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Extreme weather in the Arctic causes problems for people, wildlife

The last week of January 2012 brought wild weather to the Norwegian arctic island archipelago of Svalbard and its largest town, Longyearbyen. A new cross-disciplinary study provides a comprehensive look at the effects of this extreme weather event on everything from town infrastructure to the natural environment.

Abuse can lead to postpartum depression

Women who experience abuse from someone they know have an 80 per cent higher chance of developing postpartum depression as women who have never been abused.

A new way to separate oil and gas

Carlos Alberto Dorao is trying to nail down the mechanisms that will help make processes used in the oil and gas industry more effective. His work may also contribute to making computer processors more powerful.

Havørnas største trussel i dag er roterende vindturbinblader.

Five kilometres between life and death

DNA profiles of the sea eagle population from a large island in mid-Norway are providing new and useful information as to how the birds avoid being killed by wind turbines.

Eagle-eyed robots

The robots of the future must be able to adapt to changes in their surroundings. Some of them will be in close contact with people. At the very least they must be able to see properly – in three dimensions, just like us.

A new solution to an age-old equation can improve ship efficiency

It’s been this way for 127 years— the V-shaped wake pattern behind a ship moving in a straight line always has the same central angle. But a Norwegian armed with a pen and a piece of paper has discovered that in certain situations, a boat’s wake can actually be found in front of the boat.

Greener ship propellers

A Norwegian invention is reducing by a third the energy that foundries need to manufacture ship propeller blades.  

Zero emissions – a European first

Six norwegian office buildings were erected outside of Oslo around 1980. Two of these have now been rehabilitated and represent northern Europe’s first zero-emission buildings of their type.

I ein heilt ny metode i produksjon av solceller, brukas mindre energi, billegare råvarer og urein silisum. Foto: Thinkstock

Cheaper silicon means cheaper solar cells

A new method of producing solar cells could reduce the amount of silicon per unit area by 90 per cent compared to the current standard. With the high prices of pure silicon, this will help cut the cost of solar power.

Nasal spray treats heroin overdose

There is a much greater risk of dying from a heroin overdose in Norway than in a car accident. A new nasal spray aims to help save lives and prevent paramedics from being injured by needles used on drug addicts.

Hjerneforskerne May-Britt og Edvard Moser.

From bomb shelter beginnings to the Nobel Prize

2014 NOBEL PRIZE — Nearly all innovations have founder myths, like the apocryphal garage where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are said to have developed the Apple Computer. But two innovative neuroscientists in Trondheim really did start their research in the university equivalent of a garage – a bomb shelter – and then went on to build a world-class laboratory and win the Nobel Prize.

Før professor Egil Lien går inn i laboratoriet, må han ta på seg tett maske, skotrekk, hårnett og heldekkende frakk som avviser bakterier.

The Black Death bacteria continues to kill

It took almost six months for Egil Lien to get permission from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US to study the plague bacteria that, in its time, killed half of Norway’s population. Now, an antibiotic-resistant strain of the bacteria has been found.

Thinckstock

Improving migraine treatment – with an app

Migraine patients can toss away their headache diaries and pull out their smartphones to start tracking headaches. The app offers physicians an important tool in prescribing the correct medications.

Low-carbon electricity future is clean and feasible

The countries of the world wrapped up preliminary climate talks in Lima, Peru this weekend with an agreement on how the UN’s 194 countries will tackle climate change. The agreement comes in advance of major negotiations scheduled for Paris next year to designed to curb the world’s production of greenhouse gases. In a publication from earlier this year, researchers at NTNU’s Industrial Ecology Programme report that the low-carbon future that would result from curbing greenhouse gas emissions is both feasible from a practical standpoint, and will also substantially reduce air pollution.

Turning humble seaweed to biofuel

A Norwegian research group has been able to achieve bio-oil yields of 79% from a common kelp. Other researchers working with the same species have yields closer to 20%. The secret is to heat the kelp very quickly and bring it to the right temperature within seconds.

Practicing nursing care in a virtual world

While Facebook wants to make the world’s best online games using the Oculus Rift headset, NTNU researchers are using the same set-up to help teach nurses how to communicate better.

Culture in your pocket? Yes, please!

People of all ages get excited hearing stories about their home town’s cultural heritage. And finding them on an app is just about as cool as it gets.

Hope for the climate, hope for clean air

Climate talks in New York this week have offered a glimmer of hope that the world’s political leaders finally understand the need to act to curb global warming. An NTNU researcher says that these actions will have a beneficial side effect: cleaner air in some of the most polluted places on the planet.

Viruses that play hide and seek

Every year, two million children die of acute respiratory infections. Among the culprits are several different viruses, one of which your child almost certainly has had without you or the doctors ever knowing it.

From dried cod to tissue sample preservation

Could human tissue samples be dried for storage, instead of being frozen? Researchers are looking at the salt cod industry for a potential tissue sample drying technology that could save money without sacrificing tissue quality.

Stealth medicine

Using nanocapsules containing cancer drugs, researchers have succeeded in attacking tumours with surgical precision. One of the ways to manufacture such capsules is with minute droplets of super glue.