The enigma of early Norwegian iron production
Ancient Norwegians made top-quality iron. But where did the knowledge to make this iron come from? An NTNU professor emeritus may have solved this riddle.
Humanities
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Your new office serves lattes
More and more people are heading to coffee shops to do work. And at the same time they’re changing cafe culture.
First film in Southern Sámi language wins prize
The verdict is in: the film Sámi Blood has won the grand jury prize at the Seattle International Film Festival. It’s the latest in a slew of awards the film has garnered. Film researcher Monica Mecsei predicts it will be highly important for Sámi filmmaking and identity.
Real men dance the minuet
The Birken ski festival, the Great Trial of Strength cycling event and the Norseman Xtreme Triathlon are considered to be real tests of manhood today. But a few hundred years ago, the minuet was how men displayed their skills and strength.
Blood, banishment and a 500-year split
A series of bloody religious wars were fought after a Church divide that Martin Luther did not originally want. How did it all go so wrong?
Brewing Viking beer — with stones
When archaeologist Geir Grønnesby dug test pits at 24 different farms in central Norway, he nearly always found thick layers of fire-cracked stones dating from the Viking Age and earlier. Long ago, Norwegians brewed beer using stones.
Moonwalkers three
Just 12 Americans have set foot on the lunar surface, and of those, only six are still alive. Three—Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt — will be in Trondheim at the Starmus Science Festival to talk about the future of humankind in space.
How plague attacks us – and how we can defend ourselves
The plague that is believed to have caused the Black Death still occasionally ravages populations, albeit to a much smaller extent than before. Now we know more about how the bacteria attack us.
Award-winning science communicator “not surprised” that Trump pulled out of Paris climate agreement
This year’s winners of the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication 2017 were announced yesterday at a press conference in New York. The winner of the science communicator award is astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. The medal itself will be awarded on 20 June during the Starmus Science Festival in Trondheim.
Stinky city air as climate art
Imagine breathing polluted New Delhi air. It’s a scorching 40 degrees and the humidity is high. But you’re not in New Delhi – you’re in an art installation, during the Starmus festival in Trondheim in June.
The church revolution that changed Europe
Five hundred year ago, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses sparked the Protestant Reformation. He had no idea how quickly his ideas would spread and change Europe.
Three-thousand-year-old axes found near Trondheim
Some 3,000 years ago, 24 axes were cached in Stjørdal municipality, about 44 km east of Trondheim. They’re now seeing the light of day once again.
Medicine factories in space to shape the future of space travel
He was the very first person to walk in space. A rescue team on skis brought him to safety after an emergency landing in the Siberian forest. Now, Alexei Leonov is coming to Trondheim.
Norway’s oldest ice found in Jotunheimen
Some of the ice in the Juvfonne glacier in Jotunheimen National Park in central Norway has been dated to be 7600 years old, currently the oldest dated ice on mainland Norway.
Helping refugee children to read — with a computer game
Syrian refugee children often do not learn to read in their native Arabic. But two new games are set to change that.
Eleven Nobel Prize winners, Buzz Aldrin and Oliver Stone come to Starmus Festival in Trondheim
Forty-six science superstars will gather in Trondheim this 18-23 June for the Starmus Science Festival, a one-of-a-kind event that mixes cool science seminars with red-hot concerts.
Icelandic drinking horn changes our understanding of St. Olav
After the Reformation, Norway’s Olav Haraldsson was no longer supposed to be worshipped as a saint. An Icelandic drinking horn offers some clues on how the saint’s status changed.
The toy boat that sailed the seas of time
A thousand-year-old toy boat from an abandoned water well gives archaeologists tantalizing clues about the culture that produced the object.
Indulgence trading was big business before the Reformation
The way to shorten one’s time in purgatory was to obtain indulgences. But they had to be purchased, so only people who were well off could afford them.
Stephen Hawking to come to Trondheim and NTNU
Stephen Hawking will come to Norway this summer as the star speaker at the Starmus Festival, scheduled for 18-23 June in Trondheim.
Dressed up with bling stolen in Viking raids
We might not consider it bling, but to the Viking-age woman who wore a fitting from a horse’s harness, it was an exotic piece of jewellery. Never mind that it was stolen from the British Isles during a Viking raid.
Fear and dread in the Norwegian landscape
Norwegians generally have a good relationship with nature. But if you’ve seen any Norwegian horror movies, you might have a different impression. An important characteristic of these films is that the Norwegian landscape is fully developed as an element of the horror.
What makes print more readable for the visually impaired?
Type size is the most critical factor in being able to read printed text, but it doesn’t have to be as big as you might think.
Silence as a superpower
Silence is not an empty space. It has its own purpose, both in psychotherapy and in music. Olga Lehmann is working to build a theory of silence.