The Big Challenge 2019

Stephen Fry: If we sleepwalk, we’ll die

“We may be a mere 20 years away from creating artificial life,” says Stephen Fry. He warns that these new life forms won’t see any need to keep us, and may instead look at us as pests.

“The fabric of life is disintegrating”

“Human beings are destroying the nature that we are all a part of,” says the winner of the Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science, Professor Sandra M. Díaz.

Earth’s population could shrink soon

Better opportunities for women mean that the threat of overcrowding the planet may not be as dramatic as people fear. The population may well decline in a few decades.

Exposing bad science in medical research publishing

Some medical research data never get published because they don’t fit in with the pharmaceutical industry’s desired results. Profiled researcher and social commentator Ben Goldacre will shed some light on this very topic when he takes part in NTNU’s The Big Challenge science festival in Trondheim in June.

Planting the seeds for a bioliterate tropical country

Ecologist Daniel H. Janzen has spent virtually all of his half-century career trying to catalogue and understand the creatures in a patch of dry tropical forest in northwestern Costa Rica. Little did he realize his efforts would evolve into building a sea-to-summit conservation area — and a drive to inventory all million species in the country in partnership with the Costa Rican government.

Michelin-class composting

Now you can learn how to compost food scraps from a Michelin restaurant. Restaurant Credo folks in Trondheim will be showing off their artistry at the FUTURUM exhibit, part of NTNU’s science festival The Big Challenge.

What makes everyone sick?

The world’s best-known doctor is coming to the Big Challenge to talk about the world’s biggest challenge, and one that thousands of scientists are trying to figure out: what makes us sick? Norway is among the challenge participants.