A big congratulations to Professor Hamed Sanei from Geoscience, who receives this year's Ralph Gray award for the article "The Genesis of Solid Bitumen". The article has been selected as the top refereed paper published in 2020 in the field of coal and organic petrology. Read about the price and find the mentioned article here.

Notions of the ecosystems of the past plays a major role in the debate on biodiversity. Professor emeritus Bent Odgaard and others document on the basis of measuring e.g. titanium in a borehole on Mols that the primeval forest before agriculture came was dense and not particularly affected by large grazers in contrast to theories of rewilding

They can learn about the subject with Associate Professor Mads Faurschou Knudsen as a digital guest teacher on Denmark's learning platform EMU – a platform made by the Ministry of Children and Education. Through videos and teaching material targeted at 8th and 9th grade, Mads talks about key issues in connection with climate change.

Read further

There are still old mines from World War II in “Koraldybet” by Kalø Vig. In this clip from TV2 Østjylland, you can hear our assistant professor Katrine Juul Andresen (from 4:08) talk about a project that maps the mines. Here, Geoscience is involved in data collection and advice on the mapping.

Several astronomers believed that the giant star Betelgeuse was about to explode, but this was not the case. Instead, it was stardust that surrounded Betelgeuse. But the whole process around Betelgeuse is important in understanding the development - and also the origin of life - in the Universe, Christoffer Karoff says in the article. (In Danish)

In north-eastern Greenland, there are unexplored areas when it comes to research into climate change and the marine environment. Now, a research project funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark and led by Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, will create valuable knowledge about the region by using a new and unique data set. Read further here.

Applications for the PhD position are currently open: "Establishing a chronology of the first hominin occupation of Central Asia". Feel free to share the news with potential candidates in your network. You can read the job posting here.

In a new article on Videnskab.dk, Rasmus Andreasen and Erik Thomsen receive support from foreign researchers for their research results about Egtvedspigen's origins. The article summarizes the different views in the case. Read more here. (In Danish)

Associate Professor Emeritus Per Nørnberg from Geoscience answers that question in this article on Videnskab.dk. It is Bjørn, 5 years old, who asks the question, but the answer is not necessarily straightforward. Therefore, the article also contains both a simple and a complicated explanation.

Read the article here. (In Danish)

In prehistorical cities, metal pollution has been explained by mining activities and lead from water pipes, but a new international study of i.e. Søren Munch Kristiansen and Gry Hoffmann Barfod point out that smaller everyday activities in prehistoric cities must be included in order to understand the distribution of pollution.

On Thursday, there is a partial solar eclipse over Denmark. Therefore, you can hear Associate Professor Christoffer Karoff talk about the different kinds of solar eclipses and about the corona of the sun in the ”RumSnak” podcast. Other topics are solar storms and how the solar cycle affects our atmosphere and also climate change. (In Danish)

Although sun radiation was relatively low, the temperature on the young Earth was warm. Important clues show that high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were responsible for these high temperatures. It only got cooler with the beginning of plate tectonics, as the CO2 was gradually captured and stored on the emerging continents.

Geoscience participates in the nationwide campaign day Girls' Day in Science, which takes place on 6 October. Here the girls can meet some of our cool women who are studying or researching Geoscience. Through workshops and practical assignments, they get a taste of what it is like to be a student at the department. See today's program here.

Another chapter has been written in the serial about the origin of the Egtved girl. Rasmus Andreasen and Erik Thomsen answer Robert Frei from the University of Copenhagen, who questions the collected data. You can read the arguments in “Forskerzonen” at Videnskab.dk. (In Danish)

The amount of mercury discovered in this area exceeds any value ever recorded in remote marine sediments, states Professor Hamed Sanei, who is part of the international research group from Denmark, Canada, Germany and Japan, which is behind the discovery. Read more about the surprising study here.