Hello there… Sofia Näsström “The greatest threat to democracy is resignation”

THE GREATEST THREAT TO DEMOCRACY IS RESIGNATION”

Why did you write this book?

“While I’m sure that most of us know what democracy is, we have somehow lost the thread. A lot has happened in a short period of time: we have seen EU migrants begging on the street, populist parties entering parliament, we have lived through a pandemic that shut down society and, in the United States, we have seen a president make a serious coup attempt against the country’s democracy. So, we ask ourselves: can democracy handle the pressure? My thought was that we could use an easy-to-read book that asks 10 simple questions about democracy.” Who is the book aimed at?

“It’s aimed at an interested general public. The book is also aimed at university students and can be used by lecturers in teaching. It will also be published as an audiobook.” So, how is democracy doing in the world today?

“It’s in a pretty bad state. That is readily apparent, not least from large studies that demonstrate a decline in the number of countries deemed to be democracies. We also see the dismantling of stable democracies such as Hungary and Poland, where elections are still a fixture – which is to say, people go out and vote – but the government harasses the opposition and undermines the free press and courts.” What are the most serious threats facing democracy?

“Many people would say populism or xenophobia but, no. In fact, it’s actually resignation: that as citizens we feel that we lack the ability to bring about change. We speak about threats, but we must always defend democracy. Democracy implies the freedom to start again. That’s what democracy is all about and what we actually do when we go and vote every four years. Another threat, which is not simply about fact resistance, is that we have lost the sense of being in a world we share with others, of the public sphere. We can’t simply think about ourselves – that can make us a bit stupid. Public discourse, public institutions, these are important.” What can we do to protect democracy?

“There are three things. We should be careful about the language we use, look people in the eye and try to maintain a decent attitude. Secondly, we can fight for a cause: we can decide that, say, this library should be kept open, this newspaper is important or this law should remain in force.

“Thirdly, we must maintain professional standards. Just look at what happened in the United States, where it was election officials and lawyers who stood strong. As researchers, we must safeguard our professional role to ensure that no one can exploit us to their own ends.”

/ Å SA M ALMBERG

Professor Sofia Näsström , Department of Government, author of the recently pub lished book “ Demokrati: En liten bok om en stor s ak ” [Democracy: A Little Book about a Big Thing].

Book about democracy

Demokrati: En liten bok om en stor sak by Sofia Näsström is published by Historiska Media. In 10 brief chapters, the author answers some of the most common and pressing questions asked about democracy in times of crisis.

JAK OBSSON MA TTIAS PHOTO: The 35,000-year-old skull of the woman Peştera Muierii 1.

Genome of 35,000-year-old woman sequenced

BIOLOGY A research group led by Professor of Organismal Biology Mattias Jakobsson has succeeded in sequencing the entire genome from the skull of Peştera Muierii 1, a woman who lived in Romania 35,000 years ago. The genome from the skull shows that she is not a direct ancestor of modern Europeans but of the hunter-gatherers who lived in Europe until the end of the Ice Age. The analysis may provide additional knowledge of the history of early European populations. One important period in human history occurred approximately 80,000 years ago, when modern humans spread and began to leave Africa for Asia and Europe, creating something often described as a genetic bottleneck. The effects of this migration can still be seen today. Genetic variation is lower in populations outside Africa than in populations in Africa. The fact that Peştera Muierii 1 has a high level of genetic diversity suggests that the greatest decrease in genetic diversity actually occurred during the last Ice Age, which ended approximately 10,000 BCE, rather than during the migration out of Africa.

Emma Svensson tests samples from the Peştera Muierii 1 skull. PHOTO: Mattias Jakobsson

OCKPHOTO IST IMAGE:

40,000

MEDICINE Almost that many Swedes die from cardiovascular diseases each year. The Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS) has been ongoing for the past five years, during which time just over 30,000 Swedes have undergone extensive medical examinations. The SCAPIS database is now open for large-scale research aimed at identifying those at risk from diseases of the heart, arteries and lungs before they fall ill, giving them a chance of survival.

EU invests in digital pathology

BIOINFORMATICS AI is used increasingly in medicine. To accelerate this development, the EU has launched the BigPicture European Digital Pathology Platform. The platform acts as a secure central repository for digital pathology slides of tissue samples. But instead of analysing the images with the human eye, machine learning, or artificial intelligence (AI), will be used to interpret millions of images more quickly and more accurately. At SciLifeLab in Uppsala, an infrastructure is being created to train smart algorithms that can then be used in research and clinical practice.

At a time when international tensions are rising, knowledge of nuclear disarmament is increasingly important. In Sweden, and at Uppsala University, we have excellent conditions for contributing high-quality research and relevant knowledge about current developments, supported by international networks of institutes and universities.”

Cecilia Wikström, chair of the Alva Myrdal Centre, Uppsala University’s new knowledge centre for nuclear disarmament.