Latest University of Bergen Stories

The high elevation flat surfaces characteristic of the Norwegian landscape are in geologically terms young, according to a paper in Nature Geoscience. In a paper recently published in Nature Geoscience, researchers from the University of Bergen (UiB) and ETH Zurich have demonstrated that ice sheets have extensively shaped the fjords of Norway for the last 2.8 million years. – However, the massive sediment record deposited offshore Norway during this period tells us a more complex...

Changes in global carbon, sulfur cycles and to sea-level fueled biological responses Much of our knowledge about past life has come from the fossil record, but how accurately does that record reflect the true history and drivers of biodiversity on Earth? "It's a question that goes back a long way to the time of Darwin, who looked at the fossil record and tried to understand what it tells us about the history of life," says Shanan Peters, a geoscientist at the University of...

A study of 40,000 Norwegians found that people who regularly exercise during their free time are less likely to have symptoms of depression and anxiety. The researchers said that physical activity that is part of the working day does not have the same effect. Researchers said it was probably because there was not the same level of social interaction. According to BBC Nes, mental health charity Mind said that exercise and interaction helps mental health. The study found that higher levels of...

In a Nature letter published July 23, 2009, Norwegian researchers present evidence that the auroras in the Northern and the Southern hemispheres can be totally asymmetric. These findings contradict the commonly made assumption of aurora being mirror images of each other.The study with the sensational results has been performed by PhD student Karl Magnus Laundal and professor Nikolai Østgaard at the Institute of Physics and Technology at the University of Bergen.The aurora is produced due...

Operators of subsea fields on the continental shelf spend huge sums on combating insidious ice-like crystals, but a chemical jigsaw puzzle that is being pieced together in SINTEF is at last offering hope of a less expensive means of protection against this "ice".The pieces that have fallen into place so far are attracting the close attention of one of the world's biggest oil companies.Could save oil companies vast sumsThe jigsaw puzzle is a matter of solving mysteries posed by Nature when...

An article published in the prestigious science magazine Nature Geoscience yesterday shows that the period towards the end of the ice age was engraved by extreme and short-lived variations, which finally terminated the ice age.A group of scientists at the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research and the University of Bergen in Norway, together with colleagues at ETH, Zürich, combined terrestrial and marine proxy palaeo-data covering the latest part of the ice age to improve our understanding...

A new study conducted by scientists in Norway has found that performing routine, monotonous tasks switches the brain into a "rest mode", increasing the likelihood of mistakes.Scientists used patterns of brain activity to predict mistakes 30 seconds before they were made.  The researchers hope the findings might be used to design a monitor that could serve as an early warning system for those who work in "˜critical situations', such as pilots. The team said such a device would be...