“It takes an estimated 27 years to determine if a novel medication can be used by pregnant women without risking adverse effects on the fetus or child. This just can’t continue any longer”, says Professor Hedvig Nordeng at the University of Oslo’s Department of Pharmacy.

Antibiotics most commonly work by killing bacteria, for example by destroying their cell wall or by interfering with protein synthesis. Now researchers at UiO are launching a completely new idea: They want to prevent bacteria from sticking to a substrate, before an infection can even occur.

Humans, along with many other mammals, must make do with four different light-sensitive proteins in the rods and cones of our retinas. However, fish species living in the deep sea can have up to 40 different proteins aiding their vision. This means that they most likely see some sort of color where humans would only see pitch-black darkness.

Exhaust gas emissions have doubled the amount of ground-level ozone. Vegetation is being destroyed. Food production is decreasing. Researchers now fear that the damage is greatest in the Arctic regions.

New data and analysis show that land-based glaciers outside of the main ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland have lost more than 9,000 billion tons of ice since 1961, raising sea levels by 27 millimeters.

Salt precipitation, which creates trouble when injecting CO₂ into porous stone, has the potential to clog leakage pathways in the caprocks.

A study of Ethiopian women’s use of traditional medicinal plants during pregnancy has come up with several surprises. The most worrisome is that most women don’t tell their doctors about the practice.

Professor Fahri Saatcioglu at the University of Oslo leads a research group that has discovered a new treatment with very strong effect against the growth of prostate cancer cells, both in animal experiments and in cell cultures.

Ancient DNA from 19 horses found in Viking graves on Iceland have been examined, and the researchers found that all the horses, except one, were male. This implies that the virile and somewhat aggressive male horses were slaughtered in a ritual that was intented to demonstrate power and status.

A new ancient DNA study shows that 14th century plague outbreaks might have resulted from repeated introductions of Yersinia pestis to Europe. Commercial trade routes, including the fur trade routes, would have contributed to the rapid spread of plague in whole Europe during the Middle Ages.