From 1 June 2021, Associate Professor and Head of Department Erik Østergaard Jensen has been reappointed for another three years as head of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (MBG) - a position he has had since 2004.

Again this year, Aarhus University is seeing an increase in the numbers applying via quota 2, and at Natural Sciences, applications are stable in relation to first-priority applications.

In two new scientific articles, two geologists from Aarhus University have demonstrated that strontium from agricultural lime runs off from upper soil layers and influences strontium isotope values in the surrounding area. According to the researchers, this means that a number of hypotheses about the origins of prehistoric people will need to be revised. This includes the hypothesis that the majority of the 48 Viking Age bodies found in graves near Trelleborg were foreign. According to new analyses, they may very well be indigenous to West Zealand.

Jørgen Kjems from iNANO and the Department of Molecular Biology at AU and the AU spinout company, OMIICS, are partners in a new consortium, PRIME, that will seek to develop biological nano-implants - based on naturally occurring signaling pathways - that can help patients with epilepsy.

For the first time ever, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has granted project funding earmarked specifically for basic research within the natural and technical sciences. Six researchers at the Faculty of Natural Sciences have received grants totalling more than DKK 17.5 million.

Glycine can stimulate or inhibit neurons in the brain, thereby controlling complex functions. Unraveling the three-dimensional structure of the glycine transporter, researchers have now come a big step closer to understanding the regulation of glycine in the brain.

Following a grant from the National Committee for Research Infrastructures (NUFI) of DKK 25 million, an Aarhus research group headed by Professor Bo Brummerstedt can now study defects and disorder in crystals in a completely new way. This is using the DanMAX beamline at Lund, which, with its intense radiation can reveal the tiniest details inside materials that very often determine their properties.

The bats' echolocation is more advanced than previously thought. Bats muffle their screams almost to a whisper when hunting, so echoes from trees and buildings do not drown out echoes from the prey. This is revealed by an international research team led by Aarhus University using miniature computers that they have put on the backs of wild bats.

New paper in Nature Physics: A collaboration in the “Center for Complex Quantum Systems” at Aarhus University has successfully observed the formation of a quasiparticle.