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Many claim that people too easily anthropomorphise animal behaviour. But what’s the story regarding laughter – is it something unique to humans? Cognitive scientist Peter Gärdenfors explains why we often overlook the laughter of a parrot and why slapstick is a type of humour appreciated by both humans and animals. ”Aristotle thought that it was only humans who laugh, but he was wrong,” says Peter
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/can-animals-laugh - 2026-06-23
Our health in later life is shaped not only by the way we live, what our childhood was like or our time in our mothers’ wombs. Even our parents’ health and lifestyle at the time of our conception may affect our health. Peter M Nilsson, professor of clinical cardiovascular research at Lund University, is calling for a major investment in health and lifestyle advice for adolescents and those plannin
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/live-healthily-sake-your-future-children - 2026-06-23
This article is over 5 years old, and the information may therefore be outdated. Researchers have now managed to pinpoint what happens when light is absorbed by extremely small nanoclusters of silver atoms. The results may have useful application in the development of biosensors and in imaging. By combining chemistry and nanotechnology, the research community in recent years has developed a kind o
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/silver-atom-nanoclusters-could-become-efficient-biosensors - 2026-06-23
This article is over 5 years old, and the information may therefore be outdated. New research at Lund University in Sweden shows that the flight speed of birds is determined by a variety of factors. Among the most sensational is that the size of the flock has a significant impact on how fast the birds can fly. The larger the flock, the higher the speed. Researchers at the Faculty of Science in Lun
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/birds-fly-faster-large-flocks - 2026-06-23
Christmas music is more than background noise to the hustle and bustle. From Mariah Carey’s Christmas cracker ‘All I Want For Christmas’ to Wham’s lost love in ‘Last Christmas’, each song tells its own story of why it belongs to the festive season. “The power of Christmas music lies in its ability to put us in touch with our emotions, from celebration to reflection. Although we may not feel that w
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/how-mariah-carey-and-wham-became-christmas-icons - 2026-06-23
A unique trove of bone material from the 9,200 year old coastal settlement Norje Sunnansund in Blekinge, Sweden, has revealed that surprisingly sophisticated hunting strategies were used at the time. One key find was that the early Mesolithic humans practiced so-called selective hunting – seemingly in order to maximise gain and preserve the local population of certain species. ”A telling example i
Every year a small songbird, no heavier than a letter, crosses the Sahara Desert, the Mediterranean and the Arabian Desert on its migration. New research from Lund University in Sweden now reveals how the tiny bird manages this arduous journey: by flying night after night - and doing nothing during the day. The thrush nightingale is a songbird is a long-distance traveller that arrives in Sweden in
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/songbirds-extreme-desert-migration-mapped - 2026-06-23
This article is over 5 years old, and the information may therefore be outdated. Gold and silver nanoparticles could affect the stem cells that develop into nerve cells in the brain and the retina of the eye. The results of the two studies from Lund University show that the nerve cells are particularly sensitive during the developmental stage, but that the mature nerve cells are also affected and
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/antibacterial-products-could-affect-nerve-cells - 2026-06-23
This article is over 5 years old, and the information may therefore be outdated. New research discoveries at Lund University in Sweden show that in almost any lighting conditions, colour vision is crucial for chickens – and probably other birds as well – in order to find good food that is ripe to eat and identify high quality partners to mate with. Watch short video from the experiment The researc
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/watch-color-vision-helps-birds-find-good-food-and-right-partner - 2026-06-23
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have discovered that the appetite hormone CART is regulated by glucose and is found in greater quantity in people with type 2 diabetes. “This could be the body’s own defence mechanism to lower blood sugar levels in case of type 2 diabetes”, says Associate Professor Nils Wierup, in charge of the study. The study shows that the appetite hormone CART not only
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/antidiabetic-effects-discovered-appetite-hormone-cart - 2026-06-23
Over 1,300 people have applied for the 25 positions advertised in Lund University’s largest ever international recruitment drive. Among the candidates are researchers from world-leading universities such as Harvard and Oxford. “The initiative has generated great interest among highly qualified researchers,” says Erik Renström, Vice-Chancellor of Lund University.The call for applications refers to
This article is over 5 years old, and the information may therefore be outdated. Our opinions are affected by what our eyes are focusing on in the same instant we make moral decisions. Researchers at Lund University and other institutions have managed to influence people’s responses to questions such as “is murder defensible?” by tracking their eye movements. When the participants had looked at a
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/moral-decisions-can-be-influenced-eye-tracking - 2026-06-23
This article is over 5 years old, and the information may therefore be outdated. There are significant gaps in our knowledge on the evolution of sex, according to a research review on sex chromosomes from Lund University in Sweden. Even after more than a century of study, researchers do not know enough about the evolution of sex chromosomes to understand how males and females emerge. Greater focus
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/knowledge-gap-origin-sex - 2026-06-23
Directly after birth, the immune system completes production of a subtype of antibody-producing immune cells, B-1, that are to last for a lifetime. No more B1-cells are formed after that point. However, these cells are self-reactive – they produce not only antibodies against foreign substances, but also against the body’s own substances, and it is unclear why the immune system allows for the devel
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/how-self-reactive-immune-cells-are-allowed-develop - 2026-06-23
Using a supercomputer simulation, a research team at Lund University in Sweden has succeeded in following the development of a galaxy over a span of 13.8 billion years. The study shows how, due to interstellar frontal collisions, young and chaotic galaxies over time mature into spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way. Soon after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, the Universe was an unruly place.
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/how-disorderly-young-galaxies-grow-and-mature - 2026-06-23
The dry summer of 2018 hit Swedish forests hard - and hardest affected were the managed secondary forests. This according to a new study from Lund University in Sweden. Northern boreal forest ecosystems are predicted to experience more frequent summer droughts in the future. The majority of Swedish forest are secondary forests that are managed commercial forests with little diversity in species an
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/secondary-forests-more-sensitive-drought - 2026-06-23
A new international commission will pave the way for a global boost in maternal and newborn health. The project is led by a researcher at Lund University in Sweden, whose motivation stems from a formative experience witnessing a woman bleed to death unnecessarily during childbirth. “The time has come to put maternal and newborn health back at the heart of the global health agenda,” says Mehreen Za
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/new-global-initiative-maternal-and-newborn-health-be-led-sweden - 2026-06-23
When in life we gain weight can have a significant impact on our health many years later. In a study involving over 600,000 people, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have investigated how changes in weight between the ages of 17 and 60 are linked to the risk of dying from various diseases. The results show a clear pattern: weight gain early in adulthood has the greatest impact. It has long
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/early-weight-gain-can-have-lifelong-consequences - 2026-06-23
