4,000 Darwin’s finches. The study has revealed the genetic basis of adaptation in this iconic group. The results are published in the journal Science
A new DNA study has nuanced the picture of how different groups intermingled during the European Stone Age, but also how certain groups of people were actually isolated. The study was carried out by researchers at Uppsala University working with an international team of researchers, who produced new genetic data from 56 Central and Eastern European individuals from the Stone Age.
The use of short flashes of X-ray light brings scientists one big step closer toward developing better catalysts to transform the greenhouse gas methane into a less harmful chemical. The result, published in the journal Science, reveals for the first time how carbon-hydrogen bonds of alkanes break and how the catalyst works in this reaction.
Scientists from Uppsala University have used cryo-electron microscopy to reveal details of the protein synthesis mechanism in the parasite Giardia intestinalis, which causes diarrhoeal disease. The new insights could be valuable for screening specific drugs against Giardia and other protozoan parasites.
Bacterial perseverance is a new phenomenon that helps explain how bacteria adapt to survive antibiotic treatments. A group of researchers at Uppsala University have studied how individual bacteria react when exposed to different antibiotics. The result underlines the importance of adhering strictly to antibiotic prescriptions.
Researchers from Uppsala University and elsewhere have been studying the effect of rising temperatures on the lifespan of pollinating fig wasps. The findings show that the wasps lived much shorter lives at high temperatures, which would make it difficult for them to travel the long distances between the trees they pollinate.
Founded in 1477, Uppsala University is the oldest university in Sweden. With more than 50,000 students and 7,500 employees in Uppsala and Visby, we are a broad university with research in social sciences, humanities, technology, natural sciences, medicine and pharmacology. Our mission is to conduct education and research of the highest quality and relevance to society on a long-term basis. Uppsala University is regularly ranked among the world’s top universities.
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