2008

A unique archaeological discovery in the Balkans: Archaeologists from the University of Oslo have just found the first Illyrian trading post of all time. So Balkan history must now be rewritten!

In the 1930s a unique research environment was founded in Norway, which later was to develop into what in other countries is known as the Oslo School of Neuroanatomy.

Exactly 120 years ago, the first Norwegian doctoral dissertation in neuroscience was defended. It presented a revolutionary idea: that the brain consists of individual, separate nerve cells. The candidate’s name was Fridtjof Nansen.

To prevent brain cells from damage following a stroke, the cells have an ingenious mechanism that can restore their electrochemical balance. Researchers are currently investigating how to strengthen this emergency brake.

Asma Elsony took her doctoral degree at the University of Oslo on the implementation of tuberculosis control in Sudan at the same time as she saved 100,000 people from dying of tuberculosis in Sudan. Now Dr Elsony and Professor Gunnar Bjune are searching for a simple tuberculosis test.

Information scientists at the University of Oslo have refused to become disheartened by illiteracy and the lack of power supply in rural Africa. They have produced a health information system that enables the authorities and the World Health Organization to improve health services in a number of African countries. Price tag: 35 million Euro.

Airplanes that fly over the northern polar region can risk losing radio contact for several hours when the northern lights are at their most active in the skies. In the near future a professor from the University of Oslo will launch a Norwegian rocket to find the explanation for this. The aim is to set up reliable warning routines.

The Ethiopian legal system has accused several thousands of brutal war crimes. Now the war crimes tribunal has itself violated fundamental human rights.

Deposit landslides move much faster in water than in air. Even in places where the sea bed is as flat as a pancake, the underwater landslides can accumulate a speed of over 100 kilometres an hour.

Norwegian and Swiss biologists have made a startling discovery about the relationships among organisms that most people have never heard of. The Tree of Life must be re-drawn, textbooks need to be changed, and the discovery may also have significant impact on the development of medicines.

Each year in the United States, one thousand infants die after being shaken. An equal number of cases result in brain damage. Many people who are guilty of this type of abuse go free due to a lack of evidence; others are wrongly suspected of a crime that they did not commit. Researchers in forensic medicine at the University of Oslo are learning more about these brain injuries by shaking a very advanced doll.