Objects and shapes are vital to language. Lion paintings from the Chauvet Cave in France.

How do objects shape our language?

Objects and shapes influence language and how we see the world. The European Research Council is supporting research on this topic with a NOK 123 million Synergy Grant.

Don’t store food in plastic grocery bags!

The warning couldn’t be clearer. Standard plastic grocery bags are useful when we’re out shopping, but don’t use them to store food. So says research scientist Lisbet Sørensen at SINTEF.

Plastic

Three pieces of advice for politicians about plastic

Plastic, and plastic pollution, are a huge problem for both human health and the environment. An interdisciplinary panel of experts suggests that politicians take three concrete steps to better understand and rein in this growing problem.

Building greenhouses on the moon out of moon dust

Is it possible to build greenhouses on the moon without transporting any materials from Earth? Researchers at NTNU Social Research and SINTEF believe it is, and are assisting the European Space Agency (ESA).

NOTES

Extracting valuable minerals in Norway

Today, products that utilise rare materials are for the most part manufactured in China. However, the EU has recently decided to boost its raw materials supply security. Researchers and the minerals industry are now looking to Norway.

NOTES

Making seaweed cultivation into a major industry

Seaweeds can be used to improve soils and for the biological capture and storage of carbon. They can serve as feed for livestock and as a food and health supplement for humans. And that’s just for starters. A new research project is aiming to help upgrade current cultivation systems to an industrial scale.

Traffic jam on Fifth avenue in New York City

Using materials efficiently can substantially cut greenhouse gas emissions

Emissions from the production of materials like metals, minerals, woods and plastics more than doubled in 1995 – 2015, accounting for almost one-quarter of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide. Material efficiency needs to play a larger role in climate planning, a new report says.

BLOG

The way forward for Norwegian windpower development

How can we protect nature and act on climate change? In the wake of heated debate in Norway over windpower development, energy researchers from Norway’s largest university and Scandinavia’s largest independent research institute offer politicians some thoughts.