News about Technology

Size does matter: People with longer thumbs mistype on their phones more often

People with long thumbs have a tougher time hitting the right phone keys. According to a recent study from the University of Copenhagen, thumb length accounts for 12 percent of touch errors on smart phones.

Mapping the digital impact of interest groups on politicians and the public

Professor of Political Science Anne Rasmussen is set to receive a DKK 15 million ERC Consolidator Grant to study how interest groups’ use of digital forms of communication (e.g. tweets, YouTube videos, Facebook posts an…

Risk and unnaturalness cannot justify EU’s strict policy on GMO

The EU’s policy on GMO is extremely strict and prevents new GMO crops from being authorized. The policy is based on arguments about the risk and unnaturalness of GMO plants – but these arguments cannot justify the…

In VR boys learn best when the teacher is a drone – girls learn better from virtual Marie

The teacher is just as important in a virtual learning environment as in a normal classroom, but a new study shows that boys and girls differ greatly in terms of how they learn best.

Department of Computer Science main driver of two new STEM educations

From the summer of 2019, two new STEM bachelor educations will be available at the University of Copenhagen: 'Machine learning and data science' as well as 'Computer Science and Economy'. Hopefully, this will satisfy th…

Doubts and dialogue may alter public perceptions of science

Science projects within controversial fields such as synthetic biology could benefit from experimenting with communication settings in which experts share their thoughts and feelings with each other and the public. This…

Biomarker in ovarian cancer patients linked to longer survival

High levels of the protein CT45 is associated with longer survival in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. The discovery published today in the scientific journal Cell is made by researchers from Germany, the USA and…

Planet at risk of heading towards irreversible “Hothouse Earth” state

Keeping global warming to within 1.5-2°C may be more difficult than previously assessed. An international team of scientists, with the participation of Center from Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, University of…

Sociologist Deborah Lupton to be awarded honorary doctor

Professor Deborah Lupton will be awarded with an honorary doctorate at the University of Copenhagen. Lupton was nominated by the Department of Sociology.

Tower Talks with Soeren Brunak

The general public is showing increasing interest in the health and medical sciences. DR has named 2018 ‘science year’ and is e.g. currently airing the series Din geniale krop (Your Brilliant Body), to which several…

Ink from ancient Egyptian papyri contains copper

Until recently, it was assumed that the ink used for writing was primarily carbon-based at least until the fourth and fifth centuries AD. But in a new University of Copenhagen study, analyses of 2,000-year-old papyri…

New centre of excellence in algorithms research in Copenhagen

With a grant of DKK 40m from the VILLUM Investigator Programme, four international leading algorithms researchers from University of Copenhagen and IT University of Copenhagen will establish a new research centre: Basic…

Salts in the brain control our sleep-wake cycle

Danish research is behind a new epoch-making discovery, which may prove decisive to future brain research. The level of salts in the brain plays a critical role in whether we are asleep or awake. This discovery may be o…

Physicist Peter Lodahl receives prestigious EliteForsk Award

Peter Lodahl, professor of quantum physics at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen has received the prestigious Danish elite researcher award, the EliteForsk Award 2016. Peter Lodahl works with…

New research centre DABAI will create innovation through Big Data

In a large alliance with Danish universities, public and private organisations, the Computer Science Department at University of Copenhagen has engaged in a new data research centre, DABAI, which will provide research…

Disordered proteins could hide secret to develop crops with high stress resistance

A group of researchers at the University of Copenhagen will unveil the mysteries of disordered proteins thanks to a 7 million kr grant from the Villum Foundation Young Investigator Program. Unravelling their unusual…

New blood test can predict future breast cancer

By analysing a simple blood sample, scientists from the University of Copenhagen have succeeded in predicting if a woman will get breast cancer within two to five years. The method – a metabolic blood profile – is still…

Prestigious Human Frontiers Science Program grant goes to DynaMo researcher Hussam Nour-Eldin

The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) has awarded one of their highly competitive Young Investigator grants to plant molecular biologist Hussam Nour-Eldin from the University of Copenhagen and two international…

Big ERC grant for DIKU’s professor Kasper Hornbæk

Professor Kasper Hornbæk from the Dept. of Computer Science has received a 5 year Consolidator Grant, amounting to 14 million DKK (approximately € 1.9 m) from the European Research Council (ERC) in order to improve huma…

Breakthrough in light sources for new quantum technology

Future quantum circuits are photonic circuits, i.e. circuits based on light (photons) instead of electrons. Now scientists at the Niels Bohr Institute have succeeded in creating a steady stream of photons emitted one at…

Plant scientists win Innovation Award

The University of Copenhagen Innovation Award 2013 goes to Professor Barbara Ann Halkier for groundbreaking research in plant biotechnology with high potential for environment and society.

New technology eliminates plant toxins

Paper by DynaMo researchers in Nature

Christmas burst puzzles

On 25 December 2010, NASA’s Swift satellite detected an unusually bright and long-lived gamma-ray burst. Astrophysicists from DARK and their colleagues explain the unusual phenomenon in a new paper published in…