News 2025 from the Faculty of Science
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17.12.2025
SDU to the Moon: Danish-led space mission to map the Moon’s surface
A consortium of Danish partners, led by the University of Copenhagen (KU), is set to carry out Denmark’s first-ever lunar mission. The mission will map the Moon’s surface in unprecedented detail, paving the way for safer landings and the future establishment of lunar bases.
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16.12.2025
Identical micro-animals live in two isolated deep-sea environments. How is that possible?
It sounds almost impossible. And yet, the same nematodes live in two extremely isolated deep-sea trenches located 17,000 km apart.
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16.12.2025
How can the environmental health of the Baltic Sea be improved?
Interreg project RECOVER develops a digital management system for the Baltic Sea
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10.12.2025
Approx. DKK 25 million awarded to Science researchers from the Carlsberg Foundation
Eight researchers from the Faculty of Science have received funding for their research projects
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09.12.2025
Synthetic Data: A Potential Time Bomb Under the Internet
Bullshit AI. Habsburg AI. AI Slop. The nicknames are colorful — almost funny — but the concern behind them is real: that increasingly distorted, inbred AI systems are about to take over the internet. Human-created data may soon be a luxury, and fact-checking is more essential than ever, warns researcher.
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28.11.2025
Can Artificial Photosynthesis Solve Our Energy Problems?
In nature, photosynthesis runs constantly, converting sunlight into chemical energy that all living organisms depend on to grow and survive. But what if artificial photosynthesis could be used to produce fuel we could pour directly into a car’s fuel tank?
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24.11.2025
Humpback Whales Are Making a Comeback – Here’s One Reason Why
Humpback whales are less picky eaters than other baleen whales. If cod runs out in an area, they may switch to krill. This flexibility might be a key reason for their evolutionary success, according to whale scientists in a recent study.
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20.11.2025
New Research Reshapes our Understanding of Denmark’s Architectural Heritage
Knowledge about building with bricks did not travel directly from Italy to Denmark. That is the surprising conclusion of a team of researchers who analyzed bricks from medieval churches in Italy and Denmark.
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11.11.2025
It is Our Duty to Protect the Life Forms That Cannot Defend Themselves
Elvis Genbo Xu is an environmental toxicologist on a mission: to make the world a less toxic place. Now he is awarded with the Grundfos Prize for his research.
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10.11.2025
Scientists Removed Amino Acids From the Diet of Lab Mice — and They Lost Weight
Experiments on mice have compared two ways to make the body burn energy without moving. One well-known method is to expose the body to cold. The other is to remove two specific amino acids from the diet.
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23.10.2025
Four NAT researchers receive support from the Independent Research Fund Denmark
Manuel Meyer, Nils Færgeman, Melih Kandemir, and James McPherson receive a total of DKK 12.5 million for new research projects.
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08.10.2025
Heatwaves at Sea May Force the Ocean to Release More CO2
We already know that marine heatwaves can harm the ocean’s animals and reefs. Now, a new study reveals that marine heatwaves may also weaken the oceans’ ability to store carbon
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02.10.2025
Why Women Live Longer Than Men – and Why They Will Continue to Do So
Researchers have studied the lifespans of 1,176 animal species. Among mammals, females usually live the longest – including humans – and scientists believe this pattern will continue.
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02.10.2025
Villum Experiment Grants Awarded to Two NAT Researchers
Molecular biologist Narcis-Adrian Petriman and chemist Mathias Lander Skavenborg have both received a Villum Experiment grant, awarded to unconventional research projects.
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29.09.2025
Music and Physics Have Much in Common
Physicist Francesco Sannino almost always works with classical music in the background – often Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Rachmaninov, or Shostakovich. The structure and rhythm of the music help him think.
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16.09.2025
Sandy Seafloors: An Overlooked Source of Greenhouse Gas
A new study reveals that methane can form in the upper layers of sandy seabeds — something that has taken scientists by surprise. Special microorganisms are at work, and the phenomenon may be happening along coastlines all over the world.
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12.09.2025
What We Prove Mathematically Today Will be Just as True in 100 Years
As a child, Professor David Kyed dreamed of becoming an archaeologist. But when it came time to choose his path, mathematics captured his interest. Today he is a researcher and dedicated to exploring the theoretical frontiers of mathematics.
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05.09.2025
I am Captivated by the Universe's Most Fundamental Questions
Something doesn’t add up in our understanding of the universe. Physicists agree on that—but what’s missing from our picture? Martin S. Sloth believes the answer may lie in a new phase of dark energy.
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05.09.2025
ERC Starting Grant of DKK 11 million to computer scientist Lars Rohwedder
With this grant from European Research Council, Lars Rohwedder will now establish his own research group
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21.08.2025
How Science Helped Archaeologists Determine the Sex of Medieval Children
Between the years 1150 and 1450, more than 100 children were buried in a churchyard near Silkeborg. Just a tiny fragment of their tooth enamel is enough to reveal their sex—and that’s exactly what researchers Â鶹ÉçÇř have now done.
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20.08.2025
Completely New Ecosystem Discovered at 9,500 Meters Depth
When a research team reached the bottom of a deep-sea trench, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by thousands of unusual animals thriving in the cold, dark deep.
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10.07.2025
After 50 Expeditions, Ronnie N. Glud is Rewriting Deep-Sea Science
Professor. Deep-sea explorer. Adventurer in the ”dark”. Ronnie N. Glud has explored some of the most remote and deepest parts of the ocean. He now knows that the dark, cold depths are far less barren and isolated than we once imagined.
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08.07.2025
Phosphorus is Destroying our Lakes – Could LakeBots and Hemp help?
Only very few of Denmark’s lakes are in good ecological condition. Biologist Kasper Reitzel wants to change that. His idea: Use LakeBots to vacuum phosphorus-rich sediment from the lakebed, clean it with hemp, and return it to the fields as fertilizer.
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18.06.2025
Bogong Moths Use the Night Sky to Navigate up to 1000 Kilometres
A new study reveals that the Australian Bogong moth uses stars, the Milky Way, and Earth’s magnetic field to navigate — making it the first known invertebrate to travel long distances using a stellar compass.
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10.06.2025
Are We Forcing Seabed Microbes to Produce More Greenhouse Gases?
Every day, coastal seabed microbes are exposed to pollution from wastewater containing organic pollutants from drug residues, personal care products, etc. This may be triggering them to produce more methane, warns environmental chemist Tetyana Gilevska.
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04.06.2025
First Editions of the Bible Discovered by Artificial Intelligence and Chemistry
AI and chemistry break with tradition and reveal surprising early dates for the world’s oldest biblical manuscripts; the Dead Sea Scrolls
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23.05.2025
The Seabed is Breathing. If We Listen, We Can Learn About the Future’s Climate
At the bottom of the world’s deep oceans, the sediments breathe — a quiet yet vital process that shapes everything from climate to biodiversity. Wenjie Xiao is working to understand how this affects our planet — and what it might reveal about the climate of the future.
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12.05.2025
Cracking the Code of Rare Diseases
Blindness, obesity, infertility, extra fingers, kidney problems and more: the rare ciliopathic diseases are serious. Scientists know about 35 of them, but there is still no cure. SDU researcher Narcis-Adrian Petriman wants to change that, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation is supporting him with DKK 11.4 million.
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01.05.2025
Managing Director of the Danish Advanced Research Academy found
Philip Hallenborg was part of the team behind the grant application. Now he will head the national PhD academy funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation to bring universities together to develop Danish research talent.
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29.04.2025
A Passion for Chaotic Proteins
Many serious diseases occur because the body’s proteins malfunction. Neurological disorders, for example, can develop when proteins begin to clump together. Cagla Sahin is fascinated by the steps leading to the formation of these protein clumps — because if we can understand that, we might be able to prevent the diseases altogether.
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29.04.2025
The Silent Engine Behind Modern Medicine: Computational Science
Behind every medical breakthrough lies an unsung hero: algorithms. Join SDUs expert in bioinformatics, Veit Schwämmle, on this visit to the world of computational science, where big data and bioinformatics are quietly shaping the future of healthcare.
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24.04.2025
Decoding Tomorrow: The Push to Simplify Quantum Computing
Not so long ago, computer programming was reserved for a small group of specialists—but today, anyone can learn it relatively quickly. Robin Kaarsgaard wants the same to be true for quantum computer programming.
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22.04.2025
Creating the Brains of Tomorrow’s Robots
Big robots, small robots, household robots, surgical robots. Size and function don’t really matter—what matters to Melih Kandemir is developing algorithms that can make robots more precise and safer than they are today.
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09.04.2025
Molecular Machines: The Technology of the Future?
Jan Oskar Jeppesen builds machines out of molecules. His vision is that one day they could be used in technologies we can currently only dream of—like tiny computers with immense storage capacity or small nanomotors.
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03.04.2025
The amazing feeling of finally solving a problem
Being an intern at some of the big tech companies in Silicon Valley was fascinating. But Lars Rohwedder decided to come back to Europe for his master’s and has since built an academic career here. He hopes that his research can help improve the algorithms we all live with.
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24.03.2025
Scientists Uncover Hidden Process Behind Nitrous Oxide Formation
A newly discovered chemical reaction sheds light on an unexpected source of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, in both marine and freshwater environments.
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19.03.2025
Lab-Grown Nerve Tissue: A Key to Understanding Parkinson’s Disease
There is currently no cure for Parkinson’s disease, and researchers are still far from fully understanding the factors that trigger it. Helle Bogetofte Barnkob is determined to shed light on the disease by cultivating and studying nerve tissue in the lab.
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04.03.2025
New Mouse Study: How to Trick the Body's Metabolism
SDU researchers have discovered a new way in which the liver regulates its consumption of sugar and fat. This could potentially increase the effectiveness of weight-loss and diabetes medication.
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20.02.2025
Hunting Dark Matter Particles in the University Basement
Manuel Meyer's mission is to understand the universe's mysterious dark matter. To him, hunting for dark matter is hunting for the fundamental constituents of what everything is made of
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20.02.2025
Danish and Swiss researchers achieve a breakthrough in ultra-fast holographic 3D fabrication
Biofabrication is a key part of our future. 3D-printed tissue can revolutionize medicine, from drug testing and organ cultivation to producing T-bone steaks for dinner. In close collaboration with Swiss researchers Jesper Glückstad and Andreas Gejl Madsen from SDU Centre for Photonics Engineering have achieved a groundbreaking advancement in the speed and precision of bioprinting.
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17.02.2025
A Chemist with a Mission: The Chemical Industry Must Become Much More Sustainable
The chemical industry cannot continue to overconsume energy and produce polluting waste, says Changzhu Wu, who has dedicated his research career to developing more sustainable chemistry by using enzymes and whole cells to produce chemicals.
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05.02.2025
Are You Wasting Chatbot Energy Without Thinking About It?
Chatbots consume enormous amounts of energy, both when being developed and when we use them. Researchers now aim to create more sustainable chatbots, so we can search with a better conscience.
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22.01.2025
Unlocking the Secrets of Liver Cells
Liver cells may look identical under the microscope, but they perform vastly different tasks. Understanding this phenomenon drives the research of Nicolaj Ibsgaard Toft, who recently completed his Ph.D. on the activity of liver cells.
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22.01.2025
New national PhD academy is an investment in future research talents
The University of Southern Denmark (SDU) has received a grant of DKK 500 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation to establish a national PhD academy focusing on talent development and researcher education. The academy will be located Â鶹ÉçÇř, and the activities are for PhD students broadly within the Danish university sector.
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21.01.2025
New EU Project to Investigate the Health Effects of Noise and Ultrafine Particles
An EU-funded research project aims to address a growing concern: the combined health effects of noise pollution and ultrafine particles, which are present in urban environments across the globe.
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10.01.2025
New Project to Enhance Students' Well-being, Learning, and Completion Rates
6,2 million DKK from Novo Nordisk Foundation to ensure that all students at the Faculty of Science can build a digital competence portfolio, increasing awareness of their own skills.
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07.01.2025
Can carrots be used to treat diabetes?
Current research from the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) reveals that carrots may help regulate blood sugar and improve gut flora – a combination that could potentially benefit individuals with type 2 diabetes.