Science Faculty Magazine no. 1 2016

Rain forest in Rwanda is threatened by warming

A visit to a world-class lab

SCIENCE FACULTY No 1 2016 The Faculty of Science

MAGAZINE

A BIOLOGIST IN THE WORLD OF PHYSICS Caroline Beck Adiels leads an interdisciplinary research group that is seeking to understand how illnesses originate

EDITORIAL SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE Science Faculty Magazine is for those interested in the University of Gothenburg and in particular the work at the Faculty of Science.

EDITOR Camilla Persson +46-31-786 9869 camilla.persson@science.gu.se

EDITORIAL STAFF Carina Eliasson Maja Hedin Robert Karlsson Tanja Thompson

PUBLISHER

Gustav Bertilsson Uleberg

LAYOUT

Camilla Persson & Maja Hedin

COVER

Researcher Caroline Beck Adiels. Photo: Malin Arnesson

We hope you will enjoy this glance into the Faculty of Science. The Science Faculty Magazine’s target group ranges from Faculty staff and alumni to business and industry, public actors and politicians with an interest in mathematics and the natural sciences.

his issue of Science Faculty Magazine provides an international perspective and describes research collaborations and associated student exchanges. International collaborations are mutually enriching and involve both establishing academic programmes in poorer countries and learning new methods for developing research at home.

THE FACULTY HAS had a programme for sabbaticals abroad for a number of years. This is a way to offer our instructors and researchers an opportunity to enhance and establish new collaborations with researchers in other countries. It also represents a chance to devote full time to research for a limited period, something that is highly appreciated. Usually, sabbaticals offer added value for both the individual and the institution.

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Faculty Office of Science Box 460 405 30 Göteborg Sweden E-mail: info@science.gu.se

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SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

DO WE LIVE IN a new geological era when human

activities have begun to have a crucial impact on the earth’s crust? That is a question researchers are now asking when discussing the Anthropocene concept, the human epoch. In doing so, researchers are considering global environmental issues in which humans have played a decisive role for the last century and are looking at the issue from a very long historical and geoscientific perspective. THE FACULTY HAS HAD REWARDING exchanges in several fields with institutes of higher education in China. Climate change and environmental pollution are particularly topical, and they involve many of our researchers in the atmospheric sciences. With longterm work at the Gothenburg Atmospheric Science Centre as a starting point, a number of research and educational projects have evolved. The aim is not only to develop competitive research environments,

but through their extension to also vigorously combat pollution. Research, education and civic involvement go hand in hand in this respect. THE SAME BREADTH ALSO EXISTS in our collabora-

tion with local researchers in Rwanda, where the impact of climate change on tropical rain forests is being studied. A focus on scientific questions about how temperature changes affect different species sets the groundwork for discussing possible future scenarios.

How is Rwandaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rain forest affected by climate change?

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ANOTHER HIGHLY RELEVANT area involved in our

exchanges with China is research into antibiotic resistance. It is important to find the mechanisms behind the development of resistance to antibiotics. This is basic research that eventually can be crucial for the development of new medicines. Basic research into what governs the behaviour of molecules and studies of individual cells are also described in this issue. This research has future potential for advanced applications that we do not necessarily are aware of yet.

Meet three international students

The Swedish NMR Centre, a national research resource

THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF SCIENCE is also

examined by newly released books discussed in this magazine. It is fascinating to read about both our cultural heritage, where we look backwards to learn about the future, and unease about how scientific advances can lead to human extinction in worst case scenarios. YOU CAN READ ABOUT ALL THIS and much more in

this issue of Science Faculty Magazine. But now the sun is shining and the birds are twittering. Spring is upon us with the warmth of summer. Enjoy life and the wonderful world of science.

Elisabet Ahlberg, Dean

Are we in a new

SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE geological era?2016

She is searching for answers to questions that have not yet been asked Microscopy and tailor-made micrometre-wide channels are some of the cornerstones of biologist Caroline Beck Adiels’ research. With their help she can study individual cells to understand more about the origins of various diseases and, by extension, what their clinical progression will be. “We don’t know what we’re going to find, so perhaps we don’t yet even have a question for the answers we will obtain.”

n hour in Beck Adiels’ company goes quickly. She moves seamlessly from explaining the research that she and her research team are conducting, to demonstrating the microfluidic systems they have designed, to reminiscing about her thesis defence (“The opponent broke his leg so he had to attend by video link from the US”), to narrating the action in the Lego video that

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she and her six-year-old daughter Ester are currently making. “I always get like this when I’ve had coffee,” she explains with a laugh. “But my life is kind of like that – it’s everything at once.” LAST AUTUMN, IT BECAME a bit more of eve-

rything at once than it previously had been. Her application to the Swedish Research

PROFILE Council having received the green light, she was awarded a five-year grant to continue her research on developing microfluidic systems for drug testing and single-cell analyses. Carrying out studies on individual cells is one of the keys to her research.

colleague, Mattias Goksör. Given that she is a biologist and he a physicist, the team operates as an interdisciplinary research group within the department. They have spent a lot of time studying glycolytic oscillations. This refers to fluctuations in the concentration of

»The topics are approached from different perspectives. There is no such thing as a stupid question.» “These cell populations exhibit the same average value in their response even though they are made up of sub-populations,” she says, pointing to an illustration showing three totally different types of populations. “A single-cell analysis enables us to study the behaviour of each individual cell and track it over time.” THE MICROFLUIDIC SYSTEMS consist of ex-

degradation products that can arise in the cell when it breaks down glucose, something that may be connected to how the body excretes insulin. “Earlier in this project, we used only yeast cells. Now, we are also able to use mammalian cells, that is, cells from diurnal animals. As a biologist, this makes me happy: I’m thinking ‘mammalian cells — I understand that’,” she says with a laugh.

tremely narrow channels, usually between 10 and 500 micrometres wide. The researchers inject various solutions into the channels to stress the cells and control the environment at the point at which the cells are located. Using microscopy, they then study the cells’ response on the single-cell level. This could involve studying the quantity and location of a particular protein in the cell or how an entire cell looks — how it divides and how it moves. “The goal is to obtain greater basic understanding of the cells’ responses to different environments and substances, and how they interact with each other. Much of this is also linked to the cell’s metabolism. We hope this will enable us to better understand the clinical progression of different diseases. These might be, say, prostate or sarcoma-type cancer, or Type 2 diabetes, which are some of the ongoing collaborative projects to which my application refers.” Beck Adiels heads the research team for biological physics in cooperation with her SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

While the team provides the physical techniques, they are applicable in biology or the life sciences, resulting in numerous collaborations. For example, the team was recently contacted by a French researcher who wanted to carry out analyses of diatoms, singlecelled organisms that have demonstrated a potential as a future source of energy. BECK ADIELS DEFENDED her doctoral thesis

in 2008 and applied for an interdisciplinary postdoc position in the Department of Physics. The department hired her as a senior researcher in 2012 when Mattias Goksör became department head and needed support for his team’s research development and for the doctoral students on the team. With her background as a biologist, she acts as a bridge between her colleagues in the department and other biologists.

CAROLINE BECK ADIELS Age: 39 Occupation: Researcher in the Department of Physics, in Biological Physics Family: Martin and two children, Ester and Tage Hobbies and interests: “Right now I’m doing a lot of renovation to my 1960s house and physical labour in the garden; beyond that, I put any extra energy into all kinds of outdoor activities and socialising with friends and family”. Role models: “Oh boy...I have lots of names. I’ve had different role models in different contexts. I haven’t met anyone who represents ‘the whole package’ — I’ve had to accept trade-offs on various levels – but I am always open to being inspired.”

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“I like the idea of the team’s members coming from different backgrounds. The research areas meet each other and the topics are approached from different perspectives. There is no such thing as a stupid question.” Being a biologist in a pure physics department is not always easy, but Beck Adiels is not afraid of challenges. Like when she was interviewed for her postdoc position and was asked if she would dare to take apart a microscope. “Of course I could take it apart, but I couldn’t promise I’d be able to put it back together again,” I answered. “I believe you have to take chances and assume you can solve the problem. You have to have a look in your toolbox and work accordingly. Just deal with it!” TEXT ROBERT KARLSSON PHOTO MALIN ARNESSON

NEWS WATER SUPPLIES IN TIBET INCREASING IN THE FUTURE

Predator fish can counteract the eutrophication problem Measures that benefit predator fish, such as cod, pike and perch, can help counteract eutrophication in coastal areas. This is clear from a new study by researchers at the University of Gothenburg and elsewhere that has now been published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. “When a coastal area is affected by both eutrophication and overfishing, the results can be intensified if the energy from nutrients benefits both rapidly growing mats of algae and the population of small fish, which can grow unchecked without the control of algae-eating crustaceans or larger predator fish,” says Per-Olav Moksnes at the Department of Marine Sciences.

The Tibetan Plateau has long been regarded as a “hot spot” for international environmental research, and there have been fears that water supplies in the major Asian rivers will drastically diminish in the near future. New research now indicates that the supply of water will be stable or even increase during the next few decades. A 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that Himalayan glaciers will disappear by 2035. This assertion was called into question and caused a great deal of controversy. “That erroneous claim and the subsequent discussion pointed to the need for a better understanding of the dynamics of climate, glaciers and future water supplies in the region,” says Deliang Chen, professor at the Department of Earth Sciences.

Mapping the spread of deepwater white coral Through successful propagation of deep sea corals in the laboratory, researchers have been able to map the development and behaviour of coral larvae to better understand how they spread and how reefs can be protected in the future. “As with all organisms affixed to one place, the larva stage is the only way for Lophelia pertusa deepwater white coral to spread into new areas and to ensure genetic exchange between different populations,” says Susanna Strömberg, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences. Deepwater white coral is a reef-building coral found at depths of 40 to more than 3,300 metres from the Barents Sea to the edge of Antarctica. SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

EXPLORING THE LAND OF A THOUSAND HILLS With local researchers in the hill country of Rwanda, researchers Göran Wallin and Johan Uddling study how Africa’s largest remaining tropical montane rainforest is reacting to climate changes. “It’s extremely exciting to carry on and develop collaboration with another university in a relatively unexplored area,” says Wallin, at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences.

RESEARCH

lose to 260 different types of trees and many other rare species grow in Rwanda’s tropical montane rainforests, where the Nyungwe National Park covers an area of more than 1,000 square kilometres. The forest is of vital importance to residents as a source of income from ecotourism, but it is also important as a carbon sink and for water control. Africa’s two major rivers, the Congo and the Nile, originate in these mountains, and the rivers are replenished by precipitation. “In addition, this is a biodiversity ‘hot spot’ in the world, and it’s a serious matter if the forest suffers damage and species disappear,” Uddling says. MORE THAN 12 million people live in

Rwanda, an area the size of Småland that is called “Land of a Thousand Hills”. In 1994 the brutal Rwanda genocide claimed the

“Our fundamental question is how tropical tree species, which are adapted to a stable and already hot climate, pull through if it gets warmer. The long-standing hypothesis has been that they are close to their temperature optimum,” says Uddling. THERE IS NO CHANGE of seasons in tropical

areas close to the equator. In Nyungwe’s montane rainforest, the temperature during the warmest month is only one degree higher than during the coldest month, so the species there probably have poor genetic potential for being able to handle large fluctuations in climate. Nor can the trees in Nyungwe, many having a diameter of more than a metre, move to a higher elevation to cope with heat stress. “Since many tree species grow atop the mountain ridge, not many possibilities exist. Perhaps other species adapted to higher

»Our fundamental question is how tropical tree species pull through if it gets warmer» lives of more than 800,000 Tutsi. Consequently, when the president of the National University of Rwanda contacted SIDA at the beginning of 2002 for help in building up the university, the country still was reeling from the civil war. “We collaborate on environmental research in particular and began both student and researcher exchanges with the University of Rwanda,” says Wallin. He coordinates the University of Gothenburg’s environmental research collaboration with Rwanda, which also involves several other departments at the University of Gothenburg. Working with local researchers, Wallin and Uddling conduct research on how climate changes are affecting the Nyungwe tropical montane rainforest.

temperatures could later take their place, but biodiversity certainly will undergo change in this area,” says Wallin. Climax species will likely suffer, in contrast to the pioneer species. “As a rule, pioneer species more readily adapt to changes, while climax species are extremely dependent on long continuity and presumably have greater difficulty in adapting to a higher temperature,” Wallin says. “In previous studies, we have seen that climax species from high elevations experience great heat stress when they are planted in lower elevations, which suggests that they are especially sensitive to increases in temperature.” But the Nyungwe tropical montane forest is not just important from a biodiversity standpoint. SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

“Apart from its great variety of species and ecotourism as an income source, the area is also a significant carbon sink, since the trees absorb carbon dioxide. It is also a source of water for Rwanda’s agriculture because many of the major rivers come from this particular mountainous area,” Uddling says. EVEN THOUGH BOTH SIDA’s and Rwanda’s

bureaucratic systems sometimes have resulted in delays for research, Wallin thinks it has been easy to collaborate with the Rwandan researchers. “On the whole, I have had very positive contacts. When I began the collaboration, it was scarcely 10 years after the 1994 genocide, and many of the researchers and students we work with have experienced terrible things. But everything has worked amazingly well. Rwanda is a country that is developing well today and that has many good development trends.” Through good funding provided by SIDA and recently also by the Swedish Research Council and the Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning, it has been possible to develop several sizeable research projects. “We are in the initial phase of establishing new research stations and experiments. And then both our group here at the University of Gothenburg and in Rwanda can grow, thanks to receiving this funding,” Uddling says. THE GOAL OF THE research is to find out how

The Carapa grandiflora species, with its large fruit that is eaten by both animals and people, is one of the species that is vulnerable to rising temperatures, research by Johan Uddling and Göran Wallin shows.

SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

the forests are affected by climate change. “But the social goal is to have fun in the meantime, and the societal and humanistic goal is to continue having good collaboration and building expertise in a poor country,” Uddling says. TEXT CARINA ELIASSON PHOTO GÖRAN WALLIN & JOHAN UDDLING

Four questions for Sandra Langvall, who is studying for a master’s degree in physical oceanography but currently is an exchange student in Mexico.

HOW DID YOU HAPPEN TO CHOOSE TO GO TO MEXICO, AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE?

“I’ve always wanted to go abroad during my studies, and preferably somewhere warm. I was looking at various exchanges and thought I would have to content myself with Great Britain, when I was at a seminar on foreign studies and heard of the physics department’s exchange with Mexico. It’s a project-based exchange, so taking courses in physics is not required. I’m now working on developing a homemade CTD, an instrument for measurements in water environments, to increase monitoring of the environment here in Mexico. Purchased CTDs are expensive, and it’s hard to have a sufficient number of them to maintain a good level of environmental monitoring.” WAS STUDYING ABROAD AN OBVIOUS CHOICE?

“Well, it was always something I wanted to do and at first had thought of doing during my bachelor’s degree, but there never seemed to be a good opportunity for it. Nor did there seem to be any good opportunity now during the master’s, but it’s more flexible, and finally I just decided I should go and if necessary study for an extra term.” HOW IS EDUCATION IN MEXICO DIFFERENT FROM SWEDEN?

“I’m not taking any courses but rather just working on the project, but it’s very different from Sweden. The whole culture is very different and that also affects education, of course. It’s hard to cite anything specific, but naturally it’s harder to get around in the system when you don’t know the culture and the language.” DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR STUDENTS WHO ARE CONSIDERING GOING ON AN EXCHANGE PROGRAMME, BUT HAVE NOT YET TAKEN THAT STEP?

“JUST DO IT! Ha ha, no, but it’s really worth it. It requires a little extra planning and such, but it’s worth it. You gain perspective on everything.” SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

INTERNATIONAL

Hoping for a career in Sweden “I’m happy to have been given the opportunity to be here, and hope that this internship will help me get a job in my field,” says Maryam Khoshdel, one of the University of Gothenburg’s newly-arrived interns.

t’s been three and a half years since Khoshdel, her husband and their daughter were forced to flee to Sweden from Iran. Khoshdel explains that her husband was involved in politics and that they had no other choice than to leave the country. “It was difficult for us to leave our homeland. Our whole family is back in Iran and we miss them.” Khoshdel is a chemist with a four-year university degree who worked as head of quality control at a paint factory in Iran. For the last three months she has been an intern at the University of Gothenburg’s Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology. There she has participated in a research project concerning paint used on boat hulls.

“We chose to take on an intern because we wanted to help new immigrants arriving in Sweden,” explains Hans Elwing, professor emeritus and head of the research project. AMONG OTHER TASKS, Khoshdel has worked

to produce a gradient rod with different levels of copper oxide, which will later be tested directly in seawater. The rod is first coated with paint containing different concentrations of copper oxide. It is then cut into pieces, and each part is placed in the sea. After a few months, results can be obtained that show exactly how much copper oxide is needed to stop acorn barnacles from attaching themselves to the surface.

INTERNSHIPS TO NEWLY-ARRIVED REFUGEES WITH ACADEMIC BACKGROUND The University of Gothenburg is one of the first Swedish public authority offering internships to newly-arrived refugees. The internship initiative is being conducted in cooperation with the Swedish Public Employment Service, Folkuniversitetet’s Korta Vägen programme and the Swedish Migration Agency. The university is offering just over 100 internships, around 40 of which are within the Faculty of Science.

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“Twelve individuals are doing internships right now, but more are on their way,” says Elin Fagerberg, who coordinates the internships. “We’re concentrating mainly on people with academic backgrounds, and oftentimes the interns are trained in the discipline to which they are assigned. In other cases, just having an interest in the field is enough.”

“By doing this, in the long run we hope to be able to optimise levels and so reduce copper emissions from paint on boat hulls,” Elwing explains. KHOSHDEL IS GRATEFUL for the internship

and for the chance to work in a calm, safe environment where her expertise can be put to use. She wants to work as a chemist, though she also dreams of being a teacher. “I’d very much like to work as a chemistry teacher, but I think it’s important for teachers to be able to speak proper Swedish. So, perhaps sometime in the future,” she says. Learning Swedish is one of the biggest challenges involved in moving to Sweden, Khoshdel feels, but she also realises how very important it is. Although the university is an

international environment where many people speak English, Khoshdel has focused on learning Swedish and is taking the Swedish for Immigrants course in parallel with her work. “I’m trying to focus on Swedish now, so I can learn the language and become properly integrated into the community. That’s important for us.” Khoshdel is now doing the last week of her internship, but hopes she will have the opportunity to stay on for an additional period. Hans Elwing shares her hope: “I hope that the Swedish Public Employment Service can see how valuable her internship here is,” he says. TEXT & PHOTO CAMILLA PERSSON

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An international university in a global world

he internationalisation of research and higher education has recently taken on new dimensions. Internationalisation is a term that has been used frequently during the past 15 years and often refers to mobility, the ease with which students, teachers, researchers and other personnel move â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that is, changing a country of residence and country of activity for a period. This can involve being a student, engaging in a field study or participating as a trainee. Perhaps it means instructing as a guest teacher, participating in joint education projects, collaborating on new courses and programmes, conducting research, conducting field studies, collecting data or participating in conferences. ALL OF THIS IS GOOD, necessary, a prerequi-

site for an organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s development and quality. But internationalisation is so much more than this, and above all, it is so much more than tallying incoming and outgoing students or teachers. IN REALITY, IT IS more appropriate to talk

about globalisation. Globalisation is a larger

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societal and historical transformative process through which boundaries are becoming less and less important. Economic, political, social and cultural processes have increasingly transcended boundaries in recent decades. To an ever-greater extent, we are all in this together and we are becoming increasingly dependent on one another. Research and higher education should also serve as transcendent processes and national boundaries should not be barriers. For research, this is natural. For higher education, however, certain barriers still remain in the form of different systems, academic terms and so on. GLOBALISATION WITHIN universities and

higher education is also increasingly based on an active desire to support efforts to solve major societal problems and challenges, such as climate changes, food crises and global health problems like pandemics, energy shortages and security issues. For the University of Gothenburg, this is manifested in values focused strongly on global involvement and social responsibility, as formulated and expressed in Vision 2020. UGOT Challenges,

GUEST COLUMN

interdisciplinary research focused on global societal challenges, is a concrete example of how these issues are being addressed in earnest as part of the university’s strategic objectives and long-term visions. ANOTHER EXAMPLE is the northern Euro-

pean node for the UN initiative known as Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which is aimed at promoting solutions for sustainability through joint efforts on the part of academia, public policy and industry. The University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology serve as joint hosts for this node through Gothenburg’s Centre for Environment and Sustainability. A THIRD EXAMPLE and, since the autumn of

2015, perhaps the most obvious one is involvement in the refugee crisis. By the middle of 2015, close to 60 million people had fled war, violence, terror and persecutions. The primary cause was the civil war in Syria, but Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea also are common countries of origin for asylum seekers. Globalisation also contributes to migration processes increasing. The number of asylum seekers heading to Sweden increased sharply during 2015, followed by a decrease in 2016 as a result of political measures in Sweden and other EU countries. MANY OF THE PEOPLE who find themselves

refugees have academic backgrounds; many are the age of university students or have interrupted their studies. These young people represent potential future human capital. They are young, gifted and ambitious people who are motivated and talented. These are the people who one day will be faced with

the job of rebuilding Syria. An educated labour force will be needed, as well as people who, through their academic studies, have been trained in self-reliance and reflective analytical thought. Education is a decisive factor for the future of Syria and other wartorn countries. KNOWLEDGE AND RESEARCH are needed

to cope with the current situation. Research results must be disseminated and put to good use. Increased collaboration is needed both within higher education and within other public agencies active in the area. INTEGRATION AND SEGREGATION issues

affect student groupings, and there is a need to strengthen educational aspects such as democracy, human rights, openness, respect and norm-critical approaches. AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG, a

number of initiatives are already on-going and aimed at finding the best way to confront the situation and other activities are planned or under consideration. Many of these initiatives deal with the best way to help asylum seekers and new arrivals integrate and become established and to make it easier for them to learn about educational opportunities and the educational system. Others also offer trainee positions and increase the visibility of the university’s research. The Faculty of Science has shown great commitment to these causes and is by far the faculty that has offered the most trainee positions.

Helena Lindholm Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Gothenburg SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

RESEARCH

Home again after eighteen years Down Under After 28 years of research on reptiles and amphibians in Australia, Mats Olsson is back as a professor at the University of Gothenburg, where it all began.

ats Olsson’s smile beams at me just like the April sun this afternoon, and his suntan indicates that not much time has passed since he returned to Sweden. “Australia is a wonderful country, but it feels terrific to be back.” After his Ph.D studies at the beginning of the 1980s, he spent five years in a postdoctoral appointment in Sydney, and then returned to the University of Gothenburg as a research assistant. After six years on home turf, it was time to choose between working in Sweden or abroad. Olsson’s interest in specific animal groups played a major role in the choice. “Having been involved with reptiles and amphibians for my whole life, I naturally was attracted by a country where there is such a diversity of different species.” A MAJOR PART OF Olsson’s research has

dealt with investigating the factors that determine the likelihood of paternity with

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various males in the reptile and amphibian animal groups. Olsson explains that the work in Australia consisted of a lot of time in the field out in desert areas, but also work in the lab. “I always try to combine both of them. We can solve more technical problems in the lab, while we look at long-term problems, such as ecological sequences of events, in the field. It’s exciting.” BUT IT WAS NOT only the exotic animal

culture that attracted Olsson to Australia. The number of teaching hours was also an important consideration. “In Sweden the number of teaching hours that are included in doctoral positions is considerably greater than abroad. I thought that it was too early to wind up with such a heavy teaching load that I would risk not being able to continue with research.” “It’s not that people don’t like to teach. Many think that it’s extremely rewarding.

But unfortunately there is too much teaching. You also have to have time to write papers and give lectures — in other words, things that qualify you. If you don’t have time to become qualified in research, teaching takes on a negative connotation.” THERE ALSO ARE other major differen-

ces between doing research in Australia and Sweden. Olsson notes that the most drastic change associated with the move to Sweden is the number of doctoral students. At universities in Sweden, there are very few doctoral students compared to universities in Australia. That is something that Olsson thinks is a real pity because social interaction with other doctoral students helps ensure good development and helps make research enjoyable. A frown wrinkles Olsson’s brow when discussing the situation. “As matters now stand, I don’t understand how we’re going to be able to sustain the research community in Sweden

when we don’t have any doctoral students.” BUT RESEARCH IN Sweden also has its

advantages. Olsson speaks avidly about how doctoral studies is better in Sweden, with both the course and literature requirements, something that other countries lack. He emphasises that these things are incredibly important for completing a doctoral degree sufficiently well qualified and grounded to be able to stand on one’s own two feet. Even so, he still feels that travel is a good experience. “I can recommend that all graduate students and researchers should venture out and broaden their horizons.” When I ask why Olsson wanted to come back to Sweden, his face breaks into an enthusiastic smile. “I thought it was time to decide to grow up.” TEXT MAJA HEDIN PHOTO PRIVATE

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PROJECT: CHINA China currently faces challenges related to climate change and environmental degradation. Though daunting, work to combat these problems is ongoing. The University of Gothenburg currently enjoys a number of research collaborations with researchers in the field at Chinese universities. “We need to take decisive action to stop the destruction of the environment. At the same time, such an initiative presents an enormous challenge, given the size of the cities and the constant increase in the number of vehicles in use and in energy consumption,” explains Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry Mattias Hallquist.

ince 2014, Hallquist has been in regular contact with Chinese researchers through a project initiated by the Gothenburg Atmospheric Science Centre (GAC) on photochemical smog in China. Hallquist’s own research focuses on chemical processes in the atmosphere that affect the properties and formation of aerosols in the air in Beijing and Hong Kong. In addition to their health consequences, aerosols also play a major role in cloud formation and in the amount of light transmitted to the earth’s surface.

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RESEARCHERS ALREADY know that the air

above China’s major cities contains high levels of nitric oxides and organic substances, which could lead to the formation of high levels of organic nitrates. The nitric oxides come primarily from combustion sources, such as vehicle traffic and energy production. The organic substances can also come from the use of organic substances in industry or from refineries. “Air pollution levels vary greatly from day to day, since they depend on weather and wind conditions, and on whether or not it’s

COOPERATION WITH CHINA In total, around 30 researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Chalmers University of Technology, the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) and Chinese universities in Beijing and Hong Kong are involved in the project on photochemical smog in China, which is funded by the Swedish Research Council. The University of Gothenburg’s Department of Earth Sciences’ collaboration with China also involves joint field work, courses and excursions in both China and Sweden. To date, around 15 teachers and researchers from Sweden and about 60 Chinese teachers and researchers, along with 180 Swedish students and 40 Chinese students, have participated in the collaboration. The collaborators involved include Peking University, Northwest A&F University, Beijing Normal University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the China Meteorological Administration. The joint research projects are financed by, among others, the following sponsors: the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT), the Swedish Research Council, the National Science Foundation China, the Beijing Climate Centre and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology.

clean or dirty air that’s blowing in. So, it’s difficult to know whether or not things have improved in recent years as a result of the measures introduced by the Chinese government. Even though our trend analyses have improved, it’s still difficult to confirm this statistically,” Hallquist explains.

outset, but it feels like we’ve found our roles now,” says Hallquist. The project will run until the end of 2019 and Hallquist will soon travel to Beijing for the first major series of measurements. He will then travel to Hong Kong in the autumn, where he will continue his research for three more months.

THE SYSTEM THE researchers are studying is

complex, and many different types of expertise are required to make the project a success. The Gothenburg-based researchers involved primarily possess niche expertise in specialised fields, while the researchers in China have a better knowledge of local air pollution and can more easily analyse data published by various public authorities in China. The work methods employed in Sweden and China differ in some respects. “Our collaboration with China works well overall. That said, the Swedish approach to work is less ‘top-down’, and the project coordinator strives to achieve consensus, whereas projects in China are managed by a coordinator who has a more authoritative role in deciding what will be done. This difference required some explanation at the project’s

SINCE 2002, A NUMBER of researchers and

students studying geoscience and environmental sciences in Gothenburg have collaborated with Chinese universities. The focus of these partnerships has been climate change and its consequences for human society. On the research side, close collaboration has been achieved and researcher and teacher exchanges have proven successful. The cooperation between the universities has resulted in a large number of articles published in international scientific journals and in joint research projects. In 2008 a joint dendrochronology research centre, the Sino-Swedish Centre for Tree Ring Research (SISTRR), was opened in cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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RESEARCH “SISTRR has developed into an internationally competitive research centre, and our close cooperation, which has involved a number of joint doctoral students, has led to a better understanding of the Eurasian climate over the past 2,000 years,” explains Hans Linderholm, professor and co-director of SISTRR. COLLABORATION WITH CHINA has also

included student exchange at the master’s and postgraduate levels. This means a double-degree for doctoral students who are accepted and who meet the requirements of both countries’ systems. “The only difficulty we have encountered so far is that the support from the Swedish side is unable to keep pace with that from the Chinese side, preventing the great potential that exists within the collaboration from being fully realised,” says Professor Deliang Chen from the University of Gothenburg’s Department of Earth Sciences. Despite this obstacle, the collaboration has given rise to a popular course that includes a unique excursion to China for Swedish students, during which they study the link

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between climate change and human society. The collaboration has also opened the way for Chinese students to study at the University of Gothenburg. IN A THIRD collaborative project, Gothen-

burg-based researchers and Chinese researchers are attempting to develop beta-lactamase inhibitors that can combat antibiotic resistance, i.e. substances that could be used in combination with existing antibiotics to prevent bacteria from breaking them down. “We currently have one professor and two postgraduate students from China in my lab. They work here for periods of 6-12 months. It’s much easier to make progress when the researchers are here and we can communicate daily,” chemist and researcher Mate Erdelyi explains. He believes that the project’s primary advantages lie in the opportunity to combine different types of expertise and, thereby, to make greater progress collectively than what researchers in Sweden and China could achieve individually. TEXT CARINA ELIASSON PHOTO MATTIAS HALLQUIST & DELIANG CHEN

NEWS

Self-fertilising fish discovered Many plants do it and some worms and molluscs do it – they propagate without a partner by fertilising themselves. Now an international research group, including researchers from the University of Gothenburg, have found a tropical perciform fish from Lake Victoria that is not only a mother, but also a father, to its offspring. Among vertebrates this is extremely rare. To be sure, some animal species propagate without sex by cloning themselves. The process is called parthenogenesis. In those cases, the origin of the species is usually a cross between two different species. “The mangrove killi fish is the only vertebrate that has self-fertilisation as a propagation method, and they propagate almost exclusively in this way,” says Ola Svensson, a senior lecturer at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences. “The fish we studied belong to the cichlid family that

propagates only sexually. But this particular fish appears to be an exception.” The fish that the researchers studied was a cross between two cichlid species from Lake Victoria. So imagine the researchers’ amazement when the mouth-brooding fish spawned with itself and four of the eggs hatched. When the genetic make-up of the young fish was investigated, their amazement grew even more. “The offspring were not a clone of the mother, which is to be expected given that it was a hybrid. Instead the paternity analysis shows that the ‘female’ was also the father of the children.”

Many applying for popular summer course The most popular of this year’s summer courses at the University of Gothenburg is “Climate Change/Mankind/ Society” (7.5 higher education credits), which has attracted more that 400 students. We posed two questions to Jörgen Bogren and Torbjörn Gustavsson, who are conducting the course. WHY IS THE COURSE SO POPULAR?

“The subject of climate changes is topical and many people are interested in learning more about how the climate system works. The course format gives students the freedom

to study at their own pace, and you can take the course wherever you like, as long as you have access to the Internet.” WHAT WILL STUDENTS LEARN FROM THE COURSE?

“If you take the course, you will learn a lot about the Earth’s climate and climate change. Important parts of the course are the reasons for climate variations, both natural and those that are anthropogenic (caused by humans). You also will learn what the climate was like in the past as well as consequences of climate changes.” TEXT CARINA ELIASSON

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CHRISTIAN ROBSON,

UK, master’s student, Marine Sciences.

WILLIAM MARECHAL, France, exchange

student, Atmospheric Science. WHY SWEDEN?

WHY SWEDEN?

“I know people from Sweden; plus, university is free here. In England it would have cost me GBP 20,000 to do a master’s.” WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN STUDYING IN ENGLAND AND STUDYING IN SWEDEN?

“In England you’ve got more to do, but it feels like it’s more about memorising stuff. Here in Sweden, the instruction and the studying are based more on the course than on the exams. In England it’s a lot about “Learn the facts and make sure you remember them until the exam”. The way you learn things here in Sweden is more usable.” “Another difference is that in Sweden things are much more informal than in England. The way people talk to the lecturers seems very strange to me, since in England the lecturer is high up, while you are low in the hierarchy. In no way are you equals, since they are so much smarter than you – they’re taking time away from their important research to teach you. It’s important to show them respect, and you always say “Sir”, “Ma’am”, or “Mr.” Here, though, everyone addresses the lecturers using their first name, and you can talk to them as you talk to other students. It’s kind of strange.” WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE PLANS?

“I’m hoping to get a PhD. But I don’t know if I’ll go on to that in Sweden, because I love to travel. Maybe I’ll try a different country. I’m interested in working in environmental and nature conservation.”

“Coming here was not my original plan. I knew I wanted to go abroad during the first year of my master’s. One of my teachers saw that I was highly motivated and she told me that our university and the University of Gothenburg have excellent exchange programmes. I listened to my teacher’s advice and came here.” WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN STUDYING IN FRANCE AND STUDYING IN SWEDEN?

“There are many differences! In France, we have many more courses and we take them simultaneously. Not all, but four or five courses at the same time; in Sweden, we take only one course at a time. I really like the way you study here. I think it’s much better than in France, because you can really focus on a subject, and I feel there’s less stress here. “Another difference is that there is less theory here in Sweden. Since I came here I’ve hardly done any maths or similar work. In France, there is a lot of theory in the first year of a master’s programme. So, it’s better in Sweden.” WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?

“To go back to France to do the last year of my master’s. In France we don’t have a master’s thesis. Instead, we have a half-yearlong traineeship. So the ideal solution would have been to be employed at the place where I do my traineeship. I would also like to travel, go to South America and practise my Spanish.”

Thumbs up for the Swedish approach to studying Every year hundreds of international students come to the University of Gothenburg to study the sciences and mathematics. We met three of them to find out why they chose Sweden and Gothenburg. TEXT MAJA HEDIN PHOTO PRIVATE

THIBAUD CHATILLON,

France, exchange student, Physical Geography, focusing on Climatology. WHY SWEDEN?

“I also wanted to improve my English, so I didn’t want to travel to countries where there was a high risk I would spend a lot of time with other French students. I was also interested in a country in which it would be interesting to study physical geography.” WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN STUDYING IN SWEDEN AND STUDYING IN FRANCE?

“In France things are very traditional: you complete secondary school, you get an undergraduate degree, you get a master’s, and then you get a job. Very few students take breaks in their studies. In the geography programme in France you don’t get any choices either. There are only the required courses. At the beginning of my stay in Sweden I was extremely surprised by the age range of the students in my class. But it’s really nice that way, as everyone can share their different experiences.

Here we also have more seminars and presentations for which we have to do our own preparation, which is a much more efficient way to learn than just sitting and listening to the teacher.” WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?

“I was actually only going to stay in Sweden for 10 months, but I decided to do my entire master’s programme here because the programme here is better. I have applied for the master’s programme in environmental science starting this autumn.”

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First-rate laboratory These are busy times at the Swedish NMR Centre. Almost all of the magnets are completely booked up for the next few months, and researchers are coming from both the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology as well as from other universities in Sweden. “We have one of the best NMR labs in Europe,” says Director Göran Karlsson.

he Swedish NMR Centre is located at the University of Gothenburg, but it is a national centre open to users from Sweden and the rest of the world. NMR stands for nuclear magnetic resonance, and it is used to explore the structure and composition of a molecule, among other things. Researchers come to the Swedish NMR Centre to use NMR spectroscopy to study everything from protein structures to various material properties and biomarkers in blood. Lars Nordstierna is one of the researchers who uses the facilities regularly. He is an associate professor in surface chemistry at

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Chalmers and does research on soft material — that is, material that permits the movement of liquids or gases within it. “You might think that this wooden table is a hard material, of course,” Nordstierna says, knocking on the table top in his office. “But if you pour water on it, the water will penetrate the table top. In other words, soft material is porous on a nanoscale, unlike metals, for example, which do not permit penetration.” Knowledge of various materials’ properties is important for a number of different applications, everything from clothing made

RESEARCH of cellulose from wood as a replacement for wool to pharmaceuticals in which the active ingredient to be released in the right place in the body makes up a small portion of the tablet. Nordstierna has had and has doctoral students who have studied the possibilities of making something other than paper out of cellulose from forests. The forest industry is eager to find new fields of application at a time when paper manufacturing is decreasing in Sweden. At the same time, many of today’s materials are produced in a way that is not good for the environment. “One example is cotton cultivation, which requires a lot of water and the use of lots of biocides,” he says. Instead of using cotton, which also contains cellulose, to produce clothing, you can make clothing out of cellulose from the forest. Viscose is one such example. But in order for it to be used to a greater extent and be developed, we need to find a production process that has less of an impact on nature. This is where Nordstierna’s NMR technology comes in. “By studying cellulose fibres, we can find out more about their properties. And if we can understand the molecular level, we often can also understand the material’s macroscopic properties.”

always familiar with the structure. Instead I want to find out how materials associate or aggregate with one another. Simply how cellulose molecules crowd together.” Often methodology development has occurred within a certain application, but others then can use the same methodology to study something else. At the centre there is a concerted effort to develop methodologies, which takes place in close interaction with the researchers using the instruments. “It’s important that we try to keep up with developments,” Karlsson says. NMR TECHNOLOGY is not a clear-cut choice

for all chemists to use. But for Nordstierna it is natural, because he has solid knowledge in this area from his time as a doctoral student at the Royal Institute of Technology. “I studied NMR spectroscopy for my doctorate,” he says with a smile. He thinks the great advantages of NMR are the ability to obtain spectroscopic resolutions for all of the components in the sample. If you have ethanol and water in the sample, you can see all of the atoms in the result. You can see how quickly something moves and how different materials bind with one another. “It’s easy to produce a result, but it can be difficult to interpret it in the right way since there are so many parameters to keep an eye on. Nor are there any ready-made ap-

NMR IS A common analytical technology, but

there are a number of different methods that can be used within the field. To study cellulose, Nordstierna makes use of solid-phase NMR, in which the sample consists of a solid material instead of a liquid. “Many researchers use NMR spectroscopy to investigate molecular structures, such as the structure of proteins. I myself am almost

Lars Nordstierna uses both the smaller NMR instrument that are available at the Chemistry building at Chalmers, as well as the more powerful instruments at the Swedish NMR centre.

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RESEARCH proaches in many cases, but rather you have to feel your way forward to determine what an optimal measurement consists of.” SINCE 2016 the Swedish NMR Centre has

been part of SciLifeLab, a national institute for molecular biosciences. As far as the NMR Centre is concerned, the focus is on structural biology, chemical biology and metabolomics. The latter is an area of research that has come to the fore in the biosciences in recent years. Metabolomics can be described as a way of studying metabolites — that is, molecules in a biological sample — in a single chemical analysis. Anna Winkvist and Helen Lindqvist are two nutrition researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy who work closely with the NMR Centre. They make use of metabolomics in nutrition research so they can better determine what people have eaten. With the aid of NMR spectroscopy, they can find various dietary markers in blood or urine. “It is an extremely exciting technology for being able to objectively determine what people have eaten,” says Winkvist, a professor of nutrition.

what size portions they have eaten and lie about their eating habits. In a method study that has just been carried out, a number of people ate breakfast in a food laboratory. One group was given a more protein-rich, British breakfast with ham, eggs and white beans, while the other group ate a carbohydrate-based Scandinavian breakfast with cereal and sandwiches. Subsequently they provided blood and urine samples, which were analysed at the NMR Centre. Was it possible to distinguish between the different groups? Yes, it was, according to Lindqvist, a bioscience senior lecturer. “However, we saw the biggest differences between those who chose to drink coffee and those who chose tea, which we had not anticipated initially.” In this case the study was about diet choices that could be traced the same day in blood and urine, whereas other projects had to do with the effect of different dietary habits over a longer period. In another project, for example, the difference between omnivores, vegetarians and vegans was studied. PREVIOUS METHODS THAT were used could

OUR EATING HABITS traditionally have been

surveyed by answering questions about what we have eaten. But such questioning always produces source errors. People forget what they have eaten, have difficulty estimating

Helen Lindqvist and Anna Winkvist make use of metabolomics in nutrition research.

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only study one biomarker at a time. Analyses have been expensive and time-consuming. NMR spectroscopy has opened new opportunities for the research field. “Foods are complex and contain lots of different materials that can exert an influence in many different directions. The advantage of metabolomics is that we can include a great many materials at once,” Lindqvist says. But while NMR spectroscopy makes it possible to generate a great deal of information, it also demands a lot of those who are to analyse all the data. Concurrently with the development of NMR technology during the past decade, bioinformatics also has made major strides. Being able to manage great quantities of data is becoming an important part of research. “We have had very good collaboration with the NMR Centre, and the development of our

Ulrika Andersson Hall sees great development potential in science through use of the NMR Centre in the future.

research has gone hand in hand with expansion of the centre,” Winkvist says. THE NEXT STEP WILL BE using biomarkers to

predict how well a certain type of treatment works for an individual patient. In this case it involves monitoring what effect a change in diet could have on an individual, which in turn should be able to increase the person’s motivation to alter dietary habits. “Changing dietary habits is hard,” says Lindqvist. “It would help motivate us to change our habits if we knew ahead of time that a dietary change is likely to have a major impact.” NMR TECHNOLOGY HAS developed a great

deal in recent years. Director Karlsson underscores the importance of disseminating information about what can be done with NMR technology, which can be used within a number of new fields. One example is sports science. University of Gothenburg sports researcher Ulrika Andersson Hall studies fat oxidation during exertion and also has used metabolomics to analyse blood. In her case the blood comes from elite athletes involved in endurance sports, and the purpose has been to see how this can foster the burning of fat. “This is the first time NMR has been used for sports research,” she says, “and we have had excellent collaboration and exchanges with one another.” THE RESULT, WHICH HAS JUST been publis-

hed, shows that burning of fat was not as

high after fasting as after a previous exercise period, despite the fact that fasting is used by many today as a method of weight reduction. But she emphasizes that the results apply to top athletes engaged in endurance sports who need to develop their fat oxidation to be able to burn fat over long periods, and that is a major difference between them and other people. “It would be interesting from a public health perspective to see if regular people also can develop fat oxidation — in case of disruptions in metabolism, for example,” says Hall, who sees great development potential in science through use of the NMR Centre in the future. LARS NORDSTIERNA IS also somewhat of

an ambassador for NMR spectroscopy and is happy to share information about its different areas of application, both within his own university and as a representative in the steering committee for the Swedish NMR centre. “I feel that when you are skilled with a technique, you have a responsibility to inform other researchers about its potential. By discussing with others, you can also develop yourself and discover new opportunities.” TEXT&PHOTO CAMILLA PERSSON PHOTO MALIN ARNESSON

THE SWEDISH NMR CENTRE There are seven spectroscopes at the Swedish NMR Centre. All are made up of superconducting magnets cooled using liquid helium and have advanced detectors for a wide range of applications. The Swedish NMR Centre is to first and foremost support academic research locally, nationally and internationally and support education. As long as time and resources permit, it can support industrial research in Sweden. With funding from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Research Council and SciLifeLab, special support is provided in the fields of structural biology, chemical biology and metabolomics.

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ALUMNA PROFILE

Dream job in the wake of the crisis Emelie Fritz’ postgraduate appointment in Germany got off to something of a rocky start. Seven years later, however, she is now “Frau Doktor Fritz” and feels at home there.

hen the financial crisis hit the world in 2008, many jobs were lost. The chemical industry was one of many impacted by the crisis. At the time, Fritz had just received her Master’s degree in chemistry and entrepreneurship from the University of Nottingham in England. “You can’t escape changes in the global economy,” she says with a wry grin. “I moved back to Sweden and actually managed to find a consulting job in the chemical industry, but after some time we consultants were told that our positions were going to be terminated.” ALTHOUGH THE JOB market was difficult,

to say the least, Fritz had not considered pursuing postgraduate studies until an advertisement posted by the Swedish Public Employment Service for an EU project caught her attention. The project combined pharmaceutical companies of all sizes with academic institutions. Fritz applied for and won the position, and speaking only a few words of German, she threw herself into her new life as a doctoral student in Germany at the TU Dortmund University in April 2009. “My first impression of the student dormitory I was going to live in wasn’t all that encouraging. I greeted a gruff

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German lady who worked there in English and she barked back at me: ‘You’re in Germany now, and here we speak German, I’ll have you know!’” BY TAKING A BASIC course in German,

holding lab courses for students and getting acquainted with some of her German chemist colleagues who “adopted” her, Fritz soon started to feel at home, however. Her thesis focused on analysing polymers that bind specific substances, known as “plastic antibodies”, to investigate how they could be used to purify pharmaceuticals. “Things are a little bit different in Germany than in Sweden. Postgraduate study programmes usually run for three, instead of four and a half years, and you don’t take courses to the same degree as you do in Sweden.” FRITZ WAS BORN and raised on Sweden’s

west coast. She took an interest in the natural sciences because she felt that they gave her the ability to understand and explain interrelations in everyday life, and she completed her undergraduate studies in chemistry at the University of Gothenburg (GU).

EMELIE FRITZ Age: 31 Lives in: Düsseldorf, Germany Family: Parents in Sweden, one sister living in London Occupation: PhD in Chemistry, Product Developer at 3M Hobbies: “Travel, skiing and running. I plan on running a half marathon in London in October to support women’s rights.” Happiest when: “Sailing off Sweden’s west coast on a warm summer’s day.”

“Studying at the University of Gothenburg, I realised early on that I wanted to use my knowledge of chemistry for product development, that is, to produce things that are useful in day-to-day living.” WHILE WORKING AS a doctoral student in

Dortmund, Fritz began looking for job opportunities as a product developer in the chemical industry in Germany. She heard from a number of sources that 3M was a company that could fit with her interests. 3M had a large facility in Düsseldorf, 70 kilometres from Dortmund, and Fritz applied for a position there. “I was given the job in the autumn of 2013 on the condition that I complete my thesis. So, the final year of my postgraduate studies was very stressful, since I was working and writing my thesis at the same time, but in February 2015 I became ‘Frau Doktor Fritz’, as they say here. They like their titles in Germany.” PRESENTLY, FRITZ WORKS as a product

developer at 3M. Her work gives her the opportunity to combine her chemistry expertise with her knowledge of management and entrepreneurship. She now works to develop tape for industrial applications that is custom-made and

developed specifically for use in different products, such as in the automotive industry and in electronic goods. “First, we get a request specifying a particular product and the requirements it must meet. We then start on a small scale, hold a dialogue with the research, marketing and process departments, and step-by-step produce a product that we then test in the field and receive feedback on. My work varies greatly and I work with many different departments.” WORKING FOR A big international company

has a number of advantages. Among others, Fritz has the opportunity to spend 15 per cent of her time working on her own ideas and projects together with other departments. The company’s near-global presence also gives her the chance to try working in different locations. “Work-wise, I’m very happy where I am. This is exactly what I want to use my chemistry skills for. Nowadays I also view Germany as my home base and, in the long term, I’d like to try working in another country, perhaps in the US or somewhere in Asia. But my parents probably won’t like hearing that,” she says and laughs. TEXT ROBERT KARLSSON PHOTO PRIVATE

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Map of Gothenburg from 1923, with places marked where Roma historically lived or stayed. The places have been grouped into three periods. Orange shows places that can be attributed to the second half of the 19th century, green is places around the year 1920 and blue is places around 1950. The borderline surrounding the city shows its extent in 1921.

Cultural heritage at the crossroads Despite the fact that Roma and Travellers have been in Sweden for 500 years, we know little about their lives and history. In her Rörligare Kulturarv research project, Ingrid Martins Holmberg has for the first time compiled the knowledge that does exist about how they lived and worked.

ngrid Martins Holmberg’s interest in the lives of Roma and Travellers began when she happened to see a photo of a Roma tent site at Gothenburg Central Station. It was from the 1950s, before the Roma became citizens and received the right to take up permanent residence. “It was a watershed for me. I have a great interest in Gothenburg history but never came across the fact that for several years there was a Roma tent site there, in central Gothenburg.” Her curiosity eventually led to the Rörligare Kulturarv (“Mobile Cultural Heritage”) research project, in which she has surveyed the knowledge that exists about the history and settlements of Roma and Travellers. It

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turned out that museums, county administrative boards and others have carried out more than ten relevant cultural heritage projects. “Roma can’t go to church archives because they were not registered in municipalities for a long time. So you have to go to other sources, and it became apparent that cultural heritage sector employees are sitting on knowledge of how to go about this.” She has now compiled the knowledge she collected in the book Vägskälens kulturarv – kulturarv vid vägskäl (“The Crossroads’ Cultural History – Cultural History at the Crossroads”). AS PART OF THE RÖRLIGARE Kulturarv

project at the Department of Conservation, a

case study surveyed Roma historical settlements in the Gothenburg area from the end of the 19th century until 1950. Government reports and local historical literature were among the sources used. Settlements were identified in more than ten places. They included Bergslagsparken near Central Station, a meadow area behind Backaplan before it became a shopping centre and a meadow next to the Koppartrans oil refinery in Skarvikshamnen. They also discovered that Roma periodically lived in the city centre as well, in nowdemolished quarters in Östra Nordstan. At the beginning of the 20th century, Americabound emigrants and others stayed in cheap hotels there, and it was a place where many disparate groups came together. The mapping of settlements later was included in the Rom San project tracing Roma history at Gothenburg City Museum. In addition to the exhibition and the book We are Roma, the project included a major commitment to education, and Roma representatives had a great deal of influence on the project. “This was the first exhibition in which Roma could read and write their own history. Previous historical accounts often have been based on clichés, so this was a powerful experience for everyone, especially the Roma themselves.” ANOTHER LARGE PROJECT that mapped sett-

lements is Resandekartan (“the Travellers’ Map”). It originated with an archaeological excavation initiated in 2004 in Snarsmon in northern Bohuslän near the border with Norway, a place where Traveller families had lived during the second half of the 19th century. “They often lived close to national boundaries and wandered around, making a living selling farm produce.” The archaeological project was subsequently expanded into Resandekartan, which is a digital map of sites in western Sweden and southern Norway where Travellers lived and

worked. This is a collaboration among museums on both sides of the border, the Swedish National Heritage Board and its Norwegian counterpart and representatives from three Travellers organisations. “Resandekartan is an enormously interesting initiative since it shows both sites and occurrences.” The sites have been selected in part by looking for names that allude to “tattare”, or tinkers – the old name for Travellers. In southern portions of Sweden, the cultural heritage sector also has mapped Roma and Travellers settlements, and they are included in listings by county in the book. INGRID MARTINS HOLMBERG has recently

been involved in starting a new centre at the University of Gothenburg, the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies. Her work will include initiating new cultural heritage research on urban issues under the theme “Curating the City”. She regards the Rörligare Kulturarv project as basic research and hopes that her book will be used as a source of information and inspiration for further research. “It would be exciting to be involved in finding the oldest physical traces of Roma in Sweden. I would also like to look at how city planning enables the coming together of differing groups and backgrounds. Why is it that cultural, social and ethnic dissimilarities are accommodated in some parts of the city and not others? Like in Östra Nordstan before it was demolished – all of this existed there, after all.” TEXT&PHOTO HELENA ÖSTLUND MAP LANTMÄTERIET

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Moving towards tailored medications Using microfluidic chips and stem cells, physicist Amin Banaelyan creates human tissue and then tests the effects of various medications on this tissue. The objective of the project, called Organo Vitro, is to develop technology that can be used easily in the future to tailor medications for individual patients.

ll test models currently used for ensuring that newly developed medications are not health hazards have their disadvantages. Using laboratory animals is not only expensive and an ethically complicated issue, a medication that works well on animals can prove to be dangerous for people. Using people instead can be risky. In France there is an ongoing court case in which test subjects for a medication ended up in a coma. And even when pharmaceuticals have been tested and released on the market, it is no guarantee that they are harmless to humans. Different people react differently to the same medication, and it is still not possible to foresee all possible side-effects when a patient combines several medications.

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“In recent years we have gained better opportunities for discovering and understanding whether a drug may have adverse effects on a patient, something that may have been overlooked previously,” says Amin Banaelyan, PhD student in the Department of Physics. “However, we have examples of medications that brought to market and then soon thereafter discovered to have damaging effects on humans and that were quickly pulled from the market.” WHEN JAPANESE RESEARCHER Shinya Ya-

manaka discovered that mature cells could be reprogrammed into pluripotential stem cells, that is, cells that can develop into essentially any other cell in the body, this opened the door for developing advanced pharmaceuti-

The microfluidic chip on a microscope stage, here filled with food dye to show the fluidic channels.

cals. In 2012 Yamanaka received the Nobel Prize for medicine for his discovery. “We can take cells from a patient, reprogram them into mature stem cells and in this way grow them into, for example, liver or heart cells,” says Banaelyan. “We can then test out different types of pharmaceuticals on these cells.” These tests are done using the microfluidic chip that Banaelyan has developed. A microfluidic chip is a thin plastic chip containing tiny channels. Extremely simplified, the cells from one organ are placed in the chip and human tissue is created. The researchers can then pump different substances into the channels in the chip and through the cell to see how it reacts to them. THE CELLS HE HAS worked with come from

the liver, however, the system also works well with cells from other organs, such as the heart and the kidneys. The reason he chose to work with liver cells is that the liver is a metabolic organ that cleans the body and its functions include breaking down pharmaceuticals. “Say a patient has a heart problem and there are a number of approved heart medicines available on the market. Imagine that one of these medicines damages this patient’s liver. Using this technology, in the future it would be possible to test all of these medicines on the patient’s own liver cells and see which of them was the most suitable for this particular patient.” A patent application has been submitted for the microfluidic chip. Banaelyan hopes it will eventually be possible for biologists and toxicologists to easily use the chip in a laboratory environment to tailor the right medical treatment for the patient.

“One idea is that it will eventually be possible to make the chip using a 3D printer.” Similar research is being done using other cell models. Eventually, it will be possible to combine different models to study whether a medication that does not adversely affect heart cells is also harmless for the liver. MATTIAS GOKSÖR IS Banaelyan’s supervisor

and collaborates with him on the Organo Vitro project. He believes there will be a significant increase in these types of solutions for medical research in particular. “Gothenburg is full of biotech companies that have been attracted to the city because Astra and Mölnlycke Health Care are here, and they represent a fantastic network in which to test research ideas.” Goksör points out that as his thesis supervisor, he is proud of Banaelyan’s research and what he has Amin Banaeiyan achieved. He feels it is fairly unique for a PhD student to apply for a patent and plan to eventually launch a company based on research results before having completed a dissertation. “Amin has ambitious plans and a personality that is well suited to persuading others of the merits of his research idea, as he demonstrated when he won ‘Best Pitch’ awards at the Chalmers Venture Startup Camp Batch 8.” TEXT ROBERT KARLSSON PHOTO AMIN BANAELYAN

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COOPERATION

Major interest in regional final for young researchers Interest in this year’s young researchers (Unga Forskare) project exhibition was enormous, when it for the first time was held at the Universeum science centre in Gothenburg.

t’s only lunchtime and hundreds of people of all ages have already visited the Unga Forskare exhibition, in which close to 70 upper-secondary school students from western Sweden are displaying their projects. At the 30 separate stands erected in Universeum’s foyer, the teenagers stand discussing scientific topics with visitors and fellow exhibitors. The submissions cover a wide range of topics, from how a mother’s eating habits affect her child’s metabolism, to whether or not serine supplements can combat liver disease. “It’s great that so many students applied to take part in the exhibition, and it’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to give them all a stand,” says Annika Dahlqvist from the Förbundet Unga Forskare association, who is among the organisers responsible for the Gothenburg exhibition. The Unga Forskare regional final is organised by the University of Gothenburg,

Chalmers University of Technology and Förbundet Unga Forskare, a non-profit youth association that serves as a meeting place for young people interested in science and technology. Other partners supporting the event include the International Science Festival in Gothenburg and Universeum. “It’s great that we could be here at Universeum this year. It’s such a nice environment and we can reach so many different age groups,” says Annika Dahlqvist. AT A STAND CLOSE to the entrance, there

are three female students from the Kattegattsgymnasiet upper-secondary school in Halmstad. Their project is entitled Detecting an Exoplanet, and deals with planets that orbit stars other than the star in our solar system (the Sun). “We want to know if amateurs can detect when an exoplanet passes in front of its star that is, when a transit occurs. Our project focuses on investigating whether we, as amateurs, can do so successfully,” explains Erika Jivén. All three girls are happy they could take part in the exhibition. “It’s a really fun experience and it’s cool to see the fascinating ideas that others have. We’ve mingled quite a lot and are very happy to be here,” Eriksson concludes. TEXT CARINA ELIASSON PHOTO CARINA ELIASSON

Erika Jivén, Lovisa Eriksson and Evelyn Bankell from Kattegattsgymnasiet upper-secondary school in Halmstad. 34

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Are we living in a new geological epoch? Human activity is affecting both the Earth’s climate and ecosystems. It is not only causing environmental harm, but also lasting changes in the Earth’s crust. Many refer to the epoch that mankind’s influence has given rise to as the Anthropocene age – the Age of Man.

nthropocene” is a geological term that is now used frequently by many people other than geologists, including environmental scientist Professor Johan Rockström. “It’s good that environmental change and climate change are topics of public debate, but there’s also a debate on-going among geologists as to whether this really is a new epoch from a geological standpoint,” explains Mark Johnson, Head of the University of Gothenburg’s Department of Earth Sciences. OFFICIALLY, WE ARE currently living in the

geological period known as the Holocene epoch. This period began at the end of the last ice age — the most recent major environmental shift in Earth’s history. The question being debated is whether or not we have now entered a new epoch — the Anthropocene epoch — referring to the Age of Man. The Anthropocene period has been proposed as a new geological epoch. It is defined as the age in which human activity has had a global impact on the planet’s ecosystems, climate and crust. It was previously suggested that this epoch began with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, while the latest propositions set the starting date as coinciding with the end of World War II.

“The idea hasn’t received scientific sanction yet, but there’s no doubt that we’ve entered an age in which human activity is affecting the Earth’s natural cycles. We see evidence of this in the sediment in lakes, such as in the composition of materials and in the increase in the rate of sedimentation. We’re also seeing an increase in chemical pollutants like nitrate in sediment, even in remote locations,” Johnson continues. GEOLOGISTS CURRENTLY calculate the

Earth’s age to be just over 4.5 billion years. Among other methods, geologists can determine the planet’s various ages and epochs by examining layers in its crust. “The dinosaurs lived on Earth for more than 150 million years during what geologists refer to as the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. If you compare that with the approximately 50 years that would cover the Anthropocene age to date, you come to understand that geological epochs are long periods of time that can first be defined more precisely after the fact,” explains Johnson. The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) is expected to propose a definition of the Anthropocene period before the end of the year. TEXT CARINA ELIASSON PHOTO MARK JOHNSON

SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

PROFILE

Rejection led to success Pitted against a highly competitive field, researcher Karl Börjesson fell just short of securing a grant from the European Research Council, in spite of his first-rate application. Disappointment turned to enthusiasm, however, when the Swedish Foundations organisation decided to fund his research on the strength of the Council’s evaluation. “It’s a true acknowledgement that they believe in my ideas and consider them interesting,” says Börjesson.

itting on the eighth floor of the Chemistry Building, Börjesson calls out into the corridor: “I’ll be with you in a second, Alexei!” Alexei is a doctoral student, and the second staff member hired to form part of Börjesson’s new chemistry research group. Another doctoral student was also recruited to the group earlier, which is so new that, in reality, it barely exists yet. “The contract for the research funding hasn’t been signed yet, but the Swedish Research Council has announced the grant on your website, so I trust that everything is in order,” says Börjesson and smiles. AT THE TIME OF OUR meeting, barely two

weeks have passed since Börjesson received the news that he is set to receive up to SEK 14 million in funding over five years through

the Swedish Foundations’ Starting Grant. The chain of events leading to this windfall began when Börjesson applied for a starting grant from the European Research Council (ERC). Competition for ERC research grants is fierce, and Börjesson fell just short of successful selection. Although this was a setback, the Swedish Foundations organisation subsequently decided to grant Börjesson five years’ funding based on the ERC’s evaluation. “The ERC is incredibly thorough in its assessments and awarded me the highest grade, ‘A’. The Swedish Foundations organisation doesn’t have the capacity to carry out the same assessments, but felt it could use the ERC’s evaluation as grounds for assessment. It feels great; my research is secured for the next several years and I have the ability to plan and put together my own group.”

KARL BÖRJESSON Age: 34 Family: Wife and two children Occupation: Researcher at the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology Happiest when: “Work-wise, it’s when I can be in the lab and figure out a solution to some problem. Otherwise, it’s when I’m with my loved ones.” Hobbies: “I like brewing my own beer. Other than that, I have my hands full with research and my family.” Latest news: One of five researchers to receive the prestigious Swedish Foundations’ Starting Grant. The Swedish Foundations organisation is made up of four different foundations, including Ragnar Söderbergs Stiftelse and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. 36

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Börjesson holds a PhD in physical chemistry and sees himself as a chemist working in the borderland between chemistry and physics. “I like that chemistry is about building things. It’s a bit like Meccano or Lego, except that I’m building molecules; if I want a certain type of molecule, I build it.” BÖRJESSON’S RESEARCH focuses on light

and what are known as excited molecular states. This concept describes all states in which an atom or molecule has a higher energy than in its ground state. In his research, Börjesson infuses molecules with energy, and his aim is to be able to control what happens to that energy. In other words, he investigates what you need to do to make molecules behave the way you want. One area where the results of Börjesson’s research may be applied is in designing screens for mobile phones. He points out that there is a relatively long way to go before his results will be useful in this kind of area of application, however. “I study the physical process involved in light emission. I hope that my group and I will be able to produce results that, in the

long run, will have a practical use and will drive the applications forward.” BÖRJESSON CARRIED OUT his post-doctoral

work at the University of Strasbourg, which is recognised as one of the world’s premier institutions in the field of chemistry. Börjesson returned to Gothenburg in 2014, and last spring he received the Ingvar Carlsson Award, research funding that gave him the opportunity to establish himself as a research associate. These funds are granted on the condition that their recipient change department or even university, however. In Börjesson’s case, this meant moving from Chalmers University to the University of Gothenburg in September 2015. “I think changing environments is a good thing, that research benefits when you receive input from fields completely different to those you work in. I think you can get a bit drained when you work with the same thing for a long time. At the department I was working in at the University of Strasbourg, no two research groups worked on the same thing.” TEXT ROBERT KARLSSON PHOTO MALIN ARNESSON

SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

Since 2013, the Faculty of Science has had a sabbatical programme for permanently-employed teaching staff and researchers. The focus is on development and renewal of research efforts. Financial support is awarded to allow full-time research for up to six months on any topic the researcher prefers and in an international environment.

FULL FOCUS ON RESEARCH A sabbatical in Germany gave Håkan Andréasson the opportunity to delve deeper into Einstein’s highly complex equations. By the time he returned to Gothenburg, he and his colleagues had made some headway. Professor of Mathematics Håkan Andréasson took a two-month sabbatical in Germany during 2015. To successfully combine this trip with his home life, he decided to divide his stay into two parts, with one half in the spring and one in the autumn. He spent one month at the University of Cologne in March, and another at the University of

Bayreuth in October. Andréasson already had well-established collaborations and on-going projects with researchers at both these universities. His sabbatical gave him the opportunity to further develop these partnerships. “Ordinarily, we meet for one week at a time, which feels kind of short. To make progress, we need to be able to bounce different ideas around, which requires cooperation and also time, given that testing various mathematical ideas is quite time-consuming. If you only have a week, you can only test a handful of methods,” he explains.

Sabbatical good for the entire research team Anna Godhe considers the greatest benefit of her sabbatical in the USA was the opportunity to focus completely on research and experience a worldleading research environment.

Anna Godhe visited University of Washington in Seattle during her sabbatical.

SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

The School of Oceanography at the University of Washington is a world leader in research on diatoms, so when Godhe applied for a sabbatical, choosing where to carry out the sabbatical was not difficult. Her application accepted, in 2015 she took her husband and ten-year-old daughter with her to Seattle for four months. “It was hard to apply for a place at a school because it took us a while to find a place to live.” But as soon as they had ar-

There are clear links between Andréasson’s research and what is expected to be the discovery of the century: gravitational waves. “It’s a truly audacious discovery. The discovery of gravitational waves gives us the opportunity to create a new type of telescope that reveals information about the universe that wasn’t previously obtainable,” Andréasson explains.

Håkan Andréasson made progress in his research during his sabbatical that he believes would have been difficult to achieve in Gothenburg.

THE COLLABORATING RESEARCHERS are

currently working on the equations individually, and one of Andréasson’s German colleagues recently visited Gothenburg. “We made progress in our research when I was in Germany that I believe would have been difficult to achieve operating under an ordinary work schedule, where you’re more likely to be interrupted by the need to care for administrative tasks, meetings with students and other commitments,” Andréasson concludes.

TEXT TANJA THOMPSON FOTO MALIN ARNESSON

TEXT TANJA THOMPSON PHOTO MALIN ARNESSON

ranged housing, the school issue resolved itself as well. “Since I have done quite a bit of research in India, my daughter is used to tagging along. She’s adaptable.” ANNA GODHE, PROFESSOR of marine eco-

logy, conducts research in phytoplankton ecology. Diatoms divide by cloning — that is, asexually — but occasionally they reproduce sexually. Godhe had free access to the laboratory in Seattle, so she was able to perform lab experiments in which she could focus on the reproductive processes. She brought DNA data to Seattle from diatoms of varying ages. Godhe is interested in looking at genetic differences over time, from a hundred years ago up to the present. When she arrived, she

received valuable support in her work with these analyses. The lab in Seattle included a skilled data analyst and highly competent bioinformatics specialists. There were also four technicians who had worked there for a long time. “Having such a base is a fantastic support for research. My sabbatical benefited not only me, but my entire research team. We were able to link up bioinformatics specialists here in Gothenburg with others in Seattle. And having been able to get help from a data analyst was also incredibly valuable.” GODHE REMAINS in frequent communication

with her colleagues in Seattle, exchanging thoughts and ideas. TEXT TANJA THOMPSON PHOTO MALIN ARNESSON

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BOOKS

CRAFTING CULTURAL HERITAGE Editors: Anneli Palmsköld, Johanna Rosenqvist and Gunnar Almevik The manufacture of objects, i.e. to craft, is and has always been a central activity in society. Elements of crafting contribute to the development of both the physical environment and material culture. Craftsmanship has always been appreciated and is also tangible evidence of what a person is capable of achieving. Despite its virtue, the knowledge on which crafts are based is often overlooked in research. Some questions worth posing to remedy this oversight might include: What can we learn about physical objects by learning about their manufacture? How can we develop theoretical and methodological approaches related to the actual crafting itself? How can we study and understand handicraft as an aspect of cultural heritage? This anthology contains a collection of articles that were originally presented at the Association of Critical Heritage Studies’ first conference, entitled Re/theorizing Heritage, held in Gothenburg in 2012 in connection with the University of Gothenburg’s Critical Heritage Studies research area.

URBANISMER – DAGENS STADSBYGGANDE I RETORIK OCH PRAKTIK Editors: Krister Olsson, Daniel Nilsson, Tigran Haas Cities are shaped by strong influences like globalisation, climate change, segregation and regionalisation. Around the world, people are discussing how these challenges should be addressed and solutions designed within the frameworks of various urban planning ideals or “urbanisms”. Dominating these discussions are the theories of New Urbanism, Post-urbanism, Everyday Urbanism, Green Urbanism and Re-urbanism. In Urbanismer, established Swedish and international researchers, planners and architects discuss what characterises — or should characterise — modern urban planning. What do desirable urban environments look like and how should decision-making within urban planning be organised? What does designing the sustainable cities of the future involve? By shedding light on the driving forces behind and factors influencing urban development, the authors aim to show how and why cities are developing in a particular direction. They also provide an overview of current trends and their impact on urban planning in Sweden. The book is part of the publication series Curating the City, which is associated with the University of Gothenburg. 40

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»Th of t enormous including man extin

FISKEBÅTARNA OCH VARVEN – SKEPPSBYGGARNA 2 Authors: Lennart Bornmalm, Krister Bång and Christine Fredriksen This book discusses Swedish shipyards specialised in building wooden fishing boats. Fishing boats were a typical feature of fishing villages and their harbours during most of the 20th century. Readers learn about the history and environments of the different types of shipyards and about the way of life and people connected with them. The descriptions are richly illustrated with pictures and drawings.

Latest Book Tips A major aspect of a researcher’s work involves publishing the results of scientific work. Some researchers work to document the knowledge needed for the restoration and preservation of buildings, gardens and landscapes of historical and cultural significance. Others publish popular science to reach a wider audience and debate relevant social issues. The following are our latest tips on interesting reads.

The potential benefits these technologies are s, but so are the risks, g the possibility of hunction» OLLE HÄGGSTRÖM

CONNECTING ANALYTICAL THINKING AND INTUITION Author: Anders Omstedt The book Connecting Analytical Thinking and Intuition encourages scientists to be better at combining analytical thinking and intuition. Author Anders Omstedt suggests a method for better training students and teachers in the art of thinking and in communication. “Given that researchers and teachers like ourselves can be said to work ‘in the service of thought’, it surprises me how little we systematically discuss ways of improving our thinking and our ability to solve interdisciplinary problems,” says Omstedt, a professor of oceanography. He believes that bridges between analytical thinking and intuition involve being able to listen, evaluate, summarise and appreciate both of these human qualities, leading to a broader and deeper understanding and, thereby, also to improved thinking. In his book, Omstedt relates his personal experiences and describes how he has worked to develop both his own analytical and intuitive thinking abilities as a researcher and as a person. Among other things, he emphasises that scientists must be better at listening and posing open questions, and that they can learn a lot from other disciplines, like literature, psychology, philosophy and the fine arts. “The book has only just been released, but I’ve already received a number of interesting reactions from both Swedish and international readers. Naturally, I hope it will give rise to new ideas about how we researchers can become better at thinking. Obviously, it’s a major challenge that requires more time to master.”

SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

BOOKS

HERE BE DRAGONS: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY Author: Olle Häggström There is a widely held conception that progress in science and technology is our salvation, and the more of it, the better. Olle Häggström maintains that this is an oversimplified and even dangerous attitude. While the future certainly will see major changes due to such progress, it is far from certain that all of these changes will be for the better. Our lives today are vastly different from life at the beginning of the 20th century, largely due to advances in science, technology and medicine. “Particular areas in which extraordinary and perhaps disruptive advances can be expected include biotechnology, nanotechnology and machine intelligence. The potential benefits of these

technologies are enormous, but so are the risks, including the possibility of human extinction,” says Häggström, a professor of mathematical statistics. With his book he wants to promote maximising the possibilities of benefiting from the new technologies while avoiding the dangers. “The book has received mixed reactions, but it probably is safe to say that the positive ones have predominated,” Häggström says. “Even when readers and reviewers have had objections to individual assessments I make in the book, such as the plausibility of certain technology scenarios, the overall judgement has usually been positive. I am particularly pleased that the book has received fairly positive reviews in New Scientist and in the Financial Times. I had imagined that the book would be perceived as somewhat more controversial and therefore would have generated more negative reactions than those that have cropped up thus far.”

1/3 of Swedes read a book at least once a week

TIMMERBYGGNADER – TEMATISKA UNDERSÖKNINGAR AV TRADITIONELLA TIMRINGSMETODER Author: Göran Andersson Editor: Sara Höglund Illustrators: Anna Blomberg and Kina Linscott This book describes log buildings from a detailed functional perspective. It focuses on two important elements of log construction: the first is that experienced craftspeople should be involved in studying, analysing and interpreting older, handcrafted buildings. The second is the need to work closely with architects who have extensive experience working with detailed documentation and presentation. The study includes more than 300 drawings and sketches and is divided into themes, which describe log buildings in terms of their materials and woodworking techniques, timber frameworks, floors, chimneyed fireplaces, roofs and corner joints. The concluding chapter discusses carpentry and distinctive regional variations. Five craftspeople from different regions have selected the carpentry technique most commonly used in the area where they work.

SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

AWARDS

2016 CHARLOTTE BJÖRDAL, professor at the Department of Marine Sciences, has taken part in an EU project that received the 2016 Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa NOSTRA Award. KARL BÖRJESSON, research assistant at the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, has been awarded the Swedish Foundation’s Starting Grant. Read more about Börjesson on page 36. KERSTIN JOHANNESSON, professor at the Department of Marine Sciences, has been awarded the Åforsk Foundation’s 2016 Knowledge Prize of SEK 100,000. She received the prize for her extensive contributions in disseminating knowledge about the ocean, biodiversity and evolution. Furthermore, Johannesson and research colleague Roger Butlin, at the University of Sheffield, have shared the Advanced Grant from the European Research Council of almost SEK 10 million for a research project on species formation. SEBASTIAAN SWART, is a doctor of natural sciences and head of South Africa’s national centre for ocean robotics at the University of Cape Town. He has been accepted as a Wallenberg Academy Fellow and will be active in the University of Gothenburg.

GUNNAR ALMEVIK, senior lecturer at the Department of Conservation, is a recipient of the faculty’s 2016 Pedagogic Prize. He also holds a position at the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities as an academic researcher in cultural-historical studies with a focus on building history. The rationale behind the Pedagogic Prize reads as follows: “Gunnar Almevik has started and developed three educational programmes in traditional handicrafts in Mariestad with a strong conviction that expanded recruitment for the university college is important and that both the practical and theoretical aspects of craftsmanship have obvious development potential in an academic context. Almevik has also displayed a high level of involvement in recruiting and instructing craftsmen for research education at the Department of Conservation. Furthermore, he started the Craft Laboratory at the university, which is a concrete and formalised part of the third programme whereby film production, workshops, publications and so on support the industry’s demand for applied research and educational material. Almevik tries new and unconventional pedagogic methods for both practical and theoretical modules. Current efforts in undergraduate studies uses ‘blended learning’ and online seminars that are greatly appreciated by the students. As part of his academic programme, he has recently developed new master courses, mainly in 3D scanning applications as documentation and analysis tools for the practice of cultural preservation.”

HONORARY DOCTORS 2016 ROGER BUTLIN, professor at the University of Sheffield, has been appointed Honorary Doctor at the Faculty of Science. Butlin is one of the world’s leading researchers in evolutionary biology. He has more than 200 publications in top periodicals such as Nature, Nature Communication and Nature Review Genetics. In addition, he is the author of a book on species formation. His publications are frequently cited, and Butlin has served as president of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology and editor-in-chief for the respected evolutionary scientific periodical Heredity.

NANCY ODEGAARD, professor at the Drachman Institute at the University of Arizona, has been appointed Honorary Doctor at the Faculty of Science. Nancy Odegaard is head of Arizona State Museum’s Preservation Division and a fellow of the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) and the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), where she previously served as president. Odegaard is known for her commitment to indigenous cultures. She is the lead author of an reference work titled Materials Analysis in Art and Archaeology.

SCIENCE FACULTY MAGAZINE JUNE 2016

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Researchers create focused spin wave beams Researchers at the University of Gothenburg Physics Department have finally found the secret to synchronize an unlimited number of spintronic oscillators. Such devices are very promising for future applications requiring wideband functionality. Unfortunately, nanoscale microwave oscillators suffer from an unbearably low power and high phase noise. It is generally accepted that one of the most attractive ways to solve this issue is to

synchronize a large number of these nanoscopic oscillators in order to limit the detrimental influence of thermal energy. In an article, published in Nature Nanotechnology in December 2015, they synchronize five oscillators and demonstrate the resulting improvement in the oscillator quality. “Because we now know how to control the spin wave propagation, there is really no limit to how many oscil-

lators we can now synchronize,” said Randy Dumas, who sees great potential in several research areas.  Link to the article: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ nnano.2015.280

Increased ocean acidification when permafrost melts When organic matter from melting permafrost is released, decomposes and then runs out into the ocean, it contributes to acidification of ocean water faster than previously thought. That is re-

vealed by new research from the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm University. One study by researchers from Sweden, the U.S. and Russia, which was published in Nature Geoscience, suggests a new mechanism that further contributes to acidification of the Arctic Ocean. The release of organic matter from melting permafrost and its subsequent decomposition causes runoff from the land Photo: Leif Anderson

to acidify ocean water. “Decomposition of organic matter results in levels of acidification that are more elevated than those we can expect from one hundred years of anthropogenic carbon dioxide,” says Leif Anderson, professor at the Department of Marine Sciences.  Link to the article: http://www.nature.com/ngeo/ journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ ngeo2695.html