Uppsala University Magazine 2022

INNOVATION:

NUCLEAR THREAT THROUGH KNOWLEDGE

DRUGS AGAINST CANCER

FROM THE PRESENT DOWN TO ANTIQUITY

ULF

DANIELSSON

TELLS

TALES

OF

THE

COSMOS

In terms of democracy, the importance of safeguarding academic freedom must not be underestimated. Taking that responsibility seriously calls for constant discussion about the importance of keeping politics and higher education well apart.

Freedom is not a matter of our being allowed to engage without transparency in whatever we choose, but about guaranteeing that the research done is free – unaffected by political currents and autonomous. Citizens must be able to count on research being independent.”

Tora Holmberg, Vice-Rector at Uppsala University and Professor at the Department of Sociology (from a column in Uppsala University Newsletter).

PHOTO: MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

Photo from the offi cial opening of the Ångström Laboratory on 13 May 2022.

An open and constructive conversation a bout science

In your hand you are holding Uppsala University’s research magazine. It aims to give an overview of the wide range of initiatives that have produced exciting results lately. Research – creating new knowledge – is one of our most important tasks, alongside the communication of this collective knowledge. Neither of these tasks are straightforward. For those who have sufficient knowledge to conduct research, there are always difficult decisions to make, both ethical and fundamental. The same applies to the transfer of knowledge, engaging in public debate and discussions. This balance is challenging but important. Perhaps the most important thing of all is to have an open, constructive conversation – to ensure science is heard both locally and globally.

IN MY ROLE AS Vice-Chancellor, it makes me proud to see our students and staff making strides each day. At the same time, I know there is always a need for more. A magazine like this could lead to a new idea for an exciting collaboration. Perhaps someone will be inspired to enrol in further studies. Perhaps I will get a call from someone who wants to contribute to a field of importance to them. Perhaps this magazine will result in a reader choosing to bring their research here instead of to another prestigious university.

What is certain is that the world faces great challenges. Climate change and political unrest are at the top of the agenda. At the same time, ordinary life and social development continue. And all of this is found at Uppsala University and in this magazine.

VICE-CHANCELLOR ANDERS HAGFELDT

Guidance for the future

■ The nuclear threat. Biopharmaceuticals in the fight against cancer. AI and robotics in the workplace. In this issue of the maga zine, we take an in-depth look at three c urrent societal issues where research is in progress to increase our knowledge and provide guidance for the future.

The situation has worsened, with regard to the global nuclear threat, since the out break of the war in Ukraine. There is a g reat need for more knowledge, and the new Alva Myrdal Centre at Uppsala Univer sity is bringing together researchers from d ifferent fields. Promoting nuclear disarma ment requires expert knowledge in peace a nd conflict studies, but also in nuclear physics and nuclear safeguards. Meet two of these researchers on pages 24–29.

The use of biopharmaceuticals in the fight against cancer has been a hot topic in recent years and at Uppsala University research began as early as 1996. It focuses on the development of treatments to fight cancer by activating the body’s own immune system. Read about several exciting pro jects on pages 34–39.

L ately, AI and robotics have become increasingly prominent in the workplace. We are in the midst of a technology shift whose consequences we are only beginning to glimpse. How will workplaces change in Sweden and around the globe? Which skills will be needed in the future and which will lose value? Read more on page 24.

Last but not least, on page 14 we meet Ulf Danielsson, professor of physics and a public educator. He never tires of trying to explain how the universe is constructed and how black holes work.

“Basically, it comes down to my own curiosity. It’s my desire to understand these issues that drives me,” he says.

/ ANNICA HULTH, EDITOR

PHOTO: DAVID NAYLOR

PHOTO: MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

Curious about Uppsala University?

Would you like to learn more about our research, education, innovation and university life in general?

Uppsala University Magazine is one way to keep up to date. Here are a few others.

Uppsala University Newsletter

(9 issues per year)

■ Our emailed newsletter will give you a fl avour of the latest on the research front, education and student projects, new discoveries and innovations, collaborative projects, lectures and cultural events at Uppsala University. uu.se/newsletter

Research podcast

(10 episodes per year)

■ Forskarpodden, our research podcast, brings you discussions of the latest exciting and important research being conducted at the University. We meet Uppsala University researchers to talk about their work. What does their research deal with? And how will it contribute to providing new insights and solving societal problems? Available from wherever you usually get your podcasts, including Podbean, iTunes and Spotify. uu.se/forskarpodden

Follow us on social media:

Address: Communications Division

Uppsala University Box 256, 751 05 Uppsala

presents the research, innovation, people and university life at the oldest higher education institution in the Nordic region. The magazine is published annually in Swedish and English. Order the magazine free of charge or download it as a PDF from: uu.se/uumagazine

Editor: Annica Hulth

annica.hulth@uadm.uu.se

Editorial staff: Anders Berndt, Anneli Björkman, Daniel Olsson, Linda Koffmar, Anna Malmberg, Åsa Malmberg..

English language editor: Timothy Chamberlain

Responsible publisher: Anneli Waara

Art Direction: Daniel Hansson, Zellout Cover photo: Mikael Wallerstedt

Printed: Kph

Facebook: facebook.com/uppsala.university Twitter: twitter.com/UU_University

Instagram: instagram.com/uppsalauniversity Youtube: youtube.com/user/ Uppsalauniversitet

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/school/uppsalauniversity

On the cover: Ulf Danielsson, Professor of Physics and popular educator. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt

ONLINE SOURCE EVALUATION IN WARTIME

What’s your view on the situation that has arisen with the war in Ukraine?

“One should be aware that there is a propaganda war going on where lies and manipulations are rampant. The tone on social media is quite strident and many people are making pronouncements and publishing posts on matters that they don’t themselves have any knowledge about. Many of them do so, of course, out of a genuine desire to contribute and get involved.

“I personally carry with me that old saying about the fi rst victim of any war being the truth. This saying is just as relevant today, and we must expect an especially large amount of fake news at this point. For propaganda reasons, lies are spread as part of waging the information war and it is diffi cult to corroborate information in the prevailing situation.”

How do you think one should deal with the fl ow of information about the situation in Ukraine?

“You need to keep a cool head and be vigilant, even though that is almost inhuman in view of what is happening. The basic questions that need to be asked are who is behind the information, and what is its purpose. Is it factual information or is it intended to make you react, feel or do something? However, in this situation, that is especially diffi cult because it’s important to get involved, even though there is also a lot of information that has yet to be corroborated.”

Are there any quick and easy methods for determining what is true?

“There are powerful tools and methods for investigating the veracity of the content in moving images, still images and information that are used by journalists, among others. But it takes considerable time and requires a lot of resources, and we ordinary folk mainly need others to do that for us. We need to generally rely on channels that do their job, and to be more alert than usual when it comes to direct reporting via social media.”

But shouldn’t we be used to evaluating the sources of online content ourselves?

“Unfortunately, repeated studies have shown that we are not as good at evaluating online sources as we think we are. One problem is that we don’t get any feedback from social media. When we have believed something that turns out to be untrue, we don’t receive any correction that might help us see our own limitations.”

/ ANDERS BERNDT

Thomas Nygren, member of the EU’s expert group on fake news and online disinformation and professor at the Department of Education.

PHOTO: MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

AI to provide safer emergency care

MEDICINE Artificial intelligence can improve safety and efficiency in emergency departments. This is the hypothesis behind Johan Sundström’s research project, which has been awarded a grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The researchers will develop an AI-based clinical decision support system for emergency doctors.

Emergency doctors must make quick life-changing decisions in a chaotic environment, based on limited information. There are considerable risks of missing important diagnoses, or of patients experiencing

unnecessary examinations, waiting times and hospital admissions. Therefore, there is great potential for AI-based clinical decision support systems, says Johan Sundström, cardiologist and professor of epidemiology.

“Artificial intelligence (AI) has a great ability to recognise

patterns by learning from millions more patients than an individual doctor meets in an entire career.”

The researchers will develop AI-driven risk assessment algorithms that are trained on health data from up to six million patient visits to emergency departments. This includes ECGs, reasons for visits, vital signs, past medical history and self-reported symptoms.

“This type of data is suitable for artificial intelligence, which is extremely good at pattern recognition. In particular, machines have the upper hand when it comes to rapidly processing huge quantities of data,” Sundström explains.

28 billion light years away

The star Earendel, which appears as a faint spot, lived for only a few million years before exploding in a powerful supernova.

Traces of 33 different drugs

ENVIRONMENT Pharmaceutical drugs help us to live longer and healthier lives; however, their active substances can enter the environment through wastewater and, in the long term, lead to imbalances across entire ecosystems. In a new study of insects in the Fyris River, researchers at Uppsala University identifi ed traces of 33 different drugs.

“When combined, these substances can produce unexpected and enhanced effects which, as they reach further up the food chain, can also affect human beings. The impact of pharmaceutical drugs on the environment is a very real challenge for all of society,” says Emelie Sedvall, PhD student at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry.

ASTRONOMY As part of an international collaboration, researchers at the Department of Physics and Astronomy have succeeded in detecting what seems to be an individual star whose light was emitted from a region of space that is currently 28 billion light years away from us. This new discovery breaks all previous records in the identifi cation of individual stars from the early universe. The star that has now been observed comes from a time just 900 million years after the Big Bang, a time when the universe was only 7 per cent of its current age.

Everyone knows the best argument you can put forward is a scientifi c one. So, people are trying to seem scientifi c by fabricating things and presenting them using scientifi c jargon.”

Dan Larhammar, Professor of Molecular Cell Biology and chair of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, on the fi ght against pseudoscience in his science podcast.

Assessment algorithms that are trained on health data, including ECGs.

Johan Sundström, cardiologist and Professor of Epidemiology. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

PHOTO: NASA, ESA, BRIAN WELCH (JHU), DAN COE (STSCI)

PHOTO: MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

What happens in the brain when we feel anxiety and fear?

When we feel anxiety or fear, the body’s autonomic nervous system is activated. Our hands sweat more, our pupils dilate and our heart beats faster. This can be measured experimentally. Researchers also study what happens in the brain.

text ANNICA HULTH photo MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

There is a structure in the brain called the amygdala, which activates when we see something potentially threatening. It signals to other parts of the brain, we experience subjective fear and the body’s fight-or-flight response is activated.

“There are other parts of the brain that also assess the situation. The prefrontal cortex, for example, signals that it may not be so dangerous. ‘I've seen this before and I can handle it.’ The prefrontal cortex regulates the activity of the amygdala and alleviates the fear experience,” says Andreas Frick, docent in psychology.

With PET and MR cameras, researchers are able to monitor how different parts of the brain interact as well as which signalling substances are present in the brain during anxiety.

This works differently at different ages. During adolescence and up to the age of 25, people seem to have more difficulty learning that something is safe after previous experience of it as threatening.

This is partly due to different parts of the brain maturing at different rates.

“The frontal lobe is not fully developed until the age of about 25, while the amygdala matures earlier. Therefore, teenagers have stronger fears but more difficulties in

regulating their feelings,” says Frick.

The most common treatments for anxiety are drug therapy or psychotherapy with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Researchers are studying if it is possible to determine in advance which treatment is best for different individuals – drugs, psychotherapy or a combination of the two.

“We hope this will lead to better treatment choices in the future, so that people get help for their anxiety more quickly.”

A research collaboration with GO Adventure, a company that organises roof walks at Uppsala Castle, will provide additional knowledge about anxiety and fear. As many people are afraid of heights, researchers want to find out what factors make some people brave enough to step out onto the roof while others are not. In turn, this could lead to methods that can help people suffering from anxiety disorders to attempt something that is scary but that they want to be able to do. ●

THE LIMBIC SYSTEM

Frontal lobe

Amygdala

Battery skills for the future

This autumn, the new Master's Programme in Battery Technology and Energy Storage – a first in the Nordic region – is kicking off at Uppsala University. This pro gramme has been designed in cooperation with battery m anufacturer Northvolt among others, in response to strong demand.

text ANNELI BJÖRKMAN photo MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

■ “The idea is that these students will be able to enter the labour market quickly after their studies,” says Daniel Brandell, Professor of Materials Chemistry and one of the initiators of the programme.

With increasing electrification in many sec t ors of society, demand for labour skilled in battery technology is rising. Cutting-edge knowledge in battery technology is essential for transitioning to large-scale energy stor age and grid expansions, electric vehicles and the manufacture of battery-based everyday products.

UPPSALA UNIVERSITY IS NOW laying the foundations for the expertise in batter i es needed in the future with a unique study programme. In autumn 2022, 30 students are being welcomed to the new Master’s Pro gramme in Battery Technology and Energy Storage at the Department of Chem i stryÅngström.

“What is quite unique about Uppsala’s pro gramme at the European level is that a single higher education institution is saying ‘we are a one-stop shop’. The students will get to stay in Uppsala for two years. Here, we will teach them about battery technology from start to finish and cover the entire value chain for batteries and all the key skills you need,” says Daniel Brandell.

THE DEPARTMENT OF Chemistry-Ång ström has been conducting advanced re search in battery technology for a long time,

mainly within the Ångström Advanced Battery Centre. Part of the Master’s programme will be tied to research, and it is hoped that the lecturers in this field will be able to create a network to share key skills with other higher education institutions.

One current asset is the European re search initiative Battery2030+, which has been coordinated by the department since autumn 2020. Daniel Brandell is also part of this group, which is mapping education needs and resources at the international level.

IN SWEDEN, the research group has been in dialogue with representatives from the busi ness community such as Northvolt regarding the development of the Master’s programme.

“There is quite a lot of consensus about the content of this study programme and what basic knowledge and skills the stu dents will need. Northvolt is a major future employer for whom we will be educating the students, so we are of course listening to what they say. Naturally, it is the lecturers, the faculty and the programme council who then decide what the programme should in clude,” says Daniel Brandell and adds:

“The automotive industry is also transition ing to electrification, so many of our students will work at Scania or Volvo companies on the west coast of Sweden. So, we look forward to working even more with our research col leagues at the Division of Electricity, which this autumn is launching a new Master’s Programme in Electric Propulsion Systems.” ●

Daniel Brandell, Professor of Materials Chemistry and one of the initiators of the new battery programme, will also be one of its teachers.

Sustainable battery materials on an industrial scale

CHEMISTRY Uppsala-based battery company Altris AB was recently given the green light for funding to the tune of SEK 100 million. The company’s roots are at the Ångström La boratory, where development o f the innovative manufacturing method continues.

“Our cathode material allows us to make more sus tainable, cheaper and safer s odium-ion batteries,” says Reza Younesi, researcher at the Department of Chemistry –Ångström Laboratory.

He is one of three founders of Altris, whose cathode material Fennac will go into production on an industrial scale in Sandvik e n. The factory will manufacture approximately 2,000 tonnes of cathode material annually for

use in rechargeable sodium-ion batteries. This corresponds to an energy storage capacity of 1 gigawatt-hour per year, or the annual electricity consumption of approximately 40 average electrically heated houses.

It all started when doctoral student Ronnie Mogensen joined the division in 2015 to conduct r esearch into sodium-ion batteries.

“ We were probably fortunate to come up with this method for synthesising Prussian white (as Fennac is often known), which is based on sodium ions. Our breakthrough was that we succeeded in synthesising the material at low temperatures and without high pressure, mak i ng the manufacturing process cheaper,” says Mogensen.

Sodium-ion was the natural choice over lithium, a mineral that is both expensive and l imited to certain regions of the world. Instead, the research er s use raw materials and chemicals that are available on

practically all continents, such as iron, nitrogen, sodium and carbon. Another component is aluminium, which is used in place of copper, making the battery cheaper and easier to manufacture. ●

T he success is based on a unique method of synthesising the material Prussian white, which despite the name is originally blue in colour.

Researchers Ronnie Mogensen, William Brant and Reza Younesi around research samples of the cathode material Fennac or Prussian white.

PHOTO: MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

The AI tool that predicts violence

“In our two years of opera tion, we have found that our al gorithms and infrastructure can b e used for other purposes. For example, we work on assessing suicide risk by analysing texts.”

All the tools use texts found on the internet, where people commonly express negative thoughts and feelings.

The aim of the tools is to help analysts make the right decisions. Sometimes, for example, situa tions can arise where people who p ose no risk at all are red-flagged.

“We are motivated by the possibility of solving a problem that is really serious,” says Nazar Akrami, Professor of Psycholo gy at Uppsala University. Working with information technology researchers, he has developed a tool that analyses texts on the internet to assess the risk that a person might commit a violent act.

■ THE DECHEFR TOOL has generated a great deal of interest. Akrami and his colleagues have been working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States. Others who have shown interest in the tool include Google, LinkedIn and law enforcement authorities in vari ous countries.

It is a tool with several al gorithms, which together can a ssess the risk that an individual may commit acts of violence. All you need is a text from the internet, such as from social media, discussion forums, text messages and chats.

WORKING WITH THE FB I, he has been further refining the tool and has increased its accuracy by training the algorithms, using data from known cases and from a normal population. This in turn has led to contacts with compa nies like Google and LinkedIn and with law enforcement authori ties in various countries.

“There are two worlds, the real world and the virtual world. In the real world, there are lots of mechanisms that make meetings pleasant, but these are missing in many places online,” says Akrami.

●text ANNICA HULTH photo GETTY IMAGES

“Making risk assessments is complicated, and flagging innocent individuals or missing potentially dangerous ones is always a risk. Analysts have a complicated task, and I hope our tools will help them in their assessments.”

“Our company develops tech nologies that enable us to predict v arious behaviours – especially undesirable ones. For example, we are currently working on ways to identify grooming behav iour by sexual predators, which is important in helping children stay safe online.”

UP UNTIL NOW, the risk as sessment tools have been used by analysts, who make their own assessment of the warning flags identified by the tool. Although research shows that the accuracy is high, around 95 per cent, the analyst always has the last word and makes the decisions.

Lone perpetrators of violence

• ‘Lone perpetrator’ is the term used to describe a person who, alone or with another person, plans and commits serious violent acts on their own initiative and without personal gain.

• In Sweden and its Nordic neighbours, there have been several high-profile attacks by lone perpetrators, such as terrorist attacks and school shootings.

• The most well-known case is Anders Behring Breivik’s attack in Norway in 2011.

The research focuses on how to identify individuals who are at increased risk of committing acts of violence based on their written communication.

PHOTO: MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

Nazar Akrami, Professor of Psychology at Uppsala University.

His calm and methodical way of explaining the most advanced cos mological concepts has made him much in demand for everything f rom lectures and debates to radio and TV programmes. After five books, many awards and academic roles, the question is what new goals lie ahead for the professor. “I am very glad just to be where I am,” says Ulf Danielsson, Professor of Theoretical Physics.

text ANNELI BJÖRKMAN photo MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

PROFESSOR PHYSICS POPULAR EDUCATOR AND

PROFESSOR

PHYSICS AND

ON THE SAME DAY as the interview, the news arrived that an international team of scientists had succeeded in taking the first picture of a super-massive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way. The media were quick to contact Ulf Danielsson for his comments – a well-established practice. Few researchers have the same ability to make concepts such as black holes and string theory seem comprehensible. Fortu nately, the professor from Uppsala never seems to tire of trying to explain the state of things, or at least of the universe.

“Basically, it comes down to my own curiosity. It’s my desire to understand these issues that drives me, that’s the objective. Then of course it’s fun to be able to contribute a bit to the whole business,” says Danielsson.

OIT IS JUST OVER THIRTY YEARS since he began to research how string theory in particular could offer answers to how the universe was created. One of the really great mysteries in modern physics concerns cosmology and especially the fact that the universe is expanding more and more quickly. The reason is believed to be what is known as dark energy.

“Basically, dark energy is a constant energy density that exists in the universe. Since it has been demonstrated to be able to cause accelerating expansion, it could be behind the fact that the galaxies are moving apart more and more quickly. We are now in the process of measuring this very precisely with large telescopes.”

According to string theory, the smallest constituent parts of matter, such as protons and electrons, take the form of vibrating ‘strings’. Ulf Danielsson designs mathe matical models so as to be able to develop this theory.

“In practice it isn’t all that grand. You find some little corner, some little mathe matical problem or something you’re trying to solve, so what you’re doing is building on what other people have done where you feel you have something to add. Then some one else can use it to build up a realistic model. And some other person looks at how this model can be adapted to observations, while yet another makes the observations.”

HE EMPHASISES THAT the mathematics is merely a tool, not a goal in itself: it is all about solving real problems and under standing how the universe is organised. The path to such an overall understanding is via the concept of curved space-time, part of Einstein’s gravitation theory of how every gravitating mass changes the geometry of space and curves time. The thing that puts a spanner in the works for the scientists is the existence of black holes, whose gravitation is so strong that not even light can escape them.

“Black holes are mysterious. Partly be cause we still have not fully succeeded in fusing together Einstein’s general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics into one general theory,” explains Danielsson.

Some progress has been made, however. When black holes collide, gravitational ra diation is emitted that we can now capture in the powerful radio telescopes of the Event

"Knowledge of the universe is important to me, it has to do with a picture of the world where I’m trying to make everything fit together," says Ulf Danielsson, Professor of Theoretical Physics.

Horizon Telescope network. Danielsson be lieves that such observations can give us new ideas about the structure of black holes. But he also points out that it is not generally pos sible to plan for new discoveries.

“With large and expensive facilities, we must prioritise and attempt to make efforts as best we can. But in general, when it comes to processing all this data that comes in, as well as other types of research, I think that we need to be more permissive about think ing more freely. We must encourage it in a different way than now.”

HE HAS FOUND AN OUTLET for his own creativity and curiosity in many different areas and contexts. As well as being a regular contributor to Radio P1, contribut ing to TV programmes and being heard in pods, Danielsson has also performed at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. In 2018 he took part in Performance Lecture: About the Universe, in which he gave a cosmic overview of the history of the universe.

“What made that so enjoyable was to be able to live the dramaturgical aspects and convey a narrative, and weave it together with a greater story.”

His popular science books on physics and

theoretical physicists have had as much public impact as Ulf Danielsson.

BASICALLY, DARK ENERGY IS A CONSTANT ENERGY DENSITY THAT EXISTS IN THE UNIVERSE.”

natural science can also be seen as part of a larger narrative. They fit questions that have been important to him at various times in his life into a broader discussion of modern physics and the mathematical-scientific world view. He has given points of view on everything from climate and natural history, philosophy and world views to technology and artificial intelligence.

But in the autumn a different kind of book will be published: Handbook for Citizens of the Universe, of which Danielsson calls himself the editor.

“THOSE WHO ARE BEHIND THE BOOK are a collection of extraterrestrial civil isations that have written to mankind to try to explain where we stand. The extraterrestrials are very secretive and do not reveal anything we don’t already know about basic physics. Because it would be dangerous for us to acquire knowledge that we are not mature enough to handle. On the other hand, they are extremely

generous about revealing some things about how other civilisations have got on in other parts of the universe,” he smiles.

He thinks that writing books is just get ting more and more fun. As he puts it, in his books he can give himself a free rein and try to explain and describe the world in a new way for anyone who cares to listen. But when asked about his teaching, he gets an extra glint in the eye.

“If I am teaching a course on electromag netism, it’s just so much fun to get the students to try to understand the physics, the experi ments, the equations, everything! When you look at these mathematical equations and how you can lead from one to another and how you can explain experiments that they have actu ally been able to do themselves – that’s quite fantastic! That’s when it can become a really emotional experience, when things suddenly start to mean something and to move you. Then you simply can’t resist it. You simply have to find out more.”

●

Ulf Danielsson

Title: Professor of Theoretical Physics at Uppsala University.

Selected positions:

Vice Rector of the Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology, U ppsala University, 2011–2014; member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Uppsala and the Royal Society of Sciences at Uppsala

Selected prizes and distinctions:

Disa Prize 2005, Göran Gustafsson Prize for physics 2008, Thuréus Prize 2009, H.M. The King’s Medal, 8 th size, with the ribbon of the Order of the Seraphim 2022 “for outstanding contributions to popular education as a theoretical physicist”.

Hidden talent:

“My partner says that I am very good at deciding whether an avocado is ripe or not, which is a mystery to both her and me since I have poor colour vision. On the other hand, I am very bad at identifying the ripeness of bananas.”

If I had not become a scientist:

“Then I would probably have been a forest warden like my father. Being out in nature like that and still h aving the quite intellectual job of planning the forest management to get everything to work out, that combines reflection with experience of nature. In that way, t he similarity with theoretical physics is quite striking.”

What is the research group aiming to do?

“Silicon solar cells are the dominant technology today. It is fairly mature technology that has come far, achieving close to theoretical efficiency, so it is difficult to take that technology much further.

“If we want even cheaper solar energy in the future, we need to take a technological leap. Manu facturing silicon-based tandem solar cells with a layer of another material that absorbs some of the sunlight, is the most exciting area of solar cell research today. We are going to use the thin film

material CIGS, which we have expertise in and have worked on for a long time.”

What are the benefits of CIGS technology?

“The material can be manu factured to specialise in blue l ight, so it absorbs the blue light even better than silicon solar cells, which specialise in red light. It has been difficult to make it sufficiently efficient, but now there have been new break throughs in research, by mixing in silver and sulphur. With these two new materials we are able to achieve even greater efficiency.

“As CIGS solar cells have been industrialised and tested for a long time, there is a high level of confidence in the technolo gy. This is important in view of the stability requirement. These are products that are designed to be guaranteed to last at least 25 years.”

Is there a lot of interest in solar cells at the moment?

“Yes, we are seeing large-scale development of solar cells all over the world, it’s an explosive

development. Solar cells now account for nearly six per cent of the world’s electricity pro duction and will soon be as big a s wind power, which is also growing rapidly. Nuclear power accounts for ten per cent of glo bal electricity production but is not growing as fast, so solar will overtake nuclear in just a few years. This is a huge increase precisely because solar cells are so cost-effective.”

How is the research at Uppsala University positioned i nternationally?

“We are well positioned and well known. Many are following what we are doing, which shows we are respected by researchers around the world. The use of sil ver was not our own discovery, that was researchers in the US. We then took it a step further and now there are many research ers experimenting with silver. We were also pioneers in using very thin layers in solar cells, and many others have started to do so too. You could say that we are leading the way when it comes to innovations. That is one of our strengths.”

/ ANNICA HULTH

SOLAR CELLS ON THE RISE WORLDWIDE

PHOTO: MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

Marika Edoff , Professor of Solid State Electronics and leader of a major EU research programme focusing on tandem solar cells.

Parents discriminated against when choosing schools

SOCIETY Parents with high levels of education and parents with Swedish names receive friendlier responses when they contact schools to get information when choosing schools. These are the findings of a study at the Department of Government.

In the study, 3,430 primary schools were contacted by email by a fictional parent wanting to know more about the school. The parent gave

information about their name and profession. This is one of the largest discrimination experiments carried out in Sweden.

“Parents with high levels of education received friendlier and more welcoming respon ses. They were more often in formed about available places and received more positive information about the school. The results show that parents from different socio economic

groups do not have the same opportunities when choosing schools,” says Jonas Larsson Taghizadeh, researcher at the Department of Government.

“My study shows that there is socio economic discrimi nation in Swedish schools, with potentially major negative consequences both for individuals and for the ability of the school system to offer all children an equal education.”

Spruce trees took 10,000 years to come back after the Ice Age

BIOLOGY The spruce tree is Sweden's most dominant tree species and was common even before the last Ice Age. However, it took some time for it to re-establish itself after the Ice Age. A new study at the Department of Ecology and Genetics has shown that it took more than 10,000 years from when the first spruces reappeared in Sweden after the Ice Age until the species became widespread. The sluggish rate of dispersal has surprised the researchers because the spruce should have had good prospects of expanding its range.

New centre of competence in nuclear technology

PHYSICS Uppsala Universi ty is the host of a new centre o f competence in nuclear technology. The centre will support the development of a knowledge-based strategy for the introduction of small modular reactors in Sweden. The new competence centre ANItA (Academic-Industrial Nuclear Technology Initiative to Achieve a Future Sustainable Energy Supply) will bring to gether a large part of Sweden's i ndustrial and academic nuclear expertise. The coordinator is Ane Håkansson, professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Uppsala University.

Robert Goodin awarded the Johan Skytte Prize

SOCIETY Professor Robert Goodin of the Australian National University has been awarded the 2022 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for a number of works over several decades in which he “with acuity and success endeavoured to blend political philosophy with empiri cal political science to increase t he understanding of how decent and dignified societies can be shaped.” The prize, including prize money of SEK 500,000, is awarded by the Skytte Foundation at Uppsala Uni versity, which is c elebrating its 400th anniver sary in 2022.

The study shows that parents from different socio-economic groups do not always have the same opportunities when chosing schools.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

About 30% of patients with back pain or arthritic knee pain who undergo surgery are not pain-free afterwards. This also applies to patients with rheumatism. NOT UST

SYMPTOM PAIN

Pain is often seen as a symptom, but it can be a disease in itself which requires treatment. One example is fibromyalgia, which mainly affects women. Professor Eva Kosek has extensive experience in pain research and has now returned to Uppsala, where 40 years ago she studied medicine.

Today, pain is the second most common cause of sick leave in Sweden, after mental illness. Pain is often considered a symptom that disappears once its underlying cause is treated, for example, by knee surgery or treatment for rheumatism. But it is not always that simple.

“If you have a long-term pain condition where pain is initially a symptom, it can happen that after the nervous system has been bombarded by pain signals for a long time, the functioning of the nervous system changes. It starts to amplify the pain signals, like a loudspeaker where you turn up the volume. In some cases, it seems to be irreversible," says Eva Kosek.

She is a doctor at Uppsala University Hospital’s pain clinic and leads two research groups, one at Uppsala University and one at Karolinska Institutet.

ABOUT 30% OF PATIENTS with back pain or arthritic knee pain who undergo surgery are not pain-free afterwards. This also applies to patients with rheumatism. For 20–30%, the troublesome pain persists despite successful treatment of the inflammation.

This type of pain is called nociplastic pain. One example is fibromyalgia, a whole-body pain that mainly affects women. Using experiments in which pain stimulation was administered to subjects who rated their own pain, researchers have developed response curves. They also use magnetic resonance imaging to study the brain’s pain response.

“On the one hand, we have seen that people with fibromyalgia are much more sensitive to all types of pain stimuli. On the other hand, we can see that, during pain stimulation, they do not activate their pain

modulation systems in the normal way. We have been able to pinpoint the location in the brain of this dysfunction as well as how it is affected by, for example, expectations."

professor at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at KI, we have extracted antibodies from blood from patients with fibromyalgia and injected them into mice," says Kosek.

The researchers have found that the antibodies bind to a specific type of cell, known as satellite glial cells, which are activated. These satellite glial cells surround the cell bodies of the nerve cells and probably release substances that affect the nerve cells and amplify pain signalling.

THE FINDINGS HAVE ATTRACTED considerable international interest. Not least, UK newspaper The Guardian named the study one of 2021's ten most important scientific discoveries. Kosek sees big opportunities ahead.

RESEARCHERS ARE ALSO studying how the immune system and the nervous system interact, by looking for different biomarkers in blood and cerebrospinal fluid. For example, people with pain have been found to have increased levels of cytokines, proinflammatory substances, in their cerebrospinal fluid.

In fibromyalgia patients, they have also observed an activation of the brain's immunocompetent cells. These cells trigger the immune system, suggesting that something is happening in the interaction between the immune system and the nervous system.

Another line of research, which has received much international attention, is antibodies in people with fibromyalgia.

“In collaboration with Camilla Svensson,

“Should we succeed in this, we could have diagnostic methods for some severer forms of fibromyalgia. Then you could select patients with lots of these antibodies and offer currently available immunomodulatory therapy. Ultimately, entirely new biologicals could be developed specifically for fibromyalgia.”

A lack of belief on the part of GPs remains a serious problem, especially for fibromyalgia patients, but also for other sufferers from long-term pain. Kosek therefore works extensively to spread information. She led the working group of the International Association for the Study of Pain that introduced the term ‘nociplastic pain’, and she is looking forward to the new global diagnostic codes in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 11), which will soon be in use.

“Pain has finally been given its own chapter, using the term ‘primary pain’ for pain as a disease. This is a direct reflection of our own research and that of others.". ●

Eva Kosek is a doctor at Uppsala University Hospital’s pain clinic.

text ANNICA HULTH photo GETTY IMAGES, MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

Political intolerance limits debate in Sweden

Political intolerance is high in Sweden, and more than half are reluctant to express their views in public. This is shown in a survey conducted by Uppsala University and the SOM Institute in Gothenburg.

text ANNICA HULTH photo MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

■ “Much of this has never been investigated before,” says Sten Widmalm. “Now we know that there are major problems with political intolerance and self-censorship in Sweden.

Political intolerance largely concerns differ ent groups than we anticipated, so there is much that is surprising about the results."

Together with Thomas Persson, Widmalm leads the research project ‘The Open Society’, which has measured tolerance in Sweden. They are also the editors of the new antho logy ‘Skör demokrati’ (Fragile Democracy), w hich focuses on the same issues.

PARTICIPANTS IN THE STUDY were asked to select a group in society whom they dis liked. Sweden Democrats came first (22.8% disapproved), followed by vaccine opponents (17.4%) and, in third place, abortion oppo nents (16.8%).

"Minorities appeared very far down the list, in fact they were hardly mentioned at all," says Widmalm. “This is positive, since it shows that those who are homophobic or hate Muslims are in no way representative of the population. It is small groups who are stirring up hatred on those issues.”

More worrying was the large number pre pared to curtail freedom of expression. One in three think that members of the disliked group should not be allowed to participate in demonstrations, and one in five that they should not be allowed to express their views. As many as 64 per cent think that members of the disliked group should not be allowed to become prime minister – even though these are all constitutional rights.

“One has not really understood what democracy is about, in that case. We must be able to disagree without depriving one another of our rights, unless we’re dealing with a group that is seeking to dismantle our democracy," says Widmalm.

THE DEBATE ON FREEDOM of expression has been intense this spring, with right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan touring Sweden and burning Korans. The riots in Örebro, where several police officers were injured, led many to question whether freedom of expression had gone too far. But restricting freedom of expression to avoid hurt feelings is a dangerous path to take.

Sten Widmalm has seen examples of this in his research on de-democratisation in South Asia. In India, for example, special laws have been introduced to restrict the right of cer tain groups to meet in the streets and squares and to speak out in public.

"It’s being used politically and the assess ments made become extremely arbitrary. If freedom of speech is conditional on no one getting angry or disturbing the peace, then you are empowering those who want to thwart democracy.”

SO WHY DO WE SEE a decline in freedom of expression in Sweden too? According to Widmalm, this is clearly linked to perceived threats.

“A large number of people feel that life has become more insecure in the last decade, and threats are one of the most powerful influences on political tolerance.”

For example, Widmalm believes that the growing problems with organised crime and shootings could have devastating conse quences. At the same time, populism is on the rise all across the world.

"Tolerance is premised on the idea that we should be able hold different opinions, while populism means that those in power believe they have a monopoly on talking to the people. Populism is part of a de-demo cratisation movement that has been going on for almost 17 years.”

" There is much that is surprising about the results," says Sten Widmalm, professor at the Department of Government.

THE SOM SURVEY also investigated the extent of self-censorship in Sweden. Over 50 per cent of respondents agreed with the state m ent: “In today's political climate, I can not openly express my views because others

may fi nd them offensive." This fi gure is surprisingly high, says Widmalm.

“It indicates that we have very strict opinion corridors. People are simply afraid to reveal what they think to strangers. The issues involved can be diffi cult, such as immigration, integration, schools and healthcare.”

This is refl ected in the cancel culture on social media, where people who express their opinions can be punished.

IN THE DEBATE on immigration and integration, for example, various commentators have been singled out as racists, or have been told: "Now you’ve crossed the line, you're agreeing with the Sweden Democrats". If this happens too often, debate stops, according to Widmalm.

“Then people don't want to talk openly about diffi cult political issues any more. This has happened in the US to a large extent. People can no longer talk to each other about diffi cult topics, such as abortion rights.”

How are electoral politics affected?

“This may prevent pressing issues from coming up in the election campaign. In Sweden, people don't stop voting, we have a great turnout, but people lose an understanding for the meaning of democracy and how it works.”

Widmalm sees it as a worrying sign when politicians, civil servants, teachers and researchers say that democracy is all about by and large having the same opinion.

“On some issues, being able to reach agree ment is a good thing – but it is quite another thing to say that our opinions should be the same. Getting people to think alike is the business of authoritarian regimes.” ●

Participants in the study were asked to select a group in society whom they disliked. Sweden Democrats came fi rst (22.8% disapproved), followed by vaccine opponents (17.4%) and, in third place, abortion opponents (16.8%).

Animal rights activistsImmigrants

Environmental activists

recipients

The Open Society

• The research project ‘The Open Society’ is funded by the new Swedish Psychological Defence Agency, and led by researchers at Uppsala University.

• The survey was conducted in cooperation with the SOM Institute in autumn 2021, with a random nationally representative sample of 3,500 people. The response rate for the entire SOM survey was 48%.

• The book Skör demokrati (Fragile Democracy) includes contributions from nine authors and researchers: Torbjörn Elensky, Kay Glans, Anna Victoria Hallberg, Johannes Heuman, Mats Hyvönen, Emma Høen Bustos, Håkan Lindgren, Sharon Rider and Siri Sylvan. The editors are Sten Widmalm and Thomas Persson.

Read more Skör demokrat i (2022) Fri tanke

Nationalists

Climate deniers

Sweden Democrats Vaccine opponents Abortion opponents

Muslims

Green Party members

WE MUST BE ABLE TO DISAGREE WITHOUT DEPRIVING ONE ANOTHER OF OUR RIGHTS.”

TACKLING THREAT THROUGH KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE

TACKLING NUCLEAR THROUGH KNOWLEDGE

Since the war in Ukraine broke out, nuclear weapons have once again become a genuine threat to humanity. To promote nuclear disarmament, expertise is needed in both peace and conflict research and nuclear physics. All this expertise is brought together in the new Alva Myrdal Centre at Uppsala University.

text ANNICA HULTH photo GETTY IMAGES, MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

WHEN RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin made his nuclear threat in conjunction with the invasion of Ukraine, it signified an entirely new global security situation.

“Deployment of nuclear weapons is now seen as a genuine threat,” says Erik Melander, professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research and director of the new Alva Myrdal Centre for Disarmament at Uppsala University.

As director, he leads a group of researchers who are located across Uppsala University and the world. His own office at Gamla Torget has a view of the Fyris River, while the researchers in nuclear physics are based at the Ångström Laboratory. The centre also includes researchers from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and from the University of Oslo, as well as other research groups around the world.

IT IS A BROAD INITIATIVE and there is no doubt that more knowledge is needed in this area. In a short time, a lot has changed in the discussions around nuclear weapons, says Melander. We have gone from a fairly stable situation with a strong taboo against the use of nuclear weapons, to today's more unpredictable situation.

“A year ago, there seemed to be no urgency around the nuclear issue and nuclear disarmament. Now, it is difficult to comprehend that there is serious talk of

Russia potentially using nuclear weapons in a conflict.”

There is a Russian military doctrine that states that nuclear weapons could be used if a situation were to threaten the very existence of the state.

“The policy is that if the use of conventional forces does not work, nuclear weapons could be used to ‘shock and awe’ the opponent and impose such suffering that the opponent gives up and backs off,” says Melander.

IT IS CALLED ‘nuclear de-escalation’ of a conflict and can be carried out at various levels. The lowest level would be to detonate a small, tactical nuclear weapon over a desert or other unpopulated area.

The next level would be something that strikes conventional forces, for example an air base or a communication hub, but would not target civilians.

“However, what would be much worse is if an attack were to target a city. That would really shock and create stress. And then you can imagine worse and worse scenarios.”

The idea is to use one or more nuclear weapons, so­called tactical nuclear weapons. The aim is for your opponent to give up or back off, but in reality, several reactions are possible.

“Nobody knows which way it could go. There is fear it could escalate all the way to total nuclear war. Nobody knows how the US would respond to Russian use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction,” says Melander.

WHILE PRESIDENT OBAMA was in power two documented nuclear exercises or simulations were carried out in relation to nuclear weapons. In one of the exercises, there was a scenario in which the US responded to a nuclear attack using conventional weapons.

“They argued they could show firmness and still inflict high levels of damage on their opponent, since NATO and the

Nuclear weapons: important dates

1945 (JULY ):

The fi rst nuclear weapon was detonated in New Mexico, USA.

United States are stronger in that respect.”

However, in another simulation, the Americans responded with nuclear weapons, more nuclear weapons than the Russians, to demonstrate that they ‘would not back down’. So it is uncertain what it could lead to.

“The mere fact that there is talk of using nuclear weapons in this way is noteworthy. Previously, there was a kind of taboo against the use of nuclear weapons – they were seen as inhumane and horrific. This sort of discussion and reasoning lowers the threshold and normalises the idea that nuclear weapons could be used. This is very worrying,” says Melander.

AT THE SAME TIME, there is an increase in public awareness which increases the resistance in various ways. One example is the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.

“These efforts help to reinforce this taboo and emphasise how horrendous these weapons are. Although it seems unlikely that nuclear powers would abolish their nuclear weapons, it is important to work on strengthening the taboo and raising the threshold for use of nuclear weapons.”

Whatever happens in the future, there is a risk that some form of arms race will take place after the war in Ukraine, which may also include nuclear weapons.

“On the other hand, negotiations will also be needed and some of these issues will be regulated. There is positive work to be done,” says Melander.

IN THE NEGOTIATIONS PRIOR to the invasion of Ukraine, both Russia and NATO showed some interest in discussing nuclear weapons, certain types of confidence-building measures and inspections.

“Such measures existed at the end of the Cold War, but have since petered out or been abandoned. Whatever the outcome of the present situation, these will be back on the agenda. New arrangements will be put

1945 (AUGUST):

Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

1961:

A hydrogen bomb was tested in the Soviet Union with an explosive force of 58 megatons, approximately 4,600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that was released over Hiroshima.

in place and agreements negotiated.”

The idea behind this is that it is in the interests of both parties that the conflict does not escalate due to mistakes or an unnecessary degree of tension between the parties. For example, neither side should have to worry about surprise attacks.

“Both sides share an interest in stabilising the situation. In addition, both sides would gain from having fewer nuclear weapons, from some kind of balance, though at a lower level. This is what happened during the Cold War as well, so it is possible to reach agreements and make improvements, even between enemies,” Melander says.

WHEN IT COMES TO nuclear disarmament, there is an overlap between the technical and political aspects. Sometimes there are technical possibilities, such as a measurement method, which politicians do not want to use due to its being sensitive.

“Something that is, to all appearances, technical may also be very political, so it is important for those studying negotiations to also be aware of the technical aspects. It is quite an important ambition to try to bridge this gap, so it becomes multidisciplinary.”

To delve deeper into the technology, we head a few kilometres away to the Ång-

Which countries have nuclear weapons?

■ There are currently fi ve recognised nuclear­weapon states in the world: USA, Russia, UK, France and China. These fi ve countries were given the right to retain their nuclear weapons in conjunction with the entry into force of the Non­Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970. However, they were also required to give pledges on disarmament in the agreement. Other countries have undertaken not to develop such technologies.

In addition to these fi ve, four other states have nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. At present, there are more than 14,000 nuclear devices in these nine countries.

1970:

The Non­Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entered into force to address the threat of nuclear proliferation to more countries.

1982:

Alva Myrdal won the Nobel Peace Prize.

1993:

The Megatons to Megawatts Program started, in which uranium from Soviet warheads was used in nuclear power stations in Russia and the United States.

“Deployment of nuclear weapons is now seen as a genuine threat,” says Erik Melander, professor at the Department of Peace and Confl ict Research.

Sophie Grape carries out research on nuclear material control, which can be used in the verifi cation of nuclear disarmament.

ström Laboratory, where Sophie Grape has her office. Grape is an associate professor of physics and leader of one of the working groups at the Alva Myrdal Centre, specialising in techniques to prevent the proliferation of nuclear substances and promote disarmament.

Vid klimatmötet i Paris 2015 enades 175 länder om åtgärder för att sänka koldioxidutsläppen – en historisk händelse.

ment to not acquire nuclear weapons, the IAEA assists countries with nuclear energy expertise, knowledge and cooperation while monitoring compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

SOPHIE GRAPE CARRIES OUT RESEARCH on nuclear material control, which is used to ensure that material in nuclear power plants is not diverted for use in manufacturing nuclear weapons. The path from nuclear reactors to nuclear weapons is very long, she emphasises.

“Fuel for a nuclear power plant is designed to work in a specific situation and for a specific purpose. However, there is always a risk that materials are used for other purposes.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) promotes the safe and peaceful use of nuclear energy. In exchange for being signatories of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty and a commit-

Through nuclear safeguards, the IAEA is then able to ensure that different countries operate their facilities with civilian, not military, ambitions.

“All nuclear facilities around the world must have a regularly updated register of their nuclear material. Nuclear safeguards are used to verify the accuracy and completeness of this information, for example through inspections and measurements at the facilities.”

THE MEASURING INSTRUMENTS detect radiation emitted by nuclear fuel, such as gamma radiation, neutrons, and Cherenkov light. The radiation is related to the material’s properties and reveals how the fuel has been used in a reactor.

“Operating a reactor for civil power generation is different to operating it to

2017:

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) received the Nobel Peace Prize for the ground­breaking UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that was adopted the same year.

2021:

The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force after 50 countries ratifi ed the agreement.

FUEL FOR A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IS DESIGNED TO WORK IN A SPECIFIC SITUATION AND FOR A SPECIFIC PURPOSE. HOWEVER, THERE IS ALWAYS A RISK THAT MATERIALS ARE USED FOR OTHER PURPOSES.”

create plutonium for nuclear weapons. Therefore, by measuring the radiation it is possible to draw conclusions about how the facility has been operated and what the nuclear fuel has been used for,” explains Grape.

The same measurement techniques may be useful in the verification of nuclear disarmament. Materials used in nuclear power have similar properties and transmit the same type of radiation as materials used for nuclear weapons.

However, the conditions for measure ments are wildly different in civilian and military settings.

“With nuclear safeguards, we find out as much as possible about spent nuclear fuel, while verification of nuclear weapons and their disarmament is something quite different. Almost all information is classi fied and therefore secret. At the same time, measurements are needed for the world to trust that disarmament is actually taking place.”

UNTIL NOW, DISARMAMENT has only happened when countries with nuclear weapons have felt an individual need for disarmament. There are a number of agreements in which different types of nuclear weapons are regulated or restricted, but it is ultimately up to the countries with nuclear weapons themselves to decide whether to comply with what has been agreed upon.

“At the Alva Myrdal Centre we aim to contribute to technical solutions that can support negotiations for new disarmament agreements but also to ensure that existing agreements can be complied with,” says Grape.

The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has so far been signed by approximately 60 countries, although it is yet to be signed by any of the nucle ar weapon states. In addition to convincing nuclear-weapon states to sign the treaty, an important issue is how to verify compli ance with the agreement.

“This is something we could contribute to. How is an organisation to check that states are doing what they have prom ised? What options are there to ensure that countries comply with what they have committed to do or not to do?”

DISARMAMENT AND the disposal of nuclear weapons can be done in diffe rent ways, for example, by completely or partially dismantling them. The most far reaching disarmament involves the destruction of the material that has been part of the nuclear weapon.

This was successfully carried out in the Megatons to Megawatts Program, in cooperation between the United States and Russia. Both countries committed to contributing to the destruction of nucle ar materials by using materials found in Soviet warheads as fuel in civil nuclear power stations.

“Aside from this project, not much has happened. More recently, there has been a lack of ambition to disarm, and develop ments have moved in precisely the oppo site direction,” says Grape.

Researchers at the Alva Myrdal Centre continue to work to improve the technical expertise so that technology and policy can go hand in hand. Courses will start to be offered this autumn, from undergraduate level to doctoral courses, which will in crease knowledge about non-proliferation and disarmament.

AT A TIME WHEN THE TIDE has turned and there is talk of rearmament rather than disarmament, they wish to increase knowledge of the technical tools that are nevertheless available.

“It does not matter which technologies we develop if the agreements do not allow them to be used. Or if those who negoti ate the agreements do not know that they exist. So, there needs to be dialogue and a bridging of the gap that usually exists between technology and non-technology,” says Grape. ●

Who was Alva Myrdal?

■ Alva Myrdal was born in Uppsala in 1902. She was a Swedish diplomat, social commen tator, politician and member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. She was a cabinet minister from 1966 to 1973 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982.

She went to Uppsala University and studied psychology and family sociology. In 1924, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Stockholm.

In 1961, Alva Myrdal worked alongside the foreign minister at the time, Östen Undén, with responsibility for disarmament matters. From 1962 to 1973, she chaired the Swedish delegation at the disarmament conference in Geneva.

In cooperation with other non al igned states, she worked against the arms race of the superpowers, as she described in her book The Game of Disarmament in 1973.

Later, Alva Myrdal was an activist for peace and against nuclear armament. She received an honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Gothenburg in 1975.

She also took a stand against nuclear power in the referendum in 1980. This was largely due to the link between nuclear power and nuclear proliferation. Two years later she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Alva Myrdal died in 1986, the day after her 84th birthday. She was known as a champi on of nuclear disarmament, but also for her contributions to the women’s movement.

The Prime Minister at the time, Olof Palme, spoke at her funeral in Stockholm Cathedral.

The funeral was followed by a major peace demonstration in her memory.

Source: Wikipedia

MORE RECENTLY, THERE HAS BEEN A LACK OF AMBITION TO DISARM, AND DEVELOPMENTS HAVE MOVED IN PRECISELY THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION.”

THE TECHNOLOGY SHIFT – HOW AI IS TRANSFORMING THE WORKPLACE

A major technology shift is happening in the workplace. What is the impact on the work environment when artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are introduced on a large scale? And what happens in the labour market when certain skills are no longer required? We asked two researchers in IT and economics.

AI AND MACHINE LEARNING are general technologies with a broad range of applications – from customer service in a company, to the assessment of X-ray images or legal advice. Despite rapid development, there is little research into how the introduction of AI and machine learning affects the work environment.

“This is worrying, although it is often the case with technological developments that the technology comes first and researching the consequences comes later. It is only after something has been intro duced that we are able to know the effects it may have,” says Åsa Cajander.

Cajander is a professor at the Depart ment of Information Technology at Uppsala University specialising in human-computer interaction.

CURRENT RESEARCH indicates that those with higher education are often given the option to use AI as a tool in their work. When it comes to simpler work, however, you hear about people being replaced by AI instead.

Research also shows that we find it use ful to hand over certain tasks to AI, such as safety-critical systems.

i“Sending a robot into a fire instead of a human being is positive for all involved. In these instances, we can be grateful for robots, AI and automation. Carry ing out simple administrative tasks does not make many people happy either. However, from a user perspective, work tasks that are part of a core business that you are passionate about are not as suita ble for automation,” says Cajander.

AI RESEARCH OFTEN focuses on tech nical development, e.g., how to design a successful machine learning project.

“There is very little research into how to introduce AI into an organisation. What sort of leadership is required? How should it be implemented?” says Cajander.

She has been researching digitalisation and the work environment for twenty years and believes a lot of this knowledge can also be applied to the implementation of AI systems.

For example, the systems need to be transparent if they are to be used as deci sion-making tools. Cajander has studied a computer tool that collects information about people who contact the healthcare system and then recommends nurses to take a particular course of action.

“What was missing was an explanation for the recommendations. This is known as 'explainable AI' and is of vital impor tance. People have to understand why the system thinks as it does.”

IN THE LONG TERM, your entire pro fessional role changes when you work closely with an AI system. We tend to be observers of a process, rather than being actively involved. However, we need to monitor the process and intervene when things go wrong.

“We are transitioning from something very active and quite creative to some thing quite passive. Will it be a work environment that we enjoy, where we feel we can use our expertise?”

There are also major problems with a lack of work engagement in Europe, says Cajander.

“Many people feel incredibly discon nected and unmotivated by their work. How do we counteract this? How do we create meaningful work in the future with AI and automation? What if AI could eli minate the boring, repetitive and simple tasks that nobody is motivated by?”

FROM AN ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE, new technologies often have positive effects on the labour market, according to research. For example, the average wage increases, says Georg Graetz, researcher at the Department of Economics at Upp sala University.

“In Sweden, the average wage has in creased by approximately two per cent per year, disregarding inflation, mainly thanks to new technology. However, there are also people who are adversely affected by new technologies and who may lose their jobs.”

New technologies also risk creating inequality, according to research in the US and the UK. Wage disparities between low-skilled and high-skilled workers have increased since 1980 and new tech nology is the most likely explanation. However, this development has not taken place in Sweden.

“It is difficult to know for certain what this may be due to, but the most likely expla

New technologies also risk creating inequality, according to research in the US and the UK. Wage disparities have increased since 1980 and new technology is the most likely explanation.

Åsa Cajander, Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at the Department of Information Technology.

nation is our collective agreements, which have far less importance in the US and the UK. In Sweden we have strong standards, and the wage spread is compressed.”

IN THE DEBATE ON AUTOMATION there is a perception that new technologies are taking jobs away, but in fact the number of jobs has risen continuously throughout history, throughout the world. Graetz shows graphs of the number of employ ees in Sweden divided into different age groups and gender. In most groups, the number of employees is stable or increas ing. The exception is found in the younger population, where fewer are employed and more are studying.

This is not the case in all countries. In the US, there is a steadily declining employment rate.

“There are, of course, places around the world where there is concern that structures are changing in a way that is not positive

for everyone. However, it is a mistake to think that there are a set number of jobs, and that automation leads to fewer jobs. This is simply not true.”

WHEN SOMEONE WORKS, produces something that creates value and gener ates income, they consume more, which creates more jobs. Therefore, all major changes in the labour market, such as the transition from an agricultural society to an industrial society, have led to the creation of new jobs.

However, changes in technology con tribute to a demand for different forms of expertise.

“Sometimes, it may be difficult to adapt in the short term, but in the long term this has never been a problem. Although the big concern is, of course, that there may be a situation in which technology chang es so quickly that we cannot keep up with it,” says Graetz. ●

Georg Graetz, assistant professor at the Department of Economics.

There are more and more cancer treatment options in health care. The arsenal of heavy weapons available in the fight against tumours has grown and become more effective. Research now focuses largely on developing treatments in which the patient's own immune system kills the cancer cells.

text ÅSA MALMBERG photo MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

Arming the body's own immune system to fight cancer

Angelica Loskog’s research group focuses on the use of viruses to destroy cancer cells. From left: Jessica Wenthe, Ahmed Calandigary, Angelica Loskog and Tanja Lövgren.

Angelica Loskog is one of the pioneers who, as early as the 1990s, studied methods to stim ul ate the immune system to fight against tumours.

CANCER CELLS ARE HIGHLY SKILLED at tricking the body's defence mechanisms to avoid being attacked. However, it is medically possible to activate the immune system so that it kills the cancer. This discovery led to the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

At Uppsala University, researchers began to study different methods of stimulating the immune system to fight tumours back in the 1990s. One of the pioneers was Angelica Loskog. Her research group focuses on the use of viruses to destroy cancer cells.

“In 1999, I started working on a project with viruses that then became the focus of my PhD. It was serendipitous that on my birthday, April 5, I entered the animal lab to

WE HAVE A NEW VIRUS IN THE PIPELINE THAT WE HOPE WILL BE AKIN TO THROWING A BOMB INTO THE TUMOUR. IT IS A REALLY COOL NEW VARIANT.”

discover that the mice that had been given the virus were completely tumour free while there were no changes in the control group. I thought that we were now going to be able to cure cancer,” says Loskog.

However, it proved not to be quite that simple. It was not until 2006 that the new method was given the green light to be tested on cancer patients for the first time.

“It was in Uppsala that the virus was first injected in patients. There were eight patients with bladder cancer where the cancer had begun invading the surrounding tissue, resulting in the need to operate to remove the bladder. Prior to the surgery, we treated the patients with virus therapy three

times. In several patients, there were no tumour cells left in the bladder when it was removed,” says Angelica Loskog.

THE VIRUS WORKS BEST in the treatment of what are known as solid tumours, i.e., those that grow in tissues, such as bladder cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer.

“Our virus is injected directly into the tumour where it infects the cells and tricks them into producing human immunostimulatory genes that we inserted into the DNA of the virus. The tumour cannot protect itself from the virus, which forces the tumour to start producing proteins from the genes in the DNA of the virus, which

activates the immune system. It results in a vaccine effect. The viruses we are working on now are also able to replicate, although only in cancer cells. In the end, there is so much virus in the cell that it causes it to burst, releasing new viruses,” says Loskog.

The virus that her research team is working on is a common cold virus that they genetically modify for this purpose. At Lokon Pharma, Loskog is currently evaluating a virus that would be able to attack pancreatic cancer.

“It is a type of cancer with a very poor prognosis, but in patients who have received the treatment, the tumours have re duced in size, and it seems the survival rate

Tanja Lövgren and Ahmed Calandigary belong to Angelica Loskog’s research group.

has improved. We are now hoping to carry out a Phase 3 study,” says Loskog.

A Phase 3 study is the final step before a drug can be approved for market and involves testing the drug on a large group of patients that is compared with a control group receiving standard treatment. To be granted approval, the drug must demon strate the desired result, i.e., that it is better than the standard treatment, and research ers must also be able to demonstrate that there is readiness for full-scale, highquality production.

“What is very exciting is that the pharma ceutical company Roche now wants to test our virus on colorectal cancer,” she says.

Meanwhile, she continues to work tire lessly on developing the method with new viruses.

“We have a new virus in the pipeline that we hope will be akin to throwing a bomb into the tumour. It is a really cool new variant; however, it will take a few years, at least three or four years before it can be clinically tested,” she says.

ANGELICA LOSKOG'S CANCER research has focused not only on virus therapy but also on another powerful form of im munotherapy called CAR T-cell therapy.

In a study together with fellow research ers Gunilla Enblad and Magnus Essand, among others, she treated the first cancer patient in Europe with CAR T-cells in 2014.

T-CELLS ARE A FORM OF white blood cell that circulate throughout the blood and lymphatic system, attacking infec tious agents that have entered the body. T-cells also have the ability to recognise cancer cells because they have mutations that distinguish them from healthy cells. However, this ability is not on par with its ability to identify, for example, viruses and bacteria. To enable T-cells to effec tively identify cancer cells they can be equipped with a special receptor on their surface called CAR.

“CAR stands for chimeric antigen recep tor and is a synthetic molecule. The therapy is a treatment that involves removing the cancer patient’s own T-cells and genetically modifying them in the lab. CAR T-cells are then multiplied before being put back into the patient,” says Magnus Essand.

In 2018, the first drugs with CAR T-cells were approved in the US and the EU and the number of preparations has since increased to five. Two of these have started to be used

in Swedish health care. Currently, only the blood cancers leukaemia and lymphoma are able to be treated with CAR T-cells, but researchers are working to find ways for the method to fight other cancers as well.

“However, this is more difficult. If you imagine a cancer cell in your blood, it is very easy for the CAR T-cells, which are put into the bloodstream, to find it and kill it. However, if the tumour is sitting in tis sue, the CAR T-cells must exit the blood stream and penetrate the tumour tissue. The tumour creates a very hostile environment for T-cells. The second major problem with solid tumours is that there is no ideal target like there is in blood cancer cells,” says Essand.

BY TARGET, HE IS REFERRING to the antigen on the surface of tumour cells that allows the CAR T-cell to identify them. Tumours located out in tissues have a much more varied antigen expression, resulting in the CAR T-cell missing certain tumour cells, which often leads to recurrence.

Essand and his research team are now working on equipping CAR T-cells to be come even more effective as well as able to kill the tumour cells that lead to recurrence.

“We ensure that our CAR T-cells carry extra ammunition, you could say, and that ammunition is not fired against the tumour cells but against the immune system. The immune system is further activated, on the one hand, by changing the micro-en vironment to ensure it does not become so immunosuppressive and, on the other, by educating the other T-cells in the immune system to recognise tumour cells that the CAR T-cells cannot detect,” he explains.

THE RESULTS FROM THE STUDIES that his research group have completed so far have been promising and early next year they hope to take the next step and start a new clinical study on lymphoma patients. A couple of years down the track, they hope to launch a clinical study on glioblastoma patients. Glioblastomas are the most common form of malignant brain tumours and are currently incurable. A functioning drug would therefore have a great impact on this patient group.

In the not too distance future, Essand and his colleagues hope it will be possible to in clude CAR T-cells in early stages of cancer

WE HAVE TO USE ALL THE MEANS AVAILABLE TO US IF WE WANT TO FIGHT CANCER.”

treatment. And it looks to be on the way.

“Yescarta, one of the approved drugs, has now been approved in the US as secondline treatment for lymphoma. So as soon as the patient relapses, you now have the option to introduce Yescarta, and it is al ready being trialled as a first-line treatment, i.e., the treatment that is given to lympho ma patients first,” he says.

Another field of cancer research where there is a lot happening is cancer vaccines. Sara Mangsbo is a researcher who current ly has several such studies in progress.

“At one company, we are developing a vaccine that will teach the immune system to recognise the protein telomerase, which cancer cells use to grow unhindered. In order to prevent tumour cells from dying when they divide so often, the cancer cells put a machinery in motion to produce more and more telomerase. This is necessary for the tumour cell to be able to protect its genetic code, but it also makes the tumour visible to the immune system. With the

vaccine, we train the immune system to recognise small pieces of the protein telomerase, so that our immune cells can specifically search for and control tumour growth,” says Mangsbo.

The aim of these studies is to analyse the effectiveness of the vaccine in combi nation with the checkpoint inhibitors. These are antibodies that target and neutral ise the ‘brakes’ on our immune response, she explains.

“Many researchers around the world are hoping that combining cancer vaccines with checkpoint inhibitors will enable cancer vaccines to function better than pre vious studies have shown. The checkpoint inhibitors are the result of the research that was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2018.”

TELOMERE ELONGATION is a protective mechanism used by the vast majority of cancer cells. Therefore, vaccine treatment could be effective against most forms of cancer.

“Right now, studies are ongoing in five different stages, carried out on ovarian cancer, skin cancer (malignant melanoma), lung cancer, head and neck cancer and last but not least mesothelioma, which is usual ly caused by asbestos exposure,” she says.

Unlike most other vaccines that are ad ministered for prevention in order to avoid disease, the cancer vaccine is intended to be administered when a patient has already been diagnosed with cancer.

Future cancer care is set to undergo major changes. That is something Angelica Loskog, Magnus Essand and Sara Mangsbo are certain about. In 10-15 years' time, they believe that virus therapy, CAR T-cells and vaccines will be available at early stages of treatment and will be able to be combined with each other, and that more and improved drugs will enable us to treat forms of cancer that are currently incurable.

“We have to use all the means available to us if we want to fight cancer,” says Angelica Loskog. ●

Magnus Essand and his research team are now working on equipping CAR T-cells to become even more effective as well as able to kill the tumour cells that lead to recurrence. Sara Mangsbo is hoping that hoping that cancer vaccines will function better by combining cancer vaccines with checkpoint inhibitors. Angelica Loskog´s research is focused both on virus therapy and CAR T-cell therapy.

Digging from the present down to antiquity

Welcome to the Viking Age! The archaeo logy students, with their trowels and their s crapers, have dug past the medieval layers and made their way down to the 11th century, approximately 30 centimetres below t oday's ground level. During the seminar excavations in the old coastal town of Västergarn, 25 kilometres south of Visby, undergraduate studies in archaeology are combined with scientific work.

text ÅSA MALMBERG photo DANIEL OLSSON

Here is a bone.ʼʼ Keylie Seth, a first-year student in the Bachelor's Programme in Archaeology and Osteology, picks up a small brown angular object from the sieve that, to the untrained eye, could just as well be a stone.

“We make lots of finds. It’s mainly bones that turn up. We did find a bead earlier, but it’s usually bones,” she says as she examines what is left in the sieve after the soil has passed through.

THE REASON that the soil is full of bones is that there was once a settlement here, beside the sea, where cattle grazed between houses and kitchen waste was thrown straight out of the door. The settlement was enclosed by a semicircu

lar embankment which is still visible in the landscape. It was there during the Viking Age and perhaps even earlier, says Christoph Kilger, who is the teacher in charge on site. In the 12th and 13th centuries, two churches were built: one Romanesque and one Gothic. The Gothic church is still in use, while the Romanesque church has fallen into ruins that the grass has taken over. The same fate has befallen the kastal, or fortified tower, alongside it.

MOST OF what could reveal what life was like here is therefore hidden under the ground and the students are tasked with mapping out a small, marked-out area of the site. They take a methodical and thorough approach in or

der to learn the archaeological craft and to avoid missing any objects.

“From what we have heard, when you carry out a commissioned excavation in connection with a new road or building, archaeologists use a mechanical digger, but here we have time to unhurriedly sift the soil for any finds and to document them in detail. It is a luxury to be able to excavate and see things in a way that is not normally done in this line of work. Usually, there is not enough time,” says Keylie Seth.

SEMINAR EXCAVATIONS are also being carried out a few hundred metres closer to the sea, down by the Västergarn river, in what archaeologists believe was the harbour area where clinker-built Viking ships would berth. The 62-me tre-long trench that has been excavated is not resulting in quite as many finds although bones, flint, fish scales, nails and pottery fragments from the 12th century have been found.

“We found a coin over there,” says Felix Wigstrom, pointing at the other side of

the narrow trench he is exa mining with his trowel.

The coin is a Danish skilling from the 1530s, says Christoph Kilger, who is a coin expert. At that time, Christian III was King of Denmark and also controlled Gotland.

“It’s fun. It’s a bit like winning the lottery when we find something. You never know if you are actually going to find anything,” says Felix Wigström.

One of the best finds has been a medieval doublesided comb.

Deep in concentration. The students have dug down to Viking Age layers using trowels.

One of the finds – a 1 öre silver coin from 1667 with a hole, probably for use as a pendant.

INSIDE A BUILDING protected from the chilly spring winds, we find Oliva Bartholdson, Felicia Lillieholm and Sara Viktorsson organising the finds which are weighed, mea sured, documented, catalogued and placed in small, carefully marked plastic bags. They all think the field work has been fun, interesting and educa tional. Now, at the documen tation stage, they can get more of an overview of what has been found than during the actual excavation when they quickly become absorbed in their own tasks.

“You know a lot about your own little unit, but you have no idea what is happening outside it. Although, when someone finds something ex citing everyone comes over,” says Sara Viktorsson. ●

Keylie Seth has been sifting soil and has just found a bone.

FROM THE CITATION:

”Ulf Landegren, Björn Ekström and Jon Heimer receive the 2022 Uppsala University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award for their outstanding entrepreneurial achievements, which have combined to transform world-leading re s earch at Uppsala University into the successful biotech company Olink Proteomics.”

“ The story of Olink serves as a striking illustration of the importance of being able to deploy different s kills and experiences in different phases of the development of a com pany to generate great benefit to c ustomers and society worldwide.”

Jon Heimer, Ulf Landegren and Björn Ekström, the key figures behind the successful biotech company Olink Proteomics, are the first recipients of Uppsala University’s new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award.

Innovation award to trio behind Olink

Ulf Landegren, Björn Ekström and Jon Heimer have received Uppsala University's 2022 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award. They receive the award for their "outstanding entrepreneurial achievements which have combined to transform world-leading research at Uppsala University into the successful biotech company Olink Proteomics".

text ANNICA HULTH photo MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

■ The company Olink Proteomics has devel oped a unique proteomics platform for the analysis of protein biomarkers in both research and clinical practice. The company's CEO Jon Heimer co-founded the company in 2016, from the parent company Olink Bioscience.

“It's very inspiring that people see and appreciate what we've done. I also think it's wonderful that Uppsala University not only highlights the academic side, but also how research can lead to companies working on important issues,” says Heimer.

Olink is based on research conducted at Uppsala University by Professor Ulf Lande gren and his research team. The first patents were acquired in 1995 and the company was founded in 2004 by Landegren, four doctoral students and Björn Ekström, who became the company's first CEO.

IN THE YEARS that followed, new technol ogies were developed in close collaboration with Landegren's research team, resulting in the companies Halo Genomics and Q-Linea. The next CEO was Simon Fredriksson, who developed the technology behind Olink Proteomics.

Olink Proteomics has grown rapidly in re cent years. In the beginning there were barely 30 employees and in the last two years, the number has grown from 100 to 500. There is a global market for the product, which can be described as a modern method of developing drugs using protein analysis.

“This is a way to find new drug candidates and marry them with the right patient sub group so that we can be much more accurate in treating the right patient with the right therapy at the right time,” says Heimer.

“Only one in five patients using the top ten drugs sold today experience an effect. This means that 80% of patients get no effect or only side effects from the drugs. So this is an important issue.”

THE COMPANY IS headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden, where all research, development and manufacturing takes place. They also have offices in Boston, Shanghai and Tokyo with an eye on the global market.

W hat has made the company so successful?

“ We've solved a problem that people have been trying to solve for decades. Ulf's amazing basic invention has established a technological strategy that we have then further developed. At Olink Proteomics, we have succeeded in commercialising this ground-breaking tech nological innovation into products that solve real issues and applications for large customer groups," says Heimer.

BJÖRN EKSTRÖM ALSO HIGHLIGHTS the unique innovations that became the very foundation of Olink's success story, tech nologies for detecting proteins and DNA.

“It's rare, if not unheard of, to have such an extensive patent portfolio to manage. We

removed some and sold them to other compa nies, so we can focus on what we want to do. If we hadn't had such a rich repertoire of pos sibilities, it would never have been successful.”

The three winners have played different roles in Olink's history. Ulf Landegren has remained a researcher at Uppsala Univer sity and has always focused on exploratory research.

“I’ve had ideas about problems that should be solved and have been able to do so in a way that a company might not be able to de vote the energy to. Since then, there’s been a long line of very talented doctoral students who’ve come through and made important contributions,” says Landegren.

EKSTRÖM HAS BEEN the company director, who built a company together with Lande gren and his research team. For several years, the company grew organically, without rais ing venture capital, partly using funding from the EU.

“What made me particularly suitable as a company director is that I have both the education and the interest in science to go with it. I can talk to Ulf about the research. Then there's always a gap between the busi ness owner who wants to do something with what's there and the researcher who wants to do something new. We represent two equal l y important elements to make the to tal picture work, and we've managed to do it without ending up at odds,” says Ekström. ●

The new Ångström Laboratory was offi cially opened on 13 May 2022 by Crown Princess Victoria.

The new Ångström, with its various meeting areas, art made of concrete and pendulum experiment, is intended to inspire students and researchers to meet and come up with new ideas.

text ANDERS BERNDT photo MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT, ANDERS BERNDT

Alarge two-building extension to the Ångström Labora tory has just been completed, and Building 10 now serves as an entrance build ing to the entire new Ångström Laboratory.

The ornamentation of the new Building 10 in the Ångström Laboratory, entered through the modern concrete portals that surround the entrance doors, is dominated by two objects in the atrium in the middle of the building.

A PENDULUM IS SUSPENDED alongside the wide staircase rising from the atrium, and in another part of the atrium a block of concrete sticks up at an angle.

Johan Tysk, Vice-Rector of the Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology, has emphasised in various contexts during the project period and the construction period that the new Ångström is intended to strengthen the intellectual en vironment and encourage social encounters between students, teachers and researchers in di verse subject areas.

“I believe that these random encounters, the unplanned meetings between researchers and students, will make this a superb place for research, edu cation and innovation. This is a building made for creativity and interdisciplinary encounters,” Tysk has said in interviews.

THE PENDULUM that oscil lates back and forth alongside the staircase is a Foucault pendulum. As well as the slow pendulum motion, the pendulum rotates clockwise at floor level. The pendulum and the experiment are named after the French physicist Léon Foucault, who conducted this experiment in 1851 to prove

that the Earth rotates about its own axis.

The pendulum in the Ång ström Laboratory weighs 20 kilograms and hangs from a 28 metre-long piano wire sus pended in the beams above the atrium. The pendulum com pletes one revolution at floor level in 27.7 hours. But it is not actually the pendulum that rotates, it merely swings back and forth in a constant pendu lum motion. It is the Earth that rotates about the pendulum's attachment up in the beams.

THE PENDULUM was installed on the initiative of Mattias Klintenberg, Professor of Physics at Uppsala University, and was made possible by a donation from Johan Tysk.

“I have always been fascinat ed by Foucault's pendulum. It raises questions about how the heck everything is connected, and is an illustration of how science and technology inter act. It's a magical gadget that

gives us a sense of being part of something big,” says Tysk.

THE CONCRETE BLOCK rising at a slightly oblique angle from the floor in the atrium is one part of the art work IO by the artist Karl Larsson. The other part consists of a book of poet ry but, at the time of writing, this has not been presented. It is the Public Art Agency that is responsible for the work of art, in cooperation with Uppsala University.

The name IO alludes to vari ous cultural and scientific con cepts, such as Jupiter's moon, Input/Output and one/zero in the binary number system. For the artist, the concept of glitch is central to the art work IO. Glitch is a computer gaming term for when the graphics do not work and the player glimp ses something else. By trying to create a glitch in the architecture and through poetry, this work of art can inspire fresh analysis and descriptions of reality. ●

The Ångström Laboratory

• The first part of the Ångström Laboratory was officially opened in 1997 as an extension to the old regimen tal premises on Polacksbacken w hich Uppsala University moved into in 1987.

• The Ångström Laboratory has since been extended in several stages. Construction of two new buildings began in autumn 2018 and was completed in spring 2022, with the move into Building 10.

• Building 10 contains around 23,000 square metres of teaching and research fa cilities, offices, reception, stu dent services, places to meet, a restaurant, a library, a hall and a visualisation theatre.

• The whole Ångström Laboratory has around 100,000 square metres of floor space after the extension. Now that the new build i ngs have started to be used, the University has vacated the old regimental buildings.

The pendulum

A slight impetus from an electric coil mounted beneath the floor, which creates a magnetic field, prevents the pendulum from stop ping. The roof suspension is de signed to minimise any other mo tions beyond the pure pendulum m otion, with the aid of friction.

The block of concrete

The sculpture IO weighs 20 tonnes and was lifted into place early in the construction process by two cranes.

• The University's buildings are usually named after a prominent scientist, but the Ångström Laboratory interestingly is named after both Anders Jonas Ångström and his son Knut Ångström. They were both professors of physics at Uppsala University in the 19th century.

How do you get children to eat healthily? There is no one-size-fi ts-all answer.

Avoid prohibitions around food and weight

HEALTH Childhood obesity is becoming increasingly common and many parents are wrestling with the problem of how best to help their child.

Paulina Nowicka, Professor of Food Studies at Uppsala University, has written a book full of useful tips.

Following 20 years of research into childhood and adolescent obesity, Paulina Nowicka has now published Hälsovikt för ditt barn (A Healthy Weight for your Child).

“Many parents contact me with questions about weight

and they are worried. The fact is, we do have evidence-based sources, so I was keen to write a book based on current research and proven experience.”

There is no method that suits all parents, she emphasises.

“The book is not a manual; rather, it is a collection of tips that may work for your particular family. In my opinion, the best piece of advice is to begin with small steps and not to turn life upside down. Another tip is to avoid prohibitions; for example, do not ban sweets entirely, because if you do, sweets can become an obsession.”

In Sweden, between 10 and 20 per cent of children are overweight. Research shows that it is best to start early if you wish to make changes to achieve a healthier lifestyle.

SEK 100 million for ecology and genetics

ECOLOGY, GENETICS Entrepreneur Sverker Lerheden has decided to donate SEK 100 million to promote basic research and support young researchers in ecology and genetics. It is the largest donation that Uppsala University has received in modern times. Through the newly-formed Birgitta Sindring Scholarship Fund, scholarships will be awarded annually to “specially selected, top-performing researchers” associated with the Department of Ecology and Genetics at Uppsala University.

Sweden's first Master’s in biopharmaceuticals

PHARMACY Protein-based drugs is a rapidly advancing fi eld of research. With a long half-life and targeted action in the body, they make effective treatments possible. However, creating formulations that are able to deliver the protein all the way to the target is still a scientifi c challenge. Both academia and industry face a signifi cant need for expertise and, in autumn 2022, Uppsala University is launching a two-year Master’s programme specialising in biopharmaceuticals. It will be the fi rst of its kind in Sweden and one of only a handful in Europe.

Preparing for international business

ECONOMY In autumn 2022, a completely new Master's programme will be launched in which international and European commercial law will be integrated with business economics and administration. Through studies of realistic and instructive cases, students will learn to observe the legal and business aspects of running a company as a whole.

“We believe this interdisciplinary, holistic view is necessary in an increasingly complex world, and that the programme will prepare students well for working in European and international business,” says Hajo Michael Holtz, programme coordinator for the new programme.

Paulina Nowicka, Professor of Food Studies at Uppsala University.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

PHOTO:

MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

Double PhD graduation ceremonies

■ On 18 and 25 May, it was fi nally time for doctoral degree conferments in the Grand Auditorium, after a long break due to the pandemic. The winter’s postponed ceremony took place on 18 May and the spring ceremony on 25 May.

A total of 252 doctoral students received their PhDs at the two ceremonies.

“It was a wonderful feeling. I defended my dissertation in the middle of the COVID pandemic when many people my age still weren’t vaccinated. Now it’s fi nally possible to celebrate

properly,” said Julia Aulin, who defended her doctoral thesis in medicine one year ago.

She was among the 120 doctoral students of various ages who were awarded their PhDs on 25 May. On the same occasion, 84 jubilee doctors were also celebrated, 46 of whom were present. Jubilee doctor Jonas Jonson, clad in his doctor’s hat and robes, attended with his daughter Karin Rubenson, who graduated the same day.

“It feels fun and festive to do this, especially along with my daughter,” he remarked.

Father and daughter are both doctors of the Faculty of Theology, albeit in different subject areas, and it happened to be exactly 50 years between their graduations.

“I defended my thesis a year ago and was actually scheduled to graduate in January, so it was thanks to the pandemic that we got to celebrate this together,” said Karin Rubenson.

/ ANNICA HULTH

PHOTO: MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT

Jonas Jonsson and his daughter Karin Rubenson.

The Celsius thermometer began to be used in observations in Uppsala in 1743.

300 years of weather observations

■ In Uppsala we have one of the world’s oldest continuous series of weather observations. They were started by Uppsala scientists Anders Celsius and Erik Burman as long ago as 1722, so this year Uppsala is celebrating 300 years of meteorological data about our planet. This long series of observations is very important for present-day climate research.

Anders Celsius (1701–1744) was a pioneer in the use of systematic observations of phenomena such as temperature, sea level and the aurora borealis to study the Earth and its changes. He is best known for the Celsius temperature scale (°C), which is now the international unit for temperature. The Celsius thermometer began to be used in observations in Uppsala in 1743. At that time, the scale was the reverse of the present-day scale: the boiling point was set at 0 degrees and the freezing point at 100 degrees.

PHOTO: STEWEN QUIGLEY

PHOTO: MIKAEL WALLERSTEDT