Latest Basque language Stories
“What people are afraid of is dying badly rather than actually dying”. Iñaki Olaizola has observed how Basque society feels about euthanasia and the process of dying, and how the perception has changed since the 1970s. For this purpose, he interviewed all kinds of people and has been able to conclude that the fear of dying badly is widespread. In his thesis, defended at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), he stressed the need to guarantee a dignified death by means of...
The Genographic Project announced today the most comprehensive analysis to date of Basque genetic patterns, showing that Basque genetic uniqueness predates the arrival of agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula some 7,000 years ago. Through detailed DNA analysis of samples from the French and Spanish Basque regions, the Genographic team found that Basques share unique genetic patterns that distinguish them from the surrounding non-Basque populations. Published in the American Journal of Human...
The recent discovery of a pendant at the Irikaitz archaeological site in Zestoa (in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa) has given rise to intense debate: it may be as old as 25,000 years, which would make it the oldest found to date at open-air excavations throughout the whole of the Iberian Peninsula. This stone is nine centimeters long and has a hole for hanging it from the neck although it would seem that, apart from being adornment, it was used to sharpen tools. The discovery has had great...
There are no journalists specialized in immigration, neither is there any specific training to this end, nor any thought given to how the media influence public opinion in this matter. Lecturer and journalist Alberto Durana has undertaken a thesis in which he is critical both of the Faculties of Journalism and news desks. He argues for the existence of journalists specialized in immigration matters and university courses that takes into account current society. His thesis, defended at the...
With Web 2.0, secondary school immigrant students improve their oral skills in second languages, simultaneously using their mother tongue It is not easy for those school pupils who, besides being adolescents, are immigrants. The fact is that, in Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO-DBH in their Spanish and Basque initials), it is more necessary than ever to be fluent in the local language in order to comprehend concepts and procedures. Moreover, the attitude of an adolescent who is going...
Neiker-Tecnalia has carried out a study on trends in the future  distribution of habitats of Basque woodlands, pointing out that climate change may alter the conditions necessary for the growth of a tree as representative of the Basque lands as the oak. The research was undertaken on the basis of the most pessimistic and severe scenarios for conditions of climate change in the future and claims that for  2080, the oak woods of the Basque Country would undergo a significant or...
They say that history is written by the victors. But the combatants, fundamental to the outcome of war, rarely appear in this history "“ whether victors or vanquished. University of the Basque Country anthropologists PÃo Pérez and Ignazio Aiestaran have rebelled against this injustice, "uncovering" the memory of those who fought in the trenches in the 1936 war in Spain. They studied ten autobiographical accounts to produce Oroimen iheskorrak: gerra zibileko sufrimenduaren inguruko...
Ixiar Rozas analyzes the consequences of this through studying 12 experimental choreographies in a Ph.D. thesis defended at the University of the Basque CountryThe appearance of certain experimental choreographies has incorporated the use of the voice into contemporary dance, either through articulated words or through the mere emission of sounds. Dance ceases to be silent and destabilises, and not only because it breaks with the conventional dramatic text. In fact, the use of the voice...
The machine-tool sector innovates responding to the needs of customers and in an ad hoc manner, and not as a result of concrete R+D activities. This was the conclusion of sociologist Beatriz Otero, in a PhD thesis defended at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and entitled, Made in Euskadi: innovating in the machine-tool sector in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. Ms Otero focused on small and medium-sized enterprises in the sector within the Autonomous Community of...
The BIOMICs Group, based at the Lucio Lascaray building in the Ãlava/Araba campus of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), is specially known for overseeing the SGIker DNA Bank, not only undertaking this task, but also feeding data into the gene research bank and making good use of it for their own lines of research. Led by Doctor Marian MartÃnez de Pancorbo, BIOMICs has numerous research specialists in diverse areas of genetics (neurodegenerative, cancer, forensic, and so...
