Published 20 January 2021 Silver-washed fritillary butterfly. Photo: Per Henningson. The fluttery flight of butterflies has so far been somewhat of a mystery to researchers, given their unusually large and broad wings relative to their body size. Now researchers at Lund University in Sweden have studied the aerodynamics of butterflies in a wind tunnel. The results suggest that butterflies use a hi

https://www.science.lu.se/article/butterfly-wing-clap-explains-mystery-flight - 2025-05-27

Published 26 January 2021 Photo: Unsplash. Theories were introduced as far back as the 1960s about the possible existence of superheavy elements. Their most long-lived nuclei could give rise to a so-called “island of stability” far beyond the element uranium. However, a new study, led by nuclear physicists at Lund University, shows that a 50-year-old nuclear physics manifesto must now be revised.

https://www.science.lu.se/article/nuclear-physicists-voyage-towards-mythical-island - 2025-05-27

Published 8 February 2021 Researchers have discovered individual traits in fungi in their hunt for food. Maze-like structure made of silicone. Photo: Kristin Aleklett Kadish. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have discovered the individual traits of fungi, and how their hyphae – that is, the fungal threads that grow in soil - behave very differently as they navigate through the earth’s micr

https://www.science.lu.se/article/soldiers-snakes-and-marathon-runners-hidden-world-fungi - 2025-05-27

Published 8 February 2021 Photo: Charlie Cornwallis. The world's largest bird, the ostrich, has problems reproducing when the temperature deviates by 5 degrees or more from the ideal temperature of 20 °C. The research, from Lund University, is published in Nature Communications. The results show that the females lay up to 40 percent fewer eggs if the temperature has fluctuated in the days before l

https://www.science.lu.se/article/ostriches-challenged-temperature-fluctuations - 2025-05-27

Published 18 February 2021 A spruce bark beetle. Photo: Erling Jirle. For the first time, a research team led by Lund University in Sweden has mapped out exactly what happens when spruce bark beetles use their sense of smell to find trees and partners to reproduce with. The hope is that the results will lead to better pest control and protection of the forest in the future. The Eurasian spruce bar

https://www.science.lu.se/article/breakthrough-fight-against-spruce-bark-beetles - 2025-05-27

Published 4 March 2021 Illustration: Don Dixon (copyright/used with permission). A Swedish-Danish research team is now launching a new theory of the process that led to the formation of Earth. Through advanced analyses of meteorites, astronomers can determine that Tellus went from being a baby planet made of ice and carbon to reaching its current size thanks to millimetre-sized pebbles. The study

https://www.science.lu.se/article/new-study-shows-earth-was-formed-millimetre-sized-pebbles-over-short-period - 2025-05-27

Published 4 March 2021 Image: Pixabay. Sixty-six million years ago, a gigantic celestial body crashed to Earth on the Yucatán peninsula, forming a crater 200 kilometres across. The impact plunged Earth into darkness and killed off the dinosaurs. Now, researchers from Lund University in Sweden, among others, are analysing drill cores from the crater to reconstruct in detail what happened on Earth d

https://www.science.lu.se/article/drill-cores-mexican-crater-provide-new-knowledge-about-dinosaurs-extinction - 2025-05-27

Published 15 March 2021 Roman Pasechnik For 50 years, the world of research has been searching eagerly for the so-called Odderon particle – entirely fruitlessly. However, a Swedish-Hungarian research team has managed to discover the mythical particle with the help of extensive data analyses. In 1973, two French particle physicists were sitting in a basement amazed. According to their calculations,

https://www.science.lu.se/article/particle-physics-detective-work-behind-solution-50-year-old-riddle - 2025-05-27

Published 15 March 2021 Photo: Wikimedia. Long life is common among bird parents that get help with childcare. This finding comes from researchers at the universities of Lund and Oxford who reviewed data from more than 9,000 studies. Being a parent can be tough. In general, animals that care for many offspring die young, at least in species where parents are not helped by others. However, in some

https://www.science.lu.se/article/bird-parents-receive-help-live-longer - 2025-05-27

Published 23 March 2021 Illustration: Pixabay. Volcano or meteorite? Over the past 100 years, two different theories have been put forward to explain the formation of Lake Mien. However, researchers from Lund University can now definitively state in a new study that the lake in Småland was formed by a gigantic celestial object. It was long thought that the circular Lake Mien in southern Småland wa

https://www.science.lu.se/article/new-study-shows-lake-mien-was-formed-meteoric-impact - 2025-05-27

Published 16 April 2021 Coal tit. Photo: Andreas Nord. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have discovered that bird blood produces more heat in winter, when it is colder, than in autumn. The secret lies in the energy factories of cells, the mitochondria. Mammals have no mitochondria in their red blood cells, but birds do, and according to the research team from Lund and Glasgow this means th

https://www.science.lu.se/article/birds-blood-functions-heating-system-winter - 2025-05-27

Published 28 April 2021 Donatas Zigmantas. A research team at Lund University in Sweden has succeeded in uncovering the fundamental properties of plexcitons, which were previously shrouded in mystery. Now the researchers can show how the plexcitons function and suggest how they could be used in potential applications in the future. A plasmon is a quasiparticle that stems from quantisation of oscil

https://www.science.lu.se/article/lund-researchers-solve-nano-mystery-long-run-could-help-world-achieve-sustainable-development-goals - 2025-05-27

Published 5 May 2021 Wolfgang Knorr, a researcher at the Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, is one of three authors of a high-profile climate article recently published in The Conversation. The article, about our future carbon footprint, has received widespread coverage after being shared on Twitter by Greta Thunberg. What prompted you to write the article in The Conversation?

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researcher-was-given-helping-hand-greta-thunberg - 2025-05-27

Published 10 May 2021 Colonisation of remote islands has contributed to irreversible changes in their ecosystems. This finding emerges from an international study to which researchers from Lund University contributed. The analysis of 5000-year-old pollen enabled the research team to reveal the islands’ vulnerability. In the new study, published in the research journal Science, a research team inve

https://www.science.lu.se/article/remote-islands-extremely-sensitive-human-impact - 2025-05-27

Published 1 June 2021 In the study, the researchers analysed foraminifera brought up by drilling into the ocean floor. Photo: Helena L Filipsson. They are called foraminifera and have lived in the world’s oceans for 545 million years. A research team has established in a new study that some species of this protist will probably cope swimmingly even in a climate-impacted future. This is due to thei

https://www.science.lu.se/article/microscopic-foraminifera-likely-winners-tomorrows-increasingly-deoxygenated-oceans - 2025-05-27

Published 4 June 2021 Torbjörn Sjöstrand. Photo: Private. Torbjörn Sjöstrand, post-retirement professor at the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics, has been awarded the EPS High Energy and Particle Physics Prize. This desirable prize, which has previously been given to several Nobel laureates, is awarded by the European Physical Society. Congratulations on the prize, Torbjörn, how does

https://www.science.lu.se/article/prestigious-prize-awarded-particle-physicist - 2025-05-27

Published 11 June 2021 Fredrik Terfelt and Birger Schmitz dissolved almost ten tonnes of sedimentary rocks from ancient seabeds. Photo: Johan Joelsson. For the first time, a unique study conducted at Lund University in Sweden has tracked the meteorite flux to Earth over the past 500 million years. Contrary to current theories, researchers have determined that major collisions in the asteroid belt

https://www.science.lu.se/article/earths-meteorite-impacts-over-past-500-million-years-tracked - 2025-05-27

Published 11 June 2021 The middle spotted woodpecker has disappeared from Sweden, while the European fire-bellied toad has been reintroduced. Photos: Wikimedia Commons. Researchers in Lund, Copenhagen and Norwich have shown that harmful mutations present in the DNA play an important – yet neglected – role in the conservation and translocation programs of threatened species. “Many species are threa

https://www.science.lu.se/article/genomics-informed-decisions-can-help-save-species-extinction - 2025-05-27

Published 16 June 2021 The research team in Lund. From the left: Ivan Scheblykin, Alexander Kiligaridis, Aymen Yangui. Photo: Alexander Kiligaridis. For the first time, a research team has succeeded in collecting diverse signatures of electronic properties of perovskite semiconductors in one comprehensive picture. By using a new spectroscopy technique, researchers have managed to produce horse-lik

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-lund-university-ride-out-unknown-solar-cell-territories-using-new-technique - 2025-05-27

Published 1 July 2021 Artist’s impression of the Gaia space telescope. Image: European Space Agencyy Astronomers at Lund University in Sweden have played a central role in work with the Gaia space telescope. A new research project from the Gaia group in Lund has now been selected as one of two top candidates for the European Space Agency’s prestigious Voyage 2050 initiative. Since Gaia was launche

https://www.science.lu.se/article/lund-university-plays-key-role-new-prestigious-project-map-galaxy - 2025-05-27