Press releases

A previous study has shown that a type of squill growing in Madeira produces a chemical compound that may be useful as a medicinal drug. But a new study from researchers at Uppsala University has shown that this is probably not true: instead, the plant had likely accumulated antibiotics from contaminated soil.

Sustainable energy storage is in great demand. Researchers at Uppsala University have therefore developed an all-organic proton battery that can be charged in a matter of seconds. The battery can be charged and discharged over 500 times without any significant loss of capacity. Their work has been published in the scientific journal Angewandte Chemie.

Aminoglycoside antibiotics are critically important for treating several types of infections with multi-resistant bacteria. A completely new resistance gene, which is likely to counteract the newest aminoglycoside-drug plazomycin, was recently discovered by scientists in Gothenburg, Sweden. The bacterial gene the team discovered in river sediment from India does not resemble any known antibiotic resistance gene. […]

Several authorities and organisations have already highlighted the dangerous lack of competence in nuclear safety in Europe Now, the EU programme Euratom is investing around 5 million euros to educate a new generation in nuclear technology. At the heart of the initiatives, which will contain significant distance learning elements, are researchers from Chalmers University of Technology.

Are you hoarding toilet paper or stockpiling paracetamol to last you through the corona crisis? You’re not alone. Professor Richard Wahlund explains the psychology behind our need to stock up in times of crisis. In stores and pharmacies across Sweden, there are gaping holes where there should be toilet paper, pasta and paracetamol. Customers report […]

Type 2 diabetes is more common in men whose puberty took place early, a University of Gothenburg study shows. An association may also be seen between low age of puberty and an elevated risk of the disease, if it develops, requiring insulin treatment. The present observation study, published in the journal Diabetologia, covers 30,697 men […]

Graphite nanoplatelets integrated into plastic medical surfaces can prevent infections, killing 99.99 per cent of bacteria which try to attach – a cheap and viable potential solution to a problem which affects millions, costs huge amounts of time and money, and accelerates antibiotic resistance. This is according to research from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, in the journal Small.

The environmental effects of agriculture and food are hotly debated. But the most widely used method of analysis often tends to overlook vital factors, such as biodiversity, soil quality, pesticide impacts and societal shifts. These oversights can lead to wrong conclusions on the merits of intensive and organic agriculture, according to a trio of researchers in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Cancer cells grow and divide in an uncontrolled manner. A new study from Uppsala University now shows how alterations in a cell’s degradation hubs, called lysosomes, can cause abnormal cell growth. The results are published today in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

Males that face tougher competition for females risk having offspring with a greater number of harmful mutations in their genome than males without rivals. Researchers at Uppsala University have discovered this correlation in the beetle species Callosobruchus maculatus. Their study is published in the scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.