Blue tits (Photo: Johan Nilsson) For decades, researchers have thought that access to food determined the brood size of birds. Now, biologists at Lund University in Sweden have discovered a completely new explanation: the body temperature of small birds can increase by more than 4°C to exceed 45°C when they are feeding their young. Larger broods would require more work, resulting in even higher bo

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/small-birds-almost-overheat-while-feeding-their-young - 2025-08-31

James Surmeier (Photo: Kennet Ruona) James Surmeier, professor at Northwestern University, recently visited Lund University where he gave the 2018 Segerfalk Lecture. In this interview, he talks about how technology is helping brain research to advance, about almost giving up research altogether – and the discovery that could slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease. James Surmeier grew up on a 

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/exciting-times-brain-researchers - 2025-08-31

Photo: Mikael Risedal What makes for a successful transition to a low-carbon energy system? Local involvement, perceived fairness and information sharing, according to new research from Lund University in Sweden. The researchers studied two cases, one in Samsø (Denmark) and one in Feldheim (Germany) of successful implementation of low-carbon energy systems. Samsø is the world’s first 100% renewabl

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/how-local-communities-can-transition-sustainable-energy-systems - 2025-08-31

Photo: Pål Axel Olsson Since 2012, the EU project Sandlife has worked to restore open sandy habitats in southern Sweden. Overgrown environmentally-protected areas, known as Natura 2000 areas, on sandy land in Skåne, Halland and Öland, have been opened up to become more accessible to both the public and rare plants and animals. The first results are now being presented and they are positive. The in

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/biodiversity-increased-after-open-sandy-habitat-restoration - 2025-08-31

Sara Gabrielsson and Bertha Mhepela (Photo: Ann Åkerman) In Tanzania, girls on their period avoid going to school, something that affects their opportunities for education. A new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that the menstrual cup could be a step towards better school attendance, and a life with more freedom. As a young woman in Tanzania, having your period is associated with great c

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/menstrual-cups-could-help-girls-attend-school-tanzania - 2025-08-31

Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) Photo: Marcus Stensmyr A new doctoral thesis from Lund University in Sweden shows how fruit flies use their sense of smell and humidity to find food, avoid dehydration and discover the best place to lay their eggs – in overripe marula fruits. Faeces from herbivores are also suitable, but the flies reject carnivore excrement. Summer is high season for tiny fruit

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/fruit-flies-fear-lion-faeces - 2025-08-31

The EU biofuel regulation does not guarantee a reduced climate impact – nor does it address the core issue of substantially reducing transport emissions, according to a new doctoral thesis from Lund University in Sweden. “On a smaller scale, biofuels can be a good alternative for public transport, but we cannot solve the climate issue by simply replacing fossil fuels with biofuels. Instead, we mus

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/eu-biofuel-regulation-not-sustainable-long-term - 2025-08-31

Photo: Josefin Starkhammar Millions of years of evolutionary fine-tuning have made dolphins phenomenally good at using echolocation to orient themselves, find food and communicate with one another. But how do they actually do it? New research from Lund University in Sweden shows that they emit two intertwined ultrasound beam components at different frequencies – and with slightly different timing.

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/dolphin-algorithm-could-lead-better-medical-ultrasounds - 2025-08-31

This year, Sweden celebrates a century of democracy and fair elections are seen as self-evident. How did our democracy develop and how did we get rid of election fraud? A political scientist at Lund University in Sweden has now examined the country’s election fraud history and its underlying causes – from 1719 to the early 1900s. The conclusion? Bureaucrats and political parties are the biggest fa

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/how-sweden-became-one-worlds-most-stable-democracies - 2025-08-31

What would happen if all petrol and diesel-powered vehicles were removed from a smaller European city? Up to 4% of all premature deaths could be prevented, according to a new study from Lund University in Sweden. The researchers used Malmö, Sweden, as a case study to calculate the health costs of inner city traffic. Every year, over 400,000 people in Europe die prematurely due to air pollution - a

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/health-effect-air-pollution-traffic - 2025-08-31

Cancer cells in children tend to develop by following four main trajectories – and two of them are linked to relapse of the disease, research led by Lund University in Sweden shows. The four strategies can occur simultaneously in a single tumour, according to the study that is now published in Nature Genetics. The researchers mapped out the genome of cancer cells from more than 50 tumours in order

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/childhood-cancer-four-survival-strategies-tumour-cells - 2025-08-31

Over 50% of the global population lives in cities, and those cities all share the same pressing challenge: how can they provide economic prosperity and social cohesion in a sustainable way? One way of finding answers to that question is urban living labs, a type of testbed where social and technical innovations are tested in real time in an urban setting.“Urban living labs are a new form of govern

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/book-release-urban-living-labs-experimenting-city-futures - 2025-08-31

Lars Jonung and Fredrik NG Andersson Iceland should abandon the flexible exchange rate of the króna as well as their present policy of inflation targeting – in favour of a currency board with a truly fixed exchange rate of the króna to the euro. The euro should be used as the reserve currency of Iceland. This recommendation is given in a new report, Lessons for Iceland from the monetary policy of

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/iceland-case-currency-board-euro-reserve - 2025-08-31

Tommy Shih The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education, STINT, now makes a national, major effort to promote Swedish higher education, research and innovation in China as well as to become an academic knowledge hub in relation to China. Tommy Shih, associate professor at Lund University School of Economics and Management, has been appointed as the head of

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/national-initiative-academic-collaborations-china - 2025-08-31

Data from more than 400 000 patients in different countries will be used to increase knowledge and improve treatment of prostate cancer. This is all taking place within the international big data for better outcome (BD4BO) project PIONEER, in which Lund University has a prominent role. Despite intensive research, there are many unanswered questions concerning prostate cancer – one of the most comm

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/prostate-cancer-questions-could-be-answered-through-big-data-project - 2025-08-31

Diadema africanum (Photo: José Carlos Hernández) Sea urchins lack eyes, but can see with their tentacle-like tube feet instead, previous research has indicated. Now, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have tested their vision in a new study, and shown that while sea urchins have fairly low resolution vision - it is good enough to fulfil their basic needs. “Sea urchins are currently the only

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/sea-urchins-see-their-feet - 2025-08-31

Bombardier beetle (Photo: Swedish Biomimetics 3000) Researchers at Lund University Sweden working in collaboration with Swedish Biomimetics 3000 have developed a new technique that more efficiently removes harmful oxides of nitrogen, NOx, from the exhaust of diesel engines. The new technology applies a more efficient injector into existing emission control systems currently installed in class Euro

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/insect-phenomenon-inspires-new-clean-diesel-technology - 2025-08-31

Carbonised germinated grains found at Uppåkra, Sweden (Photo: Mikael Larsson) Archaeologists at Lund University in Sweden have found carbonised germinated grains showing that malt was produced for beer brewing as early as the Iron Age in the Nordic region. The findings made in Uppåkra in southern Sweden indicate a large-scale production of beer, possibly for feasting and trade. “We found carbonise

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/swedes-have-been-brewing-beer-iron-age-new-evidence-confirms - 2025-08-31

Both Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degrees at the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University have been labelled as “success stories” by the European Commission. The Master’s programme in Fire Safety Engineering (IMFSE) already received this label of quality last summer and the Master’s in Food Innovation and Product Design (FIPDes) recently received the same distinction from a panel of experts from

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/two-joint-masters-programmes-engineering-are-labelled-success-stories - 2025-08-31

Bogong moth A major international study led by researchers from Lund University in Sweden has proven for the first time that certain nocturnally migrating insects can explore and navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field. Until now, the ability to steer flight using an internal magnetic compass was only known in nocturnally migrating birds. WATCH: The incredible journey of the bogong moth“Our find

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/watch-insects-also-migrate-using-earths-magnetic-field - 2025-08-31