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 ARTICLES ON OUR RESEARCHERS AND RESEARCH PROJECTS UNDERTAKEN AT LIU

Five tips for a healthy old age

The old age explosion makes it more important to identify what lifestyle factors are important for maintaining cognitive, psychological and physical health up through old age.

Seeing through zebra fish

The zebra fish, whose natural habitat is south Asia, has been made much of as an animal for experimentation since the 1990s. Now Linköping University researchers will also have access to the little fish that, among other things, have the advantage of being transparent.

Ecological crises can be predicted

When sensitive ecosystems, like the Arctic Ocean, are threatened by disruptions science is often at a loss. But new advanced data models can predict the damaging effects.

40 years with biomedical engineering

For 40 years, Linköping has been able to flaunt Sweden’s largest department of biomedical engineering. The department is also one of Europe’s largest, with world-class research and excellent results in the form of both awards and a large number of medical technology products sold and used worldwide. Åke Öberg has been there from the start. (01 March, 2013)

Doing maths in your head takes time

How do children learn to understand mathematics? And what is the best way for teachers to support them? These questions are being asked directly in the classroom where a LiU researcher is working together with teachers. Children need to be given time to think about their mathematics. (01 March, 2013)

White melancholy

Today a quarter of all Swedish citizens are of foreign origin. In spite of this, both xenophobes and anti-racists associate Swedishness with whiteness and with something good. With such a colour-blind analysis of society, we can never understand the greatly segregated Sweden of today, according to two researchers.

Stem cells with Nobel glamour

The discovery awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), is good news for everyone who needs to replace an organ that’s out of order. Soon there will be a line of researchers outside the door of Marek Łos, who is fabricating iPS cells in his laboratory at Linköping University. (20 Dec, 2012)

Outdoor education produces better results

Pupils who receive part of their education out of doors become more involved, work better with others and learn more, as shown in Emilia Fägerstam’s remarkable thesis based on studies in both Sweden and Australia. (07 Nov 2012)

Health project saved many mothers and children

Infant mortality has fallen by half, and the number of women who died from complications during pregnancy and childbirth by three-quarters. This is the result of a four-year health care project in one of India’s poorest districts.

Olle Inganäs and the wow factor.

To get your research result published is a decider in achieving an academic career. Professor Olle Inganäs shares his tips for becoming successful. (14-10-2012)

The silent night is full of sound

The night belongs to Daubenton's bat and its 18 Swedish relatives. A research project at LiU is to determine how the shape of the environment affects the diversity of the flying mammals. (26-06-2012)

Research got the microorganisms going

Today ever greater amounts of biogas are being produced from each unit of raw material. One of the secrets is keeping the methane-producing microorganisms happy by giving them the right amount of food. Researchers at Linköping University know all about this. (14-06-2012)

Conversation therapy groups support dementia sufferers

Dementia sufferers can be greatly helped by sharing their experiences and supporting each other in self-help groups, says Linda Örulv, a researcher at the Centre for Dementia Research who has followed the progress of a group of pioneers in the field. (20-04-2012)

Gender researchers challenge new boundaries

Crossing borders. Not just when it comes to gender, but also different species on Earth, and the question of where our bodies begin and end. Today’s gender research has come a long way since the advent of traditional feminist research. (14-03-2012)

Heart research that echoes around the world

Cardiac specialist Professor Eva Swahn has reaped success, one after the other. Now she’s at the threshold of becoming a representative for all of Europe’s cardiologists. (06-02-2012)

Life hinges on your nose

In many animals the nose is the difference between life and death. The sense of smell is not good or bad, it is adapted to the behavior so that the individual is performing optimally in their environment. (30-01-2012)

The forgotten mines

Metal prices are rising while large amounts of copper and other metals lie buried in the ground, forgotten, and of no use. The concentration is greatest in landfills and under cities. The mines of the future are now being explored.

No retirement for Lennart Ljung

Last summer, Lennart Ljung celebrated 35 years at Linköping University. Down the years, he has been one of the university’s best-known profiles in research, both at home and abroad. He’s 65, but retirement holds no interest. (21-12-2011)

Antibiotic crisis a global threat

One antibiotic preparation after another ceases to work and global health care risks are being rocked to its foundations. “This is a frightening development. Bacteria know no borders, yet we have to try to remain optimistic,” says Håkan Hanberger, chief physician and professor of Infectious Diseases at LiU, who has worked for many years as an expert in antibiotics issues.

Moisture hunters in Norrköping

Isak Engquist and Xiaodong Wang, members of an organic electronics research group in Norrköping, are hunting moisture in buildings – in close collaboration with the construction giant PEAB. The results will be achieved via inexpensive printed moisture sensors, papered onto walls and placed under bathroom floors. The first prototype is being tested in a building in Norrköping.

Seeing the world with new eyes: Biosynthetic corneas restore vision in humans

A new study from researchers in Sweden and Canada has shown that biosynthetic corneas can help regenerate and repair damaged eye tissue and improve vision in humans.“This study is important because it is the first to show that an artificially fabricated cornea can integrate with the human eye and stimulate regeneration,” said senior author Dr. May Griffith of Linköping University. “With further research, this approach could help restore sight to millions of people who are waiting for a donated human cornea for transplantation

Acacia seeds brought to life after 150 years

When the French had just started building the Suez canal, a seed ripened on an acacia tree in the Egyptian desert. 151 years later, it came to life in a laboratory at Linköping University.

Matti Leino, doctor of genetics and plant breeding at Nordiska Museet and guest researcher at Linköping University started a project together with molecular geneticist Johan Edqvist for analysing DNA and testing the germinating power of 30 seeds from five different kinds of acacia, some of which no longer belong to the genus.

In April 2008, 151 years and five months after being collected in Egypt, the first seeds were sown in bowls of sterile sand.

Biofuel or food?

The rich countries of the world need enormous quantities of biofuel. It will mainly be produced – cheaply and efficiently – in the poor countries. Old colonial core-periphery patterns persist and are tightly locked into the visions outlined by the heavyweight international agencies.

The vital issues of our world are all to do with energy, food and climate change. These three are also interlinked: consumption of fossil fuels affects the climate, and the production of alternative energy – biofuels – affects availability of food by increasing competition over desirable farmland.

Come home, dad...

Gender researcher Roger Klinth has studied campaigns in Sweden trying to encourage fathers to take their parental leave entitlement as provided by law.

Even the manliest of all men can be at home with the kids. Being a father on paternity leave is character-building – fathers somehow become better people afterwards, even better career men.
And give up that old myth about the “man’s role”! What will men regret on their deathbed: missed overtime or missed relationships with their children?
But the most important thing is equal parenting, a sharing of responsibilities.

Instant brainwatching

The technology with the abbreviation fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) took its first steps in the early 1990s. A problem that needed to be overcome was how to develop useable images from the extremely weak signals picked up from nerve cell activity. Together with his colleagues, Hans Knutsson solved that problem by using CCA, a mathematical analysis. Now, the team is in the middle of the next big challenge.
“In classic fMRI, the person being scanned must continuously follow set instructions, like moving a hand or solving a math problem. But with real-time fMRI, the situation can be changed interactively all the time”, Hans Knutsson explains.

Biosensors

LiU molecular physicist sets up new laboratory in Singapore.

Bo Liedberg has set up a laboratory for the manufacturing and characterisation of new sensor materials that can detect contagia and toxins. The main focus at the Singapore-based lab is to develop simple field sensors for detecting tropical infectious diseases, such as dengue fever and malaria, and poisonous substances in connection with accidents and acts of terror or war.

Inflammations are similar everywhere

Researchers are finding more and more parallels between diseases where inflammation is the common denominator. The Canadian Professor Richard Ellen is an expert on cell signalling. Bacteria can gain ground by exchanging chemical signals with each other, with the immunocytes of the body and cells in the mucosa. He as had a long-standing collaboration with Karl-Eric Magnusson, Professor of Medical Microbiology at LiU.

"One of the best environments in the world to study these events is in Kalle's laboratory", says Professor Ellen.

Lack of phosphorus threat to global food production

The ability to provide enough food to feed people is dependent on the availability of phosphorus. We are rapidly exhausting our reserves, show LiU researchers. Shortages of phosphorus are a threat to feeding the world’s population. It is time to tackle this growing problem, warn LiU researchers.

“Phosphorus is as vital for food production as water. Yet, we are rapidly exhausting our phosphate rock reserves. At current rates, they will be depleted in the next 50 to 100 years. And just within a few decades, the shortage will cause severe problems – unless something is done”, Dana Cordell says.

Culture tourism

Interest in our cultural heritage is growing. Increasing numbers of people want to know more about their culture and history, and also wish to have new experiences. LiU researchers are now studying how our changed habits affect community development.

Astrid Lindgren, the author of children’s books, is read and loved the world over. Today, a tourist industry based upon Sweden’s world famous storyteller and her place of birth, Vimmerby, is growing. The theme park, Astrid Lindgren’s World, draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year – a third of them from outside of Sweden. Development has led to all of Vimmerby expanding, and now becoming a part of the Astrid Lindgren brand.

In praise of small talk

The art of chatting is more important than we usually think. Small talk provides us with lots of information and confirms our social group affiliation, says professor Viveka Adelswärd, who has dedicated her latest book to this subject.

Nonsense, gossip, chatting over coffee, telling tall stories, chatter and bullshitting. There are many names for our small talk! But it is far from meaningless nonsensical chatting we are engaged in, Viveka Adelswärd, linguist, professor emeritus and author tells us.

Vision

A technique to create biosynthetic corneas can save the vision of millions. The first operations in the world were performed on ten patients in 2008 in Linköping.

A scratched windshield hinders the ability to see. And this is also true of the eye’s own windshield – the cornea. Sometimes scars and illnesses impair vision so much that corneas need to be replaced, but donated corneas are in short supply, and world-wide it is estimated that about ten million people are waiting in line.
The solution may be the biosynthetic cornea that was operated into the eyes of ten patients in Linköping for the first time in the world.