In southern Africa, a group of people lived in partial isolation for hundreds of thousands of years. This is shown in a new study based on analyses of the genomes of 28 people who lived between 10,200 and 150 years ago in southern Africa. The researchers also found genetic adaptations that likely shaped Homo sapiens as a species.
A completely new order of marine sponges has been found by researchers at the Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University. The sponge order, named Vilesida, produces substances that could be used in drug development. The same substances support the hypothesis that sponges – and therefore animals – emerged 100 million years earlier than previously thought.
When males are forced to compete for females, new species form more rapidly. This has been shown when researchers compared beetles allowed to mate freely with groups of the same species where competition for mating was restricted. The experiments, which have been going on for 40 years, explain how important sexual selection is for the emergence of new species.
Women who have been exposed to multiple traumatic experiences during childhood have more difficult births than others. They are much more likely to need emergency caesarean sections, suffer major haemorrhages or pre-eclampsia, and need more antibiotics. These findings come from a new study involving 1,253 women, who were monitored from before giving birth to one year afterwards.
The Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, will give an open lecture in Uppsala on Friday 28 November. The title of the lecture is “Multilateralism, Health and Peace: Past Achievements, Present Difficulties, Future Hope”. The lecture is open to the public and will be followed by a panel discussion.
The attitudes and knowledge of individual case officers or working groups are determining what help battered women get when they need a new home. In the absence of national or municipal guidelines, these decisions are taken far down in the organisation. A new report from the National Centre for Knowledge on Men’s Violence Against Women (NCK) reveals major differences between municipalities.
Bruno Liljefors’s granddaughter, Catarina Lundegårdh, has donated 70 works by the artist to the Gustavianum. As a result of this gift, Uppsala University now owns the largest Liljefors collection in the world. A generous selection of the works will be on display in the Gustavianum summer exhibition in 2026.
The malignant pediatric brain tumor medulloblastoma is driven by proteins deep within the cancer cells, for which there are often no effective drugs available. Researchers at Uppsala University have identified a new genetic technique that enables targeting of tumour cells with elevated levels of such proteins. The technique could be used to eliminate cells responsible for tumour relapse.
Some common hormonal contraceptives are linked to a slightly higher risk of breast cancer than others. This is shown by a new Swedish study from Uppsala University, in which researchers followed more than two million women and teenage girls in Sweden to identify how different hormonal contraceptives affect the risk of breast cancer.
Pregnant women with vitamin D deficiency may develop osteomalacia – a form of bone softening. A new Swedish study shows that this condition increases the risk of needing vacuum-assisted delivery or emergency caesarean section fivefold. Muscle weakness due to vitamin D and calcium deficiency may be a possible explanation, in addition to the pelvic changes historically associated with osteomalacia.
Do you think this looks a bit pixelated? A little hard to read? That could soon be a thing of the past. Researchers have developed new technology with record-small pixels, creating a display with the highest resolution the human eye can perceive. The study, led by Uppsala University in collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg, has been published in Nature.
There is no popular support for imposing trade tariffs in Europe − not even in response to Trump’s trade policies. This is according to a new study based on responses from 5,500 people in Germany and the UK.
