Science Stories

About fifty million individuals worldwide are affected by chronic hepatitis C virus. It has been one of the most expensive virus infections to treat, and it is an ongoing threat to global health. Now the virus has revealed a secret to a group of researchers in Denmark after five years of intensive work. Link to article in Nature: Link to article in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07783-5 If you wonder why the podcast is in English, and not Danish it is because we have an increasing number of listeners whenever we publish a podcast in English. Therefore, we make the experiment the next few months to produce all our podcasts in English. This podcast is supported by a Maria Leptin / EMBO Science Journalism Fellowship.

Today’s story is a good example of how little we know about biology and life, and how we can use our knowledge to better fight diseases and environmental threats. We are going to talk about bacteriophages or just fages. These are small viruses which attack bacteria. The story is literally about life and death and most organisms on earth are being killed every week. Senior researcher Namiko Mitarai from the biocomplexity group at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen Namiko Mitarai is being interviewe by Science Journalist Jens Degett. The podcast is supported by a Maria Leptin / EMBO Science Journalism Fellowship.

With new astronomical instruments and new knowledge of fundamental physics our understanding of the universe is developing fast. The new understanding of the universe from its Dark Ages, after the Big Bang, to the current acceleration with planets, stars, galaxies and life raises a lot of questions. In this podcast, Science Journalist Jens Degett interviews Associate Professor Darach Watson from the Cosmic Dawn Center at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. The podcast is part of our project "Danish Space Research" supported by Otto Mønsteds Foundation and Thomas B. Thriges Foundation. Photo credit: Jens Degett, © Science Stories ApS

Gennem nogen tid har man kunnet høre politikere og meningsdannere tale om at skære ned på uddannelserne, gøre dem kortere og udhule indholdet, så man ikke behøver at kunne så meget. Antallet af studerende skal skæres ned, og det skal være sværere for mange at komme ind på den uddannelse de ønsker sig. Forskerne klager samtidig over at forskningsmidler som udbydes i fri konkurrence er stagneret i gennem de sidste år og helt galt står det til med EU-Midlerne der modregnes i forskningsbudgettet, så når forskerne har success til at hjemtage midler fra EU, så bliver der færre penge til den øvrige forskning. Hvad foregår der egentligt? Videnskabsjournalist Jens Degett fra Science Stories har talt med forskningsordfører fra Radikale Venstre, Stinus Lindgreen om udviklingen inden for uddannelse og forskning. Er der et rationale bag, eller er forsknings og uddannelsessystemet bare meget dårlige til at forklare hvorfor de er vigtige?

Superstrings was a very popular topic among physicists in the 1980ies. They had a renaissance in 1995 but then the researchers changed focus to other things. Now superstrings have gained new momentum in physics again. Professor Niels Obers from the Niels Bohr Institute explains what superstrings and string theory is. He also explains why superstrings are popular among researchers. Science journalists Jens Degett is interviewing.